FIREFLY: Alternate Universe

RolePlaying Sessions from Serenity RPG

It's been a couple weeks since the crew of Odyssey had a job. Captain Kane had ordered a planeside stop on Paquin to get some supplies and refuel the ship, so they wouldn't be dead in the water later on. Kane, Jade, Sanka, and Wash were planning to go get some dinner later on, but for right now; they are just fixing up the ship. Wash, the pilot, was in the cockpit, making some adjustments underneath the panels when a beep comes through on the console. Odyssey was being waved.

Sighing, Wash threw down the screwdriver he had and managed to squeeze himself from underneath the console and slam his hand down on the answer button.

"Odyssey speaking. Who are you and what do you need?" He asked.

Silence sounded on the console, and small taps came over. Wash frowned and leaned closer, recognizing the patterns for Morse Code. His eyes grew wide, and he frantically cut off the call. He reached up and flipped three switches over his head, then held down the PA button for the entire ship.

"Captain! You might want to get up here, quick!"

XXXXXX

Kane was in the #1 cargo hold stowing the hover mule when Wash called out over the intercom. "It never stops," he thought to himself as he finished his work and moved toward the forward stairwell.

It had been a hard several weeks and he was feeling it. Every since they had lost a couple of their crewmen to higher bidders, everything had fallen pretty much on him. While he was a good leader, but he was finding it hard to be the top man and muscle when bargaining with his "clientele." But he had his ship, and she could still fly, and Jade was with him. That's not doing to bad. Besides, they had Sanka Coffee in the engine room and Wash on the bridge. Even though those two took a bit to get used to, they new their stuff and appeared to like being here. Kane even thought Wash might love Odyssey almost as much as he did, almost. But Sanka, well, Sanka was just...Sanka.

"Wash," he called out as he approached the bridge,"this better be important. I have about 3 tons of gorram goods I still need to put away and that rutten compressor is acting..."

The look on Wash's face struck Kane as he entered the flight deck causing him the pause.

"Whaddya got?"

Wash leaned back in his pilot chair and looked over at his Captain. "It ain't good news, and it ain't bad news. I just got a distress call from a crashed ship over in Coroner's Canyon. The wave came over in Morse Code; I'm a little rusty with it, but I got the jist of it."

Wash reached over to the console and flipped a switch, showing where the coordinates were from the wave. Coroner's Canyon was listed, showing the origin of the call.

He looked at Kane. "Do you want to check it out? If we help 'em out, we may get somethin' for our troubles."

Kane was in thought. He already knew what he was going to do, but he wanted to think this out.

"I am assuming, of course, that the locals are not responding?" he said rhetorically.

The last few times he had played the good samaritan it had got him exactly 1 blown outboard engine, empty full tanks and almost bound under law. Even though he was compelled to help those that needed it, it rarely, if ever, paid well. He sighed. Can't deny help, though.

"Wash," Kane said with a pause, "fire her up...let's see if we can help those people out."

Kane hit the button for the ship wide PA, "Jade! We are about to lift off. I need the infirmary ready for action. We are likely to take on injured in about 30 minutes."

The whining sound of the engines grew and the pressure in his ears changed noticeably. A clear indication that all airlocks had closed and the ship was ready to fly.

"Let's get a move on, Wash. We're wastin' fuel idling here."

Wash grinned and grabbed the steering controls. "I got it covered Captain. I ain't aimin' to waste fuel."

He punched in the startup sequence and lifted off a little bumpy due to the engines not being quite warmed up as they should. He got it under control though, and was able to steer in the direction of Coroner's Canyon.

XXXXXX

Jade heard her husband's voice over the PA, and sighed. She recognized that tone, and knew they were in for a long day. "Understood," she replied, clicking the PA.

Glancing about the infirmary, she looked at the boxes of supplies littering the floor and sighed again. She had been organizing them for the past two days, and while she felt blessed that they were able to procure enough medicine to fully stock their large infirmary she wished she had been able to put more away. She did not need wounded stumbling around heavy boxes of medicines and equipment. The simple truth was that they needed more crew. She didn't necessarily need an assistant (for they didn't get enough 'business' to warrant two doctors) but it couldn't hurt to have some extra muscle on hand to help with stocking supplies when needed.

"Kane, beloved, please find us some help," she murmered to herself. Picking up another box, she shooed Pepper away and placed the box on the counter. She opened it and did a quick inventory. Good, it was prothermalizine; knowing there was possibility of wounded, it would be necessary to have this temp regulator nearby.

As she counted the precious medicine, she let her mind wander. She didn't know how much longer the three of them could keep Odyssey afloat before real trouble struck. It was not as if she doubted the abilites of her crewmates; on the contrary, she trusted them with her life. It was no secret that Wash was one of the finest pilots to ever sail the Black, if not "the" finest, but he wasn't exactly Mr. Fighter when it came to sticky situations. And Kane? Well, he was a soldier through and through and trained to expect the unexpected. She would follow him to the ends of the 'Verse, and she believed in his leadership implicitily, but the truth was he was only one man. They desperately needed some more man-power to help them through the sticker situations life in the Black sometimes brought to their door.

And besides...some general help would be nice every now and then.

Glancing around the infirmary once more, she clicked the PA and said, "Wash, please let me know when we are about to touch down". She turned back towards the boxes and started making room for the wounded that all too often came with distress signals.

XXXXXX

Wash looked at the PA. "Sure thing, Jade. It should be about half an hour or so."

The wave communicator started sounding.

Kane hit the transmit button, " This is Captain Kane of the ship Odyssey, over?"

It figures, he thought to himself, when it rains, it pours.

No voice answered at first. Merely a series of taps come through that didn't seem to have any sort of order to them.

Kane listened to the seemingly random tapping. Staring at Wash he realized the tapping was vaguely familiar, but he wasn't sure. He leaned in closer and concentrated hard to try and determine what the code meant.

"...Blue...plans...control...Miran...find Time Bomb...help..."

The situation was growing more curious by the minute. The "help" in the message was clear enough, but what did everything else mean? And was was the part about "find time bomb"? Did they already find a time bomb? Were they looking for one? The message was just to scramble to be much use other than it was obvious there were people that needed assistance.

"Wash," Kane asked, "can you tell if that message was meant for us, broadcast in open or was perhaps meant for someone else?"

Kane leaned over the console and looked at the directlion finder for the radio signal.

"An awful lot of mysteries. Too many for me." Kane thought outloud as he considered his options. Something inside was nagging at him and he just couldn't tell why.

Wash reached over with one hand while flipping the autopilot in the other. He tapped on the keyboard for a few moments, then shook his head.

"I can't tell who it was for, but I can tell that it's coming from the same direction as the distress call." Wash frowned and leaned to look at the Vid screen. "This is gettin' more creepified by the minute."

Kane was not amused, "Well, before we get all corpsified, I am going to get loaded up. Find us a nice spot to land a mile or so away from the spot that signal is coming from. Jade and I will take one of the shuttles in there and have a look see. We'll give you a call should we need it. However, if I call Wash, you better come a runnin."

Wash nodded quickly, then started to go into landing sequence. "Sure thing, Cap'n. I ain't wanting to go into any strange ship anyway. Besides, I need to keep Odyssey running."

Kane turned abruptly and left the bridge. He headed down the hall to his cabin. He stopped at the door and hit the PA switch, "Jade, I need you to get ready to deploy and I need to know how you are feeling."

Kane entered his cabin and opened his foot locker...it was time to load up.