Can't Take the Sky From Me

[claire]

Claire was rather proud of herself, all things considered. She knew she could’ve been taking things better, but she also could’ve been reacting far worse. After all, she had just learned that in the future there was no earth, and she was still stuck on the fact that it may have been the fault of specials like her. Humans with powers. She wanted to ask, at least part of her did. Why was there no more Earth? Why was it something you could only read about in history books? Was it because of her? Of course, the possible answer terrified her even more than not knowing. She couldn’t bring herself to ask the question that weighed heavily on her mind, and instead turned her focus back to Wash’s words.

Of course there are stories, she repeated in her head. And he had laughed a little! The fact that he seemed to get over this news so easily was reassuring. Did that mean it wasn’t a terrible, tragic thing? Or was it simply that he was so used to the details that the idea of having to explain it to her was amusing - that her completely ignorance of the possibility of there not being an earth was amusing. And maybe it was. After all, how many people stood on street corners every day with signs saying ‘the end is near’, preachers going on about apocalyptic signs, old english writings predicting the end of the world in key years like 2012. Who knew if those people, the ones everybody dismissed as crazy, could be completely right about all of it!? Or those could all still just be conspiracy theories, those people could all be crazy, and the end of the world could’ve just been a random thing in the year 2200, a time farther than she could be bothered to worry about. That is, unless she was immortal. Unless her regenerative powers would allow her to survive centuries. Was it possible that she could live to see the end of the world?

She was a little worried to find that this idea excited her rather than scared her, and a little smile came back onto her face. She hadn’t thought about the possibilities all of this opened up. She could learn just as much from Wash as he could from her, after all. She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she almost missed Wash’s last few comments.

“They’re working on putting people on Mars next, I think, but… well, I guess even just Mars seems primitive to you. You’re a pilot, after all, and you go all over the universe just because you can. Man, would you feel trapped living in my time,” she said, laughing a little at the thought. He definitely seemed like the sort of person who enjoyed exploration, at least from the little she had picked up on during their brief encounter.

“Life is nice. There are a lot of problems, wars between nations, pollution is a pretty big problem, the people on the news stations keep going on about some Global Warming phenomenon, all of the icecaps are melting or something like that, but all of those things aside I think it’s pretty great.” She wasn’t really sure what else to say. Everything about her life seemed so ordinary, well, the things he would associate with most people’s lives, maybe not her as an individual. “We only fly to other places on Earth, very few people have left the planet, even just to go to the moon. I don’t know, everything just seems so boring and ordinary!” she admitted. “I didn’t think it would be so hard to describe life on Earth…”

[HOBAN WASHBURNE]

Wash watched as thoughts must be running around in her mind before the smile came back to her lips. If this girl did manage to get back to her time, she wouldn't have to worry about her planet being destroyed anyway. The Earth-that-was would be around until well past the twenty-second century, so she should be fine. The planet's natural resources would hold out till just about 2152 and then the real terror would begin -- or so he imagined. He was just glad he hadn't been around to witness that chaos: people on sale days at the market were bad enough, he could only imagine the general mayhem caused by the need to get off planet. He shook his head lightly, reminding himself to keep focus and stop allowing his mind to get side tracked. He had been thinking about this girl in relationship to the Earth-that-was's life span. The planet might not completely be used up, but space ships would definitely become more advanced in her life span; that much he remembered about his Flight History courses.

He chuckled as well at her comment. "Yeah, I can't imagine: just a tiny moon . . .and Mars," he said. His nose scrunched up as he spoke: Earth and Mars and the moon. It was all so . . .surreal. Who talked about these things so casually, without a sense of awe about them? He glanced over at Claire and chuckled again. He highly doubted someone who lived in that time would appreciate him referring to it like that. 'Oh how mysterious. . . you're like a primitive species! Don't worry I won't harm you with my superior technology and understanding of the universe. . .' He tried to force himself to look serious. "I mean, I'm sure that's a very big, uh, step for you," he said, the corner of his mouth twitching into a lopsided grin.

He sighed dramatically at her initial description of Earth: wars pollution and crazy newscasters. "Some things never change," he added. He tilted his head in momentary confusion as she mentioned flying around on Earth. "Oh right, on planes. . .uh air planes." he said triumphantly at having remembered the term. The primitive death trap versions of spaceships and transports that humans had once used. No shields, no turbo set engines, no turbulence dampeners. The whole thing was a death machine waiting to fall apart, from what he'd seen in books. He frowned and shook his head sadly at her. "It is pretty obscenely boring isn't it?" he agreed before shaking his head once more and chuckling. "No more boring than my time."

[claire]

As terrified as she was at the idea of the Earth no longer existing, Claire couldn’t help but be filled with amazement at the ideas that Wash presented. He came from the future, her future, a future that would come true one day. It was like talking to a character from a science fiction novel… if she ever read science fiction, that was. She had never really been into the whole sci-fi, fantasy genre, but maybe once she got back - if she got back - she would have to start reading up. Figuring out which ones were closest to the life Wash was living. One of traveling to other planets. One without Earth.

“I have to ask,” she said, taking a deep breath. She had been going back and forth in her head for a while now, and while most of her was sure she didn’t really want to know the answer, part of her needed to know. After all, she was talking to somebody from hundreds of years in the future - could she really pass up the opportunity to find out what happens in the future?! “When does Earth… you know… stop existing?” Saying those words and knowing that it isn’t just a speculation, that it was fact, was one of the most surreal things she had ever experienced. Probably second only to her numerous attempts to kill herself (knowing they’d all be unsuccessful, of course). “And what is the future like? You speak English, and you are human, right?” She realized now that any assumptions she had made based on Wash’s language and appearance could be completely off base. Maybe he was an alien, some other species that had just evolved to look like humans. She couldn’t be sure of anything any longer.

She wondered if asking about the future would be prying, but he had asked her about Earth so she figured the exchange was only fair. Claire couldn’t help but laugh as Wash practically scoffed at her mentioning their ventures to Mars, something she had viewed as a great feat when they managed to get a robot with cameras there not long ago. It was nice to know that they would go farther in the future. “Maybe when I get back I should join NASA,” she joked. “That’s the space program,” she added, guessing that something as meager as NASA probably didn’t exist in the future he was from.

It was amusing how almost giddy Wash got over remembering airplanes. She supposed trying to remember the terms she was throwing out was like mastering some sort of history pop quiz that you hadn’t been expecting. “Sorry, I keep forgetting that you’ve barely heard about these things… god, that’s so weird to think about,” she admitted, but didn’t allow the idea to overwhelm her this time. It was strange to think that she was getting used to the idea of talking to a man from the future.

[HOBAN WASHBURNE]

Wash arched an eyebrow curiously as she began to ask her question. He couldn't begin to imagine what sort of questions might be swirling around in her head. He guessed it was only fair that he answer hers though, she had obliged him about life on Earth - man, that idea was never going to get less surreal. As long as he didn't say anything too revealing he should be all right. The corners of his lips twitched slightly in a lopsided frown. Oh who was he kidding, he was likely going to answer even if it was somewhat revealing. His lips quirked back up into a grin at her question. "Ah, don't worry about that, it won't happen for a goodly long time," he assured her. "You've got another 100-150 years left." Was that reassuring? he wondered idly.

"The future?" he asked, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Well it's filled with mystical space wonders.

[/b]" He paused to grin at her and shook his head. "No, I mean it is, but not that mystical, just spacey." Well she was right, describing life was hard. Especially when you didn't want to reveal that you were actually kind of technically a criminal in this alleged future. "It's kind of like your world, I guess, just more of them" he settled on finally. "I mean once the Earth-that-was died out, we had to terraform other planets. Some are more advanced technologically than others and some are richer than others, but they're all nice oxygen rich atmoshpered planets."

"Oh I'm human," he assured her with a soft chuckle. Unless someone had been lying to him all these years. "So's everyone I've ever met, though I have some theories about a certain Badger's actual species origin." He refrained from mentioning the unspeakable creatures that occupied deep space. The creatures he was almost convinced were aliens, if such things existed. No need to frighten the girl with things she'd never have to worry about coming across. He latched onto the other part of her question to avoid that little topic. "I speak the standard language of the universe," he informed her.

He nodded under the pretense of knowing and accepting that NASA was their space program, but inwardly his mind was playing an interesting game of keep away with any information he might have stored away about Earth. He'd sort of cleared the info he'd learned in his early schooling and replaced most of it with his flight school education. Maybe he'd store all this new info away and spring it on Jayne when he was least expecting it once he got back to the ship. He waved a hand dismissively at her apology. "Don't worry about it," he said. "I never paid attention to that stuff in class -well not for basic education anyway-, didn't think it would be relevant. That's irony for you."[/blockquote]

[claire]

The future. Her future. She knew that the thought was already getting old in her head, but it just kept repeating itself anyway. She wondered if this was like cheating, asking questions about the future, but she knew that there were some of the people with powers who could see into the future, so why shouldn’t she get that same opportunity? It didn’t seem like finding out some answers from Wash was going to alter the space time continuum or anything… assuming it hadn’t already been irrevocably altered by whatever had brought them to this mystery planet. She pushed those thoughts aside before the panic of not being sure if she would ever get back to her family and friends started to rise up in her again.

“One hundred years…” that means people born today on Earth, on this very day, may be alive when the Earth stops existing. She wasn’t sure how her healing powers would effect her, now that she thought of it, and if it kept her from every getting sick, from ever being old and wrinkly and broken, then maybe she’d be alive then too. She couldn’t begin to imagine witnessing the end of the world… well, the end of the real Earth, anyway. She listened as Wash explained to her the idea of terraforming other planets to make them habitable and she couldn’t keep her eyes from widening in awe. It was all she could do to keep her mouth from hanging open a little. Claire wondered if her kind would end up using their powers to help develop the technologies Wash was talking about, to help get the humans to these other planets, or whether they were the cause of the end of Earth, the reason the humans needed to move in the first place.

She was oddly reassured by the fact that Wash was human, though she had no idea why. After all, she wasn’t sure just how human she was at this point, so who was she to judge the humanity of others? She had no right, but she was doing it subconsciously.

“Well, thanks. I mean, it’s a little surreal to think about all of this future-stuff, with the Earth ending and all, but I guess it’s good to know. Maybe I can do a little something to help when I get back… or at least stop recycling. I mean, so much for all of these ‘go green, preserve the Earth’ movements that they keep pushing on us,” she said with a little laugh.

“So, here we are,” she said, looking up at the man. “A girl from the past, a guy from the future, and neither of us has any idea where we are and why we’re here.” For some reason knowing everything she did about Wash being from her future made believing the situation they were in that much easier. Not easy by any means, of course, but easier. She knew now that she could trust him, it was just a sense that she got from his aura, from the way he spoke and answered her questions. If she was going to be stranded in this strange world, bulletproof or not, it wouldn’t hurt to have a friend.