Purple “J”s : part 6

“Lies Upon Lies, That‘s How We Fly”

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Malcolm Reynolds needed time to think, a diversion. A way of getting Cecil Deans’ mind off of the young girl who’d just walked away from the galley table. He needed a story, something believable, yet not too far fetched or outrageous. He needed a lie, a gorram good one!

“River………what can I say about that girl?” Mal spoke, “she’s never been the same since witnessing her father falling out of their boat on Bellerophon, and being totally consumed by a Grover Shark in front of her very eyes!”

*There, that should take care of it*, Mal figured! He’d just fabricated a story that would be believable and not too hard to swallow. Well, in his way of thinking.

Even with all the private estates floating around on Bellerophon…..that world still required it’s own labor force. Work crews ready to do the bidding of the privileged and wealthy. These folk were housed in floating accommodations known as gòng tóng rénjia (common houses). Places where the simple employees, labor crews, craftsmen, and everyday workers lived. There was even a floating house for the fishing crews.

Malcolm Reynolds grinned inside himself. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine that River’s father had once been a fisherman! One who’d met with an untimely, horrific death while boating on the seas to supply the floating markets on Belleropnon with fish and crustaceans.

Kaylee shot a questionable glance towards her Captain. It was a good thing that Mal held Cecil’s concentrated attention, otherwise the cook may have noticed the Firefly mechanics reaction.

“Well, at least that’s what her brother tells me,” the Captain explained. Kaylee’s mouth opened wide! Was he going to do it? Was the Captain going to tell an almost perfect stranger that River and Simon were actually brother and sister? That certainly would not be a smart thing to do!

“Brother?” Deans questioned.

Mal looked up, seemingly broken away from his somber trance.

“Yes, her brother, Jayne.”

Cecil’s eyes widened a bit, “So that explains it,” he said. His puzzled look calmed, he returned to his bowl of breakfast, seemingly now, understanding that Jayne’s family may be plagued with a genetic malformation that was likely spawned by the intermingling of close relations. Family ties that cohered into a knot. That may explain why the poor girl seems incoherent at times.

Mals’ eyes wondered over to those of his chief mechanic’s. No words were spoken between them, but the girl did get the jest of the angle the Captain was playing. She actually had to bring up her cup of strawberry tea to hide the large smile which now had spread across her pretty face. Mal was a good liar, well, this time he was anyway! She completely understood the reasons for his deception. However, didn’t the big mercenary need to know about these things? Need Jayne be brought into the loop? Shouldn’t the information be passed along to him to let him know that now, he was to play the part of River‘s older brother?

The idea was something the Captain would deal with later. Right now he was attempting to sever any connection between River, and her real brother, Simon. A deceit that was to be shared with every crewmember aboard the ship, that is, when Mal found time to tell them.

Kaylee took a sip of her tea. She smiled inside at the thought of Jayne being told that he was now to pretend to be River’s brother. She imagined the fit he would throw, or even the one Simon would? She thought the best place for him to be informed would be in the cargo bay, while Deans was still in the galley. Jayne could vent his frustration then, and not hurt a soul!

Mal again spoke to Cecil.

“So, how did you and Quinn Greene become acquainted?” The question was straightforward and to the mark, aimed directly towards the guest aboard his ship. The subject of interest at the table had been turned three-sixty degrees. Deans now, was proposed an explanation of how he had linked up with Quinn, the young Voltauge inmate.

“ Well, as you may not know Captain,” he pause to look at Mal, and then Kaylee, “…. and Miss Kaylee , I had, for a time, been incarcerated on the world of Silverhold. As any convict sitting here before you at this table might proclaim, I was innocence. Yet I will spare you the sorrowed details of how the justice system failed me. Anyway, I was conveyed through the prison system until I ended up at Voltauge pen. I became a cook and a trustee. By happenstance Mr. Greene and I one day made a connection while he was in the serving line getting his chow. We later talked and found that we had several things in common. A friendship began to develop. He began to trust me with personal information about himself, and I him. He told me of the family fortune he had stowed back on Aberdeen and trusted me to not tell a soul. He was right in doing so.”

Deans paused a moment, then mentioned a word of caution, “ what is about to be brought forth at this table from this moment on must herein, remain a secret,” he looked from Mal’s face to Kaylee’s. There seemed to be a quiet understanding which passed between them. Cecil Deans began to slowly roll up the sleeve of his shirt. Malcolm Reynolds’ eyes widened as well as his ship’s mechanic’s. Cecil Deans had pulled his shirt back over his forearm to reveal the tattooed insignia of the Independence Brigades Belted Scorpions symbol. Black and red were it’s colors, with blood dripping off of the scorpion’s stinger. The blood drips indicated how many men the individual had killed. Deans drips numbered seventeen! He was a very dangerous man! He looked at each of their faces with intensity.

“There is a storm brewing on the horizon, A new revolt about to take place. We mean to gather the hidden treasures of the trodden rim and border worlds and start a new revolution! A revolt that the Alliance won’t see coming! Something they won’t expect or be prepared for!” He rolled his sleeve back down.

Mal was shocked, and Kaylee taken back by surprise. What were they to think? Deans was dead serious, and no telling what monsters the Alliance prison system had created during it’s six years of hostility towards the Independence POWs.

Deans claimed to be a lieutenant during the war, yet the Belted Scorpions were so secretive a fighting force that not much was known about them, or their operations. Mal now, was wondering what he’d gotten himself into?

“There are spies about, such as myself Captain,” Deans continued, “wandering throughout the system, collecting the funds and materials to start anew! With the help of allies, and those true to the cause we will start small, but end big. I know your war record Mal! Sergeant in the war, commendations during the battle of Serenity Valley, yet rest assured that now, this is not your fight! We must gather strength and momentum first. Our first attacks must not be a ripple in the sea of distain, but a tsunami of aggravated aggression from an ocean of trodden victims!”

Mal, at that moment thought that he might be listening to a summon brought on by the likes of Shepherd Book. The Captain was not totally unsympathetic to Deans proclamation of revenge! But he had come away from the war with a different vision than Deans…..and also others. That difference expressed itself in regret. A regret in fighting a war that the Independence side would be unable to win! In sacrificing the lives of so many souls and providing victims to a cause that was lost.

Yes Malcolm Reynolds did at times consider the dead of that war to be victims. He had felt that way ever since the Independence Air-force “Angels” had refused to attack the Alliance air squadrons during the Battle of Serenity Valley! Their excuse being that the area was “Too Hot”. Yet they never considering that the war on the ground may be BOILING! Mal had lost a piece of his soul in that fight. A piece that would be impossible to recover. Shepherd Book was trying, but Malcolm Reynolds had tried to explain to the reverend that he was beyond recovering his belief in God. That the preacher was in fact “beating a dead mule”.

Anyway, there was still plenty of fight left in the Captain, and Malcolm had never backed down from a fight! Well, maybe he had, which had been brought to his attention by Inara the night before his duel with Atherton Wing. But backing down at times had caused him to become smarter. He had learned that there were times when negotiation was the more intelligent road to travel. Sure, there was a time to fight, yet there was a time to attempt to work things out also.

Malcolm Reynolds let none of this reflect in his eyes during his time at the galley table with the new arrival on Serenity. As far as Deans knew, Mal was onboard with keeping his secrets about his Belted Scorpion’s past. Mal played his part definitively. Kaylee showed the same.

Cecil Deans when finish, returned his breakfast bowl to the kitchen and exited the galley. He felt fully confident that he had corralled the trust of the Captain of Serenity, and also, Mal’s Ace, #1 mechanic.

Once Cecil had gone Kaylee looked over at Mal and voiced a concern she’d kept silent until the new cook had left…..

“Captain, there’s something I have to tell you,” she spoke.

END PART 6