6:51 P.M.
July 4th, 2018
“It’s Serenity,” Chuck said, his voice full of disbelief.
There was stunned silence on the other end for a moment.
“Oh my God,” Sarah finally replied. “Are you sure?”
“It’s got to be,” Chuck said firmly, as he clambered over rocks down into the ravine. “It’s a Firefly-class ship, it’s got the same markings as Serenity. She’s pretty fucked up, but it’s definitely her.”
“What does ‘fucked up’ mean?” came a little voice from behind Chuck.
“Oh, Christ,” Chuck muttered, realizing the little boy was still behind him. Turning around, he said, “You can’t say that, okay?”
“Why not?”
“Because,” Chuck said. “It’s not nice to say it.”
“Who the hell are you talking to?” Sarah asked.
“There’s a little boy here, he looks about six years old,” Chuck replied. “When he saw me, he asked me if I was his daddy.”
“Okay, that’s weird,” Sarah said.
“No shit,” Chuck replied. “I mean, no kid-“
It was too late. “What does ‘shit’ mean?”
Chuck sighed. “Look, Sarah, I’m gonna go. It looks like the sheriff is here. I need to try to get down to Serenity, and keep my eye on this kid at the same time.”
“Alright,” she replied. “It definitely sounds like DHS can’t handle this. I’m going to call up your
“Sounds like a plan,” Chuck said, climbing down from one final boulder, parking himself next to a hatch into the ship that had been broken and twisted open. “I’ll see you in a few.”
He disconnected, and grabbed the edge of the hatch. He pulled, and it moved a little, but didn’t give much. “Is this where you came out?” he grunted to the little boy.
“Yes,” the boy said. “I climbed up from my mommy’s room and found the open door.”
“Who’s your mommy?” Chuck asked, as he attempted to pull the door off.
“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” was the answer Chuck got.
Chuck sighed. “Alright, can you at least tell me if she’s okay?”
“She wouldn’t wake up,” the little boy said. “One side of her face was kind of black, and the other side… she was bleeding a little…”
He was starting to cry. “I don’t know why Mommy wouldn’t wake up… I tried to wake her up, and then the Captain tried to wake her up… he yelled her name over and over again… I’m not allowed to call her Kaylee, but he said it… and then there was a big boom, and we were here.”
Chuck felt like his heart had stood still. “Did you say your mommy’s name was Kaylee?” he gasped.
The little boy nodded, his eyes wide and his cheeks red and wet.
Chuck turned back to the hatch. He gave it one almighty pull, and it twisted off in his hands. He turned to the boy. “You stay here.”
The hatch was just large enough for Chuck to wriggle through, dropping onto the deck below. It was slanted under his feet, pitched upward at the same angle as the ship.
Chuck looked around at a corridor he hadn’t seen in over ten years. He knew immediately where he was – the port side hallway, just forward of the shuttles.
Chuck could think of only one place where Kaylee could be that she would’ve ended up burned and bleeding. He turned toward the back of the ship and started moving, as quickly as he could.
As he passed the shuttles, he came around a corner – and ran smack into Malcolm Reynolds.
Mal’s eyes were already wide with fear and shock. He had blood running down his face, and his left shoulder appeared to be dislocated.
His eyes got even wider. “Oh my God…” he whispered. “Oh my God… oh my God…”
“Mal,” Chuck said quietly, touching his good shoulder.
“I watched… I watched you leave,” Mal said. “You were on
“That’s right,” Chuck said. “So are you.”
Mal’s jaw dropped open in shock. “That’s impossible.”
“I know,” Chuck replied, a renewed sense of urgency filling his voice. “But we don’t have time for that right now. Kaylee’s hurt in the engine room.”
“Yeah,” said Mal. “I couldn’t get her to wake up.”
“Let’s go,” Chuck said, pushing forward.
He reached the door of the engine compartment. The door was partway open. Chuck pushed the button on the panel next to it to open it, but there was no power. Pushing, he slowly slid the door open and squeezed into engineering.
Kaylee lay on the floor next to the drive. It was clear to Chuck that the drive unit had torn itself apart. Scorch marks were evident on the wall behind Kaylee, and the right hand side of her face was slightly burned. Her clothes were charred, but intact.
“Good God,” Chuck gasped, running across the compartment to her. He slid his arms under Kaylee, and picked her up. The left hand side of her face was bleeding from a deep gash, and there was bruising all around it.
Kaylee felt as light as a feather. Chuck turned, and exited the compartment. “Mal!” he shouted. “Mal!”
Mal staggered across the cargo bay to where Chuck stood. “Can we get the bay doors open?”
“Yeah, uh, there should still be enough emergency battery power,” Mal responded.
Shaking his head in an attempt to reorient himself, Mal hit a series of buttons on the panel. The door slowly groaned open.
“I’m going to get Kaylee to safety,” Chuck shouted. “You go get Zoe and Inara and Simon and River and Jayne.”
“Inara isn’t with us anymore,” Mal said dazedly. “She left the ship a while back.”
Chuck looked at him for a moment, then made a decision. “Okay, Mal, you go outside with Kaylee, and I’ll go get the others.”
He could barely bring himself to hand Kaylee to Mal and let go of her, but he did. Mal staggered up the ramp out into the rapidly fading daylight, as Chuck dashed back into the bowels of the ship.
Zoe, Simon, and Jayne were all in the crew mess, unconscious. Chuck managed to wake Simon and Zoe up, but Jayne had a lump the size of a golf ball on his head.
“Chuck?” Zoe gasped. “Is that really you?”
“Yeah, it’s really me, and we don’t have time to discuss this right now,” Chuck replied. “Take Jayne out through the cargo bay, and be careful – he might have a spinal injury.”
“I’m supposed to say that,” Simon said, sounding drunk.
Chuck shook his head and continued forward. When he reached the control room, he found River, strapped into her seat, staring straight forward, her hands wrapped around the control yoke with a white knuckle grip.
“River?” he said softly.
“I… crashed…Serenity…”
“River, it’s okay,” Chuck said.
“I… crashed…Serenity…”
Chuck peered around the front of her face, and then waved his hand in front of her eyes. No reaction.
Unstrapping River, he lifted her out of the seat. Gingerly, he made his way back to the aft end of the ship, carrying River up the ramp and out.
When he reached the exterior of the ship, he could see that local law and fire was present in large quantities. A helicopter sat in an open space about five hundred feet away. Three ambulances were parked at the edge of the ravine, and more police cars than you could shake a fist at crowded the camp.
As Chuck came up out of the ship, a team of paramedics ran up to him. As they took River from him and laid her on a stretcher, one of them said, “Were you on board the ship, sir?”
“No,” Chuck replied, distractedly. “I’m with the CIA… did you see a little boy?”
“Yes, sir,” the paramedic said. “He’s over at the first ambulance. He keeps saying that the woman we have in there is his mother.”
Chuck turned from the paramedic and ran to the ambulance. Inside, they had Kaylee on a respirator. The heart monitor she was on showed her pulse was weak and steady. The little boy sat on a bench inside the ambulance, crying.
“Where are you taking her?” Chuck asked.
“Uh, Henry Mayo, down in Santa Clarita,” one of the paramedics said.
“No, no,” Chuck responded. “Get her onboard that helicopter and take her to Cedars Sinai.”
“Hey, buddy, I work for the ambulance service,” the medic said. “That helicopter belongs to the Ventura County Sheriff.”
“
He sprinted over to the helicopter, the medic behind him. “Who’s in charge here?” he shouted, trying to make himself heard over the noise of the aircraft’s engines.
“That’s me,” a man in a sheriff’s uniform said. “Deputy Mark Crisman. Who the hell are you?”
Ignoring the sheriff’s question, Chuck shouted, “There’s a woman in an ambulance over there. She’s been badly burned. I want her loaded on this helicopter and taken to Cedars-Sinai right now!”
“And I want to have sex with Hilary Duff!” the deputy shouted back.
Blood rushed to Chuck’s head and he grabbed the deputy by the collar. Slamming him against the helicopter, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his I.D. Not his standard issue CIA I.D., but rather one that had a black stripe with a single off-center red band on it.
“You know what this means?” Chuck growled, shoving the I.D. in the deputy’s face.
The deputy’s eyes went wide and his face went pale. “Oh my God… a national command authority I.D… I never thought I’d actually…”
“Shut up and get her loaded,” Chuck snapped. “When you land at Cedars-Sinai, tell them that this is an
Chuck turned away and headed back toward the crash site. Behind him, the deputy snapped into action, barking orders at the other deputies and the paramedics. Chuck shoved his presidential-issue I.D. back into his pocket. “Call: Sarah Walker,” he growled.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t understand your request,” his phone replied.
“Jesus H. CHRIST,” he barked.
“I’m sorry, I didn’-“
Chuck yanked the Bluetooth from his ear and hurled it into the forest. Grabbing his phone from his pocket, he dialed Sarah’s direct line and held the phone to his ear.
It rang once, and then, “This is Director Walker. I’m sorry, but I’m in flight right-”
Chuck, of course, knew how to override, and punched in his emergency code.
After a moment and three more rings, the phone was answered. “Director Walker.”
“Sarah, it’s them alright,” Chuck said. “Zoe and Simon were banged up a little. I think Mal and Jayne both have concussions. They’re being taken to Henry Mayo to get checked out. Inara wasn’t with them.”
Sarah was quiet for a moment. “Chuck…” she said.
“Yeah!”
“What about Kaylee?”
Chuck looked at his feet. He hadn’t seen her for over ten years, but the time that had passed hadn’t diminished the way he felt about her at all. Now, to see her like this, the first time he’d seen her in so long…
“Chuck?”
He sighed deeply. “She doesn’t look good,” he said. “She was burned pretty badly. The drive ripped itself apart, and it looked the explosion threw her against the wall behind her. She was bleeding badly from her head, and she probably has some internal injuries too. They’re taking her to Cedars on my orders. I said to tell Cedars that she’s an
In the background, he could hear Sarah relaying this information to other people, presumably on the plane. Then he heard John Casey’s voice say something in the background that he couldn’t quite make out, followed by another voice. The second was familiar, but Chuck couldn’t quite place it.
“Uh, Chuck?” Sarah said, coming back on the line.
“Still here.”
“Casey had some choice things to say. Colonel Tweedum said to tell you that Kaylee will be in his prayers.”
Colonel Michael Tweedum. That’s who it was. The co-pilot on Enterprise on the mission to retrieve Chuck from the 26th century years earlier, now Sarah’s personal pilot.
“Tell Mike I said thank you,” Chuck said. Turning, he saw the helicopter lifting off. “I’ve gotta go,” he said, and hung up the phone without waiting for Sarah.
As the helicopter gained altitude and flew up and out of the valley, Chuck dashed across the campground to his DB7. He backed out of the driveway in a cloud of dust, and fishtailed as he dropped the car into drive, accelerating up the highway.
Chuck had kept a photo of Kaylee in the glovebox of his cars for years. Even during the affair with Sarah, he’d always had the photo. Now, he reached in the glovebox, and pulled it out.
“Hang on,” he whispered, holding the photo against the steering wheel. “Hang on, Kaylee.”
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