that freedom highway | Glowfic Constellation

River Tam has been away from home for nearly four years, now. Her seventeenth birthday passed unremarked by their parents, who had at least made something resembling a nod to their daughter on her fourteenth and fifteenth. (She's in good hands, and they're loyal citizens. Worrying would be gauche, especially when their lives have gotten quite lucky ever since they signed their youngest daughter over to the government's academy).

She sent her older sister a letter on her own birthday, though - and on Ellie's birthday, too, and one responding to Ellie's letter to her.

The food is still pretty boring here. Wish they'd let me put ghost pepper on it. Do you remember that - street stall I think it was, we split the curry, you turned bright red... Wish they had food like that here.

(Their parents have never let them eat street food.)

Have mom and dad let you get a puppy, yet? If they do, you should name her after me, so I can bite you in spirit.

(River had briefly wanted a puppy at six, but - the thing she'd spent most of her time bothering their parents for was a kitten.)

(Those aren't the only things wrong. It's been four years of slightly off - unverifiably wrong - memories and references, and woven through it...)

Do you remember when we went ice skating, that one time at great-grandma's? Do you think her house is still there? I'd like to go back, sometimes. It was a lot of fun.

(River had fallen in, and her older sister had saved her life. River hadn't gone near water again for five years, and had still been avoiding ice when her sister last saw her.)

The probable location of the government academy is in the Herald system, in the same cluster as Ellie's school - two hops away, through wormholes placed conveniently closely to the planets. It's a quiet place, more tightly guarded than any prison Ellie has ever seen. It's plain. Sterile. Boring, but - threatening in its simplicity. Brutalism's descendant, grown up into a bully.

The security is thorough.

Ellie is smart, though, and important people aren't questioned quite as much, and, well. There are quite a lot of planets containing quite a lot of politicians, some of them involved in projects like this. Some of them pretty similar in appearance to Ellie.

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to-the-bone

If he doesn't circle wide around her, she shoulder-checks him.

can't-take-the-sky

He doesn't.

He also doesn't stumble, but does turn a bit toward her again, hand falling with a jerk toward his gun. Then, eyes narrow: "Watch where you're going," before he turns to leave.

to-the-bone

"Careful with that gun. Dangerous to have on a spaceship."

can't-take-the-sky

"Dangerous to go without," he says, shortly, heading rather quickly to one of the stairs to the catwalks - which, not the way to the passenger bunks.

to-the-bone

Ellie follows him.

can't-take-the-sky

He twitches. "Don't you have something better to do?" he snaps.

to-the-bone

"If someone on this ship is surreptitiously signaling our position to pirates, Reavers, or unscrupulous law enforcement, I think that discovering that would be an excellent use of my time."

can't-take-the-sky

Twitch. "Then you'll be awful bored, wasting your time."

to-the-bone

"Perhaps."

can't-take-the-sky

He glares at her, hand still floating nearish his gun.

to-the-bone

She closes the distance in a rush, striking to disable his gun arm and sweeping his legs.

can't-take-the-sky

He's not untrained.

He twists mostly out of her way, getting his gun into his hand - but she still clips his legs, making him stumble a little as he sweeps his revolver toward her.

(He doesn't make any sound.)

to-the-bone

She flicks her knife out and swings it in a crossing slash.

can't-take-the-sky

It cuts into his arm! But he pulls the trigger before he drops the gun -

Though he hadn't had time to really aim.

to-the-bone

Gunshots are loud in an enclosed space, and she flinches-

-but the bullet goes past her.

Anna Washburne

And hits the pilot who had been coming up to see what the source of that transmission she blocked was.

Anna cries out in pain and half-falls down the steps.

can't-take-the-sky

He dives back for his gun.

Zoe Washburne

shaboom

A hatch slams open from towards the crew quarters, footsteps ringing out from someone not yet in sight.

to-the-bone

Ellie kicks the gun away and pushes her attack.

River Tam

give-you-something-beautiful

River runs into the room, from the passenger area - and vaults in one smooth motion from the floor up to the catwalk Dobson is retreating along, slamming into him.

Ellie is very sure all of the sudden that she needs to go help Anna right now. River has this in hand. (And, by the evidence from her eyes - River is moving far too fast for Dobson to keep up with, strikes brutal.)

Zoe Washburne

shaboom

Zoe lets out one single, sharp cry - retrieves the dropped gun - and drops to her wife's side to help staunch the blood flow.

to-the-bone

River's got this.

Ellie hurries over to Anna, assessing the damage. "There's a medical bag in my room, if you don't have a first aid kit closer than that," she tells Zoe. "I'm a doctor, I'll stay with her."

Zoe Washburne

shaboom

She doesn't hesitate - does turn and snap to the next person who'd come to respond to the gunshot (Jayne, followed by Bina) to get the first aid kit off the wall and get Dobson restrained (...or, more restrained than River has him) as she's already sprinting to the back of the ship - but not all the way to the passenger area, since she returns after less than a minute with a more stocked kit and a collapsed stretcher.

to-the-bone

Captain Bina Reynolds Miryala

Ellie begins efficiently treating Anna's wound, and directs Jayne to help her get Anna onto the stretcher so she can be moved somewhere with more space to work.

The bullet will need to come out before Ellie can sew it up.

thelasttime