Fic - Neither Heaven Nor Hell (Firefly/SGA)
Neither Heaven Nor Hell
Author: Rhiannon - rhian_morwenna
Fandom: Firefly and Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Ensemble from both shows
Summary: The day Serenity appeared in the sky over Atlantis.
Word Count: about 2,400
Genre: gen, action/adventure
Rating: PG (mild colorful language)
Spoilers/Timeline: Firefly: After the series, movie never happened. Atlantis: Early Season 2, no spoilers.
Series: Atlantis That Was - challenge table and complete list of stories here
Disclaimer: This is not the universe where I own both Firefly and the Stargate franchise.
Author's Notes: crossovers100 prompt #10 - years. All Chinese has mouseover translations, plus translations at the end. Xie-xie to lvs2read for beta-reading this piece and letting me bounce ideas off her. I couldn’t do it without you. *g* All mistakes are my own. Crossposted.
John leaned back in his chair, looking up at the night sky as he sipped the wine Mal had brought. He remembered something about engines during the fermentation process and hoped he wouldn’t end up blind from the stuff. He looked over at Mal who had adopted a similar relaxed pose, sipping from his own cup.
“So, how do you like Atlantis, so far?” John asked.
Mal paused for a moment, emptying his cup before pouring himself some more.
“The city’s nice, shiny. Everythin’ was a bit of a shock at first. I think our sudden arrival may have had somethin’ to do with that.”
~*~*~*~
“Kaylee! I really would appreciate s’more power right about now!” Mal yelled over his shoulder towards the engine room.
“I’m workin’ on it, Capt’n!”
Mal looked at the display that showed the Alliance cruiser closing in on them. He didn’t need to look at the other screen to know that they were flying dangerously close to the sun. Zoe and Jayne stood on the bridge and watched the events in silence.
“Wash, you do realize that we are gettin’ closer to the sun?”
“I did notice that. I did also notice the Alliance cruiser about to make us have a very bad day. How ‘bout you let me do the flyin’, Mal?”
“Still gettin’ closer to the gorramn sun. I’d like to keep my nether-regions fully functional, since I seem to recall that solar radiation ain’t good.”
“I’m with Mal on this one. I don’t want my balls fallin’ off,” Jayne complained.
“I have a plan and it doesn’t involve sterility. Watch and learn,” Wash said calmly.
Wash adjusted course, taking Serenity close to the sun then letting gravity take over, accelerating the ship away from both the cruiser and the sun. His triumphant grin faded as he checked one of the monitors again.
“Aiya! Huaile!” Wash exclaimed.
“Now what!?” Mal asked as he leaned over the console to look at the various readouts.
“Solar flare! Oh, we’re so humped!” Wash gritted out as he concentrated on avoiding the ion storm.
No one saw the blue ripple appear ahead of the ship until it was too late to avoid flying into it and the bridge filled with a blinding white light.
Mal blinked as his eyes adjusted, then stared at the planet now filling the windows of the bridge.
“Zenme le?” Mal asked of no one in particular.
“Well, it would seem that somehow we managed to instantly end up in orbit over a planet,” Wash said, a hint of awe in his voice.
“Thank you, Wash, for pointin’ out the obvious. I was hopin’ for somethin’ a little more specific.”
“Maybe we’re all dead.” Jayne grunted.
“Somehow I don’t think neither Heaven nor Hell is the bridge of this ship, orbiting some planet,” Mal said. “By the way, what planet is this? Bellerophon maybe? Is that one of those fancy estates down there?”
Wash looked at a scan of the planet, frowning.
“This planet doesn’t match any world in the database,” he turned to the others with an awed expression. “It has Earth-norm gravity and atmosphere, and here’s the kicker, that’s an entire city floating on the ocean, not an estate. Also, there’s not a trace of that Alliance cruiser.”
“Deng yi-huir. You’re sayin’ you flew us through that shimmery blue thing, found us a brand-new planet, and managed to somehow get away from the Feds?” Jayne asked, staring at the planet.
“Jayne, I rather doubt the planet is new, but that seems to be the basic idea,” Mal said, while looking over the readings on the console.
“How is any of this possible?” Zoe asked as she stepped behind Wash, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Baby, I have no idea,” Wash said softly.
“You sure we ain’t all dead?” Jayne asked.
~*~*~*~
“You thought you might all be dead?” John chuckled. “I can see how you might think that, going through a wormhole when you weren’t expecting one.” John paused to take another sip. “So, Heaven or Hell?”
“Shuh muh?” Mal asked.
John shook his head and leaned back in his chair, looking up at the stars, propping his feet up.
“Now I know I’ve been here too long. I don’t speak any languages other than English, but I’m pretty sure I know what you just said,” John mused. “Where did you think you were, Heaven or Hell?”
“We hadn’t exactly decided that yet. We were more interested in your disappearin’ city.”
~*~*~*~
“What you mean the city ain’t there now? We all seen it with our own eyes,” Jayne asked.
“And now we can all clearly see it’s not where it was just a moment before,” Mal said. “Wash, you pickin’ up anythin’ on scanners?”
“No cities, on water or on land. No energy signatures of any sort where the city was. There’s some land we could go set down on until we figure out what to do next.”
“Sir, I think that may be our best option for the moment, at least until we can get our bearings,” Zoe said, quietly.
“Wash, circle over where the city was, do a couple more scans. Then we’ll head for the patch of land you found.”
~*~*~*~
“Things weren’t exactly quiet here when you popped out of the sky. We thought we were under attack from the Wraith at first, then we had no idea who or what you were,” John shook his head. “The control room went completely batshit.”
“I bet. So, who had the biggest fit?”
“Rodney, although I don’t think Radek was too far behind him.”
“And who are they again?”
“Rodney McKay and Radek Zelenka, both scientists.”
“Oh, yeah. Those two,” Mal chuckled. “Ya know, I’m glad I was on Serenity.”
~*~*~*~
“What the Hell is going on?” Rodney demanded as he and Radek joined the others in the control tower.
“We were receiving a data-burst from the SGC when the wormhole destabilized and disconnected. At that time is when the ship appeared in low orbit. I raised the cloak, but there is no way of knowing if we were spotted,” Sergeant Chuck Matheson reported.
“What kind of ship?” Radek asked as he looked at the screen displaying the ship. “Definitely not Wraith. Genii, maybe?”
“No-no-no, the Genii don’t have anything nearly as advanced as a spaceship,” Rodney frowned as he looked at the screen. “No hyperdrives. How could a ship get here without a hyperdrive?”
“Are there any life-signs on the ship?” John asked, watching on a different screen as the ship descended through the atmosphere.
Radek changed the display he was looking at and small dots appeared within the outline of the ship.
“There are nine...” Radek started.
“...and they’re all human.” Rodney finished. “They must have seen the city before we cloaked since they’re circling now. That ship isn’t like any I’ve ever seen.” Rodney continued to stare at the readings.
“Does the ship appear to be a threat?” Elizabeth asked from where she stood, watching the confusion.
“No, Ma’am,” Chuck replied. “It doesn’t appear to have weapons of any sort. It looks like it’s starting to circle over the city.”
“So much for whether or not they saw us. Elizabeth, Major Lorne and I will each take a cloaked Jumper out to meet them. We can make contact and keep the city cloaked,” John said. “I want someone down in the Control Chair, just in case we need more firepower than the Jumpers have.”
Elizabeth nodded, considering. She looked over at Rodney and Radek.
“You’re sure it’s unarmed?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. Would I have said it if I wasn’t?” Rodney asked in return.
“We cannot say for certain, but it is very unlikely to have weapons...”Radek trailed off.
“Enough! Thank you, Rodney, Radek,” Elizabeth sounded exasperated. “John, go ahead and make contact. Rodney, I need you up here. I’ll let Carson know that we need him in the Control Chair.”
John nodded at Elizabeth as he hurried to the Jumper Bay, filling in Lorne over the radio along the way.
~*~*~*~
Mal poured himself another drink, noting the steadily decreasing level of the wine in the bottle. He shrugged and put it back down where John could reach it.
“Ya know, that disappearin’ act is mighty impressive, especially hidin’ a whole city like that.”
“We like it,” John deadpanned.
“Appearin’ right in front of the bridge was a nice touch.”
“You had your grand entrance. I had to come up with something,” John shrugged. “I thought you might like the cloaking demonstration rather than a weapons demonstration.”
“I do appreciate that.”
~*~*~*~
“I don’t think there’s anything on the sea. We must have seen a reflection or something when we flew out of whatever that was,” Wash said as he circled over the waves.
“Take us to the land, then. Zoe’s right, we need a place to set down for a bit.”
“Unidentified ship, this is Colonel Arthur Pendragon of Avalon. Please identify youself,” a voice crackled on the comms.
“Huh. Guess we did find somethin’,” Mal muttered. “What channel is that on?”
“All of them,” Wash said as he looked up at Mal.
“I don’t think we should be answerin’. Don’t know who it might be. Could be a trap,” Jayne said nervously.
“If it’s a trap, we’re already in it,” Mal said. “Besides, this don’t feel like a trap.”
“Unidentified ship, please respond.”
“Wash, go ahead and open up a channel and let me talk to the Colonel.”
Wash flipped a couple of switches on his console and handed the microphone to Mal.
“This is Malcolm Harbatkin, captain of the cargo ship Serenity.”
“What is your business here?”
“Uh, we kinda lost our bearin’s and were lookin’ for a place to land, let my crew have some time planet-side.”
“How many are there in your crew?”
“Well, there’s nine of us total, although not all are part of my crew in the strictest sense. Colonel Pendragon, where are you sending this signal from? ‘Cause you ain’t showin’ up on any of our scanners.”
“Look out your forward windows.”
Everyone looked out the windows on the bridge when suddenly a small ship appeared out of nowhere, facing Serenity, a figure waving his hand visible in the cockpit. Mal stared in awe for a moment before he keyed the comm.
“That you hoverin’ off the bow of my ship?”
~*~*~*~
“Ya wanna know what clued me in that you weren’t exactly what you claimed to be?” Mal asked.
“What would that be?”
“Well, Colonel Pendragon, I know the stories about King Arthur and Avalon. I hadn’t worked out who you really were, but I do know that Alliance wouldn’t bother to pretend to be King Arthur.”
“Captain Harbatkin,” John chuckled, “Had you been native to this galaxy and not from five-hundred years in the future, my clever alias would have worked just fine.”
~*~*~*~
“John, Rodney and Radek agree that the Serenity has only sub-light engines. Escort them to the East Pier, there will be a security team waiting,” Elizabeth's voice said through his headset.
“Copy that. Major, did you copy?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Uncloak your Jumper. I’ll lead them to the pier.”
“Understood, sir.”
John opened a channel with the Serenity and relayed the instructions for landing.
~*~*~*~
John sat up straighter and looked over at Mal who was still gazing up at the stars.
“Captain Reynolds,” John started.
“You can call me Mal.”
“Okay, Mal. Call me John. Anyway, you understand why we didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet when you suddenly appeared?”
“Yeah, I do. We were just as worried about who you might be an’ what your intentions were.”
~*~*~*~
“Now, everyone here saw what I just did, right? Not one, but two ships appeared out of thin air along with that city.”
“Uh, Mal, that would appear to be what’s going on,” Wash said slowly, eyes wide in wonder as he followed the Colonel’s ship to the pier.
“Sir, have you ever seen Alliance technology like that?”
“No, Zoe, I can’t say that I have. All right, here’s what we’re gonna do. Wash, set us down where the Colonel wants us to, then everyone down to the cargo hold so we can meet these fine folk. No weapons. Got that, Jayne? I really do mean it this time. Hopefully we can simply re-supply and be on our way.”
~*~*~*~
“Have you thought about what you and your crew will do here, now?” John asked. “I think Rodney and his team have more or less figured what brought you here, but there’s no way we can send you back to your place and time.”
“Yeah, Doctor McKay’s rattled on an’ on all about that, an’ the only part I understood was that we’re all stuck here.”
~*~*~*~
“Everyone understand what we’re goin’ to do? These ain’t Feds, and they seem about as friendly as one would expect with us showin’ up unannounced over their shiny city. Doc, you goin’ to have any trouble keepin’ your sister in line?”
“She’s lonely, so empty,” River sighed. “She wants visitors.”
“Mei-mei, I thought you said the city was singing. And the city is a ‘she’?” Simon asked as he bent to look River in the face.
“I’ll help you take care of her, son,” Book said to Simon, resting a hand on his shoulder.
“You said two ships an’ the whole city just appeared out of thin air?” Kaylee asked again.
“Don’t worry, Kaylee. This will be like a stop at any other port,” Inara said, trying to hide her own worry.
“Oh, yeah. This will go great,” Mal muttered as he opened the cargo bay door.
~*~*~*~
Mal watched as John drained the last of his cup and stood up.
“Thanks for the drink. I know you and your shipmates haven’t had a lot of time to adjust to life on Atlantis. Think about what you’d like to do.”
“You’re welcome for the drink. Now I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know that I can’t just stay here in the city without goin’ crazy.”
“I’m sure we can work something out. Find me when we’ve both had a little less alcohol and we can discuss options with Doctor Weir. Goodnight,” John said as he turned to leave.
“’Night,” Mal replied.
Mal downed the rest of his drink and stood up. He leaned on the rail, looking out over the city, his gaze lingering on Serenity, docked on one of the piers.
“Yep,” he said to himself. “Things could have gone a lot worse.”
~*~*~*~
Xie-xie - Thanks; thank you
Aiya! Huaile! - Damn! Something’s wrong!
Zenme le? - What’s going on?
Shuh muh? - What?
Deng yi-huir - Hold on a second
Mei-mei - little sister
Author: Rhiannon - rhian_morwenna
Fandom: Firefly and Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Ensemble from both shows
Summary: The day Serenity appeared in the sky over Atlantis.
Word Count: about 2,400
Genre: gen, action/adventure
Rating: PG (mild colorful language)
Spoilers/Timeline: Firefly: After the series, movie never happened. Atlantis: Early Season 2, no spoilers.
Series: Atlantis That Was - challenge table and complete list of stories here
Disclaimer: This is not the universe where I own both Firefly and the Stargate franchise.
Author's Notes: crossovers100 prompt #10 - years. All Chinese has mouseover translations, plus translations at the end. Xie-xie to lvs2read for beta-reading this piece and letting me bounce ideas off her. I couldn’t do it without you. *g* All mistakes are my own. Crossposted.
John leaned back in his chair, looking up at the night sky as he sipped the wine Mal had brought. He remembered something about engines during the fermentation process and hoped he wouldn’t end up blind from the stuff. He looked over at Mal who had adopted a similar relaxed pose, sipping from his own cup.
“So, how do you like Atlantis, so far?” John asked.
Mal paused for a moment, emptying his cup before pouring himself some more.
“The city’s nice, shiny. Everythin’ was a bit of a shock at first. I think our sudden arrival may have had somethin’ to do with that.”
~*~*~*~
“Kaylee! I really would appreciate s’more power right about now!” Mal yelled over his shoulder towards the engine room.
“I’m workin’ on it, Capt’n!”
Mal looked at the display that showed the Alliance cruiser closing in on them. He didn’t need to look at the other screen to know that they were flying dangerously close to the sun. Zoe and Jayne stood on the bridge and watched the events in silence.
“Wash, you do realize that we are gettin’ closer to the sun?”
“I did notice that. I did also notice the Alliance cruiser about to make us have a very bad day. How ‘bout you let me do the flyin’, Mal?”
“Still gettin’ closer to the gorramn sun. I’d like to keep my nether-regions fully functional, since I seem to recall that solar radiation ain’t good.”
“I’m with Mal on this one. I don’t want my balls fallin’ off,” Jayne complained.
“I have a plan and it doesn’t involve sterility. Watch and learn,” Wash said calmly.
Wash adjusted course, taking Serenity close to the sun then letting gravity take over, accelerating the ship away from both the cruiser and the sun. His triumphant grin faded as he checked one of the monitors again.
“Aiya! Huaile!” Wash exclaimed.
“Now what!?” Mal asked as he leaned over the console to look at the various readouts.
“Solar flare! Oh, we’re so humped!” Wash gritted out as he concentrated on avoiding the ion storm.
No one saw the blue ripple appear ahead of the ship until it was too late to avoid flying into it and the bridge filled with a blinding white light.
Mal blinked as his eyes adjusted, then stared at the planet now filling the windows of the bridge.
“Zenme le?” Mal asked of no one in particular.
“Well, it would seem that somehow we managed to instantly end up in orbit over a planet,” Wash said, a hint of awe in his voice.
“Thank you, Wash, for pointin’ out the obvious. I was hopin’ for somethin’ a little more specific.”
“Maybe we’re all dead.” Jayne grunted.
“Somehow I don’t think neither Heaven nor Hell is the bridge of this ship, orbiting some planet,” Mal said. “By the way, what planet is this? Bellerophon maybe? Is that one of those fancy estates down there?”
Wash looked at a scan of the planet, frowning.
“This planet doesn’t match any world in the database,” he turned to the others with an awed expression. “It has Earth-norm gravity and atmosphere, and here’s the kicker, that’s an entire city floating on the ocean, not an estate. Also, there’s not a trace of that Alliance cruiser.”
“Deng yi-huir. You’re sayin’ you flew us through that shimmery blue thing, found us a brand-new planet, and managed to somehow get away from the Feds?” Jayne asked, staring at the planet.
“Jayne, I rather doubt the planet is new, but that seems to be the basic idea,” Mal said, while looking over the readings on the console.
“How is any of this possible?” Zoe asked as she stepped behind Wash, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Baby, I have no idea,” Wash said softly.
“You sure we ain’t all dead?” Jayne asked.
~*~*~*~
“You thought you might all be dead?” John chuckled. “I can see how you might think that, going through a wormhole when you weren’t expecting one.” John paused to take another sip. “So, Heaven or Hell?”
“Shuh muh?” Mal asked.
John shook his head and leaned back in his chair, looking up at the stars, propping his feet up.
“Now I know I’ve been here too long. I don’t speak any languages other than English, but I’m pretty sure I know what you just said,” John mused. “Where did you think you were, Heaven or Hell?”
“We hadn’t exactly decided that yet. We were more interested in your disappearin’ city.”
~*~*~*~
“What you mean the city ain’t there now? We all seen it with our own eyes,” Jayne asked.
“And now we can all clearly see it’s not where it was just a moment before,” Mal said. “Wash, you pickin’ up anythin’ on scanners?”
“No cities, on water or on land. No energy signatures of any sort where the city was. There’s some land we could go set down on until we figure out what to do next.”
“Sir, I think that may be our best option for the moment, at least until we can get our bearings,” Zoe said, quietly.
“Wash, circle over where the city was, do a couple more scans. Then we’ll head for the patch of land you found.”
~*~*~*~
“Things weren’t exactly quiet here when you popped out of the sky. We thought we were under attack from the Wraith at first, then we had no idea who or what you were,” John shook his head. “The control room went completely batshit.”
“I bet. So, who had the biggest fit?”
“Rodney, although I don’t think Radek was too far behind him.”
“And who are they again?”
“Rodney McKay and Radek Zelenka, both scientists.”
“Oh, yeah. Those two,” Mal chuckled. “Ya know, I’m glad I was on Serenity.”
~*~*~*~
“What the Hell is going on?” Rodney demanded as he and Radek joined the others in the control tower.
“We were receiving a data-burst from the SGC when the wormhole destabilized and disconnected. At that time is when the ship appeared in low orbit. I raised the cloak, but there is no way of knowing if we were spotted,” Sergeant Chuck Matheson reported.
“What kind of ship?” Radek asked as he looked at the screen displaying the ship. “Definitely not Wraith. Genii, maybe?”
“No-no-no, the Genii don’t have anything nearly as advanced as a spaceship,” Rodney frowned as he looked at the screen. “No hyperdrives. How could a ship get here without a hyperdrive?”
“Are there any life-signs on the ship?” John asked, watching on a different screen as the ship descended through the atmosphere.
Radek changed the display he was looking at and small dots appeared within the outline of the ship.
“There are nine...” Radek started.
“...and they’re all human.” Rodney finished. “They must have seen the city before we cloaked since they’re circling now. That ship isn’t like any I’ve ever seen.” Rodney continued to stare at the readings.
“Does the ship appear to be a threat?” Elizabeth asked from where she stood, watching the confusion.
“No, Ma’am,” Chuck replied. “It doesn’t appear to have weapons of any sort. It looks like it’s starting to circle over the city.”
“So much for whether or not they saw us. Elizabeth, Major Lorne and I will each take a cloaked Jumper out to meet them. We can make contact and keep the city cloaked,” John said. “I want someone down in the Control Chair, just in case we need more firepower than the Jumpers have.”
Elizabeth nodded, considering. She looked over at Rodney and Radek.
“You’re sure it’s unarmed?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. Would I have said it if I wasn’t?” Rodney asked in return.
“We cannot say for certain, but it is very unlikely to have weapons...”Radek trailed off.
“Enough! Thank you, Rodney, Radek,” Elizabeth sounded exasperated. “John, go ahead and make contact. Rodney, I need you up here. I’ll let Carson know that we need him in the Control Chair.”
John nodded at Elizabeth as he hurried to the Jumper Bay, filling in Lorne over the radio along the way.
~*~*~*~
Mal poured himself another drink, noting the steadily decreasing level of the wine in the bottle. He shrugged and put it back down where John could reach it.
“Ya know, that disappearin’ act is mighty impressive, especially hidin’ a whole city like that.”
“We like it,” John deadpanned.
“Appearin’ right in front of the bridge was a nice touch.”
“You had your grand entrance. I had to come up with something,” John shrugged. “I thought you might like the cloaking demonstration rather than a weapons demonstration.”
“I do appreciate that.”
~*~*~*~
“I don’t think there’s anything on the sea. We must have seen a reflection or something when we flew out of whatever that was,” Wash said as he circled over the waves.
“Take us to the land, then. Zoe’s right, we need a place to set down for a bit.”
“Unidentified ship, this is Colonel Arthur Pendragon of Avalon. Please identify youself,” a voice crackled on the comms.
“Huh. Guess we did find somethin’,” Mal muttered. “What channel is that on?”
“All of them,” Wash said as he looked up at Mal.
“I don’t think we should be answerin’. Don’t know who it might be. Could be a trap,” Jayne said nervously.
“If it’s a trap, we’re already in it,” Mal said. “Besides, this don’t feel like a trap.”
“Unidentified ship, please respond.”
“Wash, go ahead and open up a channel and let me talk to the Colonel.”
Wash flipped a couple of switches on his console and handed the microphone to Mal.
“This is Malcolm Harbatkin, captain of the cargo ship Serenity.”
“What is your business here?”
“Uh, we kinda lost our bearin’s and were lookin’ for a place to land, let my crew have some time planet-side.”
“How many are there in your crew?”
“Well, there’s nine of us total, although not all are part of my crew in the strictest sense. Colonel Pendragon, where are you sending this signal from? ‘Cause you ain’t showin’ up on any of our scanners.”
“Look out your forward windows.”
Everyone looked out the windows on the bridge when suddenly a small ship appeared out of nowhere, facing Serenity, a figure waving his hand visible in the cockpit. Mal stared in awe for a moment before he keyed the comm.
“That you hoverin’ off the bow of my ship?”
~*~*~*~
“Ya wanna know what clued me in that you weren’t exactly what you claimed to be?” Mal asked.
“What would that be?”
“Well, Colonel Pendragon, I know the stories about King Arthur and Avalon. I hadn’t worked out who you really were, but I do know that Alliance wouldn’t bother to pretend to be King Arthur.”
“Captain Harbatkin,” John chuckled, “Had you been native to this galaxy and not from five-hundred years in the future, my clever alias would have worked just fine.”
~*~*~*~
“John, Rodney and Radek agree that the Serenity has only sub-light engines. Escort them to the East Pier, there will be a security team waiting,” Elizabeth's voice said through his headset.
“Copy that. Major, did you copy?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Uncloak your Jumper. I’ll lead them to the pier.”
“Understood, sir.”
John opened a channel with the Serenity and relayed the instructions for landing.
~*~*~*~
John sat up straighter and looked over at Mal who was still gazing up at the stars.
“Captain Reynolds,” John started.
“You can call me Mal.”
“Okay, Mal. Call me John. Anyway, you understand why we didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet when you suddenly appeared?”
“Yeah, I do. We were just as worried about who you might be an’ what your intentions were.”
~*~*~*~
“Now, everyone here saw what I just did, right? Not one, but two ships appeared out of thin air along with that city.”
“Uh, Mal, that would appear to be what’s going on,” Wash said slowly, eyes wide in wonder as he followed the Colonel’s ship to the pier.
“Sir, have you ever seen Alliance technology like that?”
“No, Zoe, I can’t say that I have. All right, here’s what we’re gonna do. Wash, set us down where the Colonel wants us to, then everyone down to the cargo hold so we can meet these fine folk. No weapons. Got that, Jayne? I really do mean it this time. Hopefully we can simply re-supply and be on our way.”
~*~*~*~
“Have you thought about what you and your crew will do here, now?” John asked. “I think Rodney and his team have more or less figured what brought you here, but there’s no way we can send you back to your place and time.”
“Yeah, Doctor McKay’s rattled on an’ on all about that, an’ the only part I understood was that we’re all stuck here.”
~*~*~*~
“Everyone understand what we’re goin’ to do? These ain’t Feds, and they seem about as friendly as one would expect with us showin’ up unannounced over their shiny city. Doc, you goin’ to have any trouble keepin’ your sister in line?”
“She’s lonely, so empty,” River sighed. “She wants visitors.”
“Mei-mei, I thought you said the city was singing. And the city is a ‘she’?” Simon asked as he bent to look River in the face.
“I’ll help you take care of her, son,” Book said to Simon, resting a hand on his shoulder.
“You said two ships an’ the whole city just appeared out of thin air?” Kaylee asked again.
“Don’t worry, Kaylee. This will be like a stop at any other port,” Inara said, trying to hide her own worry.
“Oh, yeah. This will go great,” Mal muttered as he opened the cargo bay door.
~*~*~*~
Mal watched as John drained the last of his cup and stood up.
“Thanks for the drink. I know you and your shipmates haven’t had a lot of time to adjust to life on Atlantis. Think about what you’d like to do.”
“You’re welcome for the drink. Now I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know that I can’t just stay here in the city without goin’ crazy.”
“I’m sure we can work something out. Find me when we’ve both had a little less alcohol and we can discuss options with Doctor Weir. Goodnight,” John said as he turned to leave.
“’Night,” Mal replied.
Mal downed the rest of his drink and stood up. He leaned on the rail, looking out over the city, his gaze lingering on Serenity, docked on one of the piers.
“Yep,” he said to himself. “Things could have gone a lot worse.”
~*~*~*~
Xie-xie - Thanks; thank you
Aiya! Huaile! - Damn! Something’s wrong!
Zenme le? - What’s going on?
Shuh muh? - What?
Deng yi-huir - Hold on a second
Mei-mei - little sister