Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm so happy that people are reviewing again, and being so nice! I must admit that I was a bit worried to stick my head above the parapet again for fear of being lynched for abandoning you for so long. I'm doing my best to update faster, although I feel that I'm grindingly out of touch with this story! I hope it isn't too noticeable, but (as always) suggestions are always welcomed. Sorry, a lot of exposition and not a lot of action in this chapter. I shall try to remedy that in the next chapter. This should be up in maybe a week, as I'm off to a Supernatural convention this weekend! Wheee!

Chapter 13 – Sunset

Despite Mal's misgivings at the intrusion into his domain, the group had relocated to the dining room on Serenity's upper deck. Mal's hand twitched above the holster of his gun as he leaned against the leaf stencils decorating the warm yellow wall of the room. His crew were arrayed around the walls of the cosy space whilst the four strangers were seated around the table in the middle. He couldn't help be proud of the fact that his people had silently and instinctively banded together to retain the psychological advantage of higher ground. Not that this seemed to have made a difference. The interlopers seemed annoyingly at ease as Kaylee fussed around them, offering them hot drinks and slices of the last of the fresh apples they'd salvaged from the carcass of Verbena.

He pushed himself upright with a decisive gesture, bringing all eyes to him. "As delightful as this little tea party is, if y'all are quite done takin' your ease, I'd be mighty grateful if you could get on with sharin' what other Fuhn Pi story you've come to tell us."

O'Neil raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, we thought that the neighbourly thing to do would be share the good news with y'all!" he drawled in an exaggerated southern accent. Daniel, sitting next to him, gave him a surreptitious yet painful dig in the ribs with his elbow before leaning forward in enthusiasm.

"River's not contagious!" Jackson practically crowed, grinning over the table at where the young girl was hovering within touching distance of Teal'c's placid bulk. "In fact the blood sample she gave us led to the discovery of a vaccine to the illness that was sweeping our base. We came to offer to share that cure with you." He paused, looking at them expectantly, but explosions of gratitude did not seem to be forthcoming from the blank faces staring back at him.

It was Simon who broke the confused silence. "Um, I'm sure that's very nice of you." He gave them a tight, polite smile, and stepped closer to his sister, resting his hands on her thin shoulders. "Whilst it's fantastic news that River is healthy, surely this means that we don't really need your vaccine."

Sam frowned, looking over to the doorway to the galley, where the young mechanic was still hovering, clutching an oriental looking tea pot. "But didn't Kaylee tell me that those 'Reavers' as you call them caused devastation on more than just this planet? Surely you'd want to stop the spread of their infection."

"WHAT?" Jayne's voice bellowed through the room, causing Sam to flinch back from the white-faced madman. "Are you tryin' to tell us that Reavers is some sorta plague that you got spreadin'?" He whirled to face Mal. "I knew these Ai ChrJze Se Duh Fohn Diang Gho would bring nothin' but trouble. Why'n the sphincter o' hell you lettin' them in here with us?"

Kaylee edged round the corner towards him, one hand reaching out in a tentative gesture. "Calm down, Jayne! No-one's ever been suggestin' that Reavers are sick, 'cept in their heads." She shot a rather desperate smile at Daniel. "You got it wrong. See, Reavers is just folks that got all addlepated out in the depths of the black. That's right, ain't it Shepherd?" Her tone turned almost pleading as she stared over at the quiet, grey-haired man.

Shepherd Book stared hard at Daniel, a small frown creasing the dark skin of his forehead. "That's certainly what I've always been led to believe." he murmured, so quietly that Mal had to strain to hear him. He raised shadowed eyes to meet the Captain's. "Although I must admit to having spent many a sleepless night contemplating that received wisdom since we met that poor soul from the derelict last year."

Mal's face was granite as he met the Shepherd's gaze. "I thought we agreed that that Kōng Yāomó was the result of some tortured brainwashing." he ground out in a low voice. "Hell, no man could go through what he did with his wits in one piece. There's no cause to be thinkin' that he caught his brainrot like some disease." His eyes sought out Simon for reassurance. "Doc, you had him in our ship, under your care. He weren't catchin' was he? I'd have sure thought we'd have known it by now!"

Wash snorted, trying to break the tension with a joke. "With this crew? Would we even notice if we were all whacked with the crazy stick?" The remark fell into the strained silence of the room like a lead weight into a black hole. No-one even glanced at him, instead fixing their eyes on the Doctor.

Simon shook his head slowly, his eyes flicking from the Captain to the group of strangers, who sat patiently, watching the debate. "I .. I can't be sure. I never screened him for pathogens." He scrubbed his hands unconsciously over the pockets of his still crumpled jacket. "It's possible, I suppose. I never came into direct contact with him." He cracked a dry smile. "Thank god for ingrained sterile procedure."

Book spoke up again, with an abstracted air. "What they're saying does make a lot of sense. The devastation the Reavers bring is just so complete! No survivors, at least none who were human after. Whole colonies wiped out. You'd think some would have run, would have hidden." He raised his eyebrows. "It's like they just lay down and waited to die."

Mal ground his jaw, feeling his certainty begin to crumble, as Wash chimed in again in an animated voice.

"But if it was a disease, we'd have known it, surely. Someone would have tried to find a cure!"

It was at this point that O'Neil finally spoke up. "Not if that would mean admitting the cause."

The room fell silent; all eyes fixed on the stocky soldier slouched at their table.

"Explain." Mal ordered, his voice dangerously calm.

"This disease wasn't natural. Someone created it."

There was a loaded silence, which was shattered as Mal exploded into motion and noise. "Ung Jeong Jia Ching Jien So! I knew it! Those Alliance sons'o bitches! The folks out on the rim getting' uppity, not wantin' to follow all a' their rules? Create the ultimate boogeyman. That'll keep 'em in line. And if it doesn't, ya' can always bomb the hell out'a them." He punched the wall, leaving a streak of blood from split knuckles that marred the golden paint.

Sam called out to him in a calming voice. "If it's any consolation, we suspect that the extreme response was an unintended side effect of an attempt at biopharmaceutical production of a mood altering suppressant gas."

"What does that mean?" Kaylee asked in a small voice.

Simon ground out the answer, his voice ice-cold. "It means that someone engineered a drug to tranquillize a population into submission. The Reavers were just an accident."

"They wouldn't lie down." The room practically held its breath at River's soft voice, shaking slightly with suppressed emotion. "The rest of them, they laid down. Laid down and shut out the Sun. Laid still and cold until worms crawled into their eyes and into their brain. Like him." She shuddered, arms cradled around her stomach.

O'Neil leaned forward intently over the table. "Who, River? Who has a worm in his brain?"

River appeared to ignore him, twisting in her brother's suddenly tense hands to stare up at him with haunted eyes. "He came to see me, in that place. The Father, the Sun, the Ghost behind the scenes." Her head snapped round to stare down at Teal'c's upraised face.

"He came to inspect his new army, whispering to me. Needles in my brain to make a new breed of Jaffa." A single tear escaped to slide unheeded down her pale cheek. "But he was too rough with his toys. We all twisted. We all broke …" she trailed off and Simon enveloped her sagging frame in his arms, leaning his head against the side of hers and whispering soft Mandarin phrases in her ear.

The SG1 team exchanged significant glances, leaving it to their leader to comment on this development. Jack didn't disappoint. "Well!" The word came out with an explosive rush of breath. "It seems you folks might have a Goa'uld problem after all."

Jayne growled, crossing his massive forearms defensively in front of his chest. "Now you're back to spoutin' that talk 'a aliens an' suchlike, when everyone knows that only Chwen folk believe in that pile 'a horseshit."

Book shot him a quelling Look. "Jayne, let them talk." He looked politely back at the Colonel. "These .. Goold." He hesitated over the name. "These are the ones that you mentioned before? The parasites who masquerade as gods?"

Daniel frowned in response to the question. "That's right. But it doesn't seem to be operating that way here." He looked thoughtful, glanced around the room and then fixed on the Shepherd's more open expression. "Who would you say runs or rules your society?"

Book paused to think but it was Wash who answered first. "Ah, well that's a bit of a touchy subject." He explained a little awkwardly. He rested a hand lightly on the frozen shoulder of his wife, as if restraining her from leaping forward. "Technically that would be the Alliance. The Government of the central worlds." He flicked a glance nervously towards the Captain's stony face. "There are those, however, who didn't exactly agree wholeheartedly with their approach to governing."

Zoë shrugged his hand off her shoulder. "War's over. We lost. Ain't no call to be bringing it up again. The Alliance is in charge now. At least according to them." She proclaimed calmly.

"They're just the clouds. The veil that hides the Sun. It's the Sun that burns."

Daniel lent forward eagerly, pushing his glasses up his nose to be able to look at her more intently. "The Sun. You mentioned that before. Are you talking about Aten? The Egyptian Sun God?"

"No-one knows the name Aten here. That name died along with his queen." The blank faces lining the walls of the room confirmed her words. "He took a new name. A metamorphosis." She tilted her head and fixed them all with an autocratic gaze. " Blue was symbolic of the sky and of water; of life and re-birth. He extended this symbolism out into the heavens, making a private joke at the 'verses expense. They all worship him. Even if they don't know it. Aten. Blue Sun!" She spat the last two words out with withering hatred and the SG1 team looked on in interest as the rest of the group reared back as if she'd just thrown a grenade into the room.

"So!" Jack encouraged when the silence had stretched unbroken for a good ten seconds. "Blue Sun. Anyone want to fill us in on what that means?"

Mal sighed. Closing his eyes as if blocking out the world. "It means we're Wong Dahn!"

Chinese phrases in order of appearance (as close as I can approximate! Apologies for errors):

FuhnPi :Accusing someone of lying, a ridiculous notion, or talking out of one's ass (literally "farting.")

Ai ChrJze Se Duh FohnDiangGho: Crazy dogs in love with their own feaces

Kōng Yāomó: Empty demon

Ung Jeong Jia Ching Jien Soh.: Filthy fornicators of livestock

Chwen :Dumbass (literally "retarded.")

Wong Dahn: Done for or imminent doom, screwed (literally "finished (cooked) egg.")