*pets the patient horde*
Sep. 6th, 2005 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jebbypalHeh...I'm surprised a protest hasn't been started on the lack of meta-crack. :) Guess we're all in too much shock as well as withdrawal.
Annnnnyways, I'm sure any day now the placards will show up again demanding progress on Twin Regrets. My muse has started batting ideas back to the hamsters of my brain and they've been going over it. Basically they are both waiting for me to get my act together and figure out that I need to start setting aside twenty minutes a day to write or something like that. ;) I'm getting there.
But....I know how patient you've been. I know how painful the wait has been....but I don't want to spoil anything by giving your a sneak peek at what's to come (especially since my muse daily has been considering tossing characters in and out of conversations. I keep waiting for Mal to end up dressed in Inara's clothing or somemthing).
Instead....I'llpunish reward you with what I initially wrote when I started toying with the idea of a Farscape/Firefly crossover. It's rough...It's un-beta-ed...and it probably should never see the light of day. But for the horde, well, here you go:) Oh.....and you'll obviously see some imagery that my muse insisted I keep. I told you, froggy is an angst addict!
Ummm...reference wise, season3-ish (jool has joined the crew. Also post-Eat me. But not AU.) at least for farscape. end of series for firefly.
Ch1: Big Blue
River whimpered as the smoother that Simon gave her took effect. She knew why he'd done it, understood that he felt she needed the rest. She hated that she could so rarely manage to make him understand.
She'd managed to stay awake and avoid her brother for a whole four days after the latest nightmare came. Awake didn't ablate its memory entirely, but it kept it away from the present. Occasionally she ventured out to tell the Captain and Wash that they needed to leave this place soon. They hadn't understood. In the end, Mal grabbed and held her captive until her brother arrived with the promise of what she feared.
The chemicals slowly forced her brain to slow, her eyes to close, and unconsciousness to take her hostage once more. Even in sleep, she struggled in vain to keep her synapses from betraying her into the clutches of REM sleep.
Blue eyes framed in a pale, leathery face peered back at her. She couldn't move, couldn't escape the gaze of the figure in black before her. Panic was only kept at bay by the complete lack of blue anywhere…at least until the room started spinning and overly familiar pain began to seer her brain…A blue whirlpool appeared before her and she knew this was the end of the universe.
John hated his dreams. He avoided sleep as much as possible, but human physiology forced him to give in far too often. Sadly, a pantak jab never quite satisfied his brain's needs.
He attempted to calm down as he got comfortable on what passed for a bed on Moya. The curves of the ship's "furniture" never quite seemed to fit him comfortably no matter how much padding he added. Lately he'd been having some luck using meditation to attempt to focus him mind and steer his dreams. There was a term for what he was doing, but he couldn't recall it exactly. It didn't matter, as long as it enabled him to wake up when certain aliens insisted on turning his sweeter dreams into a nightmare.
Slowly, his eyes closed despite his best efforts…
This time the room was different - the chair was bolted to the floor. Slick hands forced him to sit, locked him in, and placed a band around his forehead. He looked around desperately for what he knew he would find, but Scorpius was nowhere to be seen. Instead a tall, pale man in a black suit and tie watched from the edge of the circle of light. John struggled to squint past the brightness, to see what was happening, but his efforts were cut off when he felt the searing pain of multiple needles pressing into his skull.
He screamed in surprise. This wasn't supposed to be happening, this was different, new. He struggled to find his way out, to wake up. This had to be a dream, a nightmare.
His efforts stopped when he felt another sensation, heard hundreds of people talking, screaming, laughing, cajoling all at once. The words and sounds overwhelmed him, his own thoughts lost in the cacophony that wouldn't stop. Over the noise though emerged a refrain, pieces of a child's rhyme. Unable to make sense of anything else, John seized onto these sounds like a lifeboat as the pain in his skull continued unabated.
"Two by Two, Hands of Blue...Two by Two, Hands of Blue,
Just before he passed out, he noticed the blue gloves on the suited man in front of him.
Wash almost fainted when he saw it appear in front of him. They had been holding position near an asteroid field for several days waiting for Monty to make contact for the cargo transfer. As a result, someone needed to be on the bridge at all times to watch for extra debris and the occasional course correction.
But this was something he'd never seen before and something he hoped he could avoid flying into. He slapped at his controls to turn on the comms before powering up the thrusters and grabbing the steering yoke. "Hold onto something, things are going to get a mite interesting," he shouted as he struggled to coax Serenity away from the widening blue something that was quickly gaining in size directly in front of the ship.
"What in the hell is going on, Wash?" Mal's voice demanded.
Wash didn't bother to answer as his task was suddenly becoming even more difficult as large pieces of rock began to be drawn into the big blue thing as well. The proximity alarms honked jarringly in his ears as the radar detected numerous large and dangerous boulders flying towards the ship.
He ignored everyone when they began to pile into the bridge behind him. "Tzao gao, what is that?" Mal asked.
Jayne's voice answered, "Who cares, just keep us the hell out of it, little man."
"What does it look like I'm trying to do?" Wash replied through gritted teeth. The ship's thrusters were rapidly losing their battle with the pull of the big blue swirly thing. Wash's grip on the controls faltered when the entire ship shook from the impact of a rather large fragment from the asteroid field. By the time he managed to regain his hold on the yoke, he realized that for once he wasn't going to be able to fly his way out of danger. "Everyone, hold on!"
John woke to the sounds of Pilot's frantic voice, "…wormhole directly in front of us." It took him several minutes to register the smooth glow of Moya's lights and the blessed lack of pain in his head. The beeping of an insistent DRD brought him back to reality and he hurriedly threw on a shirt before grabbing his pants.
"Crichton, where are you?" Dargo's voice demanded.
"Coming, just give me a second. What's happening?"
"A wormhole has opened in front of us. Moya's sensors indicate that we are far enough away to not be at risk of being pulled in," Pilot answered.
"So why'd you wake the entire ship, then?" Chiana asked, smiling at John as they both arrived at Command.
Pilot's visage appeared in the clam shell at the edge of Command. "Because a ship has emerged from the mouth of wormhole."
"Dren, not again," Chiana swore.
"Show us a close up, Pilot," John ordered. On the screen in front of them, the image of the wormhole zoomed into show a small oddly shaped ship drifting away from the swirling mass of blue energy. "Any life signs or power?"
"Moya is not detecting any power currently; the temperature of the thrusters indicates that they were used very recently. There are seven life forms on board, but if I'm interpreting the readings right, their life support is not functioning," Pilot reported.
"If their engines have been used, then their ship was most likely functioning before they entered," John mused.
"The wormhole continues to enlarge. Moya wishes to leave the area," Pilot interrupted.
John felt Chiana and D'argo's questioning gazes. Now was not the time to indulge in more readings when the portal showed no signs of stabilizing. "Fine, can Moya grab the ship from here?"
"Are you crazy?" Jool asked. "You want to bring them on board?"
"Jool's right," Chiana added. "We haven't had much luck with bringing stranded aliens onboard before."
"Come on, guys. They're dead in space. If we leave them, their ship won't survive without propulsion," John argued.
D'argo nodded. "They may possess star maps as well." The others finally nodded their agreement.
"The docking web has grabbed the ship; however, it's too large to bring into the landing bays and without power,"
"They can't dock," John finished Pilot's sentence. "Keep trying to establish communications, Pilot."
Wash awoke to darkness and the smell of burnt skin. He gingerly picked his way up off the floor – looked like the chair hadn't survived this crash. He swore when he tripped over something. He couldn't tell what though because the entire bridge was pitch black. "Zoe? Mal?"
"Here, Zoe, are you okay?" Mal called out.
"Fine, just a little beat up," she said.
"Wash, where the hell are we and can you get us away from that thing before we repeat that ride?" Mal's voice asked from somewhere off to Wash's right.
Wash fought the panic that started to rise. "Away from what?"
He felt Zoe's hands move him into a sitting position. "Look at me, Wash."
"I am…are all the lights out, Zoe?"
A long moment of silence followed his question. "Yeah, the lights are out, Wash. Zoe, stay with him. I'm going to go find Kaylee and the doctor."
Wash shivered in the inky blackness that obscured even his wife's smile.
"We don't know how long their environmentals will hold. We need to board them if any of the ship's crew is to survive," Jool argued.
"Boarding a ship without communicating your intentions is a universal sign of hostility," D'argo pointed out. "Until they manage to restore communications, we should wait."
"They don't have life support," Jool repeated.
"No, D'argo's right. We don't even know if they have translator microbes. It's too dangerous to board until we can talk to them," John interrupted.
"And if they are unable to make repairs because of injuries?" Jool asked.
"If they don't make contact soon, we'll think of something," John promised. He just didn't know what that would be.
"She's dead," Kaylee told him.
Mal shook his head. The mechanic sounded like her best friend had just died in front of her. "I know she's not running, Kaylee, but how do we get her fixed? Or at least life support."
Kaylee shook her head. "I don't know. Most of the wiring for the synchronizer is completely fried. I've never seen anything like it…"
Mal still couldn't help feeling a sense of relief despite all the damage. This time Zoe was unhurt, plus they still had a lot of oxygen left since there'd been no explosion when they'd been sucked through that thing. "Okay fine, forget the engine and life support for a minute."
"Forget it?"
"Just for a moment, Kaylee. What about communications? Do we have anything to give the comms enough juice to put out a distress signal? Monty was supposed to meet us soon, he might be able to pick up our transmission … we can't have traveled that far from the rendezvous point."
Kaylee began to pace slowly. Mal suppressed a sigh - as long as she didn't look like she was about to cry, they might have a chance. "I might be able to rig something up off of the mule's generator. There won't be a lot strength, but if someone's close enough," she suggested.
"Good, let's get to work. Sooner we get that signal out, the sooner we'll get the rest of Serenity fixed up," Mal ordered before he went off to check on the rest of his crew. Hopefully Kaylee could work her magic alone. That, or that the Doc could fix Wash's sight really fast.
He found Simon, River, and Jayne all outside of the infirmary. River appeared to have "tree-ed" Jayne in the corner on top of one of the chairs while Simon seemed to be trying to help the mercenary. At least, in between his fits of laughter.
"It ain't funny, Doc. Call her the hell off," Jayne yelled.
"No, of course, it's not funny at all," Simon said before breaking down again.
Before Mal had a chance to figure out what was going on, River turned on him. "Told you so, told you all. Now we're lost in the Sargasso Sea, far far away from home. Gulliver will be attacked by the Liliputians and we'll never see the purple elephants again," she said very calmly as she slowly backed him into a corner.
Mal sighed deeply. Never smooth, never smooth at all. "Doctor, Zoe needs your help on the bridge with Wash. I'll look after your sister here. Jayne, Kaylee's gonna need your help with some lifting."
Jayne left without a reply while Simon retrieved his medical bag. "What are his injuries, Captain?"
Mal shook his head as he urged River to follow him. "He can't see."
"The ship is sending a transmission," Pilot stated over the comms. "I'll patch it through to Command."
"Pilot, where's video?" D'argo asked.
"The ship doesn't appear to be sending any. As it is, the transmission is very weak. It is unlikely that we would pick it up if we were any further away."
"Great, just great, so we can't tell if they're a threat or not," Chiana griped.
"Their ship is frelled, Pip, I don't think they're going to be much of a threat to anyone," John said. "What are they saying, Pilot?"
"There's a problem, Commander. They can't understand me," Pilot replied.
John hurried to Command faster while pointedly ignoring Chiana's accusing look.
"What in the rutting hell was that?" Jayne asked. Everyone else just remained speechless as they continued to listen to the strange whirs and clicks that emanated from the jerry-rigged radio.
"Could it be from what happened before?" Simon asked.
Wash shook his head from where he sat listening to everything. "That's definitely not static. And there's nothing that Kaylee could have done to result in anything like that."
"Aliens," River said.
"No, mei-mei, aliens don't exist," Simon replied. Mal almost burst out laughing from the exasperated glare that the girl gave her brother.
"Let's try this again shall we? This is Captain Reynolds of the cargo ship Serenity. We have no power or life support. We request help from any vessel within range of…" Mal glanced over at Zoe, "We got any clue as to our coordinates?" Her reply was cut off as another voice came from the receiver that Kaylee continued to fiddle with.
"Serenity, this is Commander John Crichton. Our ship currently has you in tow. If you like, we can initiate docking procedures and give you a little help."
Mal smiled with relief. It was about time they caught a break. "We'd be grateful, Commander."
After the details had been worked out and the radio shut off, Wash finally spoke up. "Crichton! Man, his parent's had a sick sense of humor."
Mal raised an eyebrow in response before he remembered the other man still couldn't see. "Why do you say that, Wash?"
"John Crichton was a twenty-first century astronaut. Except on his last mission, he and his craft were destroyed," Wash explained.
"Humans? More humans? Did you leave a forwarding address or something, Crichton?" Jool asked as they approached the maintenance bay that would lead them to the crew of Serenity.
John held up his hands. "Look, I can't explain it. But they're here and you guys might want to chill a bit if this is going to work out."
"Their ship looks more frelled than your module does," Chiana said.
"Yeah, well I don't recognize it. These guys may be from somewhere other than Earth. Just chill till I get to explain the translator microbes to them, okay?"
"We'll follow your lead," D'argo agreed as he readied his qualta blade.
John looked at the weapon and briefly thought about asking D'argo to put it away. Then he reminded himself that Chiana was right when she said their luck with stranded aliens was pretty crappy. "Good, just remember to try to be friendly," he instructed as checked Wynona.
Everyone waited nervously as the docking bay doors slowly opened to reveal…seven individuals that appeared quite human looking back at the crew of Moya in various states of shock.
"Uhh, Cap'n, how hard did we all hit our heads?" asked a young brunette in overalls.
The tallest of the bunch, a brown-haired man standing at the center of the group, rubbed his eyes. "Zoe, is she grey?" The black woman on his right nodded.
John stepped forward while cautioning his friends to stay calm. "Captain Reynolds? I'm John Crichton. I know everything seems a little crazy right now, but if you'll just trust me, it will all be explained."
Chapter 2: Ozland
"You want me to let you stick microbes in all my crew?" Mal asked.
"It's ridiculous. Microbial life can't translate languages; they can't even understand them!" Simon interjected.
"Now we know they're from Earth – the simplest concept baffles all of them," Jool sneered.
John whistled loudly. "Okay, now that's enough from all of you," he shouted. This was just so frelling perfect. Somehow Moya manages to rescue a ship full of humans and no one will shut up for one second to listen to him. Man, if he was this annoying when he first arrived, John was surprised that Aeryn hadn't killed him the first day.
Chiana pulled on his sleeve. "Look, just point out that Jool needs to be able to talk to the injured guy to be able to help him. And you can't translate for both ship repairs and medical treatment."
John rubbed his face. "Thanks, Pip. Look, how 'bout everyone give us some room so I can explain it all to them okay? I'll have the DRDs on hand if I need back up." Grudgingly, Moya's crew began to leave the maintenance bay. Turning back to the confused people standing just beyond Moya's threshold, he waved them in. "Just you and me, might as well come in. And don't mind the DRDs."
In retrospect, he guessed his introduction to the Uncharted Territories hadn't been too bad. One thing about running for your life is that it didn't give you time to argue about the new reality. "Look, whatever these translator microbe things are or aren't doesn't matter, you have to have them to be able to understand everyone else on the ship. And I can't stand around all day translating for every single one of you. I promise, it doesn't hurt." Much, he amended silently.
A/N -- much, much later. I'd gotten stuck
John rubbed his eyes. He hadn't felt this tired since he'd spent three days studying for his qualifying exams during grad school. It had taken no small effort to manage to fit Leviathan, Peacekeeper, and twenty-fifth century human technology together. 2518, that was a hell of a kicker, wasn't it? Either these people had managed to travel back in time or the home he wanted to go home to didn't even exist any more.
It made his head swim to think of it when he didn't feel like falling asleep where he was standing. Speaking of which, why was he still standing when there was a bed right in front of him? Been way too long since you've seen the back of your eyelids, Johnny-boy.
As soon as his head hit the pillow, the dreams came again.
The room hadn't changed, the voices were still present, but the creepy suit guy was gone at least. John tried to get out of the restraints, but they wouldn't budge.
"Better not to move, don't want the needles to go somewhere new," a voice told him. He looked toward it and saw a spotlight on another chair at the other end of the room…a chair that was spinning and looked a lot like the Aurora Chair.
"Oookay, I'm so ready to wake up now!" John yelled in the attempt to wake himself. What in the hell were you supposed to do when you couldn't pinch yourself awake?
"Not a dream, a memory. A bridge."
He looked toward the voice and managed to make out a girl inside of the spinning chair…it looked a lot like the kid from the other ship of humans.
"I was confused. It's not easy to hear voices inside your head speaking in different languages," she told him wryly.
"Yeah, that's great. And this sure as hell doesn't look like any memory I remember, kid," he told her as he continued to search for a way out. There had to be one, just had to find it, just needed to meditate for a second and wake himself up.
"Just because you don't remember it, doesn't mean it didn't happen."
Riddles, he had needles stuck in his head and the girl was speaking in riddles as if she were on a roller coaster or something. "This I wouldn't forget, believe me. The experience is marginally better without those suited freaks staring at me."
"Two by two, Hands of Blue. They come and they keep coming, they won't stop."
"Yeah, I remember a bit of that from the last time I was here, I'll pass on the new-age nursery rhymes though."
"Your bogey man wants your knowledge, they want to change us. Which is worse?"
John started to laugh. He couldn't help himself. "Worse? Scorpy already dissected my brain to get his frelling chip! Anything else doesn't seem too scary to me."
Suddenly, Aeryn was standing in front of him screaming as blood ran out of her eyes, her ears, even her pores. "Two by Two, Hands of Blue…we'll see if you still feel that way when they come for us."
"Aeryn!" John yelled as he woke. Oh man, what a nightmare.
And CUT!!!
Yeah, my muse had an idea...the hamsters didn't like it. So it sat for a couple of months before they agreed on the Twin Regrets venture. They both like that one. :)
*stuffs in ear plugs in case anyone actually liked the talking heads*
Annnnnyways, I'm sure any day now the placards will show up again demanding progress on Twin Regrets. My muse has started batting ideas back to the hamsters of my brain and they've been going over it. Basically they are both waiting for me to get my act together and figure out that I need to start setting aside twenty minutes a day to write or something like that. ;) I'm getting there.
But....I know how patient you've been. I know how painful the wait has been....but I don't want to spoil anything by giving your a sneak peek at what's to come (especially since my muse daily has been considering tossing characters in and out of conversations. I keep waiting for Mal to end up dressed in Inara's clothing or somemthing).
Instead....I'll
Ummm...reference wise, season3-ish (jool has joined the crew. Also post-Eat me. But not AU.) at least for farscape. end of series for firefly.
Ch1: Big Blue
River whimpered as the smoother that Simon gave her took effect. She knew why he'd done it, understood that he felt she needed the rest. She hated that she could so rarely manage to make him understand.
She'd managed to stay awake and avoid her brother for a whole four days after the latest nightmare came. Awake didn't ablate its memory entirely, but it kept it away from the present. Occasionally she ventured out to tell the Captain and Wash that they needed to leave this place soon. They hadn't understood. In the end, Mal grabbed and held her captive until her brother arrived with the promise of what she feared.
The chemicals slowly forced her brain to slow, her eyes to close, and unconsciousness to take her hostage once more. Even in sleep, she struggled in vain to keep her synapses from betraying her into the clutches of REM sleep.
Blue eyes framed in a pale, leathery face peered back at her. She couldn't move, couldn't escape the gaze of the figure in black before her. Panic was only kept at bay by the complete lack of blue anywhere…at least until the room started spinning and overly familiar pain began to seer her brain…A blue whirlpool appeared before her and she knew this was the end of the universe.
John hated his dreams. He avoided sleep as much as possible, but human physiology forced him to give in far too often. Sadly, a pantak jab never quite satisfied his brain's needs.
He attempted to calm down as he got comfortable on what passed for a bed on Moya. The curves of the ship's "furniture" never quite seemed to fit him comfortably no matter how much padding he added. Lately he'd been having some luck using meditation to attempt to focus him mind and steer his dreams. There was a term for what he was doing, but he couldn't recall it exactly. It didn't matter, as long as it enabled him to wake up when certain aliens insisted on turning his sweeter dreams into a nightmare.
Slowly, his eyes closed despite his best efforts…
This time the room was different - the chair was bolted to the floor. Slick hands forced him to sit, locked him in, and placed a band around his forehead. He looked around desperately for what he knew he would find, but Scorpius was nowhere to be seen. Instead a tall, pale man in a black suit and tie watched from the edge of the circle of light. John struggled to squint past the brightness, to see what was happening, but his efforts were cut off when he felt the searing pain of multiple needles pressing into his skull.
He screamed in surprise. This wasn't supposed to be happening, this was different, new. He struggled to find his way out, to wake up. This had to be a dream, a nightmare.
His efforts stopped when he felt another sensation, heard hundreds of people talking, screaming, laughing, cajoling all at once. The words and sounds overwhelmed him, his own thoughts lost in the cacophony that wouldn't stop. Over the noise though emerged a refrain, pieces of a child's rhyme. Unable to make sense of anything else, John seized onto these sounds like a lifeboat as the pain in his skull continued unabated.
"Two by Two, Hands of Blue...Two by Two, Hands of Blue,
Just before he passed out, he noticed the blue gloves on the suited man in front of him.
Wash almost fainted when he saw it appear in front of him. They had been holding position near an asteroid field for several days waiting for Monty to make contact for the cargo transfer. As a result, someone needed to be on the bridge at all times to watch for extra debris and the occasional course correction.
But this was something he'd never seen before and something he hoped he could avoid flying into. He slapped at his controls to turn on the comms before powering up the thrusters and grabbing the steering yoke. "Hold onto something, things are going to get a mite interesting," he shouted as he struggled to coax Serenity away from the widening blue something that was quickly gaining in size directly in front of the ship.
"What in the hell is going on, Wash?" Mal's voice demanded.
Wash didn't bother to answer as his task was suddenly becoming even more difficult as large pieces of rock began to be drawn into the big blue thing as well. The proximity alarms honked jarringly in his ears as the radar detected numerous large and dangerous boulders flying towards the ship.
He ignored everyone when they began to pile into the bridge behind him. "Tzao gao, what is that?" Mal asked.
Jayne's voice answered, "Who cares, just keep us the hell out of it, little man."
"What does it look like I'm trying to do?" Wash replied through gritted teeth. The ship's thrusters were rapidly losing their battle with the pull of the big blue swirly thing. Wash's grip on the controls faltered when the entire ship shook from the impact of a rather large fragment from the asteroid field. By the time he managed to regain his hold on the yoke, he realized that for once he wasn't going to be able to fly his way out of danger. "Everyone, hold on!"
John woke to the sounds of Pilot's frantic voice, "…wormhole directly in front of us." It took him several minutes to register the smooth glow of Moya's lights and the blessed lack of pain in his head. The beeping of an insistent DRD brought him back to reality and he hurriedly threw on a shirt before grabbing his pants.
"Crichton, where are you?" Dargo's voice demanded.
"Coming, just give me a second. What's happening?"
"A wormhole has opened in front of us. Moya's sensors indicate that we are far enough away to not be at risk of being pulled in," Pilot answered.
"So why'd you wake the entire ship, then?" Chiana asked, smiling at John as they both arrived at Command.
Pilot's visage appeared in the clam shell at the edge of Command. "Because a ship has emerged from the mouth of wormhole."
"Dren, not again," Chiana swore.
"Show us a close up, Pilot," John ordered. On the screen in front of them, the image of the wormhole zoomed into show a small oddly shaped ship drifting away from the swirling mass of blue energy. "Any life signs or power?"
"Moya is not detecting any power currently; the temperature of the thrusters indicates that they were used very recently. There are seven life forms on board, but if I'm interpreting the readings right, their life support is not functioning," Pilot reported.
"If their engines have been used, then their ship was most likely functioning before they entered," John mused.
"The wormhole continues to enlarge. Moya wishes to leave the area," Pilot interrupted.
John felt Chiana and D'argo's questioning gazes. Now was not the time to indulge in more readings when the portal showed no signs of stabilizing. "Fine, can Moya grab the ship from here?"
"Are you crazy?" Jool asked. "You want to bring them on board?"
"Jool's right," Chiana added. "We haven't had much luck with bringing stranded aliens onboard before."
"Come on, guys. They're dead in space. If we leave them, their ship won't survive without propulsion," John argued.
D'argo nodded. "They may possess star maps as well." The others finally nodded their agreement.
"The docking web has grabbed the ship; however, it's too large to bring into the landing bays and without power,"
"They can't dock," John finished Pilot's sentence. "Keep trying to establish communications, Pilot."
Wash awoke to darkness and the smell of burnt skin. He gingerly picked his way up off the floor – looked like the chair hadn't survived this crash. He swore when he tripped over something. He couldn't tell what though because the entire bridge was pitch black. "Zoe? Mal?"
"Here, Zoe, are you okay?" Mal called out.
"Fine, just a little beat up," she said.
"Wash, where the hell are we and can you get us away from that thing before we repeat that ride?" Mal's voice asked from somewhere off to Wash's right.
Wash fought the panic that started to rise. "Away from what?"
He felt Zoe's hands move him into a sitting position. "Look at me, Wash."
"I am…are all the lights out, Zoe?"
A long moment of silence followed his question. "Yeah, the lights are out, Wash. Zoe, stay with him. I'm going to go find Kaylee and the doctor."
Wash shivered in the inky blackness that obscured even his wife's smile.
"We don't know how long their environmentals will hold. We need to board them if any of the ship's crew is to survive," Jool argued.
"Boarding a ship without communicating your intentions is a universal sign of hostility," D'argo pointed out. "Until they manage to restore communications, we should wait."
"They don't have life support," Jool repeated.
"No, D'argo's right. We don't even know if they have translator microbes. It's too dangerous to board until we can talk to them," John interrupted.
"And if they are unable to make repairs because of injuries?" Jool asked.
"If they don't make contact soon, we'll think of something," John promised. He just didn't know what that would be.
"She's dead," Kaylee told him.
Mal shook his head. The mechanic sounded like her best friend had just died in front of her. "I know she's not running, Kaylee, but how do we get her fixed? Or at least life support."
Kaylee shook her head. "I don't know. Most of the wiring for the synchronizer is completely fried. I've never seen anything like it…"
Mal still couldn't help feeling a sense of relief despite all the damage. This time Zoe was unhurt, plus they still had a lot of oxygen left since there'd been no explosion when they'd been sucked through that thing. "Okay fine, forget the engine and life support for a minute."
"Forget it?"
"Just for a moment, Kaylee. What about communications? Do we have anything to give the comms enough juice to put out a distress signal? Monty was supposed to meet us soon, he might be able to pick up our transmission … we can't have traveled that far from the rendezvous point."
Kaylee began to pace slowly. Mal suppressed a sigh - as long as she didn't look like she was about to cry, they might have a chance. "I might be able to rig something up off of the mule's generator. There won't be a lot strength, but if someone's close enough," she suggested.
"Good, let's get to work. Sooner we get that signal out, the sooner we'll get the rest of Serenity fixed up," Mal ordered before he went off to check on the rest of his crew. Hopefully Kaylee could work her magic alone. That, or that the Doc could fix Wash's sight really fast.
He found Simon, River, and Jayne all outside of the infirmary. River appeared to have "tree-ed" Jayne in the corner on top of one of the chairs while Simon seemed to be trying to help the mercenary. At least, in between his fits of laughter.
"It ain't funny, Doc. Call her the hell off," Jayne yelled.
"No, of course, it's not funny at all," Simon said before breaking down again.
Before Mal had a chance to figure out what was going on, River turned on him. "Told you so, told you all. Now we're lost in the Sargasso Sea, far far away from home. Gulliver will be attacked by the Liliputians and we'll never see the purple elephants again," she said very calmly as she slowly backed him into a corner.
Mal sighed deeply. Never smooth, never smooth at all. "Doctor, Zoe needs your help on the bridge with Wash. I'll look after your sister here. Jayne, Kaylee's gonna need your help with some lifting."
Jayne left without a reply while Simon retrieved his medical bag. "What are his injuries, Captain?"
Mal shook his head as he urged River to follow him. "He can't see."
"The ship is sending a transmission," Pilot stated over the comms. "I'll patch it through to Command."
"Pilot, where's video?" D'argo asked.
"The ship doesn't appear to be sending any. As it is, the transmission is very weak. It is unlikely that we would pick it up if we were any further away."
"Great, just great, so we can't tell if they're a threat or not," Chiana griped.
"Their ship is frelled, Pip, I don't think they're going to be much of a threat to anyone," John said. "What are they saying, Pilot?"
"There's a problem, Commander. They can't understand me," Pilot replied.
John hurried to Command faster while pointedly ignoring Chiana's accusing look.
"What in the rutting hell was that?" Jayne asked. Everyone else just remained speechless as they continued to listen to the strange whirs and clicks that emanated from the jerry-rigged radio.
"Could it be from what happened before?" Simon asked.
Wash shook his head from where he sat listening to everything. "That's definitely not static. And there's nothing that Kaylee could have done to result in anything like that."
"Aliens," River said.
"No, mei-mei, aliens don't exist," Simon replied. Mal almost burst out laughing from the exasperated glare that the girl gave her brother.
"Let's try this again shall we? This is Captain Reynolds of the cargo ship Serenity. We have no power or life support. We request help from any vessel within range of…" Mal glanced over at Zoe, "We got any clue as to our coordinates?" Her reply was cut off as another voice came from the receiver that Kaylee continued to fiddle with.
"Serenity, this is Commander John Crichton. Our ship currently has you in tow. If you like, we can initiate docking procedures and give you a little help."
Mal smiled with relief. It was about time they caught a break. "We'd be grateful, Commander."
After the details had been worked out and the radio shut off, Wash finally spoke up. "Crichton! Man, his parent's had a sick sense of humor."
Mal raised an eyebrow in response before he remembered the other man still couldn't see. "Why do you say that, Wash?"
"John Crichton was a twenty-first century astronaut. Except on his last mission, he and his craft were destroyed," Wash explained.
"Humans? More humans? Did you leave a forwarding address or something, Crichton?" Jool asked as they approached the maintenance bay that would lead them to the crew of Serenity.
John held up his hands. "Look, I can't explain it. But they're here and you guys might want to chill a bit if this is going to work out."
"Their ship looks more frelled than your module does," Chiana said.
"Yeah, well I don't recognize it. These guys may be from somewhere other than Earth. Just chill till I get to explain the translator microbes to them, okay?"
"We'll follow your lead," D'argo agreed as he readied his qualta blade.
John looked at the weapon and briefly thought about asking D'argo to put it away. Then he reminded himself that Chiana was right when she said their luck with stranded aliens was pretty crappy. "Good, just remember to try to be friendly," he instructed as checked Wynona.
Everyone waited nervously as the docking bay doors slowly opened to reveal…seven individuals that appeared quite human looking back at the crew of Moya in various states of shock.
"Uhh, Cap'n, how hard did we all hit our heads?" asked a young brunette in overalls.
The tallest of the bunch, a brown-haired man standing at the center of the group, rubbed his eyes. "Zoe, is she grey?" The black woman on his right nodded.
John stepped forward while cautioning his friends to stay calm. "Captain Reynolds? I'm John Crichton. I know everything seems a little crazy right now, but if you'll just trust me, it will all be explained."
Chapter 2: Ozland
"You want me to let you stick microbes in all my crew?" Mal asked.
"It's ridiculous. Microbial life can't translate languages; they can't even understand them!" Simon interjected.
"Now we know they're from Earth – the simplest concept baffles all of them," Jool sneered.
John whistled loudly. "Okay, now that's enough from all of you," he shouted. This was just so frelling perfect. Somehow Moya manages to rescue a ship full of humans and no one will shut up for one second to listen to him. Man, if he was this annoying when he first arrived, John was surprised that Aeryn hadn't killed him the first day.
Chiana pulled on his sleeve. "Look, just point out that Jool needs to be able to talk to the injured guy to be able to help him. And you can't translate for both ship repairs and medical treatment."
John rubbed his face. "Thanks, Pip. Look, how 'bout everyone give us some room so I can explain it all to them okay? I'll have the DRDs on hand if I need back up." Grudgingly, Moya's crew began to leave the maintenance bay. Turning back to the confused people standing just beyond Moya's threshold, he waved them in. "Just you and me, might as well come in. And don't mind the DRDs."
In retrospect, he guessed his introduction to the Uncharted Territories hadn't been too bad. One thing about running for your life is that it didn't give you time to argue about the new reality. "Look, whatever these translator microbe things are or aren't doesn't matter, you have to have them to be able to understand everyone else on the ship. And I can't stand around all day translating for every single one of you. I promise, it doesn't hurt." Much, he amended silently.
A/N -- much, much later. I'd gotten stuck
John rubbed his eyes. He hadn't felt this tired since he'd spent three days studying for his qualifying exams during grad school. It had taken no small effort to manage to fit Leviathan, Peacekeeper, and twenty-fifth century human technology together. 2518, that was a hell of a kicker, wasn't it? Either these people had managed to travel back in time or the home he wanted to go home to didn't even exist any more.
It made his head swim to think of it when he didn't feel like falling asleep where he was standing. Speaking of which, why was he still standing when there was a bed right in front of him? Been way too long since you've seen the back of your eyelids, Johnny-boy.
As soon as his head hit the pillow, the dreams came again.
The room hadn't changed, the voices were still present, but the creepy suit guy was gone at least. John tried to get out of the restraints, but they wouldn't budge.
"Better not to move, don't want the needles to go somewhere new," a voice told him. He looked toward it and saw a spotlight on another chair at the other end of the room…a chair that was spinning and looked a lot like the Aurora Chair.
"Oookay, I'm so ready to wake up now!" John yelled in the attempt to wake himself. What in the hell were you supposed to do when you couldn't pinch yourself awake?
"Not a dream, a memory. A bridge."
He looked toward the voice and managed to make out a girl inside of the spinning chair…it looked a lot like the kid from the other ship of humans.
"I was confused. It's not easy to hear voices inside your head speaking in different languages," she told him wryly.
"Yeah, that's great. And this sure as hell doesn't look like any memory I remember, kid," he told her as he continued to search for a way out. There had to be one, just had to find it, just needed to meditate for a second and wake himself up.
"Just because you don't remember it, doesn't mean it didn't happen."
Riddles, he had needles stuck in his head and the girl was speaking in riddles as if she were on a roller coaster or something. "This I wouldn't forget, believe me. The experience is marginally better without those suited freaks staring at me."
"Two by two, Hands of Blue. They come and they keep coming, they won't stop."
"Yeah, I remember a bit of that from the last time I was here, I'll pass on the new-age nursery rhymes though."
"Your bogey man wants your knowledge, they want to change us. Which is worse?"
John started to laugh. He couldn't help himself. "Worse? Scorpy already dissected my brain to get his frelling chip! Anything else doesn't seem too scary to me."
Suddenly, Aeryn was standing in front of him screaming as blood ran out of her eyes, her ears, even her pores. "Two by Two, Hands of Blue…we'll see if you still feel that way when they come for us."
"Aeryn!" John yelled as he woke. Oh man, what a nightmare.
And CUT!!!
Yeah, my muse had an idea...the hamsters didn't like it. So it sat for a couple of months before they agreed on the Twin Regrets venture. They both like that one. :)
*stuffs in ear plugs in case anyone actually liked the talking heads*
