BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL

TUJIAOZUO

The Sachem: Chapter 3
Saturday, January 19, 2008

Post BDM; M/I, S/K; Continued From New Haven: Stepping backwards into the past, we view what went on before Mal, Zoe and Simon were captured. Zoe gives insight, Jayne talks to his horse, and Mal and his skeleton crew head to the skyplex.


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 2680    RATING:     SERIES: FIREFLY

Inara walked out to the porch and rested her hand on a post, letting out a sigh before addressing Zoe who was silent and surveying their little slice of Western Shadow with a mug of coffee in hand. "I wish I could have gone up too."

Zoe turned and smirked. "That obvious?"

"You were born up there, it's only natural." Pulling her kimono tighter to ward off the cold, she stepped lithely forward in a pair of thick shearling boots that didn't match the rest of her ensamble. "This place is beautiful, but it just doesn't have the same feeling..."

"I feel closer to Wash when I'm up there."

The announcement silenced Inara, as her gorgeous brown eyes looked the second in command over and finally saw the small dinosaur head poking out of her pocket, a hand idly toying with it.

Zoe gazed out into the middle distance, her face slackening to show the pain she kept behind all of the armor. "He's up there, he ain't on the ground, that's for sure."

"Have you ever considered contacting his family?" Inara suggested soothingly, for a tragic faced Zoe was something that aroused concern.

"I did, sent them a letter with a few pictures and captures. They never cared for me though, so I doubt they'd meet me with open arms." She supplied with a bitter twist to a selection of words. "Washburns weren't what you would call 'brown coat lovers'."

"Oh."

"Wanted Wash a proper girl, one that wore the apron and pleased him like a little servant. Not some backasswards wu shun Independent." Her voice tightened as she thought out loud, gaze narrowing. "I didn't fit their bill, they didn't acknowledge us when he stood up to them, nothin' else to it."

Stepping in, Inara slid her palm onto Zoe's back and gave her the comfort she rarely seemed to need.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"My love fer me now ain't hard to explain, the hero'a Canton the man they call... meeee."

Jayne sung his big barrel gunned heart out while he road Donner, who had ears twisted back as if he wasn't too impressed with the melody. The massive horse saw something and stopped, for they were off New Haven soil and in the highlands, near the transition of the enormous hills to the trees that clustered to make the forest that rose into the mountains.

After nudging the big black horse and getting no response other than the beast turning the wrong way, Jayne scowled and looked out. Seeing the distraction, a herd of wild horses, he reigned Donner back. "Hey, hey, hey. We ain't focusin' on trim, pardner."

Donner tossed his head to show his displeasure of the intervention, whinnying in rebellion and stamping his feet.

Any other man would have been afraid of such a large horse throwing a fit. Regardless, Jayne snorted, and as he spurred his mare lusting ride back to the trail, he kept talking. "I'm with you, but we'll fix ya up with someone when we git ta Tahatchapi. Hell there they'll pay me fer you ta love some pretty filly." He pondered the thought of sex as they headed back onto the scant path. "Woudn't mind gettin me some woman myself. Nice blonde one.... in a corset 'n some purty togs... bustle... cause that's the best part." He gave a lewd smile, absently talking to his horse as if Donner was a man himself. "Undressin' 'em like Christmas presents.... Well... guess you don't got that pleasure seein' your a horse... but we'll git you someone. Just hold it some. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Simon knew it was going to be a long journey to the outpost cabin.

It wasn't traveling down a road, it was picking through two hundred acres of rolling prairie with grass that went to the middle of his paint's cannon bone and hummocks that were akin to the giant sand dunes of the desert planet Angel. Plus, he had to watch the cattle nearby. Make sure there were no predators about, or he had to rescue wayward beef or help a cow in calf.

It was going to be a drawn out day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The clouds cleared up, allowing Mal to get a view of the land down below.

For a good three hours they were over the Lovell mountains, the mountains that capped into snowy glaciers at the tops of Ceres Mountain and the Goodnight Massif. Finally, the range of the Lovells dipped into a small bowl, a valley, where New Calgary was being built up into the livestock city Shadow needed. The valley was a gleaming mass of buildings and docks, what building crews there were Mal theorized had to be hard at work for the spring drive and mass of cattles and cowboys that came with that occasion. Because there was not enough room for pastures, he could see that they had sliced into the rock to create level platformed pastures, and were building something for the obviously needed transportation. Soon after that there was another long flight of more summits, until they abruptly stopped and gave way to the Elysian Prairie. Elysian was the only other surviving prairie in Shadow, but unlike the larger Switchfork Prairie it was relatively flat. The sage grass grew on a terrain like a sheet, the sheet waving in the breeze as the prairie was sparsely dotted with trees Malcolm knew were gnarled. Shortly after welcoming the sight of the Elysian Prairie, Horus came into view. The Alliance had designated it the new capital, and it was well on its way to becoming the gleaming city of progress and providence. The buildings that were up soared to the sky and taunted the heavens, the sun bouncing off of the white and chrome walls. The largest of them all, as Serenity coasted by, was the Alliance government building. That was an enormous beacon of power, slick metal twisting its way to the top where the seal of the inter-planetary parliament sat, glowing in the radiance of Shadow. Horus also sat on the shore of the Posidian Ocean, the largest body of water on Shadow. Though it had no docks, its shores were being developed into recreational areas the government hopes would attract tourists or prospective core buyers. In all, from above it appeared like something any top three percent, gussied up core danny would love. Regardless most people in Horus were some of the poorest folk in the system, unemployed, begging, stealing, and just over the Posidian Ocean, a hundred miles away from the shore, was the beginning of the wasteland of the east.

River as well aware of the color of Mal’s emotions as he stood next to her console. His face an unmoving fortress whilst his mind gave it all away. Not keeping her eyes off of the windshield, she addressed him as she adjusted the engines. “Breaking atmosphere.” She announced.

Mal rested his hand up on a piece of his ship, as if his very touch could coax Serenity out of the air and into space. Nodding his head, he listened to the gentle rustle of the extenders as it shifted to a sheer vertical position.

A finger touching the com, she addressed their engineer. “Kaylee, breaking atmo.”

“Gotcha.” Kaylee’s voice answered back.

Breaking the first barrier of atmosphere was met with a dulled roar as metal fought gravity. The captain and pilot both saw the panels heat red, and the air tear by.

They smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Kaylee felt Serenity dock, she checked her area to make sure everything was fine before bouncing out with a smile that was so large it was possibly a record breaker. Covered in grime and oil, smudged on her face whilst honey hair was pulled into a messy bun. Regardless, she hugged her captain the first chance she got, garunteeing a transfer of her engine grunge.

Mal looked down at the petite creature so glued to his waist, her arms tightly wound about his torso. Furrowing his brows, he hid his own joy. “What did we say about huggin’ when you look like a chimney sweep?”

“Don’t it feel good ta be back up in the black?” She ignored with a tone of absolute bliss, face still good and buried in the fabric of a previously clean and ironed shirt. Pulling back, her partially cleaned face as spread wide with an infectious grin.

A smirk tugged on his lips, and he set a palm on her head. “I suppose so.” Leaning down, he kissed her forehead, for resistance of the sunshine that was Kaywinnet Lee Frye was futile. “Now, go get cleaned some. I can’t have my mechanic traipsing ‘round this skyplex, buyin’ food and appearin’ like her captain’s so mean he don’t let her bathe.” Peeling her off of his body, as she left to wash up some, Mal gazed down to see the enormous grease mark on the bottom of his chest. Which in turn made him scowl “Ahhh… Na ai-ya yin-qing li-shu.”

River, with Boston on her shoulder, walked by him and tossed a spare shirt his way.

Catching the shirt, he pondered it and then looked to his departing pilot with a confused expression.

“Thank Inara, she predicted the Kaylee hug.” River explained over her shoulder.

“Oh.” Holding it up, he nodded in agreement to his significant other’s choice of fashion. It was the olive green shirt, the one she personally liked on him. “Well, guess I have ta keep her.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zoe wasn’t one for calving.

She was good at a lot of things. Killing folk, saving Mal, patching clothes, fixing a jammed gun, instilling fear, and so much more. Being elbow deep in a cow’s personal area and twisting a backwards calf around as it was pushed into the world wasn’t one of them.

But she did it.

Pulling her hands out, reeking of birthing fluid while covered in so much slime it made her somewhat glad she never had children, Zoe crouched and watched as the cow strained and pushed. There wasn’t anything else that needed tending to. She had already found a lone wolf, yet it wasn’t interested in beef, the canid was merely passing through territory. Zoe let him be, checked part of the fence, and now found herself working with the laboring cow.

It sure as hell wasn’t a life she had thought she would leave. That dream was always she, Mal and Wash traveling the verse till Serenity either went down or they did when they were too old to be vagabonds. Of course, there had been the domestic thought of a family, raising a little strawberry blonde vesselside. However none of those notions ever had Wash six feet under. If he was still alive she probably would not have been out in the middle of a halfling of a planet, birthing wobbly legged calves. If Wash still was around, they probably would have left the crew to strike it out on there own, taking a job on another ship with a similar philosophy. He would have never gravitated to the idea of farm life, with his feet in the grass for so long he would have gone nuts, and she would have followed him without Mal.

That wasn’t the case though.

He was gone, and it wasn’t like she had an alternative plan. Mal and the others were the closest to family she had, and regardless Zoe didn’t care for a cowgirl’s work it was a decent life. Stable too if they made their first profit, and the captain had done right with his choice, therefore she backed it.

The calf slid out, and as the mother rose she took out her knife and cut the sack, then the cord. While the little beast destined to become someone’s steak took its first breaths, Zoe rose up and pondered the thought of staying with Mal forever.

Along with keeping on the single side of life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mal dropped the bag of coins into Kaylee’s hand with a musical chink.

“And you.” Reaching into his pocket, the space bazaar a chaos of noise that ranged from fiddles and sarods to a braying donkey, he took out a piece of paper and handed it to River. “You get the list. And you are in charge of keepin’ ta that list. I want everythin’ on this list, and you best not come back on this ship with an armful of puppies or whatever pretty that catches your eye.” He warned.

River’s brown eyes brimmed with innocence that hid her underlying mockery. “One puppy?”

Kaylee giggled as Mal gave the look of an exasperated captain. “Will do, Cap’n.” She reassured, reaching up and scratching Boston’s ears as she plucked the list out of River’s hands.

“Another thing,” he began “the cat?”

Boston chirped, his tail around his master’s neck while wide crossed blue eyes absorbed the skyplex before him. He was curious, ears swiveling about like radar, yet the feline was very wary, thus he was not going to go beyond her shoulder.

“Boston is well trained.” The pilot explained shrewdly.

Mal pushed his lower lip out dubiously. “Hate ta break this to you Lil’ Tam, but you just told me he’s a well trained cat.... and he's on a leash."

Giving a clearly annoyed expression, she gripped the homemade leash and mumbled. "Better trained than your dog."

"Well he better be, if the fuzzball causes a ruckus I'll turn 'im into a centerpiece." Getting a look that meant River just might cause bodily harm if he ever laid a finger on her cat's head, he dismissed them with a wave of his hand. "Go on."

*** *** *** TRANSLATIONS/DEFINITIONS

wu shun: Filth sucking

Goodnight Massif: Named after Charles Goodnight, legendary ranchman and cattle driver on earth-that-was. Credited with the invention of the chuck wagon.

Ahhh… Na ai-ya yin-qing li-shu: Ahhh... that damn engine bunny.

***

**As always, the writer appreciates all comments whether they be positive, negative, or suggestions.**

COMMENTS

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 10:22 AM

LEIASKY


> “Hate ta break this to you Lil’ Tam, but you just told me he’s a well trained cat.... and he's on a leash."


ROTFL! Very true . . . nice chapter:)


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