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flybywash"In a blackout zone?" he'd said when he first heard the details.
And, "Captain, is there any way I can respectfully tell you that you're out of your mind?!"
Mal had smiled, grim, his mouth taut at the corners. "You get us in and out fast enough so's I don't have a reason to be." He looked Wash straight in the eye. "You think you can do that?"
"Yeah, of course, but -- Mal, this whole you-being-out-of-your-mind thing. Can I bring that up again?"
Money was money, he'd said. And this, even Wash had to admit, was a lot of it. They pulled it right, Serenity'd be in the air for at least a month, no trouble. "And besides," and the tautness relaxed into something wicked and feral, "sneakin' a whole ship into a blackout zone right under their noses is liable to make the Alliance look all manner of stupid. Challenge for us. Adds spice."
"Sir," Zoe pointed out, "the last time we added spice, you ended up with a knife in your collarbone."
"Yeah, but this'll be different."
"How, exactly?"
A beat. "....'Cause it will."
That, Wash realised as he exchanged long-suffering looks with his wife, should have been his first tip-off.
=====
He spent the first hour poring over the device Harper had given him, noting the last of the calculations onto a datapad and breaking them down into something Serenity could understand. Any distraction he could get, he would take; the ship may have been shrouded by comm static, and Zoe by the deepening shadows, but it still gnawed at him all the same. Four years, nearly five now, and it never quite let up.
After scrawling one final equation, Wash swiveled his chair toward the keyboard and began tapping in the results. For a while, the bridge was silent, save the clicking keys and vague murmurs drifting through the half-open door.
=====
"...It's just that I could have sworn we were almost out of basil." Shepherd Book frowned at the small glass jar in his hand. "And now the jar's nearly half full."
"Maybe someone picked up some extra herbs last time we restocked," offered Inara, putting down her tea and seating herself at the table. Simon glanced at her, and then quickly away, and made a mental note to ask her about that later. Or Wash, possibly. He had no doubt that the bar could provide dried spices on request.
Book gave a shrug, and turned to put the jar back on the spice shelf next to the tea. "Well, all thanks to our anonymous benefactor, then," he smiled.
"Leave gifts in the night," River told the far wall. "Keep the spirits happy for manual labor." A pause. "Fallacious superstition. In the medieval period. Not in accordance with biological data."
Book raised his eyebrows at that, over his own teacup, but said nothing.
"Hey there." Kaylee stepped down into the kitchen, smiling brightly. "What's everybody doin'?"
"We're having tea," Simon answered, lifting his teacup by way of illustration and eyeing it dubiously. "Apparently it's supposed to be soothing."
Inara's tone was amused. "The doctor is not soothed."
"Not especially, no." He sipped tea, and turned the cup about in his hands.
"Aww, Simon, how come?" Kaylee dropped into a seat across the table and gazed at him with cheerful sympathy.
"I just..." Simon made a vague gesture in the general direction of Outside. "I wish we weren't doing this. This job. I mean, a blackout zone? Has the captain -- "
" -- completely lost his mind?" Kaylee and Inara chorused along with him.
"You've been talkin' to Wash," Kaylee added, grinning.
"No, actually, I came up with the same conclusion using entirely independent research." Simon put down the teacup. "Last time I was in a blackout zone..." He shook his head, and trailed off.
River's eyes darted to him, sidelong. "They came," she muttered.
He looked at her in concern. "...Yes, mèimei, they came that time. But..."
River was still staring at him. "They're coming."
The concern deepened. "River... No, River, they're not -- " Mal's voice, in memory: I think she's a Reader. And Eddie Dean's face, as he spoke of people with gifts like River. "...who's coming?"
River shrieked, staggering back from the table and knocking over her chair, her hands flying up to clutch at her hair and face.
"River -- " Simon was out of his seat and beside her, trying to catch her hands, dimly aware of the others rising, of Kaylee's startled gasp. "River, tell us, what -- "
"Can't run," she moaned. "Too many voices in her head, the numbers won't stop, too many ways -- can't see to think through them -- drag down her feet, she can't run -- " She began to shake her head, her face crumpled into abject fear, making her look about ten years old. " -- no, I don't want to go back, I don't -- "
"River, look at me." He put a hand on her cheek, held her face steady until she met his eyes. "Who's coming, River?"
She pulled in on herself, watching her own fingers twist in front of her. "Can't stop them," she whispered sadly. "Everywhere and they're the ones that watch you and they, they keep coming, they always keep..." Simon's eyes were already widening in alarm, even before she hunched her shoulders further and whispered, "Two by two. Hands of blue."
He exchanged glances with the others. No one appeared to find the tea very soothing any more.
=====
"Wash, we're on!"
The shout startled him enough to make Wash jerk his hands away from the keyboard, but an instant later he was striking the last keys and dropping the completed equations into the system. Not paying attention to the computer's indignant squawk, he picked up the internal comm unit: "And we'll be off this rock in two. Job go okay?"
He could hear the smile in Zoe's voice. "Without a hitch."
"Shiny." He reached up to flip three switches over his right shoulder, then fired the engines and spun the yoke around to unlock it. "All right, travelers, hang on, we're going...."
He trailed off with a frown. Experimentally, he gave the yoke another tug. "Huh."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Just...." Wash let go and rippled his fingers along a row of buttons, the crease between his eyebrows deepening when nothing happened. "Got a small problem," he said distantly as he studied one of the screens. "Give me a sec."
He hung up the comm and ducked underneath the console, scrutinising the wires: no visible damage or disconnection. One hand groped for the accelerator and gave it a firm push. No response. Cursing, Wash pounded a fist against the yoke; then he was back in his chair and running through every trick, every diagnostic, every nav bypass he could think of, right down to a reversed version of the prank he'd used to keep the shuttles grounded.
Nothing.
"Come on, work, gorrammit, don't do this to me..."
"Sweetheart, you wanna explain to us just what the hell's goin' on up there?"
He snatched up the comm unit again and said, trying not to sound as worried as he felt, "I don't know, something's going on with the nav -- it ain't responding right, I'm working on it -- "
He could hear Mal shouting over Zoe's shoulder, "Well, tell him to work faster! Ain't like we're lookin' to play tourist!"
"Yes, sir, right away, sir," he shot back, dryly, glancing out the windscreen. "Because you know I -- "
He froze. The comm unit fell away from his mouth.
"Wash?" he heard Zoe's voice demand, tinny and distorted.
Slowly, eyes never leaving the silent, imposing shadow of the Alliance cruiser swooping toward them, Wash raised the unit and said, "Zoe? Baby? You might wanna tell Mal that the problem just got a little bigger."
=====
" -- We'll hide," Simon said, squeezed into a corner of the cockpit while Wash worked frantically. Behind him, in the hallway just outside, River sat curled against the wall, whispering fearfully to no one. "Let us down on the planet. We'll, we'll run and hide somewhere until they've gone."
"No," snapped Mal. "Too close. You wouldn't get ten feet before they saw you."
"And we can't rabbit." Wash slammed a panel shut, biting back a curse. "Āiyā -- Mal, I don't know what the hell's wrong here, but we're dead in the water without the nav."
"No time now anyway," Zoe pointed out. "Too late to outrace 'em."
"Then what do we do?" Simon demanded. "There's nowhere we can hide on this ship, on this planet -- " He broke off, staring at Wash.
Wash's head whipped around. "Tiān cái," he whispered. "Yes. Go."
"We're gone." Simon slipped out the door, crouching before River and gently pulling her to her feet. "River. River, it's time to go through the door. Okay? We have to run. We can hide from them there." He shepherded her down the hallway as fast as possible, still coaxing her quietly; River's free hand lifted, to point vaguely towards the entrance to the kitchen, as she let him pull her into a sprint.
"Down there. Bendy. See. Simon, I don't want to -- Don't let them -- "
Behind them, in the cockpit, Mal turned to stare at his pilot. "Wash, you want to tell me what the hell just happened?"
"It'll work, Mal." Wash watched Simon and River go before turning his attention back to the crippled navigation. "Trust me. I'll explain later."
If Mal noticed the thin threads of uncertainty in his tone, he made no sign of it.
And, "Captain, is there any way I can respectfully tell you that you're out of your mind?!"
Mal had smiled, grim, his mouth taut at the corners. "You get us in and out fast enough so's I don't have a reason to be." He looked Wash straight in the eye. "You think you can do that?"
"Yeah, of course, but -- Mal, this whole you-being-out-of-your-mind thing. Can I bring that up again?"
Money was money, he'd said. And this, even Wash had to admit, was a lot of it. They pulled it right, Serenity'd be in the air for at least a month, no trouble. "And besides," and the tautness relaxed into something wicked and feral, "sneakin' a whole ship into a blackout zone right under their noses is liable to make the Alliance look all manner of stupid. Challenge for us. Adds spice."
"Sir," Zoe pointed out, "the last time we added spice, you ended up with a knife in your collarbone."
"Yeah, but this'll be different."
"How, exactly?"
A beat. "....'Cause it will."
That, Wash realised as he exchanged long-suffering looks with his wife, should have been his first tip-off.
=====
He spent the first hour poring over the device Harper had given him, noting the last of the calculations onto a datapad and breaking them down into something Serenity could understand. Any distraction he could get, he would take; the ship may have been shrouded by comm static, and Zoe by the deepening shadows, but it still gnawed at him all the same. Four years, nearly five now, and it never quite let up.
After scrawling one final equation, Wash swiveled his chair toward the keyboard and began tapping in the results. For a while, the bridge was silent, save the clicking keys and vague murmurs drifting through the half-open door.
=====
"...It's just that I could have sworn we were almost out of basil." Shepherd Book frowned at the small glass jar in his hand. "And now the jar's nearly half full."
"Maybe someone picked up some extra herbs last time we restocked," offered Inara, putting down her tea and seating herself at the table. Simon glanced at her, and then quickly away, and made a mental note to ask her about that later. Or Wash, possibly. He had no doubt that the bar could provide dried spices on request.
Book gave a shrug, and turned to put the jar back on the spice shelf next to the tea. "Well, all thanks to our anonymous benefactor, then," he smiled.
"Leave gifts in the night," River told the far wall. "Keep the spirits happy for manual labor." A pause. "Fallacious superstition. In the medieval period. Not in accordance with biological data."
Book raised his eyebrows at that, over his own teacup, but said nothing.
"Hey there." Kaylee stepped down into the kitchen, smiling brightly. "What's everybody doin'?"
"We're having tea," Simon answered, lifting his teacup by way of illustration and eyeing it dubiously. "Apparently it's supposed to be soothing."
Inara's tone was amused. "The doctor is not soothed."
"Not especially, no." He sipped tea, and turned the cup about in his hands.
"Aww, Simon, how come?" Kaylee dropped into a seat across the table and gazed at him with cheerful sympathy.
"I just..." Simon made a vague gesture in the general direction of Outside. "I wish we weren't doing this. This job. I mean, a blackout zone? Has the captain -- "
" -- completely lost his mind?" Kaylee and Inara chorused along with him.
"You've been talkin' to Wash," Kaylee added, grinning.
"No, actually, I came up with the same conclusion using entirely independent research." Simon put down the teacup. "Last time I was in a blackout zone..." He shook his head, and trailed off.
River's eyes darted to him, sidelong. "They came," she muttered.
He looked at her in concern. "...Yes, mèimei, they came that time. But..."
River was still staring at him. "They're coming."
The concern deepened. "River... No, River, they're not -- " Mal's voice, in memory: I think she's a Reader. And Eddie Dean's face, as he spoke of people with gifts like River. "...who's coming?"
River shrieked, staggering back from the table and knocking over her chair, her hands flying up to clutch at her hair and face.
"River -- " Simon was out of his seat and beside her, trying to catch her hands, dimly aware of the others rising, of Kaylee's startled gasp. "River, tell us, what -- "
"Can't run," she moaned. "Too many voices in her head, the numbers won't stop, too many ways -- can't see to think through them -- drag down her feet, she can't run -- " She began to shake her head, her face crumpled into abject fear, making her look about ten years old. " -- no, I don't want to go back, I don't -- "
"River, look at me." He put a hand on her cheek, held her face steady until she met his eyes. "Who's coming, River?"
She pulled in on herself, watching her own fingers twist in front of her. "Can't stop them," she whispered sadly. "Everywhere and they're the ones that watch you and they, they keep coming, they always keep..." Simon's eyes were already widening in alarm, even before she hunched her shoulders further and whispered, "Two by two. Hands of blue."
He exchanged glances with the others. No one appeared to find the tea very soothing any more.
=====
"Wash, we're on!"
The shout startled him enough to make Wash jerk his hands away from the keyboard, but an instant later he was striking the last keys and dropping the completed equations into the system. Not paying attention to the computer's indignant squawk, he picked up the internal comm unit: "And we'll be off this rock in two. Job go okay?"
He could hear the smile in Zoe's voice. "Without a hitch."
"Shiny." He reached up to flip three switches over his right shoulder, then fired the engines and spun the yoke around to unlock it. "All right, travelers, hang on, we're going...."
He trailed off with a frown. Experimentally, he gave the yoke another tug. "Huh."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Just...." Wash let go and rippled his fingers along a row of buttons, the crease between his eyebrows deepening when nothing happened. "Got a small problem," he said distantly as he studied one of the screens. "Give me a sec."
He hung up the comm and ducked underneath the console, scrutinising the wires: no visible damage or disconnection. One hand groped for the accelerator and gave it a firm push. No response. Cursing, Wash pounded a fist against the yoke; then he was back in his chair and running through every trick, every diagnostic, every nav bypass he could think of, right down to a reversed version of the prank he'd used to keep the shuttles grounded.
Nothing.
"Come on, work, gorrammit, don't do this to me..."
"Sweetheart, you wanna explain to us just what the hell's goin' on up there?"
He snatched up the comm unit again and said, trying not to sound as worried as he felt, "I don't know, something's going on with the nav -- it ain't responding right, I'm working on it -- "
He could hear Mal shouting over Zoe's shoulder, "Well, tell him to work faster! Ain't like we're lookin' to play tourist!"
"Yes, sir, right away, sir," he shot back, dryly, glancing out the windscreen. "Because you know I -- "
He froze. The comm unit fell away from his mouth.
"Wash?" he heard Zoe's voice demand, tinny and distorted.
Slowly, eyes never leaving the silent, imposing shadow of the Alliance cruiser swooping toward them, Wash raised the unit and said, "Zoe? Baby? You might wanna tell Mal that the problem just got a little bigger."
=====
" -- We'll hide," Simon said, squeezed into a corner of the cockpit while Wash worked frantically. Behind him, in the hallway just outside, River sat curled against the wall, whispering fearfully to no one. "Let us down on the planet. We'll, we'll run and hide somewhere until they've gone."
"No," snapped Mal. "Too close. You wouldn't get ten feet before they saw you."
"And we can't rabbit." Wash slammed a panel shut, biting back a curse. "Āiyā -- Mal, I don't know what the hell's wrong here, but we're dead in the water without the nav."
"No time now anyway," Zoe pointed out. "Too late to outrace 'em."
"Then what do we do?" Simon demanded. "There's nowhere we can hide on this ship, on this planet -- " He broke off, staring at Wash.
Wash's head whipped around. "Tiān cái," he whispered. "Yes. Go."
"We're gone." Simon slipped out the door, crouching before River and gently pulling her to her feet. "River. River, it's time to go through the door. Okay? We have to run. We can hide from them there." He shepherded her down the hallway as fast as possible, still coaxing her quietly; River's free hand lifted, to point vaguely towards the entrance to the kitchen, as she let him pull her into a sprint.
"Down there. Bendy. See. Simon, I don't want to -- Don't let them -- "
Behind them, in the cockpit, Mal turned to stare at his pilot. "Wash, you want to tell me what the hell just happened?"
"It'll work, Mal." Wash watched Simon and River go before turning his attention back to the crippled navigation. "Trust me. I'll explain later."
If Mal noticed the thin threads of uncertainty in his tone, he made no sign of it.
