A/N: All credit goes to Joss, Brian Henson, and company. I'm just borrowing.

thanks to cassiee, luridmuse, and mona1347 for the betas. Thanks to everyone else for all the shiny feedback

Chapter 5 – Bridges

Chinese glossary

dong ma – understand

tzao gao – oh crap

The next morning, I wake disoriented. After adjusting to life planet-side, being in space again is disconcerting, especially when the sounds and smells of Moya that I'm accustomed to after the last three years aren't the ones that greet me. Instead of DRDs obeying Pilot and Moya's commands, human slams and bangs of metal objects jar me from sleep.

Blearily, I stumble to the shower area, which I vaguely recall from my all too brief tour. I'm nowhere near ready to deal with the outright paranoia that I encountered the night before. As I enjoy the luxury of hot water, something I missed during my time on Whitefall, I realize that I didn't dream at all the night before.

In fact, I haven't had a dream that featured River in quite some time. Does being in the same time and place negate her abilities somehow? Or has she simply given up because I was too late? I ignore the mental scoff that Harvey adds to my reflections. The neural clone is so far out of its depth that any observations are almost useless. Harvey has only dealt with one human. Although there are similarities, I've definitely found that Sebaceans and Peacekeepers tend to have slightly different priorities. At least the ones I've met.

Regardless, I have to face these humans sometime. I exit the shower and dress. Somehow, some way, I have to get these people to trust me and to tell me what happened. That or I can just hope that I can get River to be at least half as coherent as she was in our shared dreamscape.

With some trepidation, I follow the sounds that woke me into a kitchen. I stand in the doorway, shocked. I've been here before, at least in my dreams. River's recreation was perfect.

After the shock passes, I just stand and watc