Interlude
April 2517, The Academy, Special Alliance Facility
"Subject, Tam, River. Date of Birth 19 December 2500. Major, Theoretical Physics. Currently on special assignment." The Counselor smiled at that thought. Oh yes, River was special. She tested off the scale in her lucid moments, a reader of extraordinary ability with physical skills to match. Even an expert in weaponry. And all at sixteen and a half years old…
Miss Tam had proved she was able to apply these skills in a practical manner. The bodies of her fellow classmates who died in the "kill or be killed" Training Missions proved that. The process was Darwinian – it needed to be.
Nothing was perfect however and there was a major problem. Her lucid periods were getting shorter and shorter. Her usefulness depended upon her being coherent enough to perform her duties on behalf of The Alliance, and on the ability of her handlers to keep her under control.
He'd had an ongoing relationship with the girl since her arrival, that of faculty member to student, and he'd spent many sessions with her both before and after her admittance to the Ultra levels of The Program. The Counselor's job now was to see if there was any way therapy could extend her cogent periods.
Still, he also had other duties. And today he was playing nursemaid to VIP's. They wanted to see where their rather large expenditure in credits were going – in short they wanted to see solid progress on their special project.
The reinforced doors to the underground facility opened and three of the most important people in the 'Verse stepped out, sans aides. What they were about to see was way above Top Secret.
Michael Gilchrist, Prime Minister of the Union of Allied Planets. Orchestrator of Unification. General Josef Chang, head of the Alliance's Army during the Unification War and now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Alliance Military – there was no one higher in the chain of command. Rupert Gates, Executive Chairman and major stockholder in The Blue Sun Corporation. Although all three men had "talents" in the areas of the others, they were basically political power, muscle, and money respectively.
"Greetings Most Honored Gentlemen. I will be your guide through your visit to The Academy." The Counselor began. "If you would please follow me?"
Same Time. Quarters of River Tam
River was crazy, moonbrain crazy. It wasn't her fault.
She had arrived at The Academy, a place full of promise. Instead she found it was full of terror.
At the start it seemed like an excellent place of institutional learning. River loved to learn, and the pace of learning at her previous schools, well, sometimes that pace was too slow for her liking.
Physics was her favorite, and she found the physics program at The Academy to be a challenge. This was most pleasing. She excelled and soon was granted entry into the Graduate Physics Program. "Little Mouse" was what they called her – she smiled at the thought.
Paul Volker, self proclaimed Number One in the Program, was jealous of her then. He didn't say it out loud, she had read it off him. And she had told this to The Counselor. Strange that she couldn't remember his name. He was just "The Counselor".
The horror, the pain of the procedures, the machinations of the "hands of blue", had started shortly after. The killing, often by her own hand, followed.
She remembered all too much about certain things, and almost nothing of others. She did remember her ge ge.
Simon. Dear Simon. Now a Trauma Surgeon in Capital City on Osiris, she had tried to tell him what was happening here. It had been two years, more. He hadn't come for her. He hadn't figured out the code in her letters. A single tear slipped down her face.
Today was a better one than most. It was an important day, apparently. She had read that on the minds of many of the Academy Staff. Important day, and very important people. An interesting day perhaps? At least there would be no blue hands today.
Later That Day, Counseling Room
River knew the large mirror behind The Counselor was two way. She felt the three men behind it looking at her with intense curiosity.
The thoughts of all were loud, too loud, and that was the cause of her insanity. They had done something to her, in one of those procedures, and she couldn't stop being bombarded by the constant thoughts of others. Even her brain could not handle the massive flow of information.
It was much easier when she concentrated on one mind. It was very tiring, and she couldn't do it for long, but she would do it to these three. Maybe something within these "VIP'S" could ease her pain?
The first one Michael. His deepest secret shouted at her. Miranda.
The second, Rupert, also was scared of Miranda. She couldn't stay in his mind for very long, he was Blue Sun, and Blue Sun were Blue Hands. This she knew. This she feared on a visceral level.
Curious. The third, Josef, was also scared of Miranda.
Who was this Miranda that could scare these three powerful men so, why did she hold such as place in their minds? The Pax, that's why. What is that? And Miranda was not a she, it was a where. A planet. Burnham Sector. Strange, the girl knew all the planetary bodies in the 'Verse intimately. River gleaned what details she could and hid them away in her own mind.
It was dangerous to concentrate on any mind for long, and now she found she couldn't get out of Josef's, she had been concentrating too hard. River panicked, unable to get out, she went deeper, looking for something, some comfort maybe, that could help her escape his mind.
NO! The Blue Hands were in here also. Must escape, must get out of this mind! Then something interesting happened. The next image she saw were of the Blue Hands, but this image brought her joy. It was the Blue Hands, yes, but they were not whole. They were bloodied and broken. Dead. They could die? River felt excitement. This broke her bond with this mind, and she retreated to her own.
But the Blue Hands yet lived? River had to know more. She scanned all three minds for information on the dead Blue Hands, and was rewarded by a loud memory in Rupert's mind. Anger at the Blue Hands dying, not at their loss as individuals, but anger at the expense, and the loss of experience and expertise. Anger at the loss of time. Ah, clones! They could be killed, and they could be reborn, but no matter. They could be killed!
But River couldn't do it. There was some conditioning that she had been exposed to precluded her ability to attack them, she had tried, many times. And failed.
No, she couldn't do it. But someone had. Who? Steeling herself, she once again entered the mind of Josef, he had the strongest memories on the matter. River found what she was looking for, but was confused.
A seal had done this. A seal? A mammal from Earth-That-Was? Despite herself she laughed in her own mind. No silly! Not a pinniped member of the extinct Enaliarctidae family, a man.
The image was clear in Josef's mind, and the image was profound. The girl gasped in her own mind. The man looking back at her through Josef's mind somehow formed an instant bond with her. Why? Curious. Curious and fascinating.
River was tired and was losing the connection, she couldn't find his name, or anything else about him. She memorized his image, best she could, and the girl knew in her soul who she was looking at it. Content, for once and for now, the traumatized girl would use his image as an anchor. If the Blue Hands could be killed by a man, there was hope. Holding on to that shred of hope would get her through this ordeal. How she would be when the ordeal ended, she did not know. Crazy still, probably. That it would end, though, of that she was now certain, and she filed his image in her mind under bao hu zhe. Protector.
He would protect the last vestiges of her sanity, and his image would always be synonymous with the small flame of hope she now carried within.
A/N: A short update. Next Chapter, based on the Firefly pilot was a monster, I have broken it into two still large Chapters. They'll be posted shortly when the second is finished!