On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three french hens

Mal was tired. He, Book and Zoë spent all yesterday afternoon tramping round town trying to locate his missing crew members. They’d investigated abandoned buildings, searched every alley in the place, visited all the bars and talked to all the lowlifes trying to get a line on Jayne and Kaylee. They’d came up wanting.

He’d come to the conclusion that the mechanic and mercenary were no longer on the planet. They were out in the black somewhere on a ship. So first they had to locate the right ship. Naturally this planet had to be a popular port with ships landing and leaving atmo almost constantly.

So he sent Wash to the Port captain to get a list of all those ships which had taken off in the last day. Of course even if they got the list, they had no way of knowing which one held the culprits and his crew. Book and Zoe had gone to talk to the sheriff and see if they could find out about any other undesirables around.

There was also the matter of why would anyone snatch Jayne or Kaylee? Jayne probably had a list of enemies as long as his arm. But wouldn’t they just kill him? There’d be no point in kidnapping. And of course no-one could hate Kaylee. A worse thought, and one he was avoiding, was that his people were snatched because of some crime they’d all done.

Speculating wasn’t helping, to keep himself busy he started going through all the stuff they hauled from the alley yesterday.

All Jayne’s going to town weapons were there, guns, knives, brass knuckles, emergency grenade. The list he’d given Jayne was there too, all crumpled up from too much handling, each item painstakingly marked off. The big man had been trying gorram hard to make up for what he’d done at Ariel.

Mixed up with all the boring purchases and parts for Serenity were Kaylee’s Christmas things. The jumble of bright packages, bags and boxes didn’t mean much to him. He had no idea what to do with them. But Kaylee had her heart set on a celebration. So when she came back the girl would have a celebration.

He turned round to find River right behind him. “Baubles shine, messages unclear. Pretty girl wants happy thoughts for all.” Her brown eyes looked at him expectantly.

“You wanna do this for Kaylee?” he questioned

She nodded vigorously “Get Simon to help you,” he ordered “I want everything done for when they come back.”

If they came back. He hoped that wherever they were his crew were surviving.

*******************************

“Yuck” Kaylee looked at the soggy brown mess in the bowl. She was starvin’ but didn’t want to eat that mess.

“Best eat it,” Jayne said “don’t know when we might get fed again.”

Kaylee picked up her spoon and dutifully tasted it. Ugh. It was worse than it looked! How could Jayne just shovel it down like that? Survival of course, the man’s survival instinct were stronger than most. He hadn’t survived in the black this long without learnin’ a few tricks.

She hadn’t pressed him with questions ‘bout Trinity. His head had still been hurtin’ and though he’d never admit it, he needed sleep. When he’d had time t’ think ‘bout it he’d tell her soon enough what she needed to know. From the expression on the thugs’ face and Jayne’s reaction, she didn’t think it was goin’ to be good.

She sighed and ate some more of the horrible food; all she’d really wanted was to have a Christmas party.

Jayne heard her sigh and watched out of the corner of his eye to see if she were eating. They were goin’ to need all the strength they could get so as to survive what was comin. He hoped the Captain was lookin’ for them.

*******************************

The remainder of the crew were gathered in the common room to discuss the information they had gathered.

“The news isn’t good Captain” the Shepherd’s voice was worried. “It seems that there has been a rash of disappearances over the last year. Most of those that have vanished have been fighters of some sort.”

“Fighters?” Simon asked

“Mercenaries, bouncers, ex-soldiers, anyone who might put up a fight” explained Zoë. “Most of them that went missin’ have never returned. The couple that have were dead when they were found.”

“That explains why Jayne was snatched then,” Wash remarked “the man looks like a walking weapon.”

Simon was bewildered “Kaylee doesn’t though.”

“She was with him” Mal was angry “and ai ya that’s all it would take. They, whoever they are, probably thought she was his partner or something.”

He turned to his second in command “did you get a list of undesirables from the sheriff?”

She nodded “Got one from Port Security too.”

“Great. Wash leave your list here and get Serenity off the planet. We’ll see if we can match anything up.” At last he was doing something constructive to find his crew.

*******************************

“Trinity” said Jayne “is owned by some rich wang bad an from the core. Makes his money by runnin’ hunts.”

Kaylee leaned up against the bulkhead listening “Hunts? Like at home huntin’ for meat animals?”

“Yeah” he grunted “Human animals.” He watched as her eyes widened, understanding dawnin’.

“There’s two parts. The folks that hunt, they pay to take part. Usually bring hunters, trackers to help ‘em out. Other folks pay to watch, they gamble on the hunt. Who’s goin’ to win and such.” He was silent.

“So, we’re goin’ to be prey?” Kaylee didn’t like the sound of that.

His voice was grim when he answered “Yeah, looks that way.”

She was here ‘cause he looked like a fighter, he’d figured that out. Didn’t like it one bit.

Ai ya = damn Wang bad an = bastard