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River felt it, the moment the ship shuddered. The moment the ship was dragged sideways - the moment everything changed. The Captain felt the shudder but not anything else, and she tackled him, changed his trajectory before he was taken off his feet, before he would have hit the deck too hard to recover.
And then - and then -
"Too late, too late, gone, gone, gone -" River whispered, hissed, clutched her head. "Gone gone gone gone -"
No way back. No way out. Drifting in the black - Mal had no idea how they ended up in the middle of deep space, tumbling adrift, but at least Kaylee was a miracle worker and between her and the rest of the crew, they managed to get power back on. It was six hours before they discovered that the nearest system didn't look anything like home. The alien system was, thankfully, in their reach - only weeks away - and the next closest system was years distant.
Zoe took over the distribution of their stores, and even Jayne didn't argue. (At least, not much.) They should have enough food to last long enough to get to the system; they'd be lucky if they found a planet with the right conditions where they could either grow food or set up sealed houses for the purpose. They'd be astronomically lucky - and starving - if the food and water lasted long enough for the first crop to grow. (He was really regretting selling all those ration bars right now.)
Mal didn't kid himself.
Even if they were extraordinarily lucky, there was no way back - no way to duplicate whatever had happened to pull them out here. They were stuck out here, trapped. And even if the crew didn't pull themselves apart, even if Jayne didn't start shooting or River didn't go mad (and that was looking more and more likely with every passing hour), sooner or later, something would fail that couldn't be fixed.
Serenity was a good ship, a great ship - more, even. She was home. But she was old. She was made up of more patches and work around and rebuilt parts than factory specs, and one day, a part would fail that Kaylee couldn't replace on the fly, and then they'll all suffocate, or freeze, or asphyxiate, and then they'd all die.
So, he didn't kid himself.
Him, his whole family, Zoe's unborn child - they were all dead. It just hadn't happened yet.
River was getting worse, that much was certain, and Simon had no idea how to help her. She was constantly staring out into space, or rocking on her heels, or reaching towards the planet they were heading for. She would mutter and murmur and laugh out loud - freaking Jayne out, and honestly, freaking Simon out nearly as much.
Normally, him or the Captain, they could interpret what she was saying by piercing together hints and clues, but this? He couldn't even make heads or tails of the language.
It's not like he could ask the others for help either - Kaylee was too busy babysitting the engines, Zoe and Jayne were trying to coax some seeds to life in make-shift containers that didn't have soil yet but might have the right mix of nutrients, and the Captain just seemed to constantly be in the cockpit.
And it was everything Simon could do to stop her from trying to drive the ship. It was probably a good thing that Mal was there all the time, to stop her from doing whatever she had tried/wanted to do.
The planet appeared to be everything they could have hoped for; it had atmosphere, water, appeared to have a stable orbit (at least, based on what they could tell off of two weeks of vague data). Once past the solar system border, they were able to zoom in enough to determine the planet was even green.
So, likely living things, potentially life-supporting - they might not all be dead in a year, after all.
Mal was still pessimistic.
There were settlements on the planet.
They had to approach, regardless.
They were.... human.
It was strange. It wasn’t possible.
But it was very, very real, made all the more so when they landed near one of the settlements, and people – very human looking people walked out to meet them.
Mal ended up miming a lot - he wished River hadn't cracked up again - she was usually quite good at this sort of thing.
Then Simon was yelling something from the ship, and River was flying down the ramp, staring at the sky.
Staring at the sky, where the dragons were arriving.
Dragons - Kaylee was giddy as a newlywed, Mal was struck speechless same as him, but somehow he got his tongue back before the dragons had touched down. Jayne managed to look away from the huge creatures (who didn't like dragons? Dragons were awesome - and terrifying. But right now, he was focused on the terrifying aspect).
"Think they breathe fire?" Jayne asked, and Mal shot him a startled look.
"What?"
"Fire, like the stories?"
And then Simon was yelling something, only both of them were too wool-headed to look in time. Zoe reached out to try to snatch River as she passed, but the girl twisted around her grip like the slip-slider she was, and went on running down the hill.
Simon was all set to charge right after her, but by that time, Mal's brain had come back on line, and him and Zoe managed to grab the doc. No sense in the useful sibling getting ate, after all. Jayne kept off to the side, deciding it was his job to be the scary-looking one with the big gun. (He didn't see any other guns, and the other people were mostly looking at Vera with curiosity, not fear, like they didn't quite know what they were looking at.) But anyway, they looked at him like he would be tough to take down, and that's all he needed. First impressions was part of his job, after all.
(He ignored the fact that the fucking dragons - even the small ones -wouldn't take two bites to get him down their gullet. They were landing hundreds of yards away.)
The villagers were watching with curiosity, but no one was stopping them, so Mal took the lead and edged out after River.
"Any reason why we're going closer to the dragons?"
"They're not dragons," Simon said, apparently to be contrary. "Dragons don't exist."
"What else could they be?!" Jayne snapped, staring at the huge things, at the wings as they settled and folded onto the ground. At the people, who looked ridiculously tiny as they got down from the dragons' back. His voice dropped as they got closer to the dragons - not because of Mal's angry looks - and he couldn't help but comment. "Ya notice how the natives ain't approachin'? Couldn't be a reason for that. No sir-ee, no reason. We're just walkin' down the hill to get ate, that's all."
Mal shot him another glare, but it looked half-hearted at best, and Mal's hand was on his gun, too, so he was probably thinkin' the same damn thing. (Why they were still going after Little Miss Crazy, Jayne had no fucking clue.)
River stopped, leaning up on her toes, opening her arms and leaning into the wind as the bronze creature settled, flinging her greeting and joy and love and admiration at him. The massive beast lowered its head, and she took two running steps up, lifting up on her toes and leaning forward, so her head was only inches away from his dazzling, multicolored eye.
Mnementh rumbled, amused, and she laughed, flinging her arms into the sky, spinning in a circle as the dragons laughed with her.
<She is ... different,> Mnementh rumbled, a sort of protective note to his voice that F'lar hadn't heard directed at many humans. They watched as the girl sprinted from one dragon to the next, giving some space, and clambering over others like a fire-lizard exploring a new cave.
She was walking up Ragath's neck right now, right up the spine, and the brown was holding as still as a statue, while T'gar tried to convince the girl to come down.
<Ragath says she is fine,> Mnementh said, and F'lar blinked as the girl suddenly sprinted up the rest of the dragon's neck, barefoot and apparently fully confident, before coming to a stop right on the top of his head. She bent over from the hips, arms still at her side - apparently not at all concerned about the distance to the ground - in order to lean over and put her face next to Ragath's eye. She then stayed like that, for endless seconds, before leaning forward.
F'lar lurched forward automatically, T'gar shouted - although they couldn't do anything - and several members of her crew (family?) reacted, the girl tumbled forward off Ragath's head, lightly catching on one of the talons he had extended out, and dropped to the ground in a roll.
She spun back to her feet in the same movement, leaping into the air, and around, all the dragons rumbled in amusement. It was only then, turning an annoyed look back at Mnementh, that F'lar realized that none of the dragons had shown any concern about the falling girl.
She was a strange one - paying almost no attention to conversation and only looking at the humans if the dragons asked her to, or unless one of her crew was particularly persistent. She was almost like a dragon herself, F'lar realized; no sense of time other than now, young in mind and with little concept of consequences.
It wasn't until they were able to converse in a rough approximation of similar langue (River picked up their language like it was natural), that they started to realize how strange the girl was.
Experimented on. Tortured. Gifted.
No wonder she and the dragons had taken to each other immediately.
The crew was unlikely to be able to get back to their home, and it would undoubtedly bring changes - but these people would likely be able to help them with the technology they still didn't understand, still didn't fully know what to do with.
The thing is, they could use them.
And maybe, the dragons could bridge the gap of space to these other planets, if they could ensure the space suits that let them breathe Between wouldn't break.
(There was much debate, if they wanted to expose this world to that cold fear, the government of the Serenity's crew. But as long as they had the only dragons, it would be some time before any of them could come here.)
As for the girl... some wanted to present her to the next clutch. Lessa didn't, and F'lar tended to agree with her. The girl would probably be able to communicate in ways that no one - not even Lessa - really could, but the girl's mind...
She was more a child than an adult, and presenting her for the bond, for another creature that had no more idea of consequence than she did - it was probably not a good idea.
For now, the crew of the Serenity were staying at Benden Weyr, with most of the Guilds sending someone to work with the new commers. Even Healer Hall had sent someone - over the past five years, all the technology changes had started to show to improvement, and now they had a fully trained 'Doctor' (whatever that meant - he just understood it as one who specialized in the fancy healing that AIVAS had been telling them about, that the Healers still couldn't make heads or tails of more than 10% of.)
River was by far more comfortable around them than around any holders, and weyr-folk were much more tolerant of strangeness than Holders tended to be. And, frankly, F'lar wanted to keep an eye on the girl. She was special, and talented, and probably didn't need protection - but still.
(He arranged it that she got a little fire lizard queen, the next time one of his riders had a clutch. He wanted to see what would happen. Lessa, reluctantly, agreed that it would be a good test.)
F'lar - the head of Benden Weyr and their current host - had arranged to get River an egg of one of the little flying dragons. Simon had been apprehensive at first - River reacted to new things ... strangely, sometimes, but she had never hurt anything innocent on purpose.
But ever since the dragons, River had been ... better. More stable. She ignored humans more than ever, and it was starting to be a chore to get her to use her words and actually talk, but Simon was hoping that would just be a phase. Once she got used to the dragons, once she got used to having someone around who could simply understand her - he thinks it will get better. He hopes it will get better.
Because there's a lot he will put up with, if it means his sister is safe, and happy. He'll gladly stay here, on this planet no one knew existed, to keep his sister away from the central government and those who would use her. He'll deal with her not talking to him, not talking to anyone, if it means that her episodes are less frequent, shorter, and less severe.
The first time she was triggered while at the weyr, the first time she hunched down and started screaming - she had quieted almost instantly, and four dragons showed up moments later. They settled with her, and the old blue had been the last to arrive had stayed with her until she had fallen asleep. E'gan, the blue's rider, had told Simon that the dragons had been able to see what she hadn't, had been able to see what she was seeing, and tell her it wasn't now. It didn't matter because it wasn't now.
Since then, the episodes had gotten increasing infrequent, and sometimes Simon only knew one had happened because one of the weyrfolk would come by and let him know his sister was sleeping with such-and-such's dragon for the day.
So ... he was hopeful, that having a little dragon of her own, would help.
When she got the egg, she would spend hours perfectly still, watching it. When it hatched, she barely talked to them at all - but it helped. Simon could tell. The little creature was smarter than he thought it would be, considering all the comments of 'pests' coming from the weyr-folk. It would be at her side, cooing, or come grab him, instantly, as soon as River even started to be distressed.
It made a difference. He could tell.
It was a relief, to not have to run anymore.
He regretted, sometimes, that the rest of the crew was trapped with them - but he would do anything for his sister, and at least for him, this was a small price to pay. Kaylee was up to her elbows in tech, constantly in request for her friendly attitude and massive knowledge, and the others - Mal, Zoe, and even Jayne - even the bare-bones knowledge of basic systems and working knowledge of engines made them a valued resource.
Jayne had promised Mal that he wouldn't show these people how to build bombs, or guns, but Jayne was up to his eyeballs in helping them develop and refine fire-weapons, for use against the thread.
It was terrifying, the first time it was demonstrated. Impressive, the systems this place had against it. Jayne wanted to outfit the Serenity with fire-throwers to help, but they only had a certain amount of fuel and even though they were trying, they had no idea if they could actually develop more.
So instead, Jayne insisted on doing live tests with his new weapons, and joined the ground-crews when Thread fell over land that hadn't yet been fully protected by the grub-worms.
(It was increasingly obvious, that the original settlers to this planet had been exceedingly advanced. They talked, sometimes, about finding a way back - but with seeing how dragons could blink from one place to the next, with tales of how dragons could travel in time - Simon was becoming increasingly certain that not only had they gotten pulled across space, but across time. If both their civilizations were originally from Earth, as it seemed to be the case from the documents of the now-defunct computer, the Artificial Intelligence AIVAS, the people who colonized this planet had tech centuries beyond Simon's time. He could see the similarities, where things would come from. The genetic manipulation, that was still in its infancy in the 'Verse, and stable long-distance travel was still out of reach - but he had been hearing things, from a friend in his last year of university, of a new drive that had the potential to reach nearby systems in years instead of centuries.
If they do ever manage to get back home... Simon's certain it will be nothing like the one they left. And maybe that’s not a bad thing.)