Chapter 15

Rose sat against the wall of the galley, shoulder to shoulder with the Doctor. He wrapped his hand around hers, and she grinned at him. Kaylee glanced over at them and smiled—then her jaw dropped as she noticed the ring on Rose's finger. She glanced back and forth between them, eyes wide. "Was that there this mornin'?"

Rose giggled and bit her lip. "Has been since last night."

"Congratulations!" She broke into a smile and sighed happily. "That's so romantic!"

Mal cleared his throat, bringing the crew's eyes back to him, where he stood at the head of the table. "Nice as all that may be, we've got more on our plates here, people." He looked at Simon and River and took a deep breath. "We've known the Alliance was after River since you first came on board, Simon. Thanks to the Doctor, though, now we know why they're after her, and it ain't pretty."

Simon sat up, his face pale. "Wait, you found out why they're after River?" At the Captain's nod, he flushed angrily. "Why didn't you tell me?"

River tossed her head and smiled crookedly. "It wasn't time." She giggled softly.

"The Doctor only told us last night, Simon." Mal looked over at the Doctor and raised an eyebrow. "Do you want to tell them, or should I?"

"I can do it." The Doctor cleared his throat and looked around at the others. "River was to be the pinnacle of an ongoing project, a super-spy capable of collecting any information, of neutralizing any target. What they didn't realize was that she was strong enough to use their own training against them. By the time her brother broke her out of their training facility, River had collected enough information to tear apart the world as you know it." He met her eyes as she watched him intently. "River, you see, was not the first to fall victim to the Blue Sun Corporation's experiments."

"Blue Sun?" Simon frowned. "I thought the Academy was created by the Alliance."

"Oh, the government may have been the face of it, but they weren't the ones pulling the strings." He leaned forward and scanned their faces. "Tell me, how long has the Blue Sun Corporation been around?"

Surprisingly, it was Jayne who answered. "Least 6 centuries, far's I can tell. They were the ones who made the terraforming tech in the first place." He scowled at the dumbfounded expressions around him. "What? I know my history."

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Jayne's right. They've been here as long as you have, and they've been planning this for just as long." He looked around. "Have you never questioned why out here—in the vastness of space, with more than forty habitable planets in this system—you've never encountered alien life?"

Some frowned, some shook their heads. He rolled his eyes with a groan, but Rose poked him in the side before he could start ranting. "Get on with it, Doctor."

He smiled a little down at her before continuing. "Blue Sun did that. All of the vastness and the diversity of space, and they cordoned off this one system to keep purely human, with no contamination from non-human entities."

Shepherd Book frowned, his brow furrowed. "Entities like what, exactly?"

"Like, for example, me."

There was a moment of stunned silence before Wash spoke. "Wait, seriously?" He looked around at the others. "Are we really going to believe this guy's an alien?"

Simon cleared his throat. "Check his charts, if you want proof."

Zoe glanced at her husband and quirked a small smile at him. "It's true, baby."

"Oh, my god." Wash huffed out a strangled laugh. "We've got a psychic and an alien on board. This is nuts."

Kaylee spoke up, her eyebrows drawn together. "How're they keepin' it to just humans, then, if space's as big as all that?"

The Doctor sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "It used to be more complex, but now it's just Reavers, mostly."

Jayne stiffened. "Somebody's controllin' the Reavers?"

"Not as such, no." He looked around again and met River's eyes. She curled up into a ball, hiding her face in Simon's shoulder, and the Doctor looked down at his hands. "Reavers aren't simple humans, gone mad from too long in space." His mouth twisted into a grimace. "They were created. Years ago there was an experiment gone wrong on Miranda, an attempt to drug the population into compliance. For 99.9% of the population, the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate worked entirely too well—over 30 million settlers became so docile that eventually even breathing became too much of an effort, so they just lay down and… stopped." He took a deep breath, released it. "The remaining 0.1%, though—they had the opposite reaction. They became less than animals, so consumed with rage and madness that they lost hold of everything but the primal drive to violate and destroy."

"Laotian zhishang." Wash looked like he was about to vomit. Simon was pale as a sheet, and Kaylee was staring at the floor, her eyes wide and glimmering with tears. Even Jayne looked shaken, but Zoe, Mal, and Book just looked grim.

The Doctor looked up as he continued. "So Blue Sun took advantage of the whole mess, allowing the Reavers to spread out until they'd ringed the whole system, so violently mad that no one would ever dare explore beyond them. Of course, there are other methods of transportation in the universe than simple flight, and for that possibility, they employ someone a bit more calculating." He smiled crookedly. "As I discovered when I got to meet the charming Mr. Niska."

Shepherd Book raised his eyebrow. "If they've got as much influence as that, what can we do to stop them?"

"There are two people that the Blue Sun Corporation should never have let out of their sight. One of them is River Tam." He grinned suddenly, but it wasn't from happiness. "The other is me."

Mal cleared his throat, crossing his arms. "So what do you plan on doin' about it, Doctor?"

"Do you recall that I asked you about the Shadow Proclamation last night?" At Mal's confused nod, he continued. "The Shadow Proclamation is an intergalactic governmental body that has been around since time immemorial. They've dedicated themselves to the well-being of their member planets and any affiliated species, and what the Blue Sun Corporation has been doing is in direct violation of intergalactic law."

Simon looked up, the muscles in his jaw twitching. "How are we supposed to contact them, then?"

"That's where I come in." The Doctor grinned. "I'm actually a signatory member of the Shadow Proclamation, and once we retrieve my ship from Ariel, gaining access to them will be no problem. With River's help, I can retrieve the necessary proof to break this whole plot wide open."

River looked up at him from Simon's shoulder and straightened. "The truth is hidden on the planet of the dead."

Kaylee looked up and cleared her throat, rubbing the tears from her face with a greasy hand. "What about all the normal folks, Doctor? What about the people who can't survive without Blue Sun, an' them that never saw anythin' wrong with the Alliance?"

Mal's voice cut across the Doctor. "We'll tell 'em the truth." He looked around at the others, his voice deepening as his posture straightened. Zoe had straightened as well, her hand falling away from her husband's as her jaw raised. "There might be them that don't want to hear it, but people need to know what's really goin' on out there. For too long, people have sat back as the Alliance—" the Doctor cleared his throat, and Mal glanced at him, irritated—"and Blue Sun have done as they wanted. We let this settle, those people on Miranda are forgotten, and I won't let that happen. Someone has to speak for them's that can't speak anymore, an' if it has to start with us, then so be it." He looked at Wash. "How long 'till we reach Ariel?"

Wash cleared his throat. "Two weeks, sir."

Mal nodded grimly. "Then think on this, people. Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. After we get to Ariel, there ain't no goin' back. You want out, now'd be the time to go. Once we've started this, I mean to finish it." He looked around at the others, holding their eyes. No one looked away or protested. He nodded abruptly. "Meeting adjourned, I guess."

The meeting broke up quietly, with most of the crew leaving on their own. The Doctor joined Zoe and Mal at the table, and Rose curled up in the corner, watching them. She shook her head and sighed, plopping her head back against the cushions. She really should've known better than to think they'd have a bit of peace after finding each other again, but then again, she wouldn't have it any other way.

Shepherd Book joined her with a sigh. "So it begins again." She raised an eyebrow inquiringly at him, and he gestured at the people at the table. "It wasn't much different from this, the last time people decided to stand up against the Alliance."

Rose frowned, confused. "I thought you were a Shepherd."

"Oh, it was a long time ago." He smiled a little and relaxed back into his chair. "I doubt you were even born yet."

"You'd be surprised." He raised his eyebrows, and Rose continued hurriedly. "So d'you think this is the wrong thing to do?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. "Oh, I have no doubt that telling this story is the right thing to do. I've just seen the cost of this type of right too many times."

Rose swallowed, watching the Doctor. "I think we all have, Shepherd."

Wash's voice came over the intercom, grim and hurried. "Captain? You might want to see this." He paused for a moment. "The rest of you might want to come along, too."

When they'd all crowded into the bridge, he gestured wordlessly at the screen, where a set of pictures was scrolling underneath a large banner that read WANTED—it was each and every person on board the Serenity.

Mal was quiet for a minute. "Huh. So much for the gettin' off, I guess." He paused and grinned at Rose suddenly. "Now what did I say about fillin' the Serenity with the Alliance's most wanted?"

(Laotian zhishang- God above)