(BSG/Firefly) We Are Not Shining Stars (1/2) for skieswideopen
Title: We Are Not Shining Stars
Author: lls_mutant
Fandoms: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Firefly
Characters Sam Anders, Karl Agathon, Kara Thrace, Sharon Agathon; Zoë Washburne, Hoban Washburne, Mal Reynolds, Jayne Cobb, Kaylee Frye, Shepherd Book, Simon Tam, River Tam, Inara Serra
Pairings: Zoë /Wash
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 19,500
Spoilers: Spoilers for BSG up to Resistance and The Plan, general character spoilers for Firefly
Warnings: The Farms come into play
Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica and Firefly belong to their respective creators
A/N: Thanks to infinimato for looking this over!
Summary: It was supposed to be a routine drop on Caprica, before the Cylons attacked. Now the crew of Serenity are among the survivors, but surviving isn't all that easy, especially when two of their own disappear.
Caprica spun beneath them, blue and green and hazed with pollution. "I don't like it," Zoë said flatly, staring down at the planet.
"I don't either, but that's where we're headed." Mal was putting on a light front. "Wash? How's our course?"
"Looking good from here. Want me to wave Patterson and let him know we're here?"
"How long 'til touchdown?"
"I give it twenty minutes."
"Not yet. No sense letting people know we're around before we need to."
"No sense being here at all, sir," Zoë muttered.
Mal glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Money's too good. And in case you ain't noticed, we could really use that right now. I'm thinking that-" the ship rocked violently, sending Mal flying into Zoë. She caught him just in time and righted them both. "What the frak was that?" Mal demanded.
Wash was flipping switches and turning on sensors. "Not a clue. I'm seeing some-" Serenity bucked again, although this time they were all more prepared.
"Wash- land us. Now."
"Not sure I've got much of a choice," Wash said, gripping the controls. "Looks like we're going down no matter what I say."
"We gonna crash?"
"If by crash you mean 'have an extremely rough landing that might tear a few holes in Serenity's hull', yeah. Probably."
"Xiàng gāowán, well make it so that don't happen!"
"I'm trying." Wash's teeth were gritted as he struggled with the controls. Zoë looked out the front window again to see the ground coming up very, very fast. "I see an open- āiyā shénshèng. What the frak?"
It must have been a hundred miles away, but a hundred miles didn't seem all that much right now. A thick pillar of smoke blossomed from the ground, the unmistakable sign of nuclear detonation. "Sir?" Zoë asked, pointing. "You see that?"
Mal stared, slightly open mouthed, and then pointed the opposite direction. "There's another one over there, too. I'm thinking that landing might not be what we want to do."
"No choice," Wash said, and two seconds later Serenity was scraping across the ground. Zoë missed catching the beam and went sprawling across the floor. Mal was caught himself against a wall, and Wash was still in his seat, his hands wrapped so tightly around the controls that the knuckles were white. Finally, Serenity came to a stop. Wash fell back in his seat, gasping.
"What the lǘ dìyù happened in here?" Jayne appeared in the doorway, blood running down one side of his face. Zoë knew the second he looked out the front, because his scowl disappeared and his eyes widened, his face went pale, and his mouth went slack. Not for long, though. "And what the lǘ dìyù is happening out there? Why the frak ain't we getting off this rock?"
"That's a good question, and I'm pretty interested in the answer myself. Wash?"
"No can do, Mal. The screens…" Wash trailed off, and Zoë bent over his shoulder to look. Serenity used a modified DRADIS system for sensing other ships and avoiding collisions, and what it reflected now….
"Oh my- ǎi wú dì wǒmen zài jiānghuì yǔnluò." Mal shook his head. "We are humped."
"I think the whole frakking planet is humped," Wash said. He typed something into the console. "Actually, I think humped is an understatement. These bombs are all over the planet!"
Zoë looked over his shoulder, and as she began to understand what she was seeing, she reached out and wrapped her arms around him. Because they were almost certainly going to die. Wash covered her hands with his and leaned back into her embrace, and they waited for the nuclear explosions to take them all.
***
Five hours later, they were still alive.
The others had all made their way to the cockpit, and were watching out the window as well. After the nuclear blasts had come ships streaking across the sky. They weren't ships that Zoë had ever seen before, especially the crescent shaped ones. They all flew in perfect formation, and even from their great distance they could see that the ships were raining destruction on those below.
"All those people," Kaylee said, tears streaking her face. She leaned into Simon. "How many people?"
"Four billion, eight hundred seventy six million, three hundred eighty two thousand, one hundred and twelve," River said. Kaylee choked on a sob and buried her face in Simon's shoulder.
"You really think them nukes are all over this rock?" Jayne asked. "I mean, we're still livin'."
"Hard to believe," Mal said, rubbing his chin. "Wash, you get anything on the comm yet?"
"Nothing new. Everything I got ended three hours ago, although it sounded like Gemenon and Scorpia have been attacked, too." Wash shifted uncomfortably and looked up at Zoë, then back to Mal. "Mal, who do you think would do this?"
"I ain't got the first idea, but I'm not sure I want to find out. Kaylee? What's it gonna take to get Serenity into the air again?"
Kaylee lifted her face from Simon's shoulder. "It's not gonna take much Captain. All the damage was superficial, and Serenity's spaceworthy. It's just…." She trailed off, looking at Wash. Wash didn't pick up her train of thought, but Zoë did.
"It's just where would we be going, sir? We don't know where else has been attacked. Not to mention that if those ships are still out there-"
"We'll be blown to smithereens," Jayne finished for her. There was no smile on his face or sneer in his voice. Somehow, that made everything seem more real, when even Jayne had to take things seriously.
"Not to dismiss everything else," Simon began, "but is our… client… alive? I mean, he was in an isolated area, right?"
Zoë, Wash, and Mal all exchanged looks, and then Wash picked up the communicator and punched some numbers into the console. Static. Swearing, he fiddled with the dials. "Hello? Hello? Anyone out there?"
Jayne snatched the communicator from him. "Don't do that! You don't know who's listening!"
"He's got a point," Book said. "We still have no idea who is attacking. I say that we-"
"Hello?" The comm unit crackled into life. "Hello? Come in. Who's out there?"
Wash froze, and Zoë couldn't blame him. Jayne had a point. But after a quick glance at Mal, who looked uncertain, Zoë leaned over and picked up the communicator.
"Who is this?"
The voice at the other end was male, and just as suspicious. "Who are you? Are you Caprican?"
There wasn't much to be given away by answering the question. "Tauron. What's the situation?"
"You don't know? You really don't know?"
"Wouldn't be asking if I did know."
"Cylon attack." The man sounded ragged. Unprofessional. He was either one hell of an actor or completely untrained at field communication. "It's the Cylons."
"Cylons?" Mal leaned in. "They ain't been heard from in forty years."
"Yeah, I know, right? But I guess they're tired of keeping quiet." There was ragged breathing. "Look. I've got no idea of where you are or who you are, but you're human, right?"
"Not so sure about the Doc-" Jayne began, but Zoë silenced him with a glare.
"We're human," she said. "Sounds like you might be, too?"
"Yeah. Yeah, we are." There was a pause, and then the speaker said, "My name's Sam Anders."
"Like the Pyramid player?" Wash asked.
"Yeah." There was a bitter laugh at the other end. "The Pyramid player. How many survivors have you got over there?"
"Nine," Zoë said. "What about you?"
"We've got the whole team plus a few- we're up to twenty-seven. Where are you?"
Zoë and Mal exchanged glances. "Why don't you tell us where you are?" Mal said. "We'll come to you."
Anders gave them a set of coordinates. Wash pulled up a map, and Zoë immediately saw that they were only a mile or so away. Mal mopped his face and made a decision. "We'll be there in an hour. But if you've got any weapons-"
"Weapons?" Anders laughed incredulously. "We're a Pyramid team. Where would we get weapons? We'll see you in an hour." The transmission terminated.
She didn't have to wait for orders- the only course of action was clear. Zoë got up and started rooting through the weapons lockers, pulling out what they had. Wash was still sitting at the console, tapping his chin. "You don't think they were the Caprica Buccaneers, do you?" He looked to Book and then Jayne. "Seriously? The Caprica Buccaneers?"
"Don't matter who they are," Mal said, loading a gun. "We're still going armed."
***
The coordinates were a camp, with modern log cabins, green fields with trees all around, and Pyramid training fields. The place was set high in the mountains, with what used to be a beautiful view of Delphi. Well, if you could call Delphi beautiful- Zoë had never liked Caprican cities. Too Colonial, too controlled. Although she'd ever wanted something like this to happen.
"It really is Sam Anders," Inara told Mal as they got closer. "I recognize him."
"Oh yeah? Was he a client?" Mal asked, and not very nicely.
"Hardly." Inara sounded lofty and amused. "I was a Picon Panthers supporter. I would never contract with a C-Buc. But I enjoyed the games."
Fortunately, Anders approached them before Mal could make a retort. He was a handsome man, with an open, friendly face despite the grief and strain that already marked it. He took the group in with a glance and immediately extended his hand to Mal.
"Sam Anders," he said, and gestured back to a group of others. "I can do the rest of the introductions later, but this here's the Caprica Buccaneers, as well as some people who've found their way here."
"Mal Reynolds, and this is my crew." Mal looked around the camp. "Quite a place you've got here."
"Yeah, we were lucky. Too far out to be hit, too high up to have the radiation hit us quite yet." Anders shrugged.
"So what's your plan now?" Mal asked.
"Don't know for sure." Anders was tossing a Pyramid ball from hand to hand. "Like I said, there's about twenty-seven of us- thirty-six if we add in the nine of you."
"It would stand to reason that there might be others out there," Book said. "But the question remains, what do you plan to do with any survivors?"
"And not to be the voice of doom here," Simon added, "but how long can we survive? This whole planet is irradiated."
Anders shrugged again. "To be honest, we don't know yet. All we know is that Cylons attacked, and it sounds like they attacked the whole of the Colonies, not just Caprica. We've got to find out more, but as we do, we've got to stick together."
"Yeah. Give me a second, will ya?" Mal stepped back and ducked his head down to talk to Zoë. "What do you think?"
"Seems like they're in the same pile of trouble we are, sir," Zoë said. "But there's twenty-seven survivors."
"You think there's more?"
"Seems like there should be, sir. It's an awfully big planet."
"Ain't that the truth." Mal sighed and glanced back at Anders. "I'm thinking we stick around for a while. See where this takes us. Ain't much to be gained from going out on our own."
"I was thinking the same thing, sir."
"Good. So either this is the right thing to do, or we're both crazy."
"Like to be the latter, sir."
"Yeah. Probably." Mal sighed and then turned back to Anders. "Mind if we join up with you, then? I've got a feeling we're gonna have a lot of common interests coming up here."
Sam spread his hands out in a gesture of welcome. "The more the merrier." He had a warm, open smile, and Zoë had the sudden feeling that this was absolutely the right thing to do.
***
"You didn't tell them about Serenity," Kaylee said as they made their way into one of the cabins. There were bunks against the walls, and a large table with chairs in the center. The table had cans of food on it. "Shouldn't we tell them-"
"Not yet." Mal was firm. "They seem like good folk, but no sense in telling more than needs told. Not yet. No, I think Serenity's best off where she is for now."
"But we could help," Inara said. "We could transport people, we could search for survivors or supplies."
"Could, but the problem is we don't know what's out there. Whatever it is is like to kill us all, and we ain't exactly got defenses. No weapons, no FTL drive. We get ourselves spotted and we'll be shot down."
"And we only have so much tylium," Zoë added. "We better make sure we know what we're doing with it when we use it."
Inara nodded and retreated, but Kaylee still looked upset. Zoë supposed she couldn't blame her. Kaylee wasn't exactly used to the idea of war. Hell, Zoë wasn't used to it on this scale. She took a can from the pile, then joined Wash on the bunk he was sitting on.
"How you holding up?" she asked him quietly.
Wash looked terrible, red eyes and pale skin and his hair standing on end. But he took the can she handed him without protest. "Guess I'm doing all right," he said finally. "Kind of hard to wrap my mind around the whole genocide thing."
"You really think it's a genocide?" The word hadn't even occurred to her.
"From what we've seen? Yeah, I'd say genocide fits. Hope I'm wrong, but it's not looking too good." He sighed. "At least it seems like the explosions have stopped. Don't know what that means."
Zoë frowned. She could come up with a lot of theories, each more grim than the last, but now probably wasn't the time to expand on them. Especially with Wash looking as bad as he did. Instead, she leaned against him, grateful for his solid warmth and the fact that, no matter what happened, they were together. It was a small comfort, but at least it was something.
"Not sure what's going to happen tomorrow," Mal said, his voice pulling Zoë back to the group. "But I do know this- whatever happens, we're still a crew. It ain't much, and it ain't gonna help in the long run, but we've still got that."
***
They all stayed in the same cabin that night. Zoë and Wash lay in a slender bunk, wrapped around each other. At one point, Wash broke down and cried. Zoë held him tight, wishing she could cry, too, but the tears wouldn't come. This was too big.
When the cold dawn came, they both woke up to face it dry-eyed and grim-faced, together.
***
They stayed at the camp for three days. Other survivors found them, and their numbers swelled to close to one hundred. It made Zoë wonder how many other people were still alive on this planet, how many people had escaped.
Most of the survivors had only been in the woods and mountains, above the radiation. But some had stories, stories that made the skin crawl. Stories of giant robots marching through the town, stories of seeing survivors dragged out and shot. Stories of piles of human bodies, of ships sweeping through the sky, of desperate last-minute communications with others only to be cut off by screams and worse. With each survivor, it became clear that this attack was leveled against all of the Colonies, and that escaping was definitely the exception, not the rule.
"We can't stay up here forever," Anders said one night as they huddled around a campfire. "We're going to have to start thinking about moving."
"Was thinking that," Mal said. "You got any ideas?"
"We’re going to have to start by getting some more anti-radiation meds. Both my doctor and yours say that. The few we've got from your stores and the emergency kit here won't get us far."
"Sounds reasonable."
"There's two places that might have them- a hospital to the north and disaster emergency shelter to the east. You want to take one, and the C-Bucs will take the other?"
Mal nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me." He looked to Zoë for her reaction.
"Be glad to do something instead of just sitting," Zoë said.
"Good," Anders said. "We'll go tonight."
***
"You see anything?" Mal whispered.
Zoë flattened herself against the ground. It was dark, but who knew if that would make a difference to a Cylon. She crept forward and peeked over the ledge, shoulder to shoulder with Jayne.
The hospital was down the mountain and in the southern sector of Delphi, right on the edge of the city. The surrounding area was run down- there was graffiti on the buildings and bars on the windows. Not the best area of town. Tonight it was silent.
"Can't see much without light," Jayne groused. "Not even a streetlight."
"Neither can anything else," Zoë said, looking back over her shoulder at Mal. "Looks like we're alone, sir."
"Yeah. But keep your ears open, all right? It don't seem like there's much around here, but I wouldn't bet my life on it."
With a nod, Zoë picked up her gun and began to half-creep, half-climb down the cliff. She fumbled twice thanks to the dark, but soon enough her feet were on solid ground. She pulled out a small flashlight and swept the ground in front of her.
Immediately she wished she hadn't.
Zoë was hardly any stranger to dead bodies, even in multiples. But they'd always been soldiers. This was different.
"It stinks," Jayne said, covering his nose with his shirt. His voice seemed unnaturally loud.
"It would. It's been a few days" Zoë looked around. So many dead. She couldn't look at individual bodies. Not right now. They had work to do. "This way."
They picked through the streets. On some level, Zoë saw details. She saw the way doorways were caved in, cracks in buildings, overturned cars. Bodies in the streets, clotted blood and decay. She didn't let her eyes rest on them, didn't let the images go past her eyeballs and into her brain. Don't think about it, just move. The hospital was right there in front of them.
Focus. She focused on the possibility of the enemy. There were no sounds, besides Jayne and Mal. No light reflecting off metal, no flashing red eyes. That was what they Cylons had, right? Red eyes that flashed. She tightened her grip on the gun.
The front door of the hospital was wide open. "You'd think the people would have been guarding it," Jayne said.
"From what?" Zoë asked, stepping over a body. "No one knew the Cylons were coming. They died before they could do anything else."
Her steps echoed in the hospital foyer. She looked back and forth- no motion. She shined the light down a corridor, and then another. "This way."
Walk. Step over the body, around the overturned gurney. They were going to need something to carry back whatever they found. Her mind began ticking through the possibilities- coolers or bags she'd seen doctors carry before. There was the sound of retching, and she knew that it was Mal throwing up. She glanced back over her shoulder at Jayne. "Make sure he gets some water." Keep pushing forward, keep walking.
It didn't take long to get the anti-radition meds and any others they could carry, or to raid the kitchens for foodstuffs. The sack against her back was comforting with its weight, even if the clinking of its contents raised her hair on end. All that was left was to make their way back to the camp.
They were almost back out of the city when they heard it- the sound of ships overhead. "Get down!" Mal ordered, and Zoë instantly flew to obey. She flicked the flashlight off and held her breath, pressed against the wall of the hospital. The lights of the ships grew larger, sweeping over the hospital.
"Pǎo hóuzi. This is not what we need right now."
"How many of 'em do you think there are?" Jayne asked.
"I counted at least ten rows of five ships each," Zoë said. "Looks like they're landing about ten miles west of here."
Mal pressed his lips together then nodded. "Makes sense. Probably puts them right in the middle of the city. How many toasters do you think are in them things?"
"Figure they could fit at least six per ship, if not more."
"I got an idea. Let's stop sitting around doing math and get the hell out of here. We don't have anything to blow them frakkers up with, and I don't really want to be joining all these stiffs we keep stepping over right now."
"Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing," Mal said. "I think we can move without them seeing us, long as we leave the light off. Let's go."
Every move seemed loud in Zoë's ears as they ran through the streets. The bottles clinked, their footsteps echoed, and their breath came harsh and fast. But the Cylons didn't turn back, didn't seem to notice. Perhaps they weren't looking- maybe they thought no one could be left alive. Apparently, they were right.
They scrambled back up the ledge. The lights of the ships were still visible, but far in the distance. Zoë focused on the stones beneath her hands and the dirt falling into her face, trying to climb with no light but what the moon provided. Finally, the ledge gave way to forest and they were on solid ground.
They were about a mile away from Delphi when Mal risked turning on his flashlight. Zoë avoided looking at him and focused on the ground in front of her.
"You okay there, Mal?" Jayne asked. "You're looking kinda peaked."
"Better than what we just seen, so I ain't complaining."
"Yeah, but you're not gonna faint on us or something, are ya? 'Cause I don't want to be dragging your ass the next three miles."
"I'll be fine, Jayne. Thank you for caring."
The sarcasm in his voice made Zoë look back. "You know the world's ending when Jayne thinks of others first."
"Then the world ain't ending yet," Mal said. "Come on. Let's get back to the camp."
***
There were old men and old women. One woman had long gray hair that spread out on the ground, like she was floating in water. There were teenagers. She'd seen two boys, huddled together. They must have been so terrified. A father protecting a child, a mother cradling a baby. Children. Of course the children were the worst. Their little limbs and their little feet and their little hands and their little fingers and oh gods, she'd stepped on one by accident and the noise-
"Zoë!"
She jerked awake, tears streaming down her face. Wash was propped up on one elbow, hovering over her. She couldn't speak or explain- her throat was too tight and raw for words. She didn't have to. Wash opened his arms, and Zoë went to them willingly, closing her eyes as he wrapped her in his embrace. He rocked her gently, offering silent comfort and absolutely no demand for details.
She fell back asleep cradled against his chest. There were still nightmares, but this time she could bear them.
***
"Do you know where we're going?"
Zoë concentrated on getting down a particularly steep section of trail before she answered Simon's question. "Heard tell we might be heading for someplace closer to Delphi."
"Closer?" Simon skidded on the loose earth, and Zoë automatically reached up to steady him. "Thanks. Closer? Why are we getting closer to those… those things?"
"Where else are we going to go?"
Simon shrugged. "I don't know. Someplace… safe…." His voice trailed off. Of course it did. Out of all people, Simon knew that safety wasn't always so easy to come by. "Do you think those things are really everywhere? Even on the other planets?"
Zoë glanced back over her shoulder. "What do you think?"
They walked for a while before Simon answered. "Probably," he finally said, sounding defeated. "Otherwise, there would have been something. Some sign of fighting or some desperate signal…."
He wasn't completely right- they were pretty cut off from the world at the camp. Chances of a signal getting to them weren't good. But he probably was right. Didn't matter much- the fact was there was a war going on, and they were all going to have to fight it. Zoë didn't think Simon would take too well to that train of thought, so she changed the subject. "How's your sister?"
Simon followed her gaze over to where River was walking with Kaylee. Kaylee looked haggard and sad, but River's face was alight with pleasure, tipped up towards the sun as it streamed through the green leaves. "She's holding up," Simon said. "I think she's glad to be off the ship, now that the Colonial government is no longer around to chase us."
"Small blessings, right?" Zoë said.
"Right." Simon managed a crooked smile. "When we get to wherever we're going," he began, and Zoë braced herself for whatever he was going to say. "We're not just setting up some little commune and trying to begin again, are we?"
Zoë stopped and turned around. Simon stopped as well. His face was pale, but there was a resolution there she hadn't noticed but had seen before in other situations. She looked him straight in the eye. "If we're right, they nuked the Colonies, killed billions of people, and destroyed humanity as we know it. Even if we're not right, they've taken out a large section of Caprica, killing everyone. What do you think?"
Simon lifted his chin. "I think fighting is the only thing left to do."
Zoë smiled, then turned back and focused on the trail.
***
The building was set deep in the woods. Most of the windows had shattered due to the blast, but there were no bodies. Zoë couldn't remember what day the attack had happened. Had it been a school day? She shook her head. The building was in the shape of a U and there was a courtyard- a square of packed earth and scraggly plant and a few benches. It was a joyless place, but there would be a roof, running water, and possibly even generators, as well as space for them all.
"This is it," Sam announced, arms spread.
"Delphi Union High School?" Jayne read off the sign. "What do we want with a school?"
"It's perfect," Sam said. "We can use it as our home base. It's near enough to Delphi that we can get supplies, but isolated enough that the Cylons will have a hard time finding us. There's enough room for all of us. Come on."
***
The room had been a literature classroom. There were books on the walls and desks lined up in neat rows. It was just the nine of them, their crew, their family. Zoë leaned against a student's desk, Wash sat on the chair, close enough that his shoulder was against her side. Kaylee sat at another desk, hands folded in her lap and a downcast expression on her face. Inara was standing behind her, hands on Kaylee's shoulders. Jayne almost looked comical sitting in a classroom, rifling through the desk he'd chosen. The Shepherd was standing by a bookcase, flipping through one of the books. Simon stood near Kaylee, and River was perched on the windowsill, looking out at the sunlight.
Mal was at the front, leaning against the teacher's desk. His face looked more lined and serious than usual, his arms crossed. It took a long time for him to speak, but Zoë could be patient. She knew what he was going to say.
"The situation is this: these people, Anders and all of them, they're looking to fight the Cylons. It's not gonna do much- there's maybe a hundred of us and gods know how many of them, and it obviously ain't a fair fight. Anything we do now is just a way of letting them know we ain't too happy about dying.
"Normally, I'd be giving you a choice. Some of you ain't fighters, and there's no sin in finding safety where you can. Thing is, there ain't no safety anymore. Far as we can tell, this is what things are like all over the Colonies. Given what we've seen here in Delphi and heard over the wireless, I ain't got no cause to doubt that. The only choice we have left these days is how we die, and I aim to die giving those bastards a touch of what they deserve. More, if I can."
Wash reached up and took Zoë's hand. It was a gesture of commitment, of solidarity. Zoë laced her fingers through his and squeezed.
"I'm guessing there's going to be work around the camp for those who don't want to fight," Mal continued. "Cooking, doctoring, mechanical stuff… I don't know. Something. If you want to leave and try to find someplace else, I ain't got no call to stop you, but-"
"It's okay, Captain," Kaylee cut him off. "We're all staying." Mal paused, but no one contradicted her. He cracked a smile.
"Figured as much. Guess the best thing to do now is see what use we can all be, and how we can best kick those frakkers back."
"We're gonna need guns." Jayne's smile was almost a leer.
"And Serenity," Kaylee said. "We should get Serenity."
"No, right now, Serenity stays where she is," Mal said. "There's no way to bring her here without attracting unwanted attention."
"I know it may not be my place," Shepherd Book began, which meant he was about to say something he knew Mal didn't want to hear, "but you were a Sergeant in the Third Civil War on Tauron. I'm sure you could offer a lot in terms of command."
"This ain't like the war we fought in," Mal said, waving the suggestion away with his hand. "I'll be happy to help where I can, but Sam knows these people better than I do. This is his show to run."
"So he's in charge then?" Kaylee asked.
Mal's expression slipped a notch. "Didn't quite say that. Just that he's running the show. There's a difference."
No one asked what the difference was, although Zoë understood completely. "So where are we starting?" she asked. "Weapons?"
"Yeah. We're gonna make a raid on an old armory for weapons. Sam thinks that the Cylons don't know we're here yet, so it shouldn't be too hard a job. I tend to think he's right. Still, Jayne, Zoë, you two are the only ones coming with me on this."
"I'll see what I can do with the team doctor," Simon offered. "Between the two of us and the supplies you got, we should be able to cobble together some sort of infirmary."
"And I thought I saw some school vehicles out back," Kaylee offered. "I'll see if I can get 'em running."
"Good. We ain't gonna get off this rock again, but with any luck, we can at least blow a few of them off before they get us."
***
"Are you okay with this?" Zoë asked late that night as she and Wash huddled together in a nest of blankets. "I know you're not a soldier-"
"Doesn't matter what I am," Wash said, cutting her off. "I'm going to be okay with this."
"Because if you're not-"
"Zoë, I don't have a choice." Wash was smiling, but the smile didn't stretch to his eyes. Zoë hated seeing that. "I'm going to be as okay with this as everyone else is, okay? Just because I'm not a soldier doesn't mean I won't fight for what's right. I'm not afraid. Well, no, I'm terrified, but that doesn't mean I can't do it."
He was right, and it was one of the things she loved best about him. Zoë tried to relax and sank deeper into his embrace. She held him close, all too aware that she was just as terrified as he was. Not so much of her own death, but of everything she had to lose.
***
The armory was on a small Colonial base. The bodies were still there, smelling worse than before, but these didn't bother Zoë as much as the ones around the hospital. The armory itself wasn't huge, but there were more than enough weapons to keep a group of one hundred outfitted for a while. Zoë had a pretty good idea of the layout of the place and headed straight for the back. Paydirt.
"Zoë! What did you find? Anything good?" Mal stood in the doorway, grinning more than he had a right to.
"My birthday came early, sir," Zoë said, standing up from her crouching position in the dark room. "We'll want to clear this one out."
"Yeah?" Mal reached down and looked into one of the cases, then picked up a grenade and tossed it from hand to hand.
"Sir? Are you sure you want to be doing that?"
"What? The pin's still in it." Zoë glared at him, and Mal sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right." He put the grenade back in. "How much you got?"
"I think the question is more how much do you think we can take?" Zoë picked up a case. "They ain't heavy, but I don't want to be juggling too many of these."
"You haven't seen what Anders found, have you?" Mal grinned like a little kid, grabbed a crate, and gestured for her to follow him outside of the armory. Curious, Zoë obeyed.
Bright lights blinded her for a moment, and the smell of diesel fuel was strong. She started to grin as she realized what Anders had taken. Trucks. Trucks made everything so much easier, expanded their range so much further, opened so many possibilities. Trucks were exactly what they needed.
The truck pulled to a stop, and Zoë went around back to hoist her cargo in. She set the crate down, hopped up, and then froze.
"Zoë? This crate ain't getting any lighter."
Zoë didn't move.
"That's okay. You just look around the truck and take it all in. I'll just stand here and let my arms fall off. Really, it's-"
"Sir." Her voice sounded strange in her ears. "Get up here."
Mal had to nudge her before she moved aside. He hopped up and looked around. "What? It's a truck."
"You don't notice anything, sir?" She couldn't feel her lips as she spoke.
"Should I be?" Mal looked around again. "There's benches, dents, smells bad… seems like a regular truck to me."
"It's the same make and model as the trucks that took us to the camp after Serenity Valley."
"Yeah, I know." Zoë looked at him incredulously, but Mal just shrugged, not looking back at her. "Don't carry much of a grudge against the truck, just the guys driving it. Come on. Let's get more of this stuff up here." He hopped out and headed back into the armory.
Zoë took a deep breath, then another. Slowly, the tremors in her hands and the numbness in her stomach began to fade. It was just a truck, and there were probably thousands of them in service across the Colonies. There wasn't time for this. She looked around the truck slowly, facing it, and then jumped out. There was work to be done, and no time for emotion or sentiment.
The next time she returned to the truck with a crate of explosives, she didn't look around at all.
***
The acquisition of arms was heartening. Even for people who weren't eager to go out and shoot Cylons, it meant that at least they had some sort of defense.
Zoë wasn't surprised that Wash and Book made it clear they planned on joining Mal, Jayne, and herself in fighting. Wash had made his feelings clear to her, and as far as Book was concerned, the Gods might be specific about killing people and fuzzy about kneecaps, but the Scrolls said nothing about shooting down machines. She also wasn't surprised that the other four weren't jumping to fight with them, and truth be told, she was relieved. They needed to figure out the Cylons before they added in anyone who didn't know what they were doing, and having people who hesitated in battle was only a liability. Besides, Kaylee could fix trucks and Simon could fix people- they were better off back at the school, doing what they were good at.
And tonight, Zoë had every intention of doing what she was good at. They had arms, they had people, they had a home base. It wasn't much, but it was enough. It was time to start fighting back.
***
It was dark. Only the full moon and the reflected light of Gemenon lit the forest. Zoë lay flat on her stomach deep in a ditch, gun in hand, watching.
"How long do you think we'll have to wait?" Wash whispered.
"Would you shut your mouth?" Jayne snarled. "Ambush ain't an ambush if they here ya from a half-klick away."
"I was just asking."
Zoë laid a hand on Wash's forearm. Shut up, honeycakes. Wash got the message and subsided back into silence.
Zoë, Mal, Jayne, Wash, and Book were on one side of the road, Anders and his C-Bucs were on the other, lying in the brush. Scouts had told them the Cylons used this road frequently. A few deserted houses loomed up, dark shadows against the sky.
They heard the Cylons before they saw them. It started out low, the sound of metallic feet moving in unison. Zoë gripped her gun more tightly and focused on the sound. As the footsteps came nearer, she began to hear the mechanical creaking that came with it.
Wash began to laugh.
It was quiet, and he covered his mouth with his hand, but he was still laughing. And the worst part was, Zoë couldn't blame him. After all, this was supposed to be the army that nuked all of humanity. You'd think they could at least find some WD-40.
"Don't know what you're laughing for," Jayne whispered. "They're robots. And not the sexin' kind of robots, either. Ain't no good gonna come of this."
Wash kept laughing silently, shaking his head.
"Gonna get yerself killed," Jayne predicted. He glanced over at Zoë. "He's useless."
Zoë glared at him. "Just blowing off some steam."
"Yeah, well, when I die 'cause of him, I'm gonna make sure to take you with me."
"We're all gonna die if you lot keep fighting like this," Mal whispered. "So shut the hell up." He peered up over the ditch and dropped back down immediately. "They're coming."
The footsteps had grown louder. Zoë held her breath and focused, forgetting everything but the battle at hand. Just her and her gun and the enemy. The Cylons were closer now. She could see flashing red lights cutting through the darkness, and huge silhouettes as the army approached. She held herself steady, waiting for the signal. Some part of her mind was vaguely aware that Wash was no longer laughing, and he was ready for the signal, too.
The first Cylons passed them, and as they did, Zoë's dinner moved up into her throat. The things were frakking huge, and nothing like what she'd seen in pictures when she was a girl. These were over seven feet tall, heavily armored, and sleek. And armed. They had to be armed. Their limbs were heavy, the single eye was red and malevolent, and their longer fingers looked like claws. Zoë had faced armies, faced men who respected no law, and been a prisoner of war. She'd never been as scared as she was in that moment.
Scared or not, there was a job to be done, and when the Cylons were in position and the signal flashed from the other side of the road, she rose up and began shooting. The gun kicked in her hands, but she held steady and fired. The smell of metal and smoke was heavy in her nostrils, and she heard a scream from the other side of the road which meant someone was hit. Then there was a warning and grenades and her feet were moving until the heat and noise of an explosion sent her flying into the dirt and grass. Shrapnel and debris rained down on her, and she turned her face to the ground to protect it.
The wave of heat receded and there was no more gunfire. "Come on!" Mal shouted, tagging Zoë on the shoulder. "Let's get the frak out of here!" Zoë struggled to her feet and looked around frantically, one thought on her mind. Wash.
"WHOO! Is it always that great? When you get 'em?" Wash caught up to her, his face alight with joy. "Did you see how they blew up? Not that it wasn't the scariest thing in my life, because liángshàn jūn are those things scary huge and scary, but we got 'em!"
He was safe, their mission was successful. Zoë grinned back at him. "We got them." She reached out and grabbed his hand. It was warm and solid in hers, and just the feeling of it made her feel alive. "Come on. Let's get home. We need to celebrate."
"Tell me it's the sex kind of celebrating?"
"It's definitely the sex kind of celebrating."
Wash laughed, and together they ran for the truck, the fire from the explosion still burning behind them.
***
The raids continued. They got harder fast, because the resistance had lost the element of surprise. The Cylons knew that they were here, and now they were prepared. But the resistance kept fighting, and Anders grew in confidence.
"He's not a bad commander," Mal said one night as they played cards in the center of the classroom where the crew was still staying together. "He's got more smarts than I gave him credit for."
"He was already something of a commander," Inara pointed out, pouring tea for them all. "He was a Pyramid captain."
Jayne snorted. "Yeah. Like tossing a ball around and scoring goals is anything like shootin' toasters. We got anything stronger than this?"
"No, Inara's right," Mal said, as Zoë handed Jayne a bottle of liquor without comment. "Captaining a Pyramid team ain't that different from leading a fight. There's strategy and taking in a situation, and… and…"
"Thinking fast under pressure, sir?" Zoë added, smirking a little.
"Yeah, that." Everyone laughed, and Inara handed Zoë her cup of tea. Zoë took it and sipped- the warm liquid felt good. She took the bottle of liquor from Jayne, added a bit, handed it off to Mal and then settled back against Wash.
"So," Inara said, sitting down, "when's the next raid?"
"Tomorrow afternoon," Mal answered, not looking up from his tea. "Why?"
"I thought I might come this time."
Mal put the bottle and cup down firmly. "No. Ain't no way I want you out there."
Inara's eyes narrowed. "I wasn't asking, Mal."
"And I'm telling, too. Those raids ain't no place for someone who… for someone… for someone like you!"
If possible, Inara's eyes narrowed even further. "Like me?"
"Well, yeah! Like a lady! Like… Zoë, tell her!"
Zoë shook her head, highly amused. "I'm not telling her anything, sir."
Wash took Zoë's line of thought. "Yeah. She probably shoots straighter than I do, but even if she doesn’t, it doesn't exactly take much skill to hurl a grenade."
"Jayne likes grenades," Simon muttered quietly.
"And if I remember right, sir, she can kick your ass with a sword," Zoë pointed out.
"But we ain't fighting with swords!"
Inara had regained her composure. "Face it, Mal, you're not going to win this one. This is not a formal military situation, and you are not in charge. I'm sure Anders will be happy to have me along. This is my fight, too, and I don't intend to just sit idly by doing nothing."
"Well, don't come crying to me when you get yourself killed, 'cause all I'm gonna do is say 'I told you so'." Mal threw down his hand of cards. "I don't like it. Just making myself clear."
"Who likes anything on this rock?" Zoë asked lightly.
"We're all gonna die soon enough anyway," Jayne said. "Might as well let everyone choose how."
Mal glared at him and Simon closed his eyes in disgust, but no one contradicted him. Zoë really hated it when she had to admit that Jayne was right.
***
The C-Bucs couldn't clean a gun any better than they could pass a ball. Zoë was sitting out in the courtyard re-doing the job and enjoying the sunshine. The planet had always been an over-regulated ball of shēnzōng zhēngqì, and now it was an irradiated mess overrun with hostile forces, but sunshine was sunshine, and neither the Colonies nor the Cylons could ruin that.
"Sure is nice out." Kaylee echoed Zoë's thoughts as she lugged a box over.
"What've you got there?" Zoë asked, peering at the box with mild interest.
"Oh, just some engine parts. For the jeeps, I mean. I guess there was a shop class here or something. Thought I could sort through and see what we've got."
Zoë nodded and turned back to her own work. She finished the gun she was working on, set it aside, and picked up the next one. Next to her, Kaylee was obviously agitated.
"Do you think I should be out there?" Kaylee said suddenly. "I mean, fighting. Like you. Like Inara."
Zoë shrugged. "Think Jayne's got a point about how we're all going to die." She saw the distressed look on Kaylee's face and sighed, softening. "Look. It's nice to believe that we're gonna win this war or whatever, but we're not. All we're doing is giving the Cylons back some of what they gave us before we go out. If we had a chance in hell of changing anything, yeah. I might think you should be out there. But it's not gonna change a damn thing."
Kaylee nodded. It seemed like something in what Zoë said got through to her though, because she didn't cry. Instead, she said, "Wish we could get Serenity back. Don't seem right, leaving her out there in the wild for the Cylons to find."
"Lot of ships for them to find before they find ours," Zoë answered.
"Yeah, I guess. Guess it don't matter much anyway. Don't even have FTL."
Zoë stopped for a minute, thinking. "Kaylee?"
"Yeah?"
"What would it take to get FTL on Serenity?"
"A lot of cubits, mostly. FTL drives are awfully expensive." Kaylee sighed wistfully. "Used to see 'em in the shop sometimes- there were a few ships my daddy worked on. The drives were awfully pretty."
Zoë frowned. "Well, I don't think cubits matter so much anymore. If we could get an FTL drive, could you put it on Serenity?"
"Well, sure. Wouldn't be more than a few hours work." For a moment hope flared in Kaylee's eyes, but it faded almost as quick as it came. "What good would it do, though? Where would we go?"
"Guess we could at least check out the other planets for sure. Make sure they really are all this bad. I don't know." Zoë hadn't realized she'd stood up. She sat back down and got back to work on her gun. "You're right. Don't matter about FTL if there's no place to go."
She wondered if they could find someplace else, someplace habitable. But she dismissed the idea immediately. Serenity could only carry so much fuel, and it wouldn't get them that far. If a planet was habitable it was already a part of the Twelve Colonies, and there wasn't anyplace else to run. Zoë closed her eyes for a long minute and pushed the thought away from her. That kind of miracle wasn't going to happen.
She opened her eyes and got back to her cleaning, and Kaylee did the same. The two of them finished their work in silence.
***
The news that the Cylons could look human swept through the camp like wildfire. At first Zoë didn't give credence to it- there were scum everywhere who would serve conquerors in order to save their own skins. But Anders assured them that wasn't the case- the humanoid Cylons could look completely identical, and there were a lot of them. Logic said that Anders was right, but it still was hard to believe.
"There's no gorram way them Cylons can look like humans," Jayne said. "I mean, not just like humans. You'd know, wouldn't you? If you tried to frak one?"
"They're out to kill us all," Zoë said flatly. "I don't think that frakking is on their minds."
"Do they really look that human?" Simon asked. "I find it hard to believe that a machine could be so convincing."
"Yeah, well, Anders and the others said they do, and I ain't got no cause to doubt them." It was a mark of Mal's respect, because Mal didn't take much on faith. "Guess we'll see for ourselves soon enough."
"Is it true they brought back a human survivor?" Kaylee asked.
"Yeah. You'd like him, Shepherd. Says he's a priest." Mal didn't look impressed by that. Interestingly, Book didn't, either, not that Zoë could blame him. "Guess we'll be seeing him around, too," Mal continued. "But all in all, not much has changed. We're still at war. The enemy just looks different, that's all."
"I wonder if they're really different inside," Jayne said, almost leering. "Can't wait to shoot one open and find out."
"Identical outward form would suggest similar, if not identical inward function," River said. "Evolution is not restricted to single species."
"Huh?"
"She says it's possible," Simon said with a sigh. "And I suppose it may well be, although I have a very hard time envisioning it. A Cylon that looks so human must be extraordinarily complicated. I can't even fathom…." He trailed off, shaking his head.
In the end, though, Zoë agreed with Mal. Nothing had changed- the enemy just looked a little different. And given how hard those huge metal robots were to take down, maybe this meant she could take a few more with her before she died.
***
It didn't take long before she saw the humanoid Cylons. Anders was right- they really did look human, although even seeing for themselves made it hard to believe. They went down pretty easy though, so Zoë couldn't complain about that.
It seemed like they came in models, too. There was an extraordinarily attractive blond woman, tall and thin, and a more petite woman with darker skin and hair. There was also a male model, with a receding hairline and the general look of a used car salesman. "Can't figure out why any robot would want to look like that," Jayne said, and Zoë was alarmed to find herself agreeing. It was hard to tell if there were any others, which Zoë didn't like at all. Too unpredictable.
"It freaks me out," Wash said late one night when they were cuddled in their nest of blankets together. "When you shoot the human ones. They've got guts and blood and all the rest."
"Feels too close to shooting a human?" Zoë asked, running a hand up Wash's bare arm.
Wash shook his head. "Nah, not that. Just… I thought they'd be different. Like, sparks or something. Broken circuits. Not blood and guts. How does a machine get like that? Are we sure they aren't just slaves or something?"
"Slaves don't come that identical."
Wash sighed. "Yeah, guess that's true. Still creeps me out."
"Well, get some sleep. We've got a big day of creeping you out planned for tomorrow." There was a small Fleet base nearby. Anders was hoping they could bring home some shiny new toys and some more anti-radiation meds. "Wash?"
"Yeah?"
Zoë hesitated, then asked the question that had been on her mind ever since Wash had started coming on raids with them. "You doing okay?"
"Who, me? Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Wash turned on his side to face her. "Look, I know you worry about me. You think I'm not a soldier like you or Mal. And yeah, maybe I wasn't. I certainly wasn't on Tauron during the Third Civil War, and Aquaria isn't going to ever have a civil war- at least, not one outside the meeting hall. But just because I never fought like that before doesn't mean I've had objections to it. I just never had anything I really had to fight for."
Which made complete sense. Zoë relaxed into Wash's arms. "Good," she said, letting a smile creep over her lips. "Glad to hear it."
"Of course, I could do with a little less nightmare-inducing robots and a little more of the servant kind," Wash said. "Or the sex kind."
Zoë wished she had a pillow so she could whack Wash with it. Instead, she had to settle for using her blanket. The resultant thump was very unsatisfying, but it left them both laughing. One thing led to another, and although they had to be quiet about it, they were able to enjoy the little bit of privacy that sleeping roommates left them with. It was nights like this that made Zoë remember exactly why she wanted to stay alive.
***
Days went by, and nothing really changed.
People died, although no one from Serenity. Fewer people as the Resistance got better at what they were doing. Some died on the field, some on operating tables, some disappeared, not to be seen again.
They had food. They had meds. They had weapons. Every time they were running low, they managed to find another place to raid. Zoë wondered how long they could keep it up, but they'd been going for almost two months now. Delphi was a big city- it would be a while before they ran out of supplies. And after that, there would be other cities. Other places to move to, other Cylons to attack.
There was no end in sight, but it wasn't completely hopeless. As long as she could fight, there was still something to fight for.
***
On to Part 2!
Author: lls_mutant
Fandoms: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Firefly
Characters Sam Anders, Karl Agathon, Kara Thrace, Sharon Agathon; Zoë Washburne, Hoban Washburne, Mal Reynolds, Jayne Cobb, Kaylee Frye, Shepherd Book, Simon Tam, River Tam, Inara Serra
Pairings: Zoë /Wash
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 19,500
Spoilers: Spoilers for BSG up to Resistance and The Plan, general character spoilers for Firefly
Warnings: The Farms come into play
Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica and Firefly belong to their respective creators
A/N: Thanks to infinimato for looking this over!
Summary: It was supposed to be a routine drop on Caprica, before the Cylons attacked. Now the crew of Serenity are among the survivors, but surviving isn't all that easy, especially when two of their own disappear.
Caprica spun beneath them, blue and green and hazed with pollution. "I don't like it," Zoë said flatly, staring down at the planet.
"I don't either, but that's where we're headed." Mal was putting on a light front. "Wash? How's our course?"
"Looking good from here. Want me to wave Patterson and let him know we're here?"
"How long 'til touchdown?"
"I give it twenty minutes."
"Not yet. No sense letting people know we're around before we need to."
"No sense being here at all, sir," Zoë muttered.
Mal glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Money's too good. And in case you ain't noticed, we could really use that right now. I'm thinking that-" the ship rocked violently, sending Mal flying into Zoë. She caught him just in time and righted them both. "What the frak was that?" Mal demanded.
Wash was flipping switches and turning on sensors. "Not a clue. I'm seeing some-" Serenity bucked again, although this time they were all more prepared.
"Wash- land us. Now."
"Not sure I've got much of a choice," Wash said, gripping the controls. "Looks like we're going down no matter what I say."
"We gonna crash?"
"If by crash you mean 'have an extremely rough landing that might tear a few holes in Serenity's hull', yeah. Probably."
"Xiàng gāowán, well make it so that don't happen!"
"I'm trying." Wash's teeth were gritted as he struggled with the controls. Zoë looked out the front window again to see the ground coming up very, very fast. "I see an open- āiyā shénshèng. What the frak?"
It must have been a hundred miles away, but a hundred miles didn't seem all that much right now. A thick pillar of smoke blossomed from the ground, the unmistakable sign of nuclear detonation. "Sir?" Zoë asked, pointing. "You see that?"
Mal stared, slightly open mouthed, and then pointed the opposite direction. "There's another one over there, too. I'm thinking that landing might not be what we want to do."
"No choice," Wash said, and two seconds later Serenity was scraping across the ground. Zoë missed catching the beam and went sprawling across the floor. Mal was caught himself against a wall, and Wash was still in his seat, his hands wrapped so tightly around the controls that the knuckles were white. Finally, Serenity came to a stop. Wash fell back in his seat, gasping.
"What the lǘ dìyù happened in here?" Jayne appeared in the doorway, blood running down one side of his face. Zoë knew the second he looked out the front, because his scowl disappeared and his eyes widened, his face went pale, and his mouth went slack. Not for long, though. "And what the lǘ dìyù is happening out there? Why the frak ain't we getting off this rock?"
"That's a good question, and I'm pretty interested in the answer myself. Wash?"
"No can do, Mal. The screens…" Wash trailed off, and Zoë bent over his shoulder to look. Serenity used a modified DRADIS system for sensing other ships and avoiding collisions, and what it reflected now….
"Oh my- ǎi wú dì wǒmen zài jiānghuì yǔnluò." Mal shook his head. "We are humped."
"I think the whole frakking planet is humped," Wash said. He typed something into the console. "Actually, I think humped is an understatement. These bombs are all over the planet!"
Zoë looked over his shoulder, and as she began to understand what she was seeing, she reached out and wrapped her arms around him. Because they were almost certainly going to die. Wash covered her hands with his and leaned back into her embrace, and they waited for the nuclear explosions to take them all.
***
Five hours later, they were still alive.
The others had all made their way to the cockpit, and were watching out the window as well. After the nuclear blasts had come ships streaking across the sky. They weren't ships that Zoë had ever seen before, especially the crescent shaped ones. They all flew in perfect formation, and even from their great distance they could see that the ships were raining destruction on those below.
"All those people," Kaylee said, tears streaking her face. She leaned into Simon. "How many people?"
"Four billion, eight hundred seventy six million, three hundred eighty two thousand, one hundred and twelve," River said. Kaylee choked on a sob and buried her face in Simon's shoulder.
"You really think them nukes are all over this rock?" Jayne asked. "I mean, we're still livin'."
"Hard to believe," Mal said, rubbing his chin. "Wash, you get anything on the comm yet?"
"Nothing new. Everything I got ended three hours ago, although it sounded like Gemenon and Scorpia have been attacked, too." Wash shifted uncomfortably and looked up at Zoë, then back to Mal. "Mal, who do you think would do this?"
"I ain't got the first idea, but I'm not sure I want to find out. Kaylee? What's it gonna take to get Serenity into the air again?"
Kaylee lifted her face from Simon's shoulder. "It's not gonna take much Captain. All the damage was superficial, and Serenity's spaceworthy. It's just…." She trailed off, looking at Wash. Wash didn't pick up her train of thought, but Zoë did.
"It's just where would we be going, sir? We don't know where else has been attacked. Not to mention that if those ships are still out there-"
"We'll be blown to smithereens," Jayne finished for her. There was no smile on his face or sneer in his voice. Somehow, that made everything seem more real, when even Jayne had to take things seriously.
"Not to dismiss everything else," Simon began, "but is our… client… alive? I mean, he was in an isolated area, right?"
Zoë, Wash, and Mal all exchanged looks, and then Wash picked up the communicator and punched some numbers into the console. Static. Swearing, he fiddled with the dials. "Hello? Hello? Anyone out there?"
Jayne snatched the communicator from him. "Don't do that! You don't know who's listening!"
"He's got a point," Book said. "We still have no idea who is attacking. I say that we-"
"Hello?" The comm unit crackled into life. "Hello? Come in. Who's out there?"
Wash froze, and Zoë couldn't blame him. Jayne had a point. But after a quick glance at Mal, who looked uncertain, Zoë leaned over and picked up the communicator.
"Who is this?"
The voice at the other end was male, and just as suspicious. "Who are you? Are you Caprican?"
There wasn't much to be given away by answering the question. "Tauron. What's the situation?"
"You don't know? You really don't know?"
"Wouldn't be asking if I did know."
"Cylon attack." The man sounded ragged. Unprofessional. He was either one hell of an actor or completely untrained at field communication. "It's the Cylons."
"Cylons?" Mal leaned in. "They ain't been heard from in forty years."
"Yeah, I know, right? But I guess they're tired of keeping quiet." There was ragged breathing. "Look. I've got no idea of where you are or who you are, but you're human, right?"
"Not so sure about the Doc-" Jayne began, but Zoë silenced him with a glare.
"We're human," she said. "Sounds like you might be, too?"
"Yeah. Yeah, we are." There was a pause, and then the speaker said, "My name's Sam Anders."
"Like the Pyramid player?" Wash asked.
"Yeah." There was a bitter laugh at the other end. "The Pyramid player. How many survivors have you got over there?"
"Nine," Zoë said. "What about you?"
"We've got the whole team plus a few- we're up to twenty-seven. Where are you?"
Zoë and Mal exchanged glances. "Why don't you tell us where you are?" Mal said. "We'll come to you."
Anders gave them a set of coordinates. Wash pulled up a map, and Zoë immediately saw that they were only a mile or so away. Mal mopped his face and made a decision. "We'll be there in an hour. But if you've got any weapons-"
"Weapons?" Anders laughed incredulously. "We're a Pyramid team. Where would we get weapons? We'll see you in an hour." The transmission terminated.
She didn't have to wait for orders- the only course of action was clear. Zoë got up and started rooting through the weapons lockers, pulling out what they had. Wash was still sitting at the console, tapping his chin. "You don't think they were the Caprica Buccaneers, do you?" He looked to Book and then Jayne. "Seriously? The Caprica Buccaneers?"
"Don't matter who they are," Mal said, loading a gun. "We're still going armed."
***
The coordinates were a camp, with modern log cabins, green fields with trees all around, and Pyramid training fields. The place was set high in the mountains, with what used to be a beautiful view of Delphi. Well, if you could call Delphi beautiful- Zoë had never liked Caprican cities. Too Colonial, too controlled. Although she'd ever wanted something like this to happen.
"It really is Sam Anders," Inara told Mal as they got closer. "I recognize him."
"Oh yeah? Was he a client?" Mal asked, and not very nicely.
"Hardly." Inara sounded lofty and amused. "I was a Picon Panthers supporter. I would never contract with a C-Buc. But I enjoyed the games."
Fortunately, Anders approached them before Mal could make a retort. He was a handsome man, with an open, friendly face despite the grief and strain that already marked it. He took the group in with a glance and immediately extended his hand to Mal.
"Sam Anders," he said, and gestured back to a group of others. "I can do the rest of the introductions later, but this here's the Caprica Buccaneers, as well as some people who've found their way here."
"Mal Reynolds, and this is my crew." Mal looked around the camp. "Quite a place you've got here."
"Yeah, we were lucky. Too far out to be hit, too high up to have the radiation hit us quite yet." Anders shrugged.
"So what's your plan now?" Mal asked.
"Don't know for sure." Anders was tossing a Pyramid ball from hand to hand. "Like I said, there's about twenty-seven of us- thirty-six if we add in the nine of you."
"It would stand to reason that there might be others out there," Book said. "But the question remains, what do you plan to do with any survivors?"
"And not to be the voice of doom here," Simon added, "but how long can we survive? This whole planet is irradiated."
Anders shrugged again. "To be honest, we don't know yet. All we know is that Cylons attacked, and it sounds like they attacked the whole of the Colonies, not just Caprica. We've got to find out more, but as we do, we've got to stick together."
"Yeah. Give me a second, will ya?" Mal stepped back and ducked his head down to talk to Zoë. "What do you think?"
"Seems like they're in the same pile of trouble we are, sir," Zoë said. "But there's twenty-seven survivors."
"You think there's more?"
"Seems like there should be, sir. It's an awfully big planet."
"Ain't that the truth." Mal sighed and glanced back at Anders. "I'm thinking we stick around for a while. See where this takes us. Ain't much to be gained from going out on our own."
"I was thinking the same thing, sir."
"Good. So either this is the right thing to do, or we're both crazy."
"Like to be the latter, sir."
"Yeah. Probably." Mal sighed and then turned back to Anders. "Mind if we join up with you, then? I've got a feeling we're gonna have a lot of common interests coming up here."
Sam spread his hands out in a gesture of welcome. "The more the merrier." He had a warm, open smile, and Zoë had the sudden feeling that this was absolutely the right thing to do.
***
"You didn't tell them about Serenity," Kaylee said as they made their way into one of the cabins. There were bunks against the walls, and a large table with chairs in the center. The table had cans of food on it. "Shouldn't we tell them-"
"Not yet." Mal was firm. "They seem like good folk, but no sense in telling more than needs told. Not yet. No, I think Serenity's best off where she is for now."
"But we could help," Inara said. "We could transport people, we could search for survivors or supplies."
"Could, but the problem is we don't know what's out there. Whatever it is is like to kill us all, and we ain't exactly got defenses. No weapons, no FTL drive. We get ourselves spotted and we'll be shot down."
"And we only have so much tylium," Zoë added. "We better make sure we know what we're doing with it when we use it."
Inara nodded and retreated, but Kaylee still looked upset. Zoë supposed she couldn't blame her. Kaylee wasn't exactly used to the idea of war. Hell, Zoë wasn't used to it on this scale. She took a can from the pile, then joined Wash on the bunk he was sitting on.
"How you holding up?" she asked him quietly.
Wash looked terrible, red eyes and pale skin and his hair standing on end. But he took the can she handed him without protest. "Guess I'm doing all right," he said finally. "Kind of hard to wrap my mind around the whole genocide thing."
"You really think it's a genocide?" The word hadn't even occurred to her.
"From what we've seen? Yeah, I'd say genocide fits. Hope I'm wrong, but it's not looking too good." He sighed. "At least it seems like the explosions have stopped. Don't know what that means."
Zoë frowned. She could come up with a lot of theories, each more grim than the last, but now probably wasn't the time to expand on them. Especially with Wash looking as bad as he did. Instead, she leaned against him, grateful for his solid warmth and the fact that, no matter what happened, they were together. It was a small comfort, but at least it was something.
"Not sure what's going to happen tomorrow," Mal said, his voice pulling Zoë back to the group. "But I do know this- whatever happens, we're still a crew. It ain't much, and it ain't gonna help in the long run, but we've still got that."
***
They all stayed in the same cabin that night. Zoë and Wash lay in a slender bunk, wrapped around each other. At one point, Wash broke down and cried. Zoë held him tight, wishing she could cry, too, but the tears wouldn't come. This was too big.
When the cold dawn came, they both woke up to face it dry-eyed and grim-faced, together.
***
They stayed at the camp for three days. Other survivors found them, and their numbers swelled to close to one hundred. It made Zoë wonder how many other people were still alive on this planet, how many people had escaped.
Most of the survivors had only been in the woods and mountains, above the radiation. But some had stories, stories that made the skin crawl. Stories of giant robots marching through the town, stories of seeing survivors dragged out and shot. Stories of piles of human bodies, of ships sweeping through the sky, of desperate last-minute communications with others only to be cut off by screams and worse. With each survivor, it became clear that this attack was leveled against all of the Colonies, and that escaping was definitely the exception, not the rule.
"We can't stay up here forever," Anders said one night as they huddled around a campfire. "We're going to have to start thinking about moving."
"Was thinking that," Mal said. "You got any ideas?"
"We’re going to have to start by getting some more anti-radiation meds. Both my doctor and yours say that. The few we've got from your stores and the emergency kit here won't get us far."
"Sounds reasonable."
"There's two places that might have them- a hospital to the north and disaster emergency shelter to the east. You want to take one, and the C-Bucs will take the other?"
Mal nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me." He looked to Zoë for her reaction.
"Be glad to do something instead of just sitting," Zoë said.
"Good," Anders said. "We'll go tonight."
***
"You see anything?" Mal whispered.
Zoë flattened herself against the ground. It was dark, but who knew if that would make a difference to a Cylon. She crept forward and peeked over the ledge, shoulder to shoulder with Jayne.
The hospital was down the mountain and in the southern sector of Delphi, right on the edge of the city. The surrounding area was run down- there was graffiti on the buildings and bars on the windows. Not the best area of town. Tonight it was silent.
"Can't see much without light," Jayne groused. "Not even a streetlight."
"Neither can anything else," Zoë said, looking back over her shoulder at Mal. "Looks like we're alone, sir."
"Yeah. But keep your ears open, all right? It don't seem like there's much around here, but I wouldn't bet my life on it."
With a nod, Zoë picked up her gun and began to half-creep, half-climb down the cliff. She fumbled twice thanks to the dark, but soon enough her feet were on solid ground. She pulled out a small flashlight and swept the ground in front of her.
Immediately she wished she hadn't.
Zoë was hardly any stranger to dead bodies, even in multiples. But they'd always been soldiers. This was different.
"It stinks," Jayne said, covering his nose with his shirt. His voice seemed unnaturally loud.
"It would. It's been a few days" Zoë looked around. So many dead. She couldn't look at individual bodies. Not right now. They had work to do. "This way."
They picked through the streets. On some level, Zoë saw details. She saw the way doorways were caved in, cracks in buildings, overturned cars. Bodies in the streets, clotted blood and decay. She didn't let her eyes rest on them, didn't let the images go past her eyeballs and into her brain. Don't think about it, just move. The hospital was right there in front of them.
Focus. She focused on the possibility of the enemy. There were no sounds, besides Jayne and Mal. No light reflecting off metal, no flashing red eyes. That was what they Cylons had, right? Red eyes that flashed. She tightened her grip on the gun.
The front door of the hospital was wide open. "You'd think the people would have been guarding it," Jayne said.
"From what?" Zoë asked, stepping over a body. "No one knew the Cylons were coming. They died before they could do anything else."
Her steps echoed in the hospital foyer. She looked back and forth- no motion. She shined the light down a corridor, and then another. "This way."
Walk. Step over the body, around the overturned gurney. They were going to need something to carry back whatever they found. Her mind began ticking through the possibilities- coolers or bags she'd seen doctors carry before. There was the sound of retching, and she knew that it was Mal throwing up. She glanced back over her shoulder at Jayne. "Make sure he gets some water." Keep pushing forward, keep walking.
It didn't take long to get the anti-radition meds and any others they could carry, or to raid the kitchens for foodstuffs. The sack against her back was comforting with its weight, even if the clinking of its contents raised her hair on end. All that was left was to make their way back to the camp.
They were almost back out of the city when they heard it- the sound of ships overhead. "Get down!" Mal ordered, and Zoë instantly flew to obey. She flicked the flashlight off and held her breath, pressed against the wall of the hospital. The lights of the ships grew larger, sweeping over the hospital.
"Pǎo hóuzi. This is not what we need right now."
"How many of 'em do you think there are?" Jayne asked.
"I counted at least ten rows of five ships each," Zoë said. "Looks like they're landing about ten miles west of here."
Mal pressed his lips together then nodded. "Makes sense. Probably puts them right in the middle of the city. How many toasters do you think are in them things?"
"Figure they could fit at least six per ship, if not more."
"I got an idea. Let's stop sitting around doing math and get the hell out of here. We don't have anything to blow them frakkers up with, and I don't really want to be joining all these stiffs we keep stepping over right now."
"Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing," Mal said. "I think we can move without them seeing us, long as we leave the light off. Let's go."
Every move seemed loud in Zoë's ears as they ran through the streets. The bottles clinked, their footsteps echoed, and their breath came harsh and fast. But the Cylons didn't turn back, didn't seem to notice. Perhaps they weren't looking- maybe they thought no one could be left alive. Apparently, they were right.
They scrambled back up the ledge. The lights of the ships were still visible, but far in the distance. Zoë focused on the stones beneath her hands and the dirt falling into her face, trying to climb with no light but what the moon provided. Finally, the ledge gave way to forest and they were on solid ground.
They were about a mile away from Delphi when Mal risked turning on his flashlight. Zoë avoided looking at him and focused on the ground in front of her.
"You okay there, Mal?" Jayne asked. "You're looking kinda peaked."
"Better than what we just seen, so I ain't complaining."
"Yeah, but you're not gonna faint on us or something, are ya? 'Cause I don't want to be dragging your ass the next three miles."
"I'll be fine, Jayne. Thank you for caring."
The sarcasm in his voice made Zoë look back. "You know the world's ending when Jayne thinks of others first."
"Then the world ain't ending yet," Mal said. "Come on. Let's get back to the camp."
***
There were old men and old women. One woman had long gray hair that spread out on the ground, like she was floating in water. There were teenagers. She'd seen two boys, huddled together. They must have been so terrified. A father protecting a child, a mother cradling a baby. Children. Of course the children were the worst. Their little limbs and their little feet and their little hands and their little fingers and oh gods, she'd stepped on one by accident and the noise-
"Zoë!"
She jerked awake, tears streaming down her face. Wash was propped up on one elbow, hovering over her. She couldn't speak or explain- her throat was too tight and raw for words. She didn't have to. Wash opened his arms, and Zoë went to them willingly, closing her eyes as he wrapped her in his embrace. He rocked her gently, offering silent comfort and absolutely no demand for details.
She fell back asleep cradled against his chest. There were still nightmares, but this time she could bear them.
***
"Do you know where we're going?"
Zoë concentrated on getting down a particularly steep section of trail before she answered Simon's question. "Heard tell we might be heading for someplace closer to Delphi."
"Closer?" Simon skidded on the loose earth, and Zoë automatically reached up to steady him. "Thanks. Closer? Why are we getting closer to those… those things?"
"Where else are we going to go?"
Simon shrugged. "I don't know. Someplace… safe…." His voice trailed off. Of course it did. Out of all people, Simon knew that safety wasn't always so easy to come by. "Do you think those things are really everywhere? Even on the other planets?"
Zoë glanced back over her shoulder. "What do you think?"
They walked for a while before Simon answered. "Probably," he finally said, sounding defeated. "Otherwise, there would have been something. Some sign of fighting or some desperate signal…."
He wasn't completely right- they were pretty cut off from the world at the camp. Chances of a signal getting to them weren't good. But he probably was right. Didn't matter much- the fact was there was a war going on, and they were all going to have to fight it. Zoë didn't think Simon would take too well to that train of thought, so she changed the subject. "How's your sister?"
Simon followed her gaze over to where River was walking with Kaylee. Kaylee looked haggard and sad, but River's face was alight with pleasure, tipped up towards the sun as it streamed through the green leaves. "She's holding up," Simon said. "I think she's glad to be off the ship, now that the Colonial government is no longer around to chase us."
"Small blessings, right?" Zoë said.
"Right." Simon managed a crooked smile. "When we get to wherever we're going," he began, and Zoë braced herself for whatever he was going to say. "We're not just setting up some little commune and trying to begin again, are we?"
Zoë stopped and turned around. Simon stopped as well. His face was pale, but there was a resolution there she hadn't noticed but had seen before in other situations. She looked him straight in the eye. "If we're right, they nuked the Colonies, killed billions of people, and destroyed humanity as we know it. Even if we're not right, they've taken out a large section of Caprica, killing everyone. What do you think?"
Simon lifted his chin. "I think fighting is the only thing left to do."
Zoë smiled, then turned back and focused on the trail.
***
The building was set deep in the woods. Most of the windows had shattered due to the blast, but there were no bodies. Zoë couldn't remember what day the attack had happened. Had it been a school day? She shook her head. The building was in the shape of a U and there was a courtyard- a square of packed earth and scraggly plant and a few benches. It was a joyless place, but there would be a roof, running water, and possibly even generators, as well as space for them all.
"This is it," Sam announced, arms spread.
"Delphi Union High School?" Jayne read off the sign. "What do we want with a school?"
"It's perfect," Sam said. "We can use it as our home base. It's near enough to Delphi that we can get supplies, but isolated enough that the Cylons will have a hard time finding us. There's enough room for all of us. Come on."
***
The room had been a literature classroom. There were books on the walls and desks lined up in neat rows. It was just the nine of them, their crew, their family. Zoë leaned against a student's desk, Wash sat on the chair, close enough that his shoulder was against her side. Kaylee sat at another desk, hands folded in her lap and a downcast expression on her face. Inara was standing behind her, hands on Kaylee's shoulders. Jayne almost looked comical sitting in a classroom, rifling through the desk he'd chosen. The Shepherd was standing by a bookcase, flipping through one of the books. Simon stood near Kaylee, and River was perched on the windowsill, looking out at the sunlight.
Mal was at the front, leaning against the teacher's desk. His face looked more lined and serious than usual, his arms crossed. It took a long time for him to speak, but Zoë could be patient. She knew what he was going to say.
"The situation is this: these people, Anders and all of them, they're looking to fight the Cylons. It's not gonna do much- there's maybe a hundred of us and gods know how many of them, and it obviously ain't a fair fight. Anything we do now is just a way of letting them know we ain't too happy about dying.
"Normally, I'd be giving you a choice. Some of you ain't fighters, and there's no sin in finding safety where you can. Thing is, there ain't no safety anymore. Far as we can tell, this is what things are like all over the Colonies. Given what we've seen here in Delphi and heard over the wireless, I ain't got no cause to doubt that. The only choice we have left these days is how we die, and I aim to die giving those bastards a touch of what they deserve. More, if I can."
Wash reached up and took Zoë's hand. It was a gesture of commitment, of solidarity. Zoë laced her fingers through his and squeezed.
"I'm guessing there's going to be work around the camp for those who don't want to fight," Mal continued. "Cooking, doctoring, mechanical stuff… I don't know. Something. If you want to leave and try to find someplace else, I ain't got no call to stop you, but-"
"It's okay, Captain," Kaylee cut him off. "We're all staying." Mal paused, but no one contradicted her. He cracked a smile.
"Figured as much. Guess the best thing to do now is see what use we can all be, and how we can best kick those frakkers back."
"We're gonna need guns." Jayne's smile was almost a leer.
"And Serenity," Kaylee said. "We should get Serenity."
"No, right now, Serenity stays where she is," Mal said. "There's no way to bring her here without attracting unwanted attention."
"I know it may not be my place," Shepherd Book began, which meant he was about to say something he knew Mal didn't want to hear, "but you were a Sergeant in the Third Civil War on Tauron. I'm sure you could offer a lot in terms of command."
"This ain't like the war we fought in," Mal said, waving the suggestion away with his hand. "I'll be happy to help where I can, but Sam knows these people better than I do. This is his show to run."
"So he's in charge then?" Kaylee asked.
Mal's expression slipped a notch. "Didn't quite say that. Just that he's running the show. There's a difference."
No one asked what the difference was, although Zoë understood completely. "So where are we starting?" she asked. "Weapons?"
"Yeah. We're gonna make a raid on an old armory for weapons. Sam thinks that the Cylons don't know we're here yet, so it shouldn't be too hard a job. I tend to think he's right. Still, Jayne, Zoë, you two are the only ones coming with me on this."
"I'll see what I can do with the team doctor," Simon offered. "Between the two of us and the supplies you got, we should be able to cobble together some sort of infirmary."
"And I thought I saw some school vehicles out back," Kaylee offered. "I'll see if I can get 'em running."
"Good. We ain't gonna get off this rock again, but with any luck, we can at least blow a few of them off before they get us."
***
"Are you okay with this?" Zoë asked late that night as she and Wash huddled together in a nest of blankets. "I know you're not a soldier-"
"Doesn't matter what I am," Wash said, cutting her off. "I'm going to be okay with this."
"Because if you're not-"
"Zoë, I don't have a choice." Wash was smiling, but the smile didn't stretch to his eyes. Zoë hated seeing that. "I'm going to be as okay with this as everyone else is, okay? Just because I'm not a soldier doesn't mean I won't fight for what's right. I'm not afraid. Well, no, I'm terrified, but that doesn't mean I can't do it."
He was right, and it was one of the things she loved best about him. Zoë tried to relax and sank deeper into his embrace. She held him close, all too aware that she was just as terrified as he was. Not so much of her own death, but of everything she had to lose.
***
The armory was on a small Colonial base. The bodies were still there, smelling worse than before, but these didn't bother Zoë as much as the ones around the hospital. The armory itself wasn't huge, but there were more than enough weapons to keep a group of one hundred outfitted for a while. Zoë had a pretty good idea of the layout of the place and headed straight for the back. Paydirt.
"Zoë! What did you find? Anything good?" Mal stood in the doorway, grinning more than he had a right to.
"My birthday came early, sir," Zoë said, standing up from her crouching position in the dark room. "We'll want to clear this one out."
"Yeah?" Mal reached down and looked into one of the cases, then picked up a grenade and tossed it from hand to hand.
"Sir? Are you sure you want to be doing that?"
"What? The pin's still in it." Zoë glared at him, and Mal sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right." He put the grenade back in. "How much you got?"
"I think the question is more how much do you think we can take?" Zoë picked up a case. "They ain't heavy, but I don't want to be juggling too many of these."
"You haven't seen what Anders found, have you?" Mal grinned like a little kid, grabbed a crate, and gestured for her to follow him outside of the armory. Curious, Zoë obeyed.
Bright lights blinded her for a moment, and the smell of diesel fuel was strong. She started to grin as she realized what Anders had taken. Trucks. Trucks made everything so much easier, expanded their range so much further, opened so many possibilities. Trucks were exactly what they needed.
The truck pulled to a stop, and Zoë went around back to hoist her cargo in. She set the crate down, hopped up, and then froze.
"Zoë? This crate ain't getting any lighter."
Zoë didn't move.
"That's okay. You just look around the truck and take it all in. I'll just stand here and let my arms fall off. Really, it's-"
"Sir." Her voice sounded strange in her ears. "Get up here."
Mal had to nudge her before she moved aside. He hopped up and looked around. "What? It's a truck."
"You don't notice anything, sir?" She couldn't feel her lips as she spoke.
"Should I be?" Mal looked around again. "There's benches, dents, smells bad… seems like a regular truck to me."
"It's the same make and model as the trucks that took us to the camp after Serenity Valley."
"Yeah, I know." Zoë looked at him incredulously, but Mal just shrugged, not looking back at her. "Don't carry much of a grudge against the truck, just the guys driving it. Come on. Let's get more of this stuff up here." He hopped out and headed back into the armory.
Zoë took a deep breath, then another. Slowly, the tremors in her hands and the numbness in her stomach began to fade. It was just a truck, and there were probably thousands of them in service across the Colonies. There wasn't time for this. She looked around the truck slowly, facing it, and then jumped out. There was work to be done, and no time for emotion or sentiment.
The next time she returned to the truck with a crate of explosives, she didn't look around at all.
***
The acquisition of arms was heartening. Even for people who weren't eager to go out and shoot Cylons, it meant that at least they had some sort of defense.
Zoë wasn't surprised that Wash and Book made it clear they planned on joining Mal, Jayne, and herself in fighting. Wash had made his feelings clear to her, and as far as Book was concerned, the Gods might be specific about killing people and fuzzy about kneecaps, but the Scrolls said nothing about shooting down machines. She also wasn't surprised that the other four weren't jumping to fight with them, and truth be told, she was relieved. They needed to figure out the Cylons before they added in anyone who didn't know what they were doing, and having people who hesitated in battle was only a liability. Besides, Kaylee could fix trucks and Simon could fix people- they were better off back at the school, doing what they were good at.
And tonight, Zoë had every intention of doing what she was good at. They had arms, they had people, they had a home base. It wasn't much, but it was enough. It was time to start fighting back.
***
It was dark. Only the full moon and the reflected light of Gemenon lit the forest. Zoë lay flat on her stomach deep in a ditch, gun in hand, watching.
"How long do you think we'll have to wait?" Wash whispered.
"Would you shut your mouth?" Jayne snarled. "Ambush ain't an ambush if they here ya from a half-klick away."
"I was just asking."
Zoë laid a hand on Wash's forearm. Shut up, honeycakes. Wash got the message and subsided back into silence.
Zoë, Mal, Jayne, Wash, and Book were on one side of the road, Anders and his C-Bucs were on the other, lying in the brush. Scouts had told them the Cylons used this road frequently. A few deserted houses loomed up, dark shadows against the sky.
They heard the Cylons before they saw them. It started out low, the sound of metallic feet moving in unison. Zoë gripped her gun more tightly and focused on the sound. As the footsteps came nearer, she began to hear the mechanical creaking that came with it.
Wash began to laugh.
It was quiet, and he covered his mouth with his hand, but he was still laughing. And the worst part was, Zoë couldn't blame him. After all, this was supposed to be the army that nuked all of humanity. You'd think they could at least find some WD-40.
"Don't know what you're laughing for," Jayne whispered. "They're robots. And not the sexin' kind of robots, either. Ain't no good gonna come of this."
Wash kept laughing silently, shaking his head.
"Gonna get yerself killed," Jayne predicted. He glanced over at Zoë. "He's useless."
Zoë glared at him. "Just blowing off some steam."
"Yeah, well, when I die 'cause of him, I'm gonna make sure to take you with me."
"We're all gonna die if you lot keep fighting like this," Mal whispered. "So shut the hell up." He peered up over the ditch and dropped back down immediately. "They're coming."
The footsteps had grown louder. Zoë held her breath and focused, forgetting everything but the battle at hand. Just her and her gun and the enemy. The Cylons were closer now. She could see flashing red lights cutting through the darkness, and huge silhouettes as the army approached. She held herself steady, waiting for the signal. Some part of her mind was vaguely aware that Wash was no longer laughing, and he was ready for the signal, too.
The first Cylons passed them, and as they did, Zoë's dinner moved up into her throat. The things were frakking huge, and nothing like what she'd seen in pictures when she was a girl. These were over seven feet tall, heavily armored, and sleek. And armed. They had to be armed. Their limbs were heavy, the single eye was red and malevolent, and their longer fingers looked like claws. Zoë had faced armies, faced men who respected no law, and been a prisoner of war. She'd never been as scared as she was in that moment.
Scared or not, there was a job to be done, and when the Cylons were in position and the signal flashed from the other side of the road, she rose up and began shooting. The gun kicked in her hands, but she held steady and fired. The smell of metal and smoke was heavy in her nostrils, and she heard a scream from the other side of the road which meant someone was hit. Then there was a warning and grenades and her feet were moving until the heat and noise of an explosion sent her flying into the dirt and grass. Shrapnel and debris rained down on her, and she turned her face to the ground to protect it.
The wave of heat receded and there was no more gunfire. "Come on!" Mal shouted, tagging Zoë on the shoulder. "Let's get the frak out of here!" Zoë struggled to her feet and looked around frantically, one thought on her mind. Wash.
"WHOO! Is it always that great? When you get 'em?" Wash caught up to her, his face alight with joy. "Did you see how they blew up? Not that it wasn't the scariest thing in my life, because liángshàn jūn are those things scary huge and scary, but we got 'em!"
He was safe, their mission was successful. Zoë grinned back at him. "We got them." She reached out and grabbed his hand. It was warm and solid in hers, and just the feeling of it made her feel alive. "Come on. Let's get home. We need to celebrate."
"Tell me it's the sex kind of celebrating?"
"It's definitely the sex kind of celebrating."
Wash laughed, and together they ran for the truck, the fire from the explosion still burning behind them.
***
The raids continued. They got harder fast, because the resistance had lost the element of surprise. The Cylons knew that they were here, and now they were prepared. But the resistance kept fighting, and Anders grew in confidence.
"He's not a bad commander," Mal said one night as they played cards in the center of the classroom where the crew was still staying together. "He's got more smarts than I gave him credit for."
"He was already something of a commander," Inara pointed out, pouring tea for them all. "He was a Pyramid captain."
Jayne snorted. "Yeah. Like tossing a ball around and scoring goals is anything like shootin' toasters. We got anything stronger than this?"
"No, Inara's right," Mal said, as Zoë handed Jayne a bottle of liquor without comment. "Captaining a Pyramid team ain't that different from leading a fight. There's strategy and taking in a situation, and… and…"
"Thinking fast under pressure, sir?" Zoë added, smirking a little.
"Yeah, that." Everyone laughed, and Inara handed Zoë her cup of tea. Zoë took it and sipped- the warm liquid felt good. She took the bottle of liquor from Jayne, added a bit, handed it off to Mal and then settled back against Wash.
"So," Inara said, sitting down, "when's the next raid?"
"Tomorrow afternoon," Mal answered, not looking up from his tea. "Why?"
"I thought I might come this time."
Mal put the bottle and cup down firmly. "No. Ain't no way I want you out there."
Inara's eyes narrowed. "I wasn't asking, Mal."
"And I'm telling, too. Those raids ain't no place for someone who… for someone… for someone like you!"
If possible, Inara's eyes narrowed even further. "Like me?"
"Well, yeah! Like a lady! Like… Zoë, tell her!"
Zoë shook her head, highly amused. "I'm not telling her anything, sir."
Wash took Zoë's line of thought. "Yeah. She probably shoots straighter than I do, but even if she doesn’t, it doesn't exactly take much skill to hurl a grenade."
"Jayne likes grenades," Simon muttered quietly.
"And if I remember right, sir, she can kick your ass with a sword," Zoë pointed out.
"But we ain't fighting with swords!"
Inara had regained her composure. "Face it, Mal, you're not going to win this one. This is not a formal military situation, and you are not in charge. I'm sure Anders will be happy to have me along. This is my fight, too, and I don't intend to just sit idly by doing nothing."
"Well, don't come crying to me when you get yourself killed, 'cause all I'm gonna do is say 'I told you so'." Mal threw down his hand of cards. "I don't like it. Just making myself clear."
"Who likes anything on this rock?" Zoë asked lightly.
"We're all gonna die soon enough anyway," Jayne said. "Might as well let everyone choose how."
Mal glared at him and Simon closed his eyes in disgust, but no one contradicted him. Zoë really hated it when she had to admit that Jayne was right.
***
The C-Bucs couldn't clean a gun any better than they could pass a ball. Zoë was sitting out in the courtyard re-doing the job and enjoying the sunshine. The planet had always been an over-regulated ball of shēnzōng zhēngqì, and now it was an irradiated mess overrun with hostile forces, but sunshine was sunshine, and neither the Colonies nor the Cylons could ruin that.
"Sure is nice out." Kaylee echoed Zoë's thoughts as she lugged a box over.
"What've you got there?" Zoë asked, peering at the box with mild interest.
"Oh, just some engine parts. For the jeeps, I mean. I guess there was a shop class here or something. Thought I could sort through and see what we've got."
Zoë nodded and turned back to her own work. She finished the gun she was working on, set it aside, and picked up the next one. Next to her, Kaylee was obviously agitated.
"Do you think I should be out there?" Kaylee said suddenly. "I mean, fighting. Like you. Like Inara."
Zoë shrugged. "Think Jayne's got a point about how we're all going to die." She saw the distressed look on Kaylee's face and sighed, softening. "Look. It's nice to believe that we're gonna win this war or whatever, but we're not. All we're doing is giving the Cylons back some of what they gave us before we go out. If we had a chance in hell of changing anything, yeah. I might think you should be out there. But it's not gonna change a damn thing."
Kaylee nodded. It seemed like something in what Zoë said got through to her though, because she didn't cry. Instead, she said, "Wish we could get Serenity back. Don't seem right, leaving her out there in the wild for the Cylons to find."
"Lot of ships for them to find before they find ours," Zoë answered.
"Yeah, I guess. Guess it don't matter much anyway. Don't even have FTL."
Zoë stopped for a minute, thinking. "Kaylee?"
"Yeah?"
"What would it take to get FTL on Serenity?"
"A lot of cubits, mostly. FTL drives are awfully expensive." Kaylee sighed wistfully. "Used to see 'em in the shop sometimes- there were a few ships my daddy worked on. The drives were awfully pretty."
Zoë frowned. "Well, I don't think cubits matter so much anymore. If we could get an FTL drive, could you put it on Serenity?"
"Well, sure. Wouldn't be more than a few hours work." For a moment hope flared in Kaylee's eyes, but it faded almost as quick as it came. "What good would it do, though? Where would we go?"
"Guess we could at least check out the other planets for sure. Make sure they really are all this bad. I don't know." Zoë hadn't realized she'd stood up. She sat back down and got back to work on her gun. "You're right. Don't matter about FTL if there's no place to go."
She wondered if they could find someplace else, someplace habitable. But she dismissed the idea immediately. Serenity could only carry so much fuel, and it wouldn't get them that far. If a planet was habitable it was already a part of the Twelve Colonies, and there wasn't anyplace else to run. Zoë closed her eyes for a long minute and pushed the thought away from her. That kind of miracle wasn't going to happen.
She opened her eyes and got back to her cleaning, and Kaylee did the same. The two of them finished their work in silence.
***
The news that the Cylons could look human swept through the camp like wildfire. At first Zoë didn't give credence to it- there were scum everywhere who would serve conquerors in order to save their own skins. But Anders assured them that wasn't the case- the humanoid Cylons could look completely identical, and there were a lot of them. Logic said that Anders was right, but it still was hard to believe.
"There's no gorram way them Cylons can look like humans," Jayne said. "I mean, not just like humans. You'd know, wouldn't you? If you tried to frak one?"
"They're out to kill us all," Zoë said flatly. "I don't think that frakking is on their minds."
"Do they really look that human?" Simon asked. "I find it hard to believe that a machine could be so convincing."
"Yeah, well, Anders and the others said they do, and I ain't got no cause to doubt them." It was a mark of Mal's respect, because Mal didn't take much on faith. "Guess we'll see for ourselves soon enough."
"Is it true they brought back a human survivor?" Kaylee asked.
"Yeah. You'd like him, Shepherd. Says he's a priest." Mal didn't look impressed by that. Interestingly, Book didn't, either, not that Zoë could blame him. "Guess we'll be seeing him around, too," Mal continued. "But all in all, not much has changed. We're still at war. The enemy just looks different, that's all."
"I wonder if they're really different inside," Jayne said, almost leering. "Can't wait to shoot one open and find out."
"Identical outward form would suggest similar, if not identical inward function," River said. "Evolution is not restricted to single species."
"Huh?"
"She says it's possible," Simon said with a sigh. "And I suppose it may well be, although I have a very hard time envisioning it. A Cylon that looks so human must be extraordinarily complicated. I can't even fathom…." He trailed off, shaking his head.
In the end, though, Zoë agreed with Mal. Nothing had changed- the enemy just looked a little different. And given how hard those huge metal robots were to take down, maybe this meant she could take a few more with her before she died.
***
It didn't take long before she saw the humanoid Cylons. Anders was right- they really did look human, although even seeing for themselves made it hard to believe. They went down pretty easy though, so Zoë couldn't complain about that.
It seemed like they came in models, too. There was an extraordinarily attractive blond woman, tall and thin, and a more petite woman with darker skin and hair. There was also a male model, with a receding hairline and the general look of a used car salesman. "Can't figure out why any robot would want to look like that," Jayne said, and Zoë was alarmed to find herself agreeing. It was hard to tell if there were any others, which Zoë didn't like at all. Too unpredictable.
"It freaks me out," Wash said late one night when they were cuddled in their nest of blankets together. "When you shoot the human ones. They've got guts and blood and all the rest."
"Feels too close to shooting a human?" Zoë asked, running a hand up Wash's bare arm.
Wash shook his head. "Nah, not that. Just… I thought they'd be different. Like, sparks or something. Broken circuits. Not blood and guts. How does a machine get like that? Are we sure they aren't just slaves or something?"
"Slaves don't come that identical."
Wash sighed. "Yeah, guess that's true. Still creeps me out."
"Well, get some sleep. We've got a big day of creeping you out planned for tomorrow." There was a small Fleet base nearby. Anders was hoping they could bring home some shiny new toys and some more anti-radiation meds. "Wash?"
"Yeah?"
Zoë hesitated, then asked the question that had been on her mind ever since Wash had started coming on raids with them. "You doing okay?"
"Who, me? Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Wash turned on his side to face her. "Look, I know you worry about me. You think I'm not a soldier like you or Mal. And yeah, maybe I wasn't. I certainly wasn't on Tauron during the Third Civil War, and Aquaria isn't going to ever have a civil war- at least, not one outside the meeting hall. But just because I never fought like that before doesn't mean I've had objections to it. I just never had anything I really had to fight for."
Which made complete sense. Zoë relaxed into Wash's arms. "Good," she said, letting a smile creep over her lips. "Glad to hear it."
"Of course, I could do with a little less nightmare-inducing robots and a little more of the servant kind," Wash said. "Or the sex kind."
Zoë wished she had a pillow so she could whack Wash with it. Instead, she had to settle for using her blanket. The resultant thump was very unsatisfying, but it left them both laughing. One thing led to another, and although they had to be quiet about it, they were able to enjoy the little bit of privacy that sleeping roommates left them with. It was nights like this that made Zoë remember exactly why she wanted to stay alive.
***
Days went by, and nothing really changed.
People died, although no one from Serenity. Fewer people as the Resistance got better at what they were doing. Some died on the field, some on operating tables, some disappeared, not to be seen again.
They had food. They had meds. They had weapons. Every time they were running low, they managed to find another place to raid. Zoë wondered how long they could keep it up, but they'd been going for almost two months now. Delphi was a big city- it would be a while before they ran out of supplies. And after that, there would be other cities. Other places to move to, other Cylons to attack.
There was no end in sight, but it wasn't completely hopeless. As long as she could fight, there was still something to fight for.
***
On to Part 2!