A Voice Calling From The Dark... Part 4: ~ WHAT HELPS ~

Later in the afternoon, Kaylee was diligently at work trying to coax the shuttle's computer into giving her the information she needed. This had involved first some creative repairs to the hardware and now she was wading through programming code, trying to get the shuttle's operating system to recognize the altered configuration she'd been forced to impose upon it's hardware and resolve the needed data to into something recognizable by humans. She had to admit, program language wasn't really her strong suit... Although she weren't bad at it or anything. Especially considering she'd had to figure it all out on her own, no one teaching her anything.

River had been sitting on the bed, halfheartedly playing some kind of, from the looks of it, completely original game with herself with Inara's deck of playing cards. Kaylee'd caught her gazing her way more than once though, and they'd talked off and on while she'd worked, River seeming to sense when she needed the quiet to concentrate.

As things stood though, she was starting to get a mite frustrated with this moody and obstinate computer system she was trying to work with. "You're just bound and determined not to make this easy for me, aren't you?" She spoke ruefully to the shuttle. Admittedly, she wasn't getting along with Inara's shuttle as well as she might have liked. Not like she had with her momma anyway (meaning Serenity).

River came padding over to her then and sat down. "Can I help?" She asked curiously.

"Um, well, maybe. You wouldn't happen to know anything about programming languages by any chance, all that schooling you had?" Kaylee asked hopefully. River was supposed to be a genius and then some, after all. She hadn't thought to ask her, but now she was hoping River actually could help, because at this rate she was afraid she'd be at it all night. Wasn't even sure she'd be able to swing it at all, really. Nothing seemed to be clicking like it usually would for her. A fact she was actually feeling kinda embarrassed about, to be honest. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that her mind kept seeming to drift back to thoughts of River whenever it got the chance? Lately it seemed like that was all she really thought about. Only trouble was, right now, that wasn't very useful at all... well, except at making her smile all blissful and goofy to herself, she supposed.

"I can speak many languages. Should I make an attempt?" She questioned.

"Be my guest." Kaylee agreed. "About time I took a break anyway, I'm thinking. Way things were going, I'm afraid I might have been like to say something unkind before long. And that never helps anything, now does it?"

"If you told someone they were being stupid when they were going to kill themself and they decided not to, that would be helpful... probably anyway." River observed distractedly as she sat down and started scrolling through lines of code.

Kaylee laughed. "Thought you said you hated logic." She replied playfully as she went to get a glass of water.

"Only when it's convenient to. I can be very fickle." River replied. "That might be a character flaw, I suppose." She pondered, still going through the code while she spoke, making the occasional change here or there.

Kaylee smiled. "If it is, I've probably got the same one." She admitted as she poured the water into a glass for herself.

"It is fairly commonplace, I agree." River replied.

Kaylee took a few drinks of water and then came back over by River, sat down behind her, wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's waist, and rested her chin on River's shoulder, leaning her head against River's a little. "Having any luck?" She asked, enjoying being close to her again.

"Luck and I are old friends by now, I think. She appears to like me, even if a lot of other people don't seem to much." River observed.

"What other people? ...The government? The Alliance?" Kaylee ventured.

"They didn't like who I was, so they tried to make me into someone else... You have to dislike a person a very lot to go to those kind of lengths, don't you think?" River observed, her concentration still mostly focused on her work.

"...Yeah, I guess there would be some kinda truth to that, wouldn't there...?" She replied softly. She'd thought a lot about what had been done to River, as little as she really knew on the subject. What little she did know made her shiver just thinking about it sometimes. Still, she wished she could somehow take all that hurt away for her. Do something that really helped this woman she'd come to fall so in love with... River'd said before that she'd saved her, but the truth was, she'd done precious little as far as she could see. She couldn't even manage to properly fix the shuttle, could she? No, her girlfriend was doing that too. It didn't seem fair on River, her being so useless sometimes like she seemed to be. She'd never thought of herself like that before, because she'd always been useful growing up on her family's fam on Isis, and, when she'd joined the Serenity, she'd always been the one to keep her crew in the sky too. She tried to push those thoughts away though. "You're definitely my favorite person in all creation though, if it helps." She told River with all sincerely.

"...It's impossible to calculate how much that helps." River answered very softly. "...I think I've solved it. But you need to move a wire somewhere... I'm not sure which one."

Kaylee moved out from behind River, who moved back a little so she could get in and see what she'd done. Kaylee scanned the code for a few long minutes, River hugging her silently from behind like Kaylee had been doing just before... which did seem to help her focus better, actually. "Oh! I see it!" Kaylee twisted around and kissed River briefly. "You're brilliant, you know that?" She praised happily, getting up to go retrieve the tool she'd need then hurrying back to open the cover plate again and make the modification River's code rewrites needed. It only took but a minute, and, sure enough, once she had, she reinitialized it and the operating system resolved itself like it was supposed to.

A few commands, and there it was: Rough flight path information, and the topography photos Serenity had taken before breaking atmo and transferred automatically to the shuttle's memory core. A few more quick commands, and they had a course plotted to Inara. "Shiny." Kaylee said happily as she gazed at the results... the res wasn't as good as some fancier spaceships might give you, but it was more than good enough in Kaylee's opinion. "We're on our way." She turned and hugged River happily. "You're so very awesome." She told her.

River was quiet though, and when Kaylee sat back, River just had a shy sort of confused smile on her face. But she looked doubtful too.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Kaylee asked, touching River's cheek with concern.

River shook her head just a little and closed her eyes a moment, then opened them and looked back up into Kaylee's eyes. "It's too fast sometimes. I feel like I might float away." She confessed, moving forward and kissing Kaylee with something almost like reverence.

Kaylee felt sort of lightheaded then too, but in a very nice way... She felt herself relax automatically and kiss River back. She loved this so much, kissing River. It never seemed like she could get enough...

The kissing ended after a while though, and River pulled away just a little with a soft, sweet smile. "You're so very awesome." She spoke, still a little shyly, but her eyes were clear and really here now. Kaylee could tell she was feeling a lot better.

"That's what I said." Kaylee replied.

"Echo." River replied. "Can we take off our clothes, go to bed, and have more orgasms together now?" She asked hopefully.

Kaylee grinned. "You're such a randy girlfriend sometimes. Lucky me..." She replied, taking River's hand in hers and getting up, River getting up with her.

She led River back over to the bed and sat down with her, the both of them starting to remove the other's clothing without saying a word. Pretty soon, River had just taken off Kaylee's underwear and she was laying under her looking up into River's eyes. They kissed and she rolled River over to look down at her, her heart beating fast. "It's our last day with a bed for a while, you know?" She reminded her.

"We should make the most of it, then..." River replied, her eyes eager and wanting.

Kaylee kissed her and that was pretty much it, they were lost in each other all over again...

It was morning now, and River and Kaylee were just finishing up getting packed for the long journey ahead. They had no way of taking the map they'd gotten from the shuttle with them, so they both tried to commit it to memory. Kaylee was sure River probably had it down better than she did, but that was to be expected, she supposed, and was in fact a very good thing.

They'd talked to Inara a little in the morning, and Kaylee, as requested, had happily given up all the details about her new romance to Inara, but now Kaylee thought she should call in one last time before they left. She said as much to River and her girlfriend agreeably joined her over on the couch by the window to make the call.

"Inara, you there? It's us." Kaylee commed out.

"Kaylee! Hi, yes, I'm here." Inara's voice came back just a few moments later.

"Well, just thought I'd let you know, we're all packed up and ready to head out over here. Like I said, assuming nothing holds us up too bad, we should be out your way in eight or ten days probably. Twelve at the most, I'd hope." Kaylee replied. "A lot depends on the terrain."

"That's wonderful, Kaylee. Again, I want to thank you both, so much. Before I heard your voice two nights ago, I was starting to think... well, I'm just... I'm very grateful..." Inara told them, emotion clearly evident in her voice.

"We're grateful too." River offered. "That you're alive. It's like... family..."

"Oh, River... No, I'm sure Simon's alright. You just, you have to believe that River. That's all. Sometimes you just have to believe." Inara told her.

"He's very far away." River replied. "There are a lot of people. I think he's gotten himself lost. I just worry sometimes, that's all. I'm his sister, so I basically have no other choice..." She finished softly.

"We're all lost sometimes." Inara said back in understanding.

Kaylee, for her part, wasn't sure she was quite so hopeful, but she didn't want to say so. Putting negative ideas out into the universe had never seemed a helpful notion to her. "Well, we better be heading out. Sooner we leave, sooner we get there." She offered.

"I'll be here. Just, be careful you two. Take care of each other." Inara cautioned.

"We will, don't you worry." Kaylee replied, and disconnected the comm channel, turning to meet River's eyes.

River smiled, and kissed her briefly, then got up and offered Kaylee her hand. "Gai zouliao?" She asked.

"Gai zouliao." Kaylee replied, caressing River's cheek and hair a little, then taking her hand and walking with her back to where they had their gear piled up outside the shuttle.

They'd lock up the shuttle and walk off into the woods.

"Go forward, never looking back, for the devils of your past may chase you if you ever dare meet their eyes." River said softly, looking at the shuttle.

"Who said that?" Kaylee asked.

River thought. "I can't seem to recall..." She admitted, fastening her pack around her waist and reaching out to take Kaylee's hand so they could begin their walk. "In any case, it might not even be true." She told her.

Kaylee thought about that a moment, and decided it was probably good advice, anyway.

Chinese translations:

"Gai zouliao?" = "Time to go?"

"Gai zouliao." = "Time to go."

(please note: I'm only getting my Chinese from Google Translate, so I can't guarantee it's accurate at all)

to be continued

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