Purple “J”s : part 4

“The Meet”

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Kaylee, in the embrace of a tall, handsome, young man could feel the strength of his body as he pulled snuggly into her. She felt a bit embarrassed and uncomfortable being in the arms of a total stranger, yet she knew that this was part of the deception process she would have to play-along with in convincing the authority of Voltauge Prison that she, and he, were actually related.

“It’s so good to see you cousin, it’s been sooooooo……. long,” he mildly spoke. He clutched to her as if the two were actually kin in some form or fashion. Although his powerful arms were wrapped tightly around her, and his head rested against her own, his touch was purely platonic. Kaylee felt that she could trust this man, with the sense that a woman gets when she feels that her safety is, in no way jeopardized. Even if Jayne hadn’t been there, and there weren’t guards standing near some of the blockhouse buildings, she felt that he could still be trusted. However, the inmate’s hug did continue a little longer than the Serenity mechanic thought necessary.

“Quinn! Quinn! You can let me go now!” She spoke as she felt that their welcoming embrace had reached it’s limit.

“Oh, sorry!”

The boy held the Firefly mechanic at arms length. She looked deeply into his light brown eyes. She saw a sadness there. A suffering that no child at the age of sixteen should have experienced. To witness the pain and cruelty he had seen, it hurt her heart.

Quinn gazed over at the big mercenary who had accompanied her.

“Who’s this?”

She had to respond quickly, “Oh, this is cousin Jayn…….cousin Jay! He’s a relative on my mother’s side. You two have never met.”

Quinn studied the big mercenary while still holding Kaylee in his grasp. He had neither greeted, nor adequately acknowledged Serenity’s freelance mercenary, as he sized up her security companion with a skill that had been formed by years of being locked-up . Finally he spoke.

“The lady and I will be having a private conversation if you please!”

The words were harmless enough, it was their tone that told Jayne that his presents had been noted, and he had been released, un-respectably.

“Now look here you locked-up locker rat I………!” Jayne made a move towards the young inmate.

Kaylee sprang into action to defuse the situation.

“Look guys, we’re here for a job! Any altercation other than a friendly handshake will alert the authorities that this may be other than that!”

She was right! They both knew it. The anger subsided in each face to a point that the “circling bulls”, could come to an appropriate joining of hands, although each grip was deemed to express the mass of strength contained within the other’s powerful form!

Jayne wondered off, only a scant twenty feet away. Quinn took the Firefly mechanic into an open shelter. It was a structure boarded up on three sides facing the blockhouses, yet open to the air on the side facing the electrified fence. It was in total view of the very apparent guard towers which stood fifty feet high at the corners of Voltauge’s open compound. Kaylee had no doubt that they were being watched and studied as if they were micro organisms on a Petri dish. There was a table and chairs in the shelter for them to sit in. They each got comfortable, although not relaxed.

Kaylee could never relax in a place like this. She felt the eyes of a thousand rodents being cast in her direction, and she didn’t mean the varmints that plagued the prison system on Silverhold, those numbered in the millions, she meant the incarcerated of the facility of Voltauge Prison itself, guards not excluded.

Quinn looked deeply into her eyes.

“I know that you want to know about me cousin, but first I want to know about you! I want to know who’s hands I’m dumping my family’s fortune into?”

A reasonable question, she thought. She went on to explain her role on Serenity, about Captain Mal, and something of the crew which were aboard, and which she had total confidence in. She also explained about the Captain’s trustworthiness. His loyalty to the work, and his commitment in seeing each job through.

“That’s all lovely, but tell me more about you?”

Kaylee felt a genuine bit of modesty at the idea of being asked about herself personally. She even blushed a little.

“Well my father is a mechanic. A Jack-of-all trades really. He works on bits of equipment here and there on our home world…..,” she went on to tell him intricate details about herself, nothing embarrassing for sure, but enough just the same. She wrapped up things and took a look at him.

There was a scar running from just above his left eyebrow, over his eye, and down three inches onto his left cheek. It was old, been there for years likely. But it didn’t change the rugged handsomeness of his face, and she could see that his left eye still functioned with no regard of the injury.

There was also a scar on his chin, which angled from above and tucked under. Both cuts had likely taken stitches, although the surgeon, if it had actually been medical person, had not done the job with the idea of cosmetic purposes. Simon would have done a lot better!

“Ok Miss Kaylee,” He Began, “My family is from a wealthy linage on Aberdeen. We ran cattle and stock just as most folk on planets in that part of the verse have done for years. Amassed quite a bit of fortune too, we did,” he paused a moment recalling his home life, “But it wasn’t without struggle, or the hard times that so many folk have to deal with out on the rim worlds, we had our share. My dad worked his fingers to the bone, and mom spent many a night with her own worries and pains. She saw to her children and to her husband until the day he died. That was just before the war. I became the man of the house, and with the help of my uncle, mom’s brother, who lived in town just down the street, and our ranch hands, we were able to do Okay,” he stopped to wet his lips.

“Just months after the war had started there was a skirmish on Aberdeen, they said it was a skirmish, I say it was an all out battle to test the strength of each side. My family had remained neutral during the beginning, and took criticism from other ranchers in the area. Still, we didn’t choose a side. I think it was my mother’s way of trying to safeguard me. Uncle Jake did take sides though, more on the independents. Although if questioned he wouldn’t admit either way. There was a concern that the family’s fortune and of other valuables may become at risk during the battle, and a plan was constructed to hide things in the valley hills outside of town. The sounds of the battle in the distance getting closer told us that it was time to get moving. My uncle and I loaded up and took the stuff out to a secret hiding place known only to us. We stored it there, concealed the entrance and headed back towards town. On the way back we came upon two injured soldiers of the Independence Belted Scorpions brigade. We loaded them up in the wagon and resumed our journey back towards town. In less than a mile we were stopped by an Alliance force know as the Purple Jags, or Purple Jaguars. We told them our story of just finding the wounded Browncoats, but they didn’t buy it. They took the men prisoner, then also my uncle. At my protest they put me in cuffs too. They split up the group of about fifteen Purple Js, with half returning with us to the Alliance lines. The others continuing into town. I heard them say that it was a Browncoat friendly town.”

Quinn fell silent and looked down to the table for a while. He took a moment then spoke again.

“The town was sacked, much of it burnt. I don’t know what happened to my sister or mother?” He looked back up into Kaylee’s eyes, “I may be able to get out of here in a year or two, if I behave myself. But I can’t wait, or even know if it will happen? I will search for my mother and sister when I do, my uncle Jake too. They were the only family I had.” He stopped and took in a breath, “I do know where the family riches are though, and I can use it to buy information at my release.”

His eyes shifted from side to side as if the very walls of the shelter had ears, “If the inmates around here knew of the amount and location, I’d be in the prison morgue before evening chow.” The seriousness and concern never left him during this time. “I’m trusting you and Captain Reynolds to protect the only connections I have to my family left. I hope I’m doing the right thing?”

Kaylee was going to speak when a guard approached them.

“Times up!”

“Give me an extra couple minutes please.”

“I said times UP!”

“AND I SAID I NEED A COUPLE MINUTES!” Quinn was about to rise from the chair. He did have a temper!

The guard heard a grumble and turned to see Jayne standing a few feet behind him. Between two such men, it didn’t look to be a fair fight, even with the stun gun in his grip, he was thinking. He gave a little ground.

“Ok two minutes, that’s it!”

Quinn returned to Kaylee and spoke more. When he was finished he looked at Jayne and gave him a respectful nod. That was more than the big mercenary had gotten from him before. Serenity’s mercenary responded in like manner.

The two Firefly crewmembers then exited Voltauge Prison heading back towards Serenity, and the safety of the ship.

END PART 4

Purple “J”s : part 5

“Breakfast with the Crazies”

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Malcolm Reynolds stretched his arms above his head. He was on the bridge of his ship, watching as Serenity’s nose was pointed towards a cluster of stars way out into the ridiculously distant blackness of space. He knew that his boat could travel for a thousand years, and still have thousands more to travel before reaching that star cluster. Good thing their destination was just a little more than two days away. The dark, vast, void of the black was amazing, but also scary at the same time.

The Captain brought his arms back down and again hooked them into the suspenders he wore which were buckled to his pants. His nose caught a whiff of something good entering the Firefly cockpit. He turned in the chair to identify exactly what he was smelling.

“Zoe!”

“Ok Cap, I’m good to go!”

Zoe looked at her Captain as she held a dish of food in her hands. Mal’s lieutenant had just returned after he had given her a break from her nightshift piloting duties. She had used the time to freshen up and head to the galley to get something to eat.

“That smells GREAT! What is it?”

“ Breakfast!” Zoe gave her commander a smile, “I don’t know what you call it. It’s something your new cook whipped up! It does smell good though doesn’t it?” Her eyes were bright at the thought of enjoying her meal.

Zoe was waiting for her shift to end. She had piloted Serenity while the others had slept. She was now waiting on her husband to come and relieve her.

“Wash should be up shortly, that is if he doesn’t oversleep,” Mal grinned at his wartime buddy.

“Oh, I know ways of getting him up,” she said with a smile.

The Captain grinned. He wasn’t about to respond to that statement. He looked back down at the food she’d brought back with her.

“Think I’ll try some of that myself,” he reported. Then off towards the kitchen he went.

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Cecil Deans had been on Serenity for over two weeks. It was part of the deal Mal had made with his cousin Monty, to have one of his men onboard to accompany them in acquiring Quinn’s treasure. Besides, Deans had secrets. He held a part of the plan which actually named the area where the search would begin.

Mal had followed his nose to the ship’s galley. He found it occupied by several others. Kaylee was there, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and Cecil, and River, fluttering about in a whimsical dance.

“Rainbows and butterflies together in the sky, one looks like candy, the other a bow tie.”

By now most of the crew just took to ignoring the young Miss when she was in one of her moods. They paid her prose little mind, neither as annoying nor something to be alerted to. The new cook had learned to ignore her as well. The only one that her frolicking about still bothered was Jayne.

“Moring Cap, get you some breakfast?” Deans asked.

Mal looked over at the man.

“You bet!”

“….and you young lady?” Cecil spoke to Serenity’s master mechanic.

Kaylee smiled and nodded her head yes.

“What about you young Miss?” The cook looked at River.

“I don’t think….” Mal started to say…..

“Sure!” She said, stopping right in the middle of her dance and joining them. The three sat right at the table waiting for the delicious smelling breakfast to be laid before them. The Captain sat there silently thinking that this was much better than the other bit of fixings that Cecil had provided for him on Monty‘s boat. He looked at Kaylee…….

“So you and Mr. Deans been discussing anything of interest?”

Kaylee stopped rubbing her eyes for a moment and viewed the Captain.

“Yeah, I was just talking with him, did you know that he was a veteran of the war, a participant in the Battle of Timber Falls?”

Mal’s eyebrows raised, he looked over at the cook. The man seemed a bit embarrassed about what Kaylee had told the him.

“Sergeant Reynolds!” he had heard it many a time. Malcolm did know a little about the war, but he was no historian. He knew bits and pieces of those first skirmishes, but not a lot.

“Battle of Timber Falls, that was on Aberdeen wasn’t it?” He viewed Cecil.

“It was.”

“Sorry, I don’t know much about that battle,” Mal continued on the subject, “I do know it was early in the war, and it’s where the Independence took their first trouncing! I think after that the Alliance got it in their heads that beating the Browncoats would be a cakewalk. Guess they found out different.”

“Yeah, guess they did,” Deans replied.

“So, you fought there?” It was a redundant question, it had already been answered. Still Mal was looking for more information from the man.

“Yep, fought with the 101, Belted Scorpions Brigade, commanded by Kirby Casey.” Deans said as he set three bowls before them on the galley table. He went back to the kitchen an returned with his own.

“Bloody combat, purple cats, chased the people around like rats. Towns and buildings go up in flame, the guilty never caught, never blamed.”

All eyes turned to River. Evidently she hadn’t finished her crazy spell. She took a bite of the food before her. Then returned the spoon to the bowl.

“Look at the yellow rocks how they gleam, walk to the water and cross the stream. From there your steps will be marked and measured, one hundred paces you’ll find the treasure.”

The young River was still looking down. Memorized by the swirl and patterns of the food there.

“River dear, bad dreams sweetheart?” Mal just wanted her to be quiet. Shut her jabbering before she gave something away that would alert Cecil to who she was.

River cut the Captain a pair of dagger eyes.

“No……..bad dreams are what you have Captain. Mine are nightmares!”

She got up from the table and exited the galley.

END PART 5