Firefly/Serenity: Blue Sun

Blue Sun

 OLD EARTH, ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SEVEN YEARS AGO
 Wash rode the Gantry up to the hatch on the side of the X-287 test vessel. His cumbersome Space Suit and portable Life Support weighted heavily on him.
 "Just so you know, I left a note in my locker blaming you when this all goes wrong..."
 The Technician Smiled before whispering back.
 "Understood; But you lost the bet fair and square." Wash turned at that and stared at his twin.
 "You corporate tool." Wash smiled as the Technician slapped the hatch release next to the Blue Sun Logo.
 Wash stepped inside.
 "Right back at ya my fellow spanner." The hatch sealed between them. "Oh, and another thing..." Wash moved toward the Pilot's Seat as he said the words into his mike.
 "What?" The Blue Sun Technician had a suspicious mind. Wash slipped the Portable LS into its bay and sat back. The billion dollar seat moved to secure.
 "You got the Director's Daughter drunk last night..." The Gantry drove clear and the engines of the X-287 roared to life and the craft pushed out to the Launch area.
 "X-287 departing for full range engine test."
 "Lauch Corridor is clear 'needle'", Came Tower's Reply.
 "'Needle' Launching." The Wingless needle turned its exhaust to vertical and the craft jumped skyward. Wash took the Gee force with a happy scream.

SPACE, YESTERDAY
 The Cruiser began reeling in Serenity. They would have to be real polite to the purple bellies that would burn their way through the hatch if they were even slightly slow with getting it open.
 "Hands of Blue!" River collapsed on the floor against the hatch to the flight deck and drew Jayne Cobb's attention with a nasty memory.
 "Oh hell!" If it was who River thought it was they would be lucky to live long enough to welcome them aboard.
 "Dont worry Mal! Me and River'll come and rescue you later."
 Jayne Cobb scooped River up and hurried toward the airlock. They needed off the ship now.
 Cobb forced the twitching girl into a suit. "Hey, focus!" Jayne Slapped River on the cheek and drew her full attention instantly.
 "Suit up!" There was nothing they could do for the Doc and Kaelee, and Mal and Zoe would be on their own when it went ugly.
 Vera. Jayne strapped the weapon to his suited form and watched River pull her favoured 'Reaver Cleavers' from their place of concealment in the Airlock. Jayne cycled the Airlock and they were in Space. The Hatch cycled again and they were locked outside.
 Outside the Cruiser hard-anchored with Serenity. Jayne and River moved along the hull of Serenity to best point and jumped to the Cruiser. They needed to be over the flight deck for this and well out of sight of Serenity.
 The Blue Gloved collectors scoured the vessel. She wasn't there. She wasn't inside nor outside on the Hull. They would get her location from the others eventually. Perhaps they had left her at a safe haven, and by the looks of it in the care of the one named Cobb.
 "All right! You can be angry with me later for leaving your brother behind, but I figure that you and I are their best options for escape if we are on the outside." River Tam nodded at her annoying brute of a companion. He was right.
 Pain. Mal screamed and bled until his heart could not take it. Niska was nothing compared to these bastards. He coughed on blood and laughed.
 "This is what we are going to do. You are going to Ride their ship to where they take the others. Once they go in, they will take a shuttle down on account of these big buggers don't land. You will ride that shuttle down and Signal me. I will go back for the Serenity when they ditch it to space and come for a Landing. Sound good?"
 River smiled. It was a good Plan.
 Torment. Zoe screamed as Mal watched. Her anger fuelled her. It would only take one mistake and all these blue gloved bastards would be dead.
 Cobb drilled in above the latrine he knew was there from the last visit and fitted an Air Hose. River stared out across the mammoth vessel at the stars. "Beautiful."
 "Now, this is going to give you air for your journey. Once they move to launch the Transport Shuttle, you will need to move quick."
 "Tam? You OK?" River nodded.
 "I'm OK."
 River could feel them torturing her brother. She really wasn't OK about it. "She's on WHITEFALL, with Jayne Cobb. Just stop hurting them." Kaelee couldn't let them torture him or the others.
 This one had spent a lot of time with River Tam.
 They made Kaelee Scream.
 "I'll be waiting for your call." Jayne Cobb retreated toward Serenity leaving the small woman attached to the Alliance Cruiser.

EARTH ORBIT, ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SEVEN YEARS AGO MINUS THIRTY HOURS
 'Neddle' broke atmo and Wash found himself staring at the stars.
 "Beautiful". Wash wanted to go...desperatly...and not come back.
 He was a Day from Mars – if this worked.
 Wash entered in the course on the navicom.
 "Course set, Tower – deploying NAVSAT." A small spherical object ejected and transmitted.
 With a pulse of its experimental engine the X- 287 vanished into the Black of Space.

TANGO SIX - MINUS THREE HOURS
 Jayne Cobb stared at the distant facility with the rifle scope for a while before turning to address his companion. It sat across a mile of open desert. They would be exposed to the sensors the instant they left cover of the rock that now sheltered them.
 "And you are certain they have the others in there?" River Tam nodded. "All right Girl; when can we move?"
 "First window in eighty seconds...mark." River Tam turned the trophy axes taken from her encounter with the Reavers in her hands until she had the balance.
 "Are you sure you don't want one of my guns?" Cobb was feeling concerned that she still carried those blades. "I know you are fond of them and all."
 "I'm fine." River smiled. Their relationship was coming along fine. At least he respected her as his better in the killing arts.
 "Once at the first way-point we have to stand there for eighty three minutes before we run for the next." Jayne hated the idea of having to stand that long in the open sun without water.
 They fell quiet for a long while before River broke the silence.
 "Five." River tensed her grip.
 "Four." She felt Cobb ready himself.
 "Three."
 "Two."
 "One."
 Zero. They surged forward at the same moment and ran forward toward the first scanning null.

MARS ORBIT, ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SEVEN YEARS AGO MINUS TWENTY SIX MINUTES
 Mars loomed before Wash. There was little he could do about the problem of the Systems failure.
 "Mars Tower? This is 'Needle'. Do you read me?" Something shorted. The X-287 continued unpowered toward Mars.
 Wash was a little concerned. Mars was coming up pretty quick. He could see the Plumes of Carbon dioxide given off by the individual atmosphere processing plants. A bit of the meal bar and he clamped the helmet back down over his head. This was gonna get ugly.
 The X-287 caught the edge of the thin Atmosphere and dragged into a turn. Wash grabbed at the Manual Air braking.
 "I am a leaf on the wind..." The test craft responded poorly as it descended through the thin atmosphere unpowered.

TANGO SIX - MINUS THREE HOURS TWENTY SEVEN MINUTES
 Jayne Cobb stood at the threshold of his prize and waited.
 It was a stupid gorram plan anyway. Serenity was his. All he would have to do is turn and walk back up to the flight deck and leave Mal and the others to die at the hands of those Alliance bastards. He thought about it. He promised her he'd be here. What the Hell, she wouldn't be the first woman angry at him. Cobb turned and walked toward the upper gantry stairs.
 Jayne noticed the Reaver-Cleaver spin past the corner of his left his eye a few seconds after his foot touched to first step up to the flight deck gantry. He paused as it cut through a wire strut and embedded itself in the metal framework of the steps.
 She was alive. She was angry, she was in a killing mood, and she was here.
 Jayne turned toward her.
 "You find them?" She looked like shit. Suit must have caught fire during atmospheric entry.
 "…you O.K.?" River ignored Jayne and walked slowly toward him with her remaining Cleaver bouncing in her left hand.
 "Whoa there darling, I'm here aren't I?" He put a hand up in protest and backed up against a metal railing. Her booted shin snapped into his groin like a hammer. Jane dropped heavily on his knees.
 "Damn it woman…what the hell are you doing?" A kick to the head and he was on his back with River Tam straddling his chest like a saddle and her cleaver blade jammed up beneath his right armpit. River Tam closed for her prize and bit him on the lip hard before pulling away.
 "Missed you." River's voice was seductively playful.
 Jayne Cobb looked at the strange turn of events straddling his living corpse with concern; Looked past her at the cleaver embedded in metal and back at the one jammed up under his armpit.
 "So I noticed. I'm hoping that was intentional."
 River smiled and shook her head. That was discouraging. That one meant fifty-fifty in crazy girl language. Jayne Cobb closed his eyes and felt the load on his chest lighten.
 "So…did you track them?" Was she still there? His eyes snapped open and he looked about. The Cleaver under his armpit was gone. She was working on the one embedded in the Steps.
 "They're not far off."

 TANGO SIX - MINUS THREE HOURS
 Mal Reynolds was a straight up guy. He understood the Alliance. They wanted to know what he knows so they torture him for information. A simple transaction. In the mean time they stick you in a box with a door and guards all over it. The thing he didn't understand was why his box had two doors and they were acting like they didn't know it was there.
 Mal was fairly sure he wasn't in space but the room felt more like an Airlock. His eyes opened at the thought they were planning to flush him into space. It was replaced by another. Maybe the bastards who played with River's head were behind that door. Rats in the Walls? Or was this the door to a Maze? Was he the Rat or the Cheese?
 Mal got to his feet and examined the Door that no one else could see. the seam was almost non existent but it was there - it was definitely a door. He could tell by the way the Diamond coating...Diamond? Realization turned on the lights in his mind.
 "Holy shit." It was the exterior to a ship. A very old ship. He felt about himself for something he had forgotten. An ivory card key he had taken from a dead Preacher who had helped him discover faith and concealed in his pants. The Ivory card seemed ordinary enough, but the Blue Sun watermark meant it opened something old. Mal moved the key over the surface until it happened.

TANGO SIX - MINUS TWO HOURS FIFTEEN MINUTES
 Zoe was dying. She could feel it. Her naked body was on the verge of going into shock. Pretty soon her heart would just stop.
 The tight crate they were keeping her in between interrogation cycles opened. Wash's ghost stood over her – the light was blinding. Zoe raised a hand toward the apparition, weeping at the end of her life.
 "Hey there beautiful," her hand struggled to caress the sight of his face, his voice a comfort.
 "Can I keep you?" With laughter she coughed up blood in agreement.
 Wash lifted Zoe into the light of this unexpected afterlife and they were gone.

 TANGO SIX - MINUS ONE HOUR THIRTY MINUTES
 River looked at Jayne Cobb as she remained steady. He was swaying but they could move in a few more minutes.
 "Almost time." She never used his name. In all the time she had known him she never used his name. She couldn't say why.
 "I'm Ready." Jayne's voice was hoarse with the need to hold very still. Every part of him was in pain.
 "This one is a run. And the Space is small so you will need to be with me when I reach it." Jayne looked at the girl with the axes out of the corner of his eyes. Jayne began to twitch and flex his muscles to fill the last few minutes.
 "Coming up!"
 "Three"
 "Two"
 "One"
 "Run!" River exploded from her position and Cobb was moving across the rough sand and gravel behind the lithe girl though only a little slower.

TANGO SIX - MINUS ONE HOUR
 River considered her options. There was no way Jayne Cobb would reach the next scanning null on time. he was now thirty seconds behind her and the distance would only increase.
 "You are not going to make it."
 River Tam was right. Jayne Cobb didn't want to risk it. No telling what would happen if he dug in here and let her go in alone. He pulled the adrenaline spike from a pocket, ripped the foil and slammed the needle into his heart. His muscles exploded with pain but he had to hope it would be enough.
 River noticed the sudden change - How foolish of him to risk Cardiac failure for her. As long as he didn't die, the Adrenalin would carry him over the line.
 The Climb seemed agonizing. Every second counted, every footfall made her think of failure. If he didn't make it, he would not have enough time to dig in. They would sense his heart beating the instant he failed to reach the scanning null. Then it would be all over for the both of them.
 Option two entered her mind. She would need to kill him if he was even a second off mark. River tightened her grip on the cleavers. She would make it quick. She would need to stop his heart with an ax.

 TANGO SIX - MINUS TEN MINUTES
 River was tired. She had spent an intense amount of energy holding up Jayne Cob, the Giant of a man leaning across her shoulders. Thirty minutes propping up his heavy frame. The Smell of his body had become an act of Discovery on her part. The blood from the wound over his heart gave off a distinct smell of iron oxide. River amused herself with that thought for a while. The idea that Jayne Cobb was a Bad Robot entertained her until the smell of blood was overcome by the smell of his tobacco cigars. That was a smell she knew often in her time with him on Serenity. The smells of Jayne Cobb gave way to the most dominant of his collection: Urine. He had apparently taken the opportunity to relieve himself of bodily fluids at the first scanning null. The smell permeated the cammo.
 At least she would not be short of drinking water. This brand of clothing came with a urine catch and filtered water skin in the leg.
 River Tam moved her hand down Jayne Cobb's leg in search of the pocket containing the flexible hose and tap. Returning the Hose to her mouth she sucked on the poorly filtered water. You were supposed to change the filter regularly. River grimaced at the substance she had just consumed.
 River contemplated the thousand feet that could be walked across to cover. How could anyone fail to notice the girl holding up the body of a giant in broad daylight. There was now less than ten minutes before that distance to cover could be closed.
 "Don't forget to turn the tap off." Cobb's voice seemed as reassuring as the rifle pointed at the control tower.
 All the two men inside had to do was stand up and he would kill them both.
 "Five Minutes." They were running out of time.
 "I'll need to take the Tower myself." Jayne considered popping both occupants close quarters and using the roof as a sniper post as movement caught his attention.
 "Trouble." Skywalk. Jayne surveyed the scene.
 "Like what ?" River was interested.
 "A Blue Sun flight Suit with a sack over its head being escorted by four Purple bellies via the skywalk to building two."
 Blue Sun's Pilot Core. Here ?
 "Change of Plan. Rifle Please." River dropped her cleavers and claimed Jayne's rifle. Three shots into a well armored Deuterium storage tank and the explosion blew out the windows on the control tower. The two men within broke cover to watch the fireball. They both died in quick succession. Jayne Cobb smiled at her.
 "Interesting Plan." River claimed her Cleavers and headed for the security door on Building One. A thousand feet - and they were now early.