Fanfic, I should have a filter...hrrr.

[mytsie]

So in between sewing, cleaning, and working on stuff for AX, I've been wasting my time writing fanfiction again. With all the crossover stuff requested on the STXI!Kinkmeme, I've been contemplating a Firefly/StarTrekXI fic. I had one started a while ago (not with STXI, mind you, but TOS) but I never wrote more than the first section with River.

I don't know why, but I was compelled to try again, and the funny fic I was envisioning quickly became SRS!BSNS. So, since I'm probably going to wait until I write the whole thing to post it on FF.net, I guess I'll post it to my LJ.

Unbeta'd, though I'd love to track one down.



SECTION 1/?:

It was quiet. Still. Wrong.

She wandered listlessly, slowly, through the corridors and her mind. Her hands traced the unfamiliar familiar bulkheads with certainty-she murmured as fingertips grazed molecules, traced and created flaws in perfect, flawless surfaces as she passed.

There was smoke-Fire was an active process that created smoke. Without the passage of time to allow the consumption to occur, was fire really fire? Did that make smoke something new? Something different?--it hung in the air silently and she passed by it, slid against it, but didn't cut through it. She could feel it, but she couldn't touch it.

She could never touch anything.

The grates were cold underneath her feet. It was the cold of space leaking through the hull, she could hear the silence pounding against the outside, clawing to get in. She frowned and looked up and then down again. She was standing at the end of the way. A gaping hole stretched out before her, unfurled into the open space beyond.

Smoke pooled, stretched upward toward a sky that didn't exist. Wires sparked, and red lights echoed klaxon calls against the numbered levels. She looked down and the world melted until she was looking up, standing in the center of the shaft, staring up at the gaping hole she was staring down from. The bulkheads were clean, organized, grey. Numbers marked their way up, but she couldn't read them.

She could never read anything.

“River!”

The word shot through her head and split it like glass. A chip tumbled down, and her hands curled around her face to catch the rest of her-she didn't break apart, but the glass resounded in sharp, pounding blows. Her vision blurred and her hands were covered in blood when she pulled them away. She was bleeding, but the hands before her were not hers-they were not covered in her own blood.

A drop tumbled down and, as it struck the ground, the world came back to life.

The ground rocked and buckled, and she with it. Her footing was shot and she was thrown against the wall-it made no sound as she impacted it, but the slapping of boots on grating was loud enough already. An explosion tore the deck and shards of metal rained down.

“Quickly, the coupling on tube four is about to blow out!”

The smoke around and above her rippled as invisible men burst through it, racing across solid things. She watched their shadows, heard their footfalls, and listened to their words. She couldn't see them-they couldn't see her, not really. The metal groaned and wept in pain and River heard the outside beating to come in.

“Down there, goddammit, let it blow, the bulkhead's about to compromise!”

The klaxon shorted out and the lights flickered-white became red and red became nothing. Darkness engulfed everything, but River could still see. She could always see, but never with her eyes. Red flares tumbled across grating and flickered like candles in a storm. The ground rolled and a scream tumbled down to her. It hit the ground with a crack and soaked her in blood-perfectly visible and intransient. It was cold.

“We can't take another hit, the whole deck is spaced!”

Panic seized the voices in the dark and her brow furrowed as she tried to look away. She turned her eyes, but she could still see-always see.

“Get a hold of yourself, Mc'Kenna-Fuck, where's Olsen? De'Martinez? Tr'va?” Orders bellowed over an over-comm and she couldn't hear them, couldn't understand them, couldn't read the words over sound. She whimpered quietly and the glass in her head crackled against itself. She clutched her head as a second shard tumbled down.

“Tr'va was spaced when deck two blew out!”

“Get outta 'ere! At's an order!” a voice shook out and she closed her eyes. Invisible figures darted across catwalks and the smoke parted as the last of them fell. Her vision focused on something she could not see, could not feel, and she watched nothing fall through the smoke and air until it landed before her. The metal parted, melted away, and the outside forced itself inside.

One by one, the lights went out.

“River! Please, River!”

The fire wasn't fire anymore, the lights were dark, and the sound wasn't sound because there was no one to hear it. The outside was cold, and her hands were gone when she opened her eyes to see them.

The world lurched and she was sitting in the medical bay--Don't sit there, River. Chairs make better chairs than cabinets. Her eyes ghosted across the surfaces, the cold collected room, and she frowned as the calmness parted and the world came back to itself in front of her.

“Get her on the table!” Simon shouted, his panic was palpable as Jayne and Mal held her by the torso and legs. She was thrashing, twisting, gurgling as they lashed her down to the medical bed. Her head swung back and clipped the edge of the bed and Simon snarled at Jayne, “Goddammit! Keep her still!”

“By the verse, 'the fuck is wrong with this kid?” Jayne snapped back as River arched and pulled at the restraints. Her fingers caught on her thighs and dug deep into the flesh there.

“Jayne, stop askin' and start helpin'!” Mal shouted as Simon clambered through his cabinets, flinging bottles from his path and scrambling to find his instruments. Kaylee cowered behind Inara and the threshold of the medical bay. Inara frowned and Zoe brushed past her with an armful of gauze and Simon's medical kit.

“Get her hands out of her legs,” Zoe snapped and pried River's hands away from herself before holding them down against the table.

“Quickly, I need the dermal lavage pads and a bottle of Thorazine,” Simon snapped as he flicked on the machines and snapped a cuff onto River's arm. River watched with wide eyes, perched upon the cabinet, out of sight, as she thrashed against the table, against the metal as though it would bend. The machines screamed and beeped urgently and Simon swore politely as he stuck her chest with a long, imposing needle.

The reaction was instantaneous-River watched as she collapsed against the table, limp and twitching like a bird with a broken neck. Mal and Zoe released her arms and Jayne her legs, and Simon barked orders at them. Kaylee shivered as they brought Simon his bottles, his needles, and his tools. One by one they passed across her head, a flashlight in her eyes, a depressor on her tongue, a shot in either arm, and River watched herself gurgle and twitch-her eyes rolled back and, like feedback on a monitor, she could see what she saw and see herself seeing herself.

“River,” Simon pleaded as her heart jumped erratically. His voice was broken and sad, and River climbed down off the cabinet. “River! Please, River!” He leaned in and pressed his forehead against her chest-the room was loud and too quiet all at once. “Don't do this,” he begged, “come back.”

River passed around Mal, and Jayne, and Zoe, and leaned across herself. She could see the crack-where the glass in her head was breaking-and she frowned at it. The world smelled like smoke, and Simon, and cold, and she could feel a shard missing from her mind. Simon sobbed and her attention focused on him-on his warm head, his soft hair, his heart--“River, you'll get better. I know you will because I'm going to make you better.

“It's okay,” River said but the sound was missing because no one here could hear it, “It's okay, Simon, I'm not cracking apart.” She pressed her cheek against the top of his head and gently ran her fingers against his hair. “It stopped.” Her hand slid through his hair and landed on herself.

“It stopped.”

“It stopped,” Simon announced as he toweled his sister's blood off his hands with grim, depressed resignation. His hair was askew, his normally immaculate shirt rumpled, and dark circles had formed under his eyes during the last few hours in medical. “For now. But this episode was...well.”

“Way worse than normal, weren't it?” Kaylee supplied with a squeak and Simon cast a heavy-lidded glance in her direction-she was seated on the couch, her knees drawn up to her chin, hiding behind herself. Though Simon nodded, he didn't have time to answer.

“Course' it were, every one of us could see that,” Mal replied and saved Simon the effort. Mal ran his fingers through his hair and started pacing a short line across the room-Inara watched him with wide, damp eyes and gently rubbed Kaylee's back. “Question is, what do we do, Doc?”

“I,” Simon began and his voice faltered. All eyes were locked on him as he cast a glance over his shoulder-the sight of the medical bay made him flinch as through he'd been struck and he turned back reflexively. “I don't know.” Simon twisted the towel in his hands and sighed heavily. “I just...I don't know.”

“Now what'dya mean you don't know?” Jayne snapped at him, a scowl set across his features. “We done took that girl to Miranda-”

“Jayne,” Zoe interjected with flat vehemence.

“No! I ain't done,” Jayne cut back and stood up from where he'd been reclining against the bulkhead, “We took here all the way out to the edge of space an' lost two men ta' do it, an she ain't even better?”

“Jayne,” Mal snapped and leveled an angry glare at the mercenary.

“She's cracked doc,” Jayne kept on even as Mal stepped between him and Simon, “An there's naught we can do for her here.”

“You want to go that way, Jayne?” Mal prompted lowly as he grabbed the larger man by the shirt-front.

“No,” Simon said sharply. “No,” his voice dropped and everyone refocused on him, “He's right.” There was a deafening silence for several seconds as Simon turned and crossed the short distance to the medical bay entrance. “Jayne's right.”

“Yeah,” Jayne started but his bravado was quickly crushed by the severity of the circumstances, “I am.”

“What we need....” Everyone short of Simon turned as Inara stood from the couch. “Is an Allied Cruiser.” Her words fell like lead weights and the silence pitched low. “They'll have the sort of technology you need. Military grade-higher quality and faster response than civilian equivalents.”

“A Cruiser?” Jayne prompted rhetorically and scrubbed at his head. “Gos-se, it'd fuck'n figure.”

“An just how do you plan on getting us onto one of those?” Zoe asked, as though the answer hadn't already been implied.

“We can give ourselves-.”

“With a material translocator,” Inara cut Simon off with such surety that the doctor turned to meet her dark eyes.

“What?” Simon asked, incredulous, and Inara swallowed before stepping around the table.

“We can sneak you aboard with a material translocator,” Inara continued, “It'll be tricky, but we can get you in and out with a little luck and planning.”

“An' just where are we to get one of these,” Mal asked as he released Jayne, honest curiosity in his tone, and folded his arms across his chest.

“I thought they weren't but theoretical,” Kaylee professed in awe and stared, glassy-eyed at Inara.

“Dr. Sungee Saavik,” Inara answered, “He's been working on a prototype since I've known him. I can persuade his son to part with it.”

“His son?” No one was sure who asked, but it didn't really matter.

“Dr. Saavik died last month,” Inara elaborated, “His prototype was near completion.” She cast a hard look at Kaylee and the engineer's eyes opened wide. Kaylee's big eyes darted between the captain, the crew, and finally fell on the broken frame of Simon and the medical bay. She frowned and then inclined her head.

“Get it to me,” Kaylee said with more gravel than anyone had ever heard in her voice, “An' I'll make it work.”

“Sounds like we have a plan,” Mal announced and grabbed Inara by the shoulders, “I could kiss you!”

“I could charge you,” Inara retorted and Mal smiled for the first time in a long time.

“Doc, can you keep her alive long enough for us to get underway?” Mal asked and Simon frowned.

“I can only hope so,” Simon professed honestly and the mood was dampened by the truth in that statement.

“Alright, get to it people,” Mal commanded and the group broke apart to their tasks.

Mal and Inara went straight for the cockpit. Jayne broke the group with a frown and headed for the cargo bay with Zoe. Kaylee was the last to leave, and she did so after several tense seconds of silence, heading for the engine room. As they left, Simon was left alone with the gentle crooning of the appeased medical machinery and the slow, even breathing of his unconscious sister. Wearily, he entered the bay and perched himself on one of the scattered chairs. He watched the peaceful face of his sister for some long time before he fell asleep, and slept fitfully for some long time before he awoke to find his head in someone's lap and fingers in his hair.

“Sleep,” River's lyrical voice commanded him in a hushed whisper. His eyes opened and his vision bled with the sudden brightness of the medical by lights-when his eyes managed to refocus, he could see her tired, bruised face smiling down at him.

“River, Meimei,” Simon started, his voice thick with sleep, and pulled himself away from her as he sat up. “You should be resting,” he reprimanded lightly and pulled her into a hug. The machines behind the bed were off, each neatly composed in its proper place, and the sheets on the bed were done up. How long had she been awake?

“It stopped,” River said against his shoulder and he pulled away to look down at her placid face. “The outside came inside-it put out the lights. It stopped, Simon, it stopped.”

“Oh Meimei...” Simon's heart clenched and he pulled her into a tighter embrace than was probably necessary or recommended. A sob caught in his throat and she wrapped her arms around his waist in response.

“Simon,” she started and she forced herself back a few inches, “You're squishing me.”

“Oh god,” he hissed and instantly released her. “Did I hurt you? How are your ribs?” His fingers ghosted over the side of her gown, checking the bruises and the contusions she'd given herself earlier. She giggled and swatted at his hand. He looked up and she was biting back a smile-he couldn't help but smile in return. “How about the other side?” He bore down on her and ran his fingers mercilessly down her sides-her tight smile degenerated instantly into a fit of laughter and she swatted at his tickling hands.

“Simon-,” she hiccuped for air and practically fell out of her seat, “--it--ah--Simon!” She shrieked and slid out of her chair onto the floor. Simon stopped, wide-eyed, and River giggled at his expression as he helped her up.

“Come on,” Simon said as warmly as he could manage. “Let's get you to bed.” It didn't take much coaxing to get River into the medical bed and tucked in, and her eyes were heavy as he kissed her forehead.

“It'll work, Simon,” River said suddenly, her voice laden with sleep.

“What will?” he asked softly, bracing himself for another string of indecipherable nonsense.

“The translocator,” River explained as her eyes closed.

SECTION 2/?:

“Now I'm not gonna pretend I know what in the hell it is yer' doin', Kaylee'bear,” Mal started, “But I'm thinkin' that's an awful lot of glowing containers with scary lookin' stickers that you got strapped to that tin can.”

“It'll hold, Captain,” Kaylee assured him offhand as she tightened a series of hoses. Something sparked in the pile and she swore quietly as she stuck her arm in to reach it. “I used the expensive tape.”

“Now ain't that just reassuring,” Jayne grumbled, “She used the expensive kind.”

“Well,” Mal began with a wince, “I do suppose she was savin' it for something special.” Kaylee grinned brilliantly as the machine whirred and powered up with a deep thrum. The lights were bright on the pad and the holographic controls sprang to life across the glass plates. She heaved a cheerful sigh and leaned back to admire her handiwork.

“I think I got it,” Kaylee announced-the smile on her face was short lived as the display flickered and the machine powered down with a short, resonating thump. “Fang xin, Captain-I'll get her up and shiny,” Kaylee promised frantically as she dove under the platform again.

“We use this piece of fei wu and we're gonna end up dead or worse,” Jayne complained flatly and there was no immediate rebuttal.

“I don't see we have much of a choice,” Zoe commented after several seconds and handed Kaylee the wrench she'd been blindly grabbing for. Something flickered in the array of cathodes and panels, and all three of the bystanders winced and took a healthy step back.

The lights on the ship flickered and Simon hesitated as he wandered from the medical bay toward Kaylee's current project. Inara had managed to acquire it-with a healthy portion of her personal wealth and an extensive display of charm-approximately a week ago and Kaylee had been working on it ever since. Unfortunately, it had been less completed than any of them had initially believed, but Kaylee soldiered on with determination.

Repeatedly, Simon had considered the consequences should he turn both himself and River in to the alliance and repeatedly he'd come to the conclusion that she wouldn't receive any more aid from them than she was receiving here. He was reluctant to depend so heavily on the favors of his crew mates, but he was too desperate and too polite to question them. As he crossed the threshold onto the platform above the cargo bay, he couldn't help the smile that spread across his face as he watched his friends below.

“How are they doing?” Simon asked as he knelt next to River. She was perched on the catwalk, as often was her wont, and had her legs and hands folded in an imitation of the Buddha sticker someone had slapped on the far wall. She cocked her head to the side, but didn't look at him as he sat down beside her.

“I don't know,” River answered and took a deep breath.

“Haven't you been watching?” Simon asked, confused.

“My eyes are closed,” River answered, slow and patronizing, as though she were explaining the most obvious thing in the world. Simon fought back a smile as he watched her furrow her brow.

“What are you up to?” Simon asked and River sighed heavily before turning her head in his direction and opening her eyes.

“I am trying to meditate,” River replied and Simon arched an eyebrow.

“You know how to meditate?”

“No,” River answered and resettled herself into the pose she'd mirrored, “That is why I am trying.”

“Ah, I see,” Simon lied and River didn't answer him. They sat in silence and, as Kaylee managed to blow the starboard coupling fuse by rerouting ships power to the pad, River calmly slipped into her own mind.

She could hear, but the world was dark-it was often, she found, that she couldn't see something, anything, nothing. Birds chirped along the periphery of her perception, and she heard Kaylee complain about power routing and equations in tandem.

“It never occurred to me to think of space as the thing that was moving.”

It was snowing, she could hear it-the space between the flakes resonated and rushed past as it became water; crashing, falling, beating water that fell to the floor and broke apart against the concrete. The concrete was tile, the tile a carpet, and the carpet concrete again before she could hear anything. Words rolled by endlessly and she could see hear a long procession of digits tick by like seconds past a clock.

“River?”

She winced as the real-surreal sound rang out. The numbers scattered and she opened her eyes to find Simon standing over her with a tray-protein slurry and water-he smiled, though his eyes were worried, and she took the tray from him. Below her, the cargo bay was deserted but for the overhauled, patchwork translocator in the center of the bay. Several hours must have passed.

“It never occurred to me either,” River admitted and Simon's eyebrows went up.

“What didn't?” Simon prompted and River looked down at her slurry. A few seconds passed and she smiled.

“You make the best soup, Simon,” she said as she picked up the combination spoon-fork and shoveled some of the flavorless slurry into her mouth. “I always love it when you cook,” she continued around the spoon and Simon shot her an amused and reproachful smile.

“Not with your mouth full, Meimei,” Simon said and River rolled her eyes. He hesitated where he stood for a moment, and then turned to walk away as she continued to eat.

“She okay?” Mal prompted as Simon returned to the dining room and sat down with his own dinner.

“She's not worse, that I can see,” Simon answered reluctantly and Mal clucked his tongue, “But there's no telling what will set off another episode.”

“Well, Kaylee's got the Translocator running,” Zoe pointed out and Kaylee beamed.

“It looks ta' have a pretty impressive range,” Kaylee explained, “Probably get something down to surface from high orbit, if I power 'er right.”

“Assumin' you don't go and blow all the fuses at once,” Jayne grumbled and Kaylee swatted his arm.

“I'm thinkin' positive here!” Kaylee defended in a tight whisper, as though Simon couldn't hear her.

“And I'm positive yer' gonna scramble us up something fierce,” Jayne came back in a hushed tone and Mal cleared his throat.

“We're still in orbit 'round Athena.” Mal folded his hands across the table and glanced at Kaylee and Jayne. “We'll test it come dawn planet-side and if she works,” Mal said and Kaylee looked smug, “if she works, we'll try 'er out on some small critter first.”

“I ain't no small critter,” Jayne defended with a stoicism inappropriate for that particular comment.

“That,” Inara replied, “we know with absolute certainty.”

“Well, I ain't, “Jayne pouted, “Just so we don't get any ideas 'bout testing it with me.”

The conversation continued and, eventually, it was decided that the first test on the Material Translocator would have to be organic matter. If it couldn't transport organic matter, the whole plan was shot. Protein slurry wouldn't cut it, Mal had explained, due to the general inability to determine whether its molecules had been scrambled or not. After a long process of elimination, they decided to transport Inara's ficus first, then Kaylee's newly acquired parakeet, Jim, then Jayne, much to his chagrin. As dawn spread over the northern hemisphere of Athena, Serenity dropped off Zoe and Inara planet-side and took off into concurrent orbit.

“Ready down here when you are,” Zoe announced into her walkie-talkie turned communicator. In the cargo-bay, her voice crackled slightly as it came through the ship wide speakers.

“Alright, Mr. Ficus,” Kaylee crooned as she set the plant down in the center of the six-foot diameter pad and scuttled back. “It's time to go where no plant has gone before.”

“A bit melodramatic there, Kaylee,” Mal cut in as Kaylee adjusted her safety goggles and engaged the power relays on the translocator. The pad hummed to life and Serenity's engines groaned at the power drain.

“Sorry, Captain,” Kaylee said in as unapologetic a voice as he'd ever heard. “Engaging the Material Translocator in three,” Kaylee grinned and held her hand over the holographic control. “Two.”

“Oh just push it already,” Jayne snapped and Kaylee rolled her eyes before pulling the immaterial switch. The machine made a strange crackling sound, whined high, and then with an implosive surge and a crack, the ficus was gone. Several seconds passed and the crew, as they were gathered in the cargo-bay, stared at the pad in silence.

“Well,” Mal broke the stillness and held up his walkie-talkie, “It's not here anymore. You got yourself a ficus down there, Zoe?”

“Had,” Zoe's voice came back and there was a brief surge of static as the walkie-talkie changed hands on their end.

“It appeared about ten feet above us,” Inara explained with a short, sad lilt. “It was a good plant, shame it had to crash like that.”

“Did it reassemble properly?” Simon prompted, an edge of hope creeping into his voice.

“Yeah, yeah,” Kaylee seconded, “Get to the important part!”

“As someone who's about to take a trip on that there whatzit,” Jayne interrupted, “I'd think appearin' ten feet above where I were supposed ta' is an important part.” Kaylee waved off his comment and eyed Mal cheerfully.

“So,” Mal ventured cautiously, “It still looks good and whole? Aside from the whole being smashed debacle?”

“Good and whole as they come, Captain,” Zoe's voice responded lightly and everyone in the cargo bay heaved a sigh of relief and joy. “Ready to receive the second subject.”

“Okay then, Jayne-.”

“Kaylee,” Mal warned and Kaylee pouted.

“But Captain...”

“Now you know well as I, Jayne don't fly so good,” Mal came back and Jayne looked conversely relieved and affronted. “Put that bird in the hot-seat and let's get this experiment on way.”

“Oh...alright,” Kaylee hesitated as she reprogrammed the coordinates. With a heavy sigh, she picked up the plain, white cage and eyed the tiny blue and yellow bird within it. “Now, Jim,” she said in a small voice as she reached inside and plucked the bird out, “I don't know you very well, but I'd appreciate it iff'n you didn't die or fly off, alright?”

“Get on with it, now, Kaylee'bear,” Mal warned and Kaylee huffed as she set the bird in the center of the pad.

“Ready to go, Captain,” she answered stalwartly and frowned at the tiny bird before depressing the holographic switch again. The machine whirred and, with a pop-whoosh-crack, the bird was gone. “G'bye, Jim.”

“Zoe?” Mal hazarded and released the button on his walkie-talkie.

“Well Captain, near as I can figure, it's okay.” A tense silence followed that statement and Mal frowned as he waited for a response. “It's difficult to tell, as it flew away right after it appeared.”

“Jim made it?” Kaylee asked, bright-eyed.

“Jim made it?” Mal repeated into the com and Zoe hummed back an affirmative.

“That he did, sir. Right on the ground and everything.”

“Alright!” Kaylee cheered and her grin widened as she locked her goggle-clad eyes on Jayne. “Hup to it, Mr. Cobb.”

“He chu sheng za jiao de zang huo!” Jayne snatched his hat off his head and threw it to the ground as Mal turned and motioned him to the pad. With unnecessarily heavy steps, the mercenary stalked into the translocator and shot an icy glare at Kaylee. “You best not mess this up,” he warned and she laughed.

“If I do,” Kaylee taunted, “at least it shouldn't hurt!” Jayne's eyes went wide and he opened his mouth to shout something but it never came out as Kaylee flipped the switch and activated the translocator. With a significantly heftier pop and a rumbling crack that shook the floor and caused the lights to flicker, Jayne vanished from the pad. There was silence as the lights crackled and slowly came back to full strength. No one moved and Mal stared at his walkie-talkie with hesitation. As he was about to depress the button, the speakers squealed violently and Jayne's voice exploded through the room.

“Kaylee, when I git' my hands on you, I swear I'mma rip a new-“

“Good to hear you alive an' kickin,” Mal cut him off as he depressed his own end of the walkie-talkie. “Kaylee, step two?”

“Right-o, Captain,” Kaylee saluted and scowled at the holographic controls as she quickly flipped through a number of indecipherable pages at speeds most computers would envy. The first step-successful transport down-was the easy one. The hard part-successful transport back-was the real kicker. Getting back off the Alliance Cruiser would be near impossible without the translocator.

“Coordinates locked,” Kaylee read out as she pulled a series of targets apart in the air, “expanding sphere to five-foot radius,” she explained and her tongue shot out to moisten her lips as she eyed the switch. “And we are go.”

The lights surged and three of the bulbs overhead burst as the machine engaged. There was a loud crack-the ship groaned and lurched slightly-and the engines whined as they failed and restarted with a kick. Mal stumbled to the wall and, after several seconds, managed to activate the emergency lighting. The red lights flickered on and the grin that split his face was unparalleled-on the pad and across the floor all around it, a thick pad of prairie and three of his crew mates had appeared.

“We dead yet?” Jayne asked first and Inara laughed.

“It would seem not,” Simon supplied and River cocked her head to the side as she examined them from afar.

“Good,” Jayne muttered and stalked off the pad. “I'll be in my bunk with a bottle of whiskey. If you need me, don't.”

“To boldly go,” River repeated and Kaylee let out a whoop of joy and a shout--('Take that relativistic physics!')

And there we have it. I like how it's going to be halfway through section 3 or the beginning of 4 before they actually even arrive in the StarTrekXI!Universe. Ah well, another reason I'm not posting it on FF.net till it's done.

Also can anyone else feel the Mirror, Mirror in this fic already? XD; Cause I can.