KING D. AUGUSTUS III - BEGIN LOG ENTRY : 8 July 2528: 23:15 And all my Kingly duties are finished and my official entries are logged. I just have time enough to enter more in the supplemental log about the Serenity crew before I hit the hay. After what happened during their deal, [see LOG ENTRY 2.0] I didn’t know what to think of River. How could she learn those moves at such an early age? It got me thinking of why the Alliance had wanted her. To possess that level of quick reflexes and skill would be of use as an assassin. I so wanted to ask about her, but I felt I had overstayed my welcome with my antics of the night. I was so speechless when we got back to the ship, even Kaylee questioned my silence. Mal had answered, “He witnessed River in action. Funny, it’s the same reaction you had when you saw River shoot Niska’s men without looking.” When I thought of anyone shooting without looking, I shuddered. I had to ask. “What happened to them,” I asked. It was the first time I saw Kaylee even slightly disturbed, as if remembering a bad memory. “She killed them.” “Without looking?” I cried. Kaylee corrected. "Oh, she looked all right. For about two seconds.” I turned to see River nonchalantly climb up the stairs to the cockpit. She walked in the same graceful manner as if nothing had happened. I turned back to Mal and Kaylee. “Who is she?” Mal forced out a hard tone. “Don’t be expectin’ any answers from us. What you did today only put you in more danger than we would like. Don’t think Daddy King would like it if you got harmed on your own.” Instead of fighting back, I slowly agreed with him. I even said the words “sorry”. “Tzao gao,” Mal said back. He turned to Kaylee and asked, “Did you hear that? I know The Mule’s engines may have ruptured my hearing for a bit, but I do swear I heard ‘sorry’ come out of the boy.” “Heard it too, Captain.” Kaylee sweetly smiled. “There may be hope for you yet, son.” I took that with a grain of salt and told them I’d be retiring to my bunk. “Would that be you going to your bunk or only your clothes?” This from Kaylee. She went on. “Just so you know, Mr. Prince, the next time you try pretending to be sick in front of my Simon, he ain’t gonna treat you unless you’re dying.” I nodded to tell her I got the message and went on to my temporary room. I removed all my clothes from under the covers and plopped them on the floor with no sense of order then climbed on top of my bed. I didn’t even turn the light out. I stared into space for close to an hour it must have been. Inara knocked at some point and I beckoned her in. She came in silently and sat at the foot of my bed. Before she spoke, I remarked, “I figured you’d be the one to talk to me.” “Are you all right?” “Relatively.” I paused and noticed the vibrations. “Did we leave Jiangyn?” “Yes. A while ago.” “Where we headed?” “Off to the next thing.” She paused herself and looked at me. “I heard you had questions about River.” “Am I to be debriefed on your little secret, now?” “River’s no secret. Not now. Alliance took care of that. Did you know they tried to say she made it up?” I nodded. This was all on record that I researched. “And that she falsified the wave originally from Miranda? How dumb does the Alliance think we are?” “If you did your research on us, which I’m sure you did, you would have known they wanted her back.” “Wanted her back?” I questioned. “The Alliance had done things to her at a young age. Tests, injections, surgeries. Anything that would make her into what they wanted.” “An assassin,” I supplied. “That was never verified, but it seems likely.” Inara went on to explain that before Miranda, River was a confused child with a psychosis deep inside her. She would spurt incoherent sayings. She performed violent acts without warning. The aspect of River that was most unique was that she was believed to be psychic. If I hadn’t been witness to her actions before, I would have thought that to be nonsense. Inara said she was highly intelligent and that she could react to things faster than most people could think to. There was something else that Inara had said about River. The whole reason for her psychosis was the fact that she held a secret deep inside of her underneath suppressed emotions. River could feel twice more than any normal human thanks to the Alliance’s experiments with her. That secret they later found out was the connection between Miranda and the Reavers. The secret was out when Serenity’s crew had exposed the wave that proved against the Alliance. After all of that was over, Inara had recounted, River acted relatively normal for a gifted teenager. I remembered something Mal said to Johansen and I asked Inara, “Did she really defeat an army of Reavers without getting a scratch on her?” I asked it as if I thought it was as farfetched as it sounded. Inara smiled her beautiful smile and simply stated, “That she did. We thought she was dead. When those doors opened and we saw her there standing among the dead Reavers with two huge blades in her hands...she just exuded a sense of power I think she always had but never found. Until that moment.” To this day, River’s story both fascinates and haunts me. All I could reply to Inara then was a heartfelt, “Shiny!” Inara went on to comment, “She can be intimidating to outsiders. It freaked us out when she first came on board. She was always unpredictable in good and bad ways. Since Miranda, she has learned to be part of the crew. It amazed us that she could be so experienced as a pilot. Must have been something the Alliance taught her.” At the mention of pilot, I asked Inara if I could ask something else that was said during the deal. She allowed me. “Your pilot...that died. He was Zoe’s husband?” Inara frowned in sadness for a split second and then quietly answered, “That’s correct.” “His name was Hoban?” Inara snickered and corrected, “Actually, we called him Wash. From his last name. Would you want to be called Hoban?” I smirked. “Try Dekterius.” Inara smiled and quoted, “‘What’s in a name?’” She thought she was quoting an obscure reference, but I knew my Romeo and Juliet. I quoted back to her, “‘‘That which we call a rose would smell as sweet.’” She brightened and said proudly, “You know your Shakespeare.” “I keep myself educated. I’m thinking of doing some writing in the future.” OK, pause for irony here. Ok pause over. She thought that was a great idea. I kept on with the discussion of Zoe’s husband, Wash. “That must have been hard for her.” “She never speaks of it. It is just her way. Her stoicism may come off as being cold to others, but I see Zoe as just a realist. Especially when it comes to death.” Her words made me think of Oscar. Then and now. It made me ask her, “How did you handle his death?” She raised her perfectly formed dark eyebrows and suggested, “Isn’t that a rather personal question?” I shrugged. “I just never had anyone close to me die before. My mom died in childbirth having me. Father never speaks of her, just like Zoe. Is that bad?” “Not necessarily. As I said, it is just their way.” “So, what are you supposed to do when someone close to you dies?” Inara took a breath and softly replied, “Whatever you feel that you have to.” I had no clue what that had meant back then. I do know now a decade later. I knew it last week when my own father had passed. In his case, it was almost a relief. Father had been so sick that he was just a body waiting to die. Anyway, don’t want to get off track. Maybe in another entry for that. I told Inara that I would like to be alone and she granted my request. I did turn off the light this time and remember sitting in my bed thinking of River’s story, what she did to Johansen and Hogan’s gun so fast, and then to Oscar. My eyes never shut for several hours. It seemed like an eternity as I lay in the dark with my thoughts. At some point many hours later, I started hearing loud voices coming from the direction of the hangar. It wasn’t screaming. The sound reminded me of the cheers I heard while in a bracketball tournament. I turned on the light and headed up to the hangar. Mal, Simon, Kaylee, and Jayne were scurrying about in the now empty hangar. Inara was watching on the sidelines opposite of me near the Infirmary. Neither River nor Zoe were present. I looked around and then up and hoisted high above almost to the ceiling was The Mule. Just below it was a wide piece of metal in the shape of a very short cylinder. The players were bouncing a ball and each in turn, while the others trying to get at it, were attempting to pass the ball through the hoop. My guess was that was the way to score. I edged near the new field of play and Kaylee spotted me. “Hey, look who graced us with his presence.” The players stopped and looked over at me. Jayne was the first to smart off. “Well, there went our fun.” “Nonsense, Jayne. C’mon and join us, Deke.” “How do you play?” Jayne took the ball from Simon and presented it before me and started talking to me like I was five. “See big ball? Big ball go through big hoop.” I ignored his patronizing ways and asked Kaylee, “How many points is it?” “Points? No, we just play. We don’t really score,” she explained. “Now, I’d think Simon would take offense to that, Kaylee,” Jayne shot back. Simon turned red but Kaylee punched Jayne in the arm. I went on to ask, “How do you know who wins?” “Wins?” Mal asked. “We ain’t exactly the competitive kind.” I then fell back into my proud nature to boast about my sports ability. “When my team won the bracketball championship last year me and my team were given crowns.” “Tell you what,” Jayne suggested, “if you make the most in, why, I’m sure we can find something to crown you with.” “Jayne,” Kaylee scolding while trying to hide her snicker. She addressed me, “C’mon, Mr. Prince, let’s see what you got.” I did join in and found that it was harder than it looked. When I did recover the ball after Mal took a shot and missed, I aligned the ball with the hoop, aimed, and threw. The ball curved wide and hit the side of the rim and Simon got the ball off the rebound. While we played, Jayne took every chance he got to bump into me. Accidently on purpose of course. Jayne was a big muscular man, but one really didn’t appreciate his size until they were knocked down by his hulk. We worked up a sweat a while and then finally tired ourselves out. I did manage to make the ball through once out of numerous failed attempts. After we sat ourselves down to catch our breaths, I gave my critique of the game. “That’s harder than it looks.” Kaylee admitted, “Yeah, I remember Wash used to carry me on his back so I could make a shot.” They all observed a small silence after that mention. I broke it by once again selling my sport. “Still, bracketball is harder.” Jayne said, “Really? Don’t see what’s so hard. Kick a ball from the ground through a bracket net, what, twenty feet high?” “More like thirty,” I corrected. Jayne looked up at the O-ring and judged where it was in the air and noted, “That must be at least forty foot high.” “Could be.” Jayne kept on. “I’m betting Mr Prince could make that easy, seeing he’s all about skill on the sport.” “Uh, oh,” Mal interjected. “I believe there is a challenge afoot.” Jayne never took his eyes off me. “There is if the Mr. Prince brought his equipment with him. Which I’m guessin’ he did.” Without a word, but not without a smirk, I went back to my room to fetch the same off white and oblong bracketball I have used as a practice ball almost since I started into the sport. It had been when it was new a brilliant white, but after say a few thousand kicks on the bracketfield it lost its gleam. I never go anywhere without it. When I came back into the hangar with it, I was greeted to hoots and hollers from Kaylee, Simon, and Mal. Jayne looked straight at me. I went up to him and asked eagerly, “All right, so what are we playing for when I make the shot?” “Wow, he’s all kinds of serious when he’s challenged,” Mal noted. I kept on Jayne, as it was his challenge to me. “You don’t think I can kick this through from the floor?” “That’s pretty high up. You sure you’re up for it?” “I am if you are.” “Ok, so what do you have that’s worth me having, because I don’t need zits.” Without hesitation I answered, “I have 200 square on me, right now.” Kaylee said in her sweet voice, “Boy, I will cherish the day when I can say those same words so casually.” Jayne said back, “Yeah, I ain’t got that luxury to say that neither.” I shrugged. “You have something of similar value?” “I have some pistols worth that much.” “Haven’t got much use for guns. Tell you what, if I miss you can call yourself 200 square richer. If I make it...you will have to stop insulting me for the rest of my duration in your custody.” “Hey, that ain’t near fair. Insulting you is worth more than 200.” “Don’t know, Jayne,” Mal said. “Seeing that you don’t have anything else of value, I’d say your respect to him is worth it.” Jayne looked back at Mal. “And do you always have to bring logic to the table?” Inara said from the side, “I think it’s a great bet.” I could see Jayne didn’t like it so I egged him on. “What? You still don’t think I can make it?” “No. You’re used to kicking on a field where there’s grass. This here is a metal grate. Ain’t the same. I’ll be looking forward to when we get back to Persephone where I can splurge on your 200 square.” I nodded and said “It’s settled then.” I walked over to the opposite side of the hangar while all were watching me. I placed the ball on the metal grate about twenty paces from the hoop. The ideal spot if I was playing on a field would be a bit farther but I have practiced at shorter distances for those quick kicks while the opposite team were chasing me. What also was an advantage that Jayne perceived as a flaw was that the metal grate acted as a built in marker to help the ball stay in place. There was also a greater advantage that Jayne never considered. I knew he was not too familiar with the sport. He may have seen recorded waves of games now and then, but no real interest. It surprised me because he could make a killing at being a bookie. And money was what Jayne was all about. The bracket net on any given field could be any height between twenty-five to as much as forty-five foot high. Different fields had various heights. I learned a while back that if I practiced at much larger heights, my follow through could arc enough for lower heights. Many professional bracketball players were of this school of thought. My teammates were always joking with me that I wasn’t pro. I would practice with the bracket net as high as fifty feet. Now, that height didn’t help me if I was in play. Hitting that kind of height while running at full speeds was near impossible. Where it did help me was on penalty shots, where the ball was placed at a certain distance to the bracket whenever a foul was committed by the opposite team. That was essentially what this shot was on Serenity. I could make that goal with my eyes closed. Jayne had no clue. I backed up against the up ramp and paced my kicked. I went forward and kicked. The ball sailed majestically in the air and never hit either side of the O-ring as it went clear through the middle of the hoop. Applause greeted me with the same hoots and hollers as before. There were many remarks like “nice shot” and “that went clean through” and “how did he make it that far up”. Nothing from Jayne. No words at all. At the time, I guess he figured the best way to avoid insulting me was to stay silent. Through the shouts of glee for my win of the wager, River appeared at the top of the rafters and called out to Mal. “What is it, Albatross?” “There was a message for you that came through.” “A wave?” “No, an encoded message.” “Did you use the Scrambler to read it?” “No, I figured it out on my own.” “Naturally. Who’s it from? Badger?” “Fanty and Mingo,” she replied. Mal repeated the names in a question and Jayne asked, “What would they want?” “A job?” Kaylee suggested. Jayne replied, “Last time we did a job for them, twenty-five percent magically became forty.” “Kinda like the height of my kick,” I shot back. Jayne looked at me and I knew it was killing him not to say anything to me. I said back to him, “Hey, I didn’t say I couldn’t have some fun at your expense.” Mal went on to ask. “What else the message say, River?” “He did say there was someone he does business with wants to offer you a job. They said the reputation could be spoken for by them.” “Uh huh. Where are they located?” “Right now, in space.” After a bit of confusion on that line, the crew finally understood. Mal figured, “You mean he’s off planet? In his ship? The man have a name?” “Not a man. Woman.” Jayne said back, “If her name’s either Yolanda, Bridget, or Saffron, Mal’s not interested.” Mal gave him a dirty look for some reason and before any other reaction was made, River supplied them with, “Her names neither one of those. Name is Delphi.” All the crew was in the dark. Mal went on to state. “I don’t like this. Fanty nor Mingo would ever tell us of a job out in the black.” Inara finally weighed in and asked, “Don’t they work out of that bar, Maidenhead, on Beaumonde?” Jayne agreed. “Yeah, if they had a job or someone for us to meet that had a job for us they’d be inviting us there.” Mal finished the thought. “And we’d go into their corner with a hired dancer to block us from view of the vids.” Simon added, “Maybe they figured we couldn’t show our faces there again judging from our last visit.” He looked up at River, as they all did, but River kept her straight face. Instead of reacting to their strange looks of some kind of remembrance, she stated, “Their words look afraid. Scared. They don’t seem real.” I had to ask her, “You got that from an encrypted message?” “I may have read between the columns a little,” she answered casually. “Where is this Delphi?” Mal asked. “I have the coordinates where we’re to meet her.” “She’s meeting us in space?” Simon asked. “That does seem strange,” Mal said. “Course, there’s no planets about for several hours. Maybe whatever she has for us can’t wait.” “Or whatever she has in mind for a trap can’t wait,” Jayne said. “I’m actually aware of that, Jayne. Thinking maybe we can set up one for her, in case.” For some reason, Mal looked at me for a split second, then to Inara to nod at her, and then he ordered River, “Go ahead and make an intercept course to meet with her. How far is she?” “With our speed now it will only be an hour. We can hard burn to get there faster.” “No, don’t want her thinking we’re too eager.” “Or desperate,” Jayne added. Mal continued and said, “Funny, how close she is to us.” “Are we going to play it out?” Simon asked. “Seems like. Got my interest, anyway.” “And we all know how well your interests end up,” Inara quipped. Mal ignored the remark and then said pointing at me, “First, I’d like to have him not here.” I whined, “I can keep to my bunk.” “No,” Mal said, “somewhere different.” He looked at Inara and requested, “Perhaps he’d like a tour of a Companion’s quarters.” At first, Inara’s reaction was mild surprise. Then it seem to be filled with realization. I was totally at a loss at what was going on at the time. She then turned to me and asked, “Would you like to see my place? I have some tea.” “You mean to get me out of the way if something happens,” I cried. Mal replied, “Something along the lines of a promise to a King.” I turned to Inara and said, “Sure. Let’s go.” I started to walk up the stairs but as Inara passed by Mal, he softly held her left arm and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and followed me up the stairs. I entered her shuttle which also acted as her quarters and I am here to tell you, I have never seen such elaborate decoration before or since. And I live in a Royal Palace. The place exuded a feeling of warmth and comfort. She had candles burning incense with the sweet smell of fresh lilies. I remarked at how I loved the place and Inara said her thanks and proceeded to prepare the tea. She asked me to sit down at the small futon she had placed near her bed. As I passed her grand place of slumber, I imagined many kinds of clients who would have been at her advantage there. I remembered thinking to myself that I would have a great time in rehashing to my friends that I was present in a Companion’s sacred area of worship. She brought the tea over and she poured the hot water in two cups with the tea leaves already placed inside them. She nodded for me to join her and I sipped the tea, which was a wonderful taste of wild herbs I couldn’t place but in no way was I dissatisfied. I knew what was going on and I just came out and asked her, “I’m to be kept here until they’re done speaking with the mysterious guest.” She smiled and complimented, “You have great instincts, Deke. You will do well in the future with that gift.” “I suppose.” I looked around more at the dwelling and saw drawn back curtains trying to hide the cockpit. It was then I suddenly figured another reason for them putting me here. “And if something does go wrong, we have a means to escape.” “Can’t get anything past you, can I?” I slowly shook my head. “It’s one of the reasons my father can’t relate to me.” “How’s that?” I shrugged. “He can usually read people in an instant without even speaking to them. If he has any trouble in reading them, he has his aides to help him with background of anyone he comes in contact with. He can’t read me and he already knows my background.” “Hmm...therefore, he can’t control you.” I was mildly surprised at her evaluation of me, but then remembered she was trained as a Companion. “Guess that’s the whole thing in a nutshell, huh?” “You have to ask yourself that question.” “How?” “Ask yourself if the control you seek is worth the price of your heart.” “My heart?” “Yes. You do love your father, don’t you?” “Of course.” “Do you ever tell him so?” I had to pause on that question because I knew the answer. I was hesitant to answer but Inara saved me that fate. “Do you have any interest in anyone of the opposite sex?” I almost got red because the truth was that I was coming down with a crush on Inara. My god, who wouldn’t? Though I figured that the truth would embarrass myself and to an extent her as well. Instead, I supplied her with a fact that was still truth enough. “Yes, there is a girl I would like to know better. She’s in my tutoring sessions. She’s the daughter of a Royal Shepherd.” “Ah, a Shepherd’s daughter. Those are the ones that usually don’t hold back their sins.” I chuckled. “So the stories say. She’s not beautiful by any means...like you are.” She nodded her thanks. “This girl just lights up a room when she enters. And she doesn’t even have to say anything.” “Actually, she is saying much more than you realize. What’s her name?” “Tasia. She could be a handful, but then so can I. She’s always flying off the handle at something. She can get mad easily, but can go back to normal in a pinch. I don’t know, I can have virtually any girl on the planet with that Prince title before my name. You know how that is. You can have any man you want.” “The misconception is that a Companion actually chooses her own clients. I don’t look at it as having any man I want. I see it as choosing the right man that I want for that moment.” I listened to her more as she went on, but I couldn’t tell you what exactly she said. I had forgotten to reset the built in recording files in my ring and the current file I had set ran out of memory. I had preset the ring for enough files for the time I was with them, but for each individual file I did have to reset to a fresh one every few hours or so. The combination of the tea, the smells of the incense, and her soft voice lulled me to lie back on the futon and I soon lost consciousness in sleep. Now, there is a blank space of time from when I fell asleep and when I awoke. I awoke in complete darkness. I couldn’t hear the engines any longer so I figured they must have stopped. In fact, there were no sounds at all. No voices. Not even Inara’s. I was so confused but even more so when I realized I was inside a small area of concealment. I could barely move. I looked up to see a small sliver of light along an edge. It was where a lid met container. I didn’t want to burst open the lid because it was unknown to me what was going on the outside. It wasn’t long until I saw a figure block part of the sliver of light. It stood in front of me. I hesitated but still went forward with whispering out, “Inara?” Suddenly, the lid opened and there I saw a stranger who was so not Inara. The woman wore her dark hair long and just over her eyes. She wore way too much make up, more than likely to hide the scars and blemishes around her face. Knowing this was a woman that may have invited herself on board, I quickly reached under the trunk away from her sight and reset the file on my ring. She peered in at me from outside the trunk and said in a rough deep voice, “Sorry, my Prince, but your Companion is sleeping.” I sat up from my trunk, not even thinking of why I was placed there, and looked around at Inara’s place. Over by the cockpit, I saw Inara’s body lying limp with no motion. “What did you do to her?” “Oh, she’s all right. Just sleeping. Like the rest of the crew.” “Wait. You called me Prince. Who are you?” She smirked evilly and said, “My name’s Delphi.” She paused and added, “But, you can call me Mrs. Gus Busby.” Before I could react to her familiar name, she raised a weapon at me. A stun pistol. She took the shot at me and once again I was unconscious in an instant. Wow, this is great remembering all this. Sorry, to keep you hanging, but it is getting late. Hee, this is almost reading like a mystery isn’t it? I promise I will continue in the morning after my duties. Trust me, this is just where my little adventure is just beginning.

KING D. AUGUSTUS III - END LOG ENTRY : 9 July 2528: 01:15