How It All Ends 5/?
Dec. 4th, 2005 11:25 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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firefly_fanfic
Title: Signs of the End
Author: Jenny Dean
Rating: R for violence
Summary: An Alliance cruiser stumbles upon an abandoned Firefly Transport and tries to piece together the final hours before its end.
Disclaimer: I do not own Serenity or her crew.
Kaylee didn’t go straight to her bunk, as the captain ordered. She knew something was wrong and she couldn’t rest easy knowing that Serenity was in danger. She knew that the captain wouldn’t tell her anything and would just end up pulling rank and sending her back to her bunk. She knew that someone would tell her though, if she pursued enough. She didn’t have much time, but she made her way into Jayne’s bunk quick enough to catch him in the act of getting Vera ready for battle.
He took one look at her face, the stubbornness mixed with fear that was etched into her features, and gave in. He told her that something about that BUN tyen-shung duh ee-DWAY-RO on the monitor irked him, that he knew the type because he was one. Kaylee corrected him, saying that he used to be that type before he became part of Serenity’s family. Jayne smiled a true smile and, once he remembered the situation at hand, insisted that she stay with the Shepard in his bunk until this whole mess passed over. He also insisted that she take one of his best guns with her, just in case.
And she followed his advice to the end, even when the gunshots came.
“Shepard…what was that?” Her voice quivered suggesting she already knew the answer. The Shepard looked at her with fear in his eyes and quickly looked away, obviously wanting so much to tell her that it wasn’t what she thought it was. He cleared his throat and forced himself to look away from the top of his desk. He closed the Bible he had been glancing at in between his conversations with Kaylee and scooted his chair out to stand.
“That, Kaylee, is a sign of something very bad.” He moved to the floor and reached under the bed. Kaylee watched him in curiosity until he pulled out a steel box with a lock on it. He then reached under his shirt and lifted the small silver cross that he never took off. “Forgive me.” He whispered quietly before reaching into his pocket with his other hand to pull out a tiny silver key.
“Shepard?” Kaylee asked the unspoken question. The older man looked up at her and reached out to touch her arm in a comforting gesture.
“It will be alright Kaylee.” He reached down and inserted the key into the lock. Two clicks later the lid popped up, just enough for him to lift it, and underneath was something that both of the crewmembers were very familiar with, but for very different reasons.
The Shepard ran his hands over the cold steel of the gun and then looked up at the hatch leading to the corridor. “Did I ever tell you, Kaylee, that I fought in a war once?” He took the gun out and opened the chamber, noticing that it was not loaded. He looked up at Kaylee. She had scooted back on the Shepard’s bunk until she was against the wall and was hugging herself tightly. “I fought for a government agency before the civil war; we were a peacekeeping force then. There was a riot on a small moon; I believe it is now called Santho. Some of the settlers believed that their moon would be a much better place if they were to extinguish all of the lower class population. My battalion got there too late. They had exterminated hundreds of people in a matter of days.” He loaded the bullets into the gun, picking each one up one by one and sliding it into the chamber with steady fingers.
Kaylee watched him intently, hanging on his every word. There were tears forming in her eyes, both for the people in the Shepard’s story and for the crew of Serenity, who she feared for.
“There were women and men all over the roads. But what I remember most were the children. I remember thinking how innocent they were, how they had probably never committed a sin in their lives.” He looked up at her now, his eyes on her but his thoughts far away. Suddenly it seemed that he snapped back to reality, and looked up at Kaylee with a sad smile. “The next day, I told my superior that I had completed my time with the battalion and would be pursuing other interests.”
Kaylee sat forward, intrigued. “And they just let you go? Just like that?” Her eyes were wide in question. The Shepard shook his head and pushed the gun down into his belt.
“No. He didn’t let me do anything. I did what I had to do.” He smiled in remembrance. “But that was a long time ago, and I am a different person today.”
There was brief silence between them. It wasn’t tension filled though. It was almost peaceful, the calm before the storm.
“We should go check on them. What if they’re…” Kaylee brought them back to the present, filled with dread and fear. The Shepard didn’t respond at all, except to put his finger to his lips in a gesture of silence. A moment later Kaylee heard it too, the sound of faint footsteps clanking against Serenity’s steel floors. There were voices too, but they were too faint to make out. Shepard Book moved to the doorway and held his gun pointed and ready. Kaylee reached into her coveralls and grasped the gun hidden underneath. She hadn’t shown it to the Shepard; she hadn’t shown it to anybody. It was her personal safety and the cold metal against her fingers both frightened and calmed her at the same time.
Suddenly, the voices became clearer and formed a conversation.
“Stop, here’s as good a place as any to dump ‘em.” One male voice began.
“But Niska said to release them outside.” A smaller meeker voice responded.
“And we will, after we confiscate some of them medical supplies. Some of that stuff will sell for a pretty penny on the black market. Come on.”
Kaylee felt sick to her stomach when she heard the sound of two heavy loads being dropped on the floor outside. She looked over at the Shepard. His face was serious and he was poised for battle. The next order came in haste and caused the two crewmembers to falter in their stance.
“Hey, you two check out the passenger quarters. Remember, leave no one alive.”
Kaylee gripped the gun harder in her hands and felt herself turn pale. The Shepard seemed less confident but didn’t move from his place at the entrance.
“Come out come out wherever you are!” They heard one of the men shout down the corridor. This was followed by an evil sounding cackle and a moment later by a loud knocking. Kaylee and Book jumped back in response, but eventually realized that it was the door across from them that the men were knocking on. This didn’t provide much relief of course.
The gunshots that followed made Kaylee jump back and pull out the weapon she had been concealing until now. She aimed it shakily at the hatchway, ready to fire. When the Shepard saw this he moved from his place at the entrance and towards Kaylee. He didn’t mention the gun and, other then the look of surprise on his face, didn’t react to it at all. Considering the situation, there didn’t seem to be much point.
The next knock they heard was coming from outside of their own door.
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Tucker felt his hands shaking as he held his gun in position. He was standing next to Officer Rafferty outside of one of Serenity’s crew quarters. He stared at the sign posted on the door and tried not to think about whom it may belong to. The shape of the letters and the variations of color reminded him of something that a child would create. Of course he tried to keep that thought as far from his mind as possible. The first thing they taught you at the academy was that emotions and government work do not mix and should never be combined. Tucker remembered everything he learned at the academy and that was why he graduated at the top of his class.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a classroom. He was in the real world now, working on an alliance ship and scavenging old abandoned ships for survivors or whatever else might peak alliance interest. Today it didn’t look like there would be any survivors, a fact that would make most alliance officers happy hence there was less work involved. But Tucker couldn’t shake the feeling that these people were actually just that, people. His teachers had said the same thing about him, saying that he would make a perfect alliance officer if it weren’t for that annoying habit he had of putting faces to people. He had been trying really hard since then to shake that habit. And when Rafferty reached for the opening of the hatchway, Tucker shook his head and pushed the thoughts of people and children and families out of his mind for good.
Rafferty pulled open the door quickly and without hesitation. Tucker watched as he climbed down into the porthole, back to the ladder and face to the rest of the room. He held his gun out towards the open space of the room and searched the area. Tucker waited for him to drop down so that he could follow. He felt his impatience growing. He suddenly needed to witness this massacre; it was the only way he could ever detach himself enough to be like Rafferty and the general.
But the signal never came. In fact, it was Rafferty who came back up. Tucker looked at him in question.
“Nothing. There’s no blood or evidence of struggle.” The man seemed unfazed by this recent development. Tucker was confused and somewhat annoyed that he’d been led on.
“So, now what?” Tucker asked. Rafferty looked at him, eyes cold as steel.
“Now we move on.” He turned around, as quickly as the words were out of his mouth, and began to move forward. Rafferty seemed slightly embarrassed that he hadn’t been correct in his assumptions. Tucker just ignored the other man. He was busy feeling a mix of emotions run through him: anger, anxiety, anticipation, maybe even a hint of fear.
Tucker jumped when the generals voice came over their coms. Rafferty picked it up immediately, steady as ever.
“Rafferty here.” He replied. There was a moment of static before the general spoke again.
“You boys better get down here. We’ve got bodies.”
Tucker looked at Rafferty, who refused to meet his stare. Rafferty put the com back in his belt and gestured towards the stairwell they had come from.
“You heard the man. Let’s go.”
Author: Jenny Dean
Rating: R for violence
Summary: An Alliance cruiser stumbles upon an abandoned Firefly Transport and tries to piece together the final hours before its end.
Disclaimer: I do not own Serenity or her crew.
Kaylee didn’t go straight to her bunk, as the captain ordered. She knew something was wrong and she couldn’t rest easy knowing that Serenity was in danger. She knew that the captain wouldn’t tell her anything and would just end up pulling rank and sending her back to her bunk. She knew that someone would tell her though, if she pursued enough. She didn’t have much time, but she made her way into Jayne’s bunk quick enough to catch him in the act of getting Vera ready for battle.
He took one look at her face, the stubbornness mixed with fear that was etched into her features, and gave in. He told her that something about that BUN tyen-shung duh ee-DWAY-RO on the monitor irked him, that he knew the type because he was one. Kaylee corrected him, saying that he used to be that type before he became part of Serenity’s family. Jayne smiled a true smile and, once he remembered the situation at hand, insisted that she stay with the Shepard in his bunk until this whole mess passed over. He also insisted that she take one of his best guns with her, just in case.
And she followed his advice to the end, even when the gunshots came.
“Shepard…what was that?” Her voice quivered suggesting she already knew the answer. The Shepard looked at her with fear in his eyes and quickly looked away, obviously wanting so much to tell her that it wasn’t what she thought it was. He cleared his throat and forced himself to look away from the top of his desk. He closed the Bible he had been glancing at in between his conversations with Kaylee and scooted his chair out to stand.
“That, Kaylee, is a sign of something very bad.” He moved to the floor and reached under the bed. Kaylee watched him in curiosity until he pulled out a steel box with a lock on it. He then reached under his shirt and lifted the small silver cross that he never took off. “Forgive me.” He whispered quietly before reaching into his pocket with his other hand to pull out a tiny silver key.
“Shepard?” Kaylee asked the unspoken question. The older man looked up at her and reached out to touch her arm in a comforting gesture.
“It will be alright Kaylee.” He reached down and inserted the key into the lock. Two clicks later the lid popped up, just enough for him to lift it, and underneath was something that both of the crewmembers were very familiar with, but for very different reasons.
The Shepard ran his hands over the cold steel of the gun and then looked up at the hatch leading to the corridor. “Did I ever tell you, Kaylee, that I fought in a war once?” He took the gun out and opened the chamber, noticing that it was not loaded. He looked up at Kaylee. She had scooted back on the Shepard’s bunk until she was against the wall and was hugging herself tightly. “I fought for a government agency before the civil war; we were a peacekeeping force then. There was a riot on a small moon; I believe it is now called Santho. Some of the settlers believed that their moon would be a much better place if they were to extinguish all of the lower class population. My battalion got there too late. They had exterminated hundreds of people in a matter of days.” He loaded the bullets into the gun, picking each one up one by one and sliding it into the chamber with steady fingers.
Kaylee watched him intently, hanging on his every word. There were tears forming in her eyes, both for the people in the Shepard’s story and for the crew of Serenity, who she feared for.
“There were women and men all over the roads. But what I remember most were the children. I remember thinking how innocent they were, how they had probably never committed a sin in their lives.” He looked up at her now, his eyes on her but his thoughts far away. Suddenly it seemed that he snapped back to reality, and looked up at Kaylee with a sad smile. “The next day, I told my superior that I had completed my time with the battalion and would be pursuing other interests.”
Kaylee sat forward, intrigued. “And they just let you go? Just like that?” Her eyes were wide in question. The Shepard shook his head and pushed the gun down into his belt.
“No. He didn’t let me do anything. I did what I had to do.” He smiled in remembrance. “But that was a long time ago, and I am a different person today.”
There was brief silence between them. It wasn’t tension filled though. It was almost peaceful, the calm before the storm.
“We should go check on them. What if they’re…” Kaylee brought them back to the present, filled with dread and fear. The Shepard didn’t respond at all, except to put his finger to his lips in a gesture of silence. A moment later Kaylee heard it too, the sound of faint footsteps clanking against Serenity’s steel floors. There were voices too, but they were too faint to make out. Shepard Book moved to the doorway and held his gun pointed and ready. Kaylee reached into her coveralls and grasped the gun hidden underneath. She hadn’t shown it to the Shepard; she hadn’t shown it to anybody. It was her personal safety and the cold metal against her fingers both frightened and calmed her at the same time.
Suddenly, the voices became clearer and formed a conversation.
“Stop, here’s as good a place as any to dump ‘em.” One male voice began.
“But Niska said to release them outside.” A smaller meeker voice responded.
“And we will, after we confiscate some of them medical supplies. Some of that stuff will sell for a pretty penny on the black market. Come on.”
Kaylee felt sick to her stomach when she heard the sound of two heavy loads being dropped on the floor outside. She looked over at the Shepard. His face was serious and he was poised for battle. The next order came in haste and caused the two crewmembers to falter in their stance.
“Hey, you two check out the passenger quarters. Remember, leave no one alive.”
Kaylee gripped the gun harder in her hands and felt herself turn pale. The Shepard seemed less confident but didn’t move from his place at the entrance.
“Come out come out wherever you are!” They heard one of the men shout down the corridor. This was followed by an evil sounding cackle and a moment later by a loud knocking. Kaylee and Book jumped back in response, but eventually realized that it was the door across from them that the men were knocking on. This didn’t provide much relief of course.
The gunshots that followed made Kaylee jump back and pull out the weapon she had been concealing until now. She aimed it shakily at the hatchway, ready to fire. When the Shepard saw this he moved from his place at the entrance and towards Kaylee. He didn’t mention the gun and, other then the look of surprise on his face, didn’t react to it at all. Considering the situation, there didn’t seem to be much point.
The next knock they heard was coming from outside of their own door.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tucker felt his hands shaking as he held his gun in position. He was standing next to Officer Rafferty outside of one of Serenity’s crew quarters. He stared at the sign posted on the door and tried not to think about whom it may belong to. The shape of the letters and the variations of color reminded him of something that a child would create. Of course he tried to keep that thought as far from his mind as possible. The first thing they taught you at the academy was that emotions and government work do not mix and should never be combined. Tucker remembered everything he learned at the academy and that was why he graduated at the top of his class.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a classroom. He was in the real world now, working on an alliance ship and scavenging old abandoned ships for survivors or whatever else might peak alliance interest. Today it didn’t look like there would be any survivors, a fact that would make most alliance officers happy hence there was less work involved. But Tucker couldn’t shake the feeling that these people were actually just that, people. His teachers had said the same thing about him, saying that he would make a perfect alliance officer if it weren’t for that annoying habit he had of putting faces to people. He had been trying really hard since then to shake that habit. And when Rafferty reached for the opening of the hatchway, Tucker shook his head and pushed the thoughts of people and children and families out of his mind for good.
Rafferty pulled open the door quickly and without hesitation. Tucker watched as he climbed down into the porthole, back to the ladder and face to the rest of the room. He held his gun out towards the open space of the room and searched the area. Tucker waited for him to drop down so that he could follow. He felt his impatience growing. He suddenly needed to witness this massacre; it was the only way he could ever detach himself enough to be like Rafferty and the general.
But the signal never came. In fact, it was Rafferty who came back up. Tucker looked at him in question.
“Nothing. There’s no blood or evidence of struggle.” The man seemed unfazed by this recent development. Tucker was confused and somewhat annoyed that he’d been led on.
“So, now what?” Tucker asked. Rafferty looked at him, eyes cold as steel.
“Now we move on.” He turned around, as quickly as the words were out of his mouth, and began to move forward. Rafferty seemed slightly embarrassed that he hadn’t been correct in his assumptions. Tucker just ignored the other man. He was busy feeling a mix of emotions run through him: anger, anxiety, anticipation, maybe even a hint of fear.
Tucker jumped when the generals voice came over their coms. Rafferty picked it up immediately, steady as ever.
“Rafferty here.” He replied. There was a moment of static before the general spoke again.
“You boys better get down here. We’ve got bodies.”
Tucker looked at Rafferty, who refused to meet his stare. Rafferty put the com back in his belt and gestured towards the stairwell they had come from.
“You heard the man. Let’s go.”
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-04 07:58 pm (UTC)The part with Kaylee and Shepherd Book... Brrr, creepy. Scary. I love the sense of them just sitting there, waiting for what must be inevitable death, and especially the way you bring out Kaylee's very real fear. She's not a fighter and she's not pretending to be. It's normal to be scared like this. Love it.
Also, very interesting backstory on Book. "Sin", that's a word that carries meaning for him. Beautiful.
Looking forward to the next part!!