CHAPTER SEVEN
A thumping rhythm played over the loud speaker, the radio signature for the pulsar on the far side of the nebula. The surface tension of the air mass, which consisted primarily of hydrogen and helium, made it easier for the cloud to reflect light from a nearby white dwarf and a red giant, the light from each star fluorescing various elements diffused into the cloud that were harmonic to the wave length, creating rainbow patterns when looking at the cloud from certain angles. Ely orientated Serenity towards the nebula, visually marking his reference points in the cockpit windows. The Red Giant was to Starboard, and the White Dwarf was to Port, and if he were to look directly above, the next closest star, Vega Six, shone down. He mentally marked several other stars for reference.
“Very pretty,” River said.
“How do you know there aren’t chunks of stone and metals in there?” Jayne asked. “There are,” Ely assured him.
“Okay, let me try this again,” Jayne said. “How do you avoid running into them chunks of stone and metal when you can’t see where you’re going?” “Trust in a higher power,” Ely said.
“I’d rather trust what I can see,” Malcom said.
“Amen,” Jayne said.
“Everything that was ejected from the star when it went nova are in the nebula,” Ely said. “The lighter stuff flew out further and faster and the heavier stuff dragged behind and has probably been slowed up some by the massive gravity well created by the neutron star, which is technically what is now the pulsar. The nebula fans out from the pulsar in a spheroid region, thicker towards where the star’s equator was, thinner towards the poles, with clear regions where the pulsar can actually beam out. God’s wink they call it. The nebula gets denser the further in you go.” “And how far in do we have to go?” Malcom asked.
“Roughly four hundred kilometers,” Ely said. Jayne cursed.
“There’s no turning back now,” Zoe said.
“True enough,” Malcom said. “If you’re certain of your vectors, proceed in.” Ely gently pushed Serenity towards the nebula and a circular rainbow appeared in front of them, like a target. The rainbow pattern of concentric circles shrunk as they approached and vanished as Serenity entered the nebula. It was like breaking the surface tension of water, which sent a small wake down the cloud’s exterior surface. At the beginning of the push in, there was enough light diffused into the surrounding gas that there was white against the cockpit windows. It faded to dark fairly quick. The quiet on the bridge made the noise more apparent.
“What’s that sound?” Zoe asked.
“B flat,” River said.
“It’s spooky,” Jayne said. “Turn us about.”
“It’s normal,” Ely assured him. “Ship’s hull resonating with the nebula. We might get some harmonics as the pressure increases.”
“Harmonics?” Malcom asked.
The instrument panel began to hum, a high pitch frequency and the glass on one of the monitor cracked and the screen went dark.
“Harmonics,” Ely said.
“You didn’t say anything about harmonics breaking my ship,” Malcom said.
“It varies from ship to ship,” Ely said. “Never know what’s gonna vibrate loose, but she’ll hold together. Well, fairly certain, she will.”
“Kaylee, do a run through,” Malcom directed. “Make sure nothing’s vibrating unwarrantedly.”
“Gotcha,” Kaylee agreed. “I’ll check the shuttles,” Inara said.
“We’re approaching four hundred kilometers,” Jayne said. “Where’s this cache?”
“It’ll be there,” Ely said.
River was pressed up against the port, her forehead touching glass, her hands touching to either side of her face. She could feel the music pulsing through the ship.
“Better find it soon,” Malcom said. “How much fuel was left?” “Enough,” Ely said.
“How do you know it’s still there?” Zoe asked.
“I don’t,” Ely said.
Main power went off and emergency batteries kicked in. Malcom looked at Ely. Ely only stared forwards.
“You look pretty calm for a dead man,” Jayne told Ely.
“Now,” River said, tapping her fingers on the glass. Suddenly a pocket appeared in the gas nebula, with Serenity’s running lights illuminating the spheroid region. A large, nondescript rectangular object, ten times the size of Serenity was centered in the pocket. It was like coming across an unattended aircraft carrier’s refuel tanker.
“No more music,” River sighed.
Zoe closed her eyes and said a quiet prayer of gratitude.
“How did it know we’re here if radar doesn’t work?” Jayne asked.
“It heard us,” Ely said. “The cloud allows for the transmission of sound.” Ely burned out the last of the fuel doing course corrections with the small jet, and docked Serenity up against the cube, with hardly a metal clang. He pushed a button and typed in some commands to extend the utility cable and fuel lines, listened for the sound of them connecting, and then opened the valves.
“We should be fueling now,” Ely said.
“Awesome,” Jayne said. “Now, let’s go play a little game of finders keepers.” “Zoe, go below and Kaylee monitor the refuel,” Mal said. “And tell Inara to make sure both shuttles are fully fueled. The rest of us are going to go take a look see.”
♫♪►
Lights in the cache came up as Serenity’s crew crossed over into the passageway. A sign in multiple languages warned unauthorized personnel of the severity of punishment that came for violating the cache. Below that was a map directing authorized personnel to the appropriate supply compartments. Malcom scrutinized the map.
“Funny, your pass code is still good and all,” Jayne said.
“Not my pass code,” Ely said.
Malcom looked to him for an explanation.
“An Admiral had me making some unauthorized runs, which required fueling under the radar. That’s how I know about the caches,” Ely said. “And at the time I held a key that gave me access to the databanks. The Admiral liked his privacy.” Malcom nodded as if he understood. “Okay, we’re going to split up to expedite our smash and grab,” Malcom said. “Doc, you and River go and fetch whatever you think is good from the medical supply room. Kaylee, you and Ely go to the control room and sweep our footprints. Jayne, you and I are going to go check out the weapons locker. Call if you need, folks, but for sure report back in thirty. Move out.”
The crew moved out down the corridor, which went straight to the other side. The corridor branched off at the middle, ramping downwards, dividing in two and branching out at the far wall, ramping down and cornering at the far end, repeating this trend to the bottom of the cache. They split up, Malcom and Jayne going right and Simon and River going left. Kaylee and Ely proceeded on down the corridor towards the other side and stopped at the door for the cache control room. The door opened for them, allowing them passage. The far wall had a number of computer monitors and terminals available. Kaylee followed him towards one of the monitors and he typed in the Admiral’s secret access codes. It gave him a pass.
“The last service drone was over two months ago,” Ely said. “No other activity has been registered since the war’s end. No. Wait. There was someone here last year. Interesting. Full access, no identity recorded. Wish I had his level of access.”
“Be nice, uh?” Kaylee agreed. “The guy that chased us to Miranda had that kind of clearance.”
“That’s the second time I have heard that name since I’ve been on board,” Ely said. “You have a story?”
“You don’t know the story?” Kaylee asked. “You don’t watch the news feeds?”
“Not if I can help it,” Ely said. “And there was no news on Ningxia Hui.” “Well, it was not quite a year ago,” Kaylee said. “Wait, go back a screen. This is the maintenance menu. Maybe there is an option here to reformat the memory disks.” Ely followed the tabs, searching for the correct prompts.
“No,” Kaylee said. “That’s not going to work. Look, it’ll carry everything virtually until the disk are reformatted and relay the data. We’re going to have to insert my assist.”
Kaylee opened her cloth tool box, removed some tools and her own computer and keyboard. With the tools she started tearing the panel apart. Ely got out of her way and went to another keyboard. He opened up camera feeds to view outside. One cam offered the sight of Serenity, its head sticking up over the cache. The size of the pocket was decreasing as the Nebula gasses crept back in towards the cube. In about an hour, they would be back under the cloak of darkness.
♫♪►
The door opened for Malcom and Jayne just as if they belonged there and the lights flickered on to reveal the contents of the room. Cases and cases and cases. Malcom walked in and read the markings on a stack of cases.
“Ammo,” Malcom said.
Jayne pulled a long slender case from the wall, flipped it horizontal and opened it. He almost cried with pleasure.
“A rocket launcher,” Jayne said.
Malcom came over. “Pretty, but we have no need for anything like that.”
“Speak for yourself,” Jayne said. “I’m taking one.” “You can’t buy ammo for it,” Malcom pointed out.
“Reckon that case over there ought to hold me for a little while,” Jayne said.
“Just want to shoot it a couple times.”
“We got better things to do,” Malcom said, looking around. “Take that anti gravity forklift, and start hauling these crates of ammo up to the ship. And leave room in the cargo bay to take the forklift. Moving ore, gravity or no, is hard work. I’m going to check what’s across the way.”
“Alright,” Jayne said, still admiring his piece.
“No to the rocket launcher,” Mal repeated.
“Fine,” Jane said, slamming the case shut and putting it back.
♫♪►
“Get that gurney,” Simon told his sister. “And start piling those boxes on it.”
“You really should ask me,” River said. “Please?” Simon said.
River went to inspect the boxes. “Oooh, gum,” she said, and opened up the box. “Oral hygiene supplement, mint flavor, orange flavor, spicy cinnamon, no doze amphetamine, anti allergens...” She opened up a spicy cinnamon. “Want a piece?” Simon was examining an endoscope and tools on a snake. “No,” he said, closing
the box back up. “We’re going to need another gurney.”
“Wheel chair?” River asked.
“Uh?” Simon asked. “Oh, yeah. We’re going to have to make more than one trip.
Come on, start piling.”
River began moving boxes of gum to the gurney, until her wheel chair was piled high with just gum. “I’ll take this and come back.” “Right,” Simon said, marveling at a diagnostic kit.
River pushed the chair back to Serenity and started carting the boxes of gum back to her room. On her third trip Zoe was there, examining her find.
“Gum,” River said.
“So, I see,” Zoe said.
“This kind is good for you,” River assured her.
Zoe nodded and helped River carry the boxes back to her quarters. “May I have one?”
“Sure,” River said. “I’m going to bring lots more.”
“The ship’s almost fully fueled,” Zoe said. “As soon as that’s done, I’ll join you to help.”
“Shiny,” River said.
River collected her wheel chair and proceeded back to the room where the gum was and where she had left her brother. She was fairly certain that he wasn’t in the room, but she felt as if someone was there, watching her.
“Simon?” River asked.
No one responded. She went out and crossed the hall to the other side. The door opened and she was startled by her brother’s reaction to her sudden presence. He dropped what he was carrying, sighed, and scolded her for scaring him.
“Sorry,” River said.
“It’s okay,” Simon said. “Why don’t you continue in the other room? I want to go unload this gurney and come back here.”
“Okay,” River said.
She returned to the room with the gum and put a few more boxes of it on the wheel chair. She walked down the row, reading boxes, thought she heard a noise and stopped and looked back towards the wheelchair. She tilted her head, as if a new angle would offer her a different perspective on the room. She saw nothing new, turned back to suddenly find Shepard Book standing there just as plain as day.
River screamed and bolted back to the ship, screaming all the way. She didn’t stop until she ran full length into Zoe, who grabbed her up. Simon emerged from the back and ran to her. Between Zoe and her brother, River finally calmed down enough to report what she had seen.
“You saw Book?” Zoe asked.
River nodded enthusiastically.
“What was in the gum you’re chewing?” Simon asked. “It’s not the gum,” River assured them.
“The ship is done fueling,” Zoe said. “I’ll go back with her and check it out. Let me get my gun.”
“You can’t shoot a ghost,” River said.
“Maybe not,” Zoe said. “But I can shoot someone pretending to be a ghost.” While Zoe went to get her gun, River helped her brother unload the gurney, while he read over the gum label. Confident she wasn’t chewing a hallucinogen, he watched her as she put supplies in their appropriate place until he was confident she was not drugged. Zoe returned with Inara and the four of them went to investigate and steal more stuff, bringing the gurney with them.
♫♪►
“I can’t do it from here,” Kaylee finally said. “I’m going to have to have direct access to the drives. Can you show me where they are?” “Yep,” Ely said.
Kaylee followed Ely. They paused only to see what the Doctor, Zoe, and River were fetching back to the ship.
“What are you chewing?” Kaylee asked.
“Oral hygiene supplement, spicy cinnamon,” River said.
“I want one,” Kaylee said.
River handed her the pack that she had opened earlier. “I took all of them.” “Awesome,” Kaylee said, eagerly opening a stick. She offered one to Ely who accepted. “Good find, River.”
“Thank you,” Ely said, popping it into his mouth.
“Ah,” Kaylee cooed. “This is absolutely delightful.”
“It is, actually,” Ely said.
“Yes, and let me know if you experience any hallucinations,” Simon said. Ely spit his gum out. Kaylee merely stopped chewing.
“Excuse me?” Kaylee asked.
“River thinks she saw a ghost,” Zoe said.
“I’m not paying ya’ll to loiter,” Malcom chastised, driving his forklift up the ramp. The forklift was the small, walk-behind, model and the push grips turned to power the wheels. He let go of the grips and it stopped