The Return – Part 9

Serenity came out of night into day as it glided over the Indian Ocean on its touchdown trajectory toward Melbourne, Australia. Wash had decided at the last moment to save as much fuel as possible by avoiding a direct landing and opted for a gradual atmo entry and a long glide path much as the first Earth spacecraft did. Once over the city he would turn on the VTOL’s and maneuver the ship around until Mal decided on a suitable landing place. All Wash had for a navigation aid was the maps Gregori Kovalev had uploaded into Serenity, which Wash had on one of his view screens in front of him. There were no nav satellites, no markers or beacons of any kind. Wash was flying blinder than even the first astronauts had. And he was loving every moment of it.

“Having fun?” Mal asked as he glanced over at his grinning pilot.

“Getting to show off how good I am at my job.” Wash replied. “Too bad none of my classmates from flight school are here.”

“Now Wash I’m sure we’ve landed on one or two moons that were equally lacking in nav sats. In fact, I can think of one we just left.”

“Yeah, but they were moons, small things with less atmo and less gravity. This here’s a full sized planet. And it’s Earth at that. When we get home I’ll have bragging rights for years.”

Dr. Fred Walker was listening to their conversation as he kept scanning for signs of life and observing the radiation data from the co-pilot’s sensor boards. “Your quadrant must be very interesting. You talk about space travel as if it is an every day occurrence.”

“For us it is, Doctor. Hell, Fred was it? Simon’s only doctor on Serenity. How many space trips for you, Fred?”

He glanced back at him and Mal could see his nervousness. Beads of sweat lined his forehead and he had a slight high pitch to his voice. “Two. Counting this one. First one was to the moon, three years ago. I went there to observe solar flares and deep space radiation anomalies.”

“Damn,” Wash said. “I can’t even remember how many I’ve made.”

“Me, neither,” said Mal. “And some of them ended in combat landings. Ain’t nothing more likely to get your juices flowing in the morning than dashing from a spacecraft through incoming artillery fire.”

“Hull temperature rising,” Wash said as they began to enter the Earth’s atmosphere. The west coast of Australia came into view and then a long glide and gradual slowing down, with a bit of sweating as the heat rose, brought them across the Great Australia Bight and over Melbourne about midday local time.

Mal grabbed the mic. “Attention ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Earth.” Within minutes all were on the bridge except Kaylee, whose job was to stand by the engines. Wash began doing circles at around three thousand feet over Melbourne.

“Bridge, engine room. What do you see?” Kaylee’s voice came through the intercom. Simon looked at Mal.

“May I?” he asked and Mal just handed over the mic, knowing Kaylee’d feel happier hearing Simon’s voice than his.

“Kaylee?”

“Oh, hi Simon,” she said excitedly, forgetting all intercom protocol. “What’s the view like?”

“It’s a sunny day, some clouds in the area but not many. There's a large bay surrounded by an urban center, a small island in a second smaller bay. Not a boat on the water, no vehicle traffic on land or in the sky. No signs of life anywhere, no smoke, nothing. Many skyscrapers, dense apartment blocks, few single dwellings. Buildings look intact, not much damage…wait a second, some are damaged, looks like there were some fires. Many vehicles are on the roads, not moving, looks like some crashed into each other. Oh, dear.”

“What? What is it?” Kaylee impatiently asked. But Simon didn’t answer right away as he was too busy taking in the sudden change in scenery.

“It’s a spaceport,” he said into the mic after a few more seconds. “And there's a lot of damage.”

“No,” Christine said “It’s an airport. Only a few spaceports on Earth. Florida, California, Kazakhstan, French Guyana in South America, western China. There were more but they were closed years, decades ago. Not much point having spaceports if there’s no where to send spacecraft to.”

As she talked they got a close up look of Melbourne’s airport. It was a mess, with buildings smashed, hangers burned down, with many destroyed and crashed aircraft and what could even be spacecraft on the ground.

“Are those…spacecraft?” Wash asked, pointing out something that didn’t look like an airplane. "I mean, I heard that Earth used mostly airplanes in the past and like she said, ain't many places for a spaceship to go."

Tanya was looking over Wash’s shoulder. “That's right. Yes, they appear to be low orbit vehicles, used to launch satellites or repair them. They could operate out of civilian or military airports with VTOL capability. Also we have suborbital passenger craft that used to fly all over at Mach 4, but they also operated out of airports.”

“Well, they all looked smashed to pieces now. Looks like this place took a hell of a beating," Mal said. “Maybe civilian unrest, panic. Seen it before. They were trying to run away. Maybe some were in the sky when the EMP hit and were trying to land” He looked at Fred. “Radiation readings?”

“34 rads,” the scientist replied. “Tolerable.”

“Livable,” added Simon and everyone felt their spirits rise as Simon said this.

“Wash, set us down at this airport,” Mal ordered his pilot. ”Right there, near that building says Terminal 1,” Mal pointed to a large building with many shattered glass windows. Outside of it were many of what Simon thought looked like some version of a cargo truck and some civilian cars and buses. There were also many, many bodies now clear to see as they got lower.

“My God,” said the other elderly scientist. Miller was his name and he had an English accent, which meant nothing to Serenity’s crew cause they had no knowledge of the different regional accents of Earth. But he sounded like Badger, except more refined, and that also grated on Mal’s nerves. Fly clear across the galaxy and to run into both Niska and Badger’s cousins was too much. “What could have happened here?”

“Panic and madness,” was all Mal could say and all were quiet as this sunk in.

“What’s the plan, Captain?” Chin finally asked, breaking the silence, and seeming to understand his position as subordinate better than Mal had hoped. Maybe Mal wouldn’t smack him after all. Maybe.

“We land, check the rad readings, and if it’s safe we take one of the shuttles, and go for a ride, check out the city, find supplies and load up the boat. Better to land here, open space, see anyone coming.”

“And look for fuel,” Wash added. “Might be something the boat can run on. Right here at this airport be good place to start looking.”

“We’ll keep an eye out,” Mal said.

Miller spoke up again and he had a slight arrogance to his demeanor which irked Mal even more. “I’d hate to be the harbinger of bad news, Captain, but any fuel supply would have been deep underground for safety reasons and would have used electrical pumps to fuel the craft that landed here. The EMP of the nuclear detonations would have rendered all such devices inoperable.”

“That maybe so,” Mal said, as Wash maneuvered Serenity for a landing. “But we got us a secret for such times.”

“A secret? I’m quite positive that any fuel tanks and pumps cannot operate,” Miller stated firmly. “What secret will overcome the laws of physics?”

“Bridge? Simon? What’s going on?” Kaylee’s voice came through the intercom.

“Her,” said Mal as nodded toward the intercom speaker and then took the mic from Simon and told Kaylee to prepare for touchdown.

*********************************************************************

“That’s the plan?” Jayne whispered and Book just nodded. It took almost fifteen minutes to explain it to Jayne by laying out kernels of barley on a plate, with lots of blank looks from him and re-thinking how to explain before Jayne got it. Least Shepherd hoped he had gotten it. At the end Jayne didn’t look pleased. Book mouthed ‘what’s wrong”.

Jayne pushed the kernels around with a piece of celery, his fingers being too big, but gave up in frustration when they kept sticking to it.

“Gorramn it!” and he just grabbed the plate, sat on his bed and started eating. After a moment he realized Shepherd was just staring at him so Jayne offered some food to the Shepherd.

Book shook his head. “No, breakfast was less than two hours ago.”

“Suppertime here,” Jayne said. Again Shepherd mouthed ‘what’s wrong”

Jayne growled in frustration and finally said to hell with it. “I want to do…something! Sitting in this room for almost a day now is driving me crazy!”

Book just sat on his bed and looked at him with reproach. “Patience, my son. There’s nothing to do but wait.”

“I hate waiting,” the merc growled as he munched on the celery, looking at it in disgust. “Man needs meat.”

“I think a few days without meat will do you some good, Jayne. Might lessen your aggressive tendencies.”

“Guess if I’m here long enough even this critter food start looking like a feast.”

“I’m sure we won’t be here that long.”

********************************************************************* “There is a coldness to him,” was the first thing River said to Zoe about Commander Samuel Jackson. "He is experienced in some war, in battle. He has killed before, with his own hand. Many, many, times. There is no guilt for what he has done.”

“Maybe we’re more alike that I thought,” Zoe said.

“He doesn’t trust you. He wonders if you are planning something. He also knows that I escaped from an Alliance facility but he doesn’t know why and thinks there is something special about me.”

“He ain’t far off,” Zoe whispered. “Guess Mal and Jayne really spilled their guts. Did he notice Inara and her womanly charms?”

“Yes, but I sensed a lack of interest, almost like a sadness, that his affection is for only one person. I think he lost someone special, maybe a wife or family. Maybe during the war, maybe before.”

Inara spoke up. “I suspect many people here lost family on Earth during the war.”

“Guess that part of the plan is out,” Zoe said to her and Inara seemed relieved.

“I wasn’t looking forward to bedding him anyway,” the Companion replied, her relief more obvious by her tone.

“Did you sense any plans of his?” Zoe asked River next.

“He has only one plan. Get to Earth, restart civilization, be the leader, become a legend. He thinks it’s his destiny. He does not want to come to our quadrant.”

“Makes sense,” said Inara. “In our quadrant he’s nobody. Here he can be leader of an entire planet.”

“If he can get there,” said Zoe.

“He needs Serenity,” Rive added. “And he plans to take it, no matter what happens. For now he is seems in agreement with the Captain, because there was a stalemate. But that won’t last if he senses an advantage.”

“That’s why we need to take the upper hand first,” said Zoe. “I think its time we asked for that escort and got a tour of this here base.”

*********************************************** As Serenity got closer to the ground they saw the bodies more clearly and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Many, many bodies were scattered all over the airport. There were a few gasps but they were mostly silent as the ship touched down.

The ramp came down and Mal, Chin, and the two radiation scientists, Drs. Walker and Miller, stepped out of the airlock, all wearing radiation suits. The suits were green and covered the entire body and head, had an internal breathing and cooling system. Mal was armed with his pistol and had an extra gun, a machine pistol, he could give Chin if trouble came but Mal didn’t trust him with one at the moment. Walker and Miller carried one of the plastic boxes down the ramp, opened it and took out some scientific instruments. Mal and Chin stood guard as the scientists took their readings. After five minutes, Fred Walker declared it safe enough to go without the suits.

As Mal took off his suit he felt a slight chill in the air. “Nice and cool. Sun shining, lovely day. Well, except for the view.”

Spread out before them was the carnage of what could only have been mass panic at Melbourne’s airport. The decayed bodies were everywhere, mostly bones in clothing now, and some looked like they had been killed in accidents and others killed deliberately. A quick scanned showed charred bodies near a crashed aircraft. Another glance showed many people lying in rows and nearby were many bullet casings. Someone in the military or police panicked and mowed down a bunch of civvies. A closer looked reveled that some men in Alliance police uniforms were also dead, probably overwhelmed by the crowds.

Mal could picture the scene of the war starting, seeing war and human misery close up himself a few times more than he liked. The bombs hit Sydney and Canberra, far away, but close enough for the EMP to knock everything out in Melbourne. Even places not near nuclear detonations would be fried if they had launch nukes into sub-orbits to hit those satellites and it looked like they had. One moment you’re relaxing in your office or home or wherever and then suddenly the lights go out, your communication devices fail, your land vehicle stops if they have any electrical power and most do, and airplanes and sub-orbital spaceships fall out of the sky. You fanatically scan for news on the vid screens and wireless Cortex, Internet, whatever they called it, and there is nothing but static. You’re lucky if you find your family amidst the chaos. People descend on the food stores and shopping districts, eager for supplies. There’s no way to buy anything cause its all electronic money or merchants are asking for exorbitant amounts of hard currency. Someone fires that first shot and the first merchant or policeman would tried to restore order is dead and then its lawlessness, survival of the strongest.

Or maybe the panic didn’t happen right away, maybe it was gradual, but the radiation would have been high here if the fallout spread this way and the deaths would have started within days, weeks, months at the most. This city was big enough to hold about ten million Mal estimated from their fly over. Some would have had ships without engines, sailing ships, and they could have escaped, maybe made it to an island, if they too weren’t overwhelmed by crowds of the desperate. Others went to the airport, hoping to leave. Perhaps some government officials had transports that were heavily protected from EMP. If there was even one serviceable aircraft there would have been a rush to get aboard. And that’s what looked like happened here. The city was likely full of the dead, those who stayed behind and those too old or infirmed or too young to leave. As the rad sickness spread those young enough and strong enough would have sought escape, away from the densely populated areas, hoping to find food and shelter in the countryside, away from the rads and the madness.

“How many people were on Earth when the war started?” he asked Chin.

Chin was so quiet for a second Mal thought he didn’t hear him. “Almost 20 billion,” he finally answered. “We don’t know what happened to our families. That part has been the hardest for us.”

Mal didn’t say a word, the shock of maybe 20 billion dead stunning his normal indifference to high casualty figures, and after a brief moment went into the ship to get the others. 20 billion were not a casualty list. It was a planet wide catastrophe.

As Simon, Kaylee, Wash, Tanya, and Christine descended the ramp after Mal told them it was safe there was a stunned silence. They stood at the front of Serenity and took in the destruction and desolation. Mal decided that he had to get everyone busy.

“Tanya, you and your team set up the rest of your instruments. Wash stay on the bridge and scan for any thermal life signs nearby and be ready to take off in a second. And keep in touch with the moon base if you can and ask to speak to your wife to check on things.”

“Roger that, Mal,” said Wash as he headed back aboard, glad to be away from this scene of death.

“What’ll we do?” Kaylee asked Mal as she stood next to Simon. She didn’t look so good but Mal needed her to do the things she did best. Simon also looked a bit overwhelmed.

“You okay, little Kaylee? Doc?”

“Yeah, Capt’n, we’ll be fine, just…it’s too much.”

“Just tell us what you want, Mal,” Simon said, his voice with a slight tremble to it.

“You two and the lieutenant come with me. We’re gonna look for that fuel for the boat.”

“Just let me get my gear,” Kaylee said quietly.

“I’ll help you,” Simon said and Mal also told him to get a gun for himself. Mal watched them leave and hoped they’d get over their shock soon. Simon was used to dead bodies but this was more than even Mal had ever seen away from a battlefield. Then again this was a battlefield of a sort. Kaylee might take bit more time and the things they were seeing would stay with them the rest of their lives. He looked at the four scientists and wondered how they were holding up and then remembered something about Tanya Kovalev.

“Tanya?”

“Yes, Captain?” she said as she looked up from her instruments.

“I seem to recall you said something about being an astro-engineer to one of my crew. That means you know something about spaceships?”

“Certainly does. I helped design some. Firefly’s a good design by the way.”

“Thanks and make sure you tell Kaylee that cause she loves this old boat. Need you come with us to check out these crashed vehicles for anything we could use and to check for fuel in them. Also, take this.” Mal handed her another machine pistol. “I seem to also recall you handling one of these things the first day we met. Trust you not to use it on me or mine.”

“Of course not, Captain,” she replied, a bit aghast he suggested such a thing.

Chin looked put out that she was getting a gun and he wasn’t. Mal could sense it from his look but said nothing and Chin was quiet for a few minutes but then just had to open this can of worms and Mal let him. “Captain, I have military training. She doesn’t.’

“Yeah, but she hasn’t kidnapped one of my crew members so you don’t get a thing unless all hell is breaking loose. Got it?”

“I was just following orders.”

“That’s what they always say,” said Kaylee as she and Simon returned with her tools and heard the last of the conversation. They were loaded down with tools and some large hydrogen cell batteries, plus Simon had a pistol belt strapped on with a 9mm in the holster.

“I would like to apologize for my actions, Miss Frye,” Chin said and Kaylee was silent for a few seconds. She had already told Simon about him and Simon was mad about it but no one had been really hurt. Still, he did point a laser at her and gave her a fright

“Well...I don’t know. Still bit sore. Need some time,” she said quietly.

“Fair enough,” Chin replied evenly.

“Help them with that gear, Lieutenant. That’ll be a start to your penance,” Mal said and Chin took some of the tools from Kaylee.

Mal handed one of Serenity’s hand held communicators to Dr. Walker. “For keeping in touch. Any sign of trouble, yell for us and get on the boat and lock her tight if you can’t wait for us.”

He looked a bit worried. “Trouble? What kind of trouble are you expecting? Everyone is dead!”

“That’s when there’s always trouble,’ Mal replied dead serious. “When you least expect it.” He turned to his team. He’d rather have Zoe and Jayne with him and Kaylee but he’d have to make do with what people were available.

“Let’s go check that terminal first see if we can find an airport map and the fuel supply.” And he, Kaylee, Simon, Tanya, and Chin started off toward the terminal.

**************************************************************

Jayne was doing pushups on the floor of the room while Shepherd sat on his bed and read his Bible he had taken when he left Serenity. He was searching for passages about hope and survival, about a new beginning, something to tell these people if a prayer service was arraigned.

Jayne stopped, out of breath, and sat on the floor. “Only a hundred. I’m getting weak already.”

“Strength is not only a matter of muscles mass. There are many ways to defeat an enemy.”

“For a preacher you sure know a lot of them ways.”

“You’re not going to start this again, are you? Not with ears in this room that don’t belong to us.”

“Hell, they already know we think you was police or military. If I gotta die on this rock I’d sure like to know the truth before I go.”

Shepherd just sighed and closed his Bible. “Jayne, what I am now has nothing to do with what I was. That is a closed chapter in my life and shall remain so despite your curiosities. Suffice to say that I have acquired certain skills over the years that come in handy once in a while.”

“Sure as hell right they do. How many you shoot on Niska’s Skyplex? Musta been five or six anyway. Wash got a couple, Zoe and me got a bunch and I know Doc and Kaylee didn’t hit squat. Then moon brain pulled that stunt. If what Kaylee saw was way it went down.”

“You doubt Kaylee’s word? You have known her much longer than I have and has she ever told a lie?”

Jayne thought a moment. “Nope. Can’t say she has. But then again if it was a lie how am I supposed to know.”

“Well, whatever happened, she explained it the way she saw it. I have no doubt about that.”

“Wonder if moon brain can do the same here? Get us out of this mess?”

“I’d prefer a non-violent solution to our dilemma.”

“Keep praying, Shepherd and it may just be so. But don’t count on it.”

*************************************************

At the moment, River, Inara and Zoe were walking past Jayne and Book’s room. River could sense them and she nodded slightly to the door. There was a guard outside it but he seemed a little sleepy. Zoe got the drift of what River was doing and had already surmised that this was where the men were being kept by the presence of the guard.

They had asked their own guard to provide an escort for a tour of the base and he had called one of his superiors on a hand held communication device. After five minutes a young man with long blond hair approached and introduced himself as Jason Philips, an astronomer, and an American he proudly claimed, which didn’t mean much to the three women. He seemed overly eager to escort them and began explaining about how they built the surface base first and then starting building the underground base as they walked around. An armed guard trailed behind them by a few feet as they walked and talked.

“This is our main airlock for reaching the surface,” he said as they were shown the large airlock where Kaylee had entered the base. Off to the left was a door marked EVA PREP and Zoe had a feeling that’s where they kept the spacesuits.

“Must have been difficult to build,” Zoe observed.

“You bet. Of course, I don’t know much about it, it was before my time.”

A lot was before his time Zoe thought, he was so young, not much older than Kaylee, and River almost laughed out loud as she heard Zoe’s thoughts in her own head.

Zoe gave her a sharp look as she saw that all knowing smile creep across her face. She didn’t want the people here to know anymore about River than they already did. “Where do people eat and sleep?” she asked Jason, trying to change the subject.

“Oh, we have a few dining facilities but only one is in operation now. Some have shared living quarters, some have their own room now, since there are so few of us. Most people actually want to share, want the company.”

“Are there any families, married people?” Inara asked.

“No children, a few married couples, like Tanya Kovalev and Captain Papusha, and a few couples, people dating I mean. Some people are saying we are a new Eden, that we must populate our base, have children. Commander Jackson disallows it due to our strict food supply.” He seemed like he wanted to say more but the soldier was looking at him intensely so Zoe decide to change the subject.

“Where does the food come from?” Zoe asked quickly.

“Oh, yes, right this way,” he lead them back to the main corridor and down another side one. The corridors were mostly empty as it was late on the base and most people were probably in bed. As they walked Zoe knew they were going beyond the layout they had observed on Serenity’s x-ray sensors. As they got closer to the end of this tunnel they could smell something, a smell anyone raised on a farm would instantly recognize. As none of the ladies had been raise in such a place what they saw was quite surprising.

It was large cavern, about three times the size of the hanger bay and it was covered in trees and other plants, with massive numbers of xenon lights overhead providing artificial sunlight. Every kind of fruit tree was present and long rows of vegetables were growing in the soil and hydroponics systems. It was steamy inside as the women walked about, the humidity levels very high for a dry airless moon. Some people were moving about, tending to the plants. As Jason explained everything to them, River engaged him with numerous questions about soil and growth times and harvest periods and other mundane stuff. Zoe got a chance to take Inara aside as Jason was absorbed and seemingly infatuated with River.

“He’s taken a fancy to our science advisor,” Inara observed.

“Yeah, let’s see where it goes.”

After another ten minutes in the steaming cavern the lights started to go out one by one until there were only a few left, in the shape of a moon.

“Our own moon in the moon,” Jason said with a smile. “We try to make it as natural a growth cycle as we can for the plants.”

“Any animals?” Zoe asked.

“No,” Jason answered. “They tried many years ago, using DNA scripts and then cloning them up here but they didn’t take too well to the underground environment and consumed more vegetable matter than was worth while. We had freeze dried meat substitutes flown up on our quarterly supply missions. We had some fish in aquariums and they did well, but most of them have already been consumed. Also, our supplies of vitamins are almost exhausted. Things have been tight around here. There are more than 90 people and what you see growing here is expected to last us until the next harvest many months away. We have speeded up some of the growth cycles genetically but it still takes time and energy to grow our food. I sure hope they find something on Earth.”

“I’m sure they will,” said Inara as they walked down the corridor back to where they had come.

“What can you tell us about the attack on the base during the war?” Zoe asked after a few moments of silence.

He stopped and thought for a moment. “That was quite terrible. Some of our people died repelling the attack. Things got worse from that point on. It was all so…horrible. A lot died.”

River was looking at him intensely. “It started here, didn’t it?”

His eyes went wide. “How do you…?”

“Tour’s over ladies,” the guard suddenly said. “Doctor Philips please refrain from making anymore comments.”

“Yes,’ Philips said quickly “I must leave.” And then he was gone in a hurry leaving Inara and Zoe intensely curious about what had just happened. But not River.

“The base is shutting down for the night,” the guard said. “It’s time to return to your quarters.”

As they were heading back a young woman intercepted them. “Zoe Washburne?”

“Yes?”

“Your presence is requested in the communications center. Your…husband…he said he was, wishes to talk to you.”

Zoe turned to Inara and River. “Get some rest. I’ll be back soon.”

Inara and River were back in their room a few minutes later, sat on a bed, and almost immediately Inara asked River what was going on. The teen shuddered and closed her eyes but then after a moment instantly opened them and stared at Inara and began speaking slowly.

“His mind was so open, so full of guilt, of what they had done. The war started here. The Russian spaceship was supposed to be a re-supply but it was a surprise attack. The battle on the surface was just the end. The spaceship landed, came down to the hanger and then there was a fight after they got inside. The killed many but ultimately lost, some tried to escape out the hanger, but the ship crashed on take off. The three bodies Kaylee saw on the surface, those men had a running gun battle through the base, then tried to escape out the main airlock and the surface base to their damaged ship, but were hunted down and killed. The emotions, the ghosts, are all here. So many died.”

River was sitting with her knees up, arms wrapped around her legs now.

“Why would they start a war and attack this base?” Inara asked breathlessly. “It’s a scientific research center. Isn’t it?”

“Mostly. But they had something here, something the Russians want to capture or destroy.”

“What?”

“A nuclear arsenal. Deep in the moon, a place we haven’t seen. But the missiles are gone.”

“Where are they?” Inara asked but she already knew the answer, the only possible answer, but had to hear it spoken aloud.

“Jackson fired them at Russia.”

*********************************************** The journey to the terminal made Kaylee want to close her eyes to the horrible sights but she had to keep them opened so she wouldn’t step on any bodies. She kept close to Simon as Mal, Chin and Tanya walked before them, everyone wary of what was in front and around them. They had to tread their way through a tangle of vehicles to get to the front doors and step over and around so many dead, men, woman, and children. Kaylee got a shock at one point as she saw a small bundle of bones in a soft cotton sky blue dress holding a little doll with blond hair. She gasped and Simon quickly put an arm around her and she buried her head in his shoulder.

Mal turned to look at them saw what Kaylee saw and realized he had just stepped over the dead child. There’s was nothing to do but keep going and he motioned everyone silently forward. Sometimes you just had to close your heart to the dreadful things humans did to each other or you’d go mad.

At last they reached the main doors but they were shattered and more dead were inside. There were many vid screens, all blank, and the sunlight came through holes in the glass and walls. Dried blood was everywhere, on the floors, the counters, the walls. Open suitcases and scattered clothes and personal possessions lay about. Here and there lay a pistol in or near a dead hand or in a holster on a body and there were a few machine pistols lying about and Mal made sure Chin didn’t pick anything up.

“Tourist Information,” Chin said and they made their way to a counter with a sign over it. Scattered on the floor and still in racks were about a dozen paper maps of Melbourne and Australia.

“Open one of the city ones up,” Mal ordered Chin and soon they were looking over the map on the counter. As they did so Simon saw a bookshop and instinctively walked over to it, Kaylee and Tanya behind him. There were many books in all kinds of languages but he was looking for something to give him information, about the city and what happened. And then he found it. A paper newspaper.

It was called the Australian Times and it was small as a book and had only three pages. The front headline was about fuel shortages, about a crop failure and famine in China, and about growing tensions between the Alliance and Russia. There was nothing about the war. The date was August 22, 2518.

“The day before the war started,” Tanya said sadly. “The last day of a normal life. For all of us, on Earth and the moon.”

Kaylee and Simon were just looking at each other. “It can’t be correct,” Kaylee said in awe.

Tanya sighed. “I was afraid of this.”

“Of what?” Mal asked from behind them.

“The newspaper says August 22, 2518. She said it was the day before the war started,” Kaylee said in obvious stunned disbelief.

“Can’t be,” Mal said as he grabbed the paper. “You said it was two years ago. August 2518? Hell, it’s only June 2518 now. Right, Simon?”

Simon was looking at Tanya. “A wormhole is a bending of space and…time.”

“Yes,” she said. “And your ship’s computers have placed the date that our wormhole hit you as June 15, 2518.”

“That’s before the war started,” said Chin also a bit stunned by this news.

“What is the date today? Here, now,” Simon asked urgently.

“July 10, 2520,” Tanya stated.

“You mean we went…to the future?” Mal asked now getting what everyone else had already gotten.

“Maybe our ancestors made a mistake in calculating the time,” Kaylee said, the anxiety in her voice clear to the others, Kaylee worrying on missing two of her daddy's birthdays and him maybe even thinking she was dead.

“Possible, but unlikely,” Simon replied gently, knowing what Kaylee was fearing but also knowing she and the others needed to know the truth. “They used atomic clocks, which are very accurate and all planets kept a record of the proper time of Earth and the travelers, even if they did not have a 24 hour rotational period or an equal rotation time around a sun."

“It does not matter anyway,’ said Tanya. “We will send you back to your home space as we promised.”

“It ain’t the where I’m worried about now,’ said Mal as the full meaning of what had happened sunk in. “It’s the when.”

********************************************************* “It’s livable, Simon and the scientists said,” Wash said through the comms. Zoe was sitting in a chair in front of a microphone in the communications center. The screens Kaylee had seen on her visit were now off and only a young comms tech woman, Jackson and Kovalev were here.

“That’s good news, baby. They said your data is coming in strong.’

Gregori leaned over. “Please have them report on weather patterns, Mr. Washburne.”

“I’ll pass the word,” came the reply. “It’s a beautiful day here.”

“It would be nice to see blue skies again,” said Jackson almost nostalgic.

“Wash, any food or fuel about?” Zoe asked, getting more creeped out by Jackson the more she knew of him. Now he's pinning for blue skies? The cold, heartless killer, as River described him?

“Mal and some others are looking now. Ah, one more thing. There’s an awful lot of dead folk down here. It ain’t pretty.”

That sobered any joy they had when they had first heard from him about Melbourne being livable. “Roger that, baby.”

Jackson stepped over to the mic now. “Mr. Washburne, Commander Jackson here. Please have the scientists make a report as soon as they are ready with their analysis. Also, ask Captain Reynolds to report in when he returns from his reconnaissance.”

“Will do,” Wash replied. “How’re things up there, Zoe?”

Zoe felt the two men staring at her as she spoke. “Everything’s fine. Had a bit of a tour. They got a big old cave full of trees and crops. Our accommodations are nice.”

“Good to hear. Take care, baby. Will report again in an hour and then we might lose comms as moon and Earth won't be aligned much longer. Sereni…sorry…Earth, out.”

“Bye, baby,” Zoe said and then the young comms tech spoke into her headset mic. “Moonbase Armstrong, out.”

“That is excellent news,” Jackson stated and the young tech woman was smiling.

“Yes, sir. It would be good to go home,” she said.

“Ain’t much to go home to,” Zoe replied. Gregori was nodding as she said this.

“And maybe Melbourne or southern Australia is the only livable place now,” the Russian scientist began. “And for how long? Now it is winter there. Maybe the weather patterns will change as the Earth tilts and summer comes to the southern hemisphere.”

Jackson looked at him sternly. “We died down there or we die up here. At least down there we’d have a better chance.”

“Da, da, Sam. I know this is logical argument. But it will take decades for the radiation to dissipate entirely. And you and I do not have decades”

Zoe was watching the two men, and they felt her eyes on them and went quiet.

“Can’t agree?” she said with a smile.

“Not to worry,” Jackson said with a cold smile. “We will send you and your crew home if possible.”

“Okay,” Zoe said. “Thanks for letting me chat with my husband. Oh, and by the way, nice try with the microphone in the music player.”

“One of my overzealous subordinates is responsible,” Jackson replied evenly and without a hint of a lie. But Zoe was sure this man was used to lying and getting what he wanted. You don’t become commander of a base without being so.

Zoe just grinned. “Good enough. I think myself and the other ladies are a bit on the hungry side by now.”

“Yes, I will arraign for your dinner,” Jackson stated and then said good bye to Zoe and a guard escorted her back to their room. River was lying prone on one of the beds, moaning and shuddering, with Inara at her side, when she entered.

“So many ghosts, so much pain,” River moaned in a low voice

“What happened?” Zoe quickly asked Inara.

“She told me about Jason’s thoughts and then started like this. It’s been about ten minutes.”

“Its okay,” Zoe said as she sat and tried to comfort River “Time for your medicine.”

“Yes, please,” River said quietly and Inara and Zoe were surprised because she usually hated getting the shots. Zoe prepared the hypo and injected her and soon River was calm and sleeping.

Before Zoe could ask Inara what had happened a knock came to door and Zoe opened it. A young woman entered and placed a tray of food on the table. “I’m sorry it’s not more,’ she said and then was gone. On the tray were vegetables, barley and bread with some water bottles, basically what Jayne had eaten earlier. As the women ate Zoe told Inara what Wash had said and Inara filled Zoe in on what River sensed from Jason Phillips.

“That son-of a-bitch Jackson,” she said and then yawned. “Oh, bit sleepy.”

“Funny,” said Inara. “So am I. We just woke up six or seven hours ago.”

“Yeah. Guess too much stress. Need a coffee,” Zoe said as she yawned again.

“I think I’ll lie down,” said Inara and she moved to bed, and then just flopped on it and stretched out. Soon Zoe was on another bed.

“Just for few minutes,’ she said but Inara was already asleep and then Zoe was out like a light, too.

Five minutes passed and then the door opened. Four armed guards entered and then a woman in medical garb. She walked straight to River’s bed and then checked her and nodded. Two men came in with a stretcher, put River on it, and then everyone left the room, carrying River Tam with them.

*************************************************

Author's note - All time reference's are from Edgar Governo's "Firefly Timeline"

http://www.mts.net/~arphaxad/firefly.html

Its a great source for when things happened in the verse.