Fic: The Raggedy Edge (3/9)
Title: The Raggedy Edge
Author: Annerb
Summary: During a rescue mission gone awry, Sam and Jack end up stranded in another galaxy where they find themselves passengers on a ship called Serenity.
Wordcount: 40,000+
Rating/Warnings: Older teens for swearing in multiple languages, violence, torture, and such.
Categorization: SG-1/Firefly Crossover, AU, Action/Adventure, Drama
Pairings: BOB. Sam/Jack established relationship, hints of Daniel/Vala, Kaylee/Simon, Mal/Inara, and Jayne/Everyone (at least in his mind).
Season: Post-BDM for Firefly, early season 9 for SG-1
The Bargain
Zoe was waiting in the mess when the Captain brought the woman, Sam, in. His jaw was set with annoyance and Sam didn’t look much better pleased herself, despite her obvious relief that her man would be just fine as soon as he decided to stop trying to kill everyone.
He gestured for Sam to sit at the table and she did after a short hesitation that Zoe suspected was born more of stubbornness than any fear on her part.
Zoe stepped up to the woman, holding out a hand to her. “Zoe.”
Sam looked surprised by the offer, but didn’t hesitate to shake her hand, saying, “Sam.”
Zoe always thought you could learn a lot about a person from a handshake. All she got out of Sam’s was that it was a little too perfect. Not too weak, not too firm, her hand hovering perfectly at dry and warm. This only made Zoe more suspicious. It was too perfect not to be practiced. Like everything else about this woman, it said she was hiding something.
Zoe dropped her hand and pulled a chair out on the end of the table, settling in to watch as the Captain laid out the plan.
“So what exactly is it that you want me to do?” Sam asked.
“Well, my crew and I specialize in retrieval,” he said, “and this particular job requires a special brand of discreetness that is above and beyond our normal range of skills.”
“Why don’t we just drop the bullshit,” Sam said, leaning forward over the table. “You’re thieves.”
“Prefer to think of myself as a business man,” the Captain said, his voice still congenial, but his eyes hard. “I provide valuable services to them that need it.”
“To other criminals,” Sam said, disapproval clear in her voice. Zoe wasn’t quite sure what had happened between these two to create such open hostility, just wondered if the woman would be smart enough to figure out when to keep her mouth shut.
The Captain leaned into Sam. “You might want to crawl down off that high horse of yours long enough to think about what few options are open to you and yours. And no matter what you think of us, we saved his damn life.”
Sam’s face flushed, her jaw tightening. She eventually dropped his gaze, looking down at the table and folding her hands together as if fighting to keep her temper.
“You can think of me whatever you want,” he continued, “but if you do anything to endanger this crew-.”
“I get it,” Sam said, holding up her hands. Looking up to meet his eyes, she repeated it. “I get it. Just tell me what you want me to do.”
The Captain and Zoe exchanged a glance. At his nod she retrieved the schematic print outs and put them on the table in front of Sam. Her eyes widened, looking over the pages with something like deep-seated thirst.
“It’s a prison,” Sam said after a moment, curiosity replacing hostility. “Trying to break out some friends?” Zoe caught her slight wince after the words left her mouth, probably angry at herself for goading him again so soon, but as Zoe expected, the Captain just smiled.
“Ain’t the prisoners we’re interested in,” he said. “Out here, Alliance detention centers are about as close to a bank as one can get.”
“Ah,” Sam said. “Money.” It might be Zoe’s imagination, but Sam seemed relieved. What exactly had she expected of them?
He nodded. “Also valuables, information, rare items, and such.”
That clearly caught Sam’s attention, something in her posture shifting. “And this is an Alliance facility,” she repeated. Her voice was mild at best and Zoe and the Captain shared another glance.
“That gonna be an issue?” he asked.
Sam’s face took on a bland expression as she shrugged. “I certainly don’t have fuzzy feelings for the Alliance if that’s what you mean.”
The woman was clearly hiding something again. That being said, Zoe was fairly certain these two stragglers were not working for the Alliance. They were in no way straight-laced nor ruthless enough. Not to mention Sam was nowhere near good enough at lying. An Agent could look you straight in the face and make you believe he was your long lost mother.
The Captain seemed to have come to the same conclusion, deciding to push on with the job. “Now our problem is that we need help getting around the security system. Nothing else quite like it this far out.”
That was an understatement, Zoe knew. There was nothing quite like this security system anywhere in the system, inner planets or not. Which was what made this job so appealing and so risky. If they could pull it off, they’d be set for a long spell, earn them some breathing space.
“We managed to get these specs,” he said, gesturing at the pages Sam was still staring down at like a woman dying of thirst. “This is what we were assuming you could help us with, but seeing as how you are just a simple homesteader…” He reached to drag the specs away from her.
Sam’s hands curled into fists as if forcing herself not to show her desperation. She took her time, leaning back in her chair. Zoe got the feeling that despite her calm exterior, the woman’s mind was firing full spread. After a long moment she folded her arms across her chest. “Who says a farmer can’t have picked up a few other skills here and there?”
A slow grin spread across the Captain’s face. This was exactly what he wanted to hear. “Lucky for you.”
“Lucky for us both, I’d say.” Sam reached for the specs, pulling them back across the table and the Captain didn’t stop her.
They watched her flip back and forth through the pages for a while and Zoe tried to find comfort in the obvious competence of the motions, the sharp intelligence revealed in the woman’s eyes as she stared down at the pile of numbers and lines.
“So we got a deal, then?” he asked.
Sam stilled, her eyes no longer focused on the pages in front of her, but rather staring at some point just past them. “Not a simple thing to do,” she noted, her voice casual once more.
The Captain’s shoulders tensed. “Neither was saving your man, but we managed.”
“True,” Sam said with a slow nod. “But I still think we deserve a little compensation for such a risky venture. The Alliance has long arms.”
Despite her words, Zoe suspected the woman didn’t actually give a damn about payment. The Captain already looked more relaxed in the face of the demand though. Greed was something he understood, something safe and predictable and Zoe suspected Sam was more than aware of that.
There was a hell of a lot more to this woman then she was letting on, which only meant Zoe would be sure to keep an even closer eye on her. There was just something about all of this that she did not like, no matter how much they needed the job.
“We’ll discuss it,” the Captain eventually said, compromising on the issue of payment.
Sam nodded, her attention already back on the schematics. “And I’ll start studying.”
The Captain caught Zoe’s eye and canted his head towards the hall. She followed him out. “You think she’ll really be able to help us, sir?”
His lips pressed together. “I think we’re just gonna have to trust River with this one.”
Yes, because River was the steadiest in the bunch.
“I’m going to check in on her man,” he said. “Make sure he’s not aimin’ to cause us any more trouble. I want you to keep her here.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Later you can set her up with quarters. A rest and some soap will probably do her a world of good.”
Zoe spent a couple long hours watching the woman work, but didn’t find any more clues. Deciding she’d given the Captain more than enough time to corner the man, Zoe went down to her quarters just long enough to grab a spare set of clothes. Sam seemed to be about the same size.
“I’ll take you to your quarters,” Zoe said.
Sam followed obediently enough, but Zoe didn’t miss the way her eyes were methodically moving about the ship as they went, as if memorizing the layout. The Captain had decided to put their guests in quarters near the infirmary. Central enough to keep an eye on, but easily isolated from essential systems.
Zoe nodded at the sliding door. “You’ll be staying here. The facilities are just down the hall.”
“Okay,” Sam said.
“Here,” Zoe said, shoving the stack of clothing in her arms. “These should fit.”
There was a flash of something on Sam’s face as she took the bundle, something far different from the suspicion or sharp intelligence that Zoe’d seen before. It was softer, maybe, but gone just as quickly, and Zoe wondered if that had just been a flash of the real woman underneath all the posturing.
Zoe stretched out a hand to the door, stopping Sam from pulling it open. “Can you really do what you say?”
Sam looked down at the papers in her hand before looking back up at her. “Yes,” she said, holding Zoe’s gaze unwaveringly.
“Good,” Zoe said with a nod. “Because if you’re lying to us and one of mine gets hurt, I will be the one to make sure there’s payment.” As far as threats went, it was pretty straight forward, but Zoe didn’t want there to be any room for misunderstanding.
Sam didn’t appear offended, instead something in her face shifting, a sort of hard determination in her eyes. “I understand,” she said. “More than you know.”
Zoe nodded. “Okay then.” She moved her hand from the door.
Sam pulled the door open, pausing to look back over her shoulder. “Thank you for the clothes.”
Zoe waited until Sam disappeared into the room before heading toward her own bunk to catch a few hours rest. She would relieve Jayne of his watch over the strangers then. Despite her intention though, she simply stared up at the ceiling, sleep eluding her. Her head was full of the day’s events, all of them leaving Zoe with an uncomfortable thought: she had a really bad feeling about this job.
Then again, for Serenity, that was just business as usual.
She closed her eyes.
+++
Jack was lying on a low futon in what Mal had informed him were ‘guest’ quarters, despite the exterior lock on the door that belied it. Undoubtedly the Captain thought his people would be safer with him locked up in here. The Doc had argued the move, but as Mal had a stubborn look to him and Jack didn’t harbor much love for infirmaries to begin with, Jack had reluctantly been released and left to his own devices.
Not that he doubted Jayne was sitting somewhere nearby, small arsenal strapped to his body.
Beyond all that though, the room was probably the most hygienic Jack had been in for months. They’d slept in some grubby damn places recently, from mucky barns to tiny closet-like hovels over the back of loud, skanky bars.
Good, calm moments were few and far between since he and Sam ended up stranded in this freak show of a galaxy.
He remembered one night they’d spent out in the trees near a small trade town. There’d been some sort of festival that night, a large bonfire in the street and music and dancing until the wee hours of the night. They’d slept out in the open that warm spring night, the sound of the party filtering in through the trees, the grass cool and springy beneath their bodies. She’d laughed a lot that night, he remembered, her lengthening hair catching flashes of firelight.
It was a good memory, but one marred by the long, dirty months since, their dwindling hope, and the damn painful reminder of just how close he’d come to dying out in the mud.
Then again, Jack thought he could probably blame his foul mood on the fairly insane conversation he’d just had with the Captain of this boat, and the devil’s pact Sam seemed to have made to save his life. It was also possible the pain in his side was ruining his mood. Not being able to have painkillers in fear of going on a killing spree would make anyone grumpy, right?
All of which simply meant he’d been stewing in his own juices for almost an hour when Sam finally showed up.
She backed into the room, apparently talking to someone in the hall. She didn’t turn until she’d pulled the door shut again. “Hey,” she said, looking surprised to see him. “Should you be in here?”
Jack shrugged. “I’m not really bleeding anymore.”
She still looked skeptical. Apparently that wasn't as reassuring as he intended.
“I guess Mal figured if I went crazy again, you’d be the first one I went after.”
“Mal?” Sam echoed, as if surprised to hear him speak so familiarly of their dear Captain.
Jack’s fingers twisted in the sheet covering his legs. “Yes. Mal,” he said, struggling to keep his voice even. “He came by and we had a real friendly chat. You know, now that you’ve promised to help them rob a bank."
“It’s a prison,” she corrected, as if that actually made a difference.
“Oh, well, that’s much better,” Jack snapped, abandoning any hope of keeping his temper. "Have you completely lost your mind?”
“I suppose letting you bleed to death would have been preferable,” she said, her voice dangerously low, but still aggravatingly unconcerned.
“Dammit, Sam,” he barked. “This is about keeping your head on straight and not making stupid, irrational decisions just because you’re panicked.”
Sam’s back was to him, but he could see the way she went completely still at his words, the kind of stillness that didn't bode well for anyone within a mile radius. She took a careful breath, releasing it slowly. “You’re severely injured on an unfamiliar ship and we both know how much you hate being out of control, so I think I’ll do my best to pretend you didn’t just say that to me.”
Shit. Jack let his head drop back to the pillow with a muffled thud. Rubbing his hand over his face, he mumbled, “I don’t even have a weapon.”
Pulling a zat out from under her skirt, she crossed the room to hand it to him. “Better?”
“Much,” Jack said, sliding it under his pillow. “Though I can’t believe they didn’t search you.”
“Hey, I’m not the one running around trying to kill people,” she said.
“Sam-.”
She cut across him. “I’m going to get cleaned up.” She disappeared out the door.
"Nice one, O'Neill," he muttered to himself.
Sam didn’t return to the room for the better part of an hour, during which Jack did his best to quash his anger, knowing far too well that none of this was her fault. He knew that in her position, he would have done a hell of a lot more than rob a bank to save her life.
“Wow. I barely recognized you without all the mud,” he quipped as she entered the room, testing out her mood.
She didn’t smile as he might have hoped, but her voice was at least congenial when she spoke. “They have an honest to God shower,” she remarked. Jack couldn’t even remember the last time he stood under clean, warm, streaming water.
Come to think of it, this was the first time Jack had seen Sam freshly showered and wearing clothes that didn’t try to swallow her whole in weeks. He looked her over, letting his eyes linger on the snug pants. Nice.
“Are you done?” she asked, not even bothering to look at him to confirm her suspicions that he was ogling her. Was he that predictable?
“Almost,” he said, craning his neck. “I don’t suppose you’d turn around real slow for me…”
Rolling her eyes, she ignored him, crossing the room to slide the door closed. There were two low futon-like pallets on either side of the room and Sam dragged hers across the floor next to Jack’s without comment. He’d be warmed by the gesture if he didn’t think she was probably more concerned about putting herself between him and whoever might come through the door as they slept.
She sat down cross-legged on the bed, her back to him as she pulled out folded sheets of paper he didn’t recognize. Occasionally she jotted down a few sentences in her carefully rationed notebook that she'd made a practice of never letting out of her possession for even a moment. They never knew when they would have to jump ship without notice.
He watched the stiff profile of her back for a while, until he couldn’t stand it anymore. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m an ass.”
“Yes, you are,” she agreed, not turning around to look at him. “But I knew that going in.”
Not exactly a gracious acceptance of his apology, but he’d take it. The chances for make-up sex weren’t looking good anyway, not with this damn hole in his side.
“Sam,” he sing-songed, reaching up to tug at the end of her ponytail.
He didn’t have to see to know she rolled her eyes, but she also sighed in defeat, turning slightly so he could see what she was working on.
“It’s Ancient,” she said, her voice low. “The security system in the prison.”
“What?” he said, a little thrown by the abrupt change in topic. He was still intently watching the nice gap in her shirt.
“Well, not actually of Ancient design, but some sort of hybrid with standard Alliance technology and code.”
Jack frowned, his mind catching up with her words. “And what made Mal think you could help them with Ancient technology?”
Sam opened her mouth and hesitated, throwing him a look that he knew meant she was about to say something he was going to have a problem with. “It’s the girl. River.”
Right. The creepy chick from the infirmary. “What the hell’s up with her anyway? She’s a bit…” He waved vaguely at his head.
She shifted her papers, not looking at him. “Kaylee, the engineer, says she’s telepathic.”
Jack felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. You’re so quiet, it’s like you’re not even here.
“Excuse me?” he said.
“A reader, as Kaylee called it.”
There was no way he should believe that, but damn if he didn’t. “No shit. Really?”
Sam shrugged, spreading out a sheet of schematics on the bed between them. “She knew I could help with the security system somehow. And then it turns out that it’s based on Ancient tech? I mean, what are the chances?”
They hadn’t spent much time discussing how a Chinese wild west show ended up in a neighboring galaxy, but looking at the specs, the question forced itself to the forefront again.
“This is weird, right?” Jack asked.
Sam’s eyes were a little wide when she answered. “Definitely.”
“Just checkin’.”
Sam made a notation in her book and rubbed at her forehead. “On the plus side, I think I might be able to get into that Alliance database cortex thing while we are there.”
Jack perked up at that. “Really?” They’ve been trying to find a way to get into the Alliance mainframe ever since they got here, looking for some trace of Daniel, some trail to follow.
“I don’t know,” she admitted, the stiffness returning to her back. She was back to looking defensive as hell, and he knew that was his fault. “But it’s a worth a shot, right?”
“Sam,” he said, touching her arm.
“What?” She turned to look at him.
He hated that he was leaving her to do this alone. Hated that he was stuck in this bed with a hole in his gut while she was forced to traverse the minefield that was this damn peculiar ship and its crew all on her own.
He didn’t have to say any of that though and, not for the first time, he wondered if there wasn’t maybe a little bit of reader in Sam as well. She folded the schematics, putting them carefully on the floor before sliding back across the bed, lying next to him, her head perched on his shoulder.
“I can do this,” she said, lacing her fingers with his. “All you need to worry about it getting better.”
He believed her. So he breathed in her clean scent and willed himself to relax, willed himself to forget that nothing at all was going their way.
“Tell me about the layout of the ship,” he said.
+++
Jayne looked up from polishing Vera to glare at the Doc and the stranger, who seemed to be taking their sweet ass time with today’s check-up. Looking at Simon, one would be hard pressed to guess that his patient had tried to skewer him only three days before. Jayne still thought they’d have been better off letting him bleed.
And that had nothing to do with the blond who seemed to have eyes only for studying and the man. Old man.
"There's something off about these two," Jayne grumbled.
Kaylee rolled her eyes. "You think that about any woman who don't automatically jump at the chance to share your bunk."
Jayne shrugged. Seemed a valid enough reason to him. “I’d think you’d be a bit more out of sorts that he almost slit your pretty boy’s throat.”
“Simon said he didn’t mean it none. It was the meds.”
In Jayne’s mind, that was just another reason for suspicion. “We’ve all had a shot or two of the Doc’s meds, and we ain’t turned on each other yet.”
Kaylee slid him a sideways glance and Jayne had the grace to look away. So maybe he’d tried to get River and Simon off this boat more than once, but he still thought himself justified. They had ended up getting some of them killed in the end after all, hadn’t they?
But that kind of thinking only raised Book and Wash in his mind and he’d had enough of seeing Kaylee’s eyes filled with tears so he kept it to himself.
Simon and Jack came out of the infirmary then, and it was true that the stranger was looking better, not so much like a feather might knock him on his ass. Jayne didn’t find that particularly comforting.
“Back in you go, then,” Jayne said, shooing the man towards his room.
Jack shot him an annoyed glance, but didn’t put up much of a fight, gingerly walking into the room. Jayne flipped the lock shut; glad to be done with the insanely boring job of making sure Jack didn’t cut anyone up. Especially since the guy didn’t seem inclined to give Jayne any reason to use force himself and wasn’t that a disappointment.
Passing through the mess, Jayne saw Zoe leaning against a wall watching the woman at work, as she had been continuously for the last three days. He glanced at the pages as he passed, thinking it was unnatural, the way incomprehensible mumbo jumbo flowed out of her pen, sucking all her attention. Like she didn’t have blood in her veins like normal folks.
Shaking his head, Jayne passed through to the bridge, thankful not to find Mal there. Only River sat at the controls. She didn’t look up as he entered so he gladly ignored her in exchange.
Linking up to the Cortex, Jayne scrolled through the fugitive lists, seeing more than one familiar name flash past. The damn list seemed endless though. There had to be a quicker way to do this.
“What the hell was it that he called her when he went all crazy?” he grumbled to himself.
“Carter.” Jayne looked up at River. She was still staring straight ahead out into the black, one hand on the controls, the other fiddling with one of Wash’s dinos. “A traveler in the sun, a listener.”
“What?” Jayne asked.
“Samantha Carter,” she said, piercing him with one of those gazes that seemed to shout he was being thick somehow, when it was perfectly plain she was just fong luh.
When she didn’t say anything further, Jayne entered ‘Samantha Carter’ into the Cortex and a moment later there she was, hair shorter, face cleaner, but definitely her, with her whack job man sitting right there next to her.
“One thousand credits,” he read underneath.
It seemed things were finally going Jayne’s way.
Hallelujah.
:: next::
Author: Annerb
Summary: During a rescue mission gone awry, Sam and Jack end up stranded in another galaxy where they find themselves passengers on a ship called Serenity.
Wordcount: 40,000+
Rating/Warnings: Older teens for swearing in multiple languages, violence, torture, and such.
Categorization: SG-1/Firefly Crossover, AU, Action/Adventure, Drama
Pairings: BOB. Sam/Jack established relationship, hints of Daniel/Vala, Kaylee/Simon, Mal/Inara, and Jayne/Everyone (at least in his mind).
Season: Post-BDM for Firefly, early season 9 for SG-1
The Bargain
Zoe was waiting in the mess when the Captain brought the woman, Sam, in. His jaw was set with annoyance and Sam didn’t look much better pleased herself, despite her obvious relief that her man would be just fine as soon as he decided to stop trying to kill everyone.
He gestured for Sam to sit at the table and she did after a short hesitation that Zoe suspected was born more of stubbornness than any fear on her part.
Zoe stepped up to the woman, holding out a hand to her. “Zoe.”
Sam looked surprised by the offer, but didn’t hesitate to shake her hand, saying, “Sam.”
Zoe always thought you could learn a lot about a person from a handshake. All she got out of Sam’s was that it was a little too perfect. Not too weak, not too firm, her hand hovering perfectly at dry and warm. This only made Zoe more suspicious. It was too perfect not to be practiced. Like everything else about this woman, it said she was hiding something.
Zoe dropped her hand and pulled a chair out on the end of the table, settling in to watch as the Captain laid out the plan.
“So what exactly is it that you want me to do?” Sam asked.
“Well, my crew and I specialize in retrieval,” he said, “and this particular job requires a special brand of discreetness that is above and beyond our normal range of skills.”
“Why don’t we just drop the bullshit,” Sam said, leaning forward over the table. “You’re thieves.”
“Prefer to think of myself as a business man,” the Captain said, his voice still congenial, but his eyes hard. “I provide valuable services to them that need it.”
“To other criminals,” Sam said, disapproval clear in her voice. Zoe wasn’t quite sure what had happened between these two to create such open hostility, just wondered if the woman would be smart enough to figure out when to keep her mouth shut.
The Captain leaned into Sam. “You might want to crawl down off that high horse of yours long enough to think about what few options are open to you and yours. And no matter what you think of us, we saved his damn life.”
Sam’s face flushed, her jaw tightening. She eventually dropped his gaze, looking down at the table and folding her hands together as if fighting to keep her temper.
“You can think of me whatever you want,” he continued, “but if you do anything to endanger this crew-.”
“I get it,” Sam said, holding up her hands. Looking up to meet his eyes, she repeated it. “I get it. Just tell me what you want me to do.”
The Captain and Zoe exchanged a glance. At his nod she retrieved the schematic print outs and put them on the table in front of Sam. Her eyes widened, looking over the pages with something like deep-seated thirst.
“It’s a prison,” Sam said after a moment, curiosity replacing hostility. “Trying to break out some friends?” Zoe caught her slight wince after the words left her mouth, probably angry at herself for goading him again so soon, but as Zoe expected, the Captain just smiled.
“Ain’t the prisoners we’re interested in,” he said. “Out here, Alliance detention centers are about as close to a bank as one can get.”
“Ah,” Sam said. “Money.” It might be Zoe’s imagination, but Sam seemed relieved. What exactly had she expected of them?
He nodded. “Also valuables, information, rare items, and such.”
That clearly caught Sam’s attention, something in her posture shifting. “And this is an Alliance facility,” she repeated. Her voice was mild at best and Zoe and the Captain shared another glance.
“That gonna be an issue?” he asked.
Sam’s face took on a bland expression as she shrugged. “I certainly don’t have fuzzy feelings for the Alliance if that’s what you mean.”
The woman was clearly hiding something again. That being said, Zoe was fairly certain these two stragglers were not working for the Alliance. They were in no way straight-laced nor ruthless enough. Not to mention Sam was nowhere near good enough at lying. An Agent could look you straight in the face and make you believe he was your long lost mother.
The Captain seemed to have come to the same conclusion, deciding to push on with the job. “Now our problem is that we need help getting around the security system. Nothing else quite like it this far out.”
That was an understatement, Zoe knew. There was nothing quite like this security system anywhere in the system, inner planets or not. Which was what made this job so appealing and so risky. If they could pull it off, they’d be set for a long spell, earn them some breathing space.
“We managed to get these specs,” he said, gesturing at the pages Sam was still staring down at like a woman dying of thirst. “This is what we were assuming you could help us with, but seeing as how you are just a simple homesteader…” He reached to drag the specs away from her.
Sam’s hands curled into fists as if forcing herself not to show her desperation. She took her time, leaning back in her chair. Zoe got the feeling that despite her calm exterior, the woman’s mind was firing full spread. After a long moment she folded her arms across her chest. “Who says a farmer can’t have picked up a few other skills here and there?”
A slow grin spread across the Captain’s face. This was exactly what he wanted to hear. “Lucky for you.”
“Lucky for us both, I’d say.” Sam reached for the specs, pulling them back across the table and the Captain didn’t stop her.
They watched her flip back and forth through the pages for a while and Zoe tried to find comfort in the obvious competence of the motions, the sharp intelligence revealed in the woman’s eyes as she stared down at the pile of numbers and lines.
“So we got a deal, then?” he asked.
Sam stilled, her eyes no longer focused on the pages in front of her, but rather staring at some point just past them. “Not a simple thing to do,” she noted, her voice casual once more.
The Captain’s shoulders tensed. “Neither was saving your man, but we managed.”
“True,” Sam said with a slow nod. “But I still think we deserve a little compensation for such a risky venture. The Alliance has long arms.”
Despite her words, Zoe suspected the woman didn’t actually give a damn about payment. The Captain already looked more relaxed in the face of the demand though. Greed was something he understood, something safe and predictable and Zoe suspected Sam was more than aware of that.
There was a hell of a lot more to this woman then she was letting on, which only meant Zoe would be sure to keep an even closer eye on her. There was just something about all of this that she did not like, no matter how much they needed the job.
“We’ll discuss it,” the Captain eventually said, compromising on the issue of payment.
Sam nodded, her attention already back on the schematics. “And I’ll start studying.”
The Captain caught Zoe’s eye and canted his head towards the hall. She followed him out. “You think she’ll really be able to help us, sir?”
His lips pressed together. “I think we’re just gonna have to trust River with this one.”
Yes, because River was the steadiest in the bunch.
“I’m going to check in on her man,” he said. “Make sure he’s not aimin’ to cause us any more trouble. I want you to keep her here.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Later you can set her up with quarters. A rest and some soap will probably do her a world of good.”
Zoe spent a couple long hours watching the woman work, but didn’t find any more clues. Deciding she’d given the Captain more than enough time to corner the man, Zoe went down to her quarters just long enough to grab a spare set of clothes. Sam seemed to be about the same size.
“I’ll take you to your quarters,” Zoe said.
Sam followed obediently enough, but Zoe didn’t miss the way her eyes were methodically moving about the ship as they went, as if memorizing the layout. The Captain had decided to put their guests in quarters near the infirmary. Central enough to keep an eye on, but easily isolated from essential systems.
Zoe nodded at the sliding door. “You’ll be staying here. The facilities are just down the hall.”
“Okay,” Sam said.
“Here,” Zoe said, shoving the stack of clothing in her arms. “These should fit.”
There was a flash of something on Sam’s face as she took the bundle, something far different from the suspicion or sharp intelligence that Zoe’d seen before. It was softer, maybe, but gone just as quickly, and Zoe wondered if that had just been a flash of the real woman underneath all the posturing.
Zoe stretched out a hand to the door, stopping Sam from pulling it open. “Can you really do what you say?”
Sam looked down at the papers in her hand before looking back up at her. “Yes,” she said, holding Zoe’s gaze unwaveringly.
“Good,” Zoe said with a nod. “Because if you’re lying to us and one of mine gets hurt, I will be the one to make sure there’s payment.” As far as threats went, it was pretty straight forward, but Zoe didn’t want there to be any room for misunderstanding.
Sam didn’t appear offended, instead something in her face shifting, a sort of hard determination in her eyes. “I understand,” she said. “More than you know.”
Zoe nodded. “Okay then.” She moved her hand from the door.
Sam pulled the door open, pausing to look back over her shoulder. “Thank you for the clothes.”
Zoe waited until Sam disappeared into the room before heading toward her own bunk to catch a few hours rest. She would relieve Jayne of his watch over the strangers then. Despite her intention though, she simply stared up at the ceiling, sleep eluding her. Her head was full of the day’s events, all of them leaving Zoe with an uncomfortable thought: she had a really bad feeling about this job.
Then again, for Serenity, that was just business as usual.
She closed her eyes.
+++
Jack was lying on a low futon in what Mal had informed him were ‘guest’ quarters, despite the exterior lock on the door that belied it. Undoubtedly the Captain thought his people would be safer with him locked up in here. The Doc had argued the move, but as Mal had a stubborn look to him and Jack didn’t harbor much love for infirmaries to begin with, Jack had reluctantly been released and left to his own devices.
Not that he doubted Jayne was sitting somewhere nearby, small arsenal strapped to his body.
Beyond all that though, the room was probably the most hygienic Jack had been in for months. They’d slept in some grubby damn places recently, from mucky barns to tiny closet-like hovels over the back of loud, skanky bars.
Good, calm moments were few and far between since he and Sam ended up stranded in this freak show of a galaxy.
He remembered one night they’d spent out in the trees near a small trade town. There’d been some sort of festival that night, a large bonfire in the street and music and dancing until the wee hours of the night. They’d slept out in the open that warm spring night, the sound of the party filtering in through the trees, the grass cool and springy beneath their bodies. She’d laughed a lot that night, he remembered, her lengthening hair catching flashes of firelight.
It was a good memory, but one marred by the long, dirty months since, their dwindling hope, and the damn painful reminder of just how close he’d come to dying out in the mud.
Then again, Jack thought he could probably blame his foul mood on the fairly insane conversation he’d just had with the Captain of this boat, and the devil’s pact Sam seemed to have made to save his life. It was also possible the pain in his side was ruining his mood. Not being able to have painkillers in fear of going on a killing spree would make anyone grumpy, right?
All of which simply meant he’d been stewing in his own juices for almost an hour when Sam finally showed up.
She backed into the room, apparently talking to someone in the hall. She didn’t turn until she’d pulled the door shut again. “Hey,” she said, looking surprised to see him. “Should you be in here?”
Jack shrugged. “I’m not really bleeding anymore.”
She still looked skeptical. Apparently that wasn't as reassuring as he intended.
“I guess Mal figured if I went crazy again, you’d be the first one I went after.”
“Mal?” Sam echoed, as if surprised to hear him speak so familiarly of their dear Captain.
Jack’s fingers twisted in the sheet covering his legs. “Yes. Mal,” he said, struggling to keep his voice even. “He came by and we had a real friendly chat. You know, now that you’ve promised to help them rob a bank."
“It’s a prison,” she corrected, as if that actually made a difference.
“Oh, well, that’s much better,” Jack snapped, abandoning any hope of keeping his temper. "Have you completely lost your mind?”
“I suppose letting you bleed to death would have been preferable,” she said, her voice dangerously low, but still aggravatingly unconcerned.
“Dammit, Sam,” he barked. “This is about keeping your head on straight and not making stupid, irrational decisions just because you’re panicked.”
Sam’s back was to him, but he could see the way she went completely still at his words, the kind of stillness that didn't bode well for anyone within a mile radius. She took a careful breath, releasing it slowly. “You’re severely injured on an unfamiliar ship and we both know how much you hate being out of control, so I think I’ll do my best to pretend you didn’t just say that to me.”
Shit. Jack let his head drop back to the pillow with a muffled thud. Rubbing his hand over his face, he mumbled, “I don’t even have a weapon.”
Pulling a zat out from under her skirt, she crossed the room to hand it to him. “Better?”
“Much,” Jack said, sliding it under his pillow. “Though I can’t believe they didn’t search you.”
“Hey, I’m not the one running around trying to kill people,” she said.
“Sam-.”
She cut across him. “I’m going to get cleaned up.” She disappeared out the door.
"Nice one, O'Neill," he muttered to himself.
Sam didn’t return to the room for the better part of an hour, during which Jack did his best to quash his anger, knowing far too well that none of this was her fault. He knew that in her position, he would have done a hell of a lot more than rob a bank to save her life.
“Wow. I barely recognized you without all the mud,” he quipped as she entered the room, testing out her mood.
She didn’t smile as he might have hoped, but her voice was at least congenial when she spoke. “They have an honest to God shower,” she remarked. Jack couldn’t even remember the last time he stood under clean, warm, streaming water.
Come to think of it, this was the first time Jack had seen Sam freshly showered and wearing clothes that didn’t try to swallow her whole in weeks. He looked her over, letting his eyes linger on the snug pants. Nice.
“Are you done?” she asked, not even bothering to look at him to confirm her suspicions that he was ogling her. Was he that predictable?
“Almost,” he said, craning his neck. “I don’t suppose you’d turn around real slow for me…”
Rolling her eyes, she ignored him, crossing the room to slide the door closed. There were two low futon-like pallets on either side of the room and Sam dragged hers across the floor next to Jack’s without comment. He’d be warmed by the gesture if he didn’t think she was probably more concerned about putting herself between him and whoever might come through the door as they slept.
She sat down cross-legged on the bed, her back to him as she pulled out folded sheets of paper he didn’t recognize. Occasionally she jotted down a few sentences in her carefully rationed notebook that she'd made a practice of never letting out of her possession for even a moment. They never knew when they would have to jump ship without notice.
He watched the stiff profile of her back for a while, until he couldn’t stand it anymore. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m an ass.”
“Yes, you are,” she agreed, not turning around to look at him. “But I knew that going in.”
Not exactly a gracious acceptance of his apology, but he’d take it. The chances for make-up sex weren’t looking good anyway, not with this damn hole in his side.
“Sam,” he sing-songed, reaching up to tug at the end of her ponytail.
He didn’t have to see to know she rolled her eyes, but she also sighed in defeat, turning slightly so he could see what she was working on.
“It’s Ancient,” she said, her voice low. “The security system in the prison.”
“What?” he said, a little thrown by the abrupt change in topic. He was still intently watching the nice gap in her shirt.
“Well, not actually of Ancient design, but some sort of hybrid with standard Alliance technology and code.”
Jack frowned, his mind catching up with her words. “And what made Mal think you could help them with Ancient technology?”
Sam opened her mouth and hesitated, throwing him a look that he knew meant she was about to say something he was going to have a problem with. “It’s the girl. River.”
Right. The creepy chick from the infirmary. “What the hell’s up with her anyway? She’s a bit…” He waved vaguely at his head.
She shifted her papers, not looking at him. “Kaylee, the engineer, says she’s telepathic.”
Jack felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. You’re so quiet, it’s like you’re not even here.
“Excuse me?” he said.
“A reader, as Kaylee called it.”
There was no way he should believe that, but damn if he didn’t. “No shit. Really?”
Sam shrugged, spreading out a sheet of schematics on the bed between them. “She knew I could help with the security system somehow. And then it turns out that it’s based on Ancient tech? I mean, what are the chances?”
They hadn’t spent much time discussing how a Chinese wild west show ended up in a neighboring galaxy, but looking at the specs, the question forced itself to the forefront again.
“This is weird, right?” Jack asked.
Sam’s eyes were a little wide when she answered. “Definitely.”
“Just checkin’.”
Sam made a notation in her book and rubbed at her forehead. “On the plus side, I think I might be able to get into that Alliance database cortex thing while we are there.”
Jack perked up at that. “Really?” They’ve been trying to find a way to get into the Alliance mainframe ever since they got here, looking for some trace of Daniel, some trail to follow.
“I don’t know,” she admitted, the stiffness returning to her back. She was back to looking defensive as hell, and he knew that was his fault. “But it’s a worth a shot, right?”
“Sam,” he said, touching her arm.
“What?” She turned to look at him.
He hated that he was leaving her to do this alone. Hated that he was stuck in this bed with a hole in his gut while she was forced to traverse the minefield that was this damn peculiar ship and its crew all on her own.
He didn’t have to say any of that though and, not for the first time, he wondered if there wasn’t maybe a little bit of reader in Sam as well. She folded the schematics, putting them carefully on the floor before sliding back across the bed, lying next to him, her head perched on his shoulder.
“I can do this,” she said, lacing her fingers with his. “All you need to worry about it getting better.”
He believed her. So he breathed in her clean scent and willed himself to relax, willed himself to forget that nothing at all was going their way.
“Tell me about the layout of the ship,” he said.
+++
Jayne looked up from polishing Vera to glare at the Doc and the stranger, who seemed to be taking their sweet ass time with today’s check-up. Looking at Simon, one would be hard pressed to guess that his patient had tried to skewer him only three days before. Jayne still thought they’d have been better off letting him bleed.
And that had nothing to do with the blond who seemed to have eyes only for studying and the man. Old man.
"There's something off about these two," Jayne grumbled.
Kaylee rolled her eyes. "You think that about any woman who don't automatically jump at the chance to share your bunk."
Jayne shrugged. Seemed a valid enough reason to him. “I’d think you’d be a bit more out of sorts that he almost slit your pretty boy’s throat.”
“Simon said he didn’t mean it none. It was the meds.”
In Jayne’s mind, that was just another reason for suspicion. “We’ve all had a shot or two of the Doc’s meds, and we ain’t turned on each other yet.”
Kaylee slid him a sideways glance and Jayne had the grace to look away. So maybe he’d tried to get River and Simon off this boat more than once, but he still thought himself justified. They had ended up getting some of them killed in the end after all, hadn’t they?
But that kind of thinking only raised Book and Wash in his mind and he’d had enough of seeing Kaylee’s eyes filled with tears so he kept it to himself.
Simon and Jack came out of the infirmary then, and it was true that the stranger was looking better, not so much like a feather might knock him on his ass. Jayne didn’t find that particularly comforting.
“Back in you go, then,” Jayne said, shooing the man towards his room.
Jack shot him an annoyed glance, but didn’t put up much of a fight, gingerly walking into the room. Jayne flipped the lock shut; glad to be done with the insanely boring job of making sure Jack didn’t cut anyone up. Especially since the guy didn’t seem inclined to give Jayne any reason to use force himself and wasn’t that a disappointment.
Passing through the mess, Jayne saw Zoe leaning against a wall watching the woman at work, as she had been continuously for the last three days. He glanced at the pages as he passed, thinking it was unnatural, the way incomprehensible mumbo jumbo flowed out of her pen, sucking all her attention. Like she didn’t have blood in her veins like normal folks.
Shaking his head, Jayne passed through to the bridge, thankful not to find Mal there. Only River sat at the controls. She didn’t look up as he entered so he gladly ignored her in exchange.
Linking up to the Cortex, Jayne scrolled through the fugitive lists, seeing more than one familiar name flash past. The damn list seemed endless though. There had to be a quicker way to do this.
“What the hell was it that he called her when he went all crazy?” he grumbled to himself.
“Carter.” Jayne looked up at River. She was still staring straight ahead out into the black, one hand on the controls, the other fiddling with one of Wash’s dinos. “A traveler in the sun, a listener.”
“What?” Jayne asked.
“Samantha Carter,” she said, piercing him with one of those gazes that seemed to shout he was being thick somehow, when it was perfectly plain she was just fong luh.
When she didn’t say anything further, Jayne entered ‘Samantha Carter’ into the Cortex and a moment later there she was, hair shorter, face cleaner, but definitely her, with her whack job man sitting right there next to her.
“One thousand credits,” he read underneath.
It seemed things were finally going Jayne’s way.
Hallelujah.
:: next::