A Mercenary's Tale

A Firefly/X-Files/Chuck Joint

Prologue

2502 AD

"He's really a great little guy," The Chief of Security told the new Nanny, Ms. Georgia Hale.

Ms. Hale, petite, with brown hair and eyes, and beautiful porcelain skin, nodded as the man continued to speak.

"You'll have to watch out though," he said. "Johnny's a little charmer. If you're not careful, he'll wrap you around his little finger."

As they spoke, they walked through the complex that housed this most exceptional child. There was the Medical Wing, and, of course, Security. Then, there was the Education Wing, and, right next to that, a fully functional Gymnasium. This was clearly designed to take a special child all the way to adulthood.

Finally, they arrived in the child's personal living quarters, and there he was, playing happily under the watchful eye of one of the ever-present guards, toys strewn all over the floor.

"Johnny," the Chief of Security spoke softly, and the toddler looked up.

He was an attractive child with clear blue eyes, a typically Irish nose, and-even now, at the tender age of one-a pugnaciously stubborn-looking jaw line; and all of that topped by a mop of soft brown curls.

Those blue eyes went to Hale, and she knelt in front of him so she wouldn't tower over him.

"Hello, Johnny," she picked up one of the toys, a replica of an Alliance freighter, and held it out to him. Soon, he was happily playing with it, babbling as only a toddler can babble, as they bonded over that little toy.

Two months later

Georgia Hale was preparing Johnny for bed. He had been fed and bathed. Now, clad in his favorite jammies, he was snuggled in her arms as she sang an off-key lullaby

Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good friend of mine

I never understood a single word he said

But I helped him a-drink his wine

And he always had some mighty fine wine

Singing

Joy to the world

All the boys and girls now

Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea

Joy to you and me…

Hale lay Johnny down in his bed, tucking him warmly in for the night. She caressed that mop-topped head, then turned off the light, and headed out.

"Ms Hale," the on-duty guard accosted her. "A freighter, the Lady Luck, just made an emergency docking. They say one of their crew got hurt. Do you have medical experience?"

"Yes," Hale nodded. "Let's go."

They were met at the Docking Bay by the captain of the Lady Luck. Jayne Meriwether was a gruff man of middling size. But his hired gun, Frank Ferguson made up for Meriwether's relative lack of size, coming in at just a hair less than seven feet tall. As Fergie was only eighteen, however, he most likely had an inch, or two to go before he was done. To the guard's alarm, it was Fergie who was lying on the stretcher.

"Fergie tripped over his own two feet," Meriwether growled by way of explanation. "And he cracked his poor skull something awful…"

"Well…"Hale finished her brief examination. "It looks like he's got a concussion. We'd better bring him in."

"We can't," the guard protested. "I would get fired if we let strangers inside"

"I understand," Hale spoke soothingly. "But he could die. Look, can we take them to Security HQ? That way, you can keep a watchful eye, and I know for a fact there's a bed there…"

The guard muttered something under his breath. It sounded a bit like, oh, crap!

"All right," he said aloud. "We'd better get going…"

The guard and Meriwether lugged the stretcher down to Security HQ. It wasn't an easy task, as Fergie was very nearly as wide as he was tall. Once there, the guard stretched his back, then bent to look down at the unconscious man.

Why is he grinning like that?

That was when Fergie rose up, like Lazarus, meaty hands going for the guard's throat…

Ignoring the scuffle behind him, Captain Jayne Meriwether to take control of Security HQ's scanners…

"Kaz," he spoke into his hand-Comm. "Jam all transmissions. Things are gonna get dicey pretty soon."

"Yes, sir," a woman's voice responded. "Doing that now."

There was the sound of a body hitting the floor. Hale was staring at the dead guard.

"You could've knocked him out and tied him up," she glared at Fergie. "You didn't have to kill him!"

"Look, Hale," Meriwether said. "He would've Id-ed us and you too. You, and the Compact, hired us to rescue the sprog. But this is a Fed-owned lab, and there's going to be some killing done here. Just pray that it ain't us. Now, go grab the kid and meet us here, ASAP."

Hale drew in a deep breath, nodded curtly. The man was right after all…

Quickly, she ran back to Johnny's quarters. She had packed weeks ago, in anticipation of this day. Now, dragging the packed bag out of its hiding place, she carried it into Johnny's bedroom. Already, she could hear the crackling sound of gunfire, not nearby, thank the lord. Johnny was awake and whimpering as she entered his room.

"Shh, Johnny, it's okay," she picked the little one up, wrapping him up in his favorite blanket, shielding his view so he-hopefully-wouldn't see any dead bodies. Grabbing the packed bag with her free hand, she headed out carefully, back to Security HQ. There were a few bodies littering the hallway floors, all of them guards. Meriwether met her at the HQ.

"That the kid? Good," Meriwether grunted. "Let's get out of here."

He guided Hale, carrying her precious burden, back to the Lady Luck. Fergie was already there, with the rest of the crew.

"We was lucky," Fergie said. "Kaz jammed everything. Ain't anyone knows what we done.

So, they all escaped. At a mutually agreed-upon location, they all left the Lady Luck-a loaner from the Compact-and boarded Meriwether's freighter, the Daisy Wheeler. The Lady Luck headed off alone, to draw any potential Fed pursuit; and that creeped Fergie out more than anything else did.

"Who the gorram hell's at the helm?" he groused. "Don't tell me we had ghostly company this whole time…"

"Relax, Fergie," Kaz stared that the departing ship. "It's gotta be an AI…"

With everyone back on the Daisy Wheeler, with nothing to connect them to the Lady Luck-one of the things Meriwether had done back at the lab, was to erase all the files in Security HQ. No one's faces, voices, or names, had been recorded through the whole operation-there was nothing to connect the crew of the Daisy Wheeler to the crime. The only weak link was Georgia Hale.

And she knew how to disappear…

She washed the brown dye out of her hair, and took the brown-colored contact lenses out of her eyes, and mousy Georgia Hale was gone, replaced by Red-haired and blue-eyed Dana Katherine Scully.

The Daisy Wheeler let Dana Scully and her son, Jonathan Scully, off at Harvest's main spaceport. From there, she went to her home. More an underground lair than anything else, the place often reminded her of those silly movies she used to watch as a kid back on Earth-that-was…

The mad scientist in his underground lair…

Well…she was the mad scientist now, it seemed. Especially with the things she was about to do to keep Johnny hidden…

She bit her lip as she looked down at the sleeping baby. Already, at the tender age of one, she could see John Casey's face clear as day. Moreover, the little one had displayed a brilliance of mind that very likely surpassed the original's capacities; enhancements of his brain and nervous system, done by the scientists who had created Johnny at the behest of their superiors. Considering that, along with the physical training, disguised as rough-and-tumble playtime, it was clear they were designing a specific type of human weapon.

Scully sighed.

Johnny had loved the rough-and-tumble sessions, loved being tossed around and taught how to roll and tumble. Like the original, John Casey, he was turning out to be intensely physical. Things of the body came to him with incredible ease. Indeed, in terms of pure physical ability, coordination, and motor control, he was far in advance of the average one-year-old…

So, the Feds would not be likely to give him up lightly.

Johnny, too, had to disappear…

The answer made Scully feel ill in oh so many ways.

First, there was the Neural Inhibitor; a device designed for one single nefarious purpose; to dumb the brain down. The thought of using that on Johnny made her want to vomit. But she needed to keep Johnny's brain in the average range; which his clearly was not.

As ill as using the thing made her feel, the entry site for the little chip made her want to scream.

The entry point was at the back of the neck, which conjured up personal memories best forgotten. Her abduction, finding the implant, the cancer which followed her removal of the implant. The only reason she survived the cancer was because Fox Mulder had found a replacement implant. It was still there, in the back of her neck, protecting her from the cancer, and possibly making her immortal too…

"I'm sorry, Johnny," she brushed the soft curls from the back of the baby's neck. He had been sedated, so he wouldn't feel the needle when it went in. When it was done, he whimpered softly, as if he felt something passing away from him. Scully picked him up and held him, crooning to him softly…

And, now it was time for her to do the Second Terrible Thing…

The Feds would be looking for a one-year-old baby boy.

Scully had managed to acquire-at great cost-two very rare-and highly illegal-things; a medical-grade stasis cubicle, and a few vials of proven age accellerant.

The age accellerant was a dicey thing. It was all too easy for the stuff to go haywire inside a living body; from infant to old man in a matter of weeks. But, under controllable conditions, best provided by a medical-grade stasis cubicle, a baby might be grown into early adulthood, provided one took all the steps prudence dictated…

Scully hated doing this, hated the fact that she was destroying Johnny. Whoever came out of that stasis cubicle, it wouldn't be the little boy she had come to love.

But this was all to keep him safe from the people who had created him only to use him for their own evil ends. So…

One evil to prevent a greater evil…

So she put Johnny into the cubicle, dosed him with the age accelerant, hooked him to all sorts of tubes for proper nourishment during the accelerated growth period, closed the lid, and prayed…

While the age accelerant was working, another part of the stasis cubicle wired into his brain was pouring a lifetime's worth of memories-personally scripted by Scully-into the tabula rasa that was the boy's brain…

Born Jayne Cobb-Scully's way of thanking Captain Jayne Meriwether-the eldest of eight children born to Alma and Thomas Cobb. Left home at sixteen to help support the family. Always sends whatever cash he can to his Ma so she can pay the docs for her youngest child, Jayne's little brother Mattie…

Scully hoped, by giving him a loving Ma, and an invalid little brother to worry about, that the psychological damage she was doing to him might be mitigated at least a little bit…

Finally, it was time to open the stasis cubicle. Scully heaved a sigh of relief. The age accelerant hadn't run rampant this time. The newly-minted Jayne Cobb looked to be in his very early twenties, and he needed a haircut. She brushed hair back from the young man's forehead as he slept. Again, guilt assailed her…

She had sabotaged his brain, and programmed a life for him that would keep him out on the margins of society, eking out a precarious existence on the rim.

She couldn't imagine John Casey being happy about this. He had chosen death over servitude five hundred years ago. But, he had been an adult when he made his choice. Johnny had been an infant. He still was an infant, legally, his appearance notwithstanding. It was her duty, as the adult, to make the decisions on his behalf, and she just couldn't bring herself to choose death for him. Jayne Cobb deserved a shot at life…

At least Jayne Cobb had grown tall and strong; a clone of John Casey could hardly do otherwise. At six foot four, with a body built for strength and endurance, Scully hoped he would prove strong enough to endure whatever the 'verse chose to throw at him…

May he find companions to help him survive, Scully prayed. May he find love and be loved in return…

Note: "Joy to the World" is a song written by Hoyt Axton, and made famous by the band Three Dog Night.