Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust
CHAPTER FIVE
He put his hands in the air, which struck him as silly since he wasn't going to die, but it was a reflex. "You've got a lot of demands," he said. "First you want me to give you the box, then you want me to hand you Malcolm Reynolds, and then who knows what else you'll want?"
"I think my demands are very simple. I just want Malcolm Reynolds and that box you've got in your hand. What I want to know is how did you get that box in the first place?"
"Well, as long as you've got a gun pointed to my head and are threatening to kill my crew, I don't feel very much like talking. And keep in mind, you shoot me now and I can't die. So. I'll just be back to normal in a few days. It'll hurt, so I'd rather not, but if you insist."
"Yes, when you wake up, everyone in Torchwood will all be dead, so..."
Jack could not hear her, but was able to see her first. River snuck up behind the Talitia, something he didn't think was a good idea. She was so fragile-looking. He tried to telepathically communicate with her: "Walk away, she's on a killing spree." But River kept going, staring intently at the back of Talitia's head. It reminded him of a cat waiting for just the right moment to pounce.
And River pounced. She kicked out her leg and swung Talitia over backwards, then grabbed the gun and pointed it at her face as she lay on the ground, eyes wide in fright. "I can kill you," the girl said simply.
"Don't! Please don't!" Without the gun in her hand, Talitia was a coward. She trembled on the ground, hands up over her eyes as if they would protect her if River decided to shoot.
"Don't shoot her," Jack said, in disgust. "She's just a coward."
"Cowards can be ferocious," River said, not looking away from Talitia. "Look at the cowardly lion in that one fairy tale, the one about the lion and scarecrow and tin man. He always had courage."
"Yes, but still. Let's leave her alone for now." He felt shaky and off-kilter. How did such a fragile looking girl cause that much damage?
"Get up," River said. "And you can go home. And I'll be keeping this."
Talitia slowly stood up, trembling. She eyed the gun for a moment, but then turned and walked away. River did not lower the weapon.
And then, the crew of Serenity crowded around them.
"Pick up," Martha thought to herself. She didn't know how this worked. If the Doctor answered, would it be a new Doctor since they were so far into the future? Or would it be her own? Hopefully her Doctor lasted a really long time. Even though she knew technically a different Doctor would be as brilliant as the one she knew, she'd feel a lot better talking to him.
He picked it up on the fourth ring, and she recognized his voice, much to her relief. "Stupid lever," he said. "I can't get it to work. As such, I'll probably be stuck in the 18th century forever. I loved watching electricity get invented and all that, but I am thoroughly soaking wet right now --"
"Doctor," she said quickly, to try and get him to focus. She'd forgotten how much he tended to ramble.
"Martha Jones! Nice to hear from you! Don't know where my manners have been!"
"Do you know anything about a silver box? It's got some sort of intricate design on it, you know, dark spirals and stuff. It glows and gets really hot sometimes."
"Hmm. Silver box. Silver box. Silver box. Is this a UNIT thing?"
"No, we found it at Torchwood. I just saw a fortune teller and she said there was some kind of magic. And it all makes sense because when we opened the box before in Cardiff we ended up centuries into the future where Earth doesn't exist anymore."
"Ah, yes. Chinese and American unification, right? Fascinating time in history. That's when you lot figure out about space travel."
"Yes. Well, I thought you might know something about this silver box since it seems to be the key to time travel. At least in this universe."
"I don't know anything about it. Sorry, Martha. Without seeing it, I'm not sure I can help."
"The phone I gave you is a camera phone. I can send you a picture."
"Really?" the Doctor said, as if this was the most amazing thing he'd ever heard of. "You can send me pictures with your phone? Brilliant!"
"I'll do it if we can't find a way home on our own. I'd better go, Doctor."
"Yes, I'd better get this TARDIS fixed. Talk to you soon, then."
Martha shut her phone and walked off to find Jack.
"Everyone in the ship now!" Mal thundered, pointing to the open doors of Serenity. Kaylee stood at the top, arms folded. She looked confused and more than a little bit alarmed.
"Jack," Mal continued, "you have ten minutes to find your people or we'll leave you behind, time travel be damned. And yes, I'm letting you back on out of the kindness of my heart. Zoe, take the gun from River and let's get goin'. I'm going to go do a walk around and make sure no one saw a known fugitive knock out a UNIT operative right outside of my spaceship. Also, Zoe, call Inara and tell her to drop her appointment if she wants to get back on Serenity ever." He glared at River, but River didn't seem to mind.
Zoe put her arm gently around River and took the gun from her. She didn't try to fight it, she just let Zoe steer her back into the ship.
Mal frowned as Jack went off his separate way, to track down his own crew. If River and her brother were found and she was sent back to that academy where they tortured people, it wouldn't be his fault. He'd done everything he could to protect the two of them and the only thanks he got was River attacking government officials.
It didn't take long before he heard the unmistakable clicking noise of a gun lock being released, followed by the sound of several guns making the same noise. When he looked up, he realized he was now surrounded by UNIT officials.
"Come with us and I recommend you do it peacefully!" came a loud booming voice. "Malcolm Reynolds, you're under arrest!"
Thirty minutes later, Jack had returned with his crew but there was no captain. It wasn't like him to be so late. Zoe sat in the bridge with Kaylee and River.
"Radio silence," Kaylee said. "I'm hearin' something about Number One, but nothing else. Just vague chatter."
"It's got to be code," Zoe said. "All right. I'm goin' to go out there with Jayne. River, if somethin' goes wrong, you've got to fly this thing out of here and get away as fast as you can. Kaylee, you think you can help her get out of any scrapes with Serenity?"
"Yes, but --" Kaylee looked upset. Zoe's heart went out to her. She hated the idea of being separated, or worse - if something had happened to the captain.
"We'll be fine," she said soothingly. "But you've got to prepare for the worst."
"I know, but --"
"Why don't we come with you?" River said gently. "That way Kaylee won't be so sad."
Zoe paused for a moment. "And have you going out in front of UNIT soldiers? I think that's the reason we're in this trouble in the first place."
"Well, I can stay here with my brother, I suppose. But Kaylee should go. She will be very sad."
"If you want to," Zoe said.
"I wouldn't mind."
"Okay, then. Stay close to me, though. All right? And keep your radio close at hand. I don't want to miss it if the Captain's tryin' to communicate."
The holding cells at UNIT were white and they didn't even have bars you could peek out of. There was a tiny hole in the wall that opened when someone wanted to bring him food, but other than that, Mal stared at white walls. He wasn't sure how long they'd keep him here. Was he at UNIT so they could interrogate him, or was he here just waiting to be handed off to another part of the Alliance? He hoped they'd just keep him here. UNIT, he could handle. The Alliance, not so much.
Most of the guys here seemed weaker than Mal was. Maybe he could take some of the guards down next time they took him out of the cell? He'd been trying to come up with a plan since he'd been placed in here. Nothing seemed to be viable. He'd have to see exactly where he was before escaping.
Something large and blue on the walls caught his attention. At first, he thought it was a giant insect or something else equally unpleasant, but after a moment he saw there were words written on the wall in neat kanji letters.
It said Bad Wolf.
Jack let Martha snap a quick photo of the silver box to send to the Doctor. She'd just hit send when they heard frantic footsteps in the next room. Jack poked his head out and saw Zoe and Jayne testing out weapons and putting some of them into holsters.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"We think somethin' happened to the captain," Zoe said simply. "Should be over soon."
"Do you need help?"
"I need you to stay here and keep your crew safe."
"If something happened to the captain, I'd feel responsible. I'd like to help."
"All right, fine. You any good with a gun?" she asked with a sigh.
"Quite good, actually." He smiled as she tossed one at him. Jack caught it easily and slipped it into his own gun holster. "Let's get this show going, then!"
Zoe knew that the captain couldn't have been taken far. Kaylee was still getting radio signal declaring that Number One was down, so most likely there was another UNIT headquarters or jail of some sort on Hawall. Zoe was about ninety-nine percent positive that the captain had to be Number One, too.
She just didn't know for sure where UNIT was on this planet. They followed the muffled and unclear sound of the radio for awhile, and eventually the radio started to come in much more clearly.
"Meeting in ten," they heard over a crackling noise.
"There they are," Zoe said, pointing towards the east. Sure enough, a few steps later, they saw a beige building in the distance. It looked precisely like the UNIT headquarters they'd visited back on New London. She hoped that the captain was there. "Follow me. And Kaylee, stay close, all right? Jayne and Jack, you be ready from behind if anything happens to me."
They walked together in silence for awhile, the occasional sound of the UNIT radios reflecting in their own.
"All right," she said. "I'm goin' to shoot that lock, so you best be prepared to hide behind anythin' you can find. And if they come out shooting, we're going to shoot 'em out first. Ready?"
The others nodded. Kaylee looked pale, as if she didn't really want to do this. She always looked awkward holding a gun, as if it didn't fit. Zoe knew that back on Miranda, she had shot her gun only a few times, and she wondered if she'd be up to the task of shooting UNIT operatives as well. Killing a couple of blood-thirsty Reavers was a much different task than killing human beings who were not out to kill them first. If Kaylee froze up on her, she knew at least Jayne would be more than adequate back-up.
Zoe aimed well, because then she heard the lock click out of place right after she shot it. Alarms went off overhead as they scurried for cover. It took seemingly forever, but the hallways quickly cleared. It seemed that the UNIT employees had found their evacuation spot. "We move together, got that? Jayne, you got that?"
Jayne frowned. "Hey, I wasn't gonna do anythin'. What exactly did you think I was gonna do, woman?"
"I don't know, but don't do it. Right. Everyone keep an eye out for someplace that looks like a holding cell. If we're not too slow, we should be able to get the captain and get out of there quickly. I'll stand in front and Jayne, you'll stick around back. Kaylee, stay in the middle."
Kaylee nodded, not daring to argue with Zoe. Jack kept his gun close at hand, and prepared to fight.
Mal heard the gunfire moments before the alarms went off. It woke him up from a dead sleep, and he wondered sleepily what was going on. Nothing happened for a long time. He waited for someone to come for him, to move him to a secure spot, but no one did. UNIT, clever as ever, he thought. The gunfire came closer and he heard shouting, then screams. Mal walked over to the door to see if he could hear anything else.
After a moment or two, he heard voices coming as if from very far away. It didn't take him long to recognize Jayne's voice. He wished that Jayne would learn how to be a little bit quieter during these kinds of missions.
"Let's just get this done!" he said, sounding exasperated. "I value my life, you know!"
Then he heard Zoe's voice, much to his relief. If Zoe was in command, he'd be out of there faster than you could say Big Bad Wolf. "You're supposed to be protecting Kaylee."
"I value my life more than I value hers!"
"Don't ever let me hear you say that again," she said. Mal smiled. Good for her. As much as he hated to admit it, she might make a better captain than him.
Some day. Way in the future, he hoped.
There was more gunfire and the door sprung open.
"You're scary when you get your in-command voice on," Mal said, standing up and beaming at Zoe.
"Shut up, sir." There was a hint of a smile on her face.
"Hey there, Captain," Kaylee said, voice sounding shaky. She looked happy, though.
"Hey there, Kaylee. And Jack. And Zoe."
Jack waved at him slightly and nodded in acknowledgement.
"Right, let's get out of here." Zoe tossed him a gun and they began to sneak out of the hall. Since the halls had pretty much cleared, they walked together with guns pointed out, the way they had done in the war, but they didn't really need to. There was no one in sight.
"Far easier getting out than getting in," Kaylee joked weakly after they opened the door and stepped out into freedom.
"Let's go, though," Mal said. "Quickly."
Without speaking, they ran back to the ship and got ready for take-off.
When Mal stepped into the cargo area, he pressed the button that would close the doors. He knew they had to leave now. It wouldn't take long for UNIT to discover that their prize prisoner had escaped and would come after him.
A few moments later, Serenity soared into the sky. "Okay. Jack, I need to see you. Everyone else, go find a job to do."