Damaged Goods: Part 1a Rehashed

Prologue:

Mal and the crew of Serenity find themselves on a return trip back towards the core planets. Their latest mission completed, the payment, although beneficial to Serenity, wasn’t so enjoyable as paying jobs go. They had delivered furniture to an old family acquaintance of Kaylee’s. Not that Mal saw anything wrong in doing this, but there was no exchange of coin or hard currency in the deal. It was more of a bartered application. Furniture for engine parts. Mal really disliked not getting paid…..but after what had happened with the engine catalyzer not so long ago, he had decided that if his mechanic needed a part for Serenity, then he’d better listen. That was the trade-off, but unknown to her crew at the moment, there was much more in store for Serenity during this voyage, much more….

Damaged Goods: Part 1

Malcolm Reynolds climbed down the structure to his bunk in the area of Serenity’s crew hall. Grabbing the suspenders of his daywear he began to undress until he noticed a small Babushka doll sitting on the desk of his wave monitor. He stopped and walked over to the simple play-thing.

He uncorked the doll, but instead of there being another, smaller doll inside he found a piece of paper with writing. He opened it up and read the note……..

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Twenty-four minutes later; Ship’s galley:

“ Come on Mal it’s been over thirty days since we had a decent payin’ job. Least we could do is check out Badger’s latest wave and decide if runnin insect cadavers over to the “School of Arachnid Studies” on Osirus would be worth our while,” Serenity’s resident mercenary Jayne Cobb was saying as he sat in a galley chair by the crew table.

“ No Jayne! Hauling dead bugs around the verse would be better left to the kind of folk who enjoy transporting weaving materials, or helium balloons to those who value them out on the rim worlds. We ain’t gotten that desperate yet.”

“ We’ve been close,” Wash, the pilot of Serenity added, which caused the whole situation to defuse into a less serious mode. And made Simon, Kaylee and even Shepherd Book express a smile on their otherwise docile faces.

There came after a brief moment of silence. “ So, what is our kind of work Captain?” Kaylee voiced as she took a sip of her latest brew of strawberry engine concoction.

“ Treasure.”

The entire group turned to witness Simon’s sister sitting in a corner of the galley, seemingly as a fixture on the wall.

“ River. You have something to share with the lynch club of Serenity ?” Mal spoke as calmly and direct as possible.

“ Only that there’s treasure not that far away.” The young girl said twirling a strand of hair mindlessly as she spoke.

“ Now that‘s what I‘m talkin about!” Jayne said as he turned back to the table and took another swig of his mudders milk in the cup he was sampling. “ Could be the girl has used her witching powers to good use this time,” he finished.

“ She’s not a witch Jayne!” Simon spoke in his sister’s defense. “ How would you like it if someone were to work on your brain without your consent?” The doc spoke up.

“ May be an improvement.” Wash added again as the big merc sent an evil glance his way.

“ Enough with the pointless chatter.” The Captain stepped in.

“ River, you have some info you could voice to enlighten the body here?” Mal said looking directly at Simon’s young sister.

River looked around. Suddenly she realized that she’d driven the attention of the galley towards herself.

“ Just that there’s something worth acquiring not that far from here…….a jewel. On a stranded transport six hours left heading towards Angel.” She added.

“ Now your talking!” Jayne grinned and took the last swallow of the mudder’s brew he was enjoying that morning.

The members of Serenity, present at the moment, all gave one another that knowing glance. Mal looked from Shepherd Book, to Kaylee, then back to River.

“ And this would be something worth Serenity’s risk?” He quested of the girl.

River said nothing, only looked at the Captain. Jayne turned around to question the girl.

“ And it would be something big right? A treasure, a jewel, something worth the effort?”

The young physic pointed to her chest.

“ Your heart? Something as big as your heart?” Jayne turned back to the Captain, “ Mal we gotta look into this!”

Malcolm Reynolds looked over to his pilot.

“ Wash……head up to the bridge and do a scan. Get a fix and heading. If this is true, report back to me in ten. The rest of you get yourselves situated. There may be crime to be had!”

The group disbanded and headed to their familiar positions.

“ Your sister may prove worth her board on this ship after all doctor,” Mal said looking at Simon.

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Later in the galley:

“Ok…..here’s what we have so far.”

Mal Reynolds had gathered a good portion of his crew in the ship’s galley, the natural meeting place, and the location where most of Serenity’s well laid plans, and those not so well laid, were hatched.

“ Wash has confirmed that there is, or seems to be, some sort of craft stranded out in the vacuum of this quadrant, just off the known travel lanes used by most transit traffic enroot to Angel or somewhere there abouts. Why they aren’t broadcasting a rescue beacon……or what their intentions were straying off the beaten path, are questions that can be answered only by making contact with the craft…….and so far that ain’t worked out so well.

“ Well, then,” Book offered up, “ Maybe it’s not a good idea to continue on in this venture. Remember the last time we stopped and laid foot on a mysterious vessel. Seems the welcoming committee were almost all…….” The Shepherd paused a moment, “ Well let’s just say the experience wasn’t a happily memorable one.”

“ Shepherd’s right. Could be the danger outweighs the risk this time out Mal. My vote is to just cruise on by and mind our own business this time.” Jayne added his opinion.

Not that Mal needed his opinion or wanted it, and not that the plan was being put up for a vote. The Captain was looking for a little feedback on this though. He did this quite often in his own covert way. Still he wasn’t convinced they should completely drop it for now.

“ Another thing too, sir.” Zoe continued the train of thought, “ Wash tells me that it’s an Alliance identified vessel, by the code that bounced back from her.”

“ A Captain’s word is only as good as the metal of his boat…..” River spoke, referring to Malcolm, and the composite materials Serenity was comprised of. “Is she sound, or will the walls weary and crush in on her crew?”

“ What’s she mean by that?” Jayne questioned.

Mal had a feeling he knew, but his mind was pretty well made up anyway.

“ She’s talking about an unspoken agreement” Simon finally spoke up. “ An arraignment made by the Captain and my sister that I knew nothing about until only a short time ago. She left him a note which, concluded in it’s final part, that if he were interested in the mission he should redeem the note. If not he should return it to it‘s producer. So far my little sister tells me it hasn’t returned. I think that speaks for itself. The Captain is in agreement with the mission, am I right?” He finished.

All attention returned to the Captain. Mal looked to be the cat that ate the canary. He finally spoke his peace.

“ So, as you, the crew of Serenity know, this boat doesn’t run on a democracy. Sorry to say, but the chief in charge is an ass, and he likes things to go his way. That being said, I’ll try to answer each one of your concerns by way of this developing plan of mine.” He stopped momentarily to view the whole lot of his crew, save Wash, who was on the bridge.

“ First…….doc, I wasn’t real sure of the full vision of your sister’s note, so I was only able to deciphered certain parts of it’s meaning. Gorram thing seems somewhat written in riddle or code. Not that I didn’t come to realize that she were talkin bout a mission with a treasure at the end of it………but weren’t sure if I were to believe it as fact or fable. Her little admission in the galley here a short time ago confirmed that it was more than idle fantasy. Sorry if she took me not returning the note as……..a conformation of acceptance.” He finished.

“ Now, Shepherd Book, Jayne. We are well away from Reaver territory. If they, by some chance have ventured to this side of the system, bypassing any true gourmet dinner waiting for them on the border and high class core worlds, then those seemingly mindless Mongols are even less impulsive than my original thoughts. I don‘t think that they are of any concern to us at the moment.”

“ Zoe.” The Captain said looking at his first mate. “ Alliance yes. Wash did inform me that the rebounded signal of the craft did profile the stranded vehicle as such. But with no weapons? An Alliance signal alone would scare many predators away in a heartbeat, and I’m sure it’s known to you that many a pirates change their signal sometime to reflect that of an Alliance run craft. We’ve done such ourselves. Seems there’s much more deception going on here then most a party of hungry ruffians like ourselves dare to breach. So, my opinion, we go in.” Mal again looked towards the doctor and his sister.

“ Don’t get in the habit of questioning my actions doctor I don’t like it, and explain it to your young sibling there as well. Meeting adjourned.”

Mal’s speech concluded, still half the attendants couldn’t tell if they were proceeding with the plan or not. They would soon find out.

End parts 1