My FF story submission
A mournful silence pressed down over the abbey on Persephone. Not normally given to much talk, the Brotherhood was even less inclined to chatter now.
Word had reached them of the passing of Shepard Booke.
Brother Michael was an exception to the rule of quietude, and after three days of whispers and significant looks, he could no longer restrain himself. He managed to corner Shepards Tseng and Yacob in the kitchen late at night and, by letting his voice teeter on the edge of loudness, convinced them to speak with him.
Tseng was the oldest of the lifetime members, and a confidant to every member here who had advanced beyond the rank of novice. Yacob had been a close friend of Booke, and was rumored to have come from the same unmentionable place in the outside world.
“How did it happen?” Michael blurted out after some barely civil preliminaries. “Booke had left that flying box-car. He had established an outpost in a very quiet community, and yet the crew of the Serenity had something to do with his death. Did they turn on him?”
“Be at ease,” Tseng sighed, “the man who brought you here from that orphanage was not about to be killed by such a collection of bumpkins. He was, in fact, killed because the Alliance suspected he might try to help them.”
Michael closed his eyes and ducked his head, and so missed the look that passed between Tseng and Yacob, and the nod.
“Not by an assassin, the community was destroyed by a Navy gunboat.” Yacob added.
Michael’s pained face came up to meet the careful eyes of both men. “Thank you for telling me so, and thank God that the Alliance can no longer do such things to people.”
Michael was referring to the upheaval in Parliament following the revelation of Miranda. Hundreds of Government leaders had already been hounded out of office, and the investigations had barely begun. Billions of outraged citizens, lead by millions of relatives of the lost colonists, were demanding real changes, and this time it looked as if they were going to get some.
The question was, would the new Government be an improvement?
All the enemies that the high-handed nature of the old Government had earned itself did not seem bothered by that question, but the Brotherhood had been conscious of it even before news of Booke had reached them.
The old Shepards made their way past Michael, touching his arm and making consoling noises. One of these soft noises was made by Shepard Yacob; “Mourn him, but do not forget him. Perhaps one day you will be ready to continue his pursuit or certain mysteries.”
From out of nowhere, Brother Michael felt the words tumble from his mouth, “You mean, Shaitan’s Panzer Brigade?”
Both older men stopped dead in their tracks. Tseng remained facing away from Michael, his only reaction was to bite his lip and stare down the long hallway he so wanted to be walking down at the moment. Yacob whirled, his face pale, and one hand had slipped into his robe… a gesture that Micheal either ignored or failed to understand.
“What,” grated Yacob’s voice, “do you know about that?”
“The most infamous Mercenary band in a war full of harsh men. A ground unit, heavy Armor was their specialty. Deceptive and ruthless, they betrayed the Independants twice, and the Alliance once in between. They left no land or Army they fought in a recognizable state, that was their main selling point, I believe. Their leader was killed just before the end of the war by an operative of Parliament.“
Michael had rattled all that off in schoolboy fusion as if reciting a lesson. Doing that helped cover his excitement…he felt as if he had tossed a stone from 100 meters away and landed it in a teacup on his first try.
“Not that story, anyone knows that pap!” Yacob hissed, his voice creaking with danger. “I mean, how do you know about Booke’s interest?”
Michael swallowed and licked his lips, slightly nervous for the first time. “W-well… Shepard Booke mentioned it to me one day while I was scanning some traffic in the shipping lanes. You see, that Brigade seemed to have disappeared, vanished in the last months of the war. I know it seems impossible, but the amount of gear recovered didn’t match what the Brigade is know to have had, and few of its personnel were ever found. Now… they didn’t have many friends left, and no transports of their own. So, where did they go, and how? It is a mystery, as you might say.”
Tseng relaxed and went on his way. Yacob nodded and asked; “Did Shepard Booke ever mention any theories to you about what the fate of those evil creatures might have been? Aside from the usual ideas in the tabloids, I mean.”
“No sir, just general ideas about unregistered cargo ships, smugglers and maybe criminals. He seemed to be lacking a working knowledge of how smuggling ships could… oh…. oh my Lord.“
Yacob did not miss the light going on behind Michael’s eyes. “My boy, how would you feel about taking a journey into the Black with me?”
.
Malcolm Reynolds blurted out “How much?!” before he could stop himself.
“What, you don’t think that’s enough?” Zoe asked. Just from the tension in her voice, Mal could tell that something about the latest job offer was bothering her.
“Enough? Oh, you mean the money? No, that’s fine…” More than fine, it was the first chance they’d had to make some real money since the Miranda affair had made his Firefly and crew famous.
Famous was a bad thing to be if your lifestyle depended on being able to sneak around a star-system.
“… what I’m talking about is the load they want us to carry. Six vehicles, they said? What gorram six vehicles weight in at 500 tons?”
To be continued… ?