Chapter 14

Raymond Yang leaned back with a heavy sigh and gazed down at his lovely companion’s face. She was exquisite in every way; her skin soft and still damp from their lovemaking, her hair silky, her mouth capable of bringing the most pleasurable release. He’d not met any woman like her, and he’d spent his life contracting with the most beautiful of Companions.

When she glanced up at him, dark eyes hooded by thick, full eyelashes, his heart slammed sharply against his chest, and his groin stirred. He’d been with many women, but very few had given him such immense satisfaction. When her fingers trailed a delicate path down his bare chest, tweaking one nipple and then the other, he found himself ready to give in to her ministrations again.

But this is where he needed to be careful. Men were admittedly ruled by their sexual appetite, and she brought such ravenous need out in him that he knew he could exhaust himself within her until he was unable to move, until he was pliant and easily deceived.

This woman was good, but he needed to be better. He had a mission to complete. But he wouldn’t act rashly. He would gather the facts before condemning this beautiful creature to a life in prison – or worse.

And if he could busy himself between her smooth, creamy thighs a few more times before coming to an informed decision, all the better.

He rolled her onto her back and grinned when her thighs parted with no coaxing necessary. He loved this about a Companion. They always knew what he wanted, how he wanted it, and were always pliant beneath his demands.

Her mouth parted into that virginal ‘oh’ of surprise when he entered her and her fingers gripped his shoulders as if he was her very first lover. He grunted and groaned as her delicate pants and ever so soft fingers, brought him to a quick, yet very satisfying release.

Perhaps he would prolong his investigation so that he could enjoy the pleasures of this woman’s body for a few more days.

~*~

Mal sank to the ground, exhausted, covered in sweat and dirt. But they finally had shade, some cover from the constant barrage of weapon fire.

Air support had come – at the last moment, too. The Alliance had heavily fortified the mine and its entrances to insure they’d be able to keep it from enemy hands. Mal’d lost more than ¾ of his men in the assault; some alliance soldiers had gone deep into the mine for shelter or an ambush, Mal really didn’t care which, and he’d had set up a perimeter inside and out to keep an eye out for those few stragglers that had been left alive.

He forbade his men from chasing the soldiers down for fear that they had booby trapped the mine with explosives. Thinking that rather than loosing the battle and the important ore contained within the quarry, they would simply lure as many Independent’s into it and destroy it instead.

Right now they took turns resting inside the mouth of the largest quarry. The ore was expensive, very pure weapon’s grade material. And Mal was surprised that it had been so easy – if loosing three quarters of one’s attacking squad could be called easy.

Bodies of Independent and Alliance soldiers alike littered the ground and he knew they wouldn’t get a proper burial. Casualties of war. The only important ones were those left alive to fight another day.

The mine provided the necessary shelter while newly manufactured weapons were used on the Alliance cruisers bombarding them from above.

“Sure is a sight,” Mal observed.

With the explosions lighting up the dark sky, one could almost be fooled into thinking it was daytime. Mal allowed a small smile to cross his face when an Alliance boat was hit. The fiery trail it left in the sky as it plummeted toward the ground was an instant confidence booster.

“We ain’t out of the woods yet,” Zoë replied. She wasn’t sure when their roles had changed, making Mal the more optimistic of the two.

Mal grinned and briefly remembered the day Inara had told a newly arrived Simon that Mal preferred to be lost in the forest. Anything was preferable to being outgunned, outmanned and without any sort of cover. Those who had no wartime experience didn’t understand that. Inara, Simon, those from the Core worlds just – didn’t.

“No, but we got a fightin’ chance now,” he said.

“That we do.” A concussion blast from surface to air launchers shook the ground. Zoe spared a glance toward where she knew they’d been dropped. The only thing that revealed their location was each shot well-aimed toward an advancing Alliance ship.

Unfortunately, more continued to advance on their location. They knew the importance of this mine and so reinforcements continued to arrive. Thankfully, the Independent army also dropped what men and equipment they could to keep the mine from falling back into Alliance hands.

“Wanna meet ‘em,” Zoe said, arching her neck toward the turrets scattered around the landscape. They’d been dropped in various locations not at all close to one another to give the ground troops some added cover. It wasn’t often that she harbored any admiration for a fellow soldier, but one who sat alone in the middle of a battle zone while a barrage of enemy fire rained down on their head gained a bit more her respect.

“Yeah. Crazy liumang’s all of ‘em.”

They ducked for cover as a missile broke through their defenses and exploded, sending the unlucky bodies of a few soldiers hurling into the air.

~*~

Mai hurried into the lab, ignoring the looks of the other technicians in the room. They knew who she was. The chief’s daughter would be stopped from going into only the most classified of areas. She kept the worried look off her face and forced a more intimate one to grace her smooth features instead. But she was worried. She’d overheard officers talking in her father’s office and knew they were going to come for Simon. And she needed to get to him first.

She touched his arm and he glanced up, surprised that she would seek him out in this location. He was probably surprised that she even had the clearance to be in the room.

“We need to go,” she leaned toward him to whisper quickly. To anyone else’s eavesdropping eye, she made it look like a small intimate thing.

She was relieved when he turned to face her so that no one could read his lips. “What? Why? Has something happened?”

She wrapped her fingers around his arm and led him away, ignoring the grins from the other two men in the room.

“What’s going on?” Simon whispered as she slid her hand into his arm and sauntered down the hallway, hips swaying so that anyone who observed the two would think nothing nefarious was happening but a mid-day tryst. Cameras tracked every employee’s move – except in the private offices, but she didn’t lead him to one of those.

The only one she had access to was currently occupied.

Instead, they headed straight for her private hovercar.

“Mai –“

She keyed the entry code and the door swung open. “I’ll meet you at the transport in an hour. Go get Madeline and Billy.”

His eyes widened in fear. “What?”

“We can’t take the chance. We’ve done what we can. Now we need to get out or they’re going to catch us.”

“How –“

“I’ll explain it all later.” She pushed him toward the open door. “Go. Now.”

“Why aren’t you coming?”

“I’ve got something I need to finish. It’s you they suspect, not me. You need to get out.”

“If I’m not there by 1300, leave without me and don’t look back.” She knew there was a good possibility that she would be detained. Plus, she truly did have something she needed to take care of before she could leave.

“Mai –“ Her heart plummeted to her knees when he turned those concerned blue eyes on her. It had been a long time since he’d looked at her like that. “Don’t risk –“

She wrapped both hands around his face and pulled him close for a kiss. In the back of her mind, she was surprised when he didn’t immediately pull away. But neither did he return the kiss with the enthusiasm of a lover. It was chaste, kind, accommodating, but not intimate.

When she pulled away, she almost grinned at the dumfounded look on his face. “Just go.” She pushed him further into the hovercar and walked away. She needed to get back into the lab. She pulled her hands through her hair, ruffled it as if she’d just had a quick encounter with her boyfriend in a supply closet. The ruse only needed to work for the next few minutes.

She ignored Simon’s call for her to come with him and entered the lift without turning back. Hopefully, he would get far enough away that they wouldn’t be able to track him. She needed to make sure of that - and she needed to send that call for help.

She made her way toward her father’s office, hoping that he and security had already left. She needed to send one last message, and she needed to do it from the secure network located in her father’s office.

She paid no heed that the door was wide open. She simply walked through it, closed it behind her, and hurried to the terminal. She opened a secure connection using her father’s authentication code and scrambled the signal. Pulling the data stick out of a hidden pocket, she inserted it into the port and waited impatiently for the upload to finish. Her eyes darted toward the door and back to the upload percentage. She heard voices approaching and drummed her fingers urgently on the desk.

It was over for her if she was caught in her father’s office. She pulled out a small communication’s device and clicked it on.

The voices were coming closer and she closed her eyes, held the device close to her mouth and whispered a clear warning, “Don’t use the transport. They know.”

She smashed the device on the countertop as the door swung open and her father stepped through.

The two security officers flanking him moved their weapons from his back to aim them at her.

The screen chimed, indicating that the upload from the data disk was complete. Mai ignored it. Instead, her eyes locked with her father’s and she prayed that at least Simon and his family would get out of the city without being caught.

~*~

She lolled in and out of consciousness as the small ship sailed toward its destination. Her mission was a simple one, all things considered, and she was looking forward to seeing Inara again.

But in her dreams, her mission turned into a nightmare. She failed – something so rare River could barely fathom it. Her body trembled as she watched Inara gunned down before her eyes. Hands grabbed at her from behind and as she whirled on her attacker, she found herself face to face with her brother. Madeline clutched her baby brother behind Simon, screaming at him. But he didn’t listen. His eyes met hers and as he raised his hand to touch her face, River noticed it was covered in blood.

River opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. She struggled to reach him, but the hands were behind her again, preventing her from taking that one step further to where she could touch him. They pulled her back as he fell to his knees, blue eyes asking why she had abandoned them.

“Simon!” River sat upright in bed, her body shaking from the intensity of the dream, her skin damp in sweat. She moved quickly to the shuttle’s controls and checked her destination. She was on her way to Londinium, but her current trajectory would have her pass very close to Osiris.

The console chimed, indicating an incoming text only message. It was scrambled but River knew what it would say when the system had decoded it. River’s eyes scanned the words and her heart leapt into her throat. Discovery imminent. Extraction Needed. Osiris. Capitol City. Tam estate.

River shook her head, as if trying to deny her nightmare could very well come to pass if she didn’t hurry. She altered her course, drew her knees to her chest and waited. There was no need to prepare. She knew every secret way in and out of her former home. But the nightmare lingered in her memory, giving her a sense of helplessness. She’d failed in the dream. She set her jaw and stared out into the blackness of space.

The dream was the only place she would fail.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Jayne clutched the controls tightly and clenched his jaw. The turret beneath him vibrated with every shot. But he knew that with each volley he sent into the air, it would be much easier for the Alliance to target his position. Even in the dark, he wasn’t completely invisible.

But he had a mission to complete. This world was important to the Independents. He knew it had ore capable of being used in multitudes of weapons. It was no wonder the Alliance was trying so desperately to hold it. But now that he was all respectable, serving in the military and such, he had to obey orders – even if he didn’t understand them.

The few chances he had to look into the sky, he hoped that the large explosions he saw there were the result of some super secret Independent weapon being used on the Alliance.

“Got the cover set up, boss!” A newb who went by the name of ‘X’ hurried under the tarp he’d just finished securing. “Be harder for ‘em to see us now!”

“Good goin’, boy!” Jayne yelled over the sound of the launcher. “Now pull out your rifle and make sure no one comes at us on foot. You tell me if they start comin’ too fast.”

“You got it, boss!”

Jayne shook his head. He weren’t anyone’s boss. He was just far better trained in the use of these weapons. Were someone else better trained to come along, he’d be the one out there circling this metallic heap, keeping watch so that no one could sneak up and destroy the weapon from the ground.

He spared a glance toward the quarry submerged in the far distance. All he could see of it was brief piles of ore and dirt every time a missile landed close to the troops held up there. But the enemy fire was growing now, and more shots were making it past the defenses he and the others had set up around the mine.

If they were going to hold this place, they were going to need a lot more firepower. He just hoped the explosions he could see from space were enemy ships being destroyed, because if they were friendly, there was no way any Independent would make it off this world alive.

But – he hadn’t signed up to live through this war. He’d signed up to take as many of the hundan’s as he could with him before he was sent to meet his maker.

~*~

Simon hurried into the estate amidst curious looks from the staff. He ran into the yard where Madeline and Billy were playing with the nanny. The sound of his baby son’s laughter struck a longing so deep in his heart that he paused for a moment before closing the distance between them.

“You’re home early!” Madeline turned a bight, big smile on him.

Simon didn’t answer her. He simply lifted Billy off of his blanket and took Madeline’s hand. “We need to go.” He couldn’t elaborate, not right now. Not in front of the nanny. He couldn’t incriminate anyone. He led Madeline up to her room.

“What we talked about. Remember.” He knew she already had a bag packed. She just needed to get it.

Madeline shook her head, mouth hung open in shock, eyes full of fear.

“Go, quickly.”

He pushed a big, colorful bird toy into Billy’s hand as he lay the baby down in his traveling bassinet. His bags were already packed for this eventuality and as he pushed open a false back to his wardrobe and drew them out, he struggled to calm his racing heart. He needed to get the kids away from this place, away from the innocents that cared for them. It wasn’t fair for them to be punished for his actions.

Just as he bent to pick up Billy, the communicator in his pocket chimed. He yanked it out, hoping that it was a message from Mai.

It was. But it was a recording. He’d missed the incoming message in his rush to get home.

He pressed the playback button.

“Don’t use the transport. They know.”

He clutched the device in his hand and closed his eyes. That was it then. It was over. She’d been caught. He took one last, slow look at the communicator and slammed it into the nightstand, shattering it into many unidentifiable pieces.

He’d arranged for a backup plan in case he was discovered, but he didn’t know how they would get to his family’s summer house. The authorities were probably already on their way. And any access ports off world would be monitored.

He’d gone through this before, but then he’d had his inheritance to fall back on, previous contacts. He had something similar now, but nothing like that vast network of safety that he’d had back then.

He was so lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice a waif-like shadow walk straight into the room and over to Billy’s bassinet. But, like all parents, he could feel something watching him. He whirled around and came face to face with his sister as she slung Billy’s bag over her shoulder.

“Found you.” River smiled proudly at him, like she had that day on Jiangyn that seemed so long ago now.

Simon’s jaw fell open and he whispered her name. He embraced his sister tightly as Madeline came into the room and squealed.

“Time to go.” River moved out of her brother’s embrace and picked up Billy – who was still fascinated with his mechanical toy – a toy Simon hadn’t realized until now that he had not bought for the boy.

“Gave it to him.” River smiled as they both shared a glance at Billy.

“Have to go. They’re coming.”

“Yes.” Simon slung Madeline’s bag over his shoulder, took her hand and led her out of his room – right into his father

TBC

--------------- Reviews before the hack ---------------

MerryK Monday, September 24, 2007 - 05:15

Beautiful chapter! I love what you've done with Mai, even though I was as shocked as Simon that she kissed him, and with River as well. It's nice that, no matter what happens, Simon always has talented competent women at his side. ---------------

TamSibling Monday, September 24, 2007 - 06:30

Oh, Gabriel Tam - he had better not stop his son or River will open a can of something on his a**! It's great that Mai died, if only because it's going to cause Simon more guilt. Gotta love that.

I am very worried for Inara - it seems the gig is up - and something tells me she won't see the hit coming until it's too late. Oh what tangled webs ... ---------------

wytchcroft Monday, September 24, 2007 - 07:35

strong stuff as always:) ---------------

epm0001 Monday, September 24, 2007 - 07:41

Very exciting...I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next chapter. ---------------

AMDOBELL Monday, September 24, 2007 - 08:32

Oh wow, very exciting chapter. I actually feel sorry for Mai who I wasn't sure was trustworthy. She must really love Simon after all. Hope Simon, River and the kids get away safely. Love Heroic Jayne and worry for him, Mal and Zoe too. As for Inara I hope she times her escape before that *tamade hundan* can have her arrested and thrown in prison. Ali D :~) You can't take the sky from me ---------------

jondesu Monday, September 24, 2007 - 12:46

Hopefully Mai can get out of this somehow, but since River's not coming for her, but for Simon instead, I doubt she'll have much chance. I'm just as worried for Inara too, actually, she doesn't seem to realize that she's being played just like she's playing this guy, though I think she's smarter than that. Oddly enough, I'm less worried for Mal, Zoe, and Jayne guarding the mine (and looking forward to Mal and Zoe realizing that Jayne signed up with the Browncoats, heh), than either of them or for Simon and River, who shouldn't have too much trouble. Foreboding dreams for River always lead to something dramatic, though. ---------------

Platonist Monday, September 24, 2007 - 16:01

Well, I got here late and all the good comments are used.

This was a great cliffhanging chapter to leave us with. Enjoy your trip. Your posts will be missed until you return. ---------------

Desertgirl Monday, September 24, 2007 - 18:18

Oh my. I'm on the edge of my seat with worry for all out BDH's. Of course its worse because I know your leaving on vacation and I keep thinking "is this the last one for two weeks?"

Anyway another great chapter!!!!!

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SwedishMystery Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - 01:20

This just gets better and better. Can't wait for what will happen next. ---------------

LadySage Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - 06:18

ooh, this just just getting more and more fun to read. The suspense is building and then *wham* you just hit us with more. Have a GREAT trip and come back safe so you can post more stuff for us to read!

:-) ---------------

BigBadJayne Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - 13:48

wuh ma duh! And now I gotta wait two whole weeks...? I'm not gonna have any fingernails left by then, lol.

great suspense, and why do I get a feeling Inara is really in for it? can't wait!