Space Cowboys

"We did it..." Alistair breathed in a faint voice. "We're clear of the atmosphere..." The griffin-like gargoyle staggered to his feet, and Bishop took his place in the pilot's chair.

"Serenity," a voice suddenly said from the communicator. "Remain behind us. We'll guide you to the Transcending Vigilance."

"Roger," Bishop replied. He began to steer the ship so that it followed the Phantom. Both Tom and Aeko were gazing at Alistair with expressions of great shock.

"Please don't leave the ship again," Alistair said pleadingly to Bishop.

"I would not worry about that," Bishop replied calmly. "After the events of today, I am not so eager to set foot on an alien planet again. Still, that was not bad for your first combat flight."

"What took you guys so long, anyway?" Alan asked.

"Oh, we had to wait for Alistair to wake up!" Rachel explained, moving away from the turret controls. José followed, though his expression clearly showed he was not pleased to see Aeko again.

"He was still sleeping even after it went dark!" the engineer continued.

"Oh, leave it out," Alistair said, pleadingly. "Gargoyles get jet-lag too, you know!"

"So this is a living gargoyle..." Aeko breathed, turning to Tom. "You did not say you had creatures such as this on Earth!"

"I... I really didn't know..." Tom stammered. He shook himself, trying to snap himself out of his apparent shock. Instead, he took to gazing around at the flight deck. "So this is an actual Firefly? Man, I know someone who's going to geek out over this. He loves all the old Earth ships. I think he'll explode with joy when he sees this baby in the hangar."

"Excuse me," Alistair said, interrupting and looking at Tom and Aeko. "I don't mean to be rude, but what the hell happened when I was asleep? Who are you two?"

"I think you'd better sit down, Alistair," Alan said, smirking. "It's quite a story."

0

In the length of time it took for Tom, Aeko and the Serenity crew to exchange pleasantries and give their various accounts of their misadventure on Pandora, the ship reached the orbiting Transcending Vigilance. Already the large cruiser was pointed away from the planet, ready to leave once the two ships were safely on board. The presence of the cruiser's Shipmaster on board guaranteed the Serenity's access, and soon the ship was landing in the large hangar bay, alongside the Phantom. It was not as cavernous a space as the one on the Shadow of Intent had been, but it was still roomy enough for both ships to fit comfortably inside.

As the ramp lowered, all of the crew and passengers stepped off. Even José raised no protest at being on board a Sangheili vessel again, apparently having resigned himself to the fact that this was one argument he would never win. He got his first big shock, however, when he saw that the majority of the crew running around the hangar and tending to the two craft were humans. He pointed this out to Tom, hardly daring to believe it.

"This ship technically belongs to the UNSC," Tom explained, grinning. "It has done since Telek gave it to us, and as such humans make up the majority of the crew. Of course, since we've done a bunk, I doubt the UNSC will be so pleased to see us again. Anyway, the only Elites on board are Aeko's Special Operations unit and a bridge crew who work the controls we can't reach."

"Talking of which," Aeko said, "I had better return to my unit and give them a debriefing. I will see you later, Shipmaster."

"Roger," Tom nodded, and Aeko departed towards the Phantom, where his squad was gathering.

"So who kitted out your ship anyway?" Tom continued, peering at the Serenity. "I don't recall reading about Fireflies packing heat."

"Otto set us up," Alan explained. "I would say you weren't supposed to know that, but I doubt anyone on this ship cares."

"Hey," Tom chuckled, "if you don't tell the High Council, I won't. Otto's an Elite of his word; he won't snitch on you."

"Tom!" a booming voice suddenly called from the other end of the hangar, making everyone jump. They looked around to see a large, white-armoured Sangheili running across the hangar to them. Stopping in front of Tom, he suddenly bent down and scooped up the human in a hug that looked positively back-breaking.

"Xovu..." Tom said, gasping. "Ow..."

"Sorry, Shipmaster," the Sangheili known as Xovu said apologetically, setting Tom back down. "I was just so worried those smurfy-cats were gonna kill you!"

"Well, they didn't," Tom replied shakily, clutching his side. "All thanks to these guys here." He turned to indicate Alan and the others, who had watched the scene with great amusement. All except José, whose eyes were almost bugging out of his head and his mouth was wide open as if he was trying to fit a grapefruit in it. The idea of a friendly Sangheili seemed to have scared him more than the idea of a hostile one.

"Guys," Tom continued, "this is Xovu 'Nohat, my First Mate. Xovu, this is the crew of the Serenity-"

He tailed off, as Xovu didn't seem to be paying much attention to him. Instead, he was gazing at the Serenity with wide, shining eyes. He walked around to the side of it and brushed his two fingers against the hull, his mandibles open in what Alan assumed was supposed to be a look of great awe.

"Is this what I think it is?" Xovu asked Tom excitedly.

"Yup," Tom nodded. "That's a genuine Firefly. Not many of those flitting around the Black these days."

"Oh, wow!" Xovu exclaimed, looking like an excited child. "It looks like it's been fitted out with our own technology as well. Still, a genuine Firefly! I mean, I've seen the pictures, but I never thought I'd get to see the genuine article!"

"I like him," Rachel said warmly, while Tom chuckled.

"Xovu loves his old human ships," Tom said.

"He'd love Lofwyr's private hangar then," Alan smirked. "That's where I nicked it from." It wasn't entirely true – he had only tried to steal it – but he reasoned that Tom didn't need to know the details. Tom, meanwhile, burst out laughing.

"You're a man – well, changeling – after Telek's own heart," he chuckled.

"So that makes you the Shipmaster then?" Xovu asked, addressing Alan.

"It does," Alistair said, smirking.

"You've got to give me a tour of this ship sometime!" Xovu said excitedly, marching towards Alan. For a moment, the mutant was afraid the over-emotional Sangheili was going to hug him too.

"Um... sure..." Alan responded, a bit taken aback.

"You can probably do that while we're on our way to the fleet," Tom enthused. "It'll be a couple of hours in slip-space before we get there. Oh, Christ..." he groaned. "I suppose we'd better get up to the bridge and let 'em know we're ready to leave this god-forsaken place behind."

"You got it, Shipmaster," Xovu said.

"You guys," Tom said, addressing the Serenity crew, "are free to roam the ship for a while. Mi casa es su casa. Any of you hungry? We've got a well-stocked galley on board."

"Please tell me you have real food," Alan said pleadingly. "I'm sick to the back teeth of protein bricks."

"I'm sure our resident chefs can whip up something nice," Tom chuckled. "Anyway, I'm sure one of the crew knows their way there; I swear they know this ship better than I do."

"Oh, don't be like that," Xovu said, jokingly. "You've been doing well these past two weeks. We haven't had a crash, at least, or run into anything more dangerous than those overgrown pixies." He turned to address the Serenity crew. "Hey, new guys! Thanks for saving the Shipmaster's life!"

"Uh, anytime," Alan replied.

"Come on, Xovu," Tom said. "Let's get this old tub on the road. I bet Wago hasn't missed us at all."

0

For the next two hours, the Transcending Vigilance flew through the swirling portal of slip-space. The crew tried to keep themselves entertained in various ways. As it turned out, the ship was a hive of activity, and Alan wondered how it was able to sustain all of the crew. They must have had a large horde of supplies on board. They must also have visited a surviving human colony or two at some point, for upon following Tom's suggestion of going for food, the crew had been pleasantly surprised to find that genuine bacon and fried eggs were available. As the group tucked into their meal, Alan idly wondered what sort of diet the Sangheili had. He made a mental note to observe them during a meal-time. Even from his cursory glance he could tell a lot of modifications had to have been made to make the galley suitable for humans.

Xovu got his tour of the Serenity during the trip. Rachel was only too happy to oblige, and seemed thrilled to have found a fellow Firefly enthusiast. José, meanwhile, was making every effort to avoid being in the same room as any Sangheili on board.

Alan just left everyone to their own devices while he spoke to some of the other crew. Both the human and Sangheili members on board seemed rather perturbed by his presence, however, as they had never seen a creature like him before. Alan was too used to this to care by this point. As well as Tom, Aeko and Xovu, he was able to speak to Colonel Acanthus Davis, who was the commanding officer of the human forces on board the ship, with all of the Marines and even several squads of ODSTs at his disposal. He seemed a light-hearted sort for a commanding officer. Alan also noticed that the majority of the equipment and vehicles on board the ship were of UNSC origin, rather than Covenant, which prompted him to ask what would happen if they ever returned to Earth with all of the stolen property.

"Assuming it hasn't been wrecked by the time we get back," Davis replied, "I expect we'll all be court-marshaled. Piracy's a bad habit we all picked up from Telek and his gang."

Tom had gotten curious about Alan's story and the reason for him being so far out in space, just as Otto had. Bishop had only told him very little. So Alan spent most of the trip on the bridge, relating his story – including the experiments that had brought him to his present state - to Tom and anyone else who wanted to listen. It was not a story he was particularly fond of telling, but since it looked like he would be working closely with Tom from now on, he decided that full disclosure would work out better in the long run. Tom made for a good audience; he nodded and gasped at all the right moments. After Alan finished telling the story of what happened in Chicago, Tom nodded.

"So that's how you met Cujo?" Tom asked. "That's why you came out here?"

"Yeah," Alan replied. "I figured if anybody could help me find Kiryuu, it would be him."

"Funny that he never mentioned you before..." Tom mused. "Why would that be?"

"I seem to recall asking him not to," Alan replied. "Kiryuu kept me off the UNSC's radar, so I thought I could trust Cujo to keep me off the Sangheili's. We didn't start on the best of terms, I have to admit, but out here I don't think there's anyone I'd trust more. In spite of the objections of a certain crew member..."

"He'll get used to it," Tom said, waving an arm dismissively. He too had noticed José's avoidance of the Sangheili. "I didn't think I'd work so well with Elites when I started working with 'em. Now me and Xovu are like peas in a pod."

"Just as long as you don't expect me to start kissing you," Xovu chimed in.

"You could try that on José," Alan said, smirking.

"Yeah, I'm sure that'll go down well," Xovu laughed. "He might see that there are worse things than merely working with Sangheili, after all."

It was then that a faint alarm sounded.

"Shipmaster," one of the Sangheili bridge crew stated from the controls below the central podium, "we are approaching the fleet."

"Roger that," Tom said. He motioned for Alan to approach the side of the podium near the large viewing port. A few seconds later, the swirling slip-space vortex abruptly vanished, leaving Alan with a sight that caused his eyes to go wide. In the midst of the star-field, he saw four other large capital ships of Covenant design. One of them was an enormous assault carrier like the Shadow of Intent, while another was a Reverence-class cruiser like Tom's.

"Say hello to the Fleet Shadow of Fury," Tom said proudly. "Well, half of it, anyway. Otto has the rest. There are supposed to be six of us, but like I said Telek took off with his own ship, the Shadow of Darkness." He pointed at the assault carrier. "That big bulk over there's the Regret and Reconciliation, Wago 'Tawun's pride and joy. I wouldn't worry about him too much; that ship's definitely compensating for something." At this, Xovu burst out laughing. Tom, meanwhile, pointed at the smaller Destroyer-class ship.

"That's the Holy Justice," Tom explained. "Mitsu 'Kimam's the Shipmaster of that one. He may be one of the smallest Elites here, but he packs a hell of a wallop in that frame of his.

"That cruiser over there," he continued, pointing at the other smaller vessel, "is the Righteous Fury, captained by Tulsa 'Durosh. He had a little brother, Tulsa 'Yurom, but..." He went silent for a moment, sighing. Xovu too had a pained expression, and Alan had a good idea about what became of Tulsa 'Yurom. It seemed that families on the Sangheili side had also suffered greatly during the war.

"I see..." he said, reasoning that it was best not to pry. "I'm sorry."

"Anyway," Tom said, shaking himself, "that ship over there might look familiar to you." He pointed at the other Reverence-class cruiser, which was leading the fleet.

"It certainly does," Alan said. "That's the Divine Journey!"

"Got it in one," Tom said. "Cujo should be on there now."

"Shipmaster," one of the bridge crew suddenly said. "We're receiving a transmission from the Divine Journey."

"Speak of the devil," Tom chuckled. "Put him on-screen." A few seconds later, the familiar face of Cujo 'Mentatal, Shipmaster of the Divine Journey, appeared on a holographic display over the viewing port. The first thing Alan noticed was that he was now back in the golden Zealot harness he wore as Shipmaster, as opposed to the silver and white assault harness he had worn in Chicago.

"Welcome home, Tom," Cujo said. "I assume Telek wasn't on Pandora either?"

"No dice, I'm afraid," Tom replied. "The trip wasn't a total bust, though. I did bring some friends back with me." He beckoned Alan closer to him, presumably to be within the visual range of Cujo's monitor. When the Sangheili saw the mutant, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Well, I'll be damned..." he said in an amused tone. "If it isn't the mini-Godzilla."

"Erm... surprise?" Alan said, with a crooked smile.

"Well, this is out of left-field," Cujo said. "Why don't you come on over to my ship and tell me what you're doing out here? Tom, you'd better come too so you can deliver your full report before we move on."

"Roger that," Tom said. "We'll be coming over in Captain Tyler's ship. We'll see you shortly." With that, Cujo signed off. Tom sighed and shook his head. "And here I was hoping we could keep my lapse of judgment confined to this ship."

"Ah, never mind," Xovu said, with an odd grin. "Let's just be thankful that Wago wasn't with us. We can't afford to give him any ammunition, can we?"

"Alistair," Alan said into his commlink. "Get the others and meet us by the Serenity. We're heading out to see the neighbours."

"Understood, Captain" Alistair replied. "We're on our way."

0

Later, the Serenity left the Transcending Vigilance and flew out amongst the large capital ships. Flying amongst such huge vessels of such elegant design, Alan felt positively dwarfed. He imagined that this was similar to some insect's perspective as it flew down a busy city street. When he thought about that, the Firefly class being so-called seemed very appropriate. Looking out at the star-strewn blackness of space, he also realised just how unfamiliar space looked now. He was never that great at astronomy, but even he had been able to point out a few familiar constellations in the night sky on Earth. Out here, he saw no familiar shapes.

Within minutes, the shape of the Divine Journey loomed above them, and the ship was soon landing in one of the hangars. A group of Sangheili was waiting in the hangar, like some form of welcoming committee. The Serenity's ramp lowered, and Alan, Tom and the rest of the crew stepped out onto the glossy lavender floor. As they did so, a gold-armoured Sangheili approached them; a towering figure, even by Sangheili standards. Alan grinned when he realised who it was.

"Alan Tyler," said Dovi 'Canthon, Cujo's Field Master. "Welcome back."

"It's good to be back, Field Master," Alan replied.

Dovi nodded, and took a moment to look at the Serenity and the assorted rag-tag crew members. He had never seen anything like this gathering even during the war, and wondered how they could possibly have made it this far. Behind him, one of the other Sangheili voiced what he was thinking, muttering "Reknuj taht ni yaw siht lla emac werc noteleks siht?" to another warrior next to him.

"I see you acquired your own ship and crew," Dovi said, deciding to take the polite route.

"You noticed that, eh?" Alan said, smiling wryly.

"Am I to address you as Shipmaster from now on then?" Dovi asked in a similarly wry tone.

"Only on special occasions," Alan replied, smirking. "It sounds more dignified than 'jackass hoodlum' anyway." Dovi chuckled.

"Cujo has requested the presence of both yourself and Shipmaster Jimenez," he said, before addressing the rest of the crew. "He mentions that you are all welcome onto the bridge, of course, as long as you mind your manners. Follow me." With that, he led the small group along the darkened corridors towards the bridge. Some of the Sangheili they passed nodded curtly, apparently remembering Alan's last visit to the ship. José kept looking around nervously, as if he expected to be attacked at any minute. He seemed to calm slightly when Rachel, perhaps sensing that anything could set their gunner off, took his hand into hers.

"Just don't get any ideas," she muttered to him.

The party soon reached the cavernous bridge, complete with a raised command platform with a ramp leading up to it. The guards in front of the ramp stood apart to allow Dovi, Alan and Tom to pass, but would not let any of the other Serenity crew to do so.

"Only the Shipmasters need to be present for the debriefing," Dovi said. "You may remain on the bridge, but don't touch anything. The last thing we want is to be sent spinning into a supernova."

Dovi had intended this to be a joke, but when José was sure that the large Field Master was out of earshot he muttered "Chupaverga."

Alan and Tom, meanwhile, ascended to the command platform, where they found Cujo waiting for them. He and Tom traded salutes, then he shook Alan's hand, smiling.

"Long time no see, Alan," he said. "I didn't expect to see you out in the Black. I remember Kiryuu Knight telling you to enjoy your remaining days on Earth."

"That was back when it looked like Earth wasn't going to last much longer," Alan shrugged. "I left a few days after the memorial; I would have got up here sooner, but it took me a while to get a ship. If I'd known you guys had the same idea I had, I would have hitchhiked."

"It's lucky you found your own way then," Cujo said, grinning. "I don't pick up hitchhikers." He turned to Tom. "Well, let's hear your report then, Tom."

For the next several minutes, Cujo listened patiently while Tom told of the events on Pandora from his perspective. He even mentioned the embarrassing manner of his capture by the Na'vi, to which Cujo merely shrugged.

"Let that be a lesson though," he said, in a mock-serious voice. "Cute critters are evil. Don't worry; I won't tell Wago if you don't."

After Tom had finished, Cujo addressed Alan.

"So how did you get mixed up in all this?" he asked. "Your Firefly shouldn't have got this far in such a small amount of time."

"You can thank Otto 'Gamam for that," Alan said. "We ran into him about a week after we left Earth. We'd still be drifting about in the Sol system if it weren't for the slip-space drive he supplied. Mind you, we didn't get far before it blew our conductors."

"Let's just keep Otto's involvement amongst ourselves," Cujo said. "I'd rather not see him get in trouble over his hand in your success."

"My lips are sealed, Cujo," Alan said. "Anyway, we set down on Pandora to get the materials to make a suitable part. We need to make a pit-stop to smelt the Unobtainium ore we salvaged. Bishop and Rachel reckon they can make the part we need once that's done. I just hope the trouble the Na'vi gave us was worth it."

"Not a friendly race, I take it?" Cujo said. He had heard what Tom had said, but also wanted to hear Alan's view.

"Nope," Alan replied. "I may be speaking out of place here, but their whole system sounds like a load of wacko jacko. It reminds me of this old comedy song I heard once," he continued, in a mock sing-song voice, "'I talk to the trees... that's why they put me away...'." Cujo and Tom stifled a snort of laughter.

"We did learn one thing though," Tom then chimed in. "Seems an old acquaintance of ours was on Pandora at some point God-knows-how-long ago. Might go some way to explaining why they don't like visitors. I'll tell you about it later."

"Even so," Cujo said, still chuckling, "from the sounds of it, we should hope we don't have to go back and annoy them even more."

"Surely that's a good reason to go back?" Alan asked. Cujo chuckled again. He now regretted not going to Pandora himself and finding out if these Na'vi were as crazy as Alan and Tom said they were.

"So Alan," Cujo said after he had managed to calm down, "you mentioned you had the 'same idea as us'. I assume you're also looking for Kiryuu Knight?"

"Got it in one," Alan said. "Otto told me that Telek had the same notion, but Tom said he's buggered off elsewhere. You have any idea where he went?"

"I really can't say, Alan," Cujo sighed. "A few days after we left Earth, he told us all that I was in charge while he was gone, and then he took off on his own. We've been on his trail ever since, which hasn't been easy when you have to scout every planet manually for some sign of him. He's probably got some new hair-brained scheme into his head, but if I find out he's only after a new batch of rum there'll be hell to pay."

"Rum?" Alan asked, dubiously. "Who does he think he is? Long John Silver?"

"You can ask him yourself, if we ever find him," Cujo replied, wearily. "Our mission's become 'find the people on the mission'."

"Which is why I'm going with you," Alan suddenly said. "We're all in the same boat, right? I figure you can use an extra hand."

"That's true," Cujo said. "There could even be places a much less conspicuous Firefly can go where a Covenant capital ship can't. Do you also speak for your crew?"

"I do," Alan nodded. "They wouldn't be with me now if we didn't all agree to this." From down below, he thought he could hear José about to protest, but he was quickly silenced; Alistair had clamped a talon around his mouth. Cujo rose up slowly, fixing Alan with a piercing look.

"If your objectives remain the same as ours," he said, "then you are welcome to join us. However, I want your solemn promise that you all obey orders to the last detail, will not willingly endanger our chances, and assist us in any way you can to find the lost President and Supreme Commander. Do you understand?"

Alan breathed in slowly. It seemed that he had to make a lot of promises to different people lately. He had been forced to promise Lofwyr that he would not return to Earth without Kiryuu, and he had promised Otto that he would look for Telek. Now he had to make another promise. After a moment to steady his nerves, he nodded.

"I give you my word," he said. Cujo nodded, seeming satisfied that Alan was being honest.

"Then," he said, "I might as well make some attempt at formality." He coughed a little, apparently clearing his throat. "Alan Tyler, Shipmaster of the Serenity, I welcome you, your crew, and your ship, into the Fleet Shadow of Fury." He gave a salute, which Alan returned.

"I'm sure it's going to be a hell of a ride," he said.

THE END