Out to the black Chapter 17

Disclaimer: Joss, Fox, Universal Own em’. I’m just playing. No money being made.

This is my first Fan Fiction ever. Constructive reviews are shiny.

This fic takes place two years after Serenity (BDM) and has the established couples of Simon/Kaylee, Mal/Inara, Zoë/OC and a budding Jayne/River romance.

A/N I apologize in advance for this chapter, it’s a bit long, boring and technical. But unfortunately it’s needed as a bridge to the action that’s forthcoming. I promise more Allan/Zoë, River/Jayne and Kaylee/Simon in the next installment

Also Thanks again to My Beta Chris. Catching some of my lack of sleep induced screw ups.

Out to the black

Chapter Seventeen –Free Bird

Allan awoke early. Today was the day. Serenity was scheduled to rendezvous with Allan’s own ship, Free Bird in a few hours. Stretching, Allan felt the familiar pops from his back. “Gotta get a better mattress for this bunk,” Allan said to himself.

Grabbing his clothes for the day, Allan made his way to the shower. Using the hot water to clear his mind and loosen his muscles, he thought back on the previous night’s dinner.

To say the conversation was strained would be an understatement. The usual banter was non-existent. The sudden revelation that River and Jayne loved each other put the Captain and Simon on edge. While reluctantly accepting the situation, they were far from happy about it. Mal seemed to be boiling under the surface and kept shooting evil glances down the table to Jayne. To his credit, Jayne stayed silent for the most part during the meal. He and River sat side-by-side, keeping a comfortable distance between them, mostly for Mal’s benefit.

Simon seemed to be depressed. He mostly pushed his food around his plate only eating after Kaylee got on his case. Inara, ever the diplomat, did her best to keep things friendly. However her success was limited.

The only ones acting in anyway normal were Zoë and he, Allan thought.

After the meal, Jayne excused himself and headed in the direction of his bunk. Allan and River cleared the table and started on the dishes. Mal and Zoë nursed their coffees while Inara sipped her tea. Simon and Kaylee had departed for points unknown on the ship. The silence at the table was almost deafening. Mal doing his best to stare a hole in the table, while Inara and Zoë did their best to ignore him for the moment.

River’s brows were knit together like she had a headache. Unable to take any more silence, River put down the pan she was in the process of washing and dried her hands.

Quickly River jumped on top of the table and sat cross-legged in front of Mal. The Captain leaned back, looking strangely at his pilot. River reached out and poked Mal in the center of his forehead.

“Too loud,” She said poking him again, “Makes my head hurt.”

“Sorry, Albatross.”

Inara and Zoë grinned at each other, knowing Mal was done for. River had wrapped Mal around her little finger a long time ago. He couldn’t deny the young psychic much.

River cocked her head at the Captain, “Know what you’re thinking.”

“No doubt about that darlin,” Mal said quietly.

“And you’re wrong,” River said matter-of-factly.

“How’s that?”

“Jayne has done nothing but be my friend; our affection has grown slowly over time until it reached this point. I am no longer a little girl and I have the right to choose who I want. I want Jayne and he wants me.”

Allan could see Mal’s resolve faltering even from where he was standing in the kitchen.

“You sure about this Albatross?” Mal asked.

“As sure as I’ve ever been about anything,” River said a smile forming on her face, “Besides, Jayne has to be nice to me… he knows I can kick his pi-gu all over the ship.”

Despite himself, Mal let out a loud guffaw, which dissolved into a round of laughter from all in the room.

“Yep,” Allan said to himself as he shut off the water after his shower, “It’s been an interesting 24 hours.”

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Allan walked onto Serenity’s bridge. River was sitting quietly at the controls seemingly lost in thought

“Brought you some tea and a danish since I didn’t see you at breakfast this morning.” Allan said to the young pilot.

Turning to face the older man, River smiled a little, “Wasn’t all that hungry. Too noisy anyway.”

“Too noisy?” Allan asked as he sat in the copilot’s chair. River tapped her temple with a finger.

“Oh yeah, sorry,” Allan said, suddenly comprehending.

“Thank you for all your help yesterday,” River said quietly.

“You’re welcome, it was the least I could do.”

“You scared Simon.”

“I better apologize to him for that, I haven’t lost my temper like that in a long time.”

“He’s a boob,” River said with a slight giggle.

“Spoken like a true little sister,” Allan chucked in reply. Thinking a moment, he continued.

“So River, I was thinking, that maybe, once we get to Kelly me and Zoë will take you and Jayne out for a meal or something… Kind of a double date so to speak, gives you two a chance to get off the ship. With Zoë and me along it will keep the Captain and your brother’s blood pressure under control.”

“I would like that Allan, so would Jayne. He likes you and he respects you.”

“He’s a good man,” Allan said.

“Not everyone can see that,” River said sadly.

“Maybe that’s my advantage being the newcomer here. I didn’t have any preconceived notions about the crew. And I’ve always prided myself on having an open mind.”

“I noticed that you accepted my… gift with almost no question.”

“Being psychic is not a foreign concept for me, I had an aunt who could… see things. Everyone else in the family called her crazy but I always believed her.”

River smiled at Allan, ”Thank you for the tea, now I have a surprise for you.”

Allan looked at the girl, confusion on his face. Still smiling sweetly, River adjusted Serenity’s attitude. The stars shifted outside the windows for a moment and Allan suddenly saw his surprise. Floating in the black not two hundred yards away hung Allan’s ship.

Allan blinked hard. He hadn’t seen his ship from the outside two weeks ago when Serenity’s crew had rescued him. Seeing it now his engineer’s mind began cataloging what needed to be done. Outwardly Allan just had a silly grin on his face.

River moved Serenity closer moving the larger ship along the length of Free Bird, giving Allan a chance to survey the damage. Allan’s gaze fell on the holes ripped in the ship’s main fuel tank.

“Son of a bitch,” he said softly, “Mal wasn’t kidding about the fuel tank. I should’ve been nothing but a fireball after that hit.”

As Serenity moved along side Free Bird, Mal and Zoë entered the bridge.

“I thought you were gonna let me know when we rendezvoused there Albatross?” Mal asked.

“I wanted Allan to have some private time with his other woman,” River said with a wink to Zoë.

“I can understand that,” Mal replied with a slight grin. Turning to the older man he continued, “What ya think Allan?”

“I’m thinking I should be dead. She should have exploded with that kind of damage.”

Zoë walked up behind Allan and squeezed his shoulder. Pointing to the aft section of the ship, the engineer continued. “The main engine on the booster is junk, I can see that from here. It wasn’t designed to run out of fuel at full power. Looks like the reactor nearly went critical. See that hole in the casing just forward of the main engine?”

“Mal and Zoë nodded.

“That means the safety system ejected the reactor core. The whole main drive section is junk now,” Allan said, disappointed.

“What about the rest?” Zoë asked.

Allan smiled at that, “The cargo module looks fine and the command module is space worthy or will be with a little work.”

“Can you fly it to Kelly?” Mal asked.

“That won’t be a problem, the aft section is just a booster to get me here, the real ship is the command module. Free Bird’s basic space frame is a standard early twenty second century Blue Sun Aerospace orbital shuttle… With a significant number of personal modifications,” Allan said with a grin.

“What kind of modifications?” River asked.

“Let’s see,” Allan said still grinning, “Fusion reactor, radion accelerator core main engine, fusion auxiliary engines, mixed cycle scramjet atmospheric engines with vertical landing capability. Electronic countermeasures combined with flare and chaff pods in case someone from the Alliance back home decided I was worth shooting a missile at.”

“Impressive,” River commented.

“Well there’s a drawback, I lost a considerable amount of fuel tankage with the modifications. So I can’t make Kelly from here without help. My plan was to use the remaining fuel in the booster section as a sort of fuel station. I should have arrived in system with at least 15% fuel in reserve, enough to keep the rest of the ship flying until I could set up my fuel refining equipment. All I needed was water and power source and I could make hydrogen fuel for the ship.”

“Can you use fuel from Serenity?” Mal asked.

“Not at the moment. She’ll need some major modifications to use the same fuel as Serenity. I was planning on having Kaylee’s father work on that.”

“So, how are we gonna get the ship to Kelly?” Mal asked.

“Piggy back on Serenity.” Allan said simply.

“Huh?”

“Free Bird’s landing gear has electromagnets in the pads. I can extend the gear and essentially land on top of Serenity, clamp on and as long as there aren’t any wild maneuvers we’ll be fine. I can rig the tunnel from Serenity’s upper airlock to the lower airlock on Free Bird. That way the two artificial gravity systems will be pointing in the same direction.”

Mal looked dubious, “What about landing?”

“No problem Mal, just before atmo, I’ll separate and follow you down, land right next to Serenity.”

Mal looked at his pilot, “Albatross?”

River smiled at the Captain, “An excellent plan Captain Daddy. It will work.”

Mal thought a moment, “Okay Allan, what do you need from me?”

“I need to borrow Kaylee and a couple of pressure suits.”

“Don’t you have your own suit?”

“I do, but it’s over there,” Allan said, pointing out the window to Free Bird.

“Oh… 'spose in that case I could let you borrow one then,”

“Thanks Mal.”

Mal nodded, “Okay people, lets get to work.”

XXXXXXXXXX

Allan and Kaylee suited up in the cargo bay. Allan wearing Jayne’s space suit since Mal’s was a bit too snug on his larger frame. Jayne helped Allan suit up while Zoë assisted Kaylee.

“Don’t you go puking in my suit there Gramps,” Jayne admonished as helped Allan lock his helmet in place.

Allan laughed, “Been working in zero G for years Jayne, no worries.”

Allan shut the visor and pressurized his suit. Kaylee did the same, “Com check. You hear me Allan?” Kaylee’s voice crackled through his headphones.

“Loud and clear Kaylee, River, you copy?”

“I copy as well Allan,” River’s voice replied over the radio.

“Read ya fine here too River,” Kaylee replied.

Allan gave a thumbs up to Zoë and she opened the inner airlock door. The pair of suited figures entered the lock, the inner door closing behind them. Allan slowly opened the outer door after the lock depressurized. Looking over to Kaylee, he said, “Care for stroll Kaylee?”

“Damn straight,” she said, the smile audible in her voice and visible behind her suits faceplate, “Let’s go fix your baby.”

Slowly Allan and Kaylee floated through the void to Free Bird. The distance wasn’t far. River had placed Serenity less than fifty feet from the other ships airlock.

Reaching the hull, Allan grabbed a handhold beside the hatch and reached his hand out to steady Kaylee. Once the mechanic had secured herself to the ship, Allan began opening the airlock.

Upon opening the hatch, Allan motioned for Kaylee to enter, “You first Kaylee, I’ll close the hatch.

“Okay Allan,” she replied.

Once the hatch was closed, Allan opened a valve to equalize the pressure with the interior of Free Bird. Allan was pleased to see that even after shutting down life support almost two weeks ago, the cabin hadn’t lost pressure. The air would just be stale and cold.

“Okay River, we’re in. Back Serenity off about two hundred yards while we power things up.”

“Acknowledged Allan,” came the reply.

Floating into Free Bird’s small bridge, Allan maneuvered himself into the pilot’s chair and began strapping himself in while motioning for Kaylee to do the same.

“Kaylee, you used the emergency restart last time right?”

“Yep, seemed the fastest way.”

“It is, but it’s a bit hard on the equipment. Only reason I installed it was in case there was a problem when I came out of cryo.”

“Sorry bout that,” She replied.

Allan smiled, “Hey it worked. I guess I’m a pretty good engineer after all if she still powered up after a four hundred year cold soak.”

“Ya did fine, she’s a sweet ship.”

“Thanks Kaylee, if you’d hand me that checklist there, we’ll get started.”

XXXXXXXXXXX

After half an hour of switch flipping and computer command entering, Free Bird was alive again. Gravity was on as well as life support. The reactor had started with nary a glitch and was happily producing power. Allan and Kaylee had removed their helmets and gloves but still wore the rest of their suits.

“River, you copy?” Allan said.

“Go ahead.”

“I’m going to undock from the cargo module, just on thrusters. Then I’m going to do a flight control check,” Allan said his voice professional.

“Understood Allan,” Serenity’s pilot replied.

“Ready Kaylee?” Allan asked.

“Sure am,” she replied, patting the glare shield over the instrument panel, “You’s got a good girl here.”

Allan laughed, “You keep that up and Serenity’s gonna get jealous.”

“Nah, my girl knows I love her.”

Allan flipped down the glass plate for the heads up display. As soon as he did flight control symbolology appeared. Reaching up to the overhead console, Allan flipped the guards open on two switches.

“Okay, here we go,” Allan said as he flipped the two switches.

Free Bird jumped slightly as the latches disengaged. Looking quickly to his status display he saw that all latches had retracted.

“Thrusting forward.”

Free Bird slowly moved away from the rest of the ship. As soon as he knew he was far enough away, Allan began moving the controls. Free Bird executed a series of simple maneuvers, pitching up and down, rolling, yawing left and right. Allan then put the ship into a wild gyration and let the autopilot recover the ship to a stable attitude.

After several more checks, including a quick check of the ships engines, Allan and Kaylee declared the smaller ship space worthy.

“What’s the plan now Allan?” Mal called over the com.

“I need to transfer the containers from the cargo module to Serenity. Then we can get back underway for Kelly.”

“Good 'nough” replied Mal.

Six hours later, the additional cargo Free Bird had carried was transferred to Serenity. Gently Allan had landed on top of Serenity’s hull, just above the galley. The magnetic clamps holding the two ships together. Slowly River turned the mated ships and started a slow acceleration for Kelly.

After a quick meal, the crew retired for the night. It had been a long day. Allan collapsed in his bunk, dead tired. Frowning he realized that he hadn’t spent more than ten minutes with Zoë all day.

“Gotta make that up to her tomorrow,” Alan said to himself just before he dozed off.

TBC