Firefly

[Blindinthedark]

The quiet of Serenity was broken by a blood-curdling scream.

“AAAAAAAAIIII!!! NNNOOOooo!!!!!!” River screamed waking up form her nightmare. She was covered in sweat and shivering in fear. Her head throbbed and her body was numb and cold. River scrambled backwards and cowered in a corner of her bunk wrapping her blanket protectively around her.

“Fire by night,
Hands of White.

Fire by night,
Hands of White,” she whispered repeatedly between sobs.

 

[Blindinthedark]

One bright light shone its lonely battle against the darkness in the center of a small conference table. Sitting around it were 7 shadowed figures, 3 on either side and one at the head of the rectangular metal table. The rest of the room was so dark that one could not make out where the walls started or the roof ended.

A door opened at the far end of the room and light streamed in momentarily while two figures entered the darkened space. Slamming closed, the metallic clunk of the door echoed throughout the room. The two figures approached the conference table with an air of arrogance, confident and proud.

“Report,” said a deep voice that came out of the darkness at the head of the table. The two figures took their places, one on either side, farthest from the head.

“Our efforts have been …” leaning into the light his expensive black suit became apparent. However a normal observer would have ignored the suit and focused on the strange blue gloves the man wore.

“… less than fruitful,” said the other blue-gloved figure, talking towards the darkness at the end of the table. “The Tam’s have been much more resilient than we had assumed.”

“I believe it is time for further escalation in our strategy,” said the first blue-gloved man in a strange monotone voice.

“It is past time. An extremely valuable commodity has been stolen, one that is much too powerful to exist beyond our control. We are NOT pleased by your persistent failures,” said another voice from the shadows. The malice was not hidden by the clear tenor tone of this man.

“The Parliament Operative did not help matters,” replied a woman from other side of the table. “We were close to retrieving our property before his clumsy batterings at a solution.”

"Lest we forget your bumbled attempt with Jubal Early," fenced the tenor voice.

"Xiong cho fai!" the woman spat back.

“We should move to Plan Theta. It has the highest probability of success,” said another male voice from the shadows.

“Enough,” black eyes gleamed out of the darkness from the head of the table. Hands, hidden in white gloves, reached out the shadows of the voice and picked up a silver cigarette case from the table. Pressing a button on the front, the case sprung open.

“We will continue with our current plan,” said the deep voice taking a cigarette out and placing the case back on the table, “the pieces are in place. The game is in play. We need only wait and collect on the outcome. Patience, when the time is right, all paths will lead to us. Until then, we continue with the Program.”

A silver lighter emerges from the darkness and gleamed in the anemic light of the room. It appeared well worn, maybe even an antique from Ancient Earth-That-Was. Bathed in soft light as the man lit the cigarette, his features become momentarily revealed. Cold and gray were the lines in his face that showed more age than it should. He had the look of many old battles etched in his unscarred features. Callousness shone in the eyes of his otherwise expressionless face. In an instant the flame was out and all that was left was the glowing tip of his cigarette burning in the black.

He placed his lighter on the table taking a moment to admire the white flame motif enameled onto the side. With a little flick to one corner, he sent the lighter spinning in place. Round and round it went in the still room while smoke wafted across the table. A casual observer probably would not have noticed. Even some trained observers might have missed it but if a person looked closely enough they would have seen that the lighter never touched the table. It floated millimeters above spinning like a top in a child’s game.

Camera shot: The shot at the end of the scene would be an extreme close up on the lighter and seeing that it’s floating.
The camera would pull away showing: passing through walls at some facility, in some building, in some town, on some planet and end up back on the current story.

 

[papillon24]

Kaylee made her way back to the engine room. Wores and parts were strewn all over.

Quickly she went to work placing the wires where they should and moving parts to the side.

Serenity was in bad shape but she had been in worse in the past.

Life support could do with a few more parts butt ill they got another job she would have to make due.

Kaylee went into the panel that held their life support and scaped a bit of rust from it to ensure the length of time it would run.

She closed the panel and patten the metal of the ship.

"That's my girl" she spoke softly as looked lovingly on the parts