BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL

MIRANDAGHOST

Phoenix Feathers- Pt. 1, Ch. 1
Saturday, September 30, 2006

My first fanfic, thanks to it being September 30th and all. River wasn't the only Academy student- she was just the best.


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 2056    RATING: 9    SERIES: FIREFLY

Phoenix Feathers, Part I Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Joss is boss, I just borrow his brilliance and try it on for a little while. It's fuzzy and warm.

***

“Please.”

The word was barely audible, and might have been imagined by the listener. But then, a second later, it was repeated.

“Please…”

It took a few moments for the room’s other occupant to realize that he had spoken. His unseeing eyes stared blankly at the walls, at his interrogator, at nothing at all. Gradually, the room came into focus.

It was sparsely furnished, with two chairs situated on opposite sides of a metal table. Harshly lit and spotlessly clean, the room was the epitome of an Alliance medical facility. Indeed, if it were not for the way the speaker’s hands were handcuffed to the arms of his chair and for the bolts on the bottom of his chair, the room might have passed for part of one. Which it was, in a manner of speaking.

***

The Union of Allied Planets had been born from high ideals, and was committed to bettering humanity and improving society. The Inner Planets, such as Sihnon and Londinium, were the first to be assimilated, and were shining examples of the technological and social advancements brought by the Alliance’s benevolent guidance. On the fringes of the planetary system, however, life was chaotic and unfriendly.

When the Alliance sought to bring order and stability to those backwater planets, it was forcefully opposed by those who called themselves Browncoats. Though little more than a ragtag militia, the Browncoats put up a surprisingly strong resistance, killing many of the Alliance’s peacekeepers. The stubborn defiance of the Browncoats caused a raging interplanetary conflict that threatened to destabilize the Alliance and caused damage that ultimately could prove to be irreparable.

The Alliance, though victorious, was changed by the war. Its governing body, the Parliament, had a new doctrine: to enforce peace amongst the stars by any means necessary. This led to a very visible military presence on most worlds, as well as a formidable navy, consisting of compact gunships and towering cruisers, which patrolled the space lanes. Not so publicized were other, darker projects.

With advancements that had been made in the field of neuroscience since the formation of the Alliance, the human mind could be deciphered like a computer program. Procedures were developed to bypass damaged brain tissue, opening the door to a new era of mental health. The Parliament, seeking to take these advancements further, funded a top-secret installation in which government neuroscientists worked to turn the human mind to the Alliance’s purposes.

The program, codenamed the Academy, recruited youthful geniuses from every planet, for only these powerful minds, untainted by age or experience, could be useful as test subjects. Some of the first patients died on the operating table, but breakthroughs were made. The scientists grew increasingly adept at monitoring and even altering their subjects’ thought patterns. Intensive surgeries implanted directives in the subjects’ minds, buried deep inside their subconscious, which, when activated, triggered involuntary responses. Using these methods, the Academy began to craft unwitting agents who could defend the Alliance from internal threats.

Encouraged by their success, the Academy doctors became convinced that the human brain, if improved and focused through surgery, could be made so receptive to outside influences as to be considered psychic. More surgeries were performed, but little progress was made. A very small number of subjects exhibited possible psychic qualities, but it remained for the doctors to find the key that would release their full abilities, and turn it.

The name of their star pupil was River Tam.

***

“Welcome to the Academy.”

The small boy gazed about with unconcealed wonder at the vast facility from his vantage point in the visitor’s elevator. When its descent stopped, he followed the tall man who had introduced himself as Dr. Barnes into a well-polished hallway. He was shown where the staff quarters were, where the mess hall was, and where his classrooms would be.

Back on Dyton Colony, the Academy recruiter had told the boy that he was uniquely suited for the program, that it would give purpose to his life and challenge his talented mind to do more. He had believed the man, for he had always known that he possessed an uncommonly bright intellect, and had excelled in the testing that had resulted in the interview. Because he had no relatives to speak of and no home to miss, he had jumped at the opportunity, leaving his run-down world behind him in it’s own dust. He was eager to achieve and prove his worth in the rigorous program.

As the boy followed Dr. Barnes through the Academy, he became confused as medical labs began to outnumber classrooms. He was hurried past them, only able to catch fleeting glimpses of their interiors. Sophisticated banks of screens and readouts ran around the walls of these circular rooms, surrounding a strange chair that was augmented by all sorts of equipment. When he asked his guide what the rooms were for, Dr. Barnes merely replied, “Science projects.”

As they continued through the facility, the doctor told him more about it in a rehearsed manner, speaking in glowing terms of the Academy’s sponsors and advanced features. The boy tuned most of it out- he neither had nor was concerned with money, so why was he getting the VIP tour? He wanted to learn.

When they stopped at the door to the play area, the boy hesitated. He felt as if something was wrong, but he told himself that he was nervous of meeting other children who were as smart as he was. He looked to Dr. Barnes, whose eyes twinkled as he nodded encouragement. Then the boy opened the door and stepped through.

***

“Please…”

In the cold and sterile room, Robert Barnes frowned at the interruption, and then continued speaking where he had left off.

“But you understand why these treatments are necessary. We are helping you to free your mind, to make you the best that you can be.”

He looked across the table to where Subject 04 sat, restrained and more or less docile, and searched for some sign of sanity in his eyes. Patients could alternate between moods very quickly, making sessions such as this more than a little dangerous for involved personnel. In the recent past, one of the Academy’s students had killed a doctor by violently introducing a pen to his throat.

Barnes shuddered with the memory, months old, but still fresh in his mind. He thought about it often. Since that episode, however, new security measures had been implemented. Even with Subject 04 restrained and with two guards posted just outside a passcard-only door, Barnes was nervous. The Academy doctors had fractured or replaced most of the subjects’ personalities, and at this stage of development their minds were extremely unstable, making their behavior unpredictable.

This trait was not analogous to the subjects, however. Although Dr. Barnes could not have known it, Simon Tam had infiltrated the Academy and was at that moment escaping with his sister, the Alliance’s most prized resource.

Dr. Barnes continued speaking, since it didn’t look as if 04 would.

“Your progress over these last months has been remarkable, but you will be of much more use to the Alliance as a psychic. We’re very close, 04. Soon you will take your place in the galaxy as a protector of-”

The intercom on the table crackled to life with the strained voice of an Academy Warden.

“Security breach, Shaft 7! We’ve got a subject loose! Secure all students and go to full lockdown immediately!”

Barnes thumbed the intercom.

“Guards, secure Subject 04 and take him to Holding, now!”

The security door admitted the two guards as Dr. Barnes stood to leave and find out what the good gorramn was happening. As he did so, the boy across the table from him spoke up.

“My name is Phoenix,” he whispered.

The doctor didn’t give Subject 04 another glance- there were more pressing matters that he needed to attend to.

Dr. Barnes was still rising when the heavy table slammed into his chest, throwing him headfirst into the back wall.

***

The boy, designated as Subject 82, did not play with the other children. If he was involved in a group, he was at its fringes; more often he was doing something entirely alone and unrelated. The adults attributed his aloof behavior and apparent aversion to human contact to be a byproduct of his hard childhood. Even so, they worried that this behavior was impacting the group, and debated whether he should be separated from the other subjects, and possibly removed from the program. Just when the adults were thus resolved, the boy was approached by another student.

“What’s your name?”

The boy had been secluded in a corner of the big playroom, watching the different groups of children laugh and joke together, when the dark-haired girl had walked over to him.

“Subject 82,” he guardedly replied.

The girl rolled her eyes in exasperation.

“Not your number, your name!”

The boy, caught off guard by her open and friendly manner, was slow to respond. Growing up in the slums of Dyton Colony, he had learned to conceal as much of himself as he could from others so that he wouldn’t be vulnerable to another’s words. This girl plainly didn’t subscribe to his view of the world, or at least didn’t have his experiences in life. She wore her emotions on her face, freely exposing herself to the worst of insults.

The boy was dumbfounded. Was she crazy? Either that or really stupid, he decided. She didn’t look crazy, though, and had to be at least as smart as he was, or so he had taught himself to assume, because underestimation was a fatal mistake to make on Dyton. Maybe she just didn’t know what kind of a place the ‘verse was, what horrors waited out in the Black. Or maybe she knew after all. It was enough to make his head spin, and for an instant he felt revulsion at who he had become. He had never known the kind of trust that he was now being shown from this girl, and it made him feel weird, like he was nervous and calm at the same time. And if she could trust him, perhaps he could do the same.

“Don’t got a proper name. I’m an orphan.”

A genuine look of concern crossed her face as she sat next to him on the floor.

“That’s terrible! Don’t you have any family?”

The boy shook his head, no.

“They all died when our town was attacked. I got picked up afterwards by a salvage crew who left me on Dyton. Can’t blame ‘em, really. Couldn’t make a proper account o’ meself, being only a few years on at the time.”

The girl, perhaps thinking about her own family, was silent, and listened to him recount stories of his hard life on Dyton Colony. Other children had gathered nearby, curious of the boy and, he thought, not a little unfriendly. He forced a smile and turned away from them to signal the end of the conversation.

“Got to have a name,” said the dark-haired girl. “Absolutely essential.”

She thought hard, then a smile blossomed on her face.

“What about Phoenix?”

The other children guffawed, and the boy was ashamed. He felt his cheeks growing hot, and pulled a face to deflect their derision, but the girl was insistent.

“Suits you,” she continued earnestly. “You’ve emerged from harrowing situations intact, a trait comparable to the mythical firebird which is reborn from the ashes of-”

She was drowned out by the others’ hooted laughter.

“Coo coo!”

“Birdbrain!”

“Aw, is it crying? Look at it wipe its nose, it looks like it’s preening!”

“What a dummy! He won’t last, he hasn’t even been in school ‘cause they don’t have them on Dyton!”

“Stop it!” The girl glared at the boy’s tormentors. She looked the boy who had spoken last in the eye.

“I wouldn’t get too comfortable here. You’ve already been washed out.”

The other children stared at the boy in their midst like he had suddenly grown horns. Furious, he gathered his group together and they slunk back across the playroom, occasionally throwing the duo malevolent looks.

The girl returned her attention to the nameless boy and smiled, although he could see a hint of sorrow in her eyes.

“Do you like it?” she asked.

“Phoenix…”

The boy rolled the name around in his head, then grinned at her.

“S’nice, thank ye.”

He found it difficult to express his gratitude.

He said, “Should’ve talked to you sooner, love. Anyone off Dyton Colony knows better ‘an to talk to strangers.”

She, beaming from ear to ear, bounded to her feet in one fluid motion.

“Don’t look like we’re strangers now, do it?”

To his great surprise, she mimicked his accent perfectly. The girl artfully whirled and pranced away.

“Wait-”

The boy called after her and she turned expectantly.

“What about you?” he asked.

“My name is River,” she said, and then was gone.

***

Before Dr. Barnes’ unconscious body hit the floor, Phoenix had used the momentum of his kick to vault over his own seat’s back, the force of his leap wrenching the chair legs out of their housings.

The guard immediately behind him struggled to free a weapon, but was too slow to dodge as the crouching Phoenix whipped the steel chair behind his head and into the guard’s face.

The other guard leveled a handheld laser, but only got one shot off before Phoenix scythed a leg through the man’s ankles, spinning him to the ground in a most ungraceful fashion.

The shot was intercepted by a pair of handcuffs, shattering them and freeing one of the boy’s arms from the chair. Phoenix assessed the inert bodies for a split second, and then was gone.

Three seconds after it had opened, the automatic door closed with a hiss, and locked.

***

COMMENTS

Saturday, September 30, 2006 3:07 PM

MIRANDAGHOST


Well, how's it sit? Any questions/comments/concerns? I live to serve.

Happy Sept. 30th, everybody!

Saturday, September 30, 2006 6:02 PM

BLUEEYEDBRIGADIER


Oh...definitely a lovely Sereniversary presetn to the BSR, MirandaGhost! Definitely love "other Academy student" stories, since I have always hoped Joss would have explored this theme had he been given the time:D

BEB

Sunday, October 1, 2006 12:56 AM

AMDOBELL


What a fabulous opening part. You really set the scene and introduced great momentum and drama. I liked how it was River who named Subject 82 (or should that be Subject 04? That was the only confusing bit). He comes across as a bit of an X-Men clone but wow, can't wait to see where you go with his story and how it will hopefully later entail his meeting up with Serenity and her crew. That'll be an interesting day. Bravo, Ali D :~)
You can't take the sky from me

Monday, October 2, 2006 12:00 PM

TAMSIBLING


Very intruiging - I too, like fics that explore the other students at the Academy, I am slowly building in some backstory about this very topic into a new story I'm working on now.

I agree with Amdobell, I'm not sure if Phoenix is 04 or 82, but I'm sure it will be explained later ... and will the now free student seek out his only friend from that horrible place - River?

I hope so!

Tuesday, January 30, 2007 1:45 PM

HEWHOKICKSALOT


Just discovered this story after you commented on mine. Like what I've read so far. Will read on...


Rob O.

Sunday, September 30, 2007 6:45 PM

WYTCHCROFT


one year on - still good stuff MG:)


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