“What the diyu is going on in here?”

Eve looked up from the gas burner she and Simon were crouched over, Mal stood in the doorway to the infirmary hands on his hips, typical scowl on his face. The scowl faltered when a whiff of the odiferous chemicals reached his nose and then steadied.

She suppressed the urge to giggle, he had no children but he already had the enraged parent stance down pat.

She looked over at Simon just as he looked at her, his eyes were dancing behind his safety goggles, she knew he was laughing inside just as she was.

Then she turned back to face Mal, unaware that Simon had done the same thing, they answered in unison, the age old answer such a question and such a stance always elicited,

“Nothing”

Surprised they looked back at each other and started giggling, Mal rolled his eyes muttered “ Wei Shen me? Huh? Weihe Shen lao Shi Shen me?” and turned and stalked away.

They continued to giggle until the substance they were melting in the beaker started bubbling, then they got back to the business at hand.

It had taken them a long time to break down the chemical composition if the plastic-like tax seal that marked legal vintages, but they had finally gotten it right. The real trick was to mix the hydrous aluminum silicate in when the compound was at the right temperature. Hydrous aluminum silicate, who’d have ever thought they would use plain old every day mica in the seal?

Certainly not her and Simon, it’d taken a chance comment by Jayne to figure that out.

Making the whiskey had been the easy part, the seal had been the time consuming part, but now that they had the hang of it, it would be ridiculously easy to make them. Jayne was the only person besides Kaylee (and River) who knew what she, Simon and Kaylee were up too.

Jayne wondered in just as they began to pour the compound into the lozenges mold Kaylee’d made them.

“See I don’t get why yer even botherin’ ta fake the seal. Why’nt just hawk it as hooch?”

Eve looked up at him and flashed a smile at him before bring her eyes back to what she was doing, “Tax Sealed bottles sell for more.”

Jayne snorted “I know but ain’t no one gonna believe that a tramp freighter like us'd hev Alliance sealed hooch on board neither.”

Simon answered Jayne, eyes fixed on his task, “That’s the point Jayne, they know its fake, and we know its fake, but we can ask for more money and they know that even though they are paying more for it they can charge more for it. That way everyone is happy.”

He watched them carefully crack the mold, then carefully stamp a small star into the still malleable seal and shook his head, “Still seems like a shit-ton of trouble to go to jus’ fer a bit more credit.”

“But it’s not jus’ a ‘bit more credit’ Jayne, it’s a lot more credit.”

Everyone looked up as Kaylee squeezed past the mercenary into the room.

“Tha’s why I never bothered to sell my inter-engine brew, well that an’ I never took the trouble to make it so smooth as Eve’s whiskey. What I’d get for it wasn’t that much more than what it’d cost to make, so why bother? Sides’ folk’s’d just as soon make their own. But this here is high class sipping whiskey. A good bottle of whiskey, wi’ tax seal on it can go fer as much as fifty times what ye pay for a reg’lar bottle of whiskey. Now we ain’t gonna get tha’ but we can get ‘bout fifteen maybe twenty times what one normally goes fer. An we got twenty-five bottles, and now we’ve got the still set proper and wi’the apple tree already blooming we’cn brew more, ‘specially as we got the hang of the seals now. So we can make it a reg’lar sale item, get a custom going and keep up a steady stream of money. And remember most bottles of whiskey go fer ‘bout twenty credits.”

Eve smiled at this side of Kaylee, the seemingly innocent young woman could be quiet the cut-throat merchant, and said “Don’t forget that most venders mark the cost up 200% for profit, so assume each normal bottle is worth ten credits.”

Kaylee nodded and continued “So figure ten credits per bottle, now multiple tha’ by fifteen and ye got a hun’red and fifteen credits, now multiply tha’ by twenty-five. An’ ye get three thousand, seven hun’red and fifty credits. The seven fifty cover’s the materials, an’ our work, so the three gran’ is pure profit. An’ most of tha’ seven fiftey is a one time cost. We’ll not need to build th’still ag’in an’the stuff fer the seals’ll be right cheap now we know what’s what so nex’ time the profit’ll be bigger, though only ‘bout four hun’red D’ye see why we’re botherin’ wi’ the seals now?”

Jayne looked down at the tiny plastic seal Simon and Eve were now carefully trimming the excess off of “All that cuz of a little bit of plastic?”

Everyone laughed, Simon smiled and said “Welcome to economics and the simple mystery of supply and demand!”