Phoenix Feathers, Part II

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Joss is Boss, and all of this stuff belongs to him. Although I wish it belonged to me. In fact, if I hadn’t forgotten to make a wish on my last birthday, then I probably would have wished that Firefly belonged to me. I don’t know if it would have worked, because my one wish would have gone up against all of Jayne’s magical wish-granting planks. It would have been worth a shot, though.

***

The room was nearly empty. It was Spartan in its furnishings, with only a single overhead lamp casting light down onto the room’s single table, around which three simple chairs were arranged. The cone of light did not extend very far beyond the table, but there was not much else beyond it to capture one’s interest. Immaculately cleaned and orderly, it bore no signs of human habitation, despite the fact that only a single door separated it from the rest of the complex. Beyond the door lay a world in chaos.

The Academy was still reeling from the double blow of River and 04’s simultaneous escapes. The doctors had taken control of the situation, attempting to limit the damage that had been done to the students’ fragile minds through their exposure to outside influences. They sent wave after wave out to the border planets, alerting the local Federals to the fugitives’ imminent arrival.

Even with the resources of the Interplanetary Alliance at their disposal, getting a positive ID on either of the escapees would be a very long shot. It was a big ‘Verse outside of the Central Planets, and after sending out the waves the entire Academy program was at the mercy of fickle fortune.

The doctors, fearful of Parliament’s reaction to the news, had striven to keep the number of people who knew about the breakout absolutely mute. Security guards, orderlies, and junior researchers who had witnessed the escapes were sworn or coerced to secrecy. Those who resisted found themselves quietly and suddenly reassigned to posts on distant terraforming stations or moons wh