Jet Sex/ The Beginning is the End is the Beginning
I am so sorry that I have not posted in so long. For those of you who have favorite and reviewed recently, thank you. A lot is going on in my life so it makes things a little difficult for me right now. On another note, if anyone would like to Beta this story for me I would greatly appreciate it, as I seem to have lost my old one. This chapter is not beta so please don't hold spelling or grammar against me. Again I own nothing and this is all for fun. Enjoy!
…Sometime later…
XXX
"I don't understand why we didn't leave that sumbitch in a pool of his own blood." The tall man says.
"We'd be dead. Can't get paid if you're dead." One of his companions replies.
"Can't get paid if you crawl away like a bitty little bug, neither. We gotta share this job. Ten percent of nothing is…let me do the math here…nothing into nothing, carry the…"
Tired of the big man's complaining the woman walking with the two men interjects. "So we'll find a buyer on Boros. There's gotta be a…"
"Boros is too big. It's crawling with Alliance, they could just be waiting for us." The other man says.
"You really think Badger'll sell us out to the Feds?" She asks.
"If he hasn't already."
XXX
…Meanwhile…
River's POV
"So where do you think we should continue our little game?" Riddick asks as they continue walking down the street.
"Boros or Beaumonde." She replies without glancing back to him.
"Not Core?"
"Negative. Start from the edge and work our way in. It will be easier to pick off the border planets first. It will also send…"
But before she can continue Riddick is pulling her into the nearest alley by her forearm and slamming her behind some crates.
"What the gorram hell…" She begins to say before he clamps a hand over her mouth.
"Shut it!" He says into her ear at a whisper. After a minute he releases his hand and brings her to the edge of the crates and points across the street to see for herself. There for all to see on the holographic billboard is her face…on a warrant.
"Gao yang jong duh goo yang," she says with disbelief.
"That is the last time you wear a dress like that again." He says smugly while tightening his grip on her arm.
Seven hundred fifty thousand credits for her capture. This was problematic and not acceptable. She had traced all lines of thought last night and not one had recognized her, all her calculations had been precise and accurate. But there it was, the shiny proof that she had screwed up.
But what made her more irritated was that she knew that Orpheus would not let her live it down. And that was the truly unacceptable part.
XXX
Riddick's POV
"You fucked up last night sweetheart."
"The girl sees this Richard. Verbally acknowledging the fact will not change the present situation. So please keep comments such as those to your own gorram self." She spat out.
I can't help but smirk at her. Girl's cute when she's annoyed. Her scent screams of hostility, and my smirk deepens to a feral grin. If we weren't as humped as we were right now I would take her right now just because she is so intoxicating.
"We need a plan." I whisper in her ear.
XXX
River's POV
"The girl is trying to navigate the map of the problematic." She says as she shakes her arm out of his grasp, the outlines of my fingers already beginning to form on her arm. She begins to look at the crates they are standing in back off.
"Interesting." She says as she begins to move crates around.
"Care to share with the rest of the class?"
"Cryo-crates." She says as she opens the lid off one of the smaller ones.
"Which helps us how?" He says darkly.
"You can smuggle the girl on board a ship and get us off this planet. Hermes will secure passage under false pretenses and we can depart without anyone the wiser."
"You sure it's a good idea for you to be in cryo that long?"
"This provides optimal results."
"I'm going to have to lug this crate back to the hotel, ain't I?" He asks with annoyance.
"Oh don't complain, it's lighter than the fuel cells you had to drag through the desert."
He grits his teeth and oozes more agitation.
"Get your ass in there then." He says as he moves to help her inside.
XXX
When Riddick enters the hotel room a little later carrying a duffle and a cryo-crate, Book is a little surprised.
"Should I even ask?" Book asks glancing up from his reading.
"Girl got ID'ed after our little con last night. We're leaving..now." Riddick says as he sets the box down.
"I take it that you two have a plan?"
"Yes, now get your stuff together preacher you and your 'Missionary' are off this rock in one hour."
"And I take it we are smuggling River off in the cyro-box you just brought in."
As if on cue River pops up from the crate in question. "Affirmative." She says.
"We need you to find us a boat off this rock, so hurry the hell up." Riddick says as he begins throwing everything they bought earlier into duffle bags.
XXX
He didn't think it would be too hard to secure passage on a disreputable looking vessel with the amount of credits they had secured last night. There were plenty of dishonest looking people milling around the Eavesdown Docks as he walked through, regarding each ship as he passed.
Several men had tried to tempt him to board their ships, promising to be the best around, but he just passed them by. His training was guiding him; he was looking for something specific. That's when he sees it, shining like a beacon, a Firefly.
A voice draws him back to the present. "You're gonna come with us."
"Excuse me?" Book says looking at the girl in front of him sitting in front of the ship and twirling a parasol.
"You like ships. You don't seem to be looking at the destinations. What you care about is the ships, and mine's the nicest." She says with a wide smile while pointing at the ship behind her.
Now he seriously stops and gives the ship a look-over. "She don't look like much."
The girl moves to stand in front of him and continue her pitch. "Well, she'll fool ya'. You ever sail in a Firefly?"
He cannot help but chuckle at this. "Long before you were crawling… Not an aught three, though. Didn't have the extenders, tended to shake."
She smile more brightly now. "So, uh, how come you don't care where you're going?"
He knows her question is meant to be innocent, but he cannot help but stiffen slightly. She doesn't seem to notice though. "Cause how you get there is the worthier part."
"Are you a missionary?" She asks.
He cannot help but smile at how far from the truth her assessment is. "I guess you could say that... I'm a Shepherd, from the Southdown Abbey. Book, I'm called Book. I've been out of the world for a spell. Like to walk it a while, maybe bring the word to them as need it told."
"Well, I'm Kaylee. This is Serenity, and she's the smoothest ride from here to Boros for anyone who can pay." She pauses at this and he can see the worry on her face. "Can you pay, or…?"
"Well, I've got some cash. It would be for me and my apprentice."
"Oh? I just saw you walking by yourself." Kaylee says.
"He's bringing the heavier luggage, he will be here shortly."
XXX
However, what Book didn't realize he was being watched as he shook Kaylee's hand and departed to tell Riddick he had found them passage off Persephone. The man approached the young woman after Book had disappeared into the crowd once more.
"Excuse me, miss?" He asked.
"Yes?" She said looking up from her seated position, somewhat startled.
"I would like to book passage with this ship if possible."
The girl in front of him brightened at this. "Absolutely! It would be our pleasure. I'm Kaylee, this is Serenity, and you are?" She says as she moves to shake his hand.
"Dobson, Lawerence Dobson."
XXX
Riddick's POV
I watched as the cryo-box was loaded into the cargo bay of the ship. Why the preacher thought this would be a good mode of transportation was beyond me. Looked like a hunk a metal being held together with tape.
There was a loud bang and the cryo-box was dropped unceremoniously onto the floor of the cargo bay.
"Careful with that!" I bark out. The man unloading the box is clearly frightened of me, even with the baggy robes the preacher loaned me I still look…intimidating. The large cowl covers my head and most of my face, and robe drops down to skim the top of my boots. I can't help but think of the grim reaper, and I stifle a laugh.
That's when I hear footsteps behind me and turn to see three people approaching the bay. Tai kong suo you de xing qiu sai jin wo de pi gu! The hundun from earlier is one of the men approaching! Of all the crappy little boats the preacher could have picked and he picked one that has someone who could trace me back to the girl. This is going to be a problem.
That's when the annoyingly sunny girl from earlier chirps up.
"Mal, this is Richard. Richard, this is our captain."
The hundun and the tall woman walk past me after sending a few glances my direction. Nice to know the hundun is at least a moron if he can't recognize me with this shitty robe on. I now turn my attention to the man who stops before me and regard him. Tall, muscular, rough around the edges, and the trench coat he's wearing is a dead giveaway…a browncoat.
"Captain Reynolds."
He looks me up and down. There is a hint of indignation in his body language, and he smells of his own self righteousness. Oh this is going to tons of fun, five seconds after meeting him and I already want to shiv him. "Welcome aboard." He says and then turns to the girl. "This all we got?"
"Yup." She says and then scurries off into the cargo bay. He turns and follows her and I glance out one last time before walking in myself.
XXX
They stood watching the scene bellow them. The disdain was dripping from the first mates aura.
"Now we have a boatful of citizens right on top of our... stolen cargo…. That's a fun mix."
He simply rolled his eyes. "Ain't no way in the 'verse they could find that compartment Zoe, even…" he pauses to regard the three people bellow. "Even if they were lookin' for it."
"Why not?"
He's thrown by the question. "'Cause... ?"
"Oh yeah, this is gonna go great. Real great Mal."
He turns and begins to walk away. "If anyone gets nosy, just, you know... shoot 'em."
This throws Zoe "Shoot 'em, sir?"
He simply shrugs. "Politely."
He thinks of the situation at hand and doesn't see how it could get any worse. He stomps up the stairs and pokes his head into the bridge. "Any word from the ambassador yet Wash?"
The pilot, Wash, turns away from the plastic dinosaurs he was previously playing with to answer. "Not as of yet."
"Great, just great. I just want to get the hell of this gorram rock and she's holdin' us up." He then stomps out of the bridge.
Wash says as he turns back to his dinosaurs. Ironically, that's when the light for the shuttle communicator came on.
"Inara. You're just in time."
A small chuckle could be heard from the communicator. "Let me guess. We're in a hurry."
Wash began prepping Serenity for takeoff, sees a signal, flips a switch. "Looks like. Port hatch green for docking."
"Locked in five…four...three…"
When he see the docking light go green he turns, and calls back towards the common area. "The Ambassador has returned!"
XXX
…Reality Shifts…
Here is the time for us to know
a secret sky for us to go,
you've never been before, oh no.
She's standing in the middle of a battlefield. Soldiers are yelling and running, gunfire everywhere, stuff blowing up all around her, yet she is untouched.
A jumbo jet, just you and me,
no parachute, it's pilot free.
Then she sees him, sees him running dodging, and banking back and forth. He hits the dirt for cover. His face is dirty and he's breathing hard. After a moment, he's up and running to rejoin his company in a makeshift foxhole.
I guess it's time to go, oh no.
She blinks and then she is behind the foxhole, looking at the man's face she just saw running for cover. He's tired, barely running on empty, and on the verge of breaking to a million pieces.
"Sergeant, Command says air support is holding till they can assess our status." Says a young radio operator from behind her shoulder.
He takes a breath to steady himself and answers. "Our status is that we need some gorram air support. Now get back on line and tell 'em to get in here."
Don't be shy, say goodbye,
let's find out if heaven is a lie.
A dark skinned warrior woman calls to him from the other side of the foxhole. "That skiff is shredding us, sir."
The younger man's voice calls out again. "They won't move without a lieutenant's authorization code, sir."
Angry, the man before her walks over and rips off the badge from a dead Lieutenant's uniform and gives it to the radio operator.
Never let me go.
I'll never let you fall.
…Reality Shifts…
Above the clouds, above them all,
we draw the lines with smoke and coke.
But then you want some more.
"We're not gonna die. We can't die, Bendis. You know why?...Because we are so very pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die. Huh? Look at that chiseled jaw. Huh? C'mon."
She feels a tear slide down her cheek, she knows it isn't her reality, knows it isn't her memory but it breaks her heart anyways. She hears the roaring sound overhead. She knows what's coming.
Sex turbulences, seats D and B,
we drop our love bomb full of c.
Then we watch them fall, never.
"If you won't listen to me, listen to that. Those are our angels coming to blow the Alliance to the hot place." He turns to the warrior woman, "Zoe, tell the 82nd…"
The more we fly, the more we climb,
the more we know that heaven is a lie.
She watches as the woman can barely form the words. "They're not coming…Command says it's too hot. They're pulling out. We're to lay down arms."
Never let me go.
I'll never let you fall.
She watches as Malcolm Reynolds stands stunned, in denial, and breaks into a millions little pieces.
…Reality Shift's Again…
XXX
Riddick's POV
I cannot gorram believe I have to stand here and listen to this shit. All I want to do is throw one of the many concealed shiv I have into his jugular. I swear the man just likes to hear himself give orders.
"Meals are taken up here in the dining area, the kitchen is pretty much self-explanatory, you're welcome to eat what there is any time, what there is is pretty standard fare, I guess, protein in all the colors of the rainbow. We do have sit-down meals, the next one being at about 1800."
The annoying girl, Kaylee, speaks up at this. "I think Shepherd Book has offered to help me prepare something." She says with a smile.
This does not please the captain one bit, and I cannot help but smile at his dislike of the idea of a preacher on his boat.
"You're a Shepherd?" Not hiding his disdain in the slightest.
"Thought the outfit and the apprentice gave it away... Is it a problem?"
Kaylee speaks up again. "Of course not! It's no problem, 'cause it's not."
"No." The captain bites his tongue. I know he wants to say yes it's a gorram problem but he won't, not to a paying customer.
He continues on with his rambling talk from before he was interrupted. "As I said, you're welcome to visit the dining area any time. Apart from that, I have to ask you to stay in the passenger dorm while we're in the air. The bridge, the engine room, cargo bay - they're all off limits without an escort."
Now this is a problem. River's cryo is going to need to be reset if she's going to ride the entire way to Boros in that box. "Some of my personal effects are in the cargo bay."
He turns to me at this. "I figure you all got luggage you're gonna need to get into. Soon as we're done here we'll be happy to fetch 'em with you." As I turn to walk towards the cargo bay I hear him clear his throat to continue and turn back towards him.
"Now I have to tell you all one other thing and I apologize in advance for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, we've been ordered by the Alliance to drop some medical supplies off on Whitefall. It's the fourth moon on Athens, a little out of our way, but we should have you on Boros no more than a day off schedule."
Medical supplies my ass. Man reeks of smuggler if I ever saw one. "What medical supplies?" Book asks inquisitively. I know he realizes it's a lie like I do.
"I honestly didn't ask." The captain replies.
The first mate Zoe, steps in to cover his apparent lie. "Probably plasma, insulin, whatever they ain't got enough of on the border moons."
"Alliance says jump..." Mal starts. Man this guy is getting on my gorram nerves.
"All right." I say a little too gruffly. He glares at me a little too long and I am really beginning to get annoyed with this man.
"Zoe, you wanna take 'em to the cargo bay?" He says.
"Yes, Sir." She says and begins to walk away.
"Anything else you need, just... ask. We, uh, we're here to serve." And with that he and the pilot, Wash turn around and walk toward the other door leading to the bridge.
With that I turn and follow Book, Dobson, and Zoe into the cargo hold. I don't make a move towards the cryo-box knowing it would be too risky to reset the box with all these people around. As I move away from the duffle bags near the cryo-box Dobson bumps into me.
"Oops! I'm sorry." He says and scurries by while glancing at the box. That man is just a might to curious about the box for my liking.
I hear a shuttle door open and look up to see a woman descending the stairs. She's wearing some fancy dress and her hair is up out of her face. The way she moves, deliberate, yet as if she's floating, she's a dead giveaway for a companion. Well this motley crew is just getting more interesting.
"Hello, Mal. I see we have some new faces." She says as she walks towards the captain, Kaylee, and the Shepherd.
"Hey you." Kaylee says warmly.
"Hey you." She replies with warmth that is unusual for a companion, or at least the ones I have known.
"Ambassador, this is Shepherd Book." Mal says.
"I'd have to say this is the first time we've had a preacher on board." She says with surprise.
"Well, I wasn't expecting to see a state official, either." He says with slight hesitation as he takes her hand and bows slightly.
All I can think is the old man must be slipping if he can't see her for what she really is. The captain laughs at the preacher's mistake.
"I'm missing something funny?" Book asks in response to the captain's laugh.
"Ambassador" is Mal's way of…" The woman begins but the captain cuts her off.
"She's a whore, Shepherd." And the preacher is clearly thrown I cannot help but chuckle a little.
Kaylee feels the need to jump in at this. "The term is Companion."
"Yeah, I always get those mixed up." He says to her and then turns back towards the woman in question. "How's business?"
"None of yours." She quickly responds.
…Sometime later…
We are all seated at the dining table, trying to enjoy the protein glue that Kaylee and Book have thrown together. I grit my teeth as I look at it. First thing I do when I get off this hunk of junk is going to be to get some real food.
"Captain, you mind if I say grace?" Book asks in seriousness. I almost laugh at the sheer idea of the captain allowing it.
Predictably he responds how I would imagine he would. "Only if you say it out loud." He starts eating without waiting. If it wasn't part of my gorram cover I would do the same, but I don't and lower my head. Book lowers his head a moment, as do Kaylee, Dobson, and Jayne, and then they eat as well.
But the preacher just doesn't know when to stop. "So, does it happen a lot? Government commandeering your ship, telling you where to go?"
"That's what governments are for… get in a man's way."
Dobson feels the need to inject his two cents here. "Well, it's good, if the supplies are needed." Something about this man just bothers me. And it's making me itch to not stick my fork into his eye socket.
The tall man pipes in now. "We're just happy to be doing good works." That's utter bullshit. Man's a hired merc if ever I saw one. I'm truly amazed that the ape man hasn't figured that out yet. But I guess a merc would be missing the necessary brain cells to do that.
"I hear a lot of the border moons are in bad shape. Plagues, and famine..."
"Well, some of that's exaggerated, and some of it ain't. All those moons… just like the central planets, they're as close to Earth-That-Was as we could make 'em: gravity, atmosphere, and such, but... "
"Once they're terraformed, they'll dump settlers on there with nothing but blankets, hatchets, maybe a herd. Some of them make it, some of them..."
"Then I guess it's good we're helping." I say to end the discussion. No one seems to want to continue it after that.
XXX
…Awhile later…
Mal's just about to strip his shirt off to go to sleep when Wash's voice comes in shakey over the com..
" Mal, you might wanna get up here..."
He knows that voice, that oh god we're all gonna die voice and he's up the ladder in a flash and pacing quickly to the bridge. He sees Wash studying a screen when he walks in.
"What is it?"
He turns and looks at the captain, worry etched on his face. "Signal. Somebody went on the Cortex, hailed the nearest Alliance Cruiser."
"Tell me you scrambled it." Mal says with irritation.
"All to hell, but I don't know how much got through. Alliance got a pin in us for sure."
"Ni ta ma de. Tianxia suoyoude ren. Dou gaisi."
Wash's face is even more ashen than before. "We got a mole on board."
XXX
…Reality Shifts…
She feels it coming, feels the hands drawing close…Two by two… And she's being sucked back towards them. She fights the pull but they invade her mind. It fragments and implodes, making her memories jumble together…
Send a heartbeat to the void that cries through you
Relive the pictures that have come to pass
…She strapped to the metal table, needles digging into her arms, her legs, her head. They're stimulating the different parts of her body with electrical impulses…Triggering memories, thoughts, muscle memory…anything they can get their greedy hands on….
For now we stand alone
The world is lost and blown
And we are flesh and blood disintegrate
With no more to hate
…Now she's in the training room, gunshots being fired at her from automated turrets and all she can do is to run, jump, and try to fly to the other side. An explosion in front of her blinds her…
Is it bright where you are?
And have the people changed?
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
…A bright light shines above her and she hears the voices…"How is the subject performing to the stimuli?" A disembodied voice asks.
"Favorably." The man in front of her eyes replies. And that's when the mask is put on her face and she loses conscientiousness….
Delivered from the blast
The last of a line of lasts
The pale princess of a palace cracked
…Curled into a ball on the bed, she screams and cries herself to sleep. They've done it, they have finally broken her. All the memories flood into her head, hers, theirs, and the ones they put in there. But they don't realize what they have truly done. What their minds scream out at her, but she knows…knows their secrets….the horrors….
And now the kingdom comes
Crashing down undone
And I am a master of a nothing place
Of recoil and grace
…She steels herself against the onslaught, she knows…
The echo bounces off me
The shadow lost beside me
There's no more need to pretend
Because now I can begin again
…She hears the explosions, feels the heat of the blast behind her…
And in your darkest hour, I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in its pain
Strange
XXX
Exciting =) Hope this update made you all happy. I promise the next update will be posted a lot sooner than this one.