Lost Kin

She stared at her feet as she trudged through the ever present muck. The walk back from the administration center to the mess hall was the longest trek possible within the confines of the camp. She thought it was probably because experience had shown their captors that the likeliest spot for a riot to begin, given the paucity and quality of the food, was the mess. That would be something they wanted as far from their own living quarters and the armory as possible. Because defeated or not, there were still 100 trained soldier-prisoners for every Alliance guard. It was an interesting thought which Zoe put away to think on later, if necessary. Everywhere they fought, the Feds had superior numbers, better fire power too. They still had the firepower, but no so much on the numbers, now.

When she entered Serenity Valley with Malcolm Reynolds, he was the sergeant, she the corporal, they had a lieutenant and a total complement of 35; three 10-man squads, the lefty, a radioman, medic, Mal and herself. Five days later so many officers were dead Mal was brevetted to Captain and in command of two thousand souls. She was his second.

They held out against overwhelming numbers for near 2 months before the command came to lay down arms. She thought the day the order came down that Mal might lie down and die beside those already fallen. His duty to the living wouldn't let him. By then they were down to less than 500 souls. And there they were left, wounded and sick and dying, for a week while the higher ups settled the terms. Mal had watched and raged and cursed God and the Alliance equally as they just kept dying. It was really that week when Mal began to lose faith. It was the helplessness as more than two thirds of those left fell needlessly. By the time they were Medivac'd out less than 150 were left; none but she and Mal from their original complement. Once they got to the camp Mal had been bound and determined, come hell or high water, every man-jack left was getting out alive. Somehow they'd done it, too. The last trooper from their company had been "repatriated" about 3 weeks ago. Now, the only ones left were Mal and herself.

She had been down to Admin in hopes of getting word on when she and Mal might expect to be released. They had learned that it was better if Zoe went by herself if they were trying to get anything out of the ordinary. Mal couldn't hold his mouth right to make the Feds believe he was properly humble. He'd just stand there looking down his nose at them. It made the Feds feel small and got them nothing. Zoe wouldn't beg but she was a fine looking woman and she could smile and keep her own counsel on the rage in her soul. Mal wore his on his sleeve.

As she entered the mess tent she saw him. Sitting apart from the others in a brown study, staring at the middle distance as if he didn't much care for what he saw there, `And who could blame him?' she thought with bitter amusement. She sat down on the bench across from him and caught his eye as he pushed the meager bowl of molded protein and brown rice across to her.

"A might skimpy in the serving department but I don't have your winsome smile."

"S'okay, Mal, not very hungry anyway."

"Oh." Just the single syllable in comprehension. "Guess, t'was to be expected."

"Yes sir, it's what we heard. No non-coms or officers serving in the samecompany to be repatriated to the same world. No non-coms or officers to be repatriated to their world of origin or to the world of enlistment." Zoe looked at Mal with an unreadable expression in her soft brown eyes. "Guess we won't be going back to Shadow, or anyplace else together, not yet awhile, anyhow."

Mal looked like he was prepared to start a riot then and there and the foresight of their captors in the matter of locating the armory struck heragain. He didn't say anything for a long while. Then "You ain't been close as kin to me for half my life for me to lose you now. We ain't takin' this lying down. Where I go, you go. We're family." ______________________________________________ His mama had sent him out after the noon meal to look for the strays. A cow and calf not accounted for. Probably just strayed. She wouldn't have sent him out alone at age 13 did she think it was rustlers or thieves. Still, he had the rifle if it should come to that. He rode in the direction the drovers had brought the herd in and back traced their trail.

About three hours out he came across the cow, her calf beside her, strayed from the trail. Her leg had turned on some rocks and was broke; nothing he could do but put her out of her misery. That was probably the real reason his mama had sent him with the rifle. He couldn't do much about the carcass, but it seemed a shame to waste the meat. So he put the calf across the saddle tree in front of him and rode on to the King spread.

Just the two of them there, Zoe and her pa; new `steaders, trying to last out the 5 years on the place with the needed improvements to claim title in freehold. They'd been to the last Founders Day Fair and introduced themselves. Zoe was 11, Micah had been the pilot on a deep space trader, her mama had been the engineer. Zoe was born in space and raised there, but Micah had thought she needed a more settled life after her mama died. They were running sheep because they didn't have enough grazing land or capital for a herd. They'd be glad of the beef, make a change from mutton. He knew his mama would tell him not to waste the meat, might as well do somebody some good. He rode into the yard not thinking about much of anything except how maybe he'd stay the night and ride on at first light. That way he could help Zoe's pa with the butchering. Mama wouldn't worry unless he missed dinner tomorrow.

When he saw Zoe sitting on the porch of the soddie he knew right away something was wrong. No fire coming from the chimney, door open and nothin' stirrin', the herding collie they called Shep unmoving with his head on her thigh. She looked like she had been sitting there for a very long time.

Softly he asked "Hey, Zoe, where's your pa?"

She looked at him unseeingly "Papa's in the bedroom. I couldn't move him myself. I was trying to think how I could get him down by that elm near the stream. I think that he'd like to rest there." Then she seemd to shake herself and looked at Mal as if she was seeing him for the first time. "He's been sick for a couple of days. He died early this morning, Przytulski's Flu"

Przytulski's wasn't really like a regular flu, more like a mutated virus. Somehow, in terra-forming Shadow, somebody named Przytulski had brought some innocuous disease that got past quarantine screening and only became deadly here; and then only to about 1 in 80. Micah King had been one of the unlucky. Zoe too come to think of it, so young and already lost her mama and papa. He didn't know what he'd do if he didn't have his mama.

"Can you wait here just a minute, honey? I'll be back in just a bit." He stepped past her into the soddie and past the canvas curtain into the bedroom. On the bed he saw Micah King had been sewn neatly into a shroud made out of the bed sheet. The rest of the place was neat as a pin and a bunch of wild flowerswere resting on his chest. While Mal thought he and Zoe could probably manage to get him out of the soddie; he wanted to see if there was another way so Zoe wouldn't have to remember dragging her papa's body though the dirt to bury him.

He stepped back out and went around back to the sheep pens. There wasn't a real barn but there was a good sized pre-fab shed. It had plastic walls and a floor. They couldn't afford a pre-fab house yet but the shed counted as an improvement and protected their most important supplies from the weather. Inside Mal found what he was looking for, a wheel barrow, used to get hay and feed to the sheep,a shovel and pick.

He took them back to the front porch. She was still there. It looked like she had cried a long time earlier but she was dry eyed now and had been for a while. "Could you show me where you want him to rest?"

Zoe stepped off the porch and led him to the small stream that bordered the eastern edge of the yard. There were a few trees which had flourished on its banks, an elm clearly older than the others, tall and thick. The ground beneath it was soft and loamy from the shade and fallen leaves. He took the pick and started. After a moment, without saying anything, Zoe picked up the shovel and helped him dig. There were no large scavenging animals on Shadow, hadn't been needed for the ecosystem, so it didn't have to be deep. Just enough to cover him. After awhile Mal stopped.

"That's deep enough, bao bei. You go pen them sheep in with the calf and see about leavin' some feed out and getting some water in the trough. Enough for 3 or 4 days. Someone'll come back in that time to see to things, but we can't take 'em with us. I'll get him down here and call you when its time."

Zoe whistled Shep to heel and went to pen the sheep. Mal waited `til she was around the back then got the wheelbarrow and rolled it in to where Micah's body lay. He managed to get the body on the barrow and roll it across the yard. It was a bit harder to get it laid out seemly in the grave. He finally had to jump in the grave himself to lower the body and make it straight. After that was done, he washed at the well and went to get Zoe.

It was late summer and they still had some light, but it was starting to get what Mama called "dusty dark" when they went to read the words. Mal found the service in Micah's Book of Common Prayer - "Unto your hands we commend the spirit of your servant, Micah King, in the sure and certain hope of theResurrection and the Life of the world to come: ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord make his face to shine upon him and give him peace, Amen."

Zoe sang a hymn,--Amazing Grace. Mal had never heard it before and he thought it just about the saddest and most beautiful thing he'd ever heard. Like to broke his heart. Zoe said it came down more than 700 years from Earth-That-Was. After the words they went back to the house and sat on the porch.

"Zoe, we need to go back to our place but we can leave in the morning iff'n you want."

"No, Mal,-- I don't want to sleep tonight where my papa died. Rather sleep outunder the stars, if it's just the same."

"Fine by me, bao bei, but we need to get started. Could you put some things together, what ever you'll need for a couple of days. Like I said, someone'll be back for the rest in a bit. Oh, and a sleeping bag or bed roll. I only got the one."

He went into the kitchen and found some bread, cheese and apples and stuffed them into an old rice sack then tied it around the pommel of his saddle. Zoe came back carrying what looked to be her school pack. She was carrying 2 books besides the bible. She saw him looking and said "These were Papa's favorites." She stuffed them in as Mal climbed into the saddle and leaned down to pull her up behind him. They rode out with Shep at their heels.

They spent the night on the trail. He had thought to push straight on since Shadow's second moon was high, but Zoe fell asleep against his back and he was afraid she might fall. So they slept by a small fire Mal made, more for the cheerfulness of the flames than any need for warmth. They rode in about mid-morning. His mama was on the porch, clearly half expecting him, a tall woman with soft brown hair and Mal's deep blue eyes, handsome rather than pretty. She looked troubled and sad and knowing all at once when she saw Zoe.

"I've brought Zoe home, Mama."

"She's as welcome as lost kin, son" was all Rhiade Reynolds had said as she held her arms open to receive the grieving child who slipped into them as easily as if she had always been there. And with no more fuss than that, Zoe had slipped into Mal's life.

The End

My first ever posted story. Any input gratefully accepted. I am not sensitve.