The 'Verse Plot

[hackanut]

2521
3 years after Serenity.

A Man and his son sat huddled around a fire, draped in the starlight.
The Mans hands clasped around a small knife and a stick, carving nondescript shapes into the grain. The Boy watched him work.

"Dad?", The Boy asked, peering at his father through the flames.

The Man looked up from the rough stick and replied, "Yes?"

"Can you...", The Boy paused and looked down, finding a stick of his own, he began to poke around in the dirt.

"Can I what?", The Man asked.

"Can you tell me about The Uprising again?

"Again?", The Man smiled, "haven't you gotten sick of that story yet?"

The Boy smiled too, "No... not yet."

The Man stared at his son for some time, trying to think of a new way of telling the story, but he was tired and couldn't think of one, "Are you sure you want to hear it again?"

The Boy laughed, "Yes, i'm sure"

"Well, alright then", The Man looked up at the stars for a bit, and then he began.

"For a long time, the Alliance ruled over all the Core Planets... they even fought and won a war to do--"

"who'd they fight, Dad?"

"Well who else? They fought the people that thought they ought not to have control of anything" He laughed, "These people were called the Independents."

The Boy repositioned himself so he could lay his head on his pack.

"...Now, like I said, the Alliance won that war, so they got to control the Core Planets.. and even the ones on the Rim like ours."

"The Alliance even controlled this planet, Dad?"

"Well, the Alliance had a harder time controlling these outer planets, you see. so after the War, most of the Independents spread out to the Rim, trying to get a little bit 'o what they was fighting for, but lost: a little bit of freedom.", The Man looked at his son.

"Go on, Dad. I wanna hear the rest."

"Well, okay... but It'll have to be quick. I'm getting tired-- and you should be too, you know.."

'I know, we'll sleep after this", The Boy said reassuringly.

The Man muttered something about being too old for this kind thing under his breathe, but then continued the story.

"Now, for a while things worked how they did... with the Alliance controlling near everything in The 'Verse. Until a group of Independents stumbled across one of the Alliance's biggest secrets: they had been trying to find ways to control people... only some of the people they tried it on didn't take what you'd call a... likin' to it... and those people turned into Reavers. You know about the Reavers, dontcha?"

"Yeah, Dad, I do."

"Well then you know how someone would have to be to turn a perfectly good human into one 'o them..."

The Man and the Boy looked at each other for a bit, thinking about that.

"Anyways, when the word got out about Miranda-- that's the name of the rock that group of Independents found-- the Alliance lost control more and more by the day. Even people that subscribed to the Alliance train of thought were now defecting and not allowing themselves to be controlled by it no more."

"So... the Independents were the good guys all along?"

"Yes."

"Even though they lost the War?"

The Man smiled, "Yes. Sometimes the good guys have to lose."

"What ever happened to the Independents that found..."

"Miranda?"

"Yeah, whatever happened to them?"

"Well", The Man replied, "They're still out there, enjoying their freedom-- I like to think so anyways. What's left of the Alliance is still pretty that they don't hold all that power anymore though... in fact they still have a few ships floatin' through this 'Verse trying to get back what they think they ought to have."

"Why don't they just give up and live like everyone else does now?"

"I suppose", The Man folded his knife and put it in the pack by his side and threw the stick into the darkness, "...I suppose because there always has to be a bad guy--", The Man stopped.

"What is it?"

"...Everyone likes to think they're on the right side of history... but not everyone can be. Remember that."

"I will.", The Boy looked up at the stars, "Are we on the right side of history, Dad?"

"Yes... I think we are. Now, lets go to sleep."

"Alright, Dad, we can sleep now."

The Boy fell asleep soon after that. But, despite how tired he was, The Man laid with his eyes open, thinking.

The sky was as big and wide and vast as he could imagine anything ever could be. It could of swallowed him up right then and there.

"No one can take this from us.", He said to the stars, "No one."