Sispyhus Rising
…world's been turned and overthrown
The four of them gathered around the kitchen table, Sarika and Taylor having left the stove on at a simmer. "I'm just going to come right out with it," Jared said to begin. "Taylor, you are what we in this ‘Verse call a Traveller. You've been catapulted forward through the years from your own time and world. For that to happen a violent force is always involved, usually a terraquake or a tremor of some description."
"What makes you particularly unusual, though," Shannon continued, "is that Travellers don't normally come forward more than about ten or twenty years, and ordinarily they come from within the ‘Verse. You, on the other hand…"
"Five hundred years," Taylor finished quietly, his voice barely audible over the sound of soup simmering away on the stove. He looked at his hands briefly. "How did you know?"
"After you were patched up the morning you arrived, the medic took me aside," Jared explained. "You were lucky to be alive, she told me – seems you were hit by something that had a lot of force behind it, enough to catapult you forward half a millennium. Getting shot forward probably saved your life." He scratched at a patch of table with a thumbnail. "The only way she was able to tell that your home time is so far back in the past is because her med-scanner picked up a whole lot of contaminants in your system that haven't been in the atmosphere in around four hundred years."
"And when I asked what year it was…"
Jared nodded. "That's when I knew for sure. You aren't the first Traveller, as you can probably guess, but you are the first that's ever come from twenty-first century Earth-That-Was."
Taylor then asked the question both Jared and Shannon had been dreading.
"Am I ever going to get home again?"
The brothers looked at each other. "If you'd only come forward from, say, 2490, then yeah, most likely you'd be able to get home," Shannon replied. "But because you've not only come from 2012, but also from the planet Earth, it may not be so easy." He raked a hand back through his hair. "I think it might be time for a bit of a history lesson, if you're open to one?"
Taylor shrugged. "I've got nothing else to do."
"Enthusiastic much?" Sarika murmured, earning herself an elbow in the ribs courtesy of Taylor.
"About four hundred and ninety years ago," Jared started, "a group of stars was discovered in the constellation of Taurus, made up of five stars and fourteen or so gas giants. Later on a number of Earth-like planets were also discovered. The rate of global warming on Earth-That-Was increased about twelve months afterward.
"Around ten years after global warming increased, it was confirmed that within around a century the planet Earth would no longer be able to support human life. Various theories for evacuating the planet were presented, and terraforming was attempted on Venus, Mars and Earth's moon, but eventually it was decided that if the human race wanted to survive, they would have to leave the solar system.
"Terraforming of the planets that were discovered began in 2072, and around twenty-five years after that the first fleet of ark ships left Earth. Six years later all but those unable to make the journey for whatever reason had left Earth behind, and in around 2110 no more data was received from Earth. It was assumed by that point that anyone left on the planet had died. In 2220 the ark ships reached this ‘Verse and began colonising the planets of Londinium and Sihnon, before spreading out to other terraformed planets over the next couple hundred years and colonising those."
"And then about six years ago, the Rim and Border planets decided to secede from the rest of the ‘Verse and form their own government without Core interference," Shannon continued. "The Core worlds were basically keeping all the technology and resources for their own, and leaving the rest of the ‘Verse to fend for themselves. The Core didn't like that anyone wanted out, so not long afterward war broke out between the Core and the Independent planets, the latter also being known as Browncoats. That war ended a few months ago – the Independents lost, and all the planets were brought together as the Union of Allied Planets. Which brings us to where we are today."
"So that's why you said I didn't want that jacket!" Taylor realised.
"That's why," Sarika confirmed. "So soon after the war, it's a bit unadvisable to go wandering around the ‘Verse wearing something like that. You don't want people getting the wrong idea."
"I think I understand now." He gave Sarika a smile. "I suppose you want to know my story now?" he asked, to which Jared and Shannon both nodded, and he ran his right hand back over his head. "Well, my name's Taylor Hanson," he said as a beginning. "I was born almost five hundred and twenty-nine years ago in the city of Los Angeles, in I guess what used to be the United States of America. I'd lived almost all over the States by the time I was six years old – my dad was in the United States Marine Corps, so we got moved around a lot. He died a month or so before my eighth birthday, during a tour of duty in the Persian Gulf."
Here he held up his father's dog tag so that it could be seen. "This was his. It was given to me by my mother, who got it from the Marines. I still miss him a lot." He paused briefly. "I'm the second of four kids – or I suppose I used to be by this point – and the dad of two, though when I got shot through time my wife was six months pregnant with our third child. I'm an architect by trade, but I'm also a musician and an inventor – just as a hobby, I'm nowhere near the level of expertise or talent needed to make a career of them."
"What instruments do you play?" Sarika asked.
"I sing, mostly. Though sometimes back on Earth I'd go into music shops and pick up a guitar, work the strings for a little bit. I never really had the time to do more than that.
"I don't remember what happened to me before I got here. The last thing I remember doing is driving up the freeway from my house to where I worked at the time. Between that and waking up in the future…" He shook his head. "Nothing. All I can figure out is that I was hit by something hard enough to break my ribs and sprain my wrist – it's the only explanation I can think of." He ran his right hand over the brace on his left hand and wrist. "So what happens to me now?"
"Jared and I are going to block off our schedule for the next few weeks," Shannon replied. "Between the three of us" he gestured around to Jared, Sarika and himself "we can teach you just about everything you'll need to know to survive in the ‘Verse."
"And once you're healed up, if you like, we can teach you how to fight," Jared added. "There is no telling how long it'll take to find a way to get you home, if one exists, and I think we'd all feel a lot more secure if you knew how to defend yourself in the meantime."
"If you're quite done," Sarika said, sounding supremely bored, "Taylor and I need to get back to our cooking. That soup isn't going to cook itself, though it would be very nice if it did."
Jared waved her off with an amused shake of his head, and both Sarika and Taylor got up from their seats at the table. "So you really don't remember anything about what brought you here?" Sarika asked as they resumed their places at the stove.
Taylor shook his head as he sorted one-handed through the small canisters of spices that were stacked against the half-wall of the kitchen bench. "I don't remember a thing. I wish I did. It'd make adjusting a whole lot easier if I did, I think."
"It probably would, yeah." Sarika quickly tasted the soup and frowned. "Hmm. Needs some chilli." She held her hand out for the canister of chilli flakes, and Taylor handed it over. "You can't train yet because of your busted ribs," she continued as she added chilli flakes to the pot, "but I can start to teach you Mandarin. Everyone in the ‘Verse is bilingual, and you'll need to know the lingo if you want to look like you actually belong here. Even if it's only for a little while."
By the time dinner time rolled around Sarika's special twist on chicken laksa was cooked and on the table, and she and Taylor were conversing back and forth in very basic and (on Taylor's part) halting Mandarin. As Sarika saw Jared and Shannon stepping into the kitchen area, she touched Taylor on the shoulder and whispered something in his ear that made him laugh softly.
"And what sweet nothings are you whispering to our Traveller, Rika?" Shannon joked as he took his usual seat at the table.
"That's none of your business, ài rén," Sarika replied sweetly. "Just something between two friends."
"I think it is our business," Jared said, his tone somewhat stern. "You're in a public area. Now spill."
"She said you were daì ruò mù ji," Taylor replied, not looking up from ladling the laksa into each of their bowls from the pot in the middle of the table.
"That…that's Mandarin," Shannon said in what was definitely surprise. "You're speaking Mandarin."
"I've been teaching him," Sarika said. "Just a few things while we were cooking, but mostly insults and how to cuss. He's a pretty quick study."
"You'll have to teach him proper speech as well," Jared cautioned as they began their meal. "Insults and cussing, that's fine between friends, sure, but otherwise…"
"Yes, yes, I know," Sarika waved him off. "He's got a book that I loaned him a few days ago for that."
"And he is sitting right here," Taylor said pointedly, voice raised. He fished a snow pea out of his laksa and popped it into his mouth. "Now come on, it's gonna get cold."
Half a week later, in the dead of night, Taylor woke with a start.
His memory had been returning in fits and starts since a day or so after his sudden and abrupt arrival in the future. Until now, though, he hadn't seen those shards for what he now knew them to be. He had been completely disconnected from them, almost as if they belonged to someone else or were scenes in a movie. But now he could remember what had happened to him – and his memories were painful.
Now fully awake, and acutely aware of a renewed pain in his left side, he scrambled out of bed and hunted around for the clothes he had changed out of not a few hours before, mindful of the shipboard rules – loose cargo pants, and a hooded pullover he shrugged on over the T-shirt he still wore. He shoved his feet into his sneakers and quickly did up the laces before leaving his room.
Sarika's bunk wasn't difficult to find. It was in the same corridor as those belonging to Jared and Shannon, and had her name painted in colourful curly lettering above its ladder. It being so late, its entry was closed off, but he didn't think she would mind him paying a visit.
When Sarika heard a hollow sound coming from somewhere above her head, almost as if someone were knocking on the entryway of her bunk, she thought nothing of it at first. She kept her attention on the letter she was writing to her parents, almost completely dismissing the noise. Only when it grew more insistent, almost desperate, did she put her writing desk aside and get up from her bed.
"I'm coming!" she called out as she walked across to her ladder and started to climb up it. What she saw in the corridor when she was up out of her bunk and had turned around surprised her a little.
Standing there looking wild-haired and almost terrified was Taylor. "Hey, zenme le?" she asked as she stepped fully into the corridor. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I remember what happened to me," he said quietly, his voice barely audible over the distant hum of the engine. "I didn't wake you up, did I?"
"Oh, no, I was still up," Sarika assured him. "Just writing a letter to my folks – Jared said we're making a stop on Three Hills in a day or two, so I want to be able to send ‘em something when we make port." She studied him briefly. "Do you want to talk it out? I think it might help. Besides, my ma said you should never bottle up all your feelings, ‘cause one day you'll just zhàmiào."
When Taylor nodded, Sarika smiled slightly and took his right hand, and led him through to the kitchen. "Now you sit," she said as she guided Taylor to the table. "I'll make you some tea."
Around five minutes later she placed a mug of chamomile tea in front of Taylor and seated herself adjacent to him. She had decided while the tea was steeping that she wouldn't press him to talk – he would talk when he was ready to. It took a further five minutes for him to open his mouth for anything other than sipping his tea.
"I was in a car accident," he started. "Back on Earth, I mean. I wasn't even halfway to work when this massive truck came straight out of nowhere and hit my car head-on." He tapped the sides of his mug with his fingertips. "I-I think I died in the crash," he continued, his voice even quieter than it had been, so much so that Sarika had to concentrate just to be able to hear him. "It hurt so much, Rika. I could hardly breathe, and I felt like I was burning all over."
"Laotianyé," Sarika breathed. He really had been through hell just to get here. "That's horrible." Taylor's only response to this was a nod as he drank his tea. "I didn't want to spring this on you so late at night, because it might give you the mother of all nightmares…"
"Can't be any worse than the nightmare that woke me up," he mumbled.
Yeah, we'll see, Sarika thought, deciding it was better for her and Taylor's friendship to keep it to herself. "When Shannon said it might be difficult for you to get back to your own time and world, he wasn't telling you the whole story."
Taylor looked at her, one eyebrow raised in question, and Sarika swallowed hard before continuing. "There's a planet over in the Georgia System, where we're headed to next. It's called Shadow. It was bombed so hard, harder than any other by the Alliance forces during the war all because its people dared to stand up to them, that it's now a ghost planet – a dead world. Nobody lives there anymore because, well…nobody can. Four hundred years after we all left, that's basically what Earth-That-Was is now. That's why he said it could be difficult to get you home – it's more than pinpointing the right location. A lot more than that."
She twisted around in her chair to face him as best she could and gently took the mug from his hands, setting it down on the table. "We're going to try and find you a way home. That much I can promise you. I've heard about this new tech that's aimed at making travel between sun systems a lot faster than it is right now, called a wormhole. Figure that with a bit of tweaking it could be used for travel of an even longer range." Here she shrugged a little. "S'just speculation a‘course, because I never went to school past what was strictly necessary, but it never hurts to guess."
They fell into a slightly tense silence, one broken only by their breathing – hers soft, slow and steady, his ragged, fast and a tiny bit shallow. She noted that he didn't look so terrified now that he'd had a chance to talk things over.
"My world's gone, Rika," he said quietly, and Sarika swore she could hear the barest tremble to his voice. "It's gone, and I might not ever get home. And one of these days I'll forget where I came from." He swiped at his eyes, and Sarika was surprised to see tears there. "Everything's turned upside down on me."
"Hey, hey, shh," Sarika said in a calming voice. "Yiqi shenhuxi, all right?" She covered Taylor's hands with her own, much smaller pair. "Don't ever forget where you came from. Yes, it's horrible that you lost your world, and I truly wish that hadn't happened to you, but something good did come of it – you survived, and it brought you here. You should yongbù wàng jì, no matter what else happens. Dong ma?"
Taylor nodded. "Okay."
Sarika smiled. "Good." She got up from her chair and took Taylor's mug through to the kitchen sink, giving it a quick rinse under the tap before setting it down next to the drain. "We should both get to bed. Morning will be here before we both know it, and there'll be quite a bit of work to be done. Usually is." She walked back to the table and helped Taylor to his feet. "Do you think you'll be all right?"
"I should be."
They parted ways at the start of the corridor housing the passenger dorms. As Sarika went to head upstairs to the crew bunks, Taylor called her back. Half a heartbeat later she found herself on the receiving end of a very tight hug.
"Xièxie ni, Rika," he whispered. "Xièxie ni."
"Ni tài kè qi le, Taylor," Sarika replied as she returned the hug in kind.
Back in her bunk, she took up her writing desk once again and studied the last lines she had written before Taylor had interrupted her. Until he had come to talk to her, she had been stuck on how to finish the letter, but now she finally knew what to say. She clicked the top of her pen to bring the tip down out of the barrel and started to write.
Before I go, Jared and Shannon have taken on a passenger – a real, honest-to-God Traveller. His name is Taylor, and he joined us about a week and a half ago. He was in a bad way when he came to us, but he's healing well. I'm hoping he stays around.
We'll be arriving on Three Hills in a couple of days, and I'll be sending this after we arrive, so I had best finish this now. Please give my love to Zach and Jes.
Sari
+++
Translations
Mandarin:
ài rén: sweetheart
daì ruò mù ji: dumb as a wooden chicken
zhàmiào: explode, go postal, fly off the handle
laotianyé: my God
yiqi shenhuxi: let's take a deep breath
yongbù wàng jì: never forget
ni tài kè qi le: you're quite welcome
Slang:
Core: the central planets in the Firefly universe