She did not wake up right away. After the loud bang and the bright light, her eyes stayed closed. She could not hear anything afterwards. No brother screaming her name and an absence of cursing from the crude man ape. There was no thoughts intruding into her mind that belong to the man that she considered to be a father nor the panic prays that she knew would have come from the beautiful woman who had finally found her place in life.

Her body shivered from a chill that could be from the emptiness of mind or from the temperature of the surroundings. She stayed motionless, her mind trying to comprehend the situation. Equations and scenarios raced until she finally calmed herself. She came at of stop of two conclusions.

One, she was alone and two, she was currently alive.

Her eyelids felt heavy as if she had been drugged with the newest variation of sedatives that her brother shot her with in the earlier days of their fugitive phase. A thought crossed her mind that maybe she was drugged but it was dismissed. She knew what being drugged felt like after years of imprisonment- physically and mentally.

At first, she could only see a mixed of blurred colors. She could comprehend that what she saw was greens, blues, blacks, browns, and whites. Slowly, her eyes adjusted themselves to focus and with each blink, the images were clearing into trees, grass, woods, sky, and clouds.

Shock, she realized, had affected her it was dissipating from her body as her ears received murmurs, thoughts began to buzz into her mind, and feeling began to tingle onto her skin. In an instant, she shot up from her prone position and began to frantically view her surroundings.

Trees. Flowers. Sky. Clouds. Benches. Fountains.

A park, she realized, it was a park. How in ‘verse did she get from her homey, run down, ship in the Black to this shinny bit of a planet? And where was the rest of her family? Panic filled her mind and she began to hyperventilate. Rage, sorrow, and loneliness filled her heart until she felt the need to scream, hit, and even kill something to make the feelings go away.

“Civilian, your pulse and body temperature are rising. Are you in need of medical assistance?”

Turning quickly around, she looked at a human covered in a uniform that she had never seen before. Defiantly not Alliance standard. He even wore an odd mask over his head. Staring at the man for a moment she frowned in confusion. She could not sense anything from him. No thought, no emotion, no vision. Strange, he could not be a Reaver. Those gorram gosei things have thoughts that equal to the sound of a rocket booster.

…odd girl. What kind of clothing is that?

-they let anyone wonder around here!

-wonder what she did to get the android over to her.

Android? She received an image of the human in front of her.

“No.” she shook her head in denial. “NO!”

She could vaguely hear that android thing saying something but all she could think of was denying. Denying these odd words, odd images that began to press into her brain. If she could deny it all, she would wake up and see her family. Just like what her brother’s love always tried to tell her to do with a nightmare. For this was a nightmare.

Someone grabbed her and she snapped. Screaming, she thrashed around, hitting and crushing anything that came near her. Soon her fight was cut off as restraints of sorts immobilized her limbs and she felt deep intruding pain in her head from a thick long needle.

***

Gasping, she shot up from her bed, sweat cooling her heated skin. It took her a few minutes to realize that she was dreaming about her past or a moment of it. Shaking, she drew up her knees to her chest and breathed deeply. The end of the dream did not concluded the same way as what had happen to her two years ago.

The android called for medical assistance while she had scream and ran in panic. A sedative was used on her and she woke up in a medical hospital setting. For a time, she thought on the situation that she was in. For the first time in a long time, she welcomed the thoughts, images, and emotions that came to her. After an hour of merging herself with thoughts that were not her own; she pulled out and came to another conclusion.

She was not in the Core system or the Outer system.

She was in another universe.

A part of her was fascinated. She used to remember how she and her brother played out war games and what they would do in the face of enemy territory. Her brother had come up the conclusion to escape once he had all the information to do so. She had decided to integrate with the enemy until she was trusted enough to have access to the highest level of security and released the dinosaurs that she insisted that effected the war.

In a situation where she was ignorant, she chooses the decision that her younger self had declared ten years ago.

When asked of her name, origin, and contact information; she plea her ignorance of everything except of a name. They had tests done to her which were unfamiliar since it did not require for her to remain still for long periods of time. There were still shots but the pain was brief compared to what she was use to. These people, she realized as they work, were good people. They were not scientist making her into a weapon or after her because she could hear their secrets. There was pity, compassion, and even humor from these people.

They reminded her of her brother and what life he should have had.

Since they determine that she was sixteen and was in need of a guardian until she scored high on a placement test that was meant to determine her state of mind. Soon she had strangers coming after her with offers that she knew her brother would have been proud of if he were here. However she could not trust anything since she could read the greed of their thoughts.

Publicity of an orphan genius and the school that took her in. Or the prestige of having a genius who match up with a Vulcan.

What was a Vulcan?

She thought back on what these schools would have offered if they ever knew about her past. They would have not taken in a fugitive wanted by a large government and risk their lives for her like her captain did. They would have killed her instead of giving her a second chance like her family did. They would have abandoned her instead of risking a future like her brother did. They would never be honest with their thoughts like man ape had always been.

It was not until a week later that a man came to her while she played with the PADD that was given to her. He had sat with her in silence watching her read through the data pad in a pace that would made anyone dizzy. Knowledge soaked into her mind as well as the thoughts of the man.

He thought her to be a tiny thing with pretty eyes. She liked that thought. Captain thought of her as a skinny thing with big eyes who could kick man ape’s ass.

He thought that it was sad that she had no family and she was like many others who suffered a similar fate. Faces raced in her mind as he thought of children who suffered with no family.

He wondered if she would like to make herself into something at Starfleet.

“Starfleet Academy, circa 2161. Sited in San Francisco. From the stars, knowledge. You are a captain. You want me to join.” She stated as she continue on the lesson of Vulcan culture.

She could feel his surprise at her talking about Starfleet.

“You recognize the uniform?” he asked.

“I recognized your face.” She answered and pulled out a new article of the man shaking hands with another man. “You are Captain Christopher Pike. It is said that in a few years you will be captain of a new starship.”

He chuckled at her.

“You’ve been a busy little lady.”

“Why.”

He looked at her in confusion for a moment before understanding what she meant.

“Why not?”

This took her away from the PADD. No one had such a philosophy similar to her captain’s. But this man came close to it.

“Starfleet has many benefits for anyone who wants to explore and not just space. We have positions all over the Universe and it can be dangerous but rewarding as well.” The captain pointed out.

He meant every word he said. In a way he was like man ape. Honest about what he knew and what he wanted. He wanted her to join Starfleet because he could see her rise to the top. Like that man he was thinking about.

“Go away. Need to study. Need to sleep. Need to think.” She dismissed him.

He laughed at that and left her alone.

Now two years later, she was in Starfleet. Her superior mind had allowed her to soak in everything that was offered to her and she took placement test after placement test until the board acknowledges that she could not be a cadet. She could end up crushing cadet hopefuls by placing a standard that would be impossible to beat. In the end, she was promoted to commander after a year and seven months.

“Computer, time.” She inquired softly.

“Time, 0545.” Came the generic female computer voice.

Getting up, she went about a simple routine of cleaning and dressing in a black uniform. She ordered a breakfast of protein, fruit, and bread. This was something of her new life that she appreciated deeply. Fresh food even if it was technology made reminded her of the past she hid from her fellow commanders. She consumed the meal, thinking about how man ape would have eaten it with a hundred times less grace then a monkey.

Before she left her quarters she looked at her reflection. She could see the difference two years had made. Instead of a skinny thing with big eyes, she had grown into a young woman. She was not curvy like many of the women she thought of as family but willowy and portioned right. Her best feature were her long legs which she remembered how the male cadets often thought that they could go on for miles. Her long dark hair was pinned up in a messy yet tidy bun that gave her a causal look.

“I wish you could see me now Simon. Your mei mei is grown up now.” She whispered to her reflection.

Turning away, she exit out of her room and walked out into the Starfleet campus.

“Good morning, Commander Tam!” a chorus of male voices called out. Hearing their ridiculous fantasies, she flashed a smile.

If those boys only knew that Commander River Tam knew about good mornings in a rickety old Firefly class ship, they would have pissed in their pants.

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

I can tell many of you are wondering about River here. River Tam now is able to live a normal life, that does not mean she does not have trouble with her mind being opened to outside thoughts and emotions. I’m not going to make her into some super happy girl but I want her to be mature compare to how she started out in Firefly.