Histories

“Wash stay here,” Mal pointed forcefully, “Zoe come with me!” Together they sprinted down the corridor and through the kitchen. Right before engineering Mal jumped onto the stairs leading to the infirmary. Zoe was right behind and Kaylee stuck her head out of the engine room, “Hey what’s going on?” Mal pulled up short at the bottom of the stairs. There was Simon, standing, staring at an elderly man sitting on the couch outside medlab. Zoe nearly ran over Mal while looking at the tall man. He was wearing a simple gray hat, gray wool suit and had a cane. Of all the fantastical things Mal had seen in the past few weeks, this man was the most odd. The old man turned to them and smiled. Simon turned his head to Mal and Zoe, “Captain Raynolds, Zoe, this is Peter.” The old man stood and Mal noticed he was much taller than normal. With a smile and a very proper English accent the old man said, “Captain Reynolds, it is a pleasure and a relief to meet you.” Mal did not take the extended hand, “Who…who are you? What are you doing on my boat?” River and Ian now walked in the room from the opposite side. Ian was stunned while River was smiling. She walked right up the old and took his hand in hers. “Boat,” Peter said in confusion, then looked down to River and shook his head, “Ohh, yes the ship. I do apologize captain for such a dramatic intrusion, but events now necessitate such theatrics. I chose a form and name I thought would be suitable for you. River has helped me greatly over the short time we have been together.” “Helped you with what,” Simon asked haltingly, “Have you been in contact with her?” Book now joined the confused crowd. Peter tipped his hat to the preacher and bowed. The old man then spotted Ian and smiled broadly, “Yes Simon, I have been in contact with your sister for some days now. She was the perfect medium for communication.” Malcolm was irritated that someone came aboard his ship without an invitation. The Captain stepped forward, “Look here Peter, this is all fine and good. But what are you doin’ aboard my ship? Do you have anything to do with that object we were investigating?” “Of course I do captain, I made it.” Peter said matter-of-factly. “I came aboard your ship for Ian. A long, long time we have searched for one like him.” There was stunned silence for a moment. Ian spoke next, “I don’t understand. What do you mean one like me? I have never met you before.” “I will explain everything,” Peter said putting his hands on Ian’s broad shoulders, “but there is not much time any more. He is coming.” Book felt he had to interject so he stepped from behind Ian, “Peter, perhaps you should start at the beginning. What is this vessel and how did you come to make it?” “Yes, yes” Peter sat down and took his hat off. “The vessel you discovered is what you would call a ship also. It contains my universe and all who remain in it.” Mal broke in, “You mean to say you are not from our universe?” “No captain. My story goes back about 5 trillion of your years. There are infinitely many universes, each with its own properties, physical laws and life. All those long years ago, my people lived, loved, thrived and died. Eventually we evolved as a species to the point where we could actually control those physical laws and change them as we saw fit. In effect, we became creators ourselves. Not needing bodies we roamed through the fabric of our universe, exploring and helping as we could. 100 billion of your years into our existence he came. We could only guess he arrived from another universe though we do not know where or when. Then the great war began.” “Wait, wait a minute,” Book stammered, “who is this ‘he’ you are talking about?” Peter’s face became pained, “We have no name for him and he has none for himself. How old his race is we don’t know. He had a great ship, much like this one, only his was meant for destruction. We tried hiding in and out of the nine dimensions of our spacetime, to no avail. He caught up with nearly all of us and destroyed us, removing our energies from our universe and adding it to his own. He began ripping apart our universe at its most basic level. Entire galaxies were destroyed as he tore open vast regions of our space, opening the compacted dimensions and rolling them up again in different manifolds. In less than an hour a galaxy with trillions upon trillions of life forms were exterminated.” Ian’s forehead was lined with thought, “You are saying that he rearranged the very fabric of your universe? What kind of being could do this?” “Yes,” Peter passed his hands across his face, “that’s when a few of us decided to build this vessel and save what was left of your universe. The few hundred million galaxies that were left, we put inside here, hoping to save it. We then began randomly hopping universes, hoping to evade him. He is what you would call evil, I think. He is a destroyer of life.” Mal’s arms were folded across his chest, “If you could build a ship like this and jump from one universe to another, why didn’t you fight?” Peter sat back and sighed, “Captain, we do not really know who our creator is. In all our explorations we never met him. What we have deemed is that we were fashioned in the shape and temperament of he who created our universe. Thus, we have not the ability to fight or to conceive of violence. That is beyond our grasp to comprehend and, despite all our protracted evolution, it is something we cannot do. For whatever reason, we think our universe’s creator has chosen not to protect what he has made.” Book was moved to speak, “So you do believe in a creator…a God?” Peter smiled at Book, “As do you Preacher. We know there is an infinite number of these universe from which we conclude there are an infinite number of creators or just one. Which is the case, we do not know.” “Uhhuh,” Mal muttered, “If you are so godlike and powerful, what do you need with Ian here? Surely, he can’t fight this other entity, or whatever you want to call him.” “Ian understands the violence we face,” Peter said more stoically, “he can direct this vessel to help fight back. He understands evil in a way we never can. We need him to have a chance at our survival and the survival of the over 450 billion, trillion sentient beings we carry.” Ian looked away from the tall man and was unable to face the crew. How did this man know about his past and the terrible things he’d done? Ian could feel Inara’s eyes on him while the rest of the crew present thought about Peter’s tale. Could he be telling the truth? The statements Peter was throwing around as fact were only philosophical arguments in the human race and still hotly debated between science and religion. Zoe broke the minute-long silence with one simple, but frightening question, “You said ‘He’ is coming. Has this being found you here?” Peter looked at the deck, “Yes he has found us. He will destroy us and, more than likely, your universe too.” The last part of Peter’s statement was not lost on any of Serenity’s crew. It was hard to imagine the systematic destruction of an entire universe. Malcolm was not sure he entirely believed this story it was so fantastic. It was just a bit too much to take in at once. Inara, whom no one saw enter, now moved to Ian’s side and clasped his hand. “If I may ask sir,” Inara broke the silence, “what does Ian have to do to help you? Does he advise you on an enemy he’s never seen and can’t comprehend?” “Ah, now we come to it,” Peter stood and looked at Ian, “we have to add your consciousness to ours. There is no time to instruct you even if your brain is developed enough to comprehend what we mean.” Ian looked down and gripped Inara’s hand, thinking about what this would mean. Simon stood with his hand under his chin, while Book gripped his bible across his chest. Peter put his hand on Ian’s arm, “We have watched you from here for years now Ian. As our minds scanned this universe it became more apparent that you were uniquely suited for this task. There is a higher level of existence you would have to move to if you decide to help us, shedding this body that you have worked so hard to maintain.” Everyone turned their head to Ian on that last statement. Was this being saying what they thought he was? River spoke with a buoyant seriousness, “There will be no need for flesh in this battle Ian. Your mind will be free to hear the music I can hear.” “Wait one gorram minute here,” Mal thrust himself in again, “are you saying that Ian here would have to…” “…die, yes captain,” Peter said, then looked to River and shook his head, “Yes that’s the word.” Kaylee, who had stood by silent said loudly, “Hey, we can’t let them kill Ian. I mean, he’s a livin’ breathing man. You can’t just kill someone because you need them to die!” “Kaylee’s right captain. No one has that right,” Zoe walked closer. “We will not force Ian to do anything he doesn’t want to,” Peter said, “It is not our way.” Book seemed appalled, “Captain, murder is murder no matter the cause. We can’t let him do it.” Ian spoke out, “I would like to think about this more…” “Ian you can’t be serious in the least,” Inara snapped at him. “All life is precious captain,” Simon pleaded, “ I can’t condone taking a life…” “HOLD ON,” Mal yelled, “Aint nobody getting killed here! Everybody just hold on.” All eyes turned to Malcolm and all voices ceased. Ian looked down to Inara, Kaylee bit at her fingernail and Zoe looked to see what Mal was going to do. All that could be heard was the hum of Serenity’s powerplant. Peter looked at River who inhaled with terror, “HE’S HERE!” “Who’s here,” Mal asked hurriedly. Peter answered, “It is him of whom we spoke. He has found us.” Peter looked at Ian with longing, “Peter I am still not sure I am the one to..” “There is no other choice now,” Peter replied sadly, “now your universe and everything in it will be destroyed along with mine.” Simon was pleading, “Maybe there’s another way, perhaps we could…” The sound of the blast cut the doctor’s voice off. Inara would never forget the center of Ian’s chest exploding outward onto Peter’s suit. Reflexively, Inara looked upward and saw Ian’s face. There was no pain etched in his features, only confusion as he looked down to the gaping wound where his heart had been. The giant man fell in a crumpled heap. He looked at Inara with the last life in his body. His mouth moved as he tried to speak, but no words came. Inara saw in his eyes all Ian wanted to say. She went down to him and began crying, holding his hand tightly. Slowly, but without warning, his eyes lost focus and the grip loosened on her delicate hand. “NOOOO, IAN,” screamed Inara. Mal looked up to see Jayne holding his rifle, “Well I guess I made that call for him.”