History is Written by the Victor - Part 1
History is Written by the Victor
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Pairings: Jensen/Jared, Chris/Steve, Tom/Mike
Category: M/M, AU, Futuristic (i.e. it is set in space!)
Summary: The Core planets have declared war on the Rim planets. When Captain Ackles and his squadron are taken prisoner by the enemy, their jailer turns out to be a young man called Jared. What will Jared do when Jensen's interrogation begins?
A/N: This world is mostly based on the idea of both the Firefly/Serenity universe and the Battlestar Galactica universe, but you don't need to really know either to understand, as it is not specifically set in either verse. All you need to know is that the Core have all the wealth and greater technology. The Rim has whatever they have had from years ago. While some technology has moved ahead, communications seem to have taken a backlside. Now, go and enjoy!
Prologue
When the home world of mankind could no longer support them, they turned their eyes to the stars. There were many planets within their reach, but none that could sustain life. The fear of decaying along with the brown rock beneath their feet led to many wars amongst the people, but science provided a way out. The development of technology which could terraform a planet, that is create an Earth-like atmosphere in a previously toxic environment, led to a great exodus from their home to new planets. As populations grew, more planets were terraformed, until the new society was divided into four sections; the Inner and Outer Core, and the Inner and Outer Rim. - Encyclopaedia reference under ‘New Society, The’
There were many factors that, despite the best efforts of the Core Government, led to the beginning of the Food Shortages War. There had been unrest in the Rim almost from the times of Settlement, a spirit of rebellion that seemed to increase exponentially the farther away from the stabilising influence of the Government they had settled. They began to question the requirement to pay taxes to their Government and, eventually, why they should provide food to the Core planets. The billions of people who lived on non-Agri planets in the Core began to fear that they would run out of food.
The first signs of a true rebellion taking place occurred on the Inner Rim planet of Corsar, an important Agri planet that provided many staples to the Core. The Elders of Corsar began to speak out against the Government and even resorted to violence against the authorities who were commissioned to restore order. Their pride and stubbornness led to their downfall, and eighty men were killed in the resulting conflict. This, unfortunately, only proved to be the beginning of many such uprisings and, instead of learning from the example set before them, they only turned to more and more violence.
This insurgency began to spread, even to the Outer Core. The Elders of Ieress were successful in gaining the support of their entire population, inciting riots against Government posts and threatening all those who refused to join them in their revolt. They could not be reasoned with and the Government were forced to neutralise a great threat to the stability of our community. The Rim saw this as an act of aggression, but quieted into an uneasy peace.
The Government showed great leniency and compassion towards the Rim, waiting six months before they again raised the issue of much needed food supplies from the Rim’s many Agri planets. Instead of reason, the Government was met with anger and refusal. Eventually, their hands tied by the unwillingness of the Rim to negotiate, the Government declared war on the seditious factions. - Excerpt from the Core Coalition of Schooling Bodies text book.
”But why, one must ask, must our families survive on the barest essentials while the Core takes the rest without any labour or restitution? This greed cannot go on; it should not be tolerated. Each Core household wastes more food in one day than our families are expected to live on for three days! The Core must be made to realise that we are no less important than those who live closer to Government Central. We pay the same taxes but ten times the tribute! Were they even to reduce their demands by half, we would have plenty of food to share throughout the planets, so join me in petitioning the Government for lower tribute requirements. Food for all!” - Last speech by Elder Singer of Corsar.
Two young men stood over the newly covered grave of their much-beloved father. Their mother and their younger sister flanked them. They knew nothing would ever be the same now. The elder of the two, just turned twenty-one, knew that the Core Police had him on their hit list. They would come for him soon, and he didn’t know if he would ever return to this place, his home. The younger, nineteen and suddenly forced to grow up beyond his years, knew that the time for him to fight for his family, his friends, and everything he loved, would soon come. Their father had told them, before a bullet had torn him from their lives, that there were whisperings of war between the Rim and the Core. He knew the risk it would bring to him, and he wondered if he, too, might never see his home again.
***
Part One
“Commander?”
Jeff looked up from the skirmish reports currently flooding onto his data screen. Initial findings seemed to suggest they had inflicted serious losses on their foes before being forced to retreat by the arrival of two more Battle Fleets. Jeff had ordered the withdrawal and sent his aide to collect a damage report on his returning fleet. This was who now addressed him. “Yes Mike? How did we go?” Jeff had stopped calling his aide ‘Lieutenant Rosenbaum’ very shortly after his appointment.
“Sir.” Mike hesitated, his usual enthusiasm in marked abeyance. Jeff sat up straighter, forewarned by the other man’s manner. “Most of the fleet has returned with minimal damage, but one squadron has failed to return.”
“Which one?”
“Sir, it was...it was Black Squadron.”
Mike’s distress was now clear. He was close friends with every pilot in the squadron, and one was his lover. Jeff felt similar dismay. Black Squadron had been formed out of the most reckless pilots in the fleet; men that the other squadrons considered too out of control, too undisciplined for their ranks, regardless of how skilled they might be. Leading these extraordinary men was an extraordinary Captain; one who had volunteered for the job because he had seen the potential of such a group. Captain Ackles was possibly one of the most naturally gifted pilots Jeff had ever known, and one of the best leaders. In very short order, Ackles had organised his people and had them flying in formation circles around the rest of the fleet. He also gained the undying loyalty of every person in his squadron. Jeff had another reason to mourn the loss of his best pilots and their captain; Ackles was an old family friend.
“You are sure they went down?” Ackles had been known to ignore an order to retreat if his squad was in the middle of an attack. “They’re not just late checking in?”
“No, sir. Captain Kreuk saw them go down and, just before the retreat order, she flew over again and saw their fighters overrun. She said there is no way to mistake whose fighters they were.” Mike’s lip curled with bitter sarcasm. Kreuk, indeed all the other Captains, were contemptuous of the all black paint on the Black Squadron’s fighters. It made them hard to pick up in the black of space - which was exactly the point, Ackles had pointed out on more than one occasion - and the other pilots were somewhat spooked by the way they seemed to appear and disappear amongst the other squadrons. Tentatively, Mike offered, “Jeff? I’m sorry. I know you and Jensen go back.”
Jeff tried for a jaunty smile and wondered if it looked as false as it felt. “Now, Mike. Let’s not write them off just yet. I have contacts. I’ll see what I can find out.” Frowning once more, he told Mike, “And I want you to dig around a little yourself. I want to know what would make a whole squadron go down at once.”
“Yes, sir.” Mike replied grimly.
***
The story had quickly made its way around the whole Battle Cruiser. An entire squadron of black fighters had crash-landed, still in formation, right in front of their battle lines. Three regiments had been lost trying to take them, but eventually their auxiliary power had died and, with it, their guns. The regiments stormed the fighters and, though their occupants had put up a hell of a resistance, the squadron had been captured. Jared had no need to speculate on the truth of the tale, as it was his job to care for the captured men.
There were five of them, Jared had been told. Four Lieutenants and a Captain. The four had apparently suffered several serious injuries, but nothing fatal. The Captain, he was told, had fought tooth and nail until a blow to his head rendered him unconscious. He was still out, but Jared’s superiors were very anxious to speak to the man.
Entering the holding cell area, he was met by the incongruous sound of raucous laughter. It stopped suddenly, and four pairs of suspicious, narrowed eyes turned to glare at Jared. The first thing he noticed was that one of the men was, in fact, a woman. The second was that whatever injuries they had sustained were obviously not debilitating. Jared tried out his ‘I’m harmless, nothing to worry about here’ smile on them.
The man in the nearest cell - a handsome man with piercing blue eyes - gave a snort of disbelief. “They sent a boy? Hell, son, run along home before I hurt you.”
“I’m not a boy.” Jared replied, pulling himself up to his full height. He wasn’t a small man, and he wasn’t used to people threatening him with physical harm. The most unsettling thing was, there was something about the smaller man that made Jared believe him; a leashed violence hidden under a charming exterior. Jared tried placating him, “And I mean you no harm.”
A mean smirk came onto the man’s face. “You’re not seriously trying to intimidate me with all that posturing? Hey, Tom! Can you see him? All ramrod straight?” As suddenly as the mirth had come, it disappeared, and those fiery eyes latched onto Jared once more. “You keeping us here liked caged animals is all the harm you need to do to make me kill you first chance I get.”
“Kane.” This came from the man furthest from Jared, the one this Kane had called Tom, who was almost as tall as Jared, but slightly broader. His voice was calm, and his eyes betrayed amusement. “Let the kid alone. I think he’s come to see to our injuries.”
“Yeah?” Kane graced him with a feral grin, all teeth and menace. “You gonna’ come into the cage with the lion, boy?”
“Chris, give him a break.” The girl, a petite blonde with intelligent eyes, spoke up. Her gaze travelled up and down Jared’s body in an assessing manner that made him uncomfortable. She all but purred, “I certainly wouldn’t mind his hands on me. Besides,” she turned serious, “I think Steve needs his arm seen to.”
Kane’s eyes went to the man in the next cell. This one had remained on his bunk, watching the exchange with interest. His eyes were pale and wintry, showing nothing of his thoughts. He didn’t join in the banter; his reply was straight to the point. “It’s broken. Needs setting.”
“I’ll get the doctor.” Jared told him. “I’m pretty good with cuts and wounds, but I’ll leave the broken bones to the professionals. Do any of the rest of you have any breaks?”
“No.” Tom answered for them all. “It’s mostly burns and bruises for the rest of us. Kane was grazed by a laser bolt.”
“S’alright.” Kane shrugged. “I’m more worried about Jen.” Jared looked at the girl and tried to assess what injury she might have, but of them all she seemed to have sustained the least damage. Kane smirked again, obviously having followed Jared’s gaze. “That would be Mack, and if Jen knew about the mistake you just made, he’d beat your ass.”
Jen was a he? Jared turned to the cell nearest him, where the unconscious captain lay unmoving. Even with a lump the size of an egg on his forehead, and blood making a sticky mess of his hair and obscuring half of his face, it was obvious that the captain was an unusually handsome man. The slow rise and fall of his chest was the only sign that he was still alive, and Jared wondered if they might have hit him too hard.
“Is he going to be okay?” Mack asked, her voice soft and serious.
Jared looked at her, looked at them all, and went with the truth. “I really don’t know. We’ll have to wait until he wakes up.” Watching them, Jared saw varying degrees of concern. One thing was clear; they all liked their captain. Jared turned to leave - he needed to get some supplies - and threw over his shoulder, “I’ll get the doctor to come and see to that arm.”
***
An hour later Jared found himself staring down into the captain’s restive features. The doctor had come and taken Steve away, under guard, to have his arm reset. Tom had spoken truthfully when commenting on the rest of their wounds, and it had taken very little effort on Jared’s part to dress their burns with skin patches and seal any open wounds with flesh gel. Even Kane had submitted to his ministrations without any further comment, and Jared had the feeling he was more interested in what was going on with Steve. He didn’t really relax until the other man returned with his arm almost fully re-knit and wrapped to make sure it stayed that way. This only left Jared’s most important charge.
“Let’s start by getting you cleaned up.” Jared spoke to him, a little uncomfortable with touching a man without his being able to say yes or no.
“Shouldn’t the doctor have had a look at him while he was here?” Steve asked.
Jared looked up and smiled hesitantly. The quieter man still left him unsure. “He was checked out when they brought him on board. Until the swelling goes down they don’t know just how much damage has been done.”
“Well, our Captain has a hard head.” Kane grinned. “And when he wakes up, you boys are in for a hell of a time.”
Just smiling and shaking his head, Jared turned to the task at hand. Gently, cautious of his injury, Jared wiped at the blood on the man’s face. Every inch he cleaned revealed pale smatterings of freckles that intrigued Jared. The face that he finally uncovered looked too young, too innocent to belong to a man who led an attack force. His full lips and long lashes added a certain softness to the otherwise sharp features. “Wow.” Jared whispered.
“Another one bites the dust.” Mack observed dryly. “Why am I surrounded by men with no interest in women?”
“Aww, Mack, don’t be like that.” Tom grinned. “You know Jensen’s an equal opportunity heartbreaker.”
“What?” Jared frowned, looking back and forth between them in confusion.
Kane gave one of his patented smirks. “You don’t know it yet, son, but you’re about to get your heart ripped out.”
Jared looked down at the captain and murmured, “It takes more than just a pretty face to break a man like that.”
“I tell him you called him pretty, it won’t just be your heart.” Kane snickered. “Man’s a might touchy about that.”
“I tell him you outed him to the enemy and I reckon you’ll be the first to go.” Steve spoke up, cocking an eyebrow when Kane looked at him aghast.
“Steve! Baby. You wouldn’t do that to me, would you? ‘Sides, it was Mack who brought it up!”
“I might.” Steve drawled dryly. “Especially since you just outed us too, Christian.”
Jared started to laugh. He barely knew these people, but he found himself liking them. “Y’all are crazy. You know that, right?”
“Nah.” This from Steve again, his features softened by the playful grin on his face. “You want to talk about crazy, then we need to talk about Tom’s other half. Mike is a criminal genius...and insane to boot.”
“Hey!” Tom was clearly affronted. “It wasn’t Mike who piloted his fighter upside down, with no lights, only metres above Captain Collins’ cockpit.”
“Man! You should have seen his face when I flicked the lights on! He damn near had a heart attack.” Kane crowed.
Steve shook his head. “You may have a point.” he conceded, but added, “Then again, I have two words for you. Zero. Gravity.”
Tom went bright red and mumbled something that might have been ’oh god, never getting drunk again’. The other three wore nearly identical wolfish grins. Tom sulked, “You guys suck.”
***
Things continued much the same over the next few days. Jared took the pilots their meals, continued to tend to their healing wounds, and did his best to make their captain comfortable as he remained senseless in his cell. They would joke amongst themselves, bantering and hassling one another, and Jared too most of the time. Jared liked them and, for all their threats against his life, he had a feeling that they liked him too.
After four days, the swelling on the captain’s forehead had noticeably reduced. Instead of his almost deathly stillness, there was now movement behind the thin protection of his eyelids. Jared took this as a good sign and waited patiently for further improvement. Kane’s vigilance, too, seemed to step up a notch.
On the morning of the fifth day, Jared found his patient turned on to his side, one arm curled up under the pillow. It was the first time he had physically moved on his own, and a huge smile split Jared’s face. He quickly distributed breakfast amongst the other four before going back to the Captain’s cell.
Gently, Jared ran his fingers through the short strands of the other man’s hair in what he hoped was a soothing manner. He wasn’t imagining things when the captain leaned into his touch. His eyes began to flicker. “That’s it, Jen. It’s time to wake up.” Like a switch had been flicked, the man’s eyes flew open, revealing them to be a smoky green flecked with hazel. They were beautiful, and Jared smiled. “Hi.”
Before he could fathom what was happening, Jared found himself on his back on the cold concrete of the cell floor. The captain was above him, his body weighing Jared down and his eyes flashing with feral distrust. “Who the hell are...?” He broke off on a moan, his eyes squeezing shut tight.
“Easy.” Jared soothed. “You took a nasty blow to the head. You’ve been unconscious for a while now.”
“How long?” He didn’t open his eyes, electing to keep them safely shut for now.
“Five days.” Jared told him. “Listen, Jen...”
That brought them flying open again. He growled, “What did you just call me? You sure as hell better not have called me ’Jen’.”
Jared’s mouth opened and closed silently, before he managed, “Um, no...Captain. Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Further comment was stalled by a gleeful whoop from across the passage. “Jen! Is that you terrorising our impressionable young jailer?”
“Chris.” The Captain smiled. “I take it you’re responsible for this situation?”
“Hell, yeah. I was gettin’ real impatient waiting for your captainly ass to wake up. Been lookin’ forward to seeing your reaction to Jared here.” Chris was grinning like crazy.
“Jensen.” This from Steve. “Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve got a bit of a headache, but that’s all.” Jensen reassured.
“Are you sure?” Jared asked from below him. “I’ll get the doctor to come check you over.”
Those sharp green eyes latched onto him again. “Who are you that you care?” He gave a half laugh that had nothing to do with amusement.”Oh, of course. Y’all want me healed so you can interrogate me.”
Jared sighed softly, sadly. “I know you have no reason to believe me, but I have no desire to see you hurt.”
Jensen shook his head slightly, but finally moved off of the larger man. Wearily, he pulled himself back onto the bed. “Fine. Go get your doctor. It won’t make any difference anyway. I’m awake now, and they’ll come for me at the first chance.”
“For what it’s worth, I am sorry.” Jared offered after getting to his feet. There was no answer from the Captain and Jared sighed again. He did the only thing he could do; he turned to leave. “I’ll get you something other than protein and hydration patches too. You must be hungry.” The door slid shut behind him before he could hear whether the other man answered or not.
***
The moment Jared was gone, Jensen barked out, “Chris. Sit rep.”
“I reckon you know about as much as the rest of us. We went down, were overpowered, and now we’re prisoners. I can tell you we’re on a Battle Cruiser, not on-world, but I have no idea where in the galaxy we might be by now.”
“Tom? Chances of escape?” Jensen turned his head in the direction of the other man’s cell.
“Not good. I’m afraid. The Core forces have access to all the latest tech. The bars on these cells are DNA activated. We can touch them, but as soon as we try to fit anything larger than a hand between them they send a decent shock through you, enough to knock you out anyway.” Tom’s voice was matter of fact, and just a little impressed.
“And this Jared guy? What’s his hostage potential?”
“Pretty low.” Steve answered. “I doubt he’s of great value to them. He’s just a low level grunt compared to five officers.”
“Jared has been good to us, and you, Captain.” Mack spoke up. “He spent hours just sitting with you, keeping an eye on you to make sure your condition didn’t get any worse.” Jensen made to speak, but she cut him off. “And it wasn’t just so you could be questioned. I think he might have a little crush on you, Sir.”
Jensen groaned. His people never let him forget his past as a love ‘em and leave ‘em guy. Unfortunately, he had realised too late that he was hurting people, thinking that they had understood he wouldn’t be staying. Apparently, they had fallen all too easily to his charms. As a result of this realisation, he now couldn’t remember the last time he had shared his bed. “Oh, come on! I was unconscious!”
“One look at that pretty face of yours...” Chris taunted. No one knew why he could get away with saying things that would get everyone else a beating.
Jensen pointedly ignored him, his voice softening as he asked, “And you’re all okay?”
“Steve here broke his arm, but we’ve been seen to and we’re fine.” Mack told him. “It was you that had us all worried.”
“’M fine.” He mumbled. “My head feels like Chris is in there beating on an orchestra of drums, and I still feel a little groggy, but I’m guessing that’s fairly normal.”
The door swooshed open, admitting Jared and an older man, clearly the doctor. Jared hesitated with his hand over the cell release pad. “This is Doc Beaver. You aren’t going to attack him or anything, are you?” Jensen waived his hand negligently in answer and Jared opened the cell. Beaver walked straight to Jensen’s side and started to examine him. He started up a barrage of questions that Jensen answered as best he could, and then put a hand-held scanner to Jensen’s head. After a moment, it beeped, and Beaver glanced at the results.
“Well, Captain, I think you’ll be just fine. So help you. You were better off in a coma.” He put his scanner back in his pocket and walked out of the cell. Jared walked in and placed a tray of food on the floor by Jensen’s bed before following the doctor back out. “I hope you’ll understand when I say I hope to never see you again.”
“Thanks, Doc. You and I both know that that is an empty hope.”
“Yeah, well, that’s how it is, I guess.” He ambled out of the door. Jared shot Jensen another apologetic glance before disappearing after him. Jensen huffed out a sigh and started to pick at the food on the tray. When he had eaten his fill, he closed his eyes to get what rest he could. No one said another word.
http://lady-krystal-79.livejournal.com/23659.html
Rating: NC-17 (overall)
Pairings: Jensen/Jared, Chris/Steve, Tom/Mike
Category: M/M, AU, Futuristic (i.e. it is set in space!)
Summary: The Core planets have declared war on the Rim planets. When Captain Ackles and his squadron are taken prisoner by the enemy, their jailer turns out to be a young man called Jared. What will Jared do when Jensen's interrogation begins?
A/N: This world is mostly based on the idea of both the Firefly/Serenity universe and the Battlestar Galactica universe, but you don't need to really know either to understand, as it is not specifically set in either verse. All you need to know is that the Core have all the wealth and greater technology. The Rim has whatever they have had from years ago. While some technology has moved ahead, communications seem to have taken a backlside. Now, go and enjoy!
Prologue
When the home world of mankind could no longer support them, they turned their eyes to the stars. There were many planets within their reach, but none that could sustain life. The fear of decaying along with the brown rock beneath their feet led to many wars amongst the people, but science provided a way out. The development of technology which could terraform a planet, that is create an Earth-like atmosphere in a previously toxic environment, led to a great exodus from their home to new planets. As populations grew, more planets were terraformed, until the new society was divided into four sections; the Inner and Outer Core, and the Inner and Outer Rim. - Encyclopaedia reference under ‘New Society, The’
There were many factors that, despite the best efforts of the Core Government, led to the beginning of the Food Shortages War. There had been unrest in the Rim almost from the times of Settlement, a spirit of rebellion that seemed to increase exponentially the farther away from the stabilising influence of the Government they had settled. They began to question the requirement to pay taxes to their Government and, eventually, why they should provide food to the Core planets. The billions of people who lived on non-Agri planets in the Core began to fear that they would run out of food.
The first signs of a true rebellion taking place occurred on the Inner Rim planet of Corsar, an important Agri planet that provided many staples to the Core. The Elders of Corsar began to speak out against the Government and even resorted to violence against the authorities who were commissioned to restore order. Their pride and stubbornness led to their downfall, and eighty men were killed in the resulting conflict. This, unfortunately, only proved to be the beginning of many such uprisings and, instead of learning from the example set before them, they only turned to more and more violence.
This insurgency began to spread, even to the Outer Core. The Elders of Ieress were successful in gaining the support of their entire population, inciting riots against Government posts and threatening all those who refused to join them in their revolt. They could not be reasoned with and the Government were forced to neutralise a great threat to the stability of our community. The Rim saw this as an act of aggression, but quieted into an uneasy peace.
The Government showed great leniency and compassion towards the Rim, waiting six months before they again raised the issue of much needed food supplies from the Rim’s many Agri planets. Instead of reason, the Government was met with anger and refusal. Eventually, their hands tied by the unwillingness of the Rim to negotiate, the Government declared war on the seditious factions. - Excerpt from the Core Coalition of Schooling Bodies text book.
”But why, one must ask, must our families survive on the barest essentials while the Core takes the rest without any labour or restitution? This greed cannot go on; it should not be tolerated. Each Core household wastes more food in one day than our families are expected to live on for three days! The Core must be made to realise that we are no less important than those who live closer to Government Central. We pay the same taxes but ten times the tribute! Were they even to reduce their demands by half, we would have plenty of food to share throughout the planets, so join me in petitioning the Government for lower tribute requirements. Food for all!” - Last speech by Elder Singer of Corsar.
Two young men stood over the newly covered grave of their much-beloved father. Their mother and their younger sister flanked them. They knew nothing would ever be the same now. The elder of the two, just turned twenty-one, knew that the Core Police had him on their hit list. They would come for him soon, and he didn’t know if he would ever return to this place, his home. The younger, nineteen and suddenly forced to grow up beyond his years, knew that the time for him to fight for his family, his friends, and everything he loved, would soon come. Their father had told them, before a bullet had torn him from their lives, that there were whisperings of war between the Rim and the Core. He knew the risk it would bring to him, and he wondered if he, too, might never see his home again.
***
Part One
“Commander?”
Jeff looked up from the skirmish reports currently flooding onto his data screen. Initial findings seemed to suggest they had inflicted serious losses on their foes before being forced to retreat by the arrival of two more Battle Fleets. Jeff had ordered the withdrawal and sent his aide to collect a damage report on his returning fleet. This was who now addressed him. “Yes Mike? How did we go?” Jeff had stopped calling his aide ‘Lieutenant Rosenbaum’ very shortly after his appointment.
“Sir.” Mike hesitated, his usual enthusiasm in marked abeyance. Jeff sat up straighter, forewarned by the other man’s manner. “Most of the fleet has returned with minimal damage, but one squadron has failed to return.”
“Which one?”
“Sir, it was...it was Black Squadron.”
Mike’s distress was now clear. He was close friends with every pilot in the squadron, and one was his lover. Jeff felt similar dismay. Black Squadron had been formed out of the most reckless pilots in the fleet; men that the other squadrons considered too out of control, too undisciplined for their ranks, regardless of how skilled they might be. Leading these extraordinary men was an extraordinary Captain; one who had volunteered for the job because he had seen the potential of such a group. Captain Ackles was possibly one of the most naturally gifted pilots Jeff had ever known, and one of the best leaders. In very short order, Ackles had organised his people and had them flying in formation circles around the rest of the fleet. He also gained the undying loyalty of every person in his squadron. Jeff had another reason to mourn the loss of his best pilots and their captain; Ackles was an old family friend.
“You are sure they went down?” Ackles had been known to ignore an order to retreat if his squad was in the middle of an attack. “They’re not just late checking in?”
“No, sir. Captain Kreuk saw them go down and, just before the retreat order, she flew over again and saw their fighters overrun. She said there is no way to mistake whose fighters they were.” Mike’s lip curled with bitter sarcasm. Kreuk, indeed all the other Captains, were contemptuous of the all black paint on the Black Squadron’s fighters. It made them hard to pick up in the black of space - which was exactly the point, Ackles had pointed out on more than one occasion - and the other pilots were somewhat spooked by the way they seemed to appear and disappear amongst the other squadrons. Tentatively, Mike offered, “Jeff? I’m sorry. I know you and Jensen go back.”
Jeff tried for a jaunty smile and wondered if it looked as false as it felt. “Now, Mike. Let’s not write them off just yet. I have contacts. I’ll see what I can find out.” Frowning once more, he told Mike, “And I want you to dig around a little yourself. I want to know what would make a whole squadron go down at once.”
“Yes, sir.” Mike replied grimly.
***
The story had quickly made its way around the whole Battle Cruiser. An entire squadron of black fighters had crash-landed, still in formation, right in front of their battle lines. Three regiments had been lost trying to take them, but eventually their auxiliary power had died and, with it, their guns. The regiments stormed the fighters and, though their occupants had put up a hell of a resistance, the squadron had been captured. Jared had no need to speculate on the truth of the tale, as it was his job to care for the captured men.
There were five of them, Jared had been told. Four Lieutenants and a Captain. The four had apparently suffered several serious injuries, but nothing fatal. The Captain, he was told, had fought tooth and nail until a blow to his head rendered him unconscious. He was still out, but Jared’s superiors were very anxious to speak to the man.
Entering the holding cell area, he was met by the incongruous sound of raucous laughter. It stopped suddenly, and four pairs of suspicious, narrowed eyes turned to glare at Jared. The first thing he noticed was that one of the men was, in fact, a woman. The second was that whatever injuries they had sustained were obviously not debilitating. Jared tried out his ‘I’m harmless, nothing to worry about here’ smile on them.
The man in the nearest cell - a handsome man with piercing blue eyes - gave a snort of disbelief. “They sent a boy? Hell, son, run along home before I hurt you.”
“I’m not a boy.” Jared replied, pulling himself up to his full height. He wasn’t a small man, and he wasn’t used to people threatening him with physical harm. The most unsettling thing was, there was something about the smaller man that made Jared believe him; a leashed violence hidden under a charming exterior. Jared tried placating him, “And I mean you no harm.”
A mean smirk came onto the man’s face. “You’re not seriously trying to intimidate me with all that posturing? Hey, Tom! Can you see him? All ramrod straight?” As suddenly as the mirth had come, it disappeared, and those fiery eyes latched onto Jared once more. “You keeping us here liked caged animals is all the harm you need to do to make me kill you first chance I get.”
“Kane.” This came from the man furthest from Jared, the one this Kane had called Tom, who was almost as tall as Jared, but slightly broader. His voice was calm, and his eyes betrayed amusement. “Let the kid alone. I think he’s come to see to our injuries.”
“Yeah?” Kane graced him with a feral grin, all teeth and menace. “You gonna’ come into the cage with the lion, boy?”
“Chris, give him a break.” The girl, a petite blonde with intelligent eyes, spoke up. Her gaze travelled up and down Jared’s body in an assessing manner that made him uncomfortable. She all but purred, “I certainly wouldn’t mind his hands on me. Besides,” she turned serious, “I think Steve needs his arm seen to.”
Kane’s eyes went to the man in the next cell. This one had remained on his bunk, watching the exchange with interest. His eyes were pale and wintry, showing nothing of his thoughts. He didn’t join in the banter; his reply was straight to the point. “It’s broken. Needs setting.”
“I’ll get the doctor.” Jared told him. “I’m pretty good with cuts and wounds, but I’ll leave the broken bones to the professionals. Do any of the rest of you have any breaks?”
“No.” Tom answered for them all. “It’s mostly burns and bruises for the rest of us. Kane was grazed by a laser bolt.”
“S’alright.” Kane shrugged. “I’m more worried about Jen.” Jared looked at the girl and tried to assess what injury she might have, but of them all she seemed to have sustained the least damage. Kane smirked again, obviously having followed Jared’s gaze. “That would be Mack, and if Jen knew about the mistake you just made, he’d beat your ass.”
Jen was a he? Jared turned to the cell nearest him, where the unconscious captain lay unmoving. Even with a lump the size of an egg on his forehead, and blood making a sticky mess of his hair and obscuring half of his face, it was obvious that the captain was an unusually handsome man. The slow rise and fall of his chest was the only sign that he was still alive, and Jared wondered if they might have hit him too hard.
“Is he going to be okay?” Mack asked, her voice soft and serious.
Jared looked at her, looked at them all, and went with the truth. “I really don’t know. We’ll have to wait until he wakes up.” Watching them, Jared saw varying degrees of concern. One thing was clear; they all liked their captain. Jared turned to leave - he needed to get some supplies - and threw over his shoulder, “I’ll get the doctor to come and see to that arm.”
***
An hour later Jared found himself staring down into the captain’s restive features. The doctor had come and taken Steve away, under guard, to have his arm reset. Tom had spoken truthfully when commenting on the rest of their wounds, and it had taken very little effort on Jared’s part to dress their burns with skin patches and seal any open wounds with flesh gel. Even Kane had submitted to his ministrations without any further comment, and Jared had the feeling he was more interested in what was going on with Steve. He didn’t really relax until the other man returned with his arm almost fully re-knit and wrapped to make sure it stayed that way. This only left Jared’s most important charge.
“Let’s start by getting you cleaned up.” Jared spoke to him, a little uncomfortable with touching a man without his being able to say yes or no.
“Shouldn’t the doctor have had a look at him while he was here?” Steve asked.
Jared looked up and smiled hesitantly. The quieter man still left him unsure. “He was checked out when they brought him on board. Until the swelling goes down they don’t know just how much damage has been done.”
“Well, our Captain has a hard head.” Kane grinned. “And when he wakes up, you boys are in for a hell of a time.”
Just smiling and shaking his head, Jared turned to the task at hand. Gently, cautious of his injury, Jared wiped at the blood on the man’s face. Every inch he cleaned revealed pale smatterings of freckles that intrigued Jared. The face that he finally uncovered looked too young, too innocent to belong to a man who led an attack force. His full lips and long lashes added a certain softness to the otherwise sharp features. “Wow.” Jared whispered.
“Another one bites the dust.” Mack observed dryly. “Why am I surrounded by men with no interest in women?”
“Aww, Mack, don’t be like that.” Tom grinned. “You know Jensen’s an equal opportunity heartbreaker.”
“What?” Jared frowned, looking back and forth between them in confusion.
Kane gave one of his patented smirks. “You don’t know it yet, son, but you’re about to get your heart ripped out.”
Jared looked down at the captain and murmured, “It takes more than just a pretty face to break a man like that.”
“I tell him you called him pretty, it won’t just be your heart.” Kane snickered. “Man’s a might touchy about that.”
“I tell him you outed him to the enemy and I reckon you’ll be the first to go.” Steve spoke up, cocking an eyebrow when Kane looked at him aghast.
“Steve! Baby. You wouldn’t do that to me, would you? ‘Sides, it was Mack who brought it up!”
“I might.” Steve drawled dryly. “Especially since you just outed us too, Christian.”
Jared started to laugh. He barely knew these people, but he found himself liking them. “Y’all are crazy. You know that, right?”
“Nah.” This from Steve again, his features softened by the playful grin on his face. “You want to talk about crazy, then we need to talk about Tom’s other half. Mike is a criminal genius...and insane to boot.”
“Hey!” Tom was clearly affronted. “It wasn’t Mike who piloted his fighter upside down, with no lights, only metres above Captain Collins’ cockpit.”
“Man! You should have seen his face when I flicked the lights on! He damn near had a heart attack.” Kane crowed.
Steve shook his head. “You may have a point.” he conceded, but added, “Then again, I have two words for you. Zero. Gravity.”
Tom went bright red and mumbled something that might have been ’oh god, never getting drunk again’. The other three wore nearly identical wolfish grins. Tom sulked, “You guys suck.”
***
Things continued much the same over the next few days. Jared took the pilots their meals, continued to tend to their healing wounds, and did his best to make their captain comfortable as he remained senseless in his cell. They would joke amongst themselves, bantering and hassling one another, and Jared too most of the time. Jared liked them and, for all their threats against his life, he had a feeling that they liked him too.
After four days, the swelling on the captain’s forehead had noticeably reduced. Instead of his almost deathly stillness, there was now movement behind the thin protection of his eyelids. Jared took this as a good sign and waited patiently for further improvement. Kane’s vigilance, too, seemed to step up a notch.
On the morning of the fifth day, Jared found his patient turned on to his side, one arm curled up under the pillow. It was the first time he had physically moved on his own, and a huge smile split Jared’s face. He quickly distributed breakfast amongst the other four before going back to the Captain’s cell.
Gently, Jared ran his fingers through the short strands of the other man’s hair in what he hoped was a soothing manner. He wasn’t imagining things when the captain leaned into his touch. His eyes began to flicker. “That’s it, Jen. It’s time to wake up.” Like a switch had been flicked, the man’s eyes flew open, revealing them to be a smoky green flecked with hazel. They were beautiful, and Jared smiled. “Hi.”
Before he could fathom what was happening, Jared found himself on his back on the cold concrete of the cell floor. The captain was above him, his body weighing Jared down and his eyes flashing with feral distrust. “Who the hell are...?” He broke off on a moan, his eyes squeezing shut tight.
“Easy.” Jared soothed. “You took a nasty blow to the head. You’ve been unconscious for a while now.”
“How long?” He didn’t open his eyes, electing to keep them safely shut for now.
“Five days.” Jared told him. “Listen, Jen...”
That brought them flying open again. He growled, “What did you just call me? You sure as hell better not have called me ’Jen’.”
Jared’s mouth opened and closed silently, before he managed, “Um, no...Captain. Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Further comment was stalled by a gleeful whoop from across the passage. “Jen! Is that you terrorising our impressionable young jailer?”
“Chris.” The Captain smiled. “I take it you’re responsible for this situation?”
“Hell, yeah. I was gettin’ real impatient waiting for your captainly ass to wake up. Been lookin’ forward to seeing your reaction to Jared here.” Chris was grinning like crazy.
“Jensen.” This from Steve. “Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve got a bit of a headache, but that’s all.” Jensen reassured.
“Are you sure?” Jared asked from below him. “I’ll get the doctor to come check you over.”
Those sharp green eyes latched onto him again. “Who are you that you care?” He gave a half laugh that had nothing to do with amusement.”Oh, of course. Y’all want me healed so you can interrogate me.”
Jared sighed softly, sadly. “I know you have no reason to believe me, but I have no desire to see you hurt.”
Jensen shook his head slightly, but finally moved off of the larger man. Wearily, he pulled himself back onto the bed. “Fine. Go get your doctor. It won’t make any difference anyway. I’m awake now, and they’ll come for me at the first chance.”
“For what it’s worth, I am sorry.” Jared offered after getting to his feet. There was no answer from the Captain and Jared sighed again. He did the only thing he could do; he turned to leave. “I’ll get you something other than protein and hydration patches too. You must be hungry.” The door slid shut behind him before he could hear whether the other man answered or not.
***
The moment Jared was gone, Jensen barked out, “Chris. Sit rep.”
“I reckon you know about as much as the rest of us. We went down, were overpowered, and now we’re prisoners. I can tell you we’re on a Battle Cruiser, not on-world, but I have no idea where in the galaxy we might be by now.”
“Tom? Chances of escape?” Jensen turned his head in the direction of the other man’s cell.
“Not good. I’m afraid. The Core forces have access to all the latest tech. The bars on these cells are DNA activated. We can touch them, but as soon as we try to fit anything larger than a hand between them they send a decent shock through you, enough to knock you out anyway.” Tom’s voice was matter of fact, and just a little impressed.
“And this Jared guy? What’s his hostage potential?”
“Pretty low.” Steve answered. “I doubt he’s of great value to them. He’s just a low level grunt compared to five officers.”
“Jared has been good to us, and you, Captain.” Mack spoke up. “He spent hours just sitting with you, keeping an eye on you to make sure your condition didn’t get any worse.” Jensen made to speak, but she cut him off. “And it wasn’t just so you could be questioned. I think he might have a little crush on you, Sir.”
Jensen groaned. His people never let him forget his past as a love ‘em and leave ‘em guy. Unfortunately, he had realised too late that he was hurting people, thinking that they had understood he wouldn’t be staying. Apparently, they had fallen all too easily to his charms. As a result of this realisation, he now couldn’t remember the last time he had shared his bed. “Oh, come on! I was unconscious!”
“One look at that pretty face of yours...” Chris taunted. No one knew why he could get away with saying things that would get everyone else a beating.
Jensen pointedly ignored him, his voice softening as he asked, “And you’re all okay?”
“Steve here broke his arm, but we’ve been seen to and we’re fine.” Mack told him. “It was you that had us all worried.”
“’M fine.” He mumbled. “My head feels like Chris is in there beating on an orchestra of drums, and I still feel a little groggy, but I’m guessing that’s fairly normal.”
The door swooshed open, admitting Jared and an older man, clearly the doctor. Jared hesitated with his hand over the cell release pad. “This is Doc Beaver. You aren’t going to attack him or anything, are you?” Jensen waived his hand negligently in answer and Jared opened the cell. Beaver walked straight to Jensen’s side and started to examine him. He started up a barrage of questions that Jensen answered as best he could, and then put a hand-held scanner to Jensen’s head. After a moment, it beeped, and Beaver glanced at the results.
“Well, Captain, I think you’ll be just fine. So help you. You were better off in a coma.” He put his scanner back in his pocket and walked out of the cell. Jared walked in and placed a tray of food on the floor by Jensen’s bed before following the doctor back out. “I hope you’ll understand when I say I hope to never see you again.”
“Thanks, Doc. You and I both know that that is an empty hope.”
“Yeah, well, that’s how it is, I guess.” He ambled out of the door. Jared shot Jensen another apologetic glance before disappearing after him. Jensen huffed out a sigh and started to pick at the food on the tray. When he had eaten his fill, he closed his eyes to get what rest he could. No one said another word.
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