Capítulo 86: Ch.28
In the end we all agreed it was what needed done. His plan was simple, get the disk to Mr.Universe and have him broadcast it on every screen for thirty worlds. When he said that and Zoë commented that Mr.Universe might be compromised, he mentioned the second part of his plan.
That had everyone cursing but in the end we agreed it was the only way. River disappeared for a few minutes with Inara afterwards and I headed to my room to grab the weapons and load everyone up on as much as they could carry.
When I went to carry the second box out, River stopped me. I noticed the change immediately. She smelled clean and fresh like a field of strawberries. She pulled me back inside my shuttle and closed the door, locking it.
All she said was. "I'm me now."
When she grabbed my robe and started removing it, I grabbed her hand stopping her for a moment. She smiled. "This is what I want."
I let go while looking her in the eyes and we began with a simple kiss. That kiss turned into a passion that burned and consumed us as clothes went flying and we ended up on the bed.
I took it slow with her as it was her first time, but once she felt what it truly was like to be with me, she ignored the small bit of pain and demanded more, harder, faster. We went at it until even I roared as I released what she called the great wave inside her.
She grew tired after the first three hours, not used to so much, so quickly. I held her under the blankets and stroked her hair as she slept partially across my chest. After a while though I had to leave her there to get everything ready.
I grew a flower, a daffodil, from the wooden chest I had full of grenades and left it along with a note that said to meet us in the bridge when she was ready. I left her my swords and guns, with extra clips to use, and headed out with more boxes of weapons.
When the others saw me again, only Inara was aware of what had happened. The rest were only confused by the delay. Simon asked almost immediately. "Where's River, she should be here by now."
I grunted and lied easily. "She's sleeping. The memory purge took a lot out of her. She should be up and ready by the time we meet the alliance head on."
We were just now getting through the last of the reaver territory. A moment later we dropped the cloak and fire a plasma blast at one of the smaller ships as Wash said. "Hold on, its about to get dangerous."
He had Kaylee give him a full burn and we were off with reavers on our asses. Nearly half the ships were following us as they were drawn to the chase. I kind of like them in a way. Truly primal animals into the chase, hunt and kill. If only they didn't rape their prey while eating them alive and I might've tried joining them for a bit, at least until it got annoying and I ate them all.
Or I would've anyway if I hadn't made my body fully human. Only Adria's tampering made the difference when I bulged, not as a sign of my beastie nature. We managed to avoid the grapplers that tried to latch on and pull us back to their hungry and horny clutches but they chased all the same.
When we were safely on our way I told them. "Alright people, guns and ammo all around, that includes you doc. This'll be a fight for our very survival and I intend to do just that, survive. Jayne, there's three grenade belts here, you take one, Zoë and I'll take the others."
Mal asked. "What happened to your swords?"
I didn't have time to respond when River walked in with them strapped to her waste along with my guns hanging under her arms in the side holsters. They all saw her dressed in my gear and even my armor, readjusted to fit her. She raised an eyebrow saying. "What? I'm me again and I can fight."
I chuckled and strapped a couple magnum laser pistols to my side before grabbing a rifle and a couple machetes. That along with the grenade belt was enough for me. Simon got an automatic riffle and a couple extra clips while the rest geared up fully.
Jayne took a heavy machine gun and an extra gun and clip nearly everywhere he could stick it. In the end he looked almost ridiculous yet fully strapped for a war. I ignored them as River came to my side and watched as we got close to Lilac, the planet Mr.Universe chose as his home base because of the heavy ion clouds that help broadcast the feeds to and fro.
When we entered the clouds, River took my hand saying out loud to the group. "They're expecting us. We should strap in, it's going to be a bumpy ride."
We all took her advice and I activated the crew chairs I'd had installed on the bridge with all the extra room. When we got through the cloud, there was an armada waiting for us.
I told Zoë who was beside Wash. "Activate the shields. We can't survive that much fire power head on without them. If we get hit in the engines we're humped."
She hit the shields and we went in for a dangerous game of tag. They were just about to shoot us down when the reavers came out of the clouds behind us. It was a sight to behold as both armadas faced off and began firing at each other instead of us.
Wash was repeating. "I'm a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar."
When I got irritated with it I him. "I've a branch in my hand, watch how I beat you to death."
Several chuckles rang out but it didn't stop him from repeating his mantra. We got hit several times and when we side swiped an alliance cruiser our shields couldn't hold as they crumbled.
I snorted. "Wash, our shields are down from that last encounter, no more close calls please."
My asking do nicely made them all realize how bad we were screwed if we got hit like that again. While the haul had been replaced with a far more sturdy alloy, the skeleton of the ship wasn't nearly as sturdy itself.
Not to mention that didn't make it invincible either. The reaver grapples and spikes could in theory penetrate the haul a few feet if it was a direct shot just like armor gives out under enough stress.
Unfortunately that didn't prevent a few more close calls and a reaver ship on our ass firing an EMP right up our ass. It fried the circuits and shut down our powerful generators.
The naquadria generators were equipped with a safety mechanism that automatically shut it off when hit with an EMP to prevent catastrophic overload and going nuclear. Wash was forced to glide us in and that was a hell of a ride on it's own.
We bounced and slid across the run way until our engines hit the support beams as we entered the hanger and flew off. We were sent into a spin until the ship slid onto the lift that was slightly below the rest of the hanger floor.
We made a dead stop now as we all breathed at last. River screamed and I moved, as soon as we thought we were safe for the moment, the reaver ship fired a spike through the wind shield.
The diamond and trinium allow stopped a lot of it's momentum and my armor and body stopped the rest as I took the blow preventing it from hitting wash.
It pierced my side while going straight through me. I grabbed the end, stopping it inches away from entering Wash. His shocked gaze was worth the pain albeit only just. I growled. "Get our of here now! I'll be right behind you, go!"
Wash scrambled out of his seat while Simon pulled River away with the rest of them. Another bolt pierced the windshield moments later, hitting my left shoulder and stopping at the bone.
I smiled sadly as I puked up some blood that was rising in my throat. I passed out for a few moments as time began to slow for me. Adria appeared in my mind and I told her. "Not yet, I'm not done yet with my time here. Go, make sure they're ok. I'll be along when I can be."
She smiled sadly, not liking it when I was in pain. I woke up to see reavers coming into the cock pit sniffing and screaming at me. I growled and pulled my laser pistol out of it's holster before giving them head shots for their efforts. When they stopped coming I piled myself off the spikes slowly before taking a ball of fire and burning the wounds on each side.
Magic may be cheating but I'll be damned if bleeding out like a stuck pig is what gets me. I concentrated and healed the worst of it before climbing over the reaver bodies and making my way to the crew. They'd locked themselves into a choke point and were ready to defend themselves while Mal went to deal with the hologram drive.
The problem was there was about a hundred reavers between me and them and I'd spent most of my pistol ammo on the reavers on the ship. I sighed and got to work. My pistol shots taking out as many as possible before I switched to the riffle.
Head shots were the only way to conserve ammo and that got me down to about half way before I ran out of ammo for the riffle as well. I pulled out the machetes and the reavers in the front finally noticed me. They'd already broken into the room Jayne and them were in and they'd retreated behind blast doors.
River has stayed to close them and kill as many as she could. I grabbed my machetes and began cutting my way to her as she was a storm of plasma fire and energy blade swings. When she noticed me, we began a dance of death as we slaughtered the mad cannibals until we were covered in grime and blood.
A grapple hook penetrated the stone wall behind us and I dropped the machetes before grabbing the second plasma pistol and vibro blade from her waste while she starred into my eyes. Someone opened the blast doors because I heard them release but I didn't care to look their way.
It was a primal moment of love and lust that held us in place starring into each other's eyes. A moment later the back wall tumbled down revealing tons of alliance officers waving guns and surrounding us. They started asking for a kill order from someone over their coms while River and I gripped our weapons, ready to do more gratuitous violence.
Their answer however, came over the stations coms. "Stand down, stand down. It's finished, we're finished."
They started lowering their weapons and I nodded to River as we did the same. After put them back in their holsters and sheath's we helped the crew carry our wounded to the ship. Mal was beaten and stabbed while Simon was shot and and Jayne was stabbed in the side. Wash was alive though so I didn't feel to awful bad even while hurting.
It was really only the females that weren't injured at this point as even Wash had been shot in the leg. I carried Simon to the infirmary of Serenity and the alliance doctors took over under the assassin's orders.
They patched us up nice enough and even fixed up my shoulder as the bone was fractured. Another sling was in order for me but it was worth it. My side was a through and through with nothing major hit while it was mostly healed anyway.
The nerve cluster the assassin would've attacked was damaged and had to be moved so there was a bonus at least. Mal survived him because of it and now his little paralysis trick wouldn't work on me either.
Once we were patched up the alliance soldiers took the reaver bodies off the ship and towed it to the middle of the middle of the hanger where they had their mechanics put the engines back on and repair what damage they could.
All in all Serenity was in worse shape than the rest of us. Two weeks later I started helping Kaylee with the repairs and parts we salvaged from the other ships in the the hanger.
The alliance soldiers had mostly moved on and only the assassin showed up again once we finished and were about to take off. He said a few words to Mal before he went to leave until I stopped him. "Wait."
He turned to me and I flipped him a coin. "If you're no longer interested in alliance work, the guild might be a better fit for you. You can choose your targets and you'll know exactly who and why you're killing them. No more blind murder for shadow puppets. And no more children or innocents."
He was stunned to see the coin but tucked it away just the same. "Thanks, I just might do that."
I nodded and gave him a hard look. "If you're thinking of infiltration, you might want to do otherwise. The guild doesn't target parliament because we prefer to be left alone to work. We don't care who runs the galaxy, so long as there's contracts to be carried out. If you do try in parliament's name, that measure of protection will be revoked and the guild will silence you and all those you work for."
He swallowed his tongue as I smirked. "Enjoy training, it'll be a bitch, even for you."
I turned and left him there while I passed a very confused Mal up. When he followed me inside he asked. "Are you sure that was a smart move?"
I nodded. "If he joins the guild he can't contract for you or anyone on the ship. It'll effectively remove a deadly weapon out of the alliance's hands and the guild is always looking for trained members. It will also allow both of us to know where the other is at most times to avoid each other. We'd never have to see him again."
Zoë walked over and I left Mal gapping like a fish as I told him. "We need to hit any other planet to effect full repairs before we take another job. I'd like to at the very least, have the ship searched for any hidden alliance bugs and tracking equipment before we do anything untoward."
Mal grunted and answered Zoë while I headed to find River. She and Inara were talking in the mess hall so I let them be until she headed to the bridge. I sat back and watched her and Mal talk about what kept a ship together. "You know what the first rule of flying is little albatross? Well I suppose you do because you already know what I'm about to say."
River smiled. "I do, but I'd still like to hear you say it."
He sighed. "It's love. You can know all the maths in the verse and she'll shake you up just as sure as the turns of the worlds. It's love that keeps her flying when she aught to fall. Tells you she's hurting before she keels. It's what makes her a home."
River looked to me and I smiled, nodding. "He's right. A ship ain't a home until you feel enough for it to want to stay. Those feelings, that love, is what makes it worth fighting for."
We took off into the storm as River sighed. "Storms getting worse."
Mal replied. "We'll pass through it soon enough."
We made it out of atmo as a piece of the ship flew off. Mal asked concerned. "What was that?"
I chuckled. "The primary buffer panel. It'll be fine until we get to Persephone. Then we can actually get this ship fixed up. I've a notion it won't take long to have it good as new or even better. And we can also spend all the money I robbed from the alliance while they were here."
He raised an eyebrow and I shrugged. "You didn't think I was going to hang around some shiny alliance terminals and not hack in and steal a few million credits did you?"
He snorted with a smile. "This day just keeps getting better and better."
I took River's hand saying. "Captain, the bridge is yours."
River and I scampered off to her room which was closest while I tore her clothes off and ravaged her. I took her every which way until she found riding me was her favorite next to me taking her from behind.
While she bounced on me an altercation happened when Simon barged in. Seeing his sister riding me probably wasn't the best way to tell him we were together. River slid off of me while wrapping the sheets around us saying. "Simon get out!"
She threw a boot at his head that he managed to dodge as he closed the door. We got dressed and went out to find a gathering crowd as they argued, drawing attention. Jayne sat on the couch nearby laughing and eating popcorn like it was a show.
Finally Simon did something really stupid, he took a swing at me. I didn't dodge nor did I block it as he hit my jaw. I let him make full contact before slamming a palm into his chest, sending him sprawling. "That's the last time you take a swing at me."
River shoved my chest and looked at me sadly before turning to Simon. "You don't have a right to judge who I'm with. Especially when you're knocking boots yourself."
He stood up. "You're my little sister!"
She rolled her eyes. "That changes nothing. I'm eighteen and I'm no longer crazy nor am I a little girl that needs looking after. God Simon, I may have been trapped under all that crazy and memories that weren't mine but it doesn't mean I wasn't there. You've looked after me and I love you for that but I can't stay your little helpless crazy sister forever!"
She left in a huff and I slid my shirt back on while the others watched me. She'd grabbed Inara and headed for some girl talk while leaving me to deal with whatever he had to say next.
He gave me a glare that I shrugged off. "She's an adult and made her own decision. There's a reason the door was closed doc, it's not to be barged in on either. I waited until she was better and asked me to. That's more than you need to know and all I'll say on the mater. You can hate me all you like, I could give a rat's ass, but lay off her case."
I turned to Jayne and the rest saying. "You all gonna find something better to do or do you want to take turns sparing with me to work off the tension?"
Jayne was the first to disappear as the smile went off his face and he realized he'd be first. Wash and Zoë gave me a look before going their own way. Kaylee stayed by Simon but pulled him into his room a few feet away.
I closed River's door and headed to my room, passing Mal who was watching as well. He asked. "Was that really necessary?"
I shrugged. "He needs to know how things stand and I'm not about to discuss what happens in my bed with you or anyone else in this ship. How's about you find your own bed mate? I know Inara wants to stay and I'm fairly certain she's tired of the companion lifestyle."
His breath caught before he asked. "What do you mean by that?"
I gave him a look before sighing. "I'm sure you noticed that she was at the training house only teaching these past few months? Well, word has it she hasn't taken any clients since she left and I may have talked to her about finding work in the merchant guild, as a member. She's asked that I set it up for her and possibly see about taking a few tests to get her merchant guild license, all official like."
He clenched his hands before releasing and I sighed. "I'll tell you one last bit of detail and we'll never speak of it again. The entire time she was with me that week, yours was the only name she called out."
I looked him in the eyes as I said that. "Like I said before, it was two lonely souls pining for others."
I brushed past him and headed to my shuttle where I grabbed a cold shower before taking a nap. River woke me up in an interesting fashion and I gave her bobbing mouth what she was seeking. When she spit out what she couldn't swallow she asked. "I take it you liked that?"
I growled and rolled over with her while she continued. "I asked Inara for some tips and she let me read what you and she did from her mind. A sort of short cut I guess you could s-"
She stopped talking when my tongue found her bud and I began returning the favor. When she thrashed about and went wild before my mouth and finished in an explosive release, I pulled her up and helped her on thee hands and knees, holding her against my chest as she spammed the last of her release away.
When she finished, she gasped as I entered her fully in one easy stroke. Her wet heat made it easy though her tight sheath did present some difficulty as it clung to me like a silky fist as I moved.
She panted as we moved in sync, her thrusting back while I forward, meeting in wet slapping sounds and moans of pleasure. We went at it for days on end until we received he wake up call from Mal over the coms saying we were about to enter the atmo of Persephone.
When I finished in her like usual, she held my arms while panting and murmured sleepily. "Do you think I'd make a good mother?"
I stilled and she chuckled. "I'm not pregnant, but Zoë is so I felt like wondering and asking."
I kissed her neck and held her saying. "Perhaps some day yes, you'd make an excellent mother. You've the protective instincts and the skill to do so. Raising kids would do you a world of good as their innocents will help soothe the pain and old memories of what happened. Their pure happiness would be something you could feel without even trying with your empathic nature and I believe you'd be the cause of that happiness as well."
She smiled and turned her head, kissing me as she slid off of me below. I sighed into the kiss before releasing her long enough to get up and carry her to the shower. After we were clean and her legs were less shaky, we dressed and went to meet up with the others.
I typed in the message to prepare to fix the ship to the bots and turned to Mal who sat across from me. "They're ready for do a full diagnostic and repair. Once we land we'll have to get a motel or something for a week or so while they remove all the bugs the alliance left behind and fix the ship. I've suggested the full upgrades need done for something only the alliance has, hyper drives."
He looked stunned and I nodded at his smile. "We've been running on FTL for long enough. Hyper drives will be installed so that we can hop around the galaxy with only the alliance barely keeping up. Add to that the cloak and shields and only another guild ship will be our equal. They're of course adding the standard weapons and upgrades to everything including the shuttles."
I turned to Inara as I continued. "You won't be able to rent it and continue to be a legal companion, I'm sorry. The upgrades are illegal and would see your license revoked if found. Not to mention the tech would see us all killed and the ship and shuttles stolen by the alliance so they could have them."
Jayne asked. "Don't the alliance have shields?"
It was Zoë who answered. "Nothing nearly as good as what we have. He's right, they'd kill us all to get ahold of the technology. Not to mention what the other smugglers would do if they found out we have cloaking tech that works with a full ship."
Simon asked. "What about the bugs? Shouldn't we be worried what we're saying will be overheard?"
Kaylee shook her head. "Remember what I did before we turned everything on?"
He frowned but nodded. "The weird static energy thing with the engine?"
She smiled. "That was a controlled EMP pulse that wiped out the bugs. We're getting it cleaned to ensure they don't get reactivated when one of their people get close enough. For now though it should be fine."
Wash heard the beeping and took off for the bridge saying. "We're here, I gotta fly this thing in. Everyone strap in, these spare parts are iffy at best."
We all headed to the bridge where we took our seats and buckled up. He managed to dock us with only three small pieces falling off. When we stopped however, one of the engines fell off. Luckily we were grounded so there wasn't any cause for alarm.
We all headed outside to see a bunch of people staring at the ship before a group walked forwards with parts and tools. They nodded at me and revealed the assassin's guild medallion before we nodded and left them to it. They all got on the mule and buggy we had while I rode with River on the bike.
When we pulled up next to them I told Mal and Zoë. "Follow me, the guild has a place for us to stay until the ship is fixed up. I'll pull the cash out once we're there and you all can go buy what you like."
I drove ahead of them to a five star hotel the guild had bought as a cover for the safe house and base underneath. When we pulled up Mal asked. "Are you sure this is the place?"
I nodded. "It's called the green pheonix hotel for a reason."
I showed him the pheonix on the medallion and he nodded. "So it's a cover?"
I chuckled. "Now you're getting it. Yeah, there's a base underneath and the operatives get free room and service while they're in town. There are a dozen places like this including shops and stores all over this planet. Not to mention every planet out there except Lilac. That planet was off limits as we'd stand out there. Well, and Miranda for obvious reasons."
I stored my bike in the parking garage with the mule and buggy before heading in with them following me. When we were at the front counter I set my medallion in front of the clerk who nodded and asked. "How many rooms will you need sir?"
I turned to Jayne and the rest before saying. "Three honey moons and three singles. Tell the kitchen to prepare luch for nine and have a staff member bring me a secure data pad."
He nodded and handed out our keys before I tossed the keys to each of them saying. "The singles are penthouses so enjoy."
Mal was a bit disappointed both he and Inara received separate rooms while Kaylee and Simon got a joint room like Wash, Zoë, River and I. I patted his shoulder and indicated to Inara who had a complicated look all her own. "Ask if she'd like to share. At the very least see if she'd like to join you for an evening meal in your room."
He nodded and walked over to make the offer only to be side blocked by a guest Inara had apparently had as a client before walking over. "Inara, I wasn't told you'd be in town. If I'd known I would have offered to make arrangements should you have accepted. I heard you were off world at a training facility."
She nodded. "Mr.Shefield, I just got into town. I've some business with the guild and I've decided to no longer continue as a companion."
He snorted disgruntled that he'd be loosing his favorite toy. "What will you do then? Where could you possibly work with only a whore's training?"
I grabbed Mal who saw me as I shook my head and whispered. "Not in guild grounds. If you want him dead, make the offer at the counter and as soon as he leaves I'll take the contract. Here, use my coin as payment. They'll charge my account."
He took the medallion and shrugged me off while heading to the counter. I walked over to Inara and wrapped an arm around her shoulder telling the man. "Perhaps she'll be my kept wife and live as a queen. Or mayhap she'll join the merchant's guild after her meeting with them today and you'll have earned yourself an enemy in the guild."
He frowned. "And who might you be?"
I chuckled. "Osiris Masters, merchant guild and last person on this planet you want to insult. I killed the last noble that called Inara here a whore, so you'd best watch your step."
He went to slap me and declare a duel but as soon as his hand would make contact a barrier appeared in place, shocking him and sending him flying backwards. When he was done twitching on the ground and pissing himself I told him. "You really should watch what you do sir. These hotels guarantee the safety of their guests from even the alliance officers. What could a mere noble like you really hope to accomplish here?"
I walked Inara over to Mal at the desk and signed for the contract. An interesting thing happened though. Before I could accept it, a very talented newbie who'd been running through the training did so. I smiled when I saw her accepted it and the time frame restraints.
As it was his first mission, I let him have it and told Mal as I stood back with my coin. "Watch this."
He frowned. "Aren't you taking it?"
I shook my head. "A new recruit accepted it as a graduation task. If he completes it within the time restraint with proficiency, he'll be a full member and receive his own ship and coin."
The rest of the group watched as the angry noble left in a huff and as soon as he stepped out the doors, he fell down dead. Smiling I told them. "He's graduated."
Wash frowned. "How did he do that? We didn't even see him."
I chuckled. "Did you really think the cloaking tech was only usable for ships? Or that our members couldn't make ourselves invisible if need be?"
Mal cursed in Chinese before asking. "Why haven't you shared that with us?"
I shook my head. "I'm allowed to upgrade the ship and shuttles because I can claim them as my one shuttle but guild tech in the end is only allowed to be used by guild members. If I ever left Serenity, they'd down grade it to a fully repaired and operating firefly ship. The tech goes where I go I'm afraid, guild rules and all that."
Inara sighed. "We understand."
Jayne snorted. "I don't."
I gave him a sardonic look before saying. "None of you are guild members. Guild technology isn't allowed out of it's members control for obvious reasons. The teleporter not withstanding, everything else is official guild tech and as such they'd take it back if I'm not flying with this crew anymore."
He frowned. "Can't we just out run them or-"
Zoë turned and called him an idiot now before saying. "You just saw an invisible man kill someone and you want to steal from these people? How dumb are you?"
He went quiet and Mal shook his head. "No, it's alright. You're staying and you're apart of this crew."
I chuckled. "Yes Captain."
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