(no subject)
This is my first ever attempt at fan fiction. I just really wanted more about
Serenity's crew, so I made up my own, and now I'd like to share it, for what it's
worth.
This story falls somewhere in between "Objects in Space" and the movie
"Serenity".
Main action centers around Kaylee, Mal, and River.
Viewpoints are Kaylee and Mal.
It gets a G rating (unless somebody swore in English and I've forgotten)
Well, here goes.
========================
Who's Gonna Fix the Ship?
Kaylee was dreaming. She smiled in her sleep and reached out to stroke the metal
bulkhead next to her bunk. Her eyes flew open and the smile vanished. The ship
was quiet-too quiet. She was accustomed to the subtle vibration that ran through
the ship, reassuring her, awake or asleep, that all was well with Serenity. Now,
the panel under her hand was as still and inert as a dirt-side house.
She was already scrambling into her coveralls when the com came to life and Mal's
voice said, "Kaylee, wake up. We've got a situation."
"I know, Cap'n. I'm on my way down to check it out." Hastily she shoved her feet
into her boots and went up the ladder from her room. She ran down the passage to
the engine room, going through all the possibilities in her mind. They'd been
pushing the limits of their luck with repairs lately. The last job had gone sour
and they hadn't gotten paid, so Kaylee's list of parts that needed replacing had
been pushed back-again. She had a pretty good idea of what might have caused
this. There were two main probabilities. One she could jury-rig a bypass for and
get Serenity running again, or at least limping. The other…
Kaylee still had nightmares about the time the catalyzer had blown. She'd wake up
shaking with the image of flames rushing at her down the passage in front of her
eyes. They'd come so close to losing the captain, and Zoe, and Serenity, and
possibly all their lives.
She looked for the worst case first. If the primary converter was blown, here was
nothing she could do without a replacement part-which they didn't have. It would
be the situation with the catalyzer all over again.
The converter was functional, showing only a little deterioration since the last
time she'd checked it. Kaylee closed her eyes for a moment, weak with relief.
"That's my good girl," she whispered. "You just hang in there and we'll get you
fixed up right just as soon as the Cap'n finds us another job."
Then she opened her eyes and lay down on her back to check that grav-feed
coupling she'd been worried about. A stream of curses in two languages burst out
of her at what she saw.
The others were gathered on the bridge. They fell silent as she came through the
hatch. Seven anxious faces, and River, turned to look at her. Kaylee hesitated.
She'd failed them again. They depended on her to keep Serenity in good shape.
Then Mal said "Kaylee, what've we got?" His voice was brisk, business like. There
was no censure in it.
Kaylee squared her shoulders and faced the Captain. "It ain't good, Cap'n, but it
could be worse. Grav-feed coupling shorted out against the housing and the
magnetic shielding on the primary transducer reversed polarity, so..."
Mal listened attentively, but with the glazed look he always wore when she tried
to explain engine stuff. So did the others, mostly.
River was following the explanation intently, and she gave Mal a disgusted look
when he interrupted with his standard, half-joking, "Now I need you to give me
that in Captain Dummy talk."
She spread her grease-covered hands. "Engine stopped. We're drifting."
"I had noticed that myself. Can you fix it?"
"I think so, Cap'n. Might take some time."
"Life support?"
"Engine's stopped, so main life support's down, of course."
"Auxiliary?" He controlled his voice well, but they all knew he was remembering
those long hours alone in the cold with a dwindling air supply, bleeding and in
pain.
Kaylee hunched her shoulders a little, but looked him in the eye. "Ain't been
recharged like it should'a been."
"How long?"
"4, maybe 5 hours before it starts gettin' cold. Maybe a bit longer if we're real
careful with power."
He nodded "Alright, We shut down everything but life support and navigation." he
turned to the pilot. "Wash, what's the status on navigation?"
"Navigation is fine. We can see where we're going. Don't do us much good though,
without any power to steer with."
"I still like to see where I'm going. Let's move, people."
Kaylee lingered and Mall looked at her expectantly.
"Something on your mind, Kaylee?"
"Cap'n I'm real sorry. I should have took better care of her."
Gently, but firmly he said, "Don't have time for that now. You just get down
there and shut down everything that ain't keepin' us alive. That'll buy us some
time for you to get us goin' again."
"Yes sir, Cap'n." She turned and ran toward the engine room.
Quick as a monkey, she scrambled up the ladder to reach the main breaker that
controlled the interior lighting. With a series of quick flicks, she plunged
Serenity into darkness.
"Oh!" Belatedly she remembered that she always had trouble getting down from
there in the dark. Her right found a rung and she put her weight on it, groping
down with her left. But the grease on her hands had made the rungs slippery, and
her foot slipped, and then her hand did too. She felt a sudden stabbing pain as
her chin hit the ladder. Her last conscious thought was "Who's gonna fix the
ship?"
The emergency light in his hand sent darting shadows ahead of him as Mal strode
down the darkened passage. He was muttering to himself in the random mixture of
English and Chinese he tended to use when he was angry. "What's wrong with the
gorram girl? Why ain't she answer…" He broke off with a curse as the light
revealed Kaylee's crumpled body at the foot of the ladder.
"Doc! Get down here," he yelled into the com. Then he was kneeling at her side.
There was an ugly wound on her chin, and blood trickled from the corner of her
mouth. Jaw clenched with the effort to keep his hand steady, Mal cautiously felt
for a pulse. Kaylee moaned a little when his fingers touched her skin. "It's OK,
mei mei" he told her. "I'm here." Remembering what Simon had told him about neck
injuries, he gingerly placed his hands on either side of her head. "Don't try to move,
Kaylee. I got you. Just take it easy. Doc's gonna fix you up."
Simon arrived, bag in hand and out of breath. He dropped to his knees beside Mal
and placed his fingers on Kaylee's throat to check for a pulse.
"Looks like she fell, doc."
"You haven't moved her, have you?" Simon demanded accusingly.
"Nope. Not a bit."
Zoe and Jane had been right on Simon's heels. Shepard Book and Inara came up
behind them.
Simon glanced over his shoulder. "Somebody get a stretcher."
They carried Kaylee to the infirmary and transferred her to the bed there. She
moaned a little from time to time and once she seemed to be trying to say
something. Mal was sure he heard "Cap'n" and "Serenity" but there wasn't enough
to make any sense of it.
Simon went about his work with his usual earnest intensity, but Mal thought he
was looking more strained than usual.
"She's gonna be alright, ain't she Doc?" asked Jane.
Simon just said "I need room to work here."
They all backed away, but no one left the infirmary. Wash came in quietly and
went to stand next to Zoe. She reached out and took his hand in hers.
Simon ran scans and studied the readouts. Suddenly he burst out with a Chinese
curse none of them had thought he even knew.
"What is it?" demanded Mal. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong," retorted the young doctor angrily, "is yet another injury I could
repair easily if I only had the equipment. What's wrong is that she'd heal on her
own with rest and time, but she hasn't got the time because this gorram ship has
broken down - again. What's wrong is that we're all going to die!"
"What's wrong with Kaylee?" the captain asked in a quiet tone that made the rest
of the crew take a cautious step back.
"With Kaylee? Nothing that a neck brace and a few days of rest wouldn't take care
of. Only she doesn't have a few days. He gestured wildly in frustration. "None of
us do."
Mal's fists clenched, but they stayed at his side.
Inara went to the doctor and put a soothing hand on his arm. "Calm down, Simon."
She said gently. "Please tell us how Kaylee is hurt."
Simon sighed and his shoulders sagged as the rage went out of him. "Concussion
and a hairline fracture of the first cervical vertebra." He said. Then, seeing
the blank looks, he explained "It looks like she slipped and hit her chin on the
ladder. She got knocked out. The scans don't show any damage to her brain. She'll
probably wake up soon."
"What else?" asked Mal. "That ain't all, not by the way you went off."
"No, it's not. She also has a broken bone in her neck."
Inara gave a little gasp.
Shepard Book exclaimed, "Poor child!"
A polyglot of oaths burst from the others.
"It's not a major injury, under ordinary circumstances. It's not displaced.
There's no nerve damage yet. She just has to stay immobile until the bones set.
If we were anywhere near civilization, I could operate and repair the vertebra
and she'd be back on her feet in a day or two. Here…" he waved his arms to
indicate the limited facilities of Serenity's infirmary. "I don't even have a
gorram cervical collar." He turned back to Kaylee and pressed a syringe to the
side of her neck.
"What's that you're giving her?" demanded Mal.
"Muscle relaxant to keep her from moving when she wakes up. And to keep the neck
muscles from going into spasm and pulling on the broken bone."
"So if Kaylee can't move," said Jane slowly. "Who's gonna fix the ship?"
Kaylee made a sound. Everyone looked at her. Her eyes were open. She was trying
to speak, but only incoherent fragments came out. Simon placed a finger on her
lips. "Hush. Don't try to talk yet. You hit your head and injured you neck. I had
to give you something to relax your muscles to keep you from moving around when
you started to wake up. You just lie still now."
Kaylee only struggled harder to speak. What came out was no more than a hoarse
whisper and many of the words were slurred. "N…no. No. Got…gotta talk Cap'n!"
Her eyes moved desperately from one face to another until she found Mal. "Cap'n"
Mal was at her side instantly. "I'm here, Kaylee."
She was trying to form words, but her mouth wasn't working right and most of the
sounds she made were unintelligible.
"She's confused," Simon said. "From the head injury. It should pass in a few
hours. If we have a few hours."
"Without Kaylee to get us running again, we don't," said Mal. "Wash, you got that
beacon going?"
"It's going, Mal, but we're a long way from anyplace. There ain't much chance
that anyone will hear it in time to do us any good."
"She's not confused," said River, peering around the edge of the door. "She knows
what she wants to say. You just can't hear it."
Kaylee tried to talk again. "G…gotta t' tell Ca…cap'n …Cap'n got tell…"
"She's getting agitated" said Simon anxiously. "That's a bad sign, after a head
injury." He picked up another syringe.
Kaylee's eyes grew wide with fear. "No no no!" She desperately looked at the
captain. "Cap'n no."
Mal's hand shot out and gripped Simon's as he moved the syringe toward Kaylee's
neck.
Simon looked up, puzzled. "It's just a sedative. The head injury is making her
agitated."
"Might be. Might not." said Mal. "I'm feeling a might agitated my own self, and I
ain't been hit in the head lately. Could be you're right and she's mixed up from
bangin' her head. Or it could be she's got something she needs to say. Under the
circumstances I've a preference for letting her try to get it out." He looked
back at Kaylee. Her eyes were filled with tears. In a voice that was suddenly
gentle, he said "Hey now. None of that. We'll get through this. We always do,
don't we?" Her eyes went anxiously to the syringe Simon still held. "Don't worry,
mei mei, I'm not gonna let him dope you if you don't want it."
"She knows what's wrong," said River, at his elbow.
He jumped and swore. "Gorram it girl, don't creep up on a man like that!"
In one of her startling and unpredictable flashes of "normal" River smiled
briefly and said "Sorry." Then her eyes unfocused and her voice turned dreamy
again. "She makes good pictures. Sharp and clear." She tilted her head from side
to side. "All black and melty... yes... there and there..." Her voice had a
sing-song quality. "green to blue...blue to yellow..." Suddenly she looked Kaylee
straight in the eyes and said "Of course!" Then she turned and ran from the infirmary.
"River!" Simon called. "River, come back."
He started after her, but Kaylee whispered "No" and Mal grabbed his arm.
"Let her go." Without taking his eyes off Kaylee's, he said "Shepard, Zoe, go
after her. Watch her, but don't interfere with her unless I tell you to." He
patted Kaylee's hand.
"Captain," Simon addressed Mal hesitantly, the way he always did when he was
convinced he was dealing with a madman. "I don't understand."
"Not sure I do myself, Doc," Mal replied.
Zoe's voice came over the com. "Captain she's in the engine room. She's…Hey! Stop
that! Captain she's doing things to our engine. Are you sure you don't want me to
stop her?"
Looking at Kaylee, Mal tilted his head and lifted one eyebrow slightly. She
mouthed "no".
"Nope," he told Zoe, "Just leave her be."
"Captain," objected Simon, I really don't think…" he never finished that
sentence. Just then Serenity hummed to life.
"What the…?" Jane muttered, looking around as if he expected to find an
explanation there in the infirmary.
"She's going again!" exclaimed Wash.
A burst of astonished exclamations in mingled English and Chinese came over the
com, followed by "Captain I don't believe this. I saw it with my own eyes and I
still don't believe it. That girl fixed the engine!"
Mal smiled. "So she did," he said, patting Kaylee's hand again. "It's gonna be
OK," he told her.
"What?" said Simon, gaping with astonishment.
"River fixed the ship." The captain told him blandly. "Now why don't you see what
you can do about getting my mechanic back on her feet?"
Simon opened and closed his mouth a few times before he could make any words come
out. Finally he said. "Fine. I'll need to borrow your pilot for a while."
"Sure. You just go ahead and do whatever you need to do. I'll be on the bridge."
He gave Kaylee's hand a final squeeze and left the infirmary. Simon stared after
him.
"What was it you wanted my help with?" asked Wash.
"You're pretty good at jury rigging," replied the doctor. "Here's what I need..."
By the time the drug Simon had given Kaylee had worn off, he and Wash had managed
to construct a neck brace that the doctor felt confident in.
"It's not pretty," he told Kaylee as he fitted it around her neck and secured it
with gray utility tape. "But it will keep your neck immobilized until it heals."
"So I can get up now?" Kaylee asked.
"Carefully. Don't try to move fast, and don't even think about going near the
engine room unless you've got someone there to be your hands."
"Yes sir, doctor."
Mal was alone on the bridge when he heard a soft tap on the bulkhead. He turned
and saw River standing just outside the hatch.
"River." He gestured for her to join him.
"Made a sound." She said as she stepped through the hatch. "No creeping."
"I appreciate that." They were silent for a moment. Then he said "You did good
today. You fixed the ship. I guess that makes you a hero."
River glanced at him with a mysterious little smile "Big damn hero?" she asked
teasingly.
Mal looked at her in surprise. "You remember that, do you? Yep, I reckon so. Big
damn hero, that's what you are."
River didn't answer. The two of them sat in companionable silence and watched the
stars as Serenity moved steadily through the endless sky.
Serenity's crew, so I made up my own, and now I'd like to share it, for what it's
worth.
This story falls somewhere in between "Objects in Space" and the movie
"Serenity".
Main action centers around Kaylee, Mal, and River.
Viewpoints are Kaylee and Mal.
It gets a G rating (unless somebody swore in English and I've forgotten)
Well, here goes.
========================
Who's Gonna Fix the Ship?
Kaylee was dreaming. She smiled in her sleep and reached out to stroke the metal
bulkhead next to her bunk. Her eyes flew open and the smile vanished. The ship
was quiet-too quiet. She was accustomed to the subtle vibration that ran through
the ship, reassuring her, awake or asleep, that all was well with Serenity. Now,
the panel under her hand was as still and inert as a dirt-side house.
She was already scrambling into her coveralls when the com came to life and Mal's
voice said, "Kaylee, wake up. We've got a situation."
"I know, Cap'n. I'm on my way down to check it out." Hastily she shoved her feet
into her boots and went up the ladder from her room. She ran down the passage to
the engine room, going through all the possibilities in her mind. They'd been
pushing the limits of their luck with repairs lately. The last job had gone sour
and they hadn't gotten paid, so Kaylee's list of parts that needed replacing had
been pushed back-again. She had a pretty good idea of what might have caused
this. There were two main probabilities. One she could jury-rig a bypass for and
get Serenity running again, or at least limping. The other…
Kaylee still had nightmares about the time the catalyzer had blown. She'd wake up
shaking with the image of flames rushing at her down the passage in front of her
eyes. They'd come so close to losing the captain, and Zoe, and Serenity, and
possibly all their lives.
She looked for the worst case first. If the primary converter was blown, here was
nothing she could do without a replacement part-which they didn't have. It would
be the situation with the catalyzer all over again.
The converter was functional, showing only a little deterioration since the last
time she'd checked it. Kaylee closed her eyes for a moment, weak with relief.
"That's my good girl," she whispered. "You just hang in there and we'll get you
fixed up right just as soon as the Cap'n finds us another job."
Then she opened her eyes and lay down on her back to check that grav-feed
coupling she'd been worried about. A stream of curses in two languages burst out
of her at what she saw.
The others were gathered on the bridge. They fell silent as she came through the
hatch. Seven anxious faces, and River, turned to look at her. Kaylee hesitated.
She'd failed them again. They depended on her to keep Serenity in good shape.
Then Mal said "Kaylee, what've we got?" His voice was brisk, business like. There
was no censure in it.
Kaylee squared her shoulders and faced the Captain. "It ain't good, Cap'n, but it
could be worse. Grav-feed coupling shorted out against the housing and the
magnetic shielding on the primary transducer reversed polarity, so..."
Mal listened attentively, but with the glazed look he always wore when she tried
to explain engine stuff. So did the others, mostly.
River was following the explanation intently, and she gave Mal a disgusted look
when he interrupted with his standard, half-joking, "Now I need you to give me
that in Captain Dummy talk."
She spread her grease-covered hands. "Engine stopped. We're drifting."
"I had noticed that myself. Can you fix it?"
"I think so, Cap'n. Might take some time."
"Life support?"
"Engine's stopped, so main life support's down, of course."
"Auxiliary?" He controlled his voice well, but they all knew he was remembering
those long hours alone in the cold with a dwindling air supply, bleeding and in
pain.
Kaylee hunched her shoulders a little, but looked him in the eye. "Ain't been
recharged like it should'a been."
"How long?"
"4, maybe 5 hours before it starts gettin' cold. Maybe a bit longer if we're real
careful with power."
He nodded "Alright, We shut down everything but life support and navigation." he
turned to the pilot. "Wash, what's the status on navigation?"
"Navigation is fine. We can see where we're going. Don't do us much good though,
without any power to steer with."
"I still like to see where I'm going. Let's move, people."
Kaylee lingered and Mall looked at her expectantly.
"Something on your mind, Kaylee?"
"Cap'n I'm real sorry. I should have took better care of her."
Gently, but firmly he said, "Don't have time for that now. You just get down
there and shut down everything that ain't keepin' us alive. That'll buy us some
time for you to get us goin' again."
"Yes sir, Cap'n." She turned and ran toward the engine room.
Quick as a monkey, she scrambled up the ladder to reach the main breaker that
controlled the interior lighting. With a series of quick flicks, she plunged
Serenity into darkness.
"Oh!" Belatedly she remembered that she always had trouble getting down from
there in the dark. Her right found a rung and she put her weight on it, groping
down with her left. But the grease on her hands had made the rungs slippery, and
her foot slipped, and then her hand did too. She felt a sudden stabbing pain as
her chin hit the ladder. Her last conscious thought was "Who's gonna fix the
ship?"
The emergency light in his hand sent darting shadows ahead of him as Mal strode
down the darkened passage. He was muttering to himself in the random mixture of
English and Chinese he tended to use when he was angry. "What's wrong with the
gorram girl? Why ain't she answer…" He broke off with a curse as the light
revealed Kaylee's crumpled body at the foot of the ladder.
"Doc! Get down here," he yelled into the com. Then he was kneeling at her side.
There was an ugly wound on her chin, and blood trickled from the corner of her
mouth. Jaw clenched with the effort to keep his hand steady, Mal cautiously felt
for a pulse. Kaylee moaned a little when his fingers touched her skin. "It's OK,
mei mei" he told her. "I'm here." Remembering what Simon had told him about neck
injuries, he gingerly placed his hands on either side of her head. "Don't try to move,
Kaylee. I got you. Just take it easy. Doc's gonna fix you up."
Simon arrived, bag in hand and out of breath. He dropped to his knees beside Mal
and placed his fingers on Kaylee's throat to check for a pulse.
"Looks like she fell, doc."
"You haven't moved her, have you?" Simon demanded accusingly.
"Nope. Not a bit."
Zoe and Jane had been right on Simon's heels. Shepard Book and Inara came up
behind them.
Simon glanced over his shoulder. "Somebody get a stretcher."
They carried Kaylee to the infirmary and transferred her to the bed there. She
moaned a little from time to time and once she seemed to be trying to say
something. Mal was sure he heard "Cap'n" and "Serenity" but there wasn't enough
to make any sense of it.
Simon went about his work with his usual earnest intensity, but Mal thought he
was looking more strained than usual.
"She's gonna be alright, ain't she Doc?" asked Jane.
Simon just said "I need room to work here."
They all backed away, but no one left the infirmary. Wash came in quietly and
went to stand next to Zoe. She reached out and took his hand in hers.
Simon ran scans and studied the readouts. Suddenly he burst out with a Chinese
curse none of them had thought he even knew.
"What is it?" demanded Mal. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong," retorted the young doctor angrily, "is yet another injury I could
repair easily if I only had the equipment. What's wrong is that she'd heal on her
own with rest and time, but she hasn't got the time because this gorram ship has
broken down - again. What's wrong is that we're all going to die!"
"What's wrong with Kaylee?" the captain asked in a quiet tone that made the rest
of the crew take a cautious step back.
"With Kaylee? Nothing that a neck brace and a few days of rest wouldn't take care
of. Only she doesn't have a few days. He gestured wildly in frustration. "None of
us do."
Mal's fists clenched, but they stayed at his side.
Inara went to the doctor and put a soothing hand on his arm. "Calm down, Simon."
She said gently. "Please tell us how Kaylee is hurt."
Simon sighed and his shoulders sagged as the rage went out of him. "Concussion
and a hairline fracture of the first cervical vertebra." He said. Then, seeing
the blank looks, he explained "It looks like she slipped and hit her chin on the
ladder. She got knocked out. The scans don't show any damage to her brain. She'll
probably wake up soon."
"What else?" asked Mal. "That ain't all, not by the way you went off."
"No, it's not. She also has a broken bone in her neck."
Inara gave a little gasp.
Shepard Book exclaimed, "Poor child!"
A polyglot of oaths burst from the others.
"It's not a major injury, under ordinary circumstances. It's not displaced.
There's no nerve damage yet. She just has to stay immobile until the bones set.
If we were anywhere near civilization, I could operate and repair the vertebra
and she'd be back on her feet in a day or two. Here…" he waved his arms to
indicate the limited facilities of Serenity's infirmary. "I don't even have a
gorram cervical collar." He turned back to Kaylee and pressed a syringe to the
side of her neck.
"What's that you're giving her?" demanded Mal.
"Muscle relaxant to keep her from moving when she wakes up. And to keep the neck
muscles from going into spasm and pulling on the broken bone."
"So if Kaylee can't move," said Jane slowly. "Who's gonna fix the ship?"
Kaylee made a sound. Everyone looked at her. Her eyes were open. She was trying
to speak, but only incoherent fragments came out. Simon placed a finger on her
lips. "Hush. Don't try to talk yet. You hit your head and injured you neck. I had
to give you something to relax your muscles to keep you from moving around when
you started to wake up. You just lie still now."
Kaylee only struggled harder to speak. What came out was no more than a hoarse
whisper and many of the words were slurred. "N…no. No. Got…gotta talk Cap'n!"
Her eyes moved desperately from one face to another until she found Mal. "Cap'n"
Mal was at her side instantly. "I'm here, Kaylee."
She was trying to form words, but her mouth wasn't working right and most of the
sounds she made were unintelligible.
"She's confused," Simon said. "From the head injury. It should pass in a few
hours. If we have a few hours."
"Without Kaylee to get us running again, we don't," said Mal. "Wash, you got that
beacon going?"
"It's going, Mal, but we're a long way from anyplace. There ain't much chance
that anyone will hear it in time to do us any good."
"She's not confused," said River, peering around the edge of the door. "She knows
what she wants to say. You just can't hear it."
Kaylee tried to talk again. "G…gotta t' tell Ca…cap'n …Cap'n got tell…"
"She's getting agitated" said Simon anxiously. "That's a bad sign, after a head
injury." He picked up another syringe.
Kaylee's eyes grew wide with fear. "No no no!" She desperately looked at the
captain. "Cap'n no."
Mal's hand shot out and gripped Simon's as he moved the syringe toward Kaylee's
neck.
Simon looked up, puzzled. "It's just a sedative. The head injury is making her
agitated."
"Might be. Might not." said Mal. "I'm feeling a might agitated my own self, and I
ain't been hit in the head lately. Could be you're right and she's mixed up from
bangin' her head. Or it could be she's got something she needs to say. Under the
circumstances I've a preference for letting her try to get it out." He looked
back at Kaylee. Her eyes were filled with tears. In a voice that was suddenly
gentle, he said "Hey now. None of that. We'll get through this. We always do,
don't we?" Her eyes went anxiously to the syringe Simon still held. "Don't worry,
mei mei, I'm not gonna let him dope you if you don't want it."
"She knows what's wrong," said River, at his elbow.
He jumped and swore. "Gorram it girl, don't creep up on a man like that!"
In one of her startling and unpredictable flashes of "normal" River smiled
briefly and said "Sorry." Then her eyes unfocused and her voice turned dreamy
again. "She makes good pictures. Sharp and clear." She tilted her head from side
to side. "All black and melty... yes... there and there..." Her voice had a
sing-song quality. "green to blue...blue to yellow..." Suddenly she looked Kaylee
straight in the eyes and said "Of course!" Then she turned and ran from the infirmary.
"River!" Simon called. "River, come back."
He started after her, but Kaylee whispered "No" and Mal grabbed his arm.
"Let her go." Without taking his eyes off Kaylee's, he said "Shepard, Zoe, go
after her. Watch her, but don't interfere with her unless I tell you to." He
patted Kaylee's hand.
"Captain," Simon addressed Mal hesitantly, the way he always did when he was
convinced he was dealing with a madman. "I don't understand."
"Not sure I do myself, Doc," Mal replied.
Zoe's voice came over the com. "Captain she's in the engine room. She's…Hey! Stop
that! Captain she's doing things to our engine. Are you sure you don't want me to
stop her?"
Looking at Kaylee, Mal tilted his head and lifted one eyebrow slightly. She
mouthed "no".
"Nope," he told Zoe, "Just leave her be."
"Captain," objected Simon, I really don't think…" he never finished that
sentence. Just then Serenity hummed to life.
"What the…?" Jane muttered, looking around as if he expected to find an
explanation there in the infirmary.
"She's going again!" exclaimed Wash.
A burst of astonished exclamations in mingled English and Chinese came over the
com, followed by "Captain I don't believe this. I saw it with my own eyes and I
still don't believe it. That girl fixed the engine!"
Mal smiled. "So she did," he said, patting Kaylee's hand again. "It's gonna be
OK," he told her.
"What?" said Simon, gaping with astonishment.
"River fixed the ship." The captain told him blandly. "Now why don't you see what
you can do about getting my mechanic back on her feet?"
Simon opened and closed his mouth a few times before he could make any words come
out. Finally he said. "Fine. I'll need to borrow your pilot for a while."
"Sure. You just go ahead and do whatever you need to do. I'll be on the bridge."
He gave Kaylee's hand a final squeeze and left the infirmary. Simon stared after
him.
"What was it you wanted my help with?" asked Wash.
"You're pretty good at jury rigging," replied the doctor. "Here's what I need..."
By the time the drug Simon had given Kaylee had worn off, he and Wash had managed
to construct a neck brace that the doctor felt confident in.
"It's not pretty," he told Kaylee as he fitted it around her neck and secured it
with gray utility tape. "But it will keep your neck immobilized until it heals."
"So I can get up now?" Kaylee asked.
"Carefully. Don't try to move fast, and don't even think about going near the
engine room unless you've got someone there to be your hands."
"Yes sir, doctor."
Mal was alone on the bridge when he heard a soft tap on the bulkhead. He turned
and saw River standing just outside the hatch.
"River." He gestured for her to join him.
"Made a sound." She said as she stepped through the hatch. "No creeping."
"I appreciate that." They were silent for a moment. Then he said "You did good
today. You fixed the ship. I guess that makes you a hero."
River glanced at him with a mysterious little smile "Big damn hero?" she asked
teasingly.
Mal looked at her in surprise. "You remember that, do you? Yep, I reckon so. Big
damn hero, that's what you are."
River didn't answer. The two of them sat in companionable silence and watched the
stars as Serenity moved steadily through the endless sky.