A/N: This roughly follows "Serenity" Part one (the initial pilot episode for the TV show, not the BDM). There's a scene with inspiration drawn from "Rose" as I work around Jackie Tyler getting nosy and dragging Mickey Smith into the strange world of 'net freaks. 'Cause, you know, she'll still need a reason to slap 'em, Hehehe.
:-D
OtherMeWriter, Thanks. Chat coming up here, sometime in this chapter.
mirth513, lovely review as always. I wanted to give Wash more depth, and I always felt that he had deep secrets hidden under his humor. Besides, he was the top pilot of his class aside from one person who hacked his way there (if you go by the Serenity novel), so he's a smart cookie. And Jayne… He's not a bad guy, really. Kinda dense sometimes, but with a good heart once a soul earns it. As for the impact of the Transfusion… well, there's a lot of stuff going on with that, and I don't want to give anything away, but I am dropping hints.
Um… Should I start offering Bananas? Banana Jelly Babies? Do they make those? Um…
Summary: The Doctor, reeling from the effects of the TimeWar as the last surviving TimeLord, stumbled into a situation he could not ignore when the TARDIS landed him inside a ship that was clearly in trouble. After the rescue, he's left with eight survivors that he must somehow get to safety. But the situation is not as cut and dry as he might like. His people may be gone, but the stamp he's made on the universe is still there, and he finds himself caught in a web spun of the choices he's made in his past…
Something in history has prompted humanity to explode out from their home world. Could the events of 2164 be responsible? Was Earth a myth or was it real? In fleeing Earth-that-Was, humanity scattered to the stars across the galactic arm. Initial survey teams targeted likely planets and systems for habitation and not all of them ended up on the same side of the sector. Blue Sun exists on one side, separated by a patch of 'wild space' filled with exotic binary and triple star systems, from the rest of civilized space. Few ships brave the route. But luck had it that one ship did. Risking a ghost run, the only contact that the two sides have, the Hunter-Gratzner crashed midway through the journey. Original Port of Departure: Eavesdown Docks, Persephone. Mixed Sino-Anglo culture. Original Port of Call: Tangiers-5. Darkside. Mixed Islamic-Anglo culture. Crew complement: Four. Passengers: Forty. Living 'Cargo': Two. Survivors: Eight plus One
So what happens in 2517 to Dr. Simon Tam, his brilliant but damaged sister, a convicted murder by the name of Richard B. Riddick, and Jack B. Badd now that they are on their way home? They end up slightly out of their own Time, on a ship filled with living sculptures and then a 'quiet' trip to 2005 London brings them face to face with living sculptures of another kind… And just how is this related to the TimeWar?
A Doctor Who / Firefly / Riddick crossover.
Features Doctor 9, companion Rose Tyler; The cast of Firefly; 'Jack B. Badd' and Richard B. Riddick…
Doctor Who and the Ties that Bind.
Part Thirty-Five
Muster
Less than a day and things look to have gone south. Health wise, he's weakened by this effort to save the human girl. She can't begrudge him that. The parasite is still contained, but he needs to sleep now and regain his lost blood volume. The sensation she is getting from him is one that is slightly dizzy, light headed, and thirsty. She is very tempted to give him a cup of tea, just materialize it in front of him. And perhaps if the situation was slightly different she would. But as it is, she can't risk extending her power to do something like that with him infected as he is.
Emotionally however, he's a mess.
Verity can't do anything to make this better. The time and place for her Time Lord is here. His allies are here, even if one of them doesn't know it yet. Although there's risk for them being here now, there's also reward. Great reward. The promise of new life, new starts, healing, winning, loving… the chance to make it better and to change the twisted path of the future that would give her Doctor far too little time should he go elsewhere. Here, he can touch those around him and improve their lives and no one will question if they all live longer than they should.
If he's to do this, to face his past losses and let her help him with the horrible mental scars inflicted by their uncaring people, then he needs the stability that Serenity can give him. Now to just convince the stubborn man that he can share his need to protect with the entire net of minds that will destroy the parasite, the possible last vestiges of the Time War. This means earning the trust of one Malcolm Reynolds regardless of what either bull headed man wants. It means not letting Thete run from the looming darkness as he has so many other things.
The Doctor is so close to giving in on the pain that she wants to keen with the agony of it. They are almost there, almost to the end of the tunnel. She can't force him to fight but she knows he doesn't want to lose this. It would destroy him to have these people ripped from him now. They all know it. She pushes her mind, her soul, into him. Flooding him with all the time and wonder and love that she has for him. He absorbs it like a dry sponge.
And then he sends back tentative tendrils of memories, pain and joy, comfort and loss, and the sense of a type of wonder that she's only felt once before. She's tempted to ask him to help her have that wonder herself, because she can't do it alone. Only the thought of it being selfish keeps her from asking. Instead she focuses on his feelings, letting them flutter through her, his asking for acceptance that no one has ever even known that he ached for. But this is an old sensation, very old. A secret. Held close for hundreds of years, shared with no one. And gut wrenching agony, a loss so profound that he turned to her at last to sooth it even a little so he could function. But he refuses to explain the feelings, and for now having felt them is going to have to be enough.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Thete's sitting with his 'family' around him, even the fire Elemental has chosen to break with her training and show her loyalties to him. As if the Gallifreyan communication device around her neck isn't clue enough. He's shocked that the disk is no longer red in color, because it means that they are no longer secondary tools, but primary now, working because his TARDIS still exists to tie them together. Another proof of how totally alone he and Verity truly are now. Another proof that someone thought ahead and planned on his -their- survival. He knows who he suspects, and he knows the proof of it is entangled within the secrets and paradoxes of his time with the CIA. He has to wonder if ultimately he's not the cause of his own survival, if he hasn't engineered this entire thing. But why? Why deny himself his own memories if that is the case? He'd make himself believe anything to keep his perception of Romana light and bright and hopeful. He'd rather blame himself than blame her. Just thinking about it, just skirting the tangled mass of memory hurts. The ache of it is dull compared to his personal crisis at the moment though.
He's on the verge of losing everything. His hope. His heart. His will to go on…
He's got warm bodies against him, Richard and Jack on one side, River, Rose and Simon on the other, and Inara against his legs. And inside him is Verity, filling his soul with golden light, even as she withholds the actual power that normally flows with it. He squeezes Richard's hand and holds River close and can't find it in him to care that Rose is wrapped around his arm as she holds River's shaking form. He feels Inara shift to raise her head off his knee, replacing it with a light hand. Malcolm is coming back. Simon shifts from the coffee table to the couch on the other side of Rose and reaches around her to hold River's hand.
He can tell that Rose is perfectly comfortable with this, and for a human from 2005 that's fairly impressive. Thete brushes his mind across hers and finds that she's been introduced to the communication method already too when she thinks, 'ello, to him in response. He turns his head and winks at her and a second later she puts her cheek against his jumper clad shoulder with a whisper of, soft. Her head settles in next to River's like it's meant to fit there.
This is the state they are in when the captain of Serenity surges into the blue tones of the room and comes to a very fast halt. The Doctor looks at him, the half-crumpled sheets in his hand, the rapidly draining anger. Behind him, Wash manages to pull up short and avoid running the man over. Quite frankly he's not listening to the words coming out of Mal's mouth, although he likely should be. His eyes follow the scatter of warrants and profiles reading them as they fall, faster than any human could. Mal plants himself in front of them, his aura skittering against the collective energy of theirs.
Thete knows that Mal wants, very badly, to be included in something he can believe in again. He doesn't like this self-awareness of being shattered. But he's set to resist the desire, because he's been hurt so many times before and no longer wants to risk the pain. The Doctor knows this like he knows himself. Why he'd pushed away lifetimes of happiness that didn't need to be unhappy. Why he struggled against accepting the strong bond with Verity for two full lives. Why he'd eventually gone to her and given her scraps of himself so that she'd ease the pain. Mal had turned to Serenity the same way he'd eventually turned to Verity. Only difference was, Serenity couldn't heal the damage to Mal's soul the way Verity could heal his.
So it would be up to him to bring this very damaged human back to the point where he could play his role in the destiny of the 'Verse. Ironic that. Almost as ironic as losing everything again just like he had with Jamie so soon after vowing to do everything possible to prevent it. He wasn't going to let this go without a damn good fight.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
She was at the mall, shopping. Normal thing. Coming down an escalator, bags in her hands. She hears glass breaking.
"Oh, my god!" screams a woman that is suddenly next to her, the scene morphing into the walk along the arcade. More glass is breaking.
The man and boy are looking around too. "It's true. Everything I read, all those stories, it's all true," says the man, gripping her arm. She wants to run, but he's holding her arm. Glass is breaking.
She wants to ask who he is, but there's too much glass breaking to speak over.
"The Doctor, did you say? Working for the Doctor? Don't you see? It's true." Then she sees the cause of the glass breaking, mannequins are walking though the mall, shooting people and somehow going around them, not seeing them.
Wave after wave, mixed types of dummies, marching through the mall destroying everything around them. "I'm Clive," says the man, "And it's true." And she can hear more than just glass breaking, there's the sound of gunshots and bodies falling and screaming…
Then there's a sweeping wave of plasma like energy that courses through the mall – racing toward her and she can't get out of the way. It's like a storm of light flowing like fog. And she's terrified of it.
"Ahh!" Jackie Tyler wakes with a scream. Less than a day after Rose has gone off on her new job and Jackie's wishing she was still there.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Zoë and Jayne had uncovered the truth about Dobson's 'cargo'. He had crates of securing equipment, interrogation devices, various recording items, and data files. Mal was tempted to flush the entire works out the airlock, but Zoë reminded him that they could sell the stuff. He just hoped that it didn't come back on them and end up being used on one of his crew if they did that. Of course, there was the option of using some of these gadgets on Dobson.
The captain had given the Smythe troop some time to collect themselves and meet everyone in the dining room. Now he was waiting at the table, playing with a mug of something that was supposed to pass for coffee but didn't quite manage it. Zoë and Wash were in the kitchen making things clatter lightly, not exactly speaking to each other but somehow managing to not give the impression of being angered over some such spat or another. Jayne was cleaning a knife with the coffee substitute and in general being Jayne. And Mal had to admit that the stuff cleaned off old blood stains better than just about anything else in the 'Verse. He hated to think about what it was doing to his insides.
This was his crew, with the exception of 'Nara, who really wasn't 'crew' as such and Kaylee, who was sleeping post-op. For some reason the dining room felt empty and cold. Mal shivered.
Book entered the room, right on cue, at exactly half past. He looked reserved and thoughtful. Wash said from the kitchen, "Want a coffee or a tea? Well, the coffee's not coffee as such, more like black engine sludge, but it will keep you awake." Zoë managed a snicker.
"Tea is fine," the Shepherd answered. After a moment he added, "Thank you." He pulled out a chair and sat down. "I checked on Miss Frye on the way here and she looked to be doing very well."
"Well, that's somethin' at least," Mal mumbled. He'd have rather her not being shot at all, personally.
Inara was the next one to come in, looking as graceful as ever, if a bit worn around the edges from the emotional stresses of the evening. Silently, she takes the offered tea from Zoë and moves around the table to sit near Book. Mal feels his heart catch in his throat as he finally gets a good look at her. If anything she's more beautiful than he's ever seen her, more real for her slightly faded makeup and less than perfect hair. He has to remember to not stare at her, or he'll drown in the depths of her eyes, the fiery emotions whipping through them that he's never see so strong before. She radiant, like the sun. Her very presence warms the room. He shivers again, but not from the cold. Mal knows he's a doomed man. "They are on their way up," the Companion said. "The warrants seem to have rattled them pretty good. You could have been less accusing about it Mal."
"I didn't accuse at all," he protested. "That anger was – righteous indignation on their behalf. Everyone just has to assume the worse." Something beeped from the cockpit. "I'll get it." Mal got up and went to check the communication.
Zoe risks a peek into Mal's mug, "I'm surprised this stuff hasn't eaten right through the table."
"Mal's got himself a very resistant-to-engine-sludge mug." Wash takes his seat next to her.
Jayne says, "I wouldn't drink the stuff, but it's great for removing blood stains." Several people watch him clean his knife with it for a few moments. "Think it will poison that Fed if I don't rise it off?"
"If he's dead, does it matter?" Zoë says right back at him.
"Suppose not."
It was at this point that Jon came into the room, followed by Jacob, Rose, Saritha, Simeon, and finally Richard. He eyed everyone over. "So is this going to be an 'us against you' situation?"
Mal stepped back into the room, "What? No. I figure we're all in this about as deep as hand inseminatin' a cow anyway, so we best put our resources together and see what we come up with."
"Now, that's repulsive image," Richard says. Mal swings back into his seat and gives the bronze man a dark smile.
"Pull up some chairs and lets get this chat over with so some of us can catch a bit of shut-eye before the morn," Mal tells them. Inara stands and moves back into the kitchen. A few moments later she returns with a tray of mugs all filled with tea. The captain watches her then quips; "Maybe we should just forgo the coffee next time and get tea."
"But I got such a good deal on the coffee, Mal," Wash says, "and Jayne's using it. Maybe Kaylee can clean the engine with it?" He glances at the others, "Right, next time I'll stick to tea."
There's a bit of chair moving and settling in before anyone gets seriously down to business. Richard chooses to sit with Jack. Rose squeezes in next to Saritha who curls up against Jon. The two girls are practically sharing a chair with the ebony headed one in the blonde's lap. Simeon sits down on the other side of Jon in his own chair. Mal looks at them all, entwined with each other by way of hands or arms, much as they had been on the couch outside the infirmary. He takes a deep breath, "Ok, we got ourselves a situation. Dobson's a guild merc, out of Lupus five. Another couple of weeks his papers will expire and he'll just be another petty bounty hunter. But right now he's got Fed backing which makes things a mite complicated." Mal looks at Jon, "As far as I'm concerned, you brought this down on my shoulders--"
"He didn't. Dobson boarded Serenity before I did," Book said. "I got the impression that he was haggling over the prices, in fact."
Wash nods, "Kaylee charged him extra because he flashed his gun at her to get his credits back after changing his mind once. He came back saying that he really needed to get to Boros, so Serenity was his best option. I almost told him we were booked up, but at the time we weren't. I ran into Jon and Rich on my way back to the supply post."
"So he didn't follow you?" Mal looks at the two men. They both indicate no. "He might have been tipped off by Badger, then."
"We can try hacking his Cortex link to see if there are any communication traces left." Zoë suggests.
"Kaylee would be best at that, but she's rather indisposed at the moment. Let's put that down as an option to explore." Mal takes a swing of his drink making several people pull faces. He ignores them. Right now he wants to get the truth out of Jon, as he knows he's not telling the full of it. "You want to explain why there's such a striking resemblance between your twins and the Tams?"
"Luck?" Jon says. Mal fixes him a stare, "Um. No I really don't. But me and mine talked about this, and decided that it benefits us to be honest with you. If money is the object here, I'm willing to pay the bounty listed and then some, over time."
"I'm not after your gorram money. I want the truth."
"I'll take the money," Jayne said. "Standard ten percent cut."
"Be quiet Jayne."
"Mal, he's talking a million and a half credits, combined bounty. That's a hundred and fifty thousand, and I've got family that can use the cash."
"Done. If that is what it takes, Mr. Cobb," Jon said. "Now be silent and listen." Jayne nodded. "Saritha and Simeon are River and Simon Tam." The Doctor held up a hand to keep people silent, "And they are related to me. A standard genetic test will reveal overwhelming proof of it."
"What did you do, son, to get the Feds after you?" Mal said.
"It's a long story."
"I think we have time, so start talking."
Simon looked over at the Doctor and then reached out to grip his hand before starting, "I am extremely intelligent. I went to the best Medacad in Osiris, top three percent of my class, finished my internship in eight months. 'Gifted' is the term. So when I tell you that my little sister makes me look like an idiot child, I want you to understand my full meaning." He paused and looked at them, "I'm not being pretentious here. Or prideful, but you must understand that River is unique. More than gifted. Fantastically brilliant, at absolutely everything she attempts." He looks over at her and notices that she's hiding against the Doctor's side. "Let me explain it this way, we breathe without conscious effort. My sister does everything that way. Music, advanced math, theoretical physics, historical analysis, languages, dance; there is nothing that doesn't come as naturally to her as breathing does to us. She used to correct my advanced textbooks, on every subject, even. I have no doubt that she is as skilled a surgeon as I am." Simon smiles at the memories.
Mal stares at the dark head of the girl that is the subject of the conversation. "Saritha, you alright there?" She shakes her head without lifting it. Mal turns to Simon; "She's been through something bad, hasn't she?" Jayne gets up and heads into the kitchen to get something to drink. Mal glowers at him.
"Well, that's one way to put it." Simon says as he waits for Jayne to sit back down. Then he begins the narrative again, "There was a... a school... a, uh, a government-sponsored academy, we had never even heard of it before but it had the most exciting program, the most challenging. Our parents could have sent her anywhere, we had the money, but she wanted to go there. She wanted to learn. She was fourteen," River's hand snakes out and closes over the top of the joined hands of Jon and Simon. He glances at her, "I got a few letters at first, and then there was no contact for months. Finally I got a letter that made no sense. She – she talked about things that never happened, jokes we never..." The hand squeezes, "it was code. It just said... 'They're hurting us. Get me out.' I had to try."
Zoë, ever practical, asks, "How did you do it?"
"Money. And, and luck. For two years, I couldn't get near her. Then I was contacted by some men, some underground movement. They – they said she was in danger, that – that the government was... playing with her brain. If I funded them they could sneak her out in cryo. Get her to Persephone, and from there, I could take her... wherever. My plan had been to get on the ghost run, and then I ran into Jon. He took us both under his wing. I own him my and River's lives several times over."
Rose is stroking River's back, trying to sooth the trembling. Inara reaches over and gently runs a hand across the knotted bunch of fingers; "Will you be all right, Saritha?"
She responds with a shrug. Jon rocks her lightly, "When Simon mentioned 'playing' with her brain, I don't think he conveyed the total extent of what was done to her. What we know is that she's lost her ability to filer out errant perceptions on her own. She was operated on, subjected to chemicals and radiation, brainwashing attempts, and likely even more. With the right help and time there's hope for her, but if the government gets its hands on her again --"
"Please. I don't know why this was done to my sister, only that I – I have to keep her safe."
There's a long silence, "And of course, you still want to know about me." Jon finally says, meeting Mal's gaze. "I'm not sure how much you are willing to believe, even as I tell you the truth. You have heard of the 'Wailing Wars'?"
"I'm vaguely familiar with it."
"The conflict involved a number of colonies on the other side of wild space, and contact with two alien species. Two Elder Settlements were destroyed in the aftermath of the war, Alysum and Furya, along with both of the alien species. For the most part."
Mal looked at Wash, "I just fought in it, don't look to me to give you the inner workings of the politics involved, Mal. Yes, Alysum and Furya are both dead worlds now; one has been for a hundred years at least. Although there's rumors that survivors of Alysum are still out there, hunting the last of the Furyans down. Units from Scorpio generally worked under Elementals, so I don't know about the alien angle."
"For the most part, Doctor Smythe?" said Zoë.
"Yes. For the most part. As I told Mal, I'm not completely human. My sire was one of these alien species, a Gallifreyan. Although the complete situation doesn't really pertain to this I will tell you that I was raised among his people, taught his ways, lived a sanctioned life-style before the War. Like many others when the situation became apparent for what it was I joined in the battle against Gallifrey's enemy, another alien species whose name I won't mention because they should have been totally eradicated."
"And you two alien species couldn't have kept Humankind out of your little war?"
"Mal!" Inara stood up. "You have no idea what was at stake."
"'Ifritah," says Jon, "Sit back down." She looked over at him before slowly sitting down. They lapsed into silence again.
"All right, what was at stake, Inara. Since you seem to know."
She looked at him; "You wouldn't believe me."
"Sure I would, 'Nara." Mal meets her eyes and holds them.
She flushes, "The 'Verse itself, Time, and Space, and free will. Mal, the Wailing Wars were fought across dimensions that most humans don't even realize are there." She takes off the golden disk and holds it by the chain. Taking a deep breath she says, "Touch it, Malcolm Reynolds, if you dare."
Mal stares at the golden metal with its not-quite-normal, not-human, engravings and sheen. He realizes that he's never seen anything like it before, and should some fancy bloke take a hankering to it that the bit of alien metal would be worth a fortune. He carefully places a finger on it the edge of it.
The ship twists and reforms around him. He can see the numbers and equations that make everything work, the lines of energy, pulses of on and off. He can see the space between. And beyond that is an aureate-verdant shimmer. When he looks around at the others he can see they are robed in color, elements, he knows. And the background shimmer is time and it flows through Jon. He jerks his finger away and blinks at Inara, still seeing the flames of her aura. "Well, that's different."
"It's the truth."
They go quiet, the others wondering what Inara showed Mal but not overly sure that they wanted to know by the expression on Mal's face. Book finally breaks the impasse, "That's... quite a story."
"Yeah, it's a tale of woe. Very stirring. In consequence of which we got a kidnapped pseudo-federal officer on board, we got the Alliance hard on our trail, and we're down a mechanic. Is there more you should tell us, Jon?"
"You mean, like my being a time traveler, or that my ship is in your cargo bay on idle, or that Rose here is from 2005? No, not really." Mal gives the pale man a hard look, trying to discern if he's joking or serious. He can't tell. And that bothers him.