ALONG CAME A ZHI ZHU -Chapter SEVEN

By BlueHandTwoByTwo (LarryL)

Like a shot of adrenaline directly into the heart, Drapomine works fast. The patient’s eyes flutter open almost as soon as the drug enters the bloodstream and there is always a gasp for breath. The patient then experiences a moment of extreme disorientation as both the brain and body resumes normal motor function and thought process. Side effects are nausea -which quickly passes- and a feeling of unquenchable thirst. Within five minutes, the patient is usually cognizant, though a little weak, depending on how long the muscles have not been used.

Zoe injected the crew members one by one, starting with Inara, since she had been the first infected and was most in need of the antidote. Jayne got the next dose, then Kaylee, her husband Wash, then Mal, and finally Simon, since his was the newest. One by one, her friends came out of their sleep and sat up on their beds, rubbing their faces and flexing their fingers and legs to aid blood circulation.

Zoe stood at Mal’s bed as he slowly roused himself to consciousness. “Welcome back, Captain. How do you feel?”

“Like the winner of a whiskey-drinking contest when he wakes up the next morning,” Mal said, shaking his head to clear the fog. “How’s everybody holding up?”

Book answered, “About as well as you.”

“How’s Inara?” Mal asked, turning his head to see her at the far end of the room. Simon and River were standing next to her bed, wiping her face with a wet cloth while she eagerly drank glass after glass of water.

“She’s doing better but I suspect she won’t be entertaining any clients for a while.”

Mal nodded, relieved. He was more concerned about her than he had let on. “Ship out of danger?”

“No, Sir, unfortunately not,” Zoe answered with a heavy sigh. “We’ve got Alliance hot on our trail and we still have a loose spider running around.” She didn’t tell him about the forty others still nestled in their crates that Serenity was carrying in her cargo hold. That disparaging bit of news would have to wait until the Captain’s strength had fully returned.

“Well what the hell good are you then?” Mal cracked.

“Sorry, Sir. I thought finding a cure and saving the crew was more important. Guess I had my priorities mixed up,” Zoe smiled.

“Better work on that if you ever expect to be promoted.”

“I will, Sir,” she said with a wink.

Wash stumbled up behind Zoe and used her weight to steady himself. Simon had wrapped his hand in a bandage to cover the wound where he’d been bit. “Okay, so my head feels like a pinata at a Mexican birthday party but other than that, I think I’m ready to report for duty.”

“Me too, Captain,” Kaylee said, wobbly on her feet. “I heard I went a little nuts on you. I’m so sorry. I just…I wasn’t…did I hurt you?”

“It’s okay, don’t beat yourself up over it. I think we’ve all been a little ‘out of our heads’ lately,” he said and glanced guiltily over at Zoe. He still felt bad for zapping her with the prod. “What’s important is that we’ve got our cure and we all seem to be doing okay for the moment but we can’t rest on our laurels just yet. We’ve still got situations to deal with which require focus but if we get sloppy and lose that focus, then we’re just gonna end up sick again. So let’s get back on track. If I remember correctly, I think we have some new booster belts that need to be installed, right?”

“I’m on it!” Kaylee saluted and ran off down the corridor towards the engine room.

“Wash, first thing you need to do when you get back on the bridge is scan the quadrant and see how much time we have before our Alliance friends come a-knocking.”

“Did someone say Alliance?” Jayne asked from his bedside. He swung his legs over the edge and hopped down onto the floor, then immediately fell to his knees. “Whoa! Still feeling a little woozy. Misjudged my distance.”

Simon reached down and helped him back up to his feet. “Don’t worry, your strength should return within the half hour.”

“Hope so. Don’t imagine I’ll be much good in a firefight if I have to sit in a gorram wheelchair!”

“Yeah, Captain,” Wash nodded, concerned. “I’m just barely working on reserve here. I’m not sure I’d be up for pullin’ any fancy maneuvers if we have to outfly their gunships.”

“Let’s just deal with one thing at a time,” Mal said. “First thing we need to do is hunt down and catch that son of a bitchin’ spider first, then we worry about the Alliance.”

Book asked, “But how are we going to find it? That’s been our problem all along.”

“River, come over here a minute,” Mal called out and waved the girl over. “Something she told me earlier gave me an idea.” As soon as she joined them, Mal asked, “River, what was it you said to me a while back about the spider? Do you remember?”

River nodded, enthusiastically. “It likes the sparkles. It’s looking for more.”

“The sparkles?” Book asked, unsure of her meaning.

“Shiny things,” Mal nodded.

Zoe suddenly remembered what she and the captain had found nestled in the spider’s crate and understood. “Inara’s Dekka stones.”

“We find everything with a shiny surface -jewelry, earrings, silverware, whatever- and we lay a trail down for it.”

“Lead it into the air lock and then flush it right out into space,” Zoe finished his thought.

“A bread trail,” Book commented.

“Exactly!” Mal snapped his fingers. “But we have to be careful down there. We don’t want to damage or lose any of that other cargo.”

“Well, now that you bring it up,” Zoe started, hesitantly. “There’s something you really need to know.”

Sound -no matter at what decibel- does not normally escape the immense vacuum of deep space, but if one were close enough to Serenity at that precise moment in time, they would most certainly have heard the curses being yelled by the Captain as Zoe told him the exact contents of the crates his ship was carrying.

*** *** ***

The floors sparkled. Everything from gemstones and rings and necklaces to screws and bolts and copper wiring were laid in trails down every passageway of Serenity. Every one ended in the cargo bay. The hope was that the Zhi-Zhu would take a liking to one of the ‘shinys’ and -like it did with Inara’s Dekka stones- take it back to its nest. Once there, a crewmember would shut the hatch, open the cargo bay door, and flush it right out into the black. That was the plan.

The crewmembers were stationed at every major junction, armed with a charge prod and a hand-held radio. It was turning into a big waiting game but each was prepared to play. They wanted that rutting Zhi-Zhu off their ship.

“Any sign of it yet?” Zoe asked into her radio.

A short burst of static, then “Not yet,” Mal answered. “Book? You got a visual?”

Crackle. Fuzz. “No, Sir. That’s a negative. My deck’s clear.”

Mal frowned. It’d been nearly two hours and he was growing tired and fatigued. “Jayne? You see anything from where you are?” He waited for an answer. Got none. “Jayne? You there?”

Down another corridor, the discarded radio sat all alone on the floor. Jayne had grown tired of all this sitting around doing nothing. He was for hunting it down and ending this situation once and for all. Slowly, he advanced down the dark corridor, his boot inching out slowly in front of him, feeling the way along the metal grating of the deck. He swung his prod through the air in front of his face, mindful of any webbing that might be strung across the pipes, waiting to re-infect him. His eyes darted back and forth along the ceiling, the walls, the floor; he listened for any sound that was not a normal creak or groan of Serenity’s hull.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he said in a voice just barely above a whisper. “Daddy’s got a big surprise for you.” He charged up his prod, the hum growing louder until the sound vibrated all around him. “You’re gonna love it, let me tell you.” A sound behind him: tiny, fuzzy legs scurrying either towards him or away from him -he couldn’t tell which. He swung around, the prod ready to juice anything that looked like it might be jumping out of the shadows at him.

Nothing.

But something was here, near him; next to him. He could hear its body banging into the pipes and ducts that surrounded him on either side. He wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone else but Jayne was growing more and more spooked. Scared, even.

Movement in the shadows ahead of him. Did he just see the damn thing hop from one pipe to another in the darkness? He wasn’t sure if he did or if it was just his eyes playing tricks on him. He cocked his head to listen, but there was no sound.

And then it emerged from the shadows not six feet in front of him. It moved with deliberate slowness, the way a cat does when stalking a mouse or squirrel.

Jayne’s heart froze. His mouth dried instantly. He slowly reached for his radio, wanted to tell Mal that the gorram thing was in the corridor just ahead of him, and then realized that he’d left it behind. “This ain’t good,” he muttered softly to himself. He looked back up to the corridor in front of him. The Zhi-Zhu stood there, half in and half out of the shadows, as still as a stone statue, waiting to make its move; waiting to pounce. “This ain’t good at all.”

The spider crept closer, its fuzzy legs reaching out to the floor in front of it two at a time and pulling it closer to its prey. Jayne took a cautious step back and the Zhi-Zhu reared up on its two back legs and emitted a squeal that made his skin crawl. He swung the prod in its direction and it cringed a bit but didn’t retreat. Jayne took two more steps back, three, and suddenly found himself tumbling backwards! He’d lost his footing and came crashing down hard upon the metal grating! The spider took full advantage of its prey’s misfortune and charged. Jayne put up his hands and screamed as the giant arachnid came bounding at him full speed!

“JAYNE! LOOK OUT!” Mal yelled as he stepped up from behind Jayne and raised his prod. The charged tip made contact with the spider’s head and it shrieked in pain as a sudden shower of sparks appeared and lit up the corridor! The force of the shock sent the thing flying back but did not kill it. It slammed into the side of a pipe and hobbled back onto its feet.

“There it is! Kill it! KILL IT!” Zoe yelled, running up behind Mal and Jayne.

The spider quickly scurried off down the corridor, hobbling on a broken leg. Mal and Zoe jumped over Jayne and followed it, their prods glowing bright blue in the darkness ahead of them.

“Keep an eye on it! Don’t lose it!” Zoe yelled.

“I’m not letting that gorram thing out of my sight!” Mal yelled back and hurried his pace to catch up to it.

Up ahead, a junction. To the left was the cargo bay. To the right was the Med Lab and the rest of Serenity’s bowels. If it turned right, they’d lose it for sure and they’d be back at square one. If it turned to the left, they might have a chance to flush it out of the ship. Mal ran faster, hoping to scare it to the left, but unfortunately, the closer it got to the juncture, the more it began turning to the right.

“NO! NO!” Mal yelled at it and prepared to throw his prod like a spear in an attempt to scare it in the other direction.

The Zhi-Zhu turned to the right and was about to disappear from sight when it suddenly stopped and jumped in the opposite direction! Out of nowhere, a bright blue tip jabbed at it and scared it towards the cargo bay! Book suddenly appeared from around the corner yelling a deep and gutteral war cry and ran after it!

The three converged and chased the spider into the cargo bay with the glowing tips of their prods. It skittered into the hold and took refuge in the shadows. Mal immediately hit the control box and the door hissed shut, sealing the bay closed. All three were out of breath, fighting for air, coughing, coming down from their adrenaline rushes. After a moment’s rest, Mal looked up at Book and said, “Good timing, Grandpa.”

After sucking in a few deep breaths, Book shook his head and said, “I never married.”

The three of them stood there and laughed. After they’d all caught their breaths, Mal pushed a button that activated a flashing, yellow warning light. An alarm sounded from within the cargo bay. He was about to push a second button when a woman’s hand reached in and stopped him. He looked up and met Zoe’s big brown eyes.

“Allow me, Captain?”

He stepped aside. “Be my guest.”

She looked through the viewing port, saw the Zhi-Zhu step out from behind a crate to nurse its wounded leg, and scowled at it. “This is for my husband, you son of a bitch!” Then she stabbed the button and the exterior cargo bay doors opened up wide.

An incredible vacuum began and immediately sucked everything that was not bolted down out into deep space! Crate after crate flew out the hatch! The Zhi-Zhu tried desperately to grab hold of something to anchor itself down but was no match for the windy pull of the black! Its fuzzy body disappeared in an instant, imploding the moment it hit the frigid air! Zoe and Mal and Book watched transfixed as every single crate disappeared from Serenity’s hold. Finally, when it was empty, Mal pushed the button a second time and the exterior doors slowly slid shut on their hydraulics. The vacuum stopped. The flashing, yellow alarm light blinked off. All was quiet.

They stood there for a moment in silence, reflecting on what they’d all been through these past couple of days. Then Book cleared his throat and asked, “So what are you going to tell the Land Barron when he asks about his missing crates?”

Mal thought for a moment, then replied, “I’m going to tell him to kiss my big, ole white ass one cheek at a time.”

“Good answer,” Book nodded.

Again, all three began laughing. It felt good to release the stress.

“Captain? You there?” Wash’s voice boomed out over the ship’s speaker system.

“Yeah, Wash, what is it?” Mal yelled back.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news and all but we got company outside, Sir. Alliance. It’s the Dortmunder.”

The smiles immediately melted off their faces. Mal's shoulders slumped and he sighed, shook his head. “We just can’t seem to get a break, can we?” Then he turned and quickly made his way to the bridge. Zoe and Book hurried behind him.

(to be continued)

~Sorry it took so long to post this. Thanks for sticking with me. My vacation in Hawaii was fantastic! Please be shiny and post a review what you think of the story so far. Only one more chapter to go! LarryL