pt 01

- - - - -

“We’ll be entering atmo in ten minutes.” Wash called out over the comm. Moments later, Zoe and Mal had come up to the bridge, watching the approaching moon. “You’re sure you want to be here Mal?”

“Oh, I’m fair sure I don’t want to be anywhere near here, but since that yi da tuo dabian Niska sent us to steal the medicine that we returned, we need a job to get some coin. Gotta keep flyin’, and ain’t no way in the nine hells I’m gonna be left with nothing but Alliance handouts to keep me there. Plus, if this take is everything Enrique claims it will be, then we should have enough to take a little vacation, maybe get to a planet with a naked beach like you two want.”

Turning to face them, a smile on his face, he saw them exchanging a meaningful look, similar smiles on both of their faces. Wash was a damn good pilot, the best he had ever seen, and Zoe was all the first mate he could ask for and more. The two of them, hell, all of the crew could use a few days of rest. Finding a planet where it would be safe for the young doctor and his sister to do the same might be tricky, but it wasn’t impossible.

“Did I hear somethin’ ‘bout bein’ naked?” Jayne asked as he climbed the stairs to the bridge. “You guys always seem to have these conversations without me.”

“That’s because no one wants to see you naked, Jayne,” Wash quipped, flashing him a huge grin over Zoe’s shoulder.

“Well, just ‘cuz you don’ wanna see it don’t mean it ain’ gonna happen.” Jayne shot back, a smirk on his face.

“Baituo, anjing yidian!” Mal said coldly, looking at all of them in turn. “Let’s just do the job, then you can argue over what to do with the take, though I honestly don’t want to think about either of you being naked.”

“Sir, is there something else on your mind?” Zoe asked calming, the smile vanishing from her face. “Something you might have neglected to tell us?”

“I just don’t like being this close to that Alliance base, which reminds me: Wash, is there any chatter on the official 2-6-2?”

“Well, since it’s about twenty minutes ‘til we’re within spittin’ distance of an Alliance base, I’m gonna go with yes.” He pulled up the frequency monitor on a side screen, confirming his assessment.

“Well, what are they saying, smartass?”

“Sounds like routine babble to me, but I’ll keep it on in case they get wind of our little operation.”

“Good. Zoe, make sure the mule is ready. Jayne, arm yourself. There is no telling who or what we will find down there.”

Mal headed downstairs to check on the passengers as Wash gracefully descended into the moon’s atmosphere.

- - -

Claire’s unease at the simplicity of their getaway was soon overshadowed by the thrill of flying a Firefly again. Though this was not an -03 like Serenity, the lack of extenders causing it to shake a bit, it was still a joy to pilot. Leaving atmo had been bumpy, but out here in the Black she flew just fine. As she set the course for Delphias her thoughts strayed to the last time she had been in the pilot’s chair of a Firefly...

Claire sat in the pilot’s seat, flying through a small asteroid field. Loving hands carefully caressed her shoulders, easing the tension of dodging the huge chunks of rock. She turned to smile up at Mal, momentarily closing her eyes to savor the light massage. She had been glad for this chance to pilot the ship, and also glad that Wash and Zoe had been able to take a little vacation for themselves as a honeymoon.

That had left Claire on the ship with only Mal and Bester, who seemed to interrupt them at the most inconvenient moments. At least half a dozen times when she and Mal had been just getting started, he just popped up. She couldn’t really blame him, as it must be lonely with only the engine to talk to for hours on end. She would be glad when they landed on Athenia and took a few days leave while waiting for the freight to arrive. Maybe Bester could find some prairie harpy to shack up with and she would have Mal and Serenity all to herself for a day or so...

Bringing herself back to the present, she looked back out into the Black. Claire could hear Tom and Amos pillaging through the kitchen, probably eating everything they came across. She picked up the comm. and called down to the engine room.

“Anya, can you make this heap go any faster?”

“Tryin’ to boss, but too much more and she’ll fall apart. I’d really like to get there in one piece, and have some way to get off that rock as well.”

“Ok, well, do what you can, but I definitely don’t want to be stranded, especially on an Alliance moon.”

Her fingers automatically ran down over her tattered brown duster, her eyes glazing over as she remembered all of the horrors that she had seen in the War. She watched the small moon grow as they approached, turning to yell down the hallway to the galley.

“You lunks find anything decent to eat? I’m starving.”

Tom’s heavy steps sounded in the hallway as he lumbered up to the bridge, a wooden bowl in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other.

“Sorry boss, I guess me’n Amos got carried away.”

“Take some to Anya before you guys eat it all, and it would be nice to have some for later, in case we can’t stop for a while. An’ don’t take forever, we’ll be planetside soon.”

Tom plodded off down the hall to the galley as Claire turned back to face the approaching moon, her mind on a meal consisting of real food and a decent shower and maybe even a chance to wash her clothes in a real washing machine.

- - -

Wash landed Serenity a hundred meters away from the wreck of a transport ship, right in the middle of a barren plain. Mal headed to the cargo bay where Jayne and Zoe were already waiting. Inara stood on the catwalk outside of her shuttle, and Book and Simon were talking in quiet tones near some crates. He thought he spied River lying prone on the opposite catwalk, though it was too dark to tell. He looked for his mechanic, not seeing her among the assembled crew.

“Anyone seen little Kaylee? I want to get this done as quick as possible.”

“Righ’ here capt’n, jus’ lookin’ at the engine to see what we need most.” Kaylee bounded in, her usual bubbly smile on her face. “It’d be swell if we could find a new catalyzer for the compression coil, since you don’t want to replace the whole thing.” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek before he could retort, hopping down the stairs as she said “I love my captain.” Mal followed her, smiling at the light she always brought to whatever room she was in.

Zoe was already mounted on the mule, its trailer attached. Kaylee jumped on the trailer, comfortably settling into a cross-legged lotus position. Jayne was carrying two different guns over his shoulder, with a pistol strapped to his waist, another strapped to his calf, and at least half a dozen knives in various places on his person. Mal hefted a shotgun on his arm, looking back at the rest of the crew.

“We shouldn’t be long, but you keep the door shut and don’t open it until you know it is us.” He knew the job probably wouldn’t go smoothly, and that he would probably be calling Wash to open the bay doors as they tried to make a quick getaway, but he could always hope.

Zoe drove the mule down the ramp and headed across the plain, the cargo bay doors closing behind them. Mal and Jayne walked beside her, scanning the horizons, guns at the ready for any kind of surprises, as they approached the still wreckage before them. Mal knew that they would undoubtedly find the bodies of the unfortunate crew, and he worried for a moment that it might be too much for his sweet little mechanic to stomach. He also hoped the cargo hold and engine room were intact enough to salvage what they needed.

They made their way to what appeared to be the cargo bay doors. After trying to open them with no success, Mal backed off as Jayne approached with a welding torch, already fired up and ready to burn.

- - -

‘This is quite amusing’ thought Commander Ryan Harley, looking at the viewscreen as purple-uniformed men wandered about. Two Firefly-class transports had entered the system in the past half hour, both seemingly headed for the same place. He had known the wrecked ship would bring the low-life scavengers, and he had purposefully kept the retrieval ships grounded to trap them. He had seen the bulletin about a Firefly carrying stolen Alliance goods and possibly two federal fugitives and thought only about his own promotion and advancement by re-capturing them. Now that they were both within the moon’s atmosphere, he clicked on a comm. unit to give the order.

“Lieutenant, you have clearance to deploy. Bring me all of the crew and passengers of both ships alive and intact, dong ma?”

- - -

Claire landed the ship behind a hill, keeping it out of site of the debris she had seen. Her heart rate had increased significantly when she saw the other Firefly parked near the ship. It couldn’t be, no way! There was no way that hundan could be on the same job that she was hired for, the odds were just too great. Maybe it was just coincidence that it was another Firefly. For a split second, Claire considered scrapping the job and getting off of this rock, but then she remembered that they were broke and flying a stolen ship, and they needed this job.

She briskly headed down to the cargo bay where her mule was waiting, hovering over the cold steel grating of the floor. Tom and Amos came up from their inspection of the passenger quarters, making sure the prisoner was secure, and Anya entered from above, coming from the engine room. Tom and Amos had their heavy guns over their shoulders, pistols and knives strapped to their hips and calves. The four boarded the mule almost simultaneously, in a hurry to get to their pilfering before the crew of the other ship knew what hit them, praying to whichever gods would listen that it wasn’t Mal Reynolds she would be facing.

- - - - -

pt 03

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Translations ( from http://fireflychinese.home.att.net/episode.html ):

yi da tuo dabian (ee da tuo da bien) – a big lump of shit

baituo, anjing yidian (BAI-tuo, AN-jing-eedyen) – we will enjoy your silence now

dong ma? (dong ma?) – understand?

hundan (hwoon dan) – bastard