Jason stumbled back, surprised at the force of the blow from small slip of a woman. When he recovered he regarded the girl before him. It took him a moment to recognize her, the girl from the post office.

“Lisa?”

“It’s Sarah, you idiot. Can’t you even remember my name you petty crook? Lost my job cuz of you! Almost got cited and fined on top of that. Ain’t been able to get a payin job since.”

“I, um,” Jason stumbled for words. This strange turn of events had him speechless.

“Don’t wanna hear it Ather-Jay or whatever the hell your damn name is.” Sarah picked up her duffel bag and walked from the room toward the back of the ship. Jason following after her, no small bit worried that she might rat him out for his stunt at the post office.

Jason had just finished descending the steep metal stairs into the cargo bay as Sarah walked out the back of the ship and into the waning sunlight. There was not way he could catch up to her, but then something she saw made her freeze, duffel bag clutched in white knuckles. She turned and walked back until she met him on the ramp of the lowered cargo bay door.

“Seems to me you owe me. I want passage to your next stop.”

“Free passage is it now?” exclaimed Jason. For a moment he stood looking into her fiery green eyes.

“Half price,” she then walked past him, crossed the cargo bay, and began ascending the steps back to the kitchen.

“Fine.” Jason was suddenly feeling very spun about. So much so he barely noticed Lieutenant Reed nod to him as he walked by the ship, followed by his lackey minions.

-------------------------------------

No sooner than the ship had left atmo than they were hailed again by one of the small Alliance patrol ships that controlled the space surrounding the Core Planet.

“Gorramit,” exclaimed Jason before acknowledging the hail.

“You are ordered to hold position and prepare for boarding.”

“Search all you like, I have no cargo,” answered Jason honestly.

“We are searching for a suspect in a criminal investigation, sir,” replied a voice Jason did not recognize. “Just procedure, stopping every ship leaving New Whales.”

“Fine, what is your ETA.”

“Should be there in less than twenty minutes.”

Jason muttered several choice words in Mandarin as he complied with the patrol ships request to heave to. He then got out of the pilot’s chair. He had a feeling it would be a good idea to have words with his new ‘passenger’ before the Feds arrived, just in case.

“Are we stopping sir,” asked Linda as Jason came back into the kitchen.

“Seems the locals are searching for a fugitive,” Jason eyed Sarah. “You know anything about this.”

“Ni ta ma de, tianxia suoyoude ren, dou gaisi,” muttered the girl. “Well, guess I’m humped.”

“And so may be we, if we’re willingly transporting you. Explain yourself.”

“Well, I sorted needed some coin, what with loosing my job and all,” replied the girl. “And legal means of getting it were a mite sparse, what with a bad reference from my last job. Hell, a girl’s gotta eat…”

“What,” Jason paused for effect. “did you do?”

“Cortex hacked a Bank of Blue Sun teller machine.”

Everyone looked at the girl. “You can do that?” asked Rick.

“Rick, get that welding torch. It’s still up in the engine room. And you,” Jason turned to the girl, “do exactly as I say.”

-------------------------------------

The officer strode through the mated airlocks into the Shire’s cargo bay, and regarded the small crew assembled there. “Captain Libby, I presume,” he addressed Rick.

“That would be me, actually,” Jason stepped forward.

“Have you seen this woman?” the officer showed a grainy picture of Sarah.

“As a matter of fact I have, she wanted passage on this ship,” Rick and Linda exchanged glances. Was he going to hand the girl over?

“She is here then?”

“No, she had money in hand for her passage, about to come aboard, then suddenly something spooked her. In retrospect, I think it was some of your fine boys as was patrolling the spaceport, and she went and run off. Last I saw of her, she was disappearing into the crowd back at the New Whales Docks. Still dirtside as far as I know.”

The officer considered this. Jason went over his plan in his head. His story had given him an out. He did feel slightly guilty, and didn’t want to hand the girl over. If it came to it and they found her, however, he could now claim she stowed away. He wondered if they would believe it. Either way, he couldn’t rightly risk the ship for a stranger. Rick, or his sister, yes, Linda or her son even, but he didn’t hardly know this girl. She was a petty criminal as far as he knew. In fact, the very fact that he was going this far for her was a surprise.

“I will still have to have my men search your ship. It should not take long.”

“Certainly sir, right this way,” Jason led them into the kitchen.

It only took a few minutes for each of the bunks and the cockpit to be searched. The engine room above the cargo bay took a bit longer as there were numerous storage lockers and cubbyholes to go through. Finally, the officer was satisfied that his prey was not to be found on this vessel.

Once they heard the audible clunk of the patrol ship disengaging, Jason popped the hatch of the spare crew cabin and descended. Looking around, he found the small room empty. Pulling aside the large Blue Sun poster tacked to the wall, he peered through the newly cut hole. Likewise pushing aside another poster that was affixed to the other side, he peered into his own cabin. Sarah was seated on his bed reading one of his manga novels.

“Interesting reading material,” She remarked, holding up the graphic novel, “Cowboy Bebop?”

“What? It’s a classic from Earth that Was. Just be thankful they didn’t decide to search both these cabins at the same time. The hell was Rick thinking anyway, I thought I told him to cut the wall into Linda’s bunk, not mine.”

“He tried, but there seems to be a double bulkhead running between the port and starboard cabins. Had to cut into yours.”

“Just put that down and get outta my bunk. Dinner’ll be served topside in about two hours.”

-------------------------------------

“So then, your from Higgens’ Moon,” asked Linda

“Unfortunanly,” replied Sarah, “though I would hardly call that mud ball home.” “I may have been born there, but soon as I got enough coin together, I got the hell out. Ain’t been back sense.” She thought back to her hometown of Canton, with their stupid damn statute of their stupid damn hero, whom she unfortunately shared a name with. She did so hope she would meet that hu dan some day…

“Since then, been doin’ pretty much anything a girl can ta put food in her mouth.”

“Anything,” Jason raised an eyebrow.

“You accusin me a whorin? Hell I aint got the companiony looks fer that,” Sarah quipped back.

Jason wasn’t quite sure he agreed with her assessment of her womanly assets. With her hair now pushed behind her ears, he now had a chance to see her face clearly. Jason realized she did not nearly have the case of acne he originally though, but rather her face was simply a riotous mass of freckles. The deep green of her eyes, he found particularly unusual. She just needed to learn to use a few whiles he mused. That and maybe a hair brush.

“That still don’t explain why a mail clerk got the skill ta hack an ATM,” interjected Rick.

“Always had a penchant for mechanical and ‘lectrical stuff,” she replied. “Got a job with this fella few years back what called himself ‘Mister Universe.’ Had a hell of a telcom installation on Ion Moon. I was one of a few dozen people what came and went to maintain his stuff. Course, that went south when some crazy fong lu hu dan went and got him killed during that Miranda broadwave incident.”

“Was on Londinium when I got the word from a friend that Universe was no longer in the ‘Verse. As Londinium ain’t exactly a cheap place to live on no income, I took the first steady job I could. This is good by the way, yer a damn fine cook, boy.”

“Thankyou, miss,” Matt beamed at the complement.

“Anyway, that’s my story. At least till some crook comes in with a swai smile and mucked it all up fer me.” She fixed Jason with a look that could kill. “What exactly was in that box as was worth the trouble anyway.”

“So that’s related to why you hit the captain, then,” asked Linda

“Ah, well, that,” said Jason. “There is quite a long story behind that.”

“Seems we got a long trip,” Linda crossed her arms, and regarded her captain.

“This story starts with a little fella named Badger,” interjected Rick, as he began the telling of their first big damn adventure.

-------------------------------------

They were five days into their trip to the rim world of Newhall when the distress beacon came though. It was from a nearby ship. A porpoise class freighter based on the core class code, thought Linda, who was on watch.

She found Jason and Rick playing cards at the kitchen table. “Sir, just got a distress call, it’s from a nearby freighter. Shall I alter course to assist.”

“We supposed to,” asked Jason, who was still regarding his cards. Linda rolled her eyes. He really did have a lot to learn.

“Standard procedure, Sir. Ignoring it can get your registration pulled.”

“Fine, don’t know what help we’ll be though.” Jason threw down his hand of cards. Pushing back his chair, he stood up.

Twenty minutes later the freighter was in view through the cockpit. “Try hailing them again,” Jason said to Linda.

“Already tried about five times,” replied the woman, but Linda tried again anyway.

“Maybe their radio’s out,” interjected Rick.

“Ship that size would have backups,” Linda was now frowning. “Something’s wrong.”

“I conjure we’re about to find out what then,” said Jason. “Get us docked.”

Once the two ships were linked together, everyone congregated in the cargo hold, curious as to the status of the ghost ship. Even Sarah was standing with her arms crossed looking at the closed doors as if she could somehow will them to be transparent.

“There’s heat and atmosphere on the other side,” reported Linda from the controls next to the cargo bay door.

“Open her up then.”

With the push of a button the inner bay door opened, and they all looked into the dimly lit and cavernous interior of the freighter’s cargo hold.

“Wow,” remarked Matt, “you could fit the entire Shire in there.”

“Freighters are big son,” said Rick sagely. That is, before he noticed the floor of the cargo hold. “Wuh de tyen, ah!”

In the dim light, details were difficult to make out, but the forms that littered the floor where clearly bodies.

Linda levered a cartridge in the chamber of her mare’s leg before cautiously stepping into the large cargo hold. Sarah followed her close behind, her curiosity apparently stronger than her common sense. Linda stopped at the first corpse, lying face down on the cold metal. She kicked the motionless form, rolling it over.

Sarah let out a small scream of fright at the hideous sight.

"Jen dao mei!" exclaimed Linda, “Reavers.”

TO BE CONTINUED

Authors Notes: I had to fix a minor inconsistency. In the post office scene of Chapter 3, I originally cast the girl’s name as Lisa, then accidentally changed it to Sarah at the end of Chapter 4. I went back and edited Chapter 3. I like Sarah better anyway. Not that I dislike Lisa, it’s just every girl or woman I’ve ever known named that was blonde, and somehow I just can’t mentally reconcile that name with a brunette/redhead. On that note, I seem to remember Joss once saying something on the importance of names.

Mare’s Leg or Hog’s Leg? In the real Old West, a cut down/pistolized Winchester lever action was referred to as a Hog’s Leg. Holywood subsequently changed it to Mare’s Leg in some of their Westerns. I guess it sounded sexier. Anyway, I believe in cannon someplace Zoe’s gun was stated as a Mare’s Leg, so I’m going with that.(hey, it’s the future and names of things do tend to change with time.)