To Kill From A Distance

Part 4

Gentle Breeze stood on the catwalk shoulder to shoulder with Jayne as he did his job. It was dirty and rusty but having someone to pass the time with did make it better. Jayne had been given the chore of cleaning nonessential engine parts for Kaylee. He had a wire brush and a bucket of solvent and his hands were coated in grime.

“So Kaylee’s a good mechanic?” Gentle asked the big fellow she rubbed shoulders with.

“ Hell, she’s one of the best. Don’t know what Mal would do without her.” He said

“ And Wash, he’s a good pilot?”

“ Yeah, he’s good too. A bit cocky, but he’s gotten us out of a fix or two.” Jayne replied.” Why all the questions?”

“ Just curious I guess. We’ve got a little over a day left before we reach Pluto2 so I just thought I’d find out a little about the folk that were giving me a ride.” The girl smiled at him.” I don’t know about the captain though. I don’t think he likes me much.” She said.

“Mal likes ya, he just don’t trust ya.” Jayne honest as always.

“ What have I done, or haven’t I done?” The ex-soldier asked.

“ Gentle!” Jayne got serious, “ I weren’t in no war. I can’t tell you about the bonds that form between folk that seen such horrors. But I can tell ya that Mal is a good captain. Loyal to his crew. Although Zoe’s the only one that fought in the war with him, good or bad we all seem bonded to him. You can’t just get that kinda trust yesterday. You have to earn it. That make any sense?” Jayne finished as he tried to reassemble the parts he’d just cleaned.

“ Perfect!” Gentle said, “Oh, that piece goes there.” She told him.

“ You are quiet the little mechanic yourself aren’t you?” Jayne registered.

“ Well big guy, I did put bombs together for a while. I‘ll get this back to Kaylee. I know where it fits” She smiled.

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Gentle was spending quite a bit of time with Jayne ,and Mal didn’t like it. Not that the others didn’t enjoy having someone to keep him busy, less irritation for them. But Mal knew Jayne could easily slip up. Say things he shouldn’t. That was the big mercenary’s one flaw, well, that wasn’t true ,there were many, but that was the one Mal was concerned about at the time, and Mal had a right to be. Jayne had given up small bits of info about Serenity. Nothing he felt harmful or divulged much. Just enough to answer her queries.

“ What are we headed to pluto2 for anyway? Serenity has to be going there for something.” Gentle had asked.

Jayne paused. He knew he should say nothing, but if he worded it right there wouldn’t be anything she could really get out of what he said.

“ We’re going to pick up a package for a friend.” Was all he reported.

Wash and Book had continued to search the cortex for information about the girl when they had time, and they found that she’d been decorated with several metals of valor and even been wounded in the right shoulder. Mal was starting to soften up. A trait he hated in himself. A captain can’t be soft. He has to be firm and think of his crew. Keep them together.

Mal and Gentle crossed paths once at the juncture between the crew quarters and the main frame of the ship. The captain noticed that Gentle had a change of clothes on and had freshened up a bit. She would have even looked more attractive if he hadn’t been looking for something else. The blouse she wore hung low on the shoulders. This was a particular piece of clothing that Kaylee cherished so what was Gentle doing with it on? The girl was seducing his crew rather speedily.

“ Nice outfit!” Mal mentioned.

“ You like it?” She asked. It was the first time the Captain had said something nice to her in a long while.

“ Yes the way it hangs across your……your front part there, and the little frills around the top. You definitely clean up well girl. I mean…..”

“ I know what you mean, and thank you.” She said.

He smiled and they continued on their separate ways.

“ Just as I figured, “ Mal thought to himself, “Not a mark on her. No scar on her shoulder. War hero, right! I’m gonna have to get with my crew and give them lessons on reading people.”

Just before he exited he heard Gentle call to him, “ Oh Mal!”

He turned to see her at the bottom step headed toward the bridge.

“ This what you looking for?” She pulled the top of the shirt down off her right shoulder. There, down a couple inches on her back was a scar about an inch and a half long. “ Trust has to go both ways.” She told him, then continued up the stairs.

Evidently Gentle could read people very well!

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Some time later Gentle and Zoe were alone together in the galley. Zoe was a little uncomfortable with this. She felt that she may let her guard down and become a bit more sympathetic toward the new arrival. She would watch what she told the girl.

“ So Zoe, you and the Captain been together a long while now right?” Gentle quizzed.

“ You could say that.” Zoe said.

“…….and you and Wash, been hitched for a while?”

“The same.” Zoe replied.

“ Any children?”

“ Not at the moment.” Zoe didn’t like the bombardment of questions. She decided to turn things around. “…..and what of you? What’s on Ceres that is calling you to that lonely world?”

Gentle paused a second. “ Well don’t tell anybody but my mom and my younger brother are there. I have to keep them safe from Alliance provocation. Might use them to find out where I am. Don’t know what those heathens would do to me if they knew the damage I’d done back during the war. You understand don’t you?”

“Perfectly” Zoe answered.

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The next fourteen hours Gentle strengthened her relationship with the whole crew, well except for Mal. She was wearing down his resolve, but it wasn’t completely gone. He went up to the bridge.

“ Mal, just received a wave from Badger’s man. Their communications are down and their on their backup system. It’s got a weak signal that doesn’t extend very far but I was able to reach them. Anyway, the location we want is Holdwart Prairie, be another couple of hours before we get there. Ain’t much of a vacationing spot but I guess somebody’s got to live there.” Wash told the Captain.

Pluto2 was a mineral moon. Named for Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld and the Greek god of metals and such mined from the ground. In the “Earth That Was” system, Pluto was found to have had several minerals. But just as many planets and moons in that small system, most of the energy to terraform those worlds would have been too costly. Most of the fuel would have been spent on heating and lighting the place. Persephone was the niece of Pluto and the Daughter of Ceres (wife of Jupiter, sister to Pluto). Much of the metals that had been dug up on Pluto2 had been used to develop the larger planet. The moon now was a dead mining world. There was still material to be found in the ground, but not as much. Lots of effort had to be expelled to dig it out.

There were a few folk that held on to the life, but it was a harsh living and not many families were willing to live in such conditions and backwards ways. The one thing that was appealing about the moon was it’s freedom. Not much authority present and not much government intervention. This gave people like Badger a perfect holding area for illicit undertakings and unlawful shenanigans. This run however did not happen to be one of those.

After landing, Gentle had remained with the ship. Zoe and Book too were somewhere about. Mal and the others had set out to do whatever business the ship had come to Pluto2 to do. In her quarters Gentle pulled a C.R.(controller remote) from her belongings. She slipped this into the pants she wore. Then she retrieved another device that was a little too big to hide in her clothing. She looked around and saw the brown coat in her bag.

“Perfect!” She said. She put on the coat and placed the device in the pocket. She then exited the compartment. Gentle made her way up to the bridge. There wasn’t anyone in the cabin, “Great!”, she needed to send a message and it needed to be quick. She approach the control consol. Short and sweet the message needed to be…… “Advise…Return trip…May be target…Be there soon…Out” She pushed the button and sent the wave.

“ May I help you child?” Gentle turned to see Book entering the bridge.

“Not really. I was just looking around. It seems very quiet with most of the crew gone.” She reported.

“ Yes, a good time to be with one’s own thoughts.” He smiled. “ By the way, I see that you’ve donned your browncoat!”

“ Yeah I do that from time to time, brings up some good memories, bad ones too. But I made promises and I won’t forget them.”

Book didn’t ask her about that. Each person had their own private place they retreated to. He stirred his warm tea.

“ Well Zoe is coming up here. Gonna help me with some things on the cortex.” Book informed her.

“ I’ll make my leave then. Think I’ll go visit the sun a while.” Then she left.

The others of the crew had hooked up with Badger’s associates. There was a large hanger owned by the restoration business and once inside they had their first look at the under-lord’s purchase.

“ Damn that’s a fine machine.” Mal had to admit. All shiny and trimmed out. “ Badger’s gonna have to swap out his derby for a top hat when he goes out in that thing.” Mal laughed with his crew. There was even a little badger painted on the side panels.

“ Oh look, how cute!” Kaylee exclaimed, “ And look, all kinds of storage compartments here in the rear!”

“ Very nice!” Mal said

They were all impressed.

“ Wash how about you and Jayne get the land Mule and hook this thing up so we can get her back to Serenity’s cargo hold!” Mal said.

“ Roger that Captain.” The pilot replied.

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An hour later the “ Pretty Badger” as the hovercraft had been dubbed by the crew, was aboard Serenity nestled in her cargo hold. The crew was making ready to enter the sky again and Mal went down for one last look at the hovercraft and make sure the vehicle was secure. He found Gentle there.

“ Nice craft isn’t she?” Mal engaged ex-bomb maker.

“ Exquisite!” The girl said as she ran her hands along the fine lines of the exterior of the vessel.

“Well, guess this is your stop. We’ll be leaving in about 20 so might want to say your goodbyes to the crew. There are regular shuttles back and forth between here and Ceres so it shouldn’t be to hard for you to get to your destination.”

“Mal! Why have you hated me so? For two days I’ve done nothing and still I feel like I shot your favorite pony! What does it take to bring the walls down? You lost a lot of people in the war, friends. So did I.” A single tear rolled down the pretty girls cheek.

“ I’m sure that could be true.” Mal said, “ Or just a very convincing story that you were able to manipulate to post passage on my boat!”

The girl was a little surprised.

“Yes Miss….whatever your real name is, Wash and the Shepherd have been doing a little research on you, with Zoe‘s help.” The Captain focused on her. “ Seems there IS a momma Breeze and she lives on Ceres.” He stopped a second, “ A brother Breeze too. Only their real name is Gentile, and her daughter’s name was Bree Gentile. I can see how she switched her identity around to something as simple as Gentle Breeze. Thing is she was a war hero,” He paused, “……. and a war casualty. You confiscated the identity of a dead soldier. Not an honorable thing in my book. Who are you really?”

Gentle looked the captain dead in the eye. Her sweet expression turned to one of calculating, manipulating thought.

“ Well if I told ya I’d have to kill ya.” She grinned, but Malcolm Reynolds didn’t find the situation funny.

The crew of Serenity had figured out that she wasn’t who she claimed to be rather quickly. Impressive! If she weren’t such a lone wolf she might enjoy a partnership on a ship like Serenity. The thing was she was used to being on her own now, since the war, and sharing her bounty with anyone was something totally against her liking.

“ Kaylee says you can keep the shirt. You’ve got five minutes to get your things.” The captain said.

“You can have ‘em. They were just props to get me onboard. I like you Captain Reynolds, and I like your crew.” She tugged the browncoat and let it drop to the floor, “Don’t think you’ve seen the last of me!” The girl said.

Mal motioned to the exit.

“Get off my boat!”

End Part 4