Fic: Apsis, Chapter Seven
Title: Apsis
Author: sarahetc
Rating: very light R, for strong language and violence
Setting: post-series, slightly AU
Word Count: 21,200
Disclaimer: Written for fun, not profit.
Summary: On the farthest planet from the galaxy's blue sun, Wash, Inara, and Simon take a job that forces them, and the rest of Serenity's crew, to confront the echoes of war.
Notes: Written for alligatorade who wanted genfic with a sympathetic Alliance character and a scene around the dinner table. Endless and most sincere thanks to zooey_glass04 and honu_girl for their fast, incisive betas. And more thanks after that to thunder_nari for organizing this best of all possible shindigs, and for letting me hijack her "mouse over for translation" idea. Mouse over for Chinese translations. Enjoy!
Serenity was not waiting for them outside headquarters. They could hear the rising whir of the engines, though, over the rush of the wind and stumbled down the slope toward it. Wash led, Simon assisted Inara with an arm around her waist, and Mal brought up the rear, gun still firmly in hand.
As they reached the bottom, and came upon the silvery stones that had marked the field, now knocked out of line, Simon looked around, seeing how the prisoners had dispersed. "Where did they go?" He murmured.
Somehow they'd all disappeared, leaving scratches and tracks in the gray dust, but melting into the earth nonetheless. The wind was eroding any evidence they'd been assembled on that field in front of their eyes. At the same time, warm light and warm air rolled from Serenity's ramp. Wash strode up the ramp after a cursory glance at the field. Mal followed. Inara shivered and tugged at Simon to get him to follow her.
By the time everyone was on board, Wash was hovering next to the forecouple controls and pounded on the button that raised the ramp as soon as they were over the lip. The hatch was faster than they were and started to tip them as they walked. Oblivious to the rest of the bay behind him, where Zoe, Jayne, and the Alliance delegation stood, he continued to secure the ramp and bay, sealing the forecouple, then the door that opened into the airlock.
He turned to find the Alliance delegation grouped near the starboard side of the cargo bay, at the foot of the stair case that led up to the first catwalk. Jayne stood in the center of the bay, Vera pointed nonchalantly at the group. Zoe stood on the catwalk, her mare's leg pistol braced against her shoulder.
"Major Washburne!" The General latched onto Wash as a symbol of authority, despite all evidence to the contrary. "What is the meaning of this?"
Wash started as if he were just noticing the rest of the people around him. He eyed the General, and Traverton, and the rest of the officers dispassionately. He rolled his eyes toward Zoe. "Dear?"
"Sir?" She repeated in the same tone, at Mal.
Wash opened his mouth to countermand her, but Mal spoke before he could.
"Officious high ranking officers of the Alliance, or whatever it is we should address you by. Zoe, you get that protocol lesson?"
"No, sir," she replied succinctly.
"Well, then. You purple-bellied wastes of space, you've got about ten minutes to live, depending on how fast our pilot here can get this ship in the air. We're fixin' to prove a point. That is, the Alliance did it wrong, has always done it wrong, and we're standing up for them as can't stand themselves. These prisoners on Diyu? Ain't prisoners. They're settlers."
"Mal," Inara said, breathlessly, pressing her hand to her breast as if to stop her heart breaking.
Mal ignored her. "We're here to prove to you just how far people like us, Independents, will still go to make sure you stay out of our lives."
"Mal, is it?" The General stepped forward. As soon as his foot hit the deck, Zoe cocked her pistol.
"Zoe!" Wash's voice cut across the bay and up to where Zoe was standing. "What are we doing?"
"Major Washburne, please, help your men see sense."
Jayne laughed out loud. Zoe grimaced. Mal grinned a particularly supercilious smile. But none of them spoke, waiting for Wash to reply.
"These aren't my men, General. Never have been. Haven't led anyone since Damsel Gap and I don't intend to ever again." Wash holstered his gun again and crossed his arms defensively. The general looked down at the deck-plates and then up at Serenity's crew members, scattered across the bay. Kaylee and River observed from a catwalk near the top, Kaylee actually holding River's shoulders.
"You're going to leave us to these thugs? These animals?"
"I should shoot you myself," Wash said, looking around at the crew, whose expressions were changing, some quickly and some slowly, from confusion to grudging acceptance. "These aren't animals. These are the people the war left behind. Traverton, how many casualities in the war for Unification?" Wash's voice changed at the end, triggering some automatic response in the other officer.
"Seven hundred ninety-eight million, four hundred and fifty thousand, seven hundred ten." Traverton sighed and added, "Confirmed. There are also those missing never accounted for."
"That's edging toward a billion, General. You could lose it in credits, but not in people." Mal spat.
"I have no idea what's going on here," Wash said, before Mal could continue, "but as one of those missing never accounted for, we mean to remain uncounted. The Cortex makes you think you're in charge, makes the people in the Core believe that Unification worked, and that the 'verse is a little better each day, but it's not. And it can't be. Not as long as places like Diyu exist, and you use these people as slaves to build your new worlds with no place for them."
The General swallowed. Traverton looked up at Zoe. The other officers remained mostly motionless.
"So go. If you want off this rock, run. Don't think of us, don't look back. Use that giant connection Tancred has to wipe this place out of history. Diyu never existed. Never will exist again. Add these names, and the names of the people born here, to the rosters of the dead and give them peace, finally, after all this time."
"We ain't lettin' 'em go, right?" Jayne moved forward, almost to an executor stance near the general.
"Have all of you lost your minds?" Simon asked.
"We're letting them go," Wash said.
"We can't not," Inara added.
"Since when am I not in charge here?" Mal demanded.
"Since you sent the three of us down here and pulled the rug out from under us," Wash ranted. "So shut up for once in your righteous life and let us finish it."
Mal blinked. Jayne laughed uncomfortably. Zoe remained motionless.
"Stand down, mooncake," Wash continued. Surprisingly, Zoe lowered her weapon, though she kept both hands on it. He turned his back on the delegation and the crew to open the door to the airlock. Simon, the only person between him and hatch, caught his eye. If they exchanged any information, it wasn't readable to the rest of the crew.
He pulled the door open, then walked through to open the outer lock. He stepped back into the bay and asked, "Do we have an understanding?"
The general looked between Mal and Wash, and once up at Zoe, trying to figure out who to answer to, or what question to answer. When he gave up and looked toward Inara, she nodded at him, but didn't say anything.
"I don't know what to say," he finally concluded.
"Major Washburne here is a damn sight more reasonable than I would ever be." Mal sounded rational, but angry.
"We don’t exist." All eyes swung back to Wash, still standing by the bay control panel. "None of us. We don't have names, or faces, or histories or futures." Traverton cleared his throat uncomfortably, but didn't say anything. Wash continued, "None of the people here on Diyu are anything to you. It would behoove you to ship in crop starters, irrigation engineers, greenhouses. Infuse this place with people who want a new life and don't mind a cold start on the farthest rock out. Then make it disappear."
There was a heavy beat of silence. Zoe holstered her pistol. Jayne lowered Vera.
"Do you understand?" Wash concluded.
The General cleared his throat again, and tugged on his uniform, the buttons pulling across his belly.
"You're not really in a position…."
"I will execute you. I will force you into the airlock, seal you in, then leave atmo with the bay door cracked." Wash was icy. "You will vaporize. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"And you'll do as we've asked?"
"Yes."
"And we're off the grid? The system no longer contains any information about us?"
"Yes."
"Traverton, back him up. Which Alliance officers were lost at the Battle of Damsel Gap?"
"Two. Dr. Herald McCall and Catalla Thorpe, a non-commissioned officer. The classified mission, Operation…."
"Enough. Fine. They don't need the gory details."
"Oh yes they do," Mal said casually.
"Zoe, anything to add?" Wash looked up to her first, then everyone else's eyes followed, except Traverton's whose gaze had hardly left her.
"No," she said, then tilted her head at Wash, almost deferentially.
"Inara?"
Inara pursed her lips and shook her head.
"Doc?"
"No," Simon said quietly.
"Captain?"
"Just one last thing. Remember, we found you once. We can find you again. We got a sky full of ships right now, just waiting for one shot. And you'll find we hold a powerful grudge. Consider if you want to take that chance."
The delegation started toward the door, with the General moving mostly slowly, but Traverton bringing up the rear.
"We'll send your ship for you once we're well clear," Mal added. "Better hoof it some. Serenity's got a thruster radius bigger than most folk would give her credit for. Plus, hear tell it was cold outside."
The General twitched as if he'd been slapped, but stepped through anyway, into the airlock and out of Serenity. Traverton paused and turned to face the crew full on. He shot Wash an intense look, part sadness, part betrayal, then looked up again at Zoe, then down to Inara. Finally, without speaking, he bowed, turned, and stepped into the airlock.
Wash followed them out. The rest of the crew stood still and silent as they heard the bay hatch shut and seal, then watched as Wash shut and sealed the door to the airlock. Wash returned their stares, even looking up at Kaylee and River. He waved back when Kaylee waved down.
"Do we call that one smooth?" Mal asked, with feigned cheerfulness. Most of his crew only groaned in return.
//
Wash eased himself into his chair at the helm. He'd stomped back out into the cold in time to watch the Alliance delegation trying to make the sensor to the compound's front door work. He watched the general, out of all of them, finally realize they could just pull it open and huddle inside. He had told himself he would have gone over and done it for them, if they hadn't figured it out. His imagination tried to run with that, imagining the gratitude, Traverton's fawning descriptions of him. He shook his head to put it far from his mind, so that he could concentrate on getting the shuttle and piloting it back to Serenity.
It was literally one of the shortest flights he'd ever made, but he'd nevertheless felt bad about it when he docked her, then opened the hatch to find Inara waiting for him. She nodded at him, quickly, and reached out to squeeze his hand as they passed each other at the hatch. But neither of them said anything and she'd promptly sealed herself inside.
Now, looking at the swampy black sky over Diyu, and the ground glittering with white rock and thermal sheeting as much as the sky twinkled with stars, he felt old, and tired, like he was living two lives at once.
"Travelers," Wash's voice crackled over the comm system. "Departure from scenic Diyu is imminent." The comm cracked again into quietude and Serenity lifted off. Launch was its usual effortless affair: a small tilt here, a moment of vertigo as real gravity gave way to artificial gravity, a vague sense of effort to compensate for inertia.
Mal's voice followed Wash's not so many minutes later. "Hot meal now. Let's all eat."
One by one, they made their way from the cargo bay, the passenger dorms, the lounge, and the shuttles to the mess hall. Mal had conscripted River to set the table and was ladling green soup into bowls. Jayne sat first, in the center of the table. Kaylee sat across from him after hovering around Mal until he shooed her away. Zoe sat next to Kaylee, but stood when Wash thumped down the stairs from the bridge. They stared at one another for a moment before she reached for his hand and pulled him into the seat next to her. Simon and Inara were the last to arrive, whispering conspiratorially, as Mal and River finished placing bowls in front of everyone. Mal sat at the head of the table, between Simon and Inara. River sat between Wash and Jayne.
"This is green," Jayne remarked.
"It is," Mal replied. "Hold your tongue."
Jayne nearly looked abashed for a moment while Mal looked around at his crew, still silent and pensive. Wash slid his hand into Zoe's under the table. Inara and Simon shared a look, then turned toward Wash, who nodded at them.
"Welcome home," Mal finally said. Wash and Inara nodded. Simon murmured thanks, in Chinese, under his breath.
There was another moment of silence before Mal continued. "This one, it didn't go so well. There were things we shoulda seen and thought of ahead of time. Don't know as we could have though. Don't know if we could've seen that coming. Not with all the fancy signal finders in the world."
Kaylee grinned in spite of herself while Zoe nodded. Wash, Inara, and Simon were not so easily placated.
"But we come through it, like we always do. Ain't fabulously wealthy. Ain't even got the luxury about not worrying about fuel or food. But we got what we came for."
"Did we?" Wash's voice was low, displeased, and still had a few notes of the command he'd used around the other Alliance officers.
"Well, we got what we should've came for. Those folk are liberated, at least for now, until someone forgets who they are and where they come from. Coulda made some coin on the job…."
"Damn straight," Jayne interrupted.
Mal plowed on. "Only thing different about this one is that we proved we all need to work together. Had some ideas that we might be able to go our separate ways. Now, eat before your soup gets cold. Little River and I had a time making it. But let's have a word or two, about how we go in the future." He picked up his spoon and began to eat.
After a moment, the rest of the crew followed suit. Slurping noises and the clink of tin on ceramic couldn't completely soothe the tension around the table.
"Go ahead, Jayne," River prompted.
"Major Washburne?!" Jayne ejaculated. "Wait. What?"
Wash calmly set his spoon down while Jayne was staring at River. "Someday maybe I'll tell you all about it. But not right now."
He kept his eyes on the table in front of him, but eventually looked to Zoe, who spoke to the rest of the crew.
"I know more than most of you, but not all of it," Zoe said.
"We all lived through the war. Just more of us fought in it than I thought," Kaylee said pensively.
"War's over," Wash said and looked like he was working hard on convincing himself.
"That it is," Mal followed, respectfully. He was quiet a moment before he continued. "Seems like we shoulda recognized that before now."
"We did," Wash said, but his tone wasn't contemptuous or condescending. "Right?" He squeezed his wife's hand.
"Right," Zoe said quietly.
"Right," Simon echoed.
Jayne snorted around a mouth full of soup.
"War's over," Mal repeated. "And there's still work out there for folk like us, who can maybe take a different view of things. River girl, this soup ain't bad."
"Thank you," River said, with excessive politeness, through the general murmur of agreement. Then added, imitating Mal, "ain't good neither."
Mal looked as stunned as Jayne had moments before.
"Where to now, sir?" Zoe deftly changed the subject. "We do need paying work."
"Jiangyin ain't too far."
"No, thank you," Simon said, grinning. "Even if it is warm."
"I second warm," Wash tossed in.
"Beaumonde?" Zoe suggested. Kaylee's face lit up. "We got contacts there."
"Let's not," Mal said. "I don't favor gettin' screwed by Fanty and Mingo. Not just now." This brought general laughter.
"Haven?" Kalyee asked. "We could visit Shepherd Book. It's warm there, too."
"Fine suggestion, mei mei," Mal concluded at the murmur of agreement. "Wash, you get us on course? How long will it take?"
"I'll burn it hard," Wash said. "We could be there in ten days."
"Well, tell him we're comin', would you? And that we're especially looking forward to sunshine, soft beds, and liquor."
"And women," Jayne added. "Tell him women."
"Sunshine, beds, liquor, women. Got it." Wash made to rise.
"Finish your supper," Mal said. Wash hesitated, but sat. "We got plenty of time."
Wash looked to Simon and Inara, who looked back at him. The three smiled, then laughed and their humor was infectious. "Dang ran," Wash chuckled. "Plenty of time."
The End
Chapter Six
Author: sarahetc
Rating: very light R, for strong language and violence
Setting: post-series, slightly AU
Word Count: 21,200
Disclaimer: Written for fun, not profit.
Summary: On the farthest planet from the galaxy's blue sun, Wash, Inara, and Simon take a job that forces them, and the rest of Serenity's crew, to confront the echoes of war.
Notes: Written for alligatorade who wanted genfic with a sympathetic Alliance character and a scene around the dinner table. Endless and most sincere thanks to zooey_glass04 and honu_girl for their fast, incisive betas. And more thanks after that to thunder_nari for organizing this best of all possible shindigs, and for letting me hijack her "mouse over for translation" idea. Mouse over for Chinese translations. Enjoy!
Serenity was not waiting for them outside headquarters. They could hear the rising whir of the engines, though, over the rush of the wind and stumbled down the slope toward it. Wash led, Simon assisted Inara with an arm around her waist, and Mal brought up the rear, gun still firmly in hand.
As they reached the bottom, and came upon the silvery stones that had marked the field, now knocked out of line, Simon looked around, seeing how the prisoners had dispersed. "Where did they go?" He murmured.
Somehow they'd all disappeared, leaving scratches and tracks in the gray dust, but melting into the earth nonetheless. The wind was eroding any evidence they'd been assembled on that field in front of their eyes. At the same time, warm light and warm air rolled from Serenity's ramp. Wash strode up the ramp after a cursory glance at the field. Mal followed. Inara shivered and tugged at Simon to get him to follow her.
By the time everyone was on board, Wash was hovering next to the forecouple controls and pounded on the button that raised the ramp as soon as they were over the lip. The hatch was faster than they were and started to tip them as they walked. Oblivious to the rest of the bay behind him, where Zoe, Jayne, and the Alliance delegation stood, he continued to secure the ramp and bay, sealing the forecouple, then the door that opened into the airlock.
He turned to find the Alliance delegation grouped near the starboard side of the cargo bay, at the foot of the stair case that led up to the first catwalk. Jayne stood in the center of the bay, Vera pointed nonchalantly at the group. Zoe stood on the catwalk, her mare's leg pistol braced against her shoulder.
"Major Washburne!" The General latched onto Wash as a symbol of authority, despite all evidence to the contrary. "What is the meaning of this?"
Wash started as if he were just noticing the rest of the people around him. He eyed the General, and Traverton, and the rest of the officers dispassionately. He rolled his eyes toward Zoe. "Dear?"
"Sir?" She repeated in the same tone, at Mal.
Wash opened his mouth to countermand her, but Mal spoke before he could.
"Officious high ranking officers of the Alliance, or whatever it is we should address you by. Zoe, you get that protocol lesson?"
"No, sir," she replied succinctly.
"Well, then. You purple-bellied wastes of space, you've got about ten minutes to live, depending on how fast our pilot here can get this ship in the air. We're fixin' to prove a point. That is, the Alliance did it wrong, has always done it wrong, and we're standing up for them as can't stand themselves. These prisoners on Diyu? Ain't prisoners. They're settlers."
"Mal," Inara said, breathlessly, pressing her hand to her breast as if to stop her heart breaking.
Mal ignored her. "We're here to prove to you just how far people like us, Independents, will still go to make sure you stay out of our lives."
"Mal, is it?" The General stepped forward. As soon as his foot hit the deck, Zoe cocked her pistol.
"Zoe!" Wash's voice cut across the bay and up to where Zoe was standing. "What are we doing?"
"Major Washburne, please, help your men see sense."
Jayne laughed out loud. Zoe grimaced. Mal grinned a particularly supercilious smile. But none of them spoke, waiting for Wash to reply.
"These aren't my men, General. Never have been. Haven't led anyone since Damsel Gap and I don't intend to ever again." Wash holstered his gun again and crossed his arms defensively. The general looked down at the deck-plates and then up at Serenity's crew members, scattered across the bay. Kaylee and River observed from a catwalk near the top, Kaylee actually holding River's shoulders.
"You're going to leave us to these thugs? These animals?"
"I should shoot you myself," Wash said, looking around at the crew, whose expressions were changing, some quickly and some slowly, from confusion to grudging acceptance. "These aren't animals. These are the people the war left behind. Traverton, how many casualities in the war for Unification?" Wash's voice changed at the end, triggering some automatic response in the other officer.
"Seven hundred ninety-eight million, four hundred and fifty thousand, seven hundred ten." Traverton sighed and added, "Confirmed. There are also those missing never accounted for."
"That's edging toward a billion, General. You could lose it in credits, but not in people." Mal spat.
"I have no idea what's going on here," Wash said, before Mal could continue, "but as one of those missing never accounted for, we mean to remain uncounted. The Cortex makes you think you're in charge, makes the people in the Core believe that Unification worked, and that the 'verse is a little better each day, but it's not. And it can't be. Not as long as places like Diyu exist, and you use these people as slaves to build your new worlds with no place for them."
The General swallowed. Traverton looked up at Zoe. The other officers remained mostly motionless.
"So go. If you want off this rock, run. Don't think of us, don't look back. Use that giant connection Tancred has to wipe this place out of history. Diyu never existed. Never will exist again. Add these names, and the names of the people born here, to the rosters of the dead and give them peace, finally, after all this time."
"We ain't lettin' 'em go, right?" Jayne moved forward, almost to an executor stance near the general.
"Have all of you lost your minds?" Simon asked.
"We're letting them go," Wash said.
"We can't not," Inara added.
"Since when am I not in charge here?" Mal demanded.
"Since you sent the three of us down here and pulled the rug out from under us," Wash ranted. "So shut up for once in your righteous life and let us finish it."
Mal blinked. Jayne laughed uncomfortably. Zoe remained motionless.
"Stand down, mooncake," Wash continued. Surprisingly, Zoe lowered her weapon, though she kept both hands on it. He turned his back on the delegation and the crew to open the door to the airlock. Simon, the only person between him and hatch, caught his eye. If they exchanged any information, it wasn't readable to the rest of the crew.
He pulled the door open, then walked through to open the outer lock. He stepped back into the bay and asked, "Do we have an understanding?"
The general looked between Mal and Wash, and once up at Zoe, trying to figure out who to answer to, or what question to answer. When he gave up and looked toward Inara, she nodded at him, but didn't say anything.
"I don't know what to say," he finally concluded.
"Major Washburne here is a damn sight more reasonable than I would ever be." Mal sounded rational, but angry.
"We don’t exist." All eyes swung back to Wash, still standing by the bay control panel. "None of us. We don't have names, or faces, or histories or futures." Traverton cleared his throat uncomfortably, but didn't say anything. Wash continued, "None of the people here on Diyu are anything to you. It would behoove you to ship in crop starters, irrigation engineers, greenhouses. Infuse this place with people who want a new life and don't mind a cold start on the farthest rock out. Then make it disappear."
There was a heavy beat of silence. Zoe holstered her pistol. Jayne lowered Vera.
"Do you understand?" Wash concluded.
The General cleared his throat again, and tugged on his uniform, the buttons pulling across his belly.
"You're not really in a position…."
"I will execute you. I will force you into the airlock, seal you in, then leave atmo with the bay door cracked." Wash was icy. "You will vaporize. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"And you'll do as we've asked?"
"Yes."
"And we're off the grid? The system no longer contains any information about us?"
"Yes."
"Traverton, back him up. Which Alliance officers were lost at the Battle of Damsel Gap?"
"Two. Dr. Herald McCall and Catalla Thorpe, a non-commissioned officer. The classified mission, Operation…."
"Enough. Fine. They don't need the gory details."
"Oh yes they do," Mal said casually.
"Zoe, anything to add?" Wash looked up to her first, then everyone else's eyes followed, except Traverton's whose gaze had hardly left her.
"No," she said, then tilted her head at Wash, almost deferentially.
"Inara?"
Inara pursed her lips and shook her head.
"Doc?"
"No," Simon said quietly.
"Captain?"
"Just one last thing. Remember, we found you once. We can find you again. We got a sky full of ships right now, just waiting for one shot. And you'll find we hold a powerful grudge. Consider if you want to take that chance."
The delegation started toward the door, with the General moving mostly slowly, but Traverton bringing up the rear.
"We'll send your ship for you once we're well clear," Mal added. "Better hoof it some. Serenity's got a thruster radius bigger than most folk would give her credit for. Plus, hear tell it was cold outside."
The General twitched as if he'd been slapped, but stepped through anyway, into the airlock and out of Serenity. Traverton paused and turned to face the crew full on. He shot Wash an intense look, part sadness, part betrayal, then looked up again at Zoe, then down to Inara. Finally, without speaking, he bowed, turned, and stepped into the airlock.
Wash followed them out. The rest of the crew stood still and silent as they heard the bay hatch shut and seal, then watched as Wash shut and sealed the door to the airlock. Wash returned their stares, even looking up at Kaylee and River. He waved back when Kaylee waved down.
"Do we call that one smooth?" Mal asked, with feigned cheerfulness. Most of his crew only groaned in return.
//
Wash eased himself into his chair at the helm. He'd stomped back out into the cold in time to watch the Alliance delegation trying to make the sensor to the compound's front door work. He watched the general, out of all of them, finally realize they could just pull it open and huddle inside. He had told himself he would have gone over and done it for them, if they hadn't figured it out. His imagination tried to run with that, imagining the gratitude, Traverton's fawning descriptions of him. He shook his head to put it far from his mind, so that he could concentrate on getting the shuttle and piloting it back to Serenity.
It was literally one of the shortest flights he'd ever made, but he'd nevertheless felt bad about it when he docked her, then opened the hatch to find Inara waiting for him. She nodded at him, quickly, and reached out to squeeze his hand as they passed each other at the hatch. But neither of them said anything and she'd promptly sealed herself inside.
Now, looking at the swampy black sky over Diyu, and the ground glittering with white rock and thermal sheeting as much as the sky twinkled with stars, he felt old, and tired, like he was living two lives at once.
"Travelers," Wash's voice crackled over the comm system. "Departure from scenic Diyu is imminent." The comm cracked again into quietude and Serenity lifted off. Launch was its usual effortless affair: a small tilt here, a moment of vertigo as real gravity gave way to artificial gravity, a vague sense of effort to compensate for inertia.
Mal's voice followed Wash's not so many minutes later. "Hot meal now. Let's all eat."
One by one, they made their way from the cargo bay, the passenger dorms, the lounge, and the shuttles to the mess hall. Mal had conscripted River to set the table and was ladling green soup into bowls. Jayne sat first, in the center of the table. Kaylee sat across from him after hovering around Mal until he shooed her away. Zoe sat next to Kaylee, but stood when Wash thumped down the stairs from the bridge. They stared at one another for a moment before she reached for his hand and pulled him into the seat next to her. Simon and Inara were the last to arrive, whispering conspiratorially, as Mal and River finished placing bowls in front of everyone. Mal sat at the head of the table, between Simon and Inara. River sat between Wash and Jayne.
"This is green," Jayne remarked.
"It is," Mal replied. "Hold your tongue."
Jayne nearly looked abashed for a moment while Mal looked around at his crew, still silent and pensive. Wash slid his hand into Zoe's under the table. Inara and Simon shared a look, then turned toward Wash, who nodded at them.
"Welcome home," Mal finally said. Wash and Inara nodded. Simon murmured thanks, in Chinese, under his breath.
There was another moment of silence before Mal continued. "This one, it didn't go so well. There were things we shoulda seen and thought of ahead of time. Don't know as we could have though. Don't know if we could've seen that coming. Not with all the fancy signal finders in the world."
Kaylee grinned in spite of herself while Zoe nodded. Wash, Inara, and Simon were not so easily placated.
"But we come through it, like we always do. Ain't fabulously wealthy. Ain't even got the luxury about not worrying about fuel or food. But we got what we came for."
"Did we?" Wash's voice was low, displeased, and still had a few notes of the command he'd used around the other Alliance officers.
"Well, we got what we should've came for. Those folk are liberated, at least for now, until someone forgets who they are and where they come from. Coulda made some coin on the job…."
"Damn straight," Jayne interrupted.
Mal plowed on. "Only thing different about this one is that we proved we all need to work together. Had some ideas that we might be able to go our separate ways. Now, eat before your soup gets cold. Little River and I had a time making it. But let's have a word or two, about how we go in the future." He picked up his spoon and began to eat.
After a moment, the rest of the crew followed suit. Slurping noises and the clink of tin on ceramic couldn't completely soothe the tension around the table.
"Go ahead, Jayne," River prompted.
"Major Washburne?!" Jayne ejaculated. "Wait. What?"
Wash calmly set his spoon down while Jayne was staring at River. "Someday maybe I'll tell you all about it. But not right now."
He kept his eyes on the table in front of him, but eventually looked to Zoe, who spoke to the rest of the crew.
"I know more than most of you, but not all of it," Zoe said.
"We all lived through the war. Just more of us fought in it than I thought," Kaylee said pensively.
"War's over," Wash said and looked like he was working hard on convincing himself.
"That it is," Mal followed, respectfully. He was quiet a moment before he continued. "Seems like we shoulda recognized that before now."
"We did," Wash said, but his tone wasn't contemptuous or condescending. "Right?" He squeezed his wife's hand.
"Right," Zoe said quietly.
"Right," Simon echoed.
Jayne snorted around a mouth full of soup.
"War's over," Mal repeated. "And there's still work out there for folk like us, who can maybe take a different view of things. River girl, this soup ain't bad."
"Thank you," River said, with excessive politeness, through the general murmur of agreement. Then added, imitating Mal, "ain't good neither."
Mal looked as stunned as Jayne had moments before.
"Where to now, sir?" Zoe deftly changed the subject. "We do need paying work."
"Jiangyin ain't too far."
"No, thank you," Simon said, grinning. "Even if it is warm."
"I second warm," Wash tossed in.
"Beaumonde?" Zoe suggested. Kaylee's face lit up. "We got contacts there."
"Let's not," Mal said. "I don't favor gettin' screwed by Fanty and Mingo. Not just now." This brought general laughter.
"Haven?" Kalyee asked. "We could visit Shepherd Book. It's warm there, too."
"Fine suggestion, mei mei," Mal concluded at the murmur of agreement. "Wash, you get us on course? How long will it take?"
"I'll burn it hard," Wash said. "We could be there in ten days."
"Well, tell him we're comin', would you? And that we're especially looking forward to sunshine, soft beds, and liquor."
"And women," Jayne added. "Tell him women."
"Sunshine, beds, liquor, women. Got it." Wash made to rise.
"Finish your supper," Mal said. Wash hesitated, but sat. "We got plenty of time."
Wash looked to Simon and Inara, who looked back at him. The three smiled, then laughed and their humor was infectious. "Dang ran," Wash chuckled. "Plenty of time."
The End
Chapter Six