Saw That Coming : Part 5

Players:

Crew of Serenity Billy Bester Jacob Hanover Stranger #1 Stranger #2

Prologue:

It’s finally come to this. The crew of Serenity head into the black with a shipment of goods held within their cargo hold. There may be folk waiting down the line. Authorities? Government agents? Who knows…….Are the Captain and Kaylee safe? What about the doc and his sister? The story continues below.

************************************************************************************* Saw That Coming 5

Malcolm Reynolds stood at the top of Serenity’s loading ramp looking out across the huge expanse of Bixby Canyon.

“ Mighty fine place for an ambush.” He said as he viewed the area surrounding his ship. “ That is, if someone had a notion we were coming.”

He turned to see Jayne entering the cargo bay.

“ Jayne! How-bout throw a canvas tarp over those crates so that they stay outta sight should any visitors show!”

The big merc looked at the captain.

“ Mal, who in the ruttin hell would show up out here?”

The look in the captains eyes only told him that orders were not to be questioned, just obeyed. Shepherd Book offered to help. Malcolm Reynolds continued with another task for Jayne…..

“ After that……take Kaylee down to the watering hole and………” Before he could finish there was the sound of approaching hovercraft. In the distance he witnessed three hover vehicles all shiny and well decaled displaying credentials that informed him that they indeed were official vehicles. There looked to be three or four men in each vehicle. They flew in close and came to a stop not fifty feet from Serenity.

The crew of the little transport stood at the bottom of the ramp. All with their mouths hanging open.

“ Mornin travelers!” The tallest of the arrivals spoke with a greeting. Serenity’s Captain, mechanic, mercenary for hire and ship’s preacher offered no greetings in return. They all stood there seemingly surprised beyond speech.

Hanover smiled at their shock at being approached unprepared.

“ Seems we have some new arrivals to our little moon!” He spoke. “ Uninvited, for sure. Welcomed, maybe! Business……unsure of? That’s why I’m here…..to find out. What business may we ask of you, coming to Demeter?” Hanover was confident in his speech. As anyone….he was a bit of a donkey’s ass when it came to his power position. But only when it came to dealing with criminals.

“A bit of ferrying business sir.” Malcolm told the official.

“ I see,” Hanover spoke. “So! What do we have in the cargo hold that would have a ship such as this land out in the middle of no & where?”

“ Just a shipment of goods headed to Persephone and the outter rim.” Mal spoke as calmly as possible.

“Ok! This shipment of goods wouldn’t happen to be something in need of being kept outta sight….away from the authorities?”

“ No sir” Mal said. “Just landing here for provisions.”

Hanover looked at the captain.

“……and those would be?”

“ Water sir. It may be a secret, but not a well kept one…that Bixby Canyon has the best watering hole this side of Demeter moon.”

This sly captain of the Firefly transport vessel had spoken the truth. Bixby canyon did have the best watering hole in the region. He was right, Hanover couldn’t fault him there. He then made another observation.

“ Your shuttles! Shouldn’t there be two of them?”

Both of Serenity’s shuttlecraft were missing. Mal went to speak but the sound of an approaching aircraft had him cancel his reply.

Hanover was sure he had them now. The arriving ship had to be a second party involved in the weapons smuggling activity that he had been informed about. He retrieved the com from his squad hovercraft and spoke into the transmitter……

“ AW, bring you, your partner, and your informant up to the freshwater spring!”

“ Be there in two minutes.’ Came the answer over the receiver.

Moments later just as the shuttlecraft landed, a forth hovercraft arrived. As the shuttle door opened and a classy, well dressed woman approached the group, three men also approached and stood alongside the deputies and Marshal.

“ AW is this the craft you were told would be carrying an illegal shipment of military grade weapons?”

“It is Sheriff!”

Inara looked at the new arrivals. Her big brown eyes wide open in surprise.

“Atherton Wing!!”

There he stood, Atherton Wing. Arms folded diabolically across his chest, his trusted man-servant to his left, and William Bester to the right.

“ Inara.” He smiled a sheepish grim. “ Who’d have thought you’d be mixed up with hooligans like this?….and a high class Companion like yourself?”

“ A Companion!” Hanover uttered his disbelief. He looked at the smartly dressed woman.

“ Milady, you’re part of this?” He questioned.

“ Of what sir?”

“ These brigands are suspect of carrying an illegal shipment of firearms across interplanetary borders. Weapons reported stolen from the armory at Provo Pass on Salisbury.”

“Sheriff, I think I would know if the commander I’ve rented a shuttle from for the past several month was involved in illicit activities. Don’t you think?”

Hanover showed no expression.

“ Well ma’am that’s yet to be discovered.”

All during the line of questioning Hanover’s deputies had been investigating the area within Serenity’s cargo hold.

“ Marshal sir!” One of them stated. “ There is a storage of crates stowed in here…..covered by a canvas!”

“ Investigate the contents further if you will!” The sheriff commanded his troops. “ That is if you have no objection Captain.” He quested of Mal. The Captain of Serenity knew, objection or not, the cargo would be searched. He said nothing.

The tops came off the first couple of crates and the deputies looked up to their leader in deep surprise.

“ Broom handles sir!” One spoke as he withdrew a long handled wooden pole from the confines of the box. Hanover looked over at Malcolm Reynolds……who was smiling.

“ You’ll find the broom heads are in the crates at the back. Lot of dust and dirt out on the rim worlds. Cleanliness is next to Godlin……..well you know the rest.” Mal said.

“ Here’s the manifest Captain.” Kaylee uttered as she pulled an officially stamped document from a clipboard she’d been holding. The Captain handed it to the sheriff. All legal and binding.

The roster read: 12 boxes of brooms/with detachable handles. 60 cartons of filtered cigars. 22 packets of diet supplements. 12 sacks of sod fertilizer. 30 boxes of mail to be ferried to the post station on Sky-Plex. And the last was 6 kegs of brew to be delivered to a place in ‘ol town Persephone.

“What’s in the shuttle?” Atherton voiced and pointed as he’d become increasingly disturbed by the lack of illegal findings during the initial search.

At that moment one of Hanover’s deputies began to choke and swear after he’d just taken a drink out of one of the kegs which was found to be in Inara’s shuttle.

“ This stuff tastes like poison!” He voiced his disapproval of the drink.

Jayne smiled and looked to the rest of the clan.

“ Six kegs of Mudders Milk. On route to Persephone and to the owner of the “ Bar & Steel”…….Hugo Frisbie. A good friend of mine.” He spoke.

“ What about the second shuttle?” Atherton voiced in his defense.

“ Docked on Persephone this morning for repairs.” Mal told them. “ Place called Reilly’s Ship and Vehicle Repairs…..wave number 876-69-7421BB.”

A screen com was brought to Sheriff Hanover. He dialed the number. An image popped up upon the screen.

“ Reilly’s Ship & Repair, Reilly speaking!”

“ Mr. Reilly, Sheriff Hanover here, out on Demeter. I’m looking for a shuttlecraft, small in size from a Firefly class transport. You have one at your business?”

“ Let me check….” The business owner said looking down at his clipboard of papers.

“ Ahhhhhhh…yes Firefly class type shuttle. Mother ship-Serenity. Here for repairs to fuel cells. Cost 6000.…….labor 250.….need a price quote sheriff? I’ll make you a good deal….”

“ No! Nothing like that sir! Thank you.” The screen went dark. Sheriff Hanover looked over at Atherton Wing in disgust, then he looked over at the Captain of Serenity.

“ Sorry for the inconvenience Captain. My investigation is concluded.” Then he told his troops to mount up and head back towards town.

Atherton watched as the officers flew out of sight, then returned his attention back towards Serenity. Mal stood there, arms folded. The others of his crew by his side.

“ Seems we’ve run into one another for a second time Mr. Wing. Only this time it’s been moved to more familiar territory. Well, from where I stand. We now have a bit of a dispute to settle.” Mal looked over at Bester.

“ Billy you involved in this?” His look was stern.

“ Well, I…..I”

“ Inside Serenity…..now.” Mal gave a tilt of his head to show that he meant business.

“ Malcolm Reynolds you have no right to kidnap that man!” Atherton voiced his objection.

“ I have no intention of abducting anyone.” The captain spoke softly. “ And I have no intention of pitting the two of you against my entire crew. It’s just you and me.” He paused for a moment, “ For one thing Ath- ……leave the petty trickery to the lawmen and the pirates. Demeter is a highly suspect rendezvous point for wayward pirates. Lawmen know that, as well as the crooks that once used this moon as a staging area. The only folk that wouldn’t know that would be someone outta their league. My advice, keep to your fancy parties.”

He stopped and watched as Kaylee escorted Bester into Serenity. Then he returned his attention to Atherton.

“Now as I recall I should say something like…….I ACCEPT!”

Atherton and his man-servant stood there in complete confusion.

“ There has been a challenge!” Inara spoke the words and Atherton remembered the night of the party.

There was the loud “CRACK” of something snapping. The group turned to see that Jayne had broken the ends off of two of the broom handles. He tossed one wooden pole over to Mal, the other to Atherton. It was then that Malcolm Reynolds assumed the pose of someone on guard for combat. Jagged end of the broken handle pointed straight toward Atherton‘s head.

“ I will not duel with yo……” Before Atherton could finish there was a quick snap of the wrist by the Captain and bright red blood began to pour from a small cut along the bridge of Atherton’s nose. It dripped down to stain his fancy tan shirt.

In fury, the high society, pampered, Atherton, lunged at the Captain, was sidestepped, and was deliver a painful whelping blow upon his back. He shouted and barreled forward to the ground.

In less time than it takes Kaylee to diagnose an engine problem, or Jayne to drop his pants in a brothel, Atherton had received twenty injuries from head to toe. Falling to his knees he conceded defeat. Mal tossed the broom handle to the ground.

“ Next time you come dueling for me the matter won’t be settled with broken sticks or sharp things.” The Captain said, “ And I think one of us won‘t be leaving the ground upon which he rest.” He was holding a firm grip upon the handle of his sidearm.

The spoiled dandy got his meaning.

End Part 5