This is one that was inspired by my ficlet in the ff_Fridays (http://www.livejournal.com/community/ff_Friday) challenge. This week we were to write from the perspective of one of the guest stars or recurring characters. I chose to explore what the commander of the Alliance ship felt after his encounter with Mal and the Reaver wanna-be. I wrote the following snippet:

Questions

From Commander Harken’s personal diary

It was one of the strangest days in my life. I started the day sure that Reavers didn’t exist. Alliance had told me they were a story made up by the people on the Rim as an excuse for their illegal actions and I’d believed it. But today, one of them tried to kill me, so now I knew Alliance was wrong.

I’d been sure that people who fought for the Independents were evil and couldn’t be trusted. Alliance told me that and I’d believed it. But Malcolm Reynolds was a former Independent soldier and he’d saved my life. Even stranger, he’d had no real reason to. I’d had him arrested and threatened to take away his ship and he was even handcuffed. No one would have thought it odd if he hadn’t pulled the Reaver off me. None of my men were trying to help and they didn’t have any reason to hate me, but Malcolm Reynolds did. His war record suggested he was a good leader; the kind men follow into hell and back. His crew were obviously all very loyal, too. Hell, after this afternoon, I’d trust him at my back anytime. So now I knew Alliance was wrong about that too.

Alliance told me that all the ships out here on the rim were questionable, That they all ran illegal goods or were scavengers or slavers. I’d never questioned why that would be so. Alliance told me and I believed it. Now I wonder. Serenity was running on the wrong side of the law. They did have goods that they’d salvaged illegally from that ship. But they obviously weren’t getting real rich from illegal trade, so why were they doing it? And what would make respectable people like the Shepherd and the Companion stay on a ship like that? And the crew, they seemed to be ordinary people just trying to survive. The Captain, he was obviously a man of honor. No ordinary criminal would have been concerned about a Reaver running loose on my ship; certainly wouldn’t have risked his own life to look for him and to save my ass. Maybe criminals weren’t always as bad as I thought either. So why would good people like that feel they had to operate outside the law? Was the law at fault? I’d never thought about that before and to tell the truth, I’d rather not be thinking about it now. But how can I not? What happened today just doesn’t make sense in the universe I thought I knew the rules for.

Yeah I’d started the day certain of a lot of things. Now I knew Alliance had lied to me. Now I knew the universe was a lot more gray than black and white. Now I was full of questions. But two questions haunted me the most. What was I going to do with my new knowledge and what else had Alliance lied about?

This got me to thinking about what the good commander might do in the future. Hence the following, somewhat longer, story set two years later. Hope you like it. Criticism is welcome and all the usual disclaimers.

Change of Heart

Cdr. Harken stared at the classified orders on his screen for what must have been the 357th time. Still hadn’t changed. And he still didn’t know what he was going to do about them. This was all Malcolm Reynolds’ fault anyway. Not the orders, of course - he couldn’t imagine Capt. Reynolds giving these particular orders even had the Independents won. But it was his fault that the Commander of the Dietrich was questioning them. Two years ago, he would have been a good soldier obeying without question and look at him now. The former Independent soldier had saved his life and in the process taught him something about honor and duty and shades of gray. The lesson had been the most difficult of his life, but he’d learned it, and now, he couldn’t just follow orders that he didn’t agree with. But gorram it, he couldn’t just disobey them either. He did that and a lot of people would get hurt, his people and their families would pay for his decision if he decided not to obey. Assuming they went along with him and didn’t just shoot his ass for treason. There wasn’t any maneuvering room in these orders; no way to say he had misunderstood, no way to deflect the trouble.

Well they’d be in orbit around Calypso soon, he’d better be deciding pretty fast. He wondered what Captain Reynolds would do in this situation. He knew a lot more about the Captain than he had at the time he’d stopped Serenity. Knew that he’d defied Niska and eventually taken him down. Saved Alliance some trouble there. Of course now that Cdr. Harken was looking for evidence, he knew Alliance had let Niska operate without ever trying to stop him. People like himself might believe they were enforcing the law, but Alliance would put those that could pay above the law and Niska had paid well to be left alone.

He also knew that Mal Reynolds wasn’t a typical smuggler, that he still followed the beliefs that had led him to join the Independents. He valued loyalty and usually could be counted on to do the right thing. Had even helped Alliance once or twice, not because he liked it, but because even the Alliance did things right once in a while. That was a hell of a way for a loyal Alliance officer to think, but you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Mal had showed him that Alliance had lied to him about the existence of the Reavers and the more he looked, the more lies he found, and the more he realized that the government he’d always supported was a sham and that those running it could care less about the governed as long as they kept their mouths shut.

But this wasn’t getting the decision made. Well, Captain Reynolds would never follow these orders. He was sure of that. Wouldn’t have mattered to him who gave the orders. But the man was smart; he’d find a way around them that wouldn’t put the crew of his own ship at risk. So that was what he needed to do. And Cdr. Harken had a good idea as to how he could do that. It might even work.

"Sir, you said to notify you when we made orbit. We’ll be there in about ten minutes."

Damn, he was out of time now. OK definitely not going to obey the orders. Best make sure that only people he trusted were on the bridge and in engineering. If he was going to revolt, he needed to make sure that he could actually secure the ship. How to save the families who weren’t on the ship. Well, he still didn’t have that one totally figured out. At least he could save the crew and maybe the civilians as well. All he could do was try. In the end, that’s all anybody could do.

As the Commander entered the bridge, the comm tech told him there was a vessel leaving orbit. A Firefly without the required markings. Cdr. Harken asked him to contact them and ask their business. He heard the voice of Serenity’s pilot come over the loudspeaker. What was his name anyway? He still vividly remembered their conversation from two years ago, but the man’s name escaped him. Well Malcolm Reynolds was just the person he needed to help with his plan. Lucky he still didn’t have required markings, so no one would find it odd if the ship was brought in.

Over on Serenity, Mal and Wash were swearing a blue streak when the Alliance vessel ordered them in. Hell they hadn’t even been doing anything illegal this trip. They’d met this ship before and Mal wondered if the same man was in charge. Didn’t think it would matter though; Mal suspected the man was regulation through and through.

As everybody gathered in the cargo bay, Mal caught Zoe’s eye. She threw him a questioning look. "Dammed if I know what they want," he replied. "Gorram feds."

They docked with the larger ship and some Alliance personnel came over.

"Captain Reynolds?"

"Yeah, that’s me. What did we do? Just minding our own business, don’t want no trouble."

"Commander Harken wants to see you in his office now."

"Am I under arrest? Be nice to mention for what if I am."

"I don’t know. I was just told to bring you."

"And my crew?"

"Nothing about them, so they can stay here. We’ll watch them, of course."

"Of course, Let’s go get this over with then."

The Lieutenant reached for Mal who evaded easily.

"Hey, I said I’d go. No call to manhandle me."

A few minutes later, Mal was ushered into the Commander’s office. The Lieutenant saluted and left. Mal looked around, curious. This certainly wasn’t the interrogation room he remembered. On the Commander’s desk was a picture of a young girl playing with a cat. There was also a pitcher of something and a computer screen. Paintings of Persephone were on the wall. Place seemed right homey for an Alliance ship. The Commander motioned him to a seat and offered him a cup of coffee.

"Seems you’ve upgraded your interrogation rooms since we last met."

"Captain Reynolds, I need to discuss something with you privately and those rooms are bugged. But if you would feel more comfortable there?"

"Funny, I can’t think of a single thing that I want to discuss privately with an Alliance ship commander."

"Oh, I think you’ll want to know this."

"Well get on with it then. Got a schedule to keep, which you are keeping me from."

"I never realized smugglers ran on a tight schedule."

"What makes you think I’m a smuggler? Just an honest businessman, trying to make a living."

"Now Captain, I’ve made it my business to learn about you since the last time we met. Just pointing out something we both know. Don’t worry, there’s no real proof. At least not the kind a court would need."

"Calling me Captain now. Seems like you were insisting on Sergeant last time we talked. Why the change?"

"You may find this odd, Captain, but after all I’ve found out about you, I respect you a good bit. Seems you were a lot more right about the Alliance than I was."

"Huh? You’re sitting there in the uniform of an Alliance ship commander and telling me that I was right about the Alliance. Do I look like a total idiot that I would believe that?"

"Look I know you have no reason to trust me. But you must know I have reason to trust you. You did save my life and you had every reason not to. I have a problem and I need your help again. Not even my crew knows about this yet..." The Commander’s voice trailed off and he looked all manner of uncomfortable. Treason wasn’t such an easy thing and once this information was out, there would be no turning back. Not for him and not for his crew.

Mal recognized the desperation in Cdr. Harken’s expression. He’d been there a time or two himself and he didn’t really think that his man was a good enough actor to fake that look. Maybe this was for real.

"Gone this far, may as well tell me what’s on your mind."

Cdr. Harken punched up something on the computer. He turned the screen around so Mal could read it. "These are my orders. You’ll see why I don’t think I should obey them."

Mal read the orders and paled. The more he read, the harder it was to keep his lunch down. This was no set up to catch him. This was genocide. The Dietrich was supposed to blockade the gorram planet until the population starved to death. Wouldn’t take too long either as the place wasn’t self-sustaining yet anyway. It was mostly a mining colony and very dependent on Alliance re-supply. Over 100,000 people lived on that planet. And they were all supposed to die. All because they were supposedly rebelling. But he’d just been on that planet. Everything was peaceful as a sleeping baby there.

"Why?"

"As best I can tell, somebody influential wants that land without bothering to pay for it."

"Liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh ur-tze."

"I feel the same way. I can’t live with myself if I do this and I’m pretty sure my crew won’t do it either."

"Don’t see how an unarmed merchant vessel can help you much with something like this. And it’s not like my crew is big enough to help you take over your own ship."

"I don’t need your help with the ship. Like you, I have a very loyal crew. I think they’ll go along with me on this. I’ve already made sure the probable trouble makers will be in their quarters when I make the announcement. But as to what I need from you. Well it’s kind of complicated. Bear with me while I backtrack a bit.

After out last meeting , I realized that maybe things weren’t as black and white as I’d thought they were. That made me question some things I hadn’t before. When I was coming up the ranks, I started as a computer officer. So I used my skills to do some research, quietly. I collected information about you among other things. Even canceled a few arrest warrants for you in an untraceable way.

And I looked close at the Alliance-what they were telling me officially and what was really happening. When I started to realize what the Alliance really was like, I knew someday I’d need an escape route. So I created one. A computer specialist with a really high clearance can do a lot of undetectable things. I found a moon that was newly terraformed, but not yet colonized. And I disappeared it from all the records.

Then I tapped into the accounts of some of the worst officials. Seems they’ve been losing money in tiny amounts for almost two years now. But there are a lot of those accounts and the money adds up surprisingly quickly. Seemed only fair that they finance my unofficial little colony since they stole most of the money to begin with. So now I have a moon ready to colonize and the supplies to colonize with have been bought and stored. I have a cruiser which is as powerful as any ship in the fleet and they aren’t expecting me to rebel. I think I have a good chance of making this work with a little help from you and your friends.

What I intend to do is to tell my crew about these orders and to tell them that we aren’t going to obey them. Some probably won’t like going along. But I’m sure of the people on duty right now on the bridge and in the engine room. We can control the ship. Most of us have our families on board. But my parents and the families of a few of the other senior officers are vulnerable. I don’t think they’ll go after the families of the lower ranks. My senior comm tech is the most at risk because his family is so large and well known in the core. We can’t sneak them out, so I have to make sure he isn’t part of this.

That’s one of the places where you can help if you are willing. I want him to pretend to escape during the mutiny. He’ll take a long range shuttle over to your ship and you will head to another planet to report my treason. Maybe you’ll break down on the way to buy us some time. That gets him off and keeps his family safe. The other families have been sent a message and the money to meet in a central location. I’m hoping you and maybe some of the other smugglers you trust will deliver them to my new colony.

Meantime, we’ll be evacuating this moon and moving them to the new colony, too. I figure, what with the amount of space on this ship and the crew we can leave behind after the first trip, we can get the place cleared out in three trips. Then maybe you and some trusted friends of yours would undertake to smuggle us some manufactured goods now and then. Keep us well supplied and we can provide you with some fairly valuable raw materials. So, are you willing to help?"

"As one of my crew would say, I’m smelling a lot of ‘if’ coming off this plan. Don’t know as how you got a very good chance of succeeding."

"Hell yes, it’s chancy. But have you got a better idea? I can’t obey these orders and if I just quit, someone else will obey them and the colony dies. I can’t do that either. So what other choice to I have?"

"You got a point there to be sure. I told you once that I was on the losing side, but that I wasn’t convinced it was the wrong side. This seems even more crack-brained than that little venture. Don’t see as how I could miss it. I’m in."

So that's how it all started, the partnership between my father and Malcolm Reynolds that led to the establishment of the free colony of Haven and then to the second war for Independence. The next ten years were difficult and all too many of us died. But we died free and today we live free thanks to two men with the courage to act.

Cory Harkon President Confederation of Free Planets