Takes place right after the Serenity Movie. They take off, fly through the storm, the buffer panel falls off and…here’s what happens next.
Follows the SERENITY MOVIE. Precedes (02) ADVENTURES IN SITTING.
Author Note: There is now a 'Version 2.0' of this section. Most of it is the same, but a couple of scenes were modified based on reader feedback. If you'd rather read the new version, click this link.
Jayne was in fine form, holding forth on the bridge, coffee cup in hand. He had a captive audience for his story, because River was at the helm and Zoe was supervising River’s pilotage, and neither could leave her post. It was one of his favorite anecdotes, and he had the timing down perfectly, on account of he’d told this story to just about every woman he ever picked up on his planetside searches for play. He was surprised hisownself that he hadn’t already told it to the crew of Serenity.
“You have,” River thought with vehemence. “Four times. You just don’t remember.” She rolled her eyes, but Jayne didn’t see—River was looking out towards the Black, and Jayne’s attention was focused on Zoe.
He looked expectantly at Zoe. “Hmm.” Zoe looked dully abstracted. She was wrapped up in her own thoughts.
Jayne wasn’t about to let his moment of glory pass unheeded. “Don’t you think that was pretty cunning?” he persisted.
Zoe shook herself. “Oh, yeah, Jayne. Right.” She attempted to pay a little closer attention. What had Jayne been saying?
“The augmenting adjective is superfluous with the comparative form,” River said, not even turning from the controls.
Zoe and Jayne regarded River. As Zoe’s gaze passed over the window, she remembered something she needed to tell River.
“Lions? Here in the black?” Jayne asked incredulously.
Kaylee and Simon were in the engine room. It was Kaylee’s favorite place on Serenity, and if was possible for her to love it more, she did now, ever since Simon had taken to passing most of his spare time in the engine room with her. Although “passing time” was a pretty mild way of putting it, considering what they spent much of their time doing. Still, Cap’n had said that it was a good idea for everyone on Serenity’s crew to learn a bit more about one another’s jobs, so that in case someone was unable, for whatever reason, another crew member would at least have a notion what to do. At least, that was the excuse that Kaylee used for luring Simon into the engine room at every opportunity. He didn’t seem to object to his new role as apprentice mechanic in the least. Right now Kaylee was running through a routine checklist of engine functions. Simon was paying close attention—at least he was staring at Kaylee’s mouth with intense interest. Whether or not he had comprehended a single word that mouth had been saying was another matter. Kaylee smiled at him and decided to take another approach to Simon’s mechanical education. “You want me to show you how to keep the works runnin’?” she asked, sweetly suggestive.
The cargo bay was unusually full. On any other transport ship, this state of affairs would have been normal, but the crew of Serenity was more accustomed to a token load of a few crates, while the real cargo rested in the various nooks and hiding holes behind certain panels in the bay and throughout the ship.
Mal was busy in the cargo bay, checking each of the many crates to be sure it was securely stowed, and checking each crate’s ID code against an electronic list he held in his hand.
“Are you turning over a new leaf?” She reached the cargo bay and stood level with Mal.
“You’ve been flying without a license for…how long?” Inara asked.
His simple story gave Inara a lot of food for thought. She really had never heard much about Mal’s early days on the ship, before she first came aboard and rented the shuttle. Had he been a “legitimate businessman” then? She knew, in an abstract sort of way, that Mal had turned to smuggling and other illicit activities as a means of getting by. Times were hard. He seemed to have a talent for mayhem and she realized she had assumed that he took to violence and crime naturally. Now, hearing him speak quite casually, almost cheerfully, about the hardships of Serenity’s early years, of a crew literally starving under his command, Inara realized a re-assessment was in order. To what degree had his thieving ways been schooled into him by harsh necessity? Who was the real man underneath?
Serenity moved through the Black, approaching the farthest reaches of the debris field left by the shattering of Planet Leo. River dutifully piloted the ship clear of any larger chunks of rock, but the smaller particles of dust and grit would nonetheless give some punishment to the outer hull and interfere with the sensors. This was not a major shipping lane, and there was not another vessel in sight. But sight was only one of the senses. An acute observer might have noticed something, less than a shadow, a mere disturbance in space, noticeable more for what was not there than for what was. A roughly triangular shape occluded the distant stars and planets. It was moving in Serenity’s wake, pacing her.
Right. She had his full attention now. She was lookin’ at him like he was some kinda— 英勇的 狗娘养的 人 yīngyǒngde gǒuniángyǎngde rén. She opened her mouth to speak again. “I’ve seen you—.” Serenity gave a sudden, violent lurch, throwing Mal into Inara’s arms. They both fell to the deck.
Had Mal just launched himself on top of her in the heat of passion? Inara wondered for a moment. She closed her eyes, ready to be kissed. But Mal was already in Captain mode. He instantly picked himself up and tore up the stairs to the bridge to find out what the hell was going on. What was going on? Inara wondered vaguely. Why had Mal been so eager to get away from her, when she felt like this? Had the earth moved? Or was that just Serenity?
Mal came pounding onto the bridge to find Jayne sitting on his 屁股 pìgu amidst a collection of rolling coffee cups and plastic dinosaurs that had been thrown to the floor by the sudden lurch. Zoe was on her feet, hanging onto the back of the pilot’s seat.
“What in the 九地狱 jiǔ dìyù was that all about?” Mal demanded.
“ ’Xactly what I just said,” Jayne put in, picking himself up out of the wreckage.
Mal grabbed the back of the chair as Serenity lurched again in response to River’s sudden movement of the yoke.
River suddenly put the ship into high gear, engaging the thrusters, and using the attitude jets to maneuver them precariously close to a cluster of rocks, most of them much smaller than the ship. River twisted them through the dangerous labyrinth of the Lion’s Mouth Asteroid Field, maneuvering Serenity like a fighter jet. Mal got his sea legs on and stood directly behind her seat. He was focused entirely on the survival of his ship. He didn’t dare interrupt—his piloting skills were in no way up to taking over the controls in such a hazardous place at such a hazardous speed, and he didn’t want to distract River into a fatal error. She was speaking just as wildly as she was flying.
Jayne looked disgusted. He didn’t want no truck with maggots and dead dogs.
“Let her not walk in the Sun,” River intoned, mercifully re-directing her gaze to the viewscreen and control panel. “They won’t stop. You try to get away but they won’t stop. They’ll take it back,” she whispered.
Mal slid into the co-pilot’s seat and started running a comprehensive diagnostic, starting with external scans and sensors.
Hmm...looks like I may have succeeded in posting my first ever fanfic.
Thanks to mal4prez, bytemite, and others who offered advice in formatting and posting.
I tried to follow their good advice, looks like with partial success.
Comments and constructive criticism warmly welcomed.
wow! very well written, great cliff habger, and just enough details to tantalize. more, please?
Welcome, nice to read your first fanfiction story ebfiddler, hopefully it will be the first of many. Very nice start and have to say most disturbing how the Hands of Blue now seem to have stealth technology. Gulp!
"You can't take the sky from me!"
Yeah, this is good. :) And wow, that's the first time my browser has ever showed the chinese translations right. Interesting.
I particularly like the first part with Jayne telling his story, and River's ranting at the end.
I like this, Hands of Blue always interest me.
Thank you all for the feedback. Much appreciated.
Ali D and Platonist—Blue Hands are a part of my long-term story arc. We’ll be seeing more of them.
Bytemite—Glad you liked River’s ranting. A great compliment, since my earlier draft of this read “River: (wild ranting).” And glad you liked the Jayne scene. When I started, I didn’t know if I could even write Jayne, but it turns out he’s great fun to write dialog for.
Nutluck—longer chapters? How long is good? This posting is about 2400 words. The whole Lion’s Mouth story is about 10,000. I decided to divide it into 4 parts. Maybe I should reconsider. Any thoughts about how long a chapter should be? This is where I really don’t know what I’m doing. I haven’t written in chapters, just scenes, so the chapter divisions are very much after-the-fact.
BlueEyedBrigadier—Thanks much! This is exactly the kind of feedback I’m looking for. And yeah, I kinda agree about the Inara monologue. I wrote this story originally in script form, with lots of dialog and very little else, and when I decided later to go back and re-write in standard prose, I added all the thoughts, etc., and this bit didn’t come off so well. I think the point I wanted to make in the scene is that Inara is feeling a strong physical attraction and at the same time she is emotionally conflicted. Recent events at Miranda have thrown her off-balance. Still, I think that despite knowing each other for 2+ years, Mal and Inara are both so good at hiding their real selves behind masks (tough guy thief and Companion) that they have a LOT of opening up to do before either can truly know the other. This was meant to be Inara taking a small step towards understanding why Mal is the way he is. (as Mal just took a small step in actually talking about his past.) Sorry I made her come off as ditzy or spacey—not my intent.
Now, if only I could get that kind of feedback before posting the stories! ;-) Beta, anyone?
And, yeah, there’ll be more…working tonight on revising part 2.
Serenity enters the Core, Mal and Inara sleep together, and Simon and Ip come up with a plan.