Chapter 17
Mal laid River gently down on her bed and stood looking down at her, trying to catch his breath and wrap his mind around everything that had happened in the last twenty minutes.
He found himself wondering what it must be like to be forced to sleep like he had just done to River. Her eyes were moving beneath their lids, making Mal assume that she was dreaming. He hoped she wasn't having nightmares that she was unable to wake from.
"Sir I need your help getting Simon to the infirmary." Zoe called impatiently from the cargo bay, pulling Mal from his thoughts.
He jogged to the cargo bay and was a little startled to see how badly the doctor was looking. There was a disturbingly large puddle of blood under his leg despite the tourniquet and his face was beyond pale.
Moving as quickly as they could without jostling the Simon too much they carried him to the infirmary. Once they had him on the table Mal and Zoe looked down at him and then at each other helplessly.
"You got any idea where we should start?" Mal asked hoping Zoe would have some clue as to what needed to be done.
"He needs blood, but don't see that it'll do him much good if he just keeps bleeding it back out. That means we gotta sew up the artery River said got hit. And as for doin that I have no idea how ta do it." Zoe replied.
"Sir maybe you should go wake River. She's a genius don't you think she'd be able to help him?" Zoe suggested.
"I don't think bringing River in here is a good idea with how she was fore I put her out. Even on her good days the infirmary can still make her have an episode, don't think she could handle it today." Mal said with regret.
"Hey Mal got somethin ya might want." Jayne called suddenly from the cargo bay.
Mal and Zoe left Simon to see what Jayne was yelling about. Jayne and Kaylee stood in the cargo bay with a man in an Alliance uniform in between them.
"Found him hidin over on the ship. He's the medic." Jayne said with a smug grin on his face.
"Get him to the infirmary now." Mal instructed.
Jayne pushed the man roughly into the infirmary and the medic looked around in fright.
"Help him." Mal ordered pointing his pistol at the frightened man.
"I can't, they'll kill me for helping you." The medic stuttered.
"What's your name?" Mal asked.
"J-Joseph." He answered quietly.
"Yer a doctor?" Mal asked.
Joseph nodded his head quickly.
"Ain't it yer callin in life to help people that are hurt? You really just gonna stand there and let a man bleed to death in front of you?" Mal reasoned.
Joseph looked conflicted for another minute and finally nodded his head and moved to the sink to wash his hands.
"Are you going to kill me after this?" He asked fearfully.
"Hadn't decided yet. You bring my hurt men through this and I'm thinkin that killlin you would be mighty ungracious of me. You help him and my merc who got shot and we'll let ya off at the next terraformed planet we come to." Mal answered.
Joseph didn't reply just nodded and set to work on Simon. After fifteen minutes of stitching the doctor pulled back and looked at the crew waiting anxiously outside.
"I got the artery sewn up and closed the wound, but he needs blood. His blood pressure is so low he could go into cardiac arrest at any time. Do you know if anyone on board is a match for his blood type?" The doctor asked.
"He's got a sister on board. You think she'd work?" Mal asked. He wasn't sure if he should tell the man about River, but realized that he had just come from the ship that had planned on capturing her. Likely he already knew about her.
"There's no guarantee that she'll be a match, but she's more likely to have the same blood type than someone not related. Hurry and get her and I'll run a quick blood test." Joseph instructed.
Mal hurried to River's bunk and found her awake and sitting up.
"Bao-bei, we need ya down in the infirmary now." Mal said.
"Simon needs a transfusion." She said reading the thoughts from his mind.
"Yes. We got the doctor from the Alliance ship working on him, but he needs blood." Mal explained and pulled her to her feet.
As soon as they walked into the infirmary River stopped short and stared at the doctor with large surprised eyes.
"Joe? I mean Dr. Thatcher?" River blurted out sounding shocked.
"River? Wuh de ma! I'm sorry I had no idea it was you they sent us to collect. I wouldn't have come if I had known." The Alliance doctor replied sounding equally as shocked as River.
The two stared at each other for another second and then fell into each other's arms, embracing tightly. Mal felt his blood boil at the sight of another man with his arms around his woman. Especially a man who worked for the Alliance.
"Take it you two know each other?" Mal asked interrupting the moment.
"Dr. Thatcher worked at the Academy. He's the only one who tried to help me. He was the one who got intelligence to the group who broke me out. Saved my life." River explained with tears in her eyes.
"You ain't Alliance?" Mal asked in confusion as Joseph quickly took a blood sample from River and ran it through the scanner.
"I was, until I went to work at the Academy. When I saw what they were doing to River and the others, what they were doing to children, I started trying to stop them. I've been working for a group trying to take down the Academy for close to six years now." Joseph explained.
He read the scanner quickly and sighed with relief.
"River you're a match for a blood transfusion. I need you to sit here and I'll get the transfusion started." The doctor instructed and then quickly inserted the needles into her and Simon.
"This must be Simon then huh?" He asked and gestured towards the unconscious man.
River nodded her head, but didn't take her eyes off of her brother.
"I was so glad when I got to work that morning and they said you were gone. I'm sorry I couldn't have gotten you out sooner. Maybe if I had they wouldn't have been able to hurt you so badly." Joseph said with regret.
"Don't worry you did more than enough and despite everything they did I've managed to find a wonderful life here." River assured him.
Mal came up behind River's chair and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"How ya doin bao-bei?" He asked meaning more than just the fact that she was giving blood.
"Haven't had time to process things yet ai-ren. Can we talk after we know that Simon will be alright?" She asked.
He leaned over and kissed her fully on the lips, the fact that he had nearly lost her today finally sinking in.
"But you didn't." She assured him reading his mind.
Two hours later River left the infirmary, she'd given Simon blood for close to an hour and his vitals had improved considerably since then. Once Kaylee had finished getting Serenity free from the Alliance ship she'd hurried to be with Simon and River left them alone, knowing her brother was in good hands with Kaylee and Joe to see to him.
Joe smiled kindly at her from the other infirmary table where he was cleaning the bullet wound in Jayne's side.
Mal was sitting at the table in the galley when she walked in, Zoe next to him, and both wearing matching expressions of worry and anger. River sank down into a seat next to him and put her head on his shoulder.
"How's Simon and Jayne?" Zoe asked.
"Both are doing well, Joe is a very good doctor." She replied with confidence.
"Can't believe you know that Alliance hun-dan." Zoe muttered.
"Please don't talk about him like that. I know you all have terrible impressions of the Academy and while it was a terrible place not everyone there was monstrous. Joe was one of those people. He helped me and was disciplined harshly because of it. If he hadn't protested many of the procedures they wanted to do I think I wouldn't have survived and if my body had my mind certainly wouldn't have. He could be a top surgeon right now if it wasn't for him trying to help me, he was demoted because of it."
"So can we trust him?' Mal asked.
"Even if I couldn't read him I would say that we could trust him. But while I was in the infirmary I took the time to read him thoroughly. I don't sense anything in his mind, but fear that you'll kill him and desire to continue trying to subvert the Alliance." River answered honestly.
"Well I guess finding' him is a piece a luck, something we don't get round here near enough." Mal replied.
"Sir what are we going to do about Inara, we can't just keep her locked in her shuttle." Zoe asked. She hated to bring the subject up but she knew it had to be done.
"Guess we need ta go talk to her. Find out what the hell she did. Bao-bei you think you can come read her while we talk, make sure she's bein honest?" He asked after taking several deep breaths to calm the fury he felt towards the Companion.
"Wouldn't be safe ai-ren. My training dictates that I eliminate all possible threats. Alliance's way of making sure none of their assassins were caught. I'm in control now, but if she did purposely turn me in, I can't say with one hundred percent certainty that I wouldn't kill her."
"You sure bout that? It be mighty handy havin ya read her."
"Slashing Jayne with the knife before we went to the hospital in Ariel, that was just a glimmer of that training. I read him and thought he may do something to turn me in, so I was forced to try and stop that threat. I don't believe I can control an order that strongly ingrained in my brain."
Mal sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, the day that had started out so well had quickly spiraled into a giant heap of lu-suh.
"Alright me and Zoe'll talk to her first try and figure out what's going on. Mayhaps we can get some information and you can read her later." Mal reasoned.
River gave him a tired smile and curled closer into the hollow of his shoulder.
"I'm sorry everything bad that happens to us is because of me." She whimpered pitifully and began to cry.
Mal opened his mouth to protest, but was beaten to it by Zoe.
"River there ain't no one on this ship who blames you for any of this. You didn't choose to have your brain messed with by the Alliance. Hell you didn't even choose to come on this ship." Zoe reasoned.
"So I guess it's all Simon's fault then?" River joked and wiped her tears away.
"Good plan, blame Simon, I like it." Mal exclaimed.
River laughed, making Mal feel his heart melt a little bit. The thought of what he and Zoe needed to go do, drove the smile from his face. He placed a kiss on top of River's head and then stood from the table, Zoe close behind him.
They found Inara huddled on her bed crying. When they entered she looked up at them with an expression of dread and hope. She opened her mouth to speak and was cut off when Mal held up a hand to silence her.
"I'm gonna let you speak yer piece because you've been a member of my crew and you deserve that much at least. But I know you're a smart lady Inara, no matter what yer intentions were you had to know calling River's mom was a bad idea. So don't expect me to just go forgiving you even if ya got a damn good excuse."
Inara nodded and sat up on the bed, wiping her face and straightening her clothing before she began.
"I didn't know what else to do. I was scared and desperate. Something happened two months ago. Remember when I had that client on Osiris for two weeks?" Inara asked.
Mal and Zoe both nodded but said nothing.
"I knew he worked for the Alliance, but I had no idea what kind of work he did. Since I was there for two weeks I was often alone in his home while he was at work. One day I was in his study working on the Cortex I accidentally knocked a stack of files off his desk and while I was picking them up one of the names caught my eye. It said Tam. I was obviously curious so I read the file. There wasn't much to it, but it did concern River and the Academy. Most of it was medical stuff that I didn't understand, but it did indicate that there were more files. I spent the rest of the week trying to find the other files. Finally the last night I was there I stole his data stick. I replaced it with a blank one and I kept his. I couldn't open any of it, it was encrypted, but a friend of mine was able to open it for me eventually. I just got the information sent to me four days ago."
"What was on the files?" Mal asked entranced by Inara's story.
"More than you can imagine. Oh God Mal can't you understand that I didn't want to do this? I care about you and River, I wouldn't have encouraged you to be with her if I didn't. I don't want to hurt River, but the things on those files. You can't imagine until you see them. The things that were done to her and what she is. She's so much more dangerous than we ever imagined, her and Simon both."
"Simon he weren't at the Academy and that man's about as dangerous as a fluffy bunny most a the time." Mal interrupted.
"He wasn't at the Academy because the program wasn't ready yet, but trust me he's every bit as dangerous as River. I didn't know who was behind the whole thing, but from what the Blue Hands said I assume it was their mother. River and Simon's parents, they aren't really their parents. River and Simon both they weren't born they were created."
"What the hell does that mean?" Zoe asked.
"Didn't you ever wonder how one family could end up with two children who were both so mentally and physically advanced?"
"Simon ain't physically advanced, he can barely hold his own in a fist fight, let alone a gun fight." Mal countered.
"That's because he never had the training River had. Have you ever really looked at him? His muscles are well developed but have you ever seen him work out with Jayne or on his own? No because he doesn't have to. He and River both are advanced beyond what any human being should be. Maybe they aren't showing that because they haven't had the training and don't realized what they're capable of."
"So why exactly did you call their mother then? You had to know it was going to send River right back to finish that training." Zoe asked.
"I didn't know she was involved in it. I thought she had been horribly tricked and I wanted to see if she could tell me something about them that might help. I didn't want to tell you about any of this until I knew for sure that I had to. You seemed so happy with her and I didn't want to be the one to tell you…"
"Tell me what Inara? Just spit out whatever yer tryin ta say."
"River and Simon are genetic experiments. Their genes were manipulated before their birth to make the stronger and smarter than regular humans. They were created in a lab and implanted in surrogate mothers. Gabriel and Reagan Tam were given them to raise, but I really thought they were innocent victims in this. Duped into adopting children without being told what they were. I was wrong, I'm sorry." Inara finished and began to cry again.
As much as Mal wanted to remain angry at Inara he could kind of understand where she was coming from. That plus the fact that his brain was completely confused by everything Inara had told him, made him really want to just lie down and sleep for a week or so.
"You should have come to me Inara. You should have told me before you did anything else." Mal lectured, but this time less harshly.
"I know Mal. I'm sorry. I was scared and confused and I really thought her mother could help or would at least want to know." Inara replied through her sobs.
"I need to see those files Inara." Mal told her.
Inara's eyes opened wide and she shook her head back and forth.
"Mal you don't want to see them. If you see what they did to her, it will haunt you forever."
"Might be that's true, but I still gotta see them. I love her and I owe her that much." Mal whispered, already dreading watching the vid. files that Inara began pulling out of her desk.