BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - ADVENTURE

NAUTICALGAL

Wish I Was Somebody Else, 9/26
Thursday, February 1, 2007

Mal, Zoe, and Jayne track down the toothless man. He gives them good news, and really bad news.


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 3949    RATING: 9    SERIES: FIREFLY

9. Likely Crash and Kill Us All

After Miranda

The toothless man wasn’t difficult to find; he inhabited the same section of the city where Mal and his crew typically conducted their business.

They caught up to him in a brothel, where he was unhappily not enjoying the services of the ladies who lived there. Instead, he was sitting at a broadwave console in the madam’s office when the madam herself led them in.

“Thanks for this,” he said, indicating the broadwave.

“No problem,” the madam said smoothly. “You’re popular today. These folks are here to talk to you.”

Toothless’ gaze took them in as the madam stepped out, and he laughed. “Now, there’s a familiar face,” he said. “What do you want?” Saliva sprayed all over the madam’s desk with each hard consonant.

“Couple of weeks ago down at the scrapyard, you did some business involving this man,” Mal said, and laid a snap of Wash on the desk.

Toothless looked at the snap, and laughed. “That guy,” he said. “Yeah, matter of fact, I did. What about it?”

“You kill him?”

“Who wants to know?”

“I do. He’s on my crew, and I’d like to know what happened to him.”

Toothless looked at the snap, and shrugged. “Just business, you understand.”

“I understand,” Mal said, shooting a look at Zoe that said We understand, right? “All I want to know is what happened to my man.”

Toothless followed Mal’s gaze to Zoe, and considered. Finally he said, “I dumped him at a prison mine. Know the Foreman there.”

“Where?” Mal asked.

“Haven,” Toothless said. “Southern continent. Big mine, you can see it from the air. Look for guard towers when you start to get low.”

Haven! How many times had they been on Haven in the past two weeks, and not known how close they were? Mal drew a breath, let it out again. “He’s alive, though?”

“Not for long,” Toothless said. “Man who hired me for the job just ‘waved. Orders now are to corpsify your boy. You want him breathing, you better hustle up.”

He didn’t need to say any more than that. Zoe was the first one out the door.

**

Mal ran until his lungs burned. He was still hurting too much from his injuries at Mr. Universe’s complex to sustain this kind of exertion. Zoe was disappearing into the crowds ahead of him; Jayne was huffing along behind. Mal cast anxious thoughts in River’s direction, wondering if she could hear him from so far away, but trying anyway. Haven, he thought. Fast.

They raced past a pair of Port guards in Alliance peacekeeper uniforms, and Mal shoved his misgivings down into his gullet. No time now to think about how they’d looked at Zoe, then him; no time to remind himself that an armed man running through a crowd looks awful suspicious, and a pair of lawmen with nothing better to do might just try to figure who they were and why they was running. No time to think about his own face, plastered all over the gorram Cortex with “FUGITIVE” in block letters above and below it. Just get to the ship.

River had the ship in the air before they were back aboard. Jayne had to leap for the ramp as Zoe and Mal grabbed him and pulled him inside. The closing ramp tumbled them down into the cargo bay together, with Jayne swearing wildly – “What does that gorram crazy girl think she’s doing?”

Mal and Zoe scrambled to their feet with identical intent, and made for the bridge.

“What in the sphincter of Hell are you playing at, River?” Mal demanded.

The broadwave on the pilot’s console blinked to life.

“Feds made you,” River said.

On the ‘wave screen, a woman in a Beaumonde port official’s uniform said, “Transport Serenity, you are bound by law to stand down. Return to port immediately or you will be fired on.”

“Ta ma duh,” Mal said. “Get us out of atmo.”

“Doing that,” River said. Once again, she gave him her you’re-not-really-helping look.

A warning blast rocked Serenity, and River spun the ship to port and pulled the nose skyward simultaneously. Mal and Zoe were thrown in a heap against the lockers at the back of the bridge.

“River!”

“Wash is better,” River said by way of apology. “Can’t fake muscle memory.”

“If they’ve made us, they’ll try to follow,” Zoe said, hauling herself to the ship’s intercom. “Kaylee! Do we have any decoys ready? Kaylee!”

Another blast exploded near the ship, barely missing as River threw them all against the bulkheads again. Zoe clung grimly to the pilot’s console as Wash’s dinosaurs flew around the cockpit like so many plastic missiles. “Jayne!” she shouted into the intercom. “Who’s back there?

“You go,” Mal ordered, taking the intercom from her, and Zoe stumbled off the bridge as another blast came almost too close.

On her way back to the cargo hold, Zoe found Jayne picking himself up out of a corner of the kitchen. “What in all the –“ he said.

“Move!” Zoe ordered, shoving him ahead of her toward the cargo bay. They stumbled down the steps, clinging to the rails as River threw the ship into a tortuous roll and another blast came too close.

“Decoys!” Zoe shouted, and Jayne shoved stacks of loot from the Sanchez brothers out of the way, and pulled the hatch cover off of the hold where they kept the decoys. He tossed them out to her without bothering to check whether they were completed or in progress, and Zoe flipped the activation switches on them, set the delays, and rolled them into the belly airlock they used for disposing of trash.

“That all we got?” she said as the fifth decoy crashed into the lock.

“Looks like it,” Jayne replied.

Zoe dropped the cover on the lock and fought against the g-forces River was generating to get to the intercom. “Decoys prepped,” she said. “Let me know when we’re out of atmo.”

“We’re out. Go decoys,” Mal said an instant later.

Jayne hit the release on the garbage airlock, and the five decoys spilled into space and took off in different directions.

Zoe rocked on her feet as the ship went to full burn. At least that was a familiar feeling, and one she could stay standing for.

“What happened?” Jayne asked wearily. He was rubbing his shoulder, working it as though it pained him some.

Zoe noticed that he had a long red welt across his bicep. She probably had a few new bruises herself, after a ride like that one. Simon and Kaylee, she thought suddenly, Inara. “Head count,” she said to Jayne. “You make sure Inara’s okay, I’ll find Simon and Kaylee.”

Jayne nodded, and started up the stairs.

Zoe checked the med bay first; it was a mess, everything thrown around, but Simon wasn’t there. She found him in the engine room, bandaging Kaylee’s wrist.

“Broken?” Zoe asked.

“Sprained,” Simon replied. “What was all that?”

“Your sister, flying the ship,” Zoe replied. “And the feds, trying to shoot us down.”

“Oh, good, I’m glad that’s all,” Simon said.

“Did you find out about Wash?” Kaylee asked.

“He’s on Haven,” Zoe said.

“Haven!” Simon and Kaylee said in unison.

“I know,” Zoe said. They’d been on Haven four times in the past two weeks. So close, and they’d had no idea. “We’re headed there now.” She didn’t mention that they were headed there in a rutting hurry, because Wash was now under a death sentence. It wasn’t something she really wanted to dwell on. She turned and made her way back toward the bridge instead.

COMMENTS

Thursday, February 1, 2007 9:16 AM

AVALONSMOMMY


Shiny action-y scenes! I'm liking this, especially bringing Wash back for us. Thank you, and more please!!

Thursday, February 1, 2007 1:56 PM

AMDOBELL


For a moment there I thought we were going to find that the reason Kaylee hadn't answered was because she and Simon were busy being horizontal together, then I worried that they had been snatched, so big sigh of relief that they are okay and still on board. Hope our Big Damn Heroes get to Haven prison in time to rescue Wash. Can't wait to see Wash reunited with Zoe and the crew. Ali D :~)
You can't take the sky from me

Thursday, February 1, 2007 2:14 PM

BLUEEYEDBRIGADIER


Ahttp://www...Zoe didn't beat the shit out of the Toothless Man! And I was so hoping for Zoe just going apeshit when TM told them that Wash's life was about get ended for real:(

Still...brilliant bit of writing, nauticalgal! Definitely can't wait for chapter 10:D

BEB

Thursday, February 1, 2007 5:31 PM

NAUTICALGAL


A double bill? Hmm. I'll see.

Thursday, February 1, 2007 5:34 PM

NAUTICALGAL


Re: Zoe going, er, all medieval? That's later . . . just wait . . .


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