Purity Loses

Kaylee walked softly to Serenity’s newly remodeled medical facility. A first-rate job had been done on the refit. The neural 3D scanner and full-body diagnostic scanners were all virtual and worked from a simple-looking overhead pod. Computer power was increased twenty-fold and they had the latest pharma-lab and surgical equipment as well as the nano-bot fabricator that only the best research hospitals were able to acquire. There were not too many medical facilities anywhere in the Alliance better equipped than Serenity.

When Kaylee walked into the expanded room she saw River lying peacefully on a bed. She looked around and heard Simon, crying softly in a corner of the room. Immediately her heart broke and Kaylee went to him. Simon looked at her approach with bloodshot eyes and tear-stained cheeks. The juxtaposition of such human emotion among all the sterile equipment only amplified the distraught doctor’s pain.

Kaylee said softly, “Simon what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know what to do Kaylee,” he got out. “I have tried so hard and still nothing I do works.”

“Hey, hey,” Kaylee took his face in her hands, “Simon I know if anyone can help River it’s you. Sometimes you just gotta step back and look at things from a different angle. You’ll see after you get some rest.”

Simon turned his eyes to River and his tears streamed again, “She was such a happy little girl. Now she’s become someone’s science experiment. All she wanted was to go to school, learn and be happy. She was so innocent Kaylee and they butchered her brain…”

Simon completely broke down and Kaylee pulled him close. She did not want him to see her own tears welling up now. Through her thin t-shirt Kaylee could feel Simon shaking as he sobbed loudly for his sister. She stroked his hair and held him. It was all she could do.

Ian was in the medlab standing next to a computer terminal staring at the screen. He was tired and troubled and not actually studying the data that scrolled before him, rather he was thinking about other things.