BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL

WASHPILOT

Firefly: Alternate Universe PART 2
Monday, October 2, 2006

Part two of a alternate universe for Firefly. Preparing for a rescue mission.


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 1873    RATING: 9    SERIES: FIREFLY

XXXXXX

Sanka was in the engine room, whistling away. He felt the ship moving through the air, and he smiled at the engine. "That's my good girl, ya." He patted the side of the engine room's hull.

He kept working away at scrubbing some rust from a coil compressor when an unfamiliar sound reached his ears. Sanka stopped rubbing instantly, but when he didn't hear anything further, merely shrugged and went back to cleaning.

He was interupted once more by a clanging sound coming from the corner of the room.

Sanka threw down his towel and clomped over to the corner, looking for the source of the noise. Four eyes stared at him from the corner of the room, and he jumped back, startled.

Two cats, black and white, came into view, and Sanka glared at them. "You would be the problem, wouldn't you, Salt and Pepper, yah?"

He snuffed at the cats, who just blinked at him, and went back to work. The captain sure had some weird tasts in pets.

XXXXXX

Kane stood over his locker and began pulling his gear out. He pulled off his shirt and slipped on his balistic mesh armor, then got dressed again. He then put on his equipment harness and attached the scarbard for his old special ops knife to the left suspender. Kane checked the pistol he normally carried and made sure it was loaded and ready to fire, then returned it to its holster on his right hip. Next, he placed his other pistol in its special hidden holster that sat under his jacket, just below his neck and between his shoulder blades. Two extra clips for each pistol were placed in the ammo pouches of the harness. Finally, after making sure his microtransmitter was working and the battery in his binoculars was good, he grabbed his shotgun and the its ammo belt and headed out of the room.

The thought struck him that he might be preparing a little to much, but that old, hard learned combat sense told him to expect the unexpected. He wasn't going to fight a battle, but he wanted to be able to if one happened.

"Where is Jade," He thought. "She needs to get geared up." In all their journeys over the years, Jade had never been hurt, and he wasn't going to let that streak end now. This might be some yokels fancying themselves as pirates, or something much worse. There was no way he was taking a chance: not with Odyssey; not with his crew; not with Jade. He spun around and grabbed Jade's gear, then headed back toward the infirmary to collect his wife.

"Always more worried about the wounded than her own pretty hide..." he muttered.

Kane came to the door of the infirmary. He stopped for a moment to look at the lovely form of his wife as she tried to cram even more supplies into her field medical bag. Her beauty and the scene of her frantically gathering materials made him smile.

Kane tip-toed across the room and with as much suprise as possible, through Jade's gear onto the metal instrument table between the two beds. The racket was tremendous.

"Jade, love," he said. Pausing for effect he followed with, "gear up, it's time to fly."

At the sound of metal crashing against formica, Jade jumped. Turning towards her husband, she noted his attire and arched a delicate eyebrow. "Expecting the unexpected?" she inquired, knowing that, of course, he always did. She fingered her medical kit as she eyed her gear lying haphazardly on the counter, and knew there was no way Kane was letting her leave that infirmary without at least draping her in ballistic mesh. She saw the wisdom in this protective stance, and although she preferred to leave her personal weapons on ship she decided another lengthy argument with Kane regarding the subject would just not be worth it.

She put the medical kit on the counter and proceeded to don the ballistic mesh. After everything was in place, she strapped two long, thin, and extremely sharp short swords to her hips. Giving the buckles a final tug, she retrieved her medical kit and turned to her husband. Green-gray eyes darkening with concern, she said, "I am ready..."

Wash appeared at the door of the infirmary. "Captain, Jade, you might want to take these with you." He tossed a ship-linked Handset at them. "If you need either me or Sanka, we'll come to help. And if you need me to pick you up after you're all done, just wave me."

Salt had appeared behind Wash and rubbed against his leg, making him jump. He looked down. "Gorramit, cat, you're going to give me a stroke one day."

Pepper had traveled across the floor of the infirmary and was rubbing against Jade's leg.

Wash reached down to pet the cat, then looked up. "The airlock is open and ready, cap'n."

Kane had been considering his options for some time now. Finally, he knew what he would do. He turned to Wash.

"Wash, slight change in plans. I want you to remote pilot the shuttle to the location of the transmission." Kane looked Jade in the eye, "Jade will be inside and will communicate back to you directions to get it down on a nice spot. If she sounds out a recall, bring her back here quickly. If anything goes wrong, bring her back quickly. If you loose commo for more than 5 seconds, BRING HER BACK QUICKLY. I want you to wait 15 minutes, and then launch the shuttle #1."

With that, he addressed his wife as if Wash were not there.

"Jade, I don't have time to explain. Just call it intuition. I just don't like this and until I start liking it I am not going to take chances. Wash will pilot you out of here and bring you back. If anything goes wrong, you sound out to him immediately, got it?

"I am going to take a hover mule and get within about a quarter mile of the transmission site. From there I am going to move on foot and get in a position to observe the crash site or whatever it is. It is rocky, so I should have some cover.

"You land, find out the situation and we'll go from there. I will be watching. If anything goes wrong, I will get you out. I love you, stay safe.

"Wash, "he began, still staring at Jade, "go to the bridge and crack a cargo hatch for me. Explain it the Sanka when I am gone."

Wash saluted smartly. "Yes, Captain Kane. I'll bring her back quickly if I'm seein' anything goin' wrong. The mule is already prepped. I'll go and type in the coordinates for the shuttle now."

Wash hurried up the stairs to complete his task.

Kane hugged Jade tightly and kissed her with great passion. Then, just as suddenly, let her go, turned and was gone.

Jade was used to these rapid, abrupt departures by Kane. Thats part of why he would look her in the face and in the eye--he was memorizing her in case.

Many times during the war, Kane would show up unexpectedly, spend a few hours or even a few days, and the pull her close, kiss her and be gone. It is how he handled the mix of love for her and the battle mode he found his body and mind turning toward.

"I love you," she said out loud to the empty hall. With that, she started walking toward the shuttle.

XXXXXX

Kane got the hover mule moving, but instead of sticking to the path, he headed across country to the North-West so that way he could be north to the plume of smoke he could see rising. The terrain was close, but maneuverable. When he determined his position was about right, he pulled the hover mule to a stop behind some rocks and covered it with a tarp he had stowed in the back cargo hatch. Once completed, he turned south and started working his way to the crash site/transmission location.

XXXXXX

Jade stepped into the shuttle, secured her gear and then took a seat in one of the chairs in the cockpit. The shuttle engine was humming indicating it was ready to go, but was still docked to Odyssey. Jade's mind began to drift as the minutes passed.

The sudden leap of the shuttle into the air brought her attention back to the present. She heard Wash call out to tell her she was on her way (he had an uncanny ability to state the obvious). It was only a matter of minutes before she would be at the crash site.

Almost immediately in the air she could see the plume of black smoke rising into the sky. The column of smoke was quite high now owing to the amount of time that had passed since the call first came in.

As the shuttle continued forward Jade began to discern the outline and then finally more details of the crashed ship. It was definitely larger and heavier than Odyssey. It lay amoungst the rocks like a dead bird--all trace of elegance gone in the smoke and wreckage.

The shuttle set down very softly and immediately Jade lept up, grabbed her gear and started out of the hatch. She stood for a moment surveying the damage and looking for any injured outside the vessel. When she saw none, she grabbed a flashlight and breather from the shuttle and started off to the open hatch of the ship. She read the name from the side of the ship to herself as she approached, "Aces & Eights."

As she stood at the doorway of the ship, she realized all her senses were alive and reaching out around her.

"I will not let myself be surprised," she said to herself, and took a step into the stricken vessel. The hallway in front of her went on for a little while, and the smoke was heavy but didn’t overwhelm her senses. She could breathe, which was good.

She heard a click, and she knew the ship’s intercom was coming on.

"H..elp..." A voice sounds over the intercom. "I...cockpit..."

COMMENTS

Monday, October 2, 2006 3:18 PM

BLUEEYEDBRIGADIER


Oh...that doesn't bode well:(

BEB


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