Travel Plans

The dinner table was crowded. McFarren had a portable display and computer with him. Malcolm called the meeting not more than an hour after the strange passenger arrived. He knew all of the crew was curious about the man and the mission. “I have called all of you here so’s that you can hear where we are goin’ and why,” Malcolm was serious again. “Yeah, why the big mystery anyway,” Wash asked. “We get paid to do a job,” Malcolm said firmly, “not to ask why. I’ll let Mr. McFarren explain to you what our mission is.” McFarren tapped on his little computer and the 3-D holographic display showed a model of the Milky Way galaxy, “As I am sure you know, we are situated in the Orion arm of the Milky Way, here.” With dizzying speed the model zoomed into a lighter area of one of the spiral arms. A blobby sphere was highlighted in light blue. “The Alliance controls this space here highlighted in blue. The rim planets that we know are in red. As you can see we are here, now 42 light years above the plane of Alliance space. About eight months ago a deep space probe spotted gravimetric anomaly 137. It began as a gravitational oddity like many others we have encountered. At first, there were thoughts it may be a black hole or dark matter. As the probe got closer, we discovered its speed relative to the rotation of the galaxy was 1.4 meters per second along the plane of galactic rotation and zero with respect to the z-axis.” “Wa,wa wait,” Wash was incredulous, “you sayin’ that this thing is holding position?” “Scientists were not entirely sure at first,” McFarren explained, “and infrared views showed a very symmetrical shape. So they ordered the probe to alter course and investigate.” The display changed views and showed a long, cylindrical darkness against the central bulge of the Milky Way. The darkness was slightly rounded on each end. “It definitely doesn’t look like something,” Kaylee was wide-eyed, “umm natural I guess is the word.” McFarren continued, “Exactly, and when the probe was 100 light years distant the first of the anomalous behaviors began.” “Behavior,” asked Book, “you said behavior, as if it were alive.” “Well it changed course,” McFadden raised his eyebrows, “and began heading towards the probe at extremely high velocity; somewhere between ten thousand and eighteen thousand c.” “Whoaaaa,” Kaylee exclaimed, “there’s nothing we have that can move that fast. How big is that thing?” “Very large,” the view of the display changed and the anomaly became a more defined shadow, “we now know it is 1.2 light years long, .32 light years high and we estimate it to be .42 light years in depth. Once the probe was close enough, we decided to switch to infrared and lower band energy levels. Here is what we saw.” “Oh my God,” Kaylee let out. “Me too,” Book was gaping. The shape of a great vessel hung in the air of the dining room. The starlight bouncing off its hull illuminated the vessel. It was like a flattened arrowhead but with a more rounded edge. Kaylee thought it to be a pretty design, but the dimensions were staggering. She knew it would take Serenity about a day-and-a-half just to make one flight over the length of it. “Stunning isn’t it,” McFarren said, “We could not believe it ourselves. Something that size traveling at those speeds should produce a gravity distortion that would dislodge a planet from its orbit. However, the probe detected no such distortions once the object began moving. Other than the photons bouncing off its hull, there is no energy signature at all.” Book watched the display change as a larger image was shown and his mind was reeling, “Mr. McFarren, you realize that this cannot be human-made.” “No Brother Book,” McFarren was starring at the image of the giant ship, “not by any humans that we are aware of. So we are on a historic journey to find out, if we can, who or what made this object.” Wash was standing, “Is the probe still there? I mean how old are these pictures?” “These were taken about two hours ago,” McFarren said, “apparently the probe has been stopped, although it appears to be functioning.” “Is it adrift,” Zoe asked. “No, it seems to be just stopped. It dropped from a high fold speed to zero relative to the object within a few seconds. Right now it is holding position approximately seven million kilometers from the object itself.” Simon was amazed, “You do realize that this changes everything. I mean, our view of ourselves, our place in the universe. Imagine the civilization with the technology to create something like that. They must be billions of years ahead of us.” “Hey am I the only one who finds this thing gorram scarey,” Jayne suddenly said, “I mean, if it is a ship, the fraggin thing could just run us over like a piece of space dust. Mal we got no defense against something like that!” “Settle down Jayne,” Malcolm said, “I don’t plan to go up against anything. Our job is to get Mr. McFarren to the, whatever it is, and let him do his investigation.” “Captain,” Simon spoke, “for once I agree with Jayne. I find this thing more than a little unsettling. If it stopped the probe, what makes you think that we can waltz right up to it?” McFarren spoke, “Right before the probe was stopped it received a transmission on a broad-band communication frequency. The signal was repetitive and, we believe, directed from the object. It was in quantum coding.” At the lower right of the display the numbers 2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23 were scrolling. “Prime numbers,” Wash said and put his hand over his mouth for a second, then spoke again, “it was sending you primes.” “Yes but unfortunately, there is a thirty-minute delay in communication due to the distance of the probe. Before we could tell it to respond, the probe was stopped. We don’t know why. We are not even sure if it’s getting our telemetry.” “Capn’ this is awesome,” Kaylee beamed, “This is like nothin’ anyone has ever seen before. I mean this is not uh sha gwa artifact on some forgotten moon. This is real proof that there are other kinds of folk out there besides us.” Simon turned to look at Kaylee’s face. She was like a child on Christmas morning. He turned to McFarren and said, “Why is this mission so secret? What’s wrong with letting everyone know?” “Now we come to it,” McFarren shut off the display and drew everyone’s attention back to him, “the probe that made this discovery is private. If the Alliance were to here of this, they would invoke their law regarding artifacts and take the discovery for themselves. The people I represent do not want that to happen. That is why they hired Serenity. Secrecy at this juncture is paramount.” “Do you have the right to withhold this information from the human race,” asked Book. “I think a discovery like this belongs to all of humanity not just a large corporation.” “I agree with you wholeheartedly reverend,” McFarren, “However, there are certain financial considerations as well as security issues here. Frankly I am not here to debate the ethics of this discovery. I am here as a research scientist. After we find out as much as we can about this object, then we can worry about how, where and when the information is disseminated.” Malcolm spoke up, “Mr. NcFarren is right. He and his people paid us a giant sum of money to do a job by providing a service. That’s exactly what we are gonna do. Who gets the media rights is no concern of ours.” “Amen,” Jayne said leaning over menacingly towards Book. “Mr Wash, I have coordinates for you,” McFarren looked towards Wash, “It’s another 234 light years to the object. At 2700c that will be about thirty days travel time. When we get there we will be completely alone. No one will be able to help us even if we could get a message out. I have complete and detailed plans for the exploration and investigation of the object. I suggest you read them and if you have any questions just ask. I am at your disposal.” “Well we have a task people,” Malcolm said, “let’s make sure the ship is in tip-top shape. Kaylee I want a complete diagnostic of the systems before we power up. Zoe, Simon I would like emergency contingency plans in case the worst would happen. Preacher, I would like you to check on the food stores and make sure we have enough to last us. It’ll be near ninety days or so before we are back in populated space again and I don’t want to have to eat protein mush if I don’t have to. Wash I want you to work with Mr. McFarren here and plan out our route and approach to that thing once we get there.” “Mal wudduya want me to do,” Jayne asked. “I want you to make sure that the emergency systems are in top shape,” Malcolm told him firmly, “and get with Kaylee on the environmental systems.” The crew pushed back from the table and went quickly to their appointed tasks. Deep inside, Malcolm Reynolds felt a warm glow at the performance of his crew and he knew in his soul that there was no other place in the universe he wanted to be. Serenity was his home and these people were his family. Malcolm looked around for Inara. He had not noticed her face at the meeting and found that unusual. Captain Malcolm headed for her shuttle. There was more about this situation than Inara was telling.

Tears For the Past

Inara sat in her velvet-lined bed with a blanket draped over her stomach and upper torso. Tears streaked down her face onto the pillows as her emotions poured out through her eyes. She had not cried like this in some time and the pain of seeing Ian was ripping her heart to shreds. Her mind was drifting all over the place, but mostly back to the time she’s first met him. He was a young man and she was instantly attracted to him physically. Training in the Guild Companion Schools was focused as much on strict mental discipline as on developing sexual prowess. Inara was not prepared to handle the situation she had gotten herself into with Ian. A knock on her door instantly brought her attention back to the here and now. “Come in,” she said, her voice raspy from crying. Mal walked in her door and looked around the room before seeing her on the bed, “Inara, we missed you at the meeting.” Inara noticed he stood, as he so often did when he visited her shuttle, “Yes I am sorry captain. I thought that I did not really need to know the details of this little jaunt.” Mal shook his head, “Ok, but it’s a pretty exciting little trip we are on here. Seems there’s a giant ship some probe found, right above the galactic plane. We’re going to check it out.” “That is exciting,” Inara closed her eyes and turned her head away from Mal to hide her tears. “I know,” Mal softened his voice, “I got know right to pry into your affairs Inara. But, if there is something about this guy that I need to know that could affect this ship…Inara I need to know. You two have obviously met before.” Inara sniffed, “Yes Mal we have met before. It was eleven years ago, on Earth.” “Earth,” Malcolm was surprised, “geez you are one of the few people I’ve met out here that has even been to Earth. Is that where this McFarren guys is from?” “Mal I was seventeen and undergoing training at the Guild Academy,” Inara sat up now. “There are things about the Guild that no one knows Mal. As you can imagine, part of being a companion is discretion. I, along with four other companions was asked to serve as trainers for some high profile clients.” “Trainers? How you mean trainers,” Malcolm asked. “One of the things we companions do is offer sexual training for young men entering society. This training includes etiquette instruction as well for these up-and-coming gentlemen. Among the Guild it is considered an honor to train a virgin.” “So you were hired to break-in a boy,” Malcolm said, “that must have been some first time for that lucky feller.” Inara did not flinch at Mal’s attempt at humor but continued talking, “This instance was quite different. We spent a week with some extraordinary young men. It was very hush-hush as to who they were, but apparently they worked for some secret organization if you listened to rumor. My trainee was Ian. Funny thing is, I never knew his last name.” “So how long were you with him,” asked Malcolm. “Two weeks,” Inara smiled slightly, “he was so different from anything I expected. We were the same age. My Guild mother told me Ian was considered special and I came to find out why. He was not quite as tall as he is now, though he was very muscular.” “So he was…” Malcolm held his hands apart, implying the question. “Oh Mal,” Inara smiled again shaking her head, “that’s not it. Ian was gentle and super intelligent. He had a special way about him, a presence that made you feel you were the only person in the universe that mattered. Physically he was a very quick learner and the kind of things we shared were more than just physical, he…” Inara paused then began crying again. Malcolm turned then sat on the sofa, “Inara, did he hurt you?” “In a manner of speaking,” Inara admitted, “Malcolm had I been older with more training perhaps I could have handled it.” “Did he beat ya,” Malcolm asked with a look of disgust on his face. Inara rose to her knees on her bed, “No Mal. Nothing remotely akin to that occurred. We fell completely in love with one another. There was nothing I could think of but him, no where I wanted to be but with him. Ian left suddenly after the twelfth day and I was devastated. My Guild mother sent me back to the training center immediately when she noticed what had happened. Three days after I landed back in Tokyo, we heard that the other four companions, along with the Guild mother with them, were killed in an explosion. Rebel separatists they said.” “Yeah well there were some that tried any means they could to get attention,” Malcolm turned away, “doen’t make what they did right by any means.” “Mal,” Inara broke down heavily now, “I thought Ian was killed in that guesthouse. I had no idea he was alive until a few hours ago.” Malcolm did not know what to make of Inara crying. Never in their three years together had he seen her cry and it didn’t fit her character. “Would you like me to tell Mr. McFarren that your shuttle is off-limits?” “No…no Mal” Inara was sobbing in her pillow now, “that will not be necessary. Just give me some time to digest his presence here.” Malcolm stood, “Sure, sure Inara. Take what time you need to sort his out. Let me know if you need anything.” As Malcolm turned he felt Inara’s warm, soft hand grab his, “Thank you Mal.” “Oh it aint nothin’,” Malcolm grinned awkwardly. Inara looked at him with her big brown eyes, now filled with tears, “Yes Mal, it is something. Something special.” She gently pulled his hand to her forehead, where she softly placed it on the back of Mal’s hand. Malcolm could feel her pain thorough his skin as a strange warmth that ran through his hand and up his arm. He softly placed his other hand on the top of her head and gently stroked her hair with his thumb. Inara began crying again. The bright center of the Milky Way galaxy softly illuminated the newly shined skin of Serenity. Two lone figures comforting each other in the galactic night would have made little difference to the billions of planets in the thousands of solar systems of the galaxy they were speeding away from. Yet tonight, all the galaxies and stars looking in the shuttle window were given little account by them. It’s the way of things with humans sometimes. Malcolm closed his eyes.