Firefly-- Fake Palindromes
I started a crew-centric Firefly fanfic.
title: Fake Palindromes
author: kitakatzz
genre: action/adventure/drama/horror
rating: pg-13
thanks go to simmysim for the beta
summary: What's scarier than a horde of Reavers? Maybe the Alliance had an ace up their sleeve all along.
spoilers: picks up sometime after the events of Serenity
Fake Palindromes
prologue_______
You see a building.
Rising up from a desert landscape, it sits alone, sand blowing in lazy circles and ringing off the dirty windows. If you happened to look in its direction at the right time of day, glints of silver would pierce you in the eye. So you'd look closer; see the long, slender antennas rising up from the building's roof.
Not so odd, considering this forlorn outskirt planet used to house Alliance medical facilities and science experiments and classified, redacted things you shouldn't know about. What is odd, you'd think, raising a leathery hand to cover your eyes from the sun, is that small ship, landing near the building. Gosh, nobody's been down here in over six years.
Ship's kicking up sand like crazy. So you rise from your rickety lawn chair. Pick up your as-of-yet unused shotgun. You've been hired to watch this place for a long time for a lot of money, and though you figure this free-ride of a job is about to end and here are the people to come and excuse you, you'd at least better be looking like you've been guarding your damn best.
The ramp lowers, and as you wait for the people to come, you think about how interested you were, back when you were first hired, to know why the hell Alliance wanted any damn body watching this building. And sure, you'd been wanting to go inside, c'mon who wouldn't, but that was rule numero uno, from the beginning, under no circumstance sir, are you to go in there-- and zu zhòu zhī, you hadn't! Shut that curiosity up, continually thought about how much platinum you were getting, and made the daily trip back to the outpost you and wifey were allowed to set up fifteen miles from here.
Black suits appear, languidly making their way down the ramp's slope. You notice the silly blue gloves and barely resist the urge to roll your eyes. Typical Alliance, wearing somethin' like that. Scared of germs from the third-worldies.
"Ni hao!" you call with a raised hand. They don't acknowledge you, not much of a surprise, but what is sort of interesting is how they suddenly break apart from each other. They don't say a word, one just turns and heads for the building and the other continues straight for you.
Now you're an old man, you've lived through a lot and experienced almost everything there is to experience, so right now you know, you can feel it from the tips of your wrinkly fingers down to your yellowy unclipped toenails, this ain't gonna end right.
"Hey sir," you try, voice betraying you and coming out shaky and stupid, "sir, you'd just better stop where you are and throw me some identification!"
The guy smiles, getting closer with every step, completely ignoring the fact that you have a twelve-gauge aimed right at his face. And now he's pulling something from an inner pocket of his jacket. You point the gun down at the rapidly decreasing space between you and the other man's feet, pulling the trigger.
The gun shot cracks loudly through the desert valley, echoing back and making you flinch, but the guy keeps coming. Keeps coming and now he's holding out a pen?
You're confused, but before you can raise your gun back up the pen elongates. Yep, it lengthens, and then you- Oh xīn kǔ! My god the pain--
And suddenly, you're not worried about much anymore at all.
~
He replaces the device in his suit jacket, watching benignly as the old man falls to his knobby knees, clutching at his bleeding head. Bleeding eyes, bleeding ears.
He doesn't wait any longer; he turns, making his way back down the hill and into the building.
They don't stay long, but it's long enough for the computers and machines housed inside to buzz and hum into life. And when the planet's sun falls, the lights of the building illuminate the landscape through the windows. Near the end of their visit, one of the men makes his way to the roof. It doesn't seem to bother him that it's too dark to see; it doesn't matter. He quickly makes his way over to a control panel, tucked in the corner, hidden from the planet's weather. Hands flying quickly over the keys, inputting whatever information he's inputting.
A loud whirring, grinding noise emits from the building. The man steps back from the control panel.
Suddenly, sparks of electricity are flying antenna to antenna, lighting up the night sky in bursts. The currents are climbing higher and higher on the poles, growing larger with every jump. It's with a huge, thundering crack that the light reaches the highest pole, wavering and hovering before, finally, shooting off and upwards into the sky.
The other man has joined the first on top of the building. A brief exchange of words, they leave. The lights turned off, the machines shut down, the whirring silenced.
The ship makes one short stop fifteen miles away before disappearing into space.
----
chapter one_______
She soars in the dark, movements sure but languid, weaving her way through the stars. A familiar figure sits in her cockpit, but only reaches forward to adjust things every so often, more content to sit and watch the black. It is a room full of desolate and disconnected feelings.
In her cargo bay, things are much brighter.
"I got your ball, I got your ball!" her caretaker taunts with a happy grin, holding the well-worn toy high above her head as she bolts across the room.
With a laugh, River takes off after her, skirt bouncing. "But this girl had it first!"
"Yeah, but this girl don't much care!"
The big one lets the weights fall to the bar with a grunt, sits up from his work bench. He is as surprised by the sound of laughter echoing through her as The Captain. Captain is standing above, foot hooked through a bar, arms on the railing, hands clasped in front. A smile is on his face, but it seems unsure. Tentative. Ready to slide off and be overtaken by the usual empty expression at a moment's notice.
River feels it all. Doesn't need to look around to confirm. She feels it through Serenity, and she feels it in her head. Not demanding like before Miranda, no pressure. It's just there. Part of. She giggles impulsively at the liberating-ness of it all.
She catches Kaylee, and balancing on boot-clad tiptoes she gropes for the ball. "Too tall," she complains with a secret smile. Could easily jump and grab it out of her hands, she thinks, but doesn't want the game to end.
Kaylee quickly steps back, not at all fooled. And she, too, doesn't want the laughter to go away and leave. "Yeah right! Hey, think fast Cap'n!"
Mal blinks in surprise, but catches the leather-worn ball smoothly when it's tossed his way.
"Not fair, the rules clearly state two is optimum in a game of catch." River mock-pouts, hands on hips as she stares up at him.
"Ain't ya never played monkey in the middle?" Jayne says from behind them.
"Yeah well," Mal considers the ball in his hand for a moment. "We're getting' too close to Burns' drop-off point to be playin' games in here anyway." He tosses the ball back down to River, ignoring her disappointed 'but I want to be a monkey'. "Get the ship ready for a refueling Kaylee. Jayne, you need to be lookin' somewhat presentable on this planet, so..." he trails off, frowning thoughtfully.
Scowling, an ego-wounded Jayne pulls himself up from the bench. "I ain't got no suit to wear or nothin', you know that."
"Just... shower. Or something," Mal pushes himself off the railing, heading for the cockpit, throwing over his shoulder: "Get to it."
Kaylee, looking somewhat dismayed by Jayne's complained, "I just took one last week," decided to give him a wide berth on the stairs before she followed up after him.
Which left River standing alone in the cargo bay.
Which meant she was standing alone when the signal finally reached the ship.
Which meant no one saw what happened when the signal found her.
It had taken exactly three weeks, eight days, six hours and thirty-two seconds.
She gasped as the wave hit, hands tightening spasmodically on the ball still in her hands.
Overwhelming.
All encompassing.
My brain! she screamed in her mind, It's leaking! All those wires and bolts that had been fixed, tightened, connected four months ago were jarred as the signal surged through her, over her, around and inside everything that was her.
No, no, no, not jarred. Ripped out! Loosened or completely gone. Her teeth were bared, clenched; she was completely unaware that she had bit part of her tongue off, the physical meaning nothing compared to what was happening inside her.
River's legs gave up the fight and she collapsed to her knees, hair slapping her face. Neurons in her overactive brain suddenly had no dendrites to send messages, jumping into empty spaces. Never such pain! she thought wildly. Total incomprehension. No experience to compare this!
Brain fried, proverbial smoke coming from her ears, River was finally allowed to lose consciousness. Blood leaked from her mouth and ran down her chin while her body wavered uncertainly. Eventually she fell forward onto her stomach, arms loose at her side.
The ball had ten holes slashed in its sides, and it deflated quietly beside her.
~
Zoe was the one who found her.
Mal had dismissed her from the cockpit to ready herself for Burns, although all she really had to do was grab a gun and they both knew it. She figured Mal just wanted her up and moving around, and she didn't mind. Didn't mind much, anymore.
Boots ringing loudly on the metal walkway, an aimless sort of walk. She glanced down at the cargo bay as she made her way past, almost not seeing the crumpled figure near the mule. It was only on double-take that she finally registered River.
"Captain!" she called both over her shoulder and through her comm, "River's..." and she paused because, well, she wasn't really sure what River was. As she ran down the stairs, she settled with, "Injured. Unconscious in the cargo bay."
She reached the girl, taking in the scene. Unconscious. Limbs sprawled. No good. Had she tried jumping from the catwalk?
She'd just kneeled down to carefully check her for a pulse when both Mal and Kaylee arrived from different sides of the ship.
"Oh!" Kaylee cried as she got near, hand over her mouth. "Oh no! What happened?"
"Don't quite know," Zoe answered, "just found her like this." She felt a fast pulse. Very fast, very sporadic. “We need a stretcher, and a brace.“
Kaylee nodded, and bounded towards the medbay. She was back in less than a minute.
Zoe put on the brace as best she could, and when she started moving the limp body onto the stretcher, Mal knelt down to help. She didn't really need the help; girl was light as a feather, but Mal's face was dark and she didn't comment.
Then, and she hadn't even thought it possible, his face grew darker as he picked something up from the floor.
Kaylee piped up from behind them, sounding confused, "What is--"
"Tongue," Mal answered shortly.
Zoe couldn't help a sharp intake of breath, and Kaylee made an almost whimpering sort of sound. She looked back down at River, examining her hairline closely for any source of blood, wondering if the small pool of it had all come from mouth. "Should take her down to the infirmary now--"
Mal was already fixing to move in a better position to hold the stretcher.
"Hey!" Jayne's voice suddenly called down from above, "what are ya'll looking at?" he asked, wet hair stuck down to his head, towel wrapped around his waist. "The mousetrap finally catch somethin'?"
Kaylee shook her head when the others ignored him, busy lifting the stretcher.
"Ta ma de, what happened to crazy?" Jayne demanded, watching them go. "We still goin' to Burns, though, right? I didn't get all washed up for nothing'."
"'Course we are," Kaylee answered, wringing her hands in front of her. Her eyes kept flicking back to the drops of blood on the floor. "Still have to pick up Simon and Inara, don't we? Oh, Jayne what about Simon? Biǎo shì jīnɡ yà! He put up such a fuss 'bout leavin' in the first place, he's gonna' be so upset!"
"'Suppose," Jayne replied mildly from above, not much caring about how the doctor would react or any of the young man's feelings in general. He was much more bothered by the fact that their job with Burns might be postponed. Lots of platinum was promised to be had. Or now, to be lost. "Hu dong girl," he grumbled, starting back down the catwalk for his quarters, "always makin' trouble for us."
Kaylee barely heard him, still worrying over Simon. Her thoughts had taken a selfish turn too, but unlike Jayne, who it wouldn't even occur to feel badly about such things, she did. She was helpless to stop, though. Things had been going so good for them, her and Simon. Still were! And she couldn't help but hope this wouldn't affect the relationship they'd taken so long to build together. Hoped he wouldn't start obsessing over his sister again. River had gotten much better over the months, gaining a healthy relationship with the world. And in turn, her brother had gained a much healthier relationship with her.
Heck, Kaylee'd really thought River had made the turn for the better, still a little odd with the mind-reading and the crazy Operative-like-skills, but still... She bit her lip, looking off in the direction of the infirmary.
Sighing, Kaylee was about to return to the engine room when her eyes fell on the remains of River's leather ball. Scooping it up, she surveyed and counted the ten little holes, wondering how...? What...? before it clicked in her mind.
Wǒ de shén, she thought, holding it tight against her chest, thinking of the strength that must have taken. Found herself wondering, for the millionth time, what in the verse the Alliance had done to the girl.
~
chapter two coming soon
title: Fake Palindromes
author: kitakatzz
genre: action/adventure/drama/horror
rating: pg-13
thanks go to simmysim for the beta
summary: What's scarier than a horde of Reavers? Maybe the Alliance had an ace up their sleeve all along.
spoilers: picks up sometime after the events of Serenity
Fake Palindromes
prologue_______
You see a building.
Rising up from a desert landscape, it sits alone, sand blowing in lazy circles and ringing off the dirty windows. If you happened to look in its direction at the right time of day, glints of silver would pierce you in the eye. So you'd look closer; see the long, slender antennas rising up from the building's roof.
Not so odd, considering this forlorn outskirt planet used to house Alliance medical facilities and science experiments and classified, redacted things you shouldn't know about. What is odd, you'd think, raising a leathery hand to cover your eyes from the sun, is that small ship, landing near the building. Gosh, nobody's been down here in over six years.
Ship's kicking up sand like crazy. So you rise from your rickety lawn chair. Pick up your as-of-yet unused shotgun. You've been hired to watch this place for a long time for a lot of money, and though you figure this free-ride of a job is about to end and here are the people to come and excuse you, you'd at least better be looking like you've been guarding your damn best.
The ramp lowers, and as you wait for the people to come, you think about how interested you were, back when you were first hired, to know why the hell Alliance wanted any damn body watching this building. And sure, you'd been wanting to go inside, c'mon who wouldn't, but that was rule numero uno, from the beginning, under no circumstance sir, are you to go in there-- and zu zhòu zhī, you hadn't! Shut that curiosity up, continually thought about how much platinum you were getting, and made the daily trip back to the outpost you and wifey were allowed to set up fifteen miles from here.
Black suits appear, languidly making their way down the ramp's slope. You notice the silly blue gloves and barely resist the urge to roll your eyes. Typical Alliance, wearing somethin' like that. Scared of germs from the third-worldies.
"Ni hao!" you call with a raised hand. They don't acknowledge you, not much of a surprise, but what is sort of interesting is how they suddenly break apart from each other. They don't say a word, one just turns and heads for the building and the other continues straight for you.
Now you're an old man, you've lived through a lot and experienced almost everything there is to experience, so right now you know, you can feel it from the tips of your wrinkly fingers down to your yellowy unclipped toenails, this ain't gonna end right.
"Hey sir," you try, voice betraying you and coming out shaky and stupid, "sir, you'd just better stop where you are and throw me some identification!"
The guy smiles, getting closer with every step, completely ignoring the fact that you have a twelve-gauge aimed right at his face. And now he's pulling something from an inner pocket of his jacket. You point the gun down at the rapidly decreasing space between you and the other man's feet, pulling the trigger.
The gun shot cracks loudly through the desert valley, echoing back and making you flinch, but the guy keeps coming. Keeps coming and now he's holding out a pen?
You're confused, but before you can raise your gun back up the pen elongates. Yep, it lengthens, and then you- Oh xīn kǔ! My god the pain--
And suddenly, you're not worried about much anymore at all.
~
He replaces the device in his suit jacket, watching benignly as the old man falls to his knobby knees, clutching at his bleeding head. Bleeding eyes, bleeding ears.
He doesn't wait any longer; he turns, making his way back down the hill and into the building.
They don't stay long, but it's long enough for the computers and machines housed inside to buzz and hum into life. And when the planet's sun falls, the lights of the building illuminate the landscape through the windows. Near the end of their visit, one of the men makes his way to the roof. It doesn't seem to bother him that it's too dark to see; it doesn't matter. He quickly makes his way over to a control panel, tucked in the corner, hidden from the planet's weather. Hands flying quickly over the keys, inputting whatever information he's inputting.
A loud whirring, grinding noise emits from the building. The man steps back from the control panel.
Suddenly, sparks of electricity are flying antenna to antenna, lighting up the night sky in bursts. The currents are climbing higher and higher on the poles, growing larger with every jump. It's with a huge, thundering crack that the light reaches the highest pole, wavering and hovering before, finally, shooting off and upwards into the sky.
The other man has joined the first on top of the building. A brief exchange of words, they leave. The lights turned off, the machines shut down, the whirring silenced.
The ship makes one short stop fifteen miles away before disappearing into space.
----
chapter one_______
She soars in the dark, movements sure but languid, weaving her way through the stars. A familiar figure sits in her cockpit, but only reaches forward to adjust things every so often, more content to sit and watch the black. It is a room full of desolate and disconnected feelings.
In her cargo bay, things are much brighter.
"I got your ball, I got your ball!" her caretaker taunts with a happy grin, holding the well-worn toy high above her head as she bolts across the room.
With a laugh, River takes off after her, skirt bouncing. "But this girl had it first!"
"Yeah, but this girl don't much care!"
The big one lets the weights fall to the bar with a grunt, sits up from his work bench. He is as surprised by the sound of laughter echoing through her as The Captain. Captain is standing above, foot hooked through a bar, arms on the railing, hands clasped in front. A smile is on his face, but it seems unsure. Tentative. Ready to slide off and be overtaken by the usual empty expression at a moment's notice.
River feels it all. Doesn't need to look around to confirm. She feels it through Serenity, and she feels it in her head. Not demanding like before Miranda, no pressure. It's just there. Part of. She giggles impulsively at the liberating-ness of it all.
She catches Kaylee, and balancing on boot-clad tiptoes she gropes for the ball. "Too tall," she complains with a secret smile. Could easily jump and grab it out of her hands, she thinks, but doesn't want the game to end.
Kaylee quickly steps back, not at all fooled. And she, too, doesn't want the laughter to go away and leave. "Yeah right! Hey, think fast Cap'n!"
Mal blinks in surprise, but catches the leather-worn ball smoothly when it's tossed his way.
"Not fair, the rules clearly state two is optimum in a game of catch." River mock-pouts, hands on hips as she stares up at him.
"Ain't ya never played monkey in the middle?" Jayne says from behind them.
"Yeah well," Mal considers the ball in his hand for a moment. "We're getting' too close to Burns' drop-off point to be playin' games in here anyway." He tosses the ball back down to River, ignoring her disappointed 'but I want to be a monkey'. "Get the ship ready for a refueling Kaylee. Jayne, you need to be lookin' somewhat presentable on this planet, so..." he trails off, frowning thoughtfully.
Scowling, an ego-wounded Jayne pulls himself up from the bench. "I ain't got no suit to wear or nothin', you know that."
"Just... shower. Or something," Mal pushes himself off the railing, heading for the cockpit, throwing over his shoulder: "Get to it."
Kaylee, looking somewhat dismayed by Jayne's complained, "I just took one last week," decided to give him a wide berth on the stairs before she followed up after him.
Which left River standing alone in the cargo bay.
Which meant she was standing alone when the signal finally reached the ship.
Which meant no one saw what happened when the signal found her.
It had taken exactly three weeks, eight days, six hours and thirty-two seconds.
She gasped as the wave hit, hands tightening spasmodically on the ball still in her hands.
Overwhelming.
All encompassing.
My brain! she screamed in her mind, It's leaking! All those wires and bolts that had been fixed, tightened, connected four months ago were jarred as the signal surged through her, over her, around and inside everything that was her.
No, no, no, not jarred. Ripped out! Loosened or completely gone. Her teeth were bared, clenched; she was completely unaware that she had bit part of her tongue off, the physical meaning nothing compared to what was happening inside her.
River's legs gave up the fight and she collapsed to her knees, hair slapping her face. Neurons in her overactive brain suddenly had no dendrites to send messages, jumping into empty spaces. Never such pain! she thought wildly. Total incomprehension. No experience to compare this!
Brain fried, proverbial smoke coming from her ears, River was finally allowed to lose consciousness. Blood leaked from her mouth and ran down her chin while her body wavered uncertainly. Eventually she fell forward onto her stomach, arms loose at her side.
The ball had ten holes slashed in its sides, and it deflated quietly beside her.
~
Zoe was the one who found her.
Mal had dismissed her from the cockpit to ready herself for Burns, although all she really had to do was grab a gun and they both knew it. She figured Mal just wanted her up and moving around, and she didn't mind. Didn't mind much, anymore.
Boots ringing loudly on the metal walkway, an aimless sort of walk. She glanced down at the cargo bay as she made her way past, almost not seeing the crumpled figure near the mule. It was only on double-take that she finally registered River.
"Captain!" she called both over her shoulder and through her comm, "River's..." and she paused because, well, she wasn't really sure what River was. As she ran down the stairs, she settled with, "Injured. Unconscious in the cargo bay."
She reached the girl, taking in the scene. Unconscious. Limbs sprawled. No good. Had she tried jumping from the catwalk?
She'd just kneeled down to carefully check her for a pulse when both Mal and Kaylee arrived from different sides of the ship.
"Oh!" Kaylee cried as she got near, hand over her mouth. "Oh no! What happened?"
"Don't quite know," Zoe answered, "just found her like this." She felt a fast pulse. Very fast, very sporadic. “We need a stretcher, and a brace.“
Kaylee nodded, and bounded towards the medbay. She was back in less than a minute.
Zoe put on the brace as best she could, and when she started moving the limp body onto the stretcher, Mal knelt down to help. She didn't really need the help; girl was light as a feather, but Mal's face was dark and she didn't comment.
Then, and she hadn't even thought it possible, his face grew darker as he picked something up from the floor.
Kaylee piped up from behind them, sounding confused, "What is--"
"Tongue," Mal answered shortly.
Zoe couldn't help a sharp intake of breath, and Kaylee made an almost whimpering sort of sound. She looked back down at River, examining her hairline closely for any source of blood, wondering if the small pool of it had all come from mouth. "Should take her down to the infirmary now--"
Mal was already fixing to move in a better position to hold the stretcher.
"Hey!" Jayne's voice suddenly called down from above, "what are ya'll looking at?" he asked, wet hair stuck down to his head, towel wrapped around his waist. "The mousetrap finally catch somethin'?"
Kaylee shook her head when the others ignored him, busy lifting the stretcher.
"Ta ma de, what happened to crazy?" Jayne demanded, watching them go. "We still goin' to Burns, though, right? I didn't get all washed up for nothing'."
"'Course we are," Kaylee answered, wringing her hands in front of her. Her eyes kept flicking back to the drops of blood on the floor. "Still have to pick up Simon and Inara, don't we? Oh, Jayne what about Simon? Biǎo shì jīnɡ yà! He put up such a fuss 'bout leavin' in the first place, he's gonna' be so upset!"
"'Suppose," Jayne replied mildly from above, not much caring about how the doctor would react or any of the young man's feelings in general. He was much more bothered by the fact that their job with Burns might be postponed. Lots of platinum was promised to be had. Or now, to be lost. "Hu dong girl," he grumbled, starting back down the catwalk for his quarters, "always makin' trouble for us."
Kaylee barely heard him, still worrying over Simon. Her thoughts had taken a selfish turn too, but unlike Jayne, who it wouldn't even occur to feel badly about such things, she did. She was helpless to stop, though. Things had been going so good for them, her and Simon. Still were! And she couldn't help but hope this wouldn't affect the relationship they'd taken so long to build together. Hoped he wouldn't start obsessing over his sister again. River had gotten much better over the months, gaining a healthy relationship with the world. And in turn, her brother had gained a much healthier relationship with her.
Heck, Kaylee'd really thought River had made the turn for the better, still a little odd with the mind-reading and the crazy Operative-like-skills, but still... She bit her lip, looking off in the direction of the infirmary.
Sighing, Kaylee was about to return to the engine room when her eyes fell on the remains of River's leather ball. Scooping it up, she surveyed and counted the ten little holes, wondering how...? What...? before it clicked in her mind.
Wǒ de shén, she thought, holding it tight against her chest, thinking of the strength that must have taken. Found herself wondering, for the millionth time, what in the verse the Alliance had done to the girl.
~
chapter two coming soon