(no subject)

[flybywash]

The waiting's always been the worst.

With the course locked in, and nothing but empty space between them and Illyria for the next two days, Wash has taken all of his dinosaurs and arranged them in careful formation on the controls. Velociraptor seems like a good choice for Roland. Jayne's more of a T-rex. Mal, though, and the other gunslingers...hm.

(Wash himself is currently being played by a pterodactyl. It's all the way over on the radar, far from the rest of the dinos.)

Chin propped in his hand, he absently nudges a few more of the models around.

Comments

[aj_crawley]

The intercom crackles gently.




Or maybe it was Wash's imagination. Generally get a lot of interference 'round these parts anyway, right?

Wait... there it is again.

" --ity, this is --   short-range   -- copy?"

[flybywash]

Wash stops, midway between moving T-rex!Jayne directly into the path of a bunch of heavily fortified carnivores, and blinks at the comm.

After a second, he shrugs and goes back to work.

-- at least, until the comm crackles again, and this time with a definite voice buried underneath all that static. Wash jumps a little and unhooks the unit.

"This is Firefly Serenity," he speaks into it as he tries to adjust the frequency. It's a little hard with the toys everywhere. "Somebody out there? We did not copy your whole message, repeat, we did not copy."

He shoves aside a few more dinosaurs.

[aj_crawley]

Silence. Or, well, more static, anyway.

Until, growing gradually louder, the sound of someone cursing at their comm system.

" -- piece of crap, yī dà tuó dàbiàn, all the credits in the galaxy and still won't fucking -- "

A sudden pause.

"Firefly class Serenity, this is Bentley short-range Boukephalos, do you copy?"

[badinlatin]

Being the Captain of perfect timing, Mal was heading up to the bridge, and arrives in time to hear the tail end of the transmission.

"Boukephalos. Odd name for a ship. Put 'er up."

Mal stands behind Wash as he moves over the controls.

"I know I heard that name somewhere..."

[flybywash]

"So've I...."

Frowning now, though more in thought than anything else, Wash transfers a triceratops onto a less-used part of the console and clicks on the comm again. "Yeah, we copy, Boukephalos," he says. "You in range for vid?"

[aj_crawley]

"Coming into now, Serenity, if you'll just bear with me..."

A few moments' silence, broken by the buzz and click of the comm, and then a short beeping that heralds the flickering into life of Serenity's vid screen.

"Hi, guys."

[flybywash]

Wash stares.

It's not a face he's seen as often as some members of the crew. And it's changed a bit since the last time he did see it.

Golden snake-slitted eyes are a pretty damn unmistakable feature, though.




"...Crowley?"

[aj_crawley]

An awkward silence, during which a number of expressions - mostly unreadable - flicker across Crowley's face. Eventually, though, comes a slightly weak reply.

"Er... surprise?"

[badinlatin]

"Crowley," Mal repeats. [Why is it always me?]

"What are you doin' in my 'verse? With a spaceship?"

Color Mal confused.

[aj_crawley]

"Well, Captain Reynolds," he says, adjusting the comm frequency slightly, "that's the thing. 'S my 'verse, too. And the 'verse of the Crowley you met at the end of the universe. Which was me. Only five hundred-odd years younger, and from the twenty-first century."

A pause.

"It makes sense on paper, trust me."

[badinlatin]

"If you say so, Crowley." Mal goes to prep a docking bay for Crowley's boat, but:

"Well, I'd invite you on over here, Crowley, but seems we're full up. Got nowhere for you to dock."

[aj_crawley]

"You slow yourselves down a bit, I can pull up 'longside, come over in a suit. I've a second here with me, young Ezra - " a gangling young man with black-and-blue hair leans into view on the screen, waving slightly " - who can take Boukephalos back planet-side."

[flybywash]

Dumbly, Wash raises a hand and gives a small half-wave in return. It's followed by a glance upward at Mal, who nods his assent.

"Oh...kay," he says, still sounding faintly incredulous at this turn of events. "Shiny. Uh -- " he reaches to turn the overhead switches -- "I'm gonna send you over to the aft airlock, it's just before the engine, you can't miss it."

With his other hand, he drops the thruster power by a few percentage points. Serenity begins to slow.

[aj_crawley]

"Copy that, Wash - I see it." Just before shutting off the vid transmission, Crowley grins up at them again. "See you in a few minutes."