Disclaimer: Joss, Fox, Universal Own em’. (Except for Allan and the kids. they're mine) I’m just playing. No money being made.

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This story takes place nine years after Serenity (BDM) and has the established couples of Simon/Kaylee, Mal/Inara, Zoë/Allan and Jayne/River. Takes place five years post “The Bash” -

A/N: New story arc. Set five years after “The Bash”

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Relics

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Chapter One

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Allan really enjoyed times like this. Sitting on Serenity's bridge with nothing but the quiet hum of the life support system and... giggling?

Turning slowly in his chair, Allan spied the source of the giggling. Two cherubic faces peered at him from the entrance to the bridge. One belonged to Rebecca Tam, Kaylee and Simon's six year old daughter and the second was his own little girl, Sara.

“And what are you troublemakers up to?” Allan asked grinning.

“Nothin Daddy,” five year old Sara replied. Doing her best to look innocent.

“Likely story...”

“Honest, Uncle Allan, we ain't doin nothin.” Rebecca replied.

“Right...” Allan replied, not believing a word.

The two girls shared a conspiratorial look. It was enough to make Allan get out of the pilots chair to see what the girls had been doing. Just outside the door, Allan spotted a small pile of tools, an open access panel with wires leading to a portable cortex unit and two little girls trying to look as innocent as possible.

Allan crossed his arms and glared down the the two budding mechanical geniuses, “Looks like a whole lot more than nothin...”

“Honest Uncle Allan, we was tryin to get more cartoons on the cortex....”

“That's right,” Sara nodded, “But we couldn't find a cartoon feed.”

Allan picked up the cortex unit and looked at the screen. His jaw dropped open.

“They ain't got no clothes on,” Becca giggled.

The two girls had found a porn feed on the cortex instead of cartoons...

“Kaylee!!!” Allan yelled.

“You're in trouble now,” Sara said to her partner in crime.

“She's not the only one, little girl o' mine,” Allan growled.

Sara looked down at her shoes.

Allan was nearly vibrating when Kaylee entered the forward passageway.

“What is it, Ge-ge?” Kaylee said as she mounted the stairs.

“Take a look at what our geniuses found while trying to hack the pay feeds on the cortex,” Allan said as he handed the unit to Kaylee.

“What did... Oh, my.”

“Yeah,” Allan replied.

“Rebecca Reagan Tam! What have I told you about messin with Serenity's innards without supervision?” Kaylee said in a scolding tone of voice.

“Not to,” the little girl replied.

“That's right,” Kaylee said.

“And what about you Sara Jane?” Allan said.

“Th' same...”

“Get to your bunk little girl,” Allan said to his daughter, “And no cortex until we get back home.”

“Daddy!”

“Git!”

“Yes, Sir,” Sara grumped before stomping off in the direction of her room in the passenger dorms.

“Same goes for you, Becca.”

“Yes, Momma,” the little girl said before sullenly walking in the direction of her own room.

As soon as the two girls were out of earshot, Allan and Kaylee shared a look between them and began laughing.

“What's so funny?” Zoë asked as she spotted them while exiting the stairwell leading to the cargo bay.

Allan was still laughing too hard to speak so he just handed the cortex player to his wife.

Kaylee was leaning against the railing with tears running down her face from her laughter.

Zoë looked at the image on the small screen and tilted her head, “Didn't know that was physically possible...”

Allan snorted and wiped away his own tears of mirth, “Sara and Becca hacked into the cortex looking for cartoons and got this instead.”

Zoë tried not to smile but quickly lost her battle. Chuckling she looked at the ships mechanic, “Better set that to rights before Mal sees it.”

“On it Zoë,” Kaylee replied as she began to undo what the two girls had done. Her shoulders still shaking with silent laughter as she worked.

“So, where is our little hacker?” Zoë asked.

“Sent Sara to her room.”

“Uh, huh... what else?”

“No cortex until we get back to Boros.”

“How long do you think that's actually gonna last?” Zoë asked knowingly.

“Probably until supper. Then Sara's gonna roll those puppy dog eyes and I'll cut it back to just until we get to Shinon.”

“She's got you wrapped around her little finger, you know, Husband.”

Allan shrugged his shoulders, “What can I do, she's my little girl.”

Zoë grinned, “Got me wrapped too.”

XXXXXXXXXX

A few hours later, Allan went to fetch his daughter for dinner. He knocked on the door.

“Sara? Supper's ready,”

“N' hungry,” replied Sara's tiny muffled voice.

Allan tried to slide back the panel but it was locked.

“Sara, open the door please.”

“Mad at you.”

Allan sighed. Being the parent of a five year old who was smarter than most teenagers was quite frustrating. He was beginning to see how Gabriel and Reagan could have considered sending River away to school.

“I know you are, Princess. Open the door please.”

Allan heard some movement followed by the sound of the lock disengaging. Sara slid the panel back.

“Open now,” the little girl pouted.

Allan slid the panel open the rest of the way and entered his daughters room. Sitting on the edge of the bed next to a sulking Sara, Allan looked over at her.

“Pretty mad huh?”

“Yep.”

“Sure you don't want any supper?”

“Yep.”

“You really sure? Aunt Kaylee made strawberry shortcake for desert...”

Sara hesitated for a moment then replied, “Yep.”

Allan nodded. He tried the logical approach, “Do you know why me and Kaylee were mad this afternoon?”

“We didn't hurt nothin...”

“That's not the point Sara. I know you know how to fix things. You're just like your daddy like that. And nothing, could make me more proud. But being in the black is dangerous. What would have happened if you tapped into the navsat feed or even the four eighty line feeding the bridge?”

“Boom?” Sara asked.

“On the four eighty line, yeah. The navsat and we wouldn't be able to navigate and we could run into something.”

“Sorry Daddy.”

Allan smiled and kissed Sara on the top of her head. Her copper curls tickling his nose, “Apology accepted.”

“That mean I can watch the cortex?” Sara asked hopefully.

“Not till we get to Shinon.”

“But...”

“Only thirty hours. You can last that long.”

“Maybe...”

Allan snorted and began to tickle his daughter. Soon, Sara was howling.

“Daddy... stop...”

“Okay Princess,” Allan replied as he pulled back his hands. Sara was still giggling. A sound that was music to his ears.

“Getting kinda hungry,” Sara stated.

“That's what I thought,” Allan replied as he scooped Sara into his arms, “Oof, you're getting heavy.”

“Daddy...”

“C'mon shorty, lets get some grub.”

XXXXXXXXXX

Four hundred eleven years previously:

“Captain's log. October second, 2114,” Captain Sylvia Marsh intoned into the microphone, “Eleven months since we departed Earth. As the last ship to leave, we still have intermittent contact with home... Home, that's a funny word to use. This ship is my home now. For all of us.”

“Anyway, we are now just outside the Oort cloud surrounding the Sol system and can now accelerate to maximum speed. As an agricultural ship, Kansas cannot maneuver as well as the other ships of the exodus. From what we have been able to gather from the spotty information coming from Earth, war has broken out between the Alliance and a group of nations led by the Russian Federation. It doesn't sound good.”

Captain Marsh paused for a moment, considering her words, “It may very well be that we are going to be the last humans to have walked on the Earth. A war between the Alliance and Russia will no doubt go nuclear. I don't hold out much hope if that happens.”

“We are having trouble contacting the closest other exodus ship, The Shanghai. She's nearly one hundred fifty AU ahead of us and the time delay is... frustrating. We have been sending what information we get from Earth to the Parliament by relaying through The Shanghai who in turn forwards it to The Washington. We don't know if the messages are getting through however... we are very much on our own here.”

“The ships population is settling in well. The advantage of a ship like Kansas is that we have wide open spaces for the animals. This helps the passengers and crew as well. Giving the illusion that we are still on the ground somewhere. Morale is high considering that everyone on this ship will never see our destination. Our grandchildren might though.”

“Oh yes, I forgot about our other passengers. We have fifteen hundred people in cryo. The largest group of any of the exodus ships. Most are young families. Some are soldiers, teachers and a few are people who were just so rich that they bought their passage. Ironic. The one man who wanted to go, was willing to be in cryo and was most responsible for this even being possible, wasn't allowed to go.”

Captain Marsh smiled into the camera, “Allan Bryant. A good man. Picked me for this job personally, ten years ago. Now the government back home is calling him a traitor if the messages we received are true. Seems he got around the Alliances not letting him join the exodus by building his own ship and making the trip in cryo... I hope he makes it. I have a feeling that Humanity will need men like Allan. I relayed the information about Allan following but not the warrant for his arrest... Captains prerogative. Allan is my friend and he deserves this more than anyone. If any one man can be said to be the savior of the human race, Allan Bryant is that man.”

“Well I guess that's it for my log today. I...”

The Captain was cut off by a screaming alarm. She reached for the intercom, “Bridge, what's going on?”

“Object on radar Captain, collision course!”

“How soon?”

“Ten minutes.”

“I'll be right there!”

Captain Marsh ran the thirty yards to the Kansas' bridge. The eight man watch was scrambling about.

“Report!”

“Looks like an comet fragment. About a kilometer across. We're taking evasive action but...”

“Kansas doesn't maneuver... I know. Sound the collision alarm. Get everyone to the shelter areas and seal all airtight doors. Send to Shanghai that we are going to hit something. Will advise afterwards of our status... if we can.”

“Aye Captain.”

Sylvia dropped into her command chair and pulled up the status display on the small screen built into the arm. The engines were at 110% and their course was changing slightly but it wouldn't be enough. Kansas was four kilometers long with a beam of nearly a full kilometer at her widest. Massing at almost two billion metric tons. She didn't do anything quickly.

“Status.”

“Computer is predicting impact in the engineering spaces.”

“Time to impact?”

“Two minutes.”

“All engines stop, thrusters at full, try to spin us on the Z axis. Might only take a glancing hit that way.”

“Aye!”

The golden glow from Kansas' engines faded and thrusters began to flash in the black, slowly, degree by degree, the mighty ship began to yaw to the left.

It wasn't enough.

The kilometer wide piece of ice and rock missed the forward section of the hull and impacted aft on the huge vessel. A glancing blow but the results were catastrophic.

Three of the ships five, ten million liter fuel tanks were ripped from the aft superstructure, spewing liquid hydrogen into the void. Next hit was the ships huge radion core engine cluster. Ripping the massive units completely off the aft end of the ship.

The impact swung The Kansas around. People were thrown about as the artificial gravity systems tried to compensate. Power began to fail all over the ship.

“Damage report!” Captain Marsh screamed over the wailing alarms

“Engines are gone! We're on the backup fusion reactor for life support and gravity. Fuel tanks two, three and four are ruptured... check that, they're totally gone. Ripped off the ship. Same with the engines!”

“Son of a bitch,” Captain Marsh swore, “Hull integrity?”

“Aft engineering is gone... Secondary hydroponics is venting as is the port pasture spaces.”

“That's half our animals and a lot of people.”

“I know,” the First Officer replied. He looked his Captain in the eye, “I think we're dead.”

“No. We're not dead.”

“Captain... Sylvia. We've got no propulsion. Main power is not just out, but ripped completely off the ship...”

“I know, George... I know.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Give me a few minutes. Lock down what you can.”

“Aye Captain.

XXXXXXXXXX

The present:

Robert Sutherland was a former Browncoat. Dissatisfied with the outcome of the War, he had bought a ship and took to the black like his old friend, Mal Reynolds had.

Robert had even bought a Firefly. A slightly newer model 03 than Serenity. Unlike Mal, he stuck to mostly legal freight hauling around the rim. Married during the war, Robert flew the black with his small crew. Consisting mostly of his family.

His brother James was the mechanic, his wife, Jessica cooking and taking care of the books, Robert himself as Captain. A gun hand named Samuel Haruto and his pilot and daughter, Roberta.

They were a day and a half out of Angel heading for Whittier when the proximity alarm sounded.

“What is it Bobbie?” Robert said as he entered the bridge.

“Dunno, Pa' but whatever it is, it's ruttin huge.”

Robert scowled at his daughters language. The seventeen year old was a brilliant pilot, better than he himself had been even in his youth.

“Alliance?”

“Way bigger than even a cruiser.”

“Laotian ye.”

“And it's got a radiation signature.”

“Reavers?”

Roberta shook her head, “Not out here. Reaver space is clear on the other side o' the 'Verse.”

“How far away is it?”

“Hundred clicks... gorram, you can already see it!”

She was right. When Robert looked out through the bridge windows, an oblong object was visible against the black of space, even sixty miles away.

“Son of a bitch, that's a big 'un. What's out the way it's comin from?”

“Nothin but that brown dwarf three lightyears out.”

“Bring us in closer.”

Roberta nodded and the Firefly changed course.

“Any idea Pa'?” Bobbie said quietly as they edged closer to the huge vessel hanging in space five miles away.

“Damned if I know.”

“Took a poundin, that's for sure,” James said behind his brother.

“Jessie? Sam? Anything?”

“None that I can think of, Capn',” Sam replied.

“What's it say on the side, Dear?” Jessie asked.

“Kansas,” Bobbie whispered. She had the best eyesight of all of them.

English lettering could be seen painted on the pockmarked hull as they got closer. The faded letters were larger than their entire Firefly.

Roberta hesitantly picked up the microphone for the ship to ship com, “Kansas, this is the Firefly Transport, Sutherland, do you copy?”

Only static was heard.

“Lots o' micrometeorite damage,” James commented.

“Like it's been in space a long time,” Bobbie replied.

“Looks like it hit somethin too,” Jessie stated, “Aft... I guess, end is mangled. Hull breaches in a few spots.”

“Ain't kiddin there, Jess,” Robert replied.

“I... I think I know what it is.”

“What's that hon?” Robert replied, looking at his wife.

“I think it's an Exodus ship.”

“What? Last o' the Exodus ships was dismantled over a hundred and fifty years ago.”

“One went missin on the trip if I remember my history right,” Jessie replied. Before marrying Robert, she had been a teacher.

“Wuo de ma,” Sam whispered, “You know what the salvage would be on that?”

“A fortune, well enough,” Robert replied, “But I don't think it's ours to claim.”

“Somebody better,” Bobbie said, “I just computed her course. In six months she's gonna hit Ariel.”

“What?” Robert asked his daughter.

“At her current speed. she's gonna be where Ariel is gonna be in six months.”

“We still outta range o' the cortex?”

Bobbie nodded, “Since that node failed other side o' Silverhold. We can't hit the cortex for another three days.”

“Mark where she's at now. And where she'll be going. Make hard burn for the nearest cortex node... we gotta call this in,” Robert ordered.

Tail flashing gold in the black, The Sutherland shot away, heading for Whittier and a working cortex node.

TBC