(no subject)
Kaylee's quite sure she's going to be disappeared as she sits in the back of the fed skimmer and gets booked. Only this time nobody's watching her go -- Mal's at the other end of the 'verse, Simon's in class, and there's nobody who'd've seen her taken. Maybe there are security cameras, maybe somebody can get access -- but Kaylee remembers what they did with the footage from St. Lucy's on Ariel, and clearly -- clearly --
"Two waves," the officer says to her.
Kaylee lifts her head. She feels like she's going to pass out. "Huh?"
"Two waves," the officer says again, clearly, like you'd speak to somebody who doesn't know the language. "To legal counsel. Or family. Stand up and we'll go to the hub."
She shifts her wrists in their cuffs, mouth falling open.
They wouldn't let me do it if they were going to make me disappear.
Kaylee doesn't stop to ask any other questions. The first wave -- text-only -- goes to Simon. The second wave --
Not to Mal. That won't do anybody any good: Mal's too far away. So (and she flinches visibly at even thinking of this) are her in-laws.
Jordie, she thinks, and strains to remember his node address: he's on-planet and mostly idle. If nothing else, she can get him to get Simon --
"Jordie. Hey. Listen, I got a favor to ask -- "
***
After she finishes with Jordie -- he doesn't stop to ask too many questions, but says he'll find Simon and bring him there -- she turns to the officer, and takes a deep breath.
"Paperwork," the officer says.
And there's a lot of it. Kaylee answers questions, lets him fill out the massacree, and waits until he says it's time to put her in the holding cell.
"So... what'm I charged with?" she asks, tentatively.
He tells her that she threw trash away.
"What?"
"You picked up a cup," he tells her, "and you threw it away."
"...what? That's -- that's a crime?"
He looks at her.
Kaylee is openmouthed.
She thinks: Wŏ de mā hé tā de fēngkuáng de wàisheng dōu, everything the captain ever said about the Core is absolutely one hundred per cent true.
And she doesn't start laughing until she's safely locked in the holding cell with two or three other women, all of whom want to know what she's in for, and all of whom back away from her when she says "reverse littering" -- and come back after she adds "and creating a nuisance", and they just have a grand old time sitting on that bench until the police officer comes back.
"Two waves," the officer says to her.
Kaylee lifts her head. She feels like she's going to pass out. "Huh?"
"Two waves," the officer says again, clearly, like you'd speak to somebody who doesn't know the language. "To legal counsel. Or family. Stand up and we'll go to the hub."
She shifts her wrists in their cuffs, mouth falling open.
They wouldn't let me do it if they were going to make me disappear.
Kaylee doesn't stop to ask any other questions. The first wave -- text-only -- goes to Simon. The second wave --
Not to Mal. That won't do anybody any good: Mal's too far away. So (and she flinches visibly at even thinking of this) are her in-laws.
Jordie, she thinks, and strains to remember his node address: he's on-planet and mostly idle. If nothing else, she can get him to get Simon --
"Jordie. Hey. Listen, I got a favor to ask -- "
***
After she finishes with Jordie -- he doesn't stop to ask too many questions, but says he'll find Simon and bring him there -- she turns to the officer, and takes a deep breath.
"Paperwork," the officer says.
And there's a lot of it. Kaylee answers questions, lets him fill out the massacree, and waits until he says it's time to put her in the holding cell.
"So... what'm I charged with?" she asks, tentatively.
He tells her that she threw trash away.
"What?"
"You picked up a cup," he tells her, "and you threw it away."
"...what? That's -- that's a crime?"
He looks at her.
Kaylee is openmouthed.
She thinks: Wŏ de mā hé tā de fēngkuáng de wàisheng dōu, everything the captain ever said about the Core is absolutely one hundred per cent true.
And she doesn't start laughing until she's safely locked in the holding cell with two or three other women, all of whom want to know what she's in for, and all of whom back away from her when she says "reverse littering" -- and come back after she adds "and creating a nuisance", and they just have a grand old time sitting on that bench until the police officer comes back.