Fic: Fight or Flight (SGU/Firefly crossover)
Title: Fight or Flight
Fandom: SGU/Firefly crossover
Characters: TJ, Shepherd Book, Destiny
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 2451
Author's Note: Written for scifi_tv_addict at the Holiday Gift Giving at sgoc and for the Cadenza Challenge prompt Chorus - I'm not afraid to keep on living at 5_prompts
The air on this planet was a strange mixture of warm and dry, a combination that felt disconcerting against TJ's skin. Her skin had been sensitive ever since Carmen's birth. No, she reminded herself. No birth. If she started to lie to herself, she'd end up as one of those bent-over old ladies who talked to themselves as if old friends were still in the room, their brains struggling to figure out what was reality and what was only part of the delusion they used to convince themselves they were sane.
Her baby was safe. She knew this because Destiny had told her so. The ship was freaky that way, messing with people's minds as if it had a right. With a sigh, TJ pushed those thoughts out of the way. She wasn't on this planet to have a nervous breakdown as she tried to figure out the ramifications of having the ship convincing her that her baby was safe somewhere, most likely with Jeremy in whatever alternate reality he existed in now. That thought actually gave her some comfort.
"Yo, TJ. We've got a situation over here that could use some of your expertise. Like now."
TJ walked in the direction that Greer and Scott had veered off the path. She had grown used to trees hemming her in when she was on a planet, not great hulking metal objects that had settled down into sand as if they were growing roots and would eventually start producing tiny reproductions of themselves. It was the perfect place to hide a stargate, though.
As she rounded the last corner, TJ gasped in surprise at the carnage in the clearing. A tiny town had been eeked out of the sands but there was no life left. Something or someone had come along and shot up the inhabitants pretty badly, leaving behind a haze of dust and the smell of blood but little else to show why this had been done.
Greer motioned to her. "We found one that's still alive. He's pretty badly hurt, though."
"How long ago did this happen?" she asked as she fell to her knees beside the dark-skinned man. His wounds were bad but he'd already held on this long. With a little hope and a lot of the new drug mixtures she'd been able to concoct using some of her supplies plus things that she'd been finding thanks to Varro's help. Speaking of Varro... "This wasn't Lucian related, was it?"
"No. This wasn't anything I've seen so far." Scott pulled off his glasses to better wipe the sweat off his face before putting them back on. His eyes were scanning, back and forth and back again, as he looked for the source of the threat. "This place looks run down but it's far superior to any sign of civilization that we've seen so far."
"Superior? This place has ghetto written all of it. No, my brother, this is not superior. This just means that no civilization ever gets it right. Look at this brother... woah."
The man lying on the ground coughed once or twice as he fought for consciousness. He looked up at TJ, his eyes rolling back as he struggled to get his body to obey him. "Must... find... Mal. He needs... to know."
"Mal who?" TJ asked, leaning in close to catch all the words. "Where is this place? Who's Mal?"
"Tell him... we tried... but...." A spasm of coughing stopped his words.
TJ had seen enough to know that she wasn't going to let him die here on the planet, all alone. Whoever this Mal was, they could take care of it later. "We're going to take you back to our ship and get you patched up. We can help you find Mal when you're feeling better."
It took several hours but TJ was finally able to get the man stabilized. As he slept, she tried to piece together what might have happened but it was hard because there were several things that puzzled her. Scott had been right when he said that the society was superior because whatever had made these wounds hadn't been from any weapon she'd ever seen. Also, when she'd gone through his pockets, there had been several cards that looked like something straight out of Star Trek. Seeing as she was currently living on a space ship so many million of miles from home that she doubted she would ever see Earth again, she shouldn't have been shocked.
When his eyes opened, she waited for comprehension and possible recognition before she started speaking. "My name's TJ. You were pretty beat up but you should be able to get back to your planet soon. We're out of FTL for repairs that should take a couple more days so we'll be able to get you back in no time at all."
"Where," he cleared his throat and tried again. "Where am I?"
"You're on board the Destiny. You don't need to worry. We aren't aliens. We're humans. Like you."
His look was nothing short of skeptical. "Aren't we all humans?" he asked, his voice questioning but respectful, as if he thought she was kind but insane.
As TJ rethought her words, she couldn't see what she'd said that should have made him question her. All the scans she'd run had shown that he was human, as full-blooded as she or any of the other crew members. It would have been a comfort to her to know she was talking with another human if she'd been taken on board a strange ship, especially considering the blue aliens they'd spent considerable time running from.
"What was the name of the planet we found you on?" she asked, hoping to get away from this seeming controversial question.
"It's called Haven. But if I'm remembering everything correctly, it certainly proved to be anything but that."
She nodded. "We sent another team back to search for more survivors after we brought you back here but all of them were dead. There was nothing we could do for them."
"I think it would have been better if you'd left me to my fate so I could usher my people into the folds of Heaven." He turned his face away from her and closed his eyes. While she didn't think he was searching for sleep, it didn't look as if he wanted to be disturbed. She left him to his thinking or praying or whatever it was that he was doing and went back to her other duties.
The vision hit her hard as she entered the sick room after going for a quick walk to clear her head. She could see the man lying in the bed just as she'd left him but he was also striding about the room, eating up the small distances with his long legs. "What am I doing here?" the apparition demanded when he saw her. "Why have you brought me here? I'm not supposed to be here. I've got my own destiny, thank you very much. I don't need to get messed up in yours."
"I was trying to help you."
"Help? You think you were helping? I was supposed to die on that planet. My friends were supposed to find me and avenge my death. Now what will they find when they arrive? Nothing. You've stopped the signal. You've rearranged fate."
TJ held up her hands in front of her, trying to both comfort him and protect herself just in case he decided to inflict bodily harm. It was eerie watching the man walking about as he also slept on one of the Infirmary cots. "Who are you?" she whispered, hoping she didn't wake her patient because she didn't think she could carry on conversations with both men.
"Who I am is not as important as to what I am. Or better yet, when I am. Ask me that. Ask me what year it was when you brought me here?" When she hesitated, the man scowled. "Ask me, human like me."
"What year was it when we found you?" she whispered, wishing they'd never set foot on Haven or had found this man dead.
"2518. And what year are you living in? 2010. My timeline is not your timeline." He advanced on her, the edges of his body blurring with his movement. "Take me back. Take me back NOW."
Before he could walk right through her body, the vision disappeared and TJ was left panting from the energy that had surged through her body as she fought over whether to run away or fight. Destiny was not happy with her. Not happy at all. Whatever they had stumbled onto back at Haven was not for them to deal with. And when she had been told to act immediately, she knew she needed to act immediately.
"Sir? Sir, I need you to wake up." She shook the man's shoulder as tenderly as she could with the urgency to get him off the ship gripping her insides like a vise. When he opened his eyes, she tried to keep her words as calm as possible. "It's time to get you back to where you belong. Are you feeling well enough to walk on your own or should I get someone to help me."
He pushed himself to a sitting position, resting for a bit as his body adjusted to the change. "I can do this on my own. If you'd be so kind, I think I'd like my own clothes back, though."
While the man swung his legs over the side of the bed, TJ went in search of his clothes. She'd had them cleaned and then tucked them away, not thinking she would need to worry about them for awhile yet. Now that she rummaged through drawers, trying to get her brain to give her back the information that would help her find them again, she wondered if this was wise. While Destiny might now want him onboard, the man was clearly still hurting. Her ethics were suddenly at war with her instincts.
There was no stopping the man now that he was allowed to get up. He was standing, balancing against the bed, when she finally brought his clothes to him. Turning discreetly to allow him some privacy while still near enough to help if need be, she began to list the reasons she should have made him stay, most of them coinciding with the beeping machine that she hadn't thought to silence as she unhooked him. While walking him through the corridors to the gate room, she mapped out the reasons why he should leave, all the slow beat of their shuffling feet.
When they arrived at their destination, TJ tried to think of which list had been longer. Which direction was she going to head in on this, their last conversation?
"I don't think you should come back with me," he said before she could come up with her reply. "You weren't meant to come to my time or my world. You've got enough problems of your own."
"Yes, maybe that's for the best," she agreed, overly helpful now that she didn't have to push him off the ship. "I'm sorry that we couldn't heal you fully before sending you back to your planet. It... it feels wrong."
His eyes radiated kindness even as his lips pulled themselves into a smirk. "Don't worry, child. You did what you thought was right. I guess I should be thanking you for saving me. No man wants to die alone, without people around him to mourn what little he'd been able to accomplish with his life. You've saved me from that for the present."
"Be safe. Well, safer." She held out her hand but found herself drawn into a quick hug that did more for her conscience than any of her rationalizations. "I hope you have a chance to make our mistake right again."
"I'll have time," he replied confidently, as if he knew something that he wasn't supposed to. She wondered if Destiny was able to mess with his head the way she did with the crew which led her to wonder what the ship might have had to say to this man.
As the gate opened and the surface became like a sheet of water placed between the inner circle, TJ thought about asking him what it was that Destiny had said to him to bring such peace to his face but she thought better of it as the ship shuddered, almost as if it was telling her to keep her own company on this. Instead, she raised her hand in a silent goodbye as he took one last look around and stepped through the stargate.
---
"So, you're telling me that you went back in time?" Mal struggled to understand what Book was telling him. "And they had spaceships? Earth-That-Was didn't have spaceships. Least, that's what I've always been led to understand."
Book shrugged, his muscles still recovering from his ordeal over the past few days. Once he'd found his feet on solid ground again, he'd sent a message to Serenity. They'd come back for him, surprised to hear from him considering what they found when they'd first arrived on the planet. "I can't explain it but I was rescued by definite people from Earth-That-Was. While I was on board their ship, I was shown what should have happened and then a possibility for a new reality."
"A new what?" Jayne asked, his face twisted into the look he got when he knew perfectly well what was being said but he wanted it confirmed so he knew he was getting it all just right in his head.
"Reality, Jayne. Keep up," Zoe snarled, her arms wrapped around Wash's shoulders where they'd been since Book had arrived back on ship. She'd been having dreams of her own recently, none of them ending happily or well. It was hard not to think of them now as the shepherd's eyes fell on her, full of compassion and sorrow. "Go on, Shepherd. Tell us what we need to know."
But he shook his head. "We do what comes naturally, same as always. I was just given an idea of what could happen. That doesn't mean that it's the for sure way it's supposed to end up. We just do what we would do in any given situation and leave it at that."
Mal narrowed his eyes, clearly not liking that answer but what was he going to do. It seemed the thing to do was to follow the good Shepherd until a better plan came about. He hoped that was sooner rather than later since he hated to do what came naturally.
Fandom: SGU/Firefly crossover
Characters: TJ, Shepherd Book, Destiny
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 2451
Author's Note: Written for scifi_tv_addict at the Holiday Gift Giving at sgoc and for the Cadenza Challenge prompt Chorus - I'm not afraid to keep on living at 5_prompts
The air on this planet was a strange mixture of warm and dry, a combination that felt disconcerting against TJ's skin. Her skin had been sensitive ever since Carmen's birth. No, she reminded herself. No birth. If she started to lie to herself, she'd end up as one of those bent-over old ladies who talked to themselves as if old friends were still in the room, their brains struggling to figure out what was reality and what was only part of the delusion they used to convince themselves they were sane.
Her baby was safe. She knew this because Destiny had told her so. The ship was freaky that way, messing with people's minds as if it had a right. With a sigh, TJ pushed those thoughts out of the way. She wasn't on this planet to have a nervous breakdown as she tried to figure out the ramifications of having the ship convincing her that her baby was safe somewhere, most likely with Jeremy in whatever alternate reality he existed in now. That thought actually gave her some comfort.
"Yo, TJ. We've got a situation over here that could use some of your expertise. Like now."
TJ walked in the direction that Greer and Scott had veered off the path. She had grown used to trees hemming her in when she was on a planet, not great hulking metal objects that had settled down into sand as if they were growing roots and would eventually start producing tiny reproductions of themselves. It was the perfect place to hide a stargate, though.
As she rounded the last corner, TJ gasped in surprise at the carnage in the clearing. A tiny town had been eeked out of the sands but there was no life left. Something or someone had come along and shot up the inhabitants pretty badly, leaving behind a haze of dust and the smell of blood but little else to show why this had been done.
Greer motioned to her. "We found one that's still alive. He's pretty badly hurt, though."
"How long ago did this happen?" she asked as she fell to her knees beside the dark-skinned man. His wounds were bad but he'd already held on this long. With a little hope and a lot of the new drug mixtures she'd been able to concoct using some of her supplies plus things that she'd been finding thanks to Varro's help. Speaking of Varro... "This wasn't Lucian related, was it?"
"No. This wasn't anything I've seen so far." Scott pulled off his glasses to better wipe the sweat off his face before putting them back on. His eyes were scanning, back and forth and back again, as he looked for the source of the threat. "This place looks run down but it's far superior to any sign of civilization that we've seen so far."
"Superior? This place has ghetto written all of it. No, my brother, this is not superior. This just means that no civilization ever gets it right. Look at this brother... woah."
The man lying on the ground coughed once or twice as he fought for consciousness. He looked up at TJ, his eyes rolling back as he struggled to get his body to obey him. "Must... find... Mal. He needs... to know."
"Mal who?" TJ asked, leaning in close to catch all the words. "Where is this place? Who's Mal?"
"Tell him... we tried... but...." A spasm of coughing stopped his words.
TJ had seen enough to know that she wasn't going to let him die here on the planet, all alone. Whoever this Mal was, they could take care of it later. "We're going to take you back to our ship and get you patched up. We can help you find Mal when you're feeling better."
It took several hours but TJ was finally able to get the man stabilized. As he slept, she tried to piece together what might have happened but it was hard because there were several things that puzzled her. Scott had been right when he said that the society was superior because whatever had made these wounds hadn't been from any weapon she'd ever seen. Also, when she'd gone through his pockets, there had been several cards that looked like something straight out of Star Trek. Seeing as she was currently living on a space ship so many million of miles from home that she doubted she would ever see Earth again, she shouldn't have been shocked.
When his eyes opened, she waited for comprehension and possible recognition before she started speaking. "My name's TJ. You were pretty beat up but you should be able to get back to your planet soon. We're out of FTL for repairs that should take a couple more days so we'll be able to get you back in no time at all."
"Where," he cleared his throat and tried again. "Where am I?"
"You're on board the Destiny. You don't need to worry. We aren't aliens. We're humans. Like you."
His look was nothing short of skeptical. "Aren't we all humans?" he asked, his voice questioning but respectful, as if he thought she was kind but insane.
As TJ rethought her words, she couldn't see what she'd said that should have made him question her. All the scans she'd run had shown that he was human, as full-blooded as she or any of the other crew members. It would have been a comfort to her to know she was talking with another human if she'd been taken on board a strange ship, especially considering the blue aliens they'd spent considerable time running from.
"What was the name of the planet we found you on?" she asked, hoping to get away from this seeming controversial question.
"It's called Haven. But if I'm remembering everything correctly, it certainly proved to be anything but that."
She nodded. "We sent another team back to search for more survivors after we brought you back here but all of them were dead. There was nothing we could do for them."
"I think it would have been better if you'd left me to my fate so I could usher my people into the folds of Heaven." He turned his face away from her and closed his eyes. While she didn't think he was searching for sleep, it didn't look as if he wanted to be disturbed. She left him to his thinking or praying or whatever it was that he was doing and went back to her other duties.
The vision hit her hard as she entered the sick room after going for a quick walk to clear her head. She could see the man lying in the bed just as she'd left him but he was also striding about the room, eating up the small distances with his long legs. "What am I doing here?" the apparition demanded when he saw her. "Why have you brought me here? I'm not supposed to be here. I've got my own destiny, thank you very much. I don't need to get messed up in yours."
"I was trying to help you."
"Help? You think you were helping? I was supposed to die on that planet. My friends were supposed to find me and avenge my death. Now what will they find when they arrive? Nothing. You've stopped the signal. You've rearranged fate."
TJ held up her hands in front of her, trying to both comfort him and protect herself just in case he decided to inflict bodily harm. It was eerie watching the man walking about as he also slept on one of the Infirmary cots. "Who are you?" she whispered, hoping she didn't wake her patient because she didn't think she could carry on conversations with both men.
"Who I am is not as important as to what I am. Or better yet, when I am. Ask me that. Ask me what year it was when you brought me here?" When she hesitated, the man scowled. "Ask me, human like me."
"What year was it when we found you?" she whispered, wishing they'd never set foot on Haven or had found this man dead.
"2518. And what year are you living in? 2010. My timeline is not your timeline." He advanced on her, the edges of his body blurring with his movement. "Take me back. Take me back NOW."
Before he could walk right through her body, the vision disappeared and TJ was left panting from the energy that had surged through her body as she fought over whether to run away or fight. Destiny was not happy with her. Not happy at all. Whatever they had stumbled onto back at Haven was not for them to deal with. And when she had been told to act immediately, she knew she needed to act immediately.
"Sir? Sir, I need you to wake up." She shook the man's shoulder as tenderly as she could with the urgency to get him off the ship gripping her insides like a vise. When he opened his eyes, she tried to keep her words as calm as possible. "It's time to get you back to where you belong. Are you feeling well enough to walk on your own or should I get someone to help me."
He pushed himself to a sitting position, resting for a bit as his body adjusted to the change. "I can do this on my own. If you'd be so kind, I think I'd like my own clothes back, though."
While the man swung his legs over the side of the bed, TJ went in search of his clothes. She'd had them cleaned and then tucked them away, not thinking she would need to worry about them for awhile yet. Now that she rummaged through drawers, trying to get her brain to give her back the information that would help her find them again, she wondered if this was wise. While Destiny might now want him onboard, the man was clearly still hurting. Her ethics were suddenly at war with her instincts.
There was no stopping the man now that he was allowed to get up. He was standing, balancing against the bed, when she finally brought his clothes to him. Turning discreetly to allow him some privacy while still near enough to help if need be, she began to list the reasons she should have made him stay, most of them coinciding with the beeping machine that she hadn't thought to silence as she unhooked him. While walking him through the corridors to the gate room, she mapped out the reasons why he should leave, all the slow beat of their shuffling feet.
When they arrived at their destination, TJ tried to think of which list had been longer. Which direction was she going to head in on this, their last conversation?
"I don't think you should come back with me," he said before she could come up with her reply. "You weren't meant to come to my time or my world. You've got enough problems of your own."
"Yes, maybe that's for the best," she agreed, overly helpful now that she didn't have to push him off the ship. "I'm sorry that we couldn't heal you fully before sending you back to your planet. It... it feels wrong."
His eyes radiated kindness even as his lips pulled themselves into a smirk. "Don't worry, child. You did what you thought was right. I guess I should be thanking you for saving me. No man wants to die alone, without people around him to mourn what little he'd been able to accomplish with his life. You've saved me from that for the present."
"Be safe. Well, safer." She held out her hand but found herself drawn into a quick hug that did more for her conscience than any of her rationalizations. "I hope you have a chance to make our mistake right again."
"I'll have time," he replied confidently, as if he knew something that he wasn't supposed to. She wondered if Destiny was able to mess with his head the way she did with the crew which led her to wonder what the ship might have had to say to this man.
As the gate opened and the surface became like a sheet of water placed between the inner circle, TJ thought about asking him what it was that Destiny had said to him to bring such peace to his face but she thought better of it as the ship shuddered, almost as if it was telling her to keep her own company on this. Instead, she raised her hand in a silent goodbye as he took one last look around and stepped through the stargate.
---
"So, you're telling me that you went back in time?" Mal struggled to understand what Book was telling him. "And they had spaceships? Earth-That-Was didn't have spaceships. Least, that's what I've always been led to understand."
Book shrugged, his muscles still recovering from his ordeal over the past few days. Once he'd found his feet on solid ground again, he'd sent a message to Serenity. They'd come back for him, surprised to hear from him considering what they found when they'd first arrived on the planet. "I can't explain it but I was rescued by definite people from Earth-That-Was. While I was on board their ship, I was shown what should have happened and then a possibility for a new reality."
"A new what?" Jayne asked, his face twisted into the look he got when he knew perfectly well what was being said but he wanted it confirmed so he knew he was getting it all just right in his head.
"Reality, Jayne. Keep up," Zoe snarled, her arms wrapped around Wash's shoulders where they'd been since Book had arrived back on ship. She'd been having dreams of her own recently, none of them ending happily or well. It was hard not to think of them now as the shepherd's eyes fell on her, full of compassion and sorrow. "Go on, Shepherd. Tell us what we need to know."
But he shook his head. "We do what comes naturally, same as always. I was just given an idea of what could happen. That doesn't mean that it's the for sure way it's supposed to end up. We just do what we would do in any given situation and leave it at that."
Mal narrowed his eyes, clearly not liking that answer but what was he going to do. It seemed the thing to do was to follow the good Shepherd until a better plan came about. He hoped that was sooner rather than later since he hated to do what came naturally.