The ship rumbled ominously again.
That wasn’t a good sign.
“Doctor, ya mind tellin’ Wash to keep her steady?” Mal asked offhandedly, still lying on the padded gurney. “I’m gettin’ mighty queasy with all this turbulence kickin’ me about.”
Simon smiled genially at the Captain’s usual humour he employed, finishing up the clean dressing on his wound. The operation earlier had gone perfectly, Mal would be fine pending no further damage to the area. Jayne’s injury was minor and would also heal quickly if the man could hold still for an extended period of time. It was always good when they came back from a job not so in shambles that he couldn't fix them up.
He was a smart-dressed and light-skinned man in formal clothing and a waistcoat, with short-combed brown hair and inquisitive blue eyes, and was quite simply just all-around smart. It was no small thing that he was more intelligent than any of the crew, but he didn't brag about it; it was simply how it was with a very rich upbringing on a core planet. One of the best surgeons on his homeworld of Osiris, he'd thrown it all away to rescue his sister from the Alliance, and ended up on Serenity shortly thereafter. He was often calm and well-mannered to everyone, at least until his sister was in danger, then he might deign to at least throw a punch, or get shot as with their run-in with a bounty hunter once upon a time. He'd earned a place here on Serenity since helping her escape, and even with its rustic and plain-rusty appearance there really was no other place he'd want to be.
“I’m sure it’ll pass soon, Captain,” he said, starting to put everything away.
“So, I gotta stay here for a spell or can I get to commandin’ my boat?” Mal wondered with a brief wave in Simon's direction, the pain in his middle not even noticeable with the painkillers the doctor had him on, so long as he didn't move too much.
“I’d recommend against it, but since when do you listen to me?” Simon replied with a sigh, not bothering to look back. “You’ll probably be alright to walk around lightly, and rest would be highly recommended to avoid any undue altercations.”
Mal nodded, sliding his legs around and putting his feet to the metal floor, slowly pushing himself up until he was standing. “I hear ya. I’ll be sure to have plenty of Zoë’s chicken soup, good work, Doctor.”
Mal wasted little time in going over to the intercom, moving past Simon who’d looked both mildly surprised and appreciative of the praise, as he still wasn’t exactly used to Mal being nice to him. A lot had changed since their horrendous experience on Miranda and their other insane adventures, the crew was definitely much closer.
Mal pushed a button on the wall, speaking into the device. “Wash, we alright? It was getting real shaky there for a time.”
“We’re all good now, it’s just this patch of black is playing merry with us,” Wash replied after the second delay. “Real pretty though; take a look outside, the wife’s loving it.”
“Alright, keep me posted.”
“On Zoë? Alright, well, she’s sittin' in my lap, looking out the window and gazing-”
Mal lifted his thumb off the intercom.
Carefully making his way out of the infirmary, he walked up the flight of stairs into the aft hall of the ship that led through its core, to outside the engine room. Deciding to check in on Kaylee as she’d been worried sick when they’d gotten back and she’d seen him on the bed, he gave a short knock and poked his head in the open door.
Kaylee was resting in her hammock, reading some fancy looking book that Simon had no doubt given her as a present. They were intimate now, she and Simon, so it was no surprise that he was doing even more to make her happy in terms of gift giving and the like. He'd been quite distant before in not knowing how to bridge the gap between them despite the length of time he'd been with the crew, and it was a breath of fresh air not to see the two so damn awkward around one another anymore like a pair of lovesick teens.
She was in her ever-oily flower-patterned overalls, her hair tied up into a chinese style of bun and speared through with a chopstick in a messily done way, the sunkissed mechanic not noticing his looming presence in the doorway. Her boundless well of optimism for life always lifted the crew's spirits, and seeing her always had a way of shifting weight from the shoulders, including now.
“You doing fine, little Kaylee?” he spoke up, smiling as she turned.
“Captain! You shouldn’t be walkin’ around, you’ll get yourself hurt.” she chided, placing the book down and slipping out of the hammock, her pretty green eyes shining as she stepped up to him to bring him into a very light hug that didn’t offend his injury. “An’ you’ll make more work for Simon, he won’t like it none if you split them stitches.”
“Doctor can handle it if they do, he’s good at his craft,” Mal waved off, looking back at her freckled face with an almost fatherly smile. “Nice job today with the codes an’ gettin’ to us. You always do know how to push this old girl of ours.”
Kaylee smirked, lightly slapping him on the arm. “Serenity ain't an old girl, she’s more like a young woman in her prime, like River, she just gets real scuffed up sometimes, but thank you, you’re welcome.”
“Alright.” he smiled, turning to leave.
“Cap'n?”
He twisted around briefly.
“Glad you’re okay.” Kaylee beamed.
Mal chuckled, gently giving her shoulder a squeeze. “Me too, little Kaylee.”
Keeping on his way he walked up the gangway and through to the ship's comfortable galley where everyone commonly preferred to gather when they weren't busy, seeing Jayne sitting at the main table making himself at home, the large bruiser eating some supplies he’d pilfered from the cupboards. Mal frowned in annoyance and kicked a table leg.
“Jayne, how many times do I gotta tell you we all eat together,” Mal sighed, gently taking a seat for the moment, before shaking his head. “...Chuck us that nutrient bar.”
With a delightfully devilish grin that said he’d gotten away with it, Jayne happily threw one of the snacks at Mal, who managed to catch it from the air. They both sat in agreeable silence while eating, their chewing the only noise in the room until there was another heavy rumble in the ship, throwing Jayne and Mal sharply in one direction, and almost making Mal fall out of his seat.
“Gǎo shénme guǐ,” Mal grumbled under his breath, keeping a careful hand on his midsection. “Is Wash going through the roughest bit of black he can find?”
Sharply getting to his feet again while Jayne just shrugged and returned to his eating, he roughly paced over to the intercom mounted on the galley wall, activating it with a mite amount of frustration.
“Wash!” Mal grunted, thumb firmly on the button. “What in the name of Earth-That-Was are ya doin’ up there? ...Are you trying to sleep with your wife on the console again?!”
“Sorry Captain, this is the usual stretch of space we go through while waiting on Badger, same as always,” Wash responded apologetically. “Have you tried the ‘looking out a window’ idea I suggested? You might see the trouble.”
“Just… try and keep her flying even.” Mal asked, lifting away from the comm.
Glancing through the upper windows of the galley out into space, he did actually see it was very odd out there in the black. Not so black at the moment though as it was positively rife with all manner of swirling pinkish colours and twinkles that looked as if River had been trying to paint it during a fever dream. It was naturally 'speak of the devil' as she kind of just suddenly appeared and placed a hand on his arm, that was always rather creepy when she did that.
Disturbed, broken, almost ethereal with her unnatural grace at times. River was remarkably pale and remarkably beautiful, the dark cascade of wavy black hair flowing down around her shoulders as she bounced to a stop before Mal. Her piercing murky green eyes peered out from the covering veil, looming like a fragile doll suspended by silk threads, yet she was anything but helpless. The young girl had been twisted by the Alliance into a living weapon, and Simon had rescued her before she'd been completely lost. She was still in there, though there was always the question of what might come to the surface at any given moment. It made the crew uncomfortable that she knew things she shouldn't, however at this point her ability to see into people's minds and sense the world around her was one of those little oddities of hers they took in stride.
“Little Albatross, how ya doin’?” he asked, as she seemed distracted.
Since their foray from that damned planet Miranda and her discovery of the evil the Alliance had done there, their encounters with the Blue Sun operations, and encountering all manner of crazy the Alliance had kept locked away in general... Finding solace had been something River had been trying to attain with little luck. Even if it was all said and done it didn't rest easily on the young girl's mind, more trouble piling into an already fraught stack.
She was staring at him, but he felt it was through him.
“She’s not well, the black’s making her uncomfortable, pulling things apart. She knows something’s wrong,” River spoke in her cryptic manner. “It’s all happening so fast that it makes her jumpy, she's feeling stretched thin.”
“Serenity?” Mal wondered at the girl's riddle-like manner of speaking, noting River’s gentle tremble. “Wash’ll fly her true, she’s gone through storms rougher than this.”
“It’s the biggest storm,” River whispered with a ghost of a smile. “Magical.”
“It is quite pretty out there, despite the rough ride.” Mal found himself agreeing.
Before Mal could reassure her again, Serenity violently lashed and there was a disturbingly worrying noise that sounded like an explosion coming from the engine room. Worrying about Kaylee, Mal immediately whipped around and jogged through the pain that started to flair up in his gut despite the painkillers. He was thrown again as the ship rumbled, tightly gripping the catwalk and clinging to it as he inched forwards step by step.
“Kaylee!” he shouted, seeing smoke coming from the open door, the engine was on fire. “You alright in there?!”
“Everything’s shiny, Cap'n! Whatever's happenin' is just a little too much for Serenity is all!” Kaylee shouted across to him as there was another bump and she almost tripped, the fire extinguisher in her hands spraying the flames that were cropping up from the overload on the system.
“That boom wasn't nothin’ important?” he asked, hoping they wouldn’t be floating dead in the water like they had during Simon’s last birthday. He just had to keep getting reminders of that situation didn’t he? He did not want a repeat of it, he already had the body wound.
“No Cap’n!” she rushed around, grabbing a piece of equipment Mal recognised but forgot the name of as she furiously got to work undoing something on the engine's frame, probably a valve to release pressure. “Little patching and we’ll be right as rain!”
“Stay safe, Kaylee.” Mal warned, turning away.
He needed to properly know what was happening, making the walk back to the galley as quick as he could go without the wound opening back up, he was diligent in navigating past all obstacles and through. River decided to follow along which he quite appreciated, if he took too bad a tumble she’d be able to help him.
Walking into the fore deck he yelled up to the bridge.
Another lurch and groan, it caused him to lose his footing and he tripped, sending him flat onto the ship's metal grating. He growled out in pain as his midsection exploded in pain and fire went through his body, it was damp when he fumbled up enough to place a hand on his wound.
He could feel River grabbing him and placing an arm under his own, he muttered his thanks and with her assistance got back shakily to his feet, a little surprised at her strength. “Zāogāo... this ain't my day.”
“Sir! You alright?” Zoë sharply called, rushing down the stairs from the bridge and taking him with an arm, nodding to River who carefully let him go. “That was a nasty one, don’t quite think it’s over.”
“Wish it was. Feelin’ like paper in a gale.” Mal complained, resting himself.
“Wash is handling it, let’s get you back to the infirmary.” Zoë said, already moving him along, not that he was protesting, the pain was already growing sharper.
“Magical…” River whispered.
Zoë stopped for a second as she turned her head back to set her eyes on the girl, regarding her. “River, sweetie; can you rush ahead an’ let Simon know we’re comin’?”
She nodded, swiftly slinking away with her unnatural movement. With that, Zoë kept her arm under Mal and helped him forwards, again to the galley as it was the fastest way down to Simon. Their pace was measured if a bit slow, but Mal had to keep a tight hand on the wound that was now bleeding.
“An’ I wasn’t even doing any heavy lifting,” he commented. “I was jus’ going about my business, peaceful like.”
Zoe raised an eyebrow. “Your business ain't usually peaceful.”
“Maybe so, but I was bein’ careful this time ‘round.” Mal grunted, stepping past the table Jayne was still at, having stolen another few snacks. “Jayne! Stop eatin’ everything!”
“I’m hungry an’ I’m eatin’, an I aint lettin’ a storm stop me eatin’,” Jayne said, not caring to look Mal’s way. He started up a little when Mal slammed his hand on the table surface. With a scowl, he conceded. “Gorram it, fine. Dammit, Mal, can’t a guy have some food after a hard job?”
“Yes, he can, when everyone does.” Mal grunted, swallowing past the annoyance that coupled with the stabbing feelings he was having.
“I’ll have to hurt you if I find you back here before I cook supper.” Zoë warned calmly in a manner that suggested a slight joke, but Jayne couldn’t tell if she was serious or not.
With a glare, Jayne got up and likely went to skulk off back to his bunk, but not before grabbing the remaining snack he’d had on the table. Rolling her eyes, Zoë let Mal rest his weight on her again as she helped him through to the aft hall towards the stairs that led down outside the passenger dorms. They descended step-by-step, with Simon meeting them outside the infirmary.
Helping him inside, Simon had already prepared the gurney with fresh pads. River was sitting up on the counter in the corner with her legs drawn up close against her chest. She watched the scene unfold as Simon grabbed a lower dosage of pain medication considering it wasn't that long ago he'd drugged Mal.
“Captain, I told you to rest.” Simon sighed, shaking his head at Mal’s recklessness.
“An’ I was takin’ it mighty easy, Doctor. The black had different plans.” Mal replied with a level of annoyance, laying back with a grimace.
“Yes… I suppose it has been rather hectic,” he agreed, especially as just then the lights flickered and there was another short rumble. “It might take a little while to stitch you back up with this going on.”
“That’s fine by m-” Mal started, before being cut off by the strangest noise he’d ever heard, which instinctively made everyone flinch as it hit their ears, it sounded like the screech of a banshee caught in a trap. “What in the sam hell is that?!”
“Not a clue, sir.” Zoë said, covering her ears with a frown.
They all became alert as the ship comms crackled to life and Wash spoke up.
“Not to panic, but we’re about to hit a-”
That was all he got out as there was the biggest clamour they'd suffered so far, followed by a loud explosion as the ship rocked and the lights went out. They all very painfully felt the ship ‘crash’ as it came to what could be considered the equivalent of a handbrake stop, all of them being thrown to one side as the ship's systems were just as thrown for a loop. It seemed the lighting throughout the ship had died as well, only the gloomy red of the emergency panels flaring to anaemic life and illuminating their surroundings now. The highest sound was the ship's alarm that was going off alerting them to a fire. After they’d picked themselves up, Zoë went over to the intercom and tried to use it, but it was dead.
“Blackout,” she commented, going to the door. “Gonna see if Kaylee’s alright and check on Wash, sir.”
“Go on.” Mal nodded, she gratefully gave her own back and left.
River smiled, laughing to herself. “There it is. Whole new world.”
Simon went over to his sister and checked her over, taking River’s hand as she seemed giddy at that moment and lost in her own mind, yet she appeared to be fine. He turned his attention back to Mal. "Captain, lay yourself down, I'll sort that wound."
Mal did his best to get comfortable, looking at Simon as he came over and let River walk outside the infirmary, the girl was wandering aimlessly in one of her episodes. So long as she wasn't smashing things up he was happy. “Think you can patch me up without anythin’ fancy, Doctor?”
“Yes, I’d only need my tools for surgery,” Simon said, grabbing some sterile wipes and gauze along with a sewing kit. “This is all we need.”
Gritting his teeth through the ordeal, Mal calmly watched as Simon ever-so-carefully removed the present broken threads and began the process of putting the needle through his skin again, applying some soothing gel and patching it over. He imagined that if Shepard Book were here instead of leading the community on Haven, he'd probably be reading a bible passage to mock him, something about hubris seemed about right. The older man was a pain, but a calming presence nonetheless, a rock the crew anchored themselves to. His wisdom was always something to count on. Just like Inara, the ship felt emptier without his dark wizened features, that annoying holy book he kept close to his chest, or his wisdom and insight from his clearly not-so-holy life before their time to look upon for guidance. Simon quickly finished his work, the whole thing taking less than a few minutes as he went over to the sink to wash his hands.
Mal felt a minor pang of annoyance at the thought of Inara. Book had his reasons that he'd explained in detail, feeling as if he was losing himself to sin the more he stayed on Serenity despite its welcoming nature, they were crooks after all, but Inara was something of an enigma. He chalked it up to having something hidden in her past, as with him and his own daemons that had come back to haunt him regarding his homeworld Shadow and his choices there, which had resulted in his kidnapping by his own former comrades. Although his own skeletons had been thrown from the closet and dealt with now, Inara had neglected to tell the crew anything of what lay obscured in her own life and left them just as soon as she'd come back.
They'd thought perhaps she might stay with the events of Miranda behind them, she even alluded to the fact in a private conversation with him, but before long she'd decided that departing for House Madrassa on Sihnon again was for the best. She'd done the same after her dear friend Nandi had died at the Heart of Gold, the rustic whorehouse the crew had been hired to defend once upon a time. Even so, with all the craziness they'd been through since then and playing merry with the Alliance along their journeys, she still hadn't deigned to return to the ship despite her love for it.
“Now, Captain,” Simon spoke, running the tap as he spoke over his shoulder and distracting Mal from his thoughts. “I know I can’t make you, but were this an actual military vessel and it were the case my orders were able to override your own for reasons of health, I’d be declaring you unfit for your duties. The amount of sedative you've been administered and the severity of your injury means you should be confined to your quarters for rest and recovery.”
Mal nodded, starting to feel the effects of the painkiller playing with his system. “I get your meaning, that’s not a bad idea, Doctor.”
“I’ll help you to your room, then. At least to make sure you don't wander.” Simon nodded, Mal barely heard him and was feeling much less aware than usual, felt like hell was tap-dancing on his head right now. Although, whether that was the ordeal they'd just experienced or a side-effect of the sedative he wasn't quite sure.
“Appreciate it,” Mal nodded. “Feels like I’m swimmin’”
Together they walked out and around to the stairs leading up into the aft hall, which was all the more harder without light. Kaylee was seeing to the engine and Mal gave pause as they passed the engine room, eyeing the barely-visible blackened marks around the doorway that had clearly come from an explosion, one that’d likely caused their loss of power.
“Do we know th’ issue?” Mal asked as Kaylee went about with a little hand torch, shining it all over the place and in every nook and cranny the machine had.
“I aint rightly sure, Cap'n,” she huffed, pausing and placing the torch in a pocket on her overalls shoulder-padding. “She was working fine ‘till we hit whatever that patch of black was. I’d been admiring it all pretty out there an’ we flew into this real nice purple and pink haze, then Serenity threw a fit an’ it was like an EMP hit us, ‘cept I can’t seem to get her runnin’ again.”
“S’alright. If it’s jus’ a bit of flux then it’ll pass soon ‘nuff,” Mal drowsily assured her. “Th’ scrubbers still run on auxiliary, even at less power than they oughta, they’ll clean th’ system.”
“I’m hopin’ so,” she agreed. “All parts of the engine are mostly fine, won't need any patchin', an' that big boom weren’t from nothin' here, it came from below the deck platin’.”
“An issue with the internal batteries, perhaps?” Simon chipped in. Kaylee beamed as he showed an interest with her craft. He'd clearly picked up a few things.
“I thought so too, but I gave ‘em a quick once over an’ they was fine.” Kaylee pouted at her lover, taking the torch in hand again and checking a system panel for any signs of life.
Mal couldn’t help but smile though as the lights came back on just then, and Serenity shuddered while a small hum passed through the entire ship. The engine before them gave a deep bassy thrum as it started to power back up automatically, likely as Wash rebooted the system the second he knew there’d been juice to play with.
“Ther' we go, we’re shiny,” Mal said. “Scrubbers did their job.”
Kaylee smiled wide, patting the bulkhead next to her. “My good girl, worked it out.”
“Now, Doctor,” Mal craned his head to face Simon. “If you’d kindly?”
“Of course, Captain,” he nodded, helping Mal along.
Once more they passed through the galley, now thankfully empty of ransacking Jayne’s, and came into the fore deck where the crew's cabins were stationed below. He could see the door to the cockpit was open, and Zoë sitting on Wash's lap, the two giving him a brief wave and a smile. He gave them a nod as he pressed the entry button to his quarters, the hatch to his cabin sliding inward and connecting to a pre-welded ladder to complete the way down. It was an odd design but it functioned well enough. Waving the doctor off, Mal gingerly took hold of the ladder and lowered himself down until his boots met the deck plating. With Simon still poking his head over to see into the cabin, Mal gave him a final wave and closed the hatch.
Letting out a sigh, he turned down to face into his quarters.
It took a second for him to focus, however he then promptly jumped backwards in equal parts confusion and shock, his hand instantly going on his sidearm. He almost pulled it free to quickly fire a shot, but he stopped himself because he wasn’t rightly sure just what he was seeing, and he was fairly certain he was hallucinating from whatever the doctor had given him.
His instincts tugged him a little out of his haze as he tried to register what he was looking at.
At first he thought it was a stuffed children's toy that was in the middle of his room and was going to chalk it up to a strange present from Kaylee thinking it was an adorable gift for her grumpy old captain, but that was before the thing blinked, and he saw it was clearly breathing the same air as him. He’d stopped himself from getting his weapon in hand because he was definitely hallucinating, and there was no sense wasting a shot and putting a hole in his cabin for an apparition.
Kinda didn't want to shoot it regardless. For a spectre of the mind, it looked mighty afraid of him. It possessed very… expressive eyes. His mind was not sound, and he had no plan on what to do right now. Before he could actually think on what to do however, the sedative caught up with him and he barely managed to stumble forwards before collapsing on his bed, fast asleep.
* * *
Twilight wasn’t sure where she was, not at all.
One second she’d been working on ─and failing at─ a new mass teleportation spell she’d developed from Star-swirl’s ancient teachings, and trying to implement it into a strange artefact that seemed akin to a battery she’d found from an old ruin in the Undiscovered West while exploring with the girls. It had kept petering out and causing small fluctuations in the air quite by accident, malfunctioning all day to the point that several meal trays had piled up from Spike next to her in the basement of her library. Then she'd tried to alter the spell on the fly in her frustration and it had quite suddenly felt like she was being hurtled through a portal.
Well, somewhat like it.
She’d been through portals before, and they‘d never felt anything like that. It had been as if she’d been stretched down to her most base molecules and put back together again thrice over, while Pinkie had been singing in her ear at the top of her voice, and playing an entire band's worth of instruments while doing it.
When it had stopped it still hadn't really stopped, because she’d been thrown extremely hard against a dense wall and it was very painful, and something had also gone crack. Whether that had been a rib or anything more worrying she didn’t care to check, because she’d quickly cast a powerful healing spell on herself before even registering her immediate surroundings. With an exasperated groan she'd picked herself up properly and ignited her horn for some light, blearily wondering if she was still in the library's basement.
And she was not.
She had no idea whose home this was and her brain was still catching up, so she waited for the nausea to settle as she examined what was clearly a rather rustic looking bedroom despite it being quite dark, which became clearer when she ignited her horn for some light on the situation.
There was a neat bed to her left with an ornate metal-wrought light hung near it, and a big bench that took up most of the space to her right, with all sorts of knick-knacks and strange metal parts on it, a few dangerous looking knives as well. There was an odd indent into the wall behind her just past the bed, with a mirror hanging above it and a toilet roll hanging nearby, so she assumed the toilet was built into the wall itself? Curiously austere. Most bizarre was the deck chair that would look right at home in a camping ground or at the beach, just folded against the wall beside the room's final oddity; a ladder going up that, as best she could see in this light, led into nothing but the ceiling. Its design must have been deliberate, so it was most likely a hatch that required opening from the outside.
Logically, she told herself that with that ladder, this was not the home of a pony. Quite clearly it was either the home of a gryphon or a minotaur, as not many other species would live in such urban conditions besides those races along with ponies. She barely took a step forward before there was a noise; a small clunk, followed by a low humming as the lights slowly came on.
“Hello?” Twilight curiously called out, her voice echoing off the walls as she let her horn douse now there was ample illumination. "Is anyone home?"
The ladder was indeed a hatch but it was still closed, so unless she forced it open with magic she wasn’t getting out of this bedroom, and she didn’t want to possibly damage anything. There was also that maybe using magic around a stranger's home would make them feel she was being hostile. Instead, she opted to wait as surely it wouldn’t be long before someone came in, right?
The Princesses must have answered her plea because just then the hatch opened and she heard conversation. She couldn’t make out what was being said, which she reasoned was due to her distance and the speaker's higher elevation. What happened next was confusing though to say the least. Twilight saw a creature's legs appear, then a torso, and then a head, but her brain didn’t quite process it for a few seconds because this was most definitely not a creature she recognised. It was like a minotaur in that it stood on two legs and had two arms, except that unlike a minotaur its head was different and it was almost hairless, save for the small mane on its head. It was fully clothed as well, which was highly uncommon for most inhabitants of Equus outside of social gatherings, and not even minotaurs liked to wear that much clothing even in the winter.
As it turned, it looked right at her and shouted out in horror. She was feeling very sorry for it and understood its plight as it had certainly never seen a pony before, the same as she had never seen whatever it was before. This was either some other part of Equus and not the continent of Equestria, or was a part of Equestria's outermost lands that were still largely undiscovered, perhaps somewhere in the Undiscovered West itself, but at least she’d had the culture shock of meeting other new species before. The look this creature was giving said it had never seen anything like her before, which of course came across as complete terror.
“Hello,” she said simply.
The creature hadn’t responded, just stared at her with a slight level of hostility. Its hand was on its hip gripping something that was attached to the belt it wore, possibly a weapon, before stepping forwards and promptly fainting from the ordeal of seeing her and her intrusion in its home.
Princess Celestia was going to punish her so badly for causing a diplomatic incident…