BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL

BADKARMA00

Archangel – Chapter Twenty-One
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Things turn ugly, and the crew is jolted by a surprise from the recent past.


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 2074    RATING: 10    SERIES: FIREFLY

Archangel – Chapter Twenty-One Author owns no rights to Firefly, and no copyright infringement is intended. Fanfic only. ------------------------------ “Don’t you even think o’ gettin’ drunk, Jayne Cobb,” Kaylee said sternly as he drew himself a mug of beer. Jayne nodded. “I won’t. Just one or two. Promise,” he added. Kaylee smiled, and kissed his cheek, before moving to help set dishes. River snickered at him. “‘As much as I wanna’”, she mimicked, and Jayne glowered. “This here’s all I want,” he said told her, with as much dignity as he could muster. “Right,” she rolled her eyes, and then looked around. “Think I’ll find someone to dance with,” she mused. Jayne nodded. “Have a good time, little bit,” he smiled. River beamed back at him, and went into the crowd. “Nice spread, Jayne,” Mal admitted, looking around. “Folks is some grateful.” “Don’t blame’em,” Jayne nodded. “Thirty tuskers is a buncha trouble, Mal,” he added. “Well, I’m gonna find Inara, and see about eatin’,” Mal told him. “Behave yourself.” “Oh, he will,” Kaylee chirped, moving up alongside Jayne and slipping an arm around his waist. “I’ll see to that.” Mal smirked at Jayne. “Much as you want,” he shook his head, and walked away. “What’s he talkin’ ‘bout?” Kaylee asked. “No idea,” Jayne shook his head. “Think he’s tetched,” he pointed to his temple. “Well, who cares, anyway,” Kaylee smiled, and Jayne felt his heart seize. “Let’s dance!” Kaylee lead the mildly protesting mercenary out onto the open ground, and soon the two were dancing to the music, oblivious to the people around them. ------------------- Simon watched as Kaylee and Jayne danced, and sighed at how stupid he had been. He shook his head, and took another drink from his mug. He looked up as a weight settled onto the bench beside him. “Drowning your sorrows, Doctor?” Jasmine Carter asked, smiling. “Something along those lines,” he nodded. She frowned. “Hey, I was only kidding, Simon,” she told him. “I’m sorry if I. . . .” “No, no. Nothing like that,” Simon waved her apology away. “I was just sitting here, thinking, that’s all.” “I can understand that,” she nodded. “No matter how well we try, there’s always a regret or two somewhere along the way.” “True,” Simon nodded. “Where are yours?” he asked suddenly, more to take his mind of Kaylee than anything else. “Oh, no,” she smiled. “This isn’t a night for that. This is a night to have fun. Can you dance, Simon?” she asked. Standing again. “Not very well,” Simon admitted. “Sorry.” “Well, just don’t kick me, and we’ll work with it,” she pulled him to his feet, surprising Simon with how strong she was. “Come on, Simon, I won’t bite,” she laughed. “Promise?” Simon smiled, in spite of himself. “Not unless you ask nicely,” she nodded, and laughed at Simon’s flush. “Good Lord, Simon. A woman would think no one’s ever shown interest in you before,” she exclaimed. Simon’s gaze went to Kaylee before he could stop it. Jasmine followed it, and frowned. “So that’s it,” she said quietly. “You and Kaylee were together, before?” she turned back to him. “Before being the operative word,” Simon nodded. “Before I opened my fat mouth.” “Ah,” she smiled again. “Well, I admit I’ve been a victim of that sort of thing myself, once or twice. But, again, this isn’t that kind of night,” she started pulling him out to the dance area. “I don’t think this is. . . .” Simon began. “Simon, if I have to force you, it’ll cause a scene,” Jasmine warned, her eyes dancing with merriment. “Better if you just come peaceably.” Simon laughed in spite of himself. “How can I refuse that?” --------------------- “So, big boy,” Kaylee batted her eyes up at Jayne as they danced. “Whatcha doin’ after the dance?” Jayne couldn’t help smile at that. “I’m thinkin’ on layin’ up in my bunk, and sleepin’ all night,” he told her. Kaylee frowned. “All night?” she asked, innocently, batting her eyes again. “Well, maybe not all night,” he admitted. She smiled at him. “I was thinkin’ we might, oh, play a little, later on,” she hinted, hand playing along his chest, as if looking for something. “Oh?” Jayne asked, eyebrows raised. “What kinda playin’ ya got in mind, there, Kaylee gal.” “The best kind,” she grinned wickedly, and Jayne almost laughed. “It’s a date,” he nodded. Kaylee looked at him, startled. “What is it?” Jayne asked, tensing at her expression. “I just realized,” she smiled suddenly. “This here is our first date, Jayne.” Jayne looked at her for a moment, then nodded. “So it is,” he kissed her forehead lightly. “Guess that means no playin’ tonight. Not on a first date.” “What?” Kaylee looked up at him, his face set so serious. “Well, there’s rules, you know,” Jayne told her. “Man can’t be expectin’ a good girl like you to be doing nothin’ like that on a first date an’ all.” He had to fight to keep a straight face as she blushed at that, but then looked up at him in aggravation. “Jayne, you better be jokin’,” she slapped his chest lightly. “Cause I got all manner of wicked things I mean ta do to ya later tonight.” “Talked me into it,” Jayne said at once, and she giggled in delight, laying her head against his chest. “You had me goin’ there for a minute, bao bei,” she admitted. “I wasn’t kiddin’ about that good girl part, Kaylee,” Jayne said firmly. “There’s nothin’ but goodness about you, girl, and I mean it.” She looked up at him, her eyes alight. “Jayne, do you know how special that makes me feel?” she asked, all pretense and joking now gone. “However it makes you feel, it ain’t good enough,” he told her flatly. “You’re the most wonderful girl I’ve ever know, bao bei. Period.” “Jayne,” Kaylee said suddenly. “Yeah?” “I think it’s time to call it a night,” she told him. He looked at her. “Party’s not nowhere near over, baby doll,” he pointed out. “Party ain’t started, yet,” she grinned, and he smiled. “Well, let’s us go, then.” ----------------------------- Jayne awoke to someone banging on his hatch. He started awake, instinctively reaching for his gun. A weight on his shoulder stopped him. He looked down, and saw Kaylee’s honey-brown hair peeking out from under the blanket, and smiled. “Jayne!” Mal’s voice was urgent, not the mad tone he usually took. “Come on out, Jayne! You need to see this!” “Whatisit?” Kaylee murmured, her eyes opening slightly. She smiled when she saw Jayne. “Mornin’ ai ren.” “Mornin’ xin gan,” Jayne smiled back, kissing her softly. “I hate to say it, but I gotta get up. Mal’s havin’ some kinda attack.” She giggled, and rolled to one side as Jayne slid from beneath her, then burrowed into the warm spot he left on the bed. Jayne hurriedly threw on his pants and shirt, then opened the hatch. “What’s wrong, Mal?” The Captain was standing in the passageway, looking more than a bit pale. “Come to the bridge,” he ordered tersely, and walked that way himself. Jayne slipped on his boots, and followed. When he reached the bridge, he found Zoe already there, looking more than a bit concerned. She was leaning heavily against the console at the co-pilot’s station, obviously hurting. Jasmine Carter was sitting at the cortex screen. “What’s up?” Jayne asked, still a bit groggy. He frowned as he looked out the bridge window. It was still dark. “What time is it, anyway?” “‘Bout two in the mornin’, local,” Mal told him absently. He was looking at the screen. “Reavers have attacked two other worlds since yesterday,” Carter announced softly, and Jayne frowned at that. “Where?” “Juniper Flats, and Hera,” Zoe said stoically. Jayne started at that. “Hera? That’s damn near a core world!” Jayne exclaimed. “Was,” Mal nodded, pushing aside his own memories of Hera, and Serenity Valley. “Reavers hit at sunup, local, Jayne. Thousands of’em.” “Thou. . . .” Jayne cut himself off. Thousands of reavers? “At least twelve ships,” Mal nodded, his eyes never leaving the screen in front of him. “Wasn’t as many at Juniper Flats, but it ain’t near as populated as Hera is. Was,” he corrected himself. “What’s the Alliance doin’?” Jayne asked, and Mal snorted. “Blamin’ it on ‘revolutionaries’,” he snarled. “Even with footage o’ the attacks all over the wave, they’re still denyin’.” “Reckon some folks’ll buy it, though,” Jayne murmured thoughtfully. “In the core, anyway.” “They will,” Zoe nodded. “But this is. . .this’ll be hard to deny.” Jayne looked at the screen for the first time. Whoever had taken the footage had to have had an iron nerve, Jayne figured. The shots were close up, and showed the reavers, and their actions in all their bloody glory. Jayne watched the images only a few seconds before turning away. He didn’t need to see any of that. He knew all he needed to about reavers. “You need to see this,” Mal told him. Jayne reluctantly turned back to the screen, in time to see a blue gloved hand raise to cover the camera’s lense. The picture went to static. “That’s all we’ve got, Jazz,” a voice from off screen said quietly. “Nothing else is making it off Hera. Not right now. The Navy has set up a blockade around the planet, and jammed all transmissions on or off the planet.” “Any word on Andy, Hank?” Carter asked evenly. “Not a thing since this, Jazz,” Hank replied. “Sorry.” “Let me know if you do hear from him, or if anything else makes it out. Please.” “Will do.” Carter cut the link, and turned to the others. “Andy Wilton was a friend of mine,” she said flatly. “That feed has his signature on it.” “Was that what I think it was?” Jayne asked, concern in his voice. “Looked as if,” Zoe nodded. Before anyone else could speak, the incoming signal light began to blink. Carter reached out to accept, then stopped. She looked at Mal. “Go ahead,” he nodded, almost smiling. She hit the button, and heard three voices curse as the screen opened up to reveal the caller. “Greetings, Captain,” the Operative said, his face stony. “I am sorry to bother you, but I need to speak with your man, Cobb.” “I ain’t got nothin’ to say to you, you tamade hundan,” Jayne growled low in his throat before Mal could answer. The Operative nodded. “I understand your response, Mister Cobb,” he said calmly. “But this is most urgent, I assure you. I suspect that you’ve seen the footage from Hera?” “We have,” Mal nodded, watching Jayne from the corner of his eye. The big man was quivering with rage at the sight of the man responsible for the death of Derrial Book. “It’s worse than you know, Captain,” the Operative smiled, remembering the last time he’d used those words. “It usually is,” Mal shot back with the same answer as the last time. “And I don’t see how it effects me and mine. What do you want?” “I cannot discuss it on an open channel, Captain, but it is most urgent, I assure you. I need your help, Mister Cobb,” the Operative turned his gaze slightly. “Very much need it, in fact.” “You get within arm’s reach o’ me, and won’t be nobody can help you,” Jayne promised him darkly. “Mister Cobb, I understand your ire,” the Operative said reasonably. “And I respect it. I did you a great wrong. I cannot undo that, much as I would like to. But I am trying to do what I can, in the time I have left, to atone, at least in part.” “Time you have left?” Mal asked. “What’s that mean?” The Operative smiled. “I am a hunted man, Captain,” he said bluntly. “As I told you, they are not forgiving. I have betrayed them, and for that I must pay. So now, where I once followed blindly, I fight. I am not without resources, but those resources are limited in their uses.” “I took it upon myself to look more closely at Blue Sun. Your pilot was far from their only victim, and the program she was in was not the only one. I was able to verify that the Pax side effects were, in fact, known to the developers before the drug was placed into use.” “They knew what would happen?” Zoe growled. “And did it anyway?” “I fear that is correct,” the Operative nodded. “But the experiment failed, you see. Their intention was to make the entire planet more aggressive rather than docile. Fortunately for all society, that did not happen.” All four of the people on Serenity’s bridge shuddered at the thought of thirty million reavers. “They’d be like a plague right outta the bible,” Mal whispered. “Indeed,” the Operative nodded. “Sweeping across the ‘verse. They were meant to be more controllable. I take it you have seen the feed from Hera?” Mal nodded. “Then you realize that they have at least partially succeeded. Someone is able, now, to direct the reavers, if not control them completely. This is unacceptable, to say the least.” “The very least,” Zoe growled. “What’s all that got to do with Jayne?” “His abilities are needed in combating this menace,” came the calm reply. “We need his help to try and stem the tide while we search for a way to undo the damage.” “We?” Mal interjected. “Who is ‘we’?” “As I said, Captain, I am not without resources. But we are few,” he added. “Far too few. And many of us have already fallen. We have to buy time in order to find out who is responsible for all this, and stop them.” “Why me?” Jayne demanded. The Operative’s eyes bore into him. “You know why, Michael.” Jayne stiffened at that, his face going blank. Mal looked at him, then leaned in to whisper something to Zoe. She nodded, and left the bridge, hurrying as much as her injuries allowed. Jayne saw none of this, however, as his full attention was on the screen. “And you know that, how?” he demanded, his voice shaking. Mal carefully laid a hand on Jasmine Carter’s shoulder, and pulled her from between the screen and the trembling mercenary. Slow to catch on, Cater followed Mal’s gaze, and bit off a gasp when she saw the red in Jayne’s eyes. Mal pulled her out of the way, never taking his eyes off his mercenary. “I know a great deal about you, Michael,” the Operative admitted. “Found on a derelict freighter bound for a moon in the restricted zone. Saved, and later adopted, by Janine Cobb, Battalion Sergeant Major of the 10th Deep Space Recon Battalion. Raised for a time on Celeste, until your mother was approached by. . . .” “Bi zu!” Jayne snarled, his hand striking flat on the counter where the screen set. “You got no right to dig into that. If I ever see you in person, I will kill you,” he growled low in his chest. “Perhaps you should hear where the information came from,” the Operative said evenly. “I don’t care where it came from,” Jayne told him, furious. “It ain’t the information that makes me want to kill you, and you know it.” “No indeed,” the Operative nodded. “It is, rather, the fact that you blame me for the death of Shepherd Book. I accept that blame, Mister Cobb. I did not do the deed by my hand, but it was I who gave the order, so ultimately, the blame is mine.” “And it is my fault,” he said, a trace of emotion in his voice for once. “I did not know he was there. I should have,” he stressed. “But I was sloppy. Thus his death is very much my fault.” “I know that,” Jayne nodded. “And when I see you, I’ll kill you.” “It will not matter,” the Operative said sadly. “There is nothing you can do to me, Mister Cobb, that will punish me more harshly than knowing that I killed my own father, blindly following the Alliance.”

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COMMENTS

Friday, March 14, 2008 3:45 AM

DUN


Damn,thats shiny good,wasnt expecting that.had a mind too do something similer myself bout reavers an operative .but yours is in a different class,really enjoying your fic.


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