Old Blue Crate Chap. 8: Ruckus

"Whoa!"

Wash yanked hard to starboard, then hard to port and 27 degrees yaw on the yoke as the starboard engine flickered, died, and roared back to life in an impossible succession.

He punched the comm. "Kaylee, what's going on down there?" No answer.

His voice went dead calm. "Kaylee, girl, really need you on the same page here, okay? If we keep going like this-" another frantic course correction "-we might well do something we all regret, like litter a major space route with bits of, well, us."

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Mal and Zoe, in the hold, felt the ship jerk. They both grabbed for the walk way handrails. Zoe's knife went clattering to the floor below, while boxes, crates, and the Mule shifted and slid, slamming into the walls. Even the red-eyed 'Jayne' was staggering a bit, though still wearing that psychotic grin; except for that bit of stumbling, his feet seemed welded to the deck.

"Stop hiding in your pitiful little TARDIS, Doctor!" shouted Jayne.

Both noted, Mal with some surprise, Zoe in her usual detached manner, that his accent had changed from his usual Rim drawl to something resembling an upper-class Core one.

"Come out and face me, or I'll shatter this ship around us! Do you think your little friends can stand explosive decompression?"

Mal struggled toward Jayne, keeping a firm grip on the railing. "Don't reckon I like bein' called anyone's little anything," he muttered. He gritted his teeth. "And you ain't doin' a 小的老鼠创伤 thing to my ship, you double crossin..."

The ship stopped rocking for a moment, and he launched himself at Jayne, both fists closed in one and swinging a hammer blow toward his back. Jayne had half-turned with a smaller smile, and simply sidestepped Mal's blow, bringing his own fist up in a crushing blow to the jaw as he passed him-

or he would have, if the force of the punch hadn't sent Mal dropping to the grated landing like a sack of potatoes.

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Kaylee stopped to one side of the open door, listening to something inside.

It was giggling.

She also heard plates being pulled aside, wires sparking-

No time to lose!

She spun, forcing through the door and ran in, wrench upraised and eyes half-shut.

A small figure, dressed in a dirty gray shirt and black pants, common clothes of the children she had seen running around the docks on Persephone, was busily working a power drill, boring into yet another access plate; wires and parts lay strewn all over, though thankfully, the engine still seemed to be on-line, but just barely.

She slowed in her confusion, reaching out with one hand to grab the kid's shoulder. "Stop that! What do you think you're doing?" She spun him around -

The boy's eyes were glowing a bright red, and he was wearing an unnatural rictus of a grin, seemingly far too wide for his face. Her jaw dropped.

"I think I'm breaking your ship. It's lots of fun!" he rasped, in what sounded like a childish voice forced through a mile of static. It shoved her hard, knocking her back into the hallway. She brought herself, blinking, to a sitting position. The boy was advancing out of the engine room, toward her. She shook her head and started to get to her feet, just as the child reached her, grabbed her robe and pulled her face close to his.

"Would you like to play a - urk</i>." A hypo spray hissed against the small neck, and it staggered back. It turned, unbelieving , to face an absolutely expressionless River Tam.

"That was a mistake," it growled, in increasingly mush-mouthed fashion, "but your body could be- no! Got to get out before-" The red glow flared in its eyes briefly, before it collapsed to the deck, out cold.

Kaylee stared at River in confused grateful shock.

River paced over and crouched before her. "The burning dark had him," she said in a quiet monotone. She reached out and tapped her gently in the center of the forehead. "Right there."

"River, what was-"

"It wants to swallow the 'verse, but it can't get far enough. It wants the power brought by the renegade; the Promethean fire that spans it all."

Kaylee got back to her feet, and hurried over to the child's side. "He's just a boy!"

"Burning dark's a stowaway, just like him," stated River. She handed another hypo spray gun to Kaylee, who stared at it in confusion.

"Can't let it wake, or we will all burn. Dosage accurate." She started padding down the corridor in the direction of the hold.

"Wait!" said Kaylee. "Where-"

"Jayne howls helpless in a cage of fire, can't even rattle the bars," she said. "Look to the children."

"Wh-" Kaylee then looked back toward the boy, then off into the engine room. "Right."

With a grunt, she managed to lift they boy and, with this burden, re-entered the engine room. She set the boy in her hammock, then picked up the drill from the floor.

"Hope the others are okay. Don't you worry, girl," she said, stroking the side of the main drive, "we'll have you right soon."

She set to work at the engine first, re-attaching wires and plates. Her work was slowed as her eyes darted back toward the slumbering child, and by the hypo spray clutched in her right hand.

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Zoe felt the movement of the ship suddenly cease, and dove forward to grab Mal's leg just as his senseless form was about to slide off the grating to fall twenty feet onto the steel-plated hold floor below.

'Jayne' looked around, surprised. "What are you up to, Doctor?"

As if in answer, the door in the side of the crate opened, and the Doctor stepped out. He turned to look at the position it had ended up in, shook his head, then turned to look back up at them.

"All right," he said, "I suppose you'll be demanding my ship now."

"Very good, Doctor. I knew you wouldn't risk any lives, even these pathetic specimens." Jayne began to descend the stairs, grin still fixed on his face.

The Doctor yanked the door shut, then raised another strange device toward him. "Don't worry," he said at the others flinch, "just a control box for my ship." He started fiddling with a knob. "You know," he continued, in a quiet, conversational tone, "the Time Lords are aware of your existence, old chap."

"Indeed?" Jayne was frowning now, and had quickened his pace, reaching for the Doctor. A reddish mist was starting to come out of his eyes.

The Doctor, still working at the device, started backing away. "Yes," he said. "As a matter of fact, they insisted on interrupting me in my present search just to deal with you." He seemed to finish, and was reaching for a switch-

Jayne leaped, covering the last few feet and knocking the Doctor to the ground! The device went clattering away.

"Intriguing, Doctor," said Jayne. "Perhaps we should talk with them about that, when I'm you!" The reddish mist began to come out of his eyes, and into the Doctor's!

It didn't seem to be having immediate effect; the Doctor was still struggling, fighting both Jayne's mass and the strange mist. "Cease-" Jayne began.

"What does this do?"

Both looked up to see River, holding the Doctor's control box in one hand. The other was held against her head; she swayed a little. Her mouth was a thin line, and a few tears streaked her face. Her eyes radiated defiance mixed with a growing agony.

"Ah. Give me the box, child." He extended his hand. The Doctor quickly raised the released hand to his head, in an apparent effort to concentrate.

"No! Don't give him-aigh!"

River stared down at both of them, backing off slightly. Her focus went back on 'Jayne.' "You don't belong here, he doesn't belong to you, leave us ALONE!" She ended her sentence in a pained shriek.

Jayne stood and began walking slowly toward her. "Give it to me!" Behind him, the red mist had left the Doctor and was following him.

The Doctor lifted himself to his hands and knees, gasping. "River! The center blue switch! Now!"

River looked at both of them, and kept backing away.

Jayne kept coming closer.

The Doctor found his feet and charged the larger man, who turned, grinning again, to meet him. His fist lashed out with unnatural speed-

and the Doctor was already under it and inside his guard, his hands formed into crane strikes that were slammed home into his neck and solar plexus. He then stepped back.

The man grinned again, then tried to say something. He frowned.

The Doctor turned back toward River. "The box! Throw it here. Quickly!" Behind him, Jayne's eyes rolled back, and he crashed to the floor. The mist that had been following him rose up behind the Doctor and began moving toward him. The Doctor noticed this out of the corner of his eye, and began moving away.

River pointed the box at the mist, and flipped the switch.

WHOOMMM</b>

A green beam of light lanced from the machine into the reddish cloud, which was drawn into it! Jayne let out a hoarse scream as the glowing red globe phased out of his head and was drawn itself into the device as well.

River looked solemnly at the controls, then up at the Doctor. "All done." She handed it over to him.

"Well done, young lady," he said. He laid a hand on her forehead. "Oh, my," he said, "I think you'd better-"

They were interrupted by the sound of running feet coming up another hallway, followed by Simon, carrying his doctor's satchel. "Who's hurt? I..." He drew up short. "River?! I thought I told you to stay in the room!"

She gave him a sunny smile. "You boob."

The Doctor caught her just before she hit the floor.