"Within" Part 1 of 3
Title: Within (1/3)
Author: kellifer_fic
Rating: PG (Language)
Category: Crossover AU, SPN/Aliens, Gen
Word Count: 1,048
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, no offense, no money.
Summary: Dean didn't want much out of life. Just to travel to LV-426 and find his brother, whole and alive.
Part 1 |Part 2 |Part 3
----
Light.
Corporal Dean Winchester hated coming out of stasis. It was really the only thing he hated about this job. He flinched when a wide palm slapped him over the pec and Hudson was there, grinning like a loon. They all flipped a coin to see who would end up next to Hudson and this time he lost.
“Rise and shine Princess,” Hudson chirruped and the only thing that made him bearable was that one side of his hair was mashed flat by lying funny in the pod so he looked ridiculous.
“They ain’t paying me enough to wake up to your ugly mug,” Dean groused and he heard a low throaty chuckle from his other side. Vasquez was halfway out of her own pod, legs swinging and rubbing one hand over the back of her head. If he had a death wish, he would’ve made a crack about how her feet didn’t touch the floor.
He liked his dick attached though so he refrained.
“Need a stepladder to get down there, Vasquez?” Hudson called, obviously lacking the same sense of self-preservation that was keen in Dean and he winced. He managed to duck out of the way as Vasquez hurtled his sleeping pod and hit Hudson full body, the larger man going down with a fairly undignified squawk of protest.
The Sergeant, Apone, was giving them both the hairy eyeball but not actually intervening. More than likely he figured Hudson was due an ass kicking.
“Are we up early?” Dean asked, crossing to the viewing portal. He was expecting to see a planet laid out below but there was just blackness and stars. The Sulaco was an old ship; way overdue for dry dock and it was possible she woke them for something small. The older a ship got, the more sensitive she was.
“Not really,” Frost said, already sitting at the terminal that regulated their stasis and could remotely patch into most of the ship’s systems while no one was on the bridge. The larger man rubbed knuckles into his eye like a kid and tapped a few keys. “We’ve come out short but there’s a ship in orbit so we gotta check it out first.”
“You think maybe Vultures?” Hicks asked, leaning past Dean. His sharp brown eyes were narrowed at the display. He reached for the keyboard and Frost smacked his hand. Hicks looked at Dean and grinned. “Maybe we got some action already, huh?”
“Fuckin’ vultures,” Dean grated because honestly, he could live without them and just how much his unit had to deal with them. It wasn’t uncommon for disabled ships and planets throwing out a distress beacon to get the wrong kind of attention, people only interested in stealing what they could and not really bothering about survivors, or making sure there weren’t any.
“No,” Frost interjected. “It’s a quarantine vessel, belongs to the colony.”
“You think we’re dealing with some kind of outbreak?” Dean asked, heart starting to speed up. He’d been on three-day leave when he’d heard where his squad was shipping out too. Apone had been damned surprised to see him because having missed the ship-out, he was guaranteed at least an extra month of downtime. He’d just shrugged and said he was getting bored. He knew he would’ve been grounded faster than he could blink if he’d let on that he had a personal vested interest in seeing just what had happened to the planet designated LV-426 and why the company had lost all communication with them.
He just couldn’t sit on his hands and wait while…
“Don’t know. They can maintain shallow orbit indefinitely. Maybe they thought they’d spaced the only people infected and found out too late that wasn’t the case.”
“We done speculating?” Apone interrupted, the half-chewed cigar perpetually in his mouth bobbing with his words. He’d quit smoking years ago but had never quit the need to be chewing something. “It’s small enough we can bring it on board.”
The marines around him groaned because bringing a possible contagion on board meant one thing.
Full enviro suits.
000
Dietrich, their unit’s medic, made her way back down the quarantine ship’s gangway. She had her medical bag unslung and her suit unzipped. “Anything?” Apone called as the other marines starting stripping off their uncomfortable suits, taking Dietrich’s lead.
“One male, around twenty years of age in stasis. No sign of contagion at all,” she reported, looking puzzled. “Unless he was the unhappy victim of a really elaborate prank, I have no idea what he’s doing out here.”
“You okay?” Hicks hissed at Dean and he hadn’t realized he’d gone rigid at the mention of a young man until Hicks elbowed him in the ribs.
“I’m fine,” Dean hissed back and he caught Hicks rolling his eyes out of the corner of his own.
“Don’t give me that shit, man,” Hicks snapped, a little louder. He was stepping out of the puddle of his suit that he’d wrenched off and he now crumpled it into a ball with jerky, annoyed movements. “You been actin’ strange ever since we dusted off.”
Dean and Hicks had been friends a long time and he knew he couldn’t bullshit forever. Dean sighed and leaned close to Hicks so no one else would hear him. “My… brother was on LV-426,” he admitted and winced when Hicks’ face went neutral. He knew that Hicks only went blank when he was really furious.
“Were you gonna tell anyone that?” Hicks demanded, but thankfully his voice was still a harsh whisper. What made everything worse was Dean knew he’d fucked up. It had always been a policy of the Colonial Marines that you never go on a mission where someone you know is possibly a victim. People who were emotionally invested make bad decisions.
Apone was going to have his ass for breakfast and maybe for lunch and dinner too if there were any leftovers.
“Are you?” Dean asked instead, feeling like a heel for putting it on Hicks to make the decision, but he also knew he was going to be slung straight back into stasis if anyone found out before they headed for the planet.
Hicks looked angry but resigned. “No,” he managed to get out between clenched teeth.
tbc...
Author: kellifer_fic
Rating: PG (Language)
Category: Crossover AU, SPN/Aliens, Gen
Word Count: 1,048
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, no offense, no money.
Summary: Dean didn't want much out of life. Just to travel to LV-426 and find his brother, whole and alive.
Part 1 |Part 2 |Part 3
----
Light.
Corporal Dean Winchester hated coming out of stasis. It was really the only thing he hated about this job. He flinched when a wide palm slapped him over the pec and Hudson was there, grinning like a loon. They all flipped a coin to see who would end up next to Hudson and this time he lost.
“Rise and shine Princess,” Hudson chirruped and the only thing that made him bearable was that one side of his hair was mashed flat by lying funny in the pod so he looked ridiculous.
“They ain’t paying me enough to wake up to your ugly mug,” Dean groused and he heard a low throaty chuckle from his other side. Vasquez was halfway out of her own pod, legs swinging and rubbing one hand over the back of her head. If he had a death wish, he would’ve made a crack about how her feet didn’t touch the floor.
He liked his dick attached though so he refrained.
“Need a stepladder to get down there, Vasquez?” Hudson called, obviously lacking the same sense of self-preservation that was keen in Dean and he winced. He managed to duck out of the way as Vasquez hurtled his sleeping pod and hit Hudson full body, the larger man going down with a fairly undignified squawk of protest.
The Sergeant, Apone, was giving them both the hairy eyeball but not actually intervening. More than likely he figured Hudson was due an ass kicking.
“Are we up early?” Dean asked, crossing to the viewing portal. He was expecting to see a planet laid out below but there was just blackness and stars. The Sulaco was an old ship; way overdue for dry dock and it was possible she woke them for something small. The older a ship got, the more sensitive she was.
“Not really,” Frost said, already sitting at the terminal that regulated their stasis and could remotely patch into most of the ship’s systems while no one was on the bridge. The larger man rubbed knuckles into his eye like a kid and tapped a few keys. “We’ve come out short but there’s a ship in orbit so we gotta check it out first.”
“You think maybe Vultures?” Hicks asked, leaning past Dean. His sharp brown eyes were narrowed at the display. He reached for the keyboard and Frost smacked his hand. Hicks looked at Dean and grinned. “Maybe we got some action already, huh?”
“Fuckin’ vultures,” Dean grated because honestly, he could live without them and just how much his unit had to deal with them. It wasn’t uncommon for disabled ships and planets throwing out a distress beacon to get the wrong kind of attention, people only interested in stealing what they could and not really bothering about survivors, or making sure there weren’t any.
“No,” Frost interjected. “It’s a quarantine vessel, belongs to the colony.”
“You think we’re dealing with some kind of outbreak?” Dean asked, heart starting to speed up. He’d been on three-day leave when he’d heard where his squad was shipping out too. Apone had been damned surprised to see him because having missed the ship-out, he was guaranteed at least an extra month of downtime. He’d just shrugged and said he was getting bored. He knew he would’ve been grounded faster than he could blink if he’d let on that he had a personal vested interest in seeing just what had happened to the planet designated LV-426 and why the company had lost all communication with them.
He just couldn’t sit on his hands and wait while…
“Don’t know. They can maintain shallow orbit indefinitely. Maybe they thought they’d spaced the only people infected and found out too late that wasn’t the case.”
“We done speculating?” Apone interrupted, the half-chewed cigar perpetually in his mouth bobbing with his words. He’d quit smoking years ago but had never quit the need to be chewing something. “It’s small enough we can bring it on board.”
The marines around him groaned because bringing a possible contagion on board meant one thing.
Full enviro suits.
000
Dietrich, their unit’s medic, made her way back down the quarantine ship’s gangway. She had her medical bag unslung and her suit unzipped. “Anything?” Apone called as the other marines starting stripping off their uncomfortable suits, taking Dietrich’s lead.
“One male, around twenty years of age in stasis. No sign of contagion at all,” she reported, looking puzzled. “Unless he was the unhappy victim of a really elaborate prank, I have no idea what he’s doing out here.”
“You okay?” Hicks hissed at Dean and he hadn’t realized he’d gone rigid at the mention of a young man until Hicks elbowed him in the ribs.
“I’m fine,” Dean hissed back and he caught Hicks rolling his eyes out of the corner of his own.
“Don’t give me that shit, man,” Hicks snapped, a little louder. He was stepping out of the puddle of his suit that he’d wrenched off and he now crumpled it into a ball with jerky, annoyed movements. “You been actin’ strange ever since we dusted off.”
Dean and Hicks had been friends a long time and he knew he couldn’t bullshit forever. Dean sighed and leaned close to Hicks so no one else would hear him. “My… brother was on LV-426,” he admitted and winced when Hicks’ face went neutral. He knew that Hicks only went blank when he was really furious.
“Were you gonna tell anyone that?” Hicks demanded, but thankfully his voice was still a harsh whisper. What made everything worse was Dean knew he’d fucked up. It had always been a policy of the Colonial Marines that you never go on a mission where someone you know is possibly a victim. People who were emotionally invested make bad decisions.
Apone was going to have his ass for breakfast and maybe for lunch and dinner too if there were any leftovers.
“Are you?” Dean asked instead, feeling like a heel for putting it on Hicks to make the decision, but he also knew he was going to be slung straight back into stasis if anyone found out before they headed for the planet.
Hicks looked angry but resigned. “No,” he managed to get out between clenched teeth.
tbc...