Challenge #6 Entry - Burn the Land, Boil the Sea
Title: Burn the Land, Boil the Sea
Author: Aubrey
Feedback: Is shiny. Send it to warmageaubrey0@aol.com, or comment here.
Pairing: None central to the story, but there’s bits of Roger/April
Word Count: 2241
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action/Science fiction/Western
Summary: The captain of a Firefly-class transport comes to make a stand with a group of old friends on his home world after a heist goes bad.
Notes: This is… just… I have no idea what to say about this. When Aubrey’s two obsessions come together… just… yeah. And given that, outside of having River mess with the space-time continuum, there’s no way to get the loftmates on the ship as their usual selves… I’ve plopped them down in Firefly-verse. And actually, this is the first fic I’ve written with the crew of Serenity… Fun. *Coughs* No, I didn’t get carried away, why do you ask? (I actually probably could have gone on quite a bit longer… just be glad I didn’t.) Translations of Chinese words are at the bottom, though I’ve tried not to use too many. For those of you who don’t know the Serenity/Firefly-canon, just about everyone in the verse speaks Chinese, which is why even the Rent characters have a few words in Chinese. Set after the Serenity movie.
Special Thanks: To Alex and Evie (and the Mark in Evie’s head) for introducing me to Serenity and Firefly, Lee for putting up with a lot of my insane ramblings about it… Oh, and the author of the unofficial Firefly Chinese Glossary. I love that thing.
Spoilers: None for Rent, maybe a couple for Serenity (Big Damn Movie), mainly regarding Wash and River
Warnings: Minor violence, Firefly-verse swearing, and use of the word ain’t (it seems to me like there should be a warning for that…)
Disclaimer: Rent and its characters belong to Jon Larson, while Serenity and the crew belong to Joss McKillsWashOff Whedon. God, I love those two men. So, so much. Title of the story is from the Firefly theme song. Oh, and that quick snippet of lyrics from Roger’s song is from “Tangled Up in Brown” by Dylan and the Browncoats. I’d put up a link, but I don’t have it on this computer… Awesome filk song.
“River!” Mal shouted into the com unit as he ran toward Serenity. “I need you to get the ship ready to go. We’ve got a bit of a problem.”
“Already done, Captain,” she responded, her voice crackling a little over the com unit. She sounded calm, unconcerned. Of course, she’d probably known about this the second the heist started to go bad. “Just need you back on the ship.”
“Oh, I’m getting’ there, darlin’, just-” Mal hit the dirt, swearing, as a bullet skimmed by his head close enough to break skin, leaving a shallow bleeding furrow in his scalp. He rolled over quickly and fired several shots at his pursuers, though he stayed belly-down, taking cover behind a tiny hillock. Gorram it, a few yards to Serenity and here he was, pinned down and all but kissing the dirt.
Zoe strode up behind him and fired three shots, one after another. The sounds of fire from their pursuers stopped. She reached down and grabbed Mal’s arm, pulling him to his feet and back towards the ship. “How many times do I have to save your ass, sir?”
Mal ignored the comment as together the two of them backed up the ramp into Serenity’s cargo bay, and once inside he slammed the button to close it while keeping his pistol in hand. “You got the take?” he asked Zoe, glancing sideways at her.
She nodded to a couple of crates on the floor of the cargo bay. “Jayne and I got them on board while you were belly-down in the dirt.”
Mal shot her a frustrated look. “Is this the day you’ve all picked to mock the captain?”
In the process of securing the crates, Jayne snorted. “Ain’t that every day?”
The com unit crackled again, and River’s voice asked brightly, “Where are we headed to, Captain?”
Mal glanced to Zoe, and she warned him softly, “Holder won’t let us go without a chase.”
“I know. We’re goin’ to have to push him back somewhere…” he answered, frowning thoughtfully. After a moment, he walked across the cargo bay to press the com button to the bridge. “River, there’s a little moon not far from here, name of Shadow… Think you can make it?”
“Shia,” she responded, the ship already lifting into the air. Mal turned to find Zoe giving him a flat look.
“What?”
“Did you get knocked on the head while I wasn’t looking, sir?”
Mal touched the bullet graze on his scalp automatically at the question, assuming that was what she meant. He’d have to get the doc to see to that in a bit. After a second, he answered calmly, “Just a graze. Why?”
“We’re holing up with that lot?”
“They’re old friends. They’ll take care of us.”
“Might just,” Zoe said coolly. “As long as one of them doesn’t do something crazy and get us killed.”
Mal didn’t respond for a moment, considering her point, and finally just nodded. “Well, there is that…”
*
Roger lounged on the couch in the common room of the building, his legs propped up on the arm of the couch, guitar in his hands as he picked out a few chords awkwardly, not quite certain of the tune yet. It was a new song, and consequently the tune kept shifting every time he played it. Across the room, Mark sat at a vid console, fiddling with something or other on the Cortex-Roger wasn’t paying all that much attention to whatever it was, just as Mark was for the most part ignoring Roger as he played. Roger hummed the words softly to himself as he frowned at the guitar strings. “Late one night and the moon was shining, he was waiting in a hole…”
April bounced into the room and lightly smacked Roger’s feet, forcing him to move his legs so she could sit on the couch beside him. “Feet off the furniture,” she told him in a weary tone, though they’d been over this many times and it never did any good. “You’re going to get it dirty.”
Roger grinned and moved his feet obligingly, but not without a roll of his eyes. “This whole moon is covered in dirt, April. It’s not going to make a difference.”
“Well you could at least make an effort. What’re you playing?”
Roger smiled as he always did when April showed an interest in his music and started to play the opening for her, but before he could get very far into the song the console Mark was sitting at beeped insistently-a message coming in from the Cortex. Roger ignored it for the moment, deciding to let Mark talk to whoever it was, and he only half-listened as Mark keyed up the console to allow for video and audio streaming. “Ni hao?” Mark asked as the image came up. As soon as the image clarified, he sat up straighter in his chair with a cheerful smile. “Hey, Mal!”
Roger turned around quickly at that, setting down his guitar on the couch and bounding across the room to peer at the console over Mark’s shoulder. Sure enough, there was Mal’s image on the screen, and he smiled a little as Roger came into view of the screen. “Hello Mark, Roger. Listen, me and my crew come up on a bit of trouble during a heist-“
“Got the feds on your tail?” Roger asked with a raised eyebrow. Not that it bothered him, what with some of the things he’d gotten into with Collins and Mark, but he liked to know what was coming his way.
Mal shook his head. “Not this time. Local crime boss who’s not particularly fond of us. Thought we might be able to shelter with you for a spell.”
“Of course-” Mark began, but Roger cut him off.
“They’re coming after you with some firepower, aren’t they?” Roger asked.
“Well, they are at that, but they’re a ways behind…”
Roger bit his lower lip thoughtfully, and nodded. “I don’t want us in danger without some compensation… So long as you’re willing to give up a portion of whatever you got on that heist in return for sheltering you, you’re more than welcome here.”
Mal nodded slightly and gave him another small smile. “Not a problem. We’ll be on your world before you know it.” He closed the com link on his end, and his image on the screen vanished. Almost as soon as the image was gone, Mark swiveled around to glare up at Roger.
“Mal’s our friend and you’re making us pay to stay here?”
Roger chuckled and shrugged. “I’m not getting shot at for free. Mal understands. Besides, it’s not like he actually earned the take. He… what’s the word Collins would use?”
“Liberated,” April said mildly, coming up behind him.
“That’s it. He liberated it.”
“So, who was that?”
“Old friend,” Roger said with a bit of a smile. “Mal. He captains a Firefly, and gets himself in trouble far more often than he ought to.”
“Hmm,” April said softly. “Sounds like someone I know.” She grinned and stood on tiptoe to kiss Roger lightly before dropping down to her heels once more. “I’ll go tell the others we’re going to have visitors. Should be fun.”
“Yes,” Mark remarked wryly, turning back to the console. “Because guns and upset crime bosses are all kinds of fun.”
Roger rolled his eyes and shoved his friend lightly before leaving the room himself. He’d have things to see to before Mal and his crew got here, and preparations after that. Still… he had to agree with April. This should be fun.
*
Roger and Mark stood together at the front of the group as they watched Serenity come to a landing not far from their fortified building. April stood just behind Roger with her hand on his shoulder, peering curiously at the ship-being from one of the Core planets, she was used to much sleeker looking ships than a Firefly class, even after several years out here on the border with Roger. Maureen, Benny and Collins stood a bit behind the other three, with varying degrees of interest and curiosity (although Maureen had her arms crossed over her chest, seemingly bored with the whole proceeding). Serenity came to a neat landing facing the group of them, and as the ramp to the cargo bay lowered, the first ones to walk down were Mal and Zoe, slowly followed by the rest of the crew.
Mark grinned at them and waved cheerfully, and as soon as she saw him Kaylee squeaked and rushed forward to hug him around the neck. Roger glanced over at the two of them, chuckling in amusement. The last time Mal’s crew had sheltered here was some time ago, but when they had they’d stayed for a while, and before long Kaylee had looked on Mark as her older brother of a sort. Nice to know that hadn’t changed much, at least… Roger turned back to regard the rest of the crew, frowning slightly when he realized he didn’t see Wash, and at the two new people he didn’t recognize. He’d have to ask about Wash’s absence later…
He walked forward to greet Mal, grinning at his friend. “Nice to see you back on our world. It’s only been… what, three years since the last time we saw you?”
Mal grinned back at him, shrugging a little at Roger’s teasing comment. “Yeah, well, we’ve been a mite busy keeping ahead of the Alliance. Should’ve seen Kaylee’s face when she heard we’d be dropping by for a bit. She missed you all something fierce.”
“I can tell,” Roger said, glancing over at Mark and Kaylee, who had been joined by April, Maureen and the two from Mal’s ship that Roger didn’t recognize. “So who are those two?” he asked with a nod to the newcomers.
Mal glanced over. “Oh. You don’t know them.”
“Well I could’ve told you that. Who are they?” He waited for a moment as Mal eyed him warily, and finally Roger sighed, “Come on, Mal, you know you can trust me.”
“Fine, just don’t tell no one. That’s our doc and his sister… Simon and River. They’re on the run from the Alliance, and even if things have cooled off a bit lately…”
“I won’t tell anyone,” Roger promised, eyeing the two thoughtfully. They certainly didn’t look like the kind of people that became fugitives, a pretty-boy doctor and a ninety-pound girl who didn’t look like much of a threat to anyone, but he wasn’t going to press for details. He turned back to Mal, his tone shifting a bit as he asked, “So, who’s chasing you and how far away is he? And how much time are we going to have to prepare a nice warm welcome for him when he shows up?”
*
For some reason, Mark had insisted on being on the roof while they waited for Holder’s ships to show up. He always hated being inside when there was something important going on elsewhere, but it made Roger nervous to have Mark up here where he could get hurt, and in any case, he was fairly certain Mark had never fired a gun before in his life. And Kaylee had followed Mark up here as well, and April kept checking on them every now and then… Not a good situation, all in all, to have the noncombatants where they might get shot at.
Roger glanced to Mal, catching his eye, and jerked his head towards Mark and Kaylee. Mal looked over to the two of them, and after a moment said, “Hey, little Kaylee, why don’t you two head inside and see if you can rig something to muddle their navsat? Might slow ‘em down a bit, makin’ ‘em steer by sight. Could give us an edge.”
Kaylee paused and consulted with Mark, their voices low enough that Roger couldn’t hear them, and then smiled brightly to Mal. “We’ll see what we can do, Cap’n,” she said, and bounced toward the stairs. Mark hesitated, looking over at Roger. He hesitated a moment, obviously worried about him. He always did, when there was a chance someone might get hurt, though he should know by now that Roger always came out alright.
“Zhen tama yaoming. Zhuyi,” Mark said to Roger warningly before following Kaylee down the stairs. Roger could hear him saying to her, “I think I saw this done on an episode of Bonanza once. Well, sort of like this. More or less, just… without all the wires and shiny buttons and spaceships.”
Roger grinned as he heard Kaylee ask, “What’s Bonanza?” and the beginning of Mark’s (very probably long-winded) response, “From Earth-that-was…” before their voices faded out of hearing range. He shook his head and turned back to survey the sky for any sign of ships, just as the others on the roof were doing-Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Collins and Maureen. He grinned as he spotted the black shape of a Dodson class ship coming up quickly towards them.
“I think things are about to get interesting,” he called, just loudly enough for the others to hear.
Mal followed his gaze to the ship, and nodded slightly, quickly checking his gun to make sure it was ready to fire. “Looks like.”
Maureen smiled brightly as she watched the ships drawing closer, glad for a little excitement, as always. “Shiny.”
----
shia - affirmative
ni hao? - hello?
“Zhen tama yaoming. Zhuyi.” - “Watch your back.” [This is pretty damned dangerous. Pay attention.]
Author: Aubrey
Feedback: Is shiny. Send it to warmageaubrey0@aol.com, or comment here.
Pairing: None central to the story, but there’s bits of Roger/April
Word Count: 2241
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action/Science fiction/Western
Summary: The captain of a Firefly-class transport comes to make a stand with a group of old friends on his home world after a heist goes bad.
Notes: This is… just… I have no idea what to say about this. When Aubrey’s two obsessions come together… just… yeah. And given that, outside of having River mess with the space-time continuum, there’s no way to get the loftmates on the ship as their usual selves… I’ve plopped them down in Firefly-verse. And actually, this is the first fic I’ve written with the crew of Serenity… Fun. *Coughs* No, I didn’t get carried away, why do you ask? (I actually probably could have gone on quite a bit longer… just be glad I didn’t.) Translations of Chinese words are at the bottom, though I’ve tried not to use too many. For those of you who don’t know the Serenity/Firefly-canon, just about everyone in the verse speaks Chinese, which is why even the Rent characters have a few words in Chinese. Set after the Serenity movie.
Special Thanks: To Alex and Evie (and the Mark in Evie’s head) for introducing me to Serenity and Firefly, Lee for putting up with a lot of my insane ramblings about it… Oh, and the author of the unofficial Firefly Chinese Glossary. I love that thing.
Spoilers: None for Rent, maybe a couple for Serenity (Big Damn Movie), mainly regarding Wash and River
Warnings: Minor violence, Firefly-verse swearing, and use of the word ain’t (it seems to me like there should be a warning for that…)
Disclaimer: Rent and its characters belong to Jon Larson, while Serenity and the crew belong to Joss McKillsWashOff Whedon. God, I love those two men. So, so much. Title of the story is from the Firefly theme song. Oh, and that quick snippet of lyrics from Roger’s song is from “Tangled Up in Brown” by Dylan and the Browncoats. I’d put up a link, but I don’t have it on this computer… Awesome filk song.
“River!” Mal shouted into the com unit as he ran toward Serenity. “I need you to get the ship ready to go. We’ve got a bit of a problem.”
“Already done, Captain,” she responded, her voice crackling a little over the com unit. She sounded calm, unconcerned. Of course, she’d probably known about this the second the heist started to go bad. “Just need you back on the ship.”
“Oh, I’m getting’ there, darlin’, just-” Mal hit the dirt, swearing, as a bullet skimmed by his head close enough to break skin, leaving a shallow bleeding furrow in his scalp. He rolled over quickly and fired several shots at his pursuers, though he stayed belly-down, taking cover behind a tiny hillock. Gorram it, a few yards to Serenity and here he was, pinned down and all but kissing the dirt.
Zoe strode up behind him and fired three shots, one after another. The sounds of fire from their pursuers stopped. She reached down and grabbed Mal’s arm, pulling him to his feet and back towards the ship. “How many times do I have to save your ass, sir?”
Mal ignored the comment as together the two of them backed up the ramp into Serenity’s cargo bay, and once inside he slammed the button to close it while keeping his pistol in hand. “You got the take?” he asked Zoe, glancing sideways at her.
She nodded to a couple of crates on the floor of the cargo bay. “Jayne and I got them on board while you were belly-down in the dirt.”
Mal shot her a frustrated look. “Is this the day you’ve all picked to mock the captain?”
In the process of securing the crates, Jayne snorted. “Ain’t that every day?”
The com unit crackled again, and River’s voice asked brightly, “Where are we headed to, Captain?”
Mal glanced to Zoe, and she warned him softly, “Holder won’t let us go without a chase.”
“I know. We’re goin’ to have to push him back somewhere…” he answered, frowning thoughtfully. After a moment, he walked across the cargo bay to press the com button to the bridge. “River, there’s a little moon not far from here, name of Shadow… Think you can make it?”
“Shia,” she responded, the ship already lifting into the air. Mal turned to find Zoe giving him a flat look.
“What?”
“Did you get knocked on the head while I wasn’t looking, sir?”
Mal touched the bullet graze on his scalp automatically at the question, assuming that was what she meant. He’d have to get the doc to see to that in a bit. After a second, he answered calmly, “Just a graze. Why?”
“We’re holing up with that lot?”
“They’re old friends. They’ll take care of us.”
“Might just,” Zoe said coolly. “As long as one of them doesn’t do something crazy and get us killed.”
Mal didn’t respond for a moment, considering her point, and finally just nodded. “Well, there is that…”
*
Roger lounged on the couch in the common room of the building, his legs propped up on the arm of the couch, guitar in his hands as he picked out a few chords awkwardly, not quite certain of the tune yet. It was a new song, and consequently the tune kept shifting every time he played it. Across the room, Mark sat at a vid console, fiddling with something or other on the Cortex-Roger wasn’t paying all that much attention to whatever it was, just as Mark was for the most part ignoring Roger as he played. Roger hummed the words softly to himself as he frowned at the guitar strings. “Late one night and the moon was shining, he was waiting in a hole…”
April bounced into the room and lightly smacked Roger’s feet, forcing him to move his legs so she could sit on the couch beside him. “Feet off the furniture,” she told him in a weary tone, though they’d been over this many times and it never did any good. “You’re going to get it dirty.”
Roger grinned and moved his feet obligingly, but not without a roll of his eyes. “This whole moon is covered in dirt, April. It’s not going to make a difference.”
“Well you could at least make an effort. What’re you playing?”
Roger smiled as he always did when April showed an interest in his music and started to play the opening for her, but before he could get very far into the song the console Mark was sitting at beeped insistently-a message coming in from the Cortex. Roger ignored it for the moment, deciding to let Mark talk to whoever it was, and he only half-listened as Mark keyed up the console to allow for video and audio streaming. “Ni hao?” Mark asked as the image came up. As soon as the image clarified, he sat up straighter in his chair with a cheerful smile. “Hey, Mal!”
Roger turned around quickly at that, setting down his guitar on the couch and bounding across the room to peer at the console over Mark’s shoulder. Sure enough, there was Mal’s image on the screen, and he smiled a little as Roger came into view of the screen. “Hello Mark, Roger. Listen, me and my crew come up on a bit of trouble during a heist-“
“Got the feds on your tail?” Roger asked with a raised eyebrow. Not that it bothered him, what with some of the things he’d gotten into with Collins and Mark, but he liked to know what was coming his way.
Mal shook his head. “Not this time. Local crime boss who’s not particularly fond of us. Thought we might be able to shelter with you for a spell.”
“Of course-” Mark began, but Roger cut him off.
“They’re coming after you with some firepower, aren’t they?” Roger asked.
“Well, they are at that, but they’re a ways behind…”
Roger bit his lower lip thoughtfully, and nodded. “I don’t want us in danger without some compensation… So long as you’re willing to give up a portion of whatever you got on that heist in return for sheltering you, you’re more than welcome here.”
Mal nodded slightly and gave him another small smile. “Not a problem. We’ll be on your world before you know it.” He closed the com link on his end, and his image on the screen vanished. Almost as soon as the image was gone, Mark swiveled around to glare up at Roger.
“Mal’s our friend and you’re making us pay to stay here?”
Roger chuckled and shrugged. “I’m not getting shot at for free. Mal understands. Besides, it’s not like he actually earned the take. He… what’s the word Collins would use?”
“Liberated,” April said mildly, coming up behind him.
“That’s it. He liberated it.”
“So, who was that?”
“Old friend,” Roger said with a bit of a smile. “Mal. He captains a Firefly, and gets himself in trouble far more often than he ought to.”
“Hmm,” April said softly. “Sounds like someone I know.” She grinned and stood on tiptoe to kiss Roger lightly before dropping down to her heels once more. “I’ll go tell the others we’re going to have visitors. Should be fun.”
“Yes,” Mark remarked wryly, turning back to the console. “Because guns and upset crime bosses are all kinds of fun.”
Roger rolled his eyes and shoved his friend lightly before leaving the room himself. He’d have things to see to before Mal and his crew got here, and preparations after that. Still… he had to agree with April. This should be fun.
*
Roger and Mark stood together at the front of the group as they watched Serenity come to a landing not far from their fortified building. April stood just behind Roger with her hand on his shoulder, peering curiously at the ship-being from one of the Core planets, she was used to much sleeker looking ships than a Firefly class, even after several years out here on the border with Roger. Maureen, Benny and Collins stood a bit behind the other three, with varying degrees of interest and curiosity (although Maureen had her arms crossed over her chest, seemingly bored with the whole proceeding). Serenity came to a neat landing facing the group of them, and as the ramp to the cargo bay lowered, the first ones to walk down were Mal and Zoe, slowly followed by the rest of the crew.
Mark grinned at them and waved cheerfully, and as soon as she saw him Kaylee squeaked and rushed forward to hug him around the neck. Roger glanced over at the two of them, chuckling in amusement. The last time Mal’s crew had sheltered here was some time ago, but when they had they’d stayed for a while, and before long Kaylee had looked on Mark as her older brother of a sort. Nice to know that hadn’t changed much, at least… Roger turned back to regard the rest of the crew, frowning slightly when he realized he didn’t see Wash, and at the two new people he didn’t recognize. He’d have to ask about Wash’s absence later…
He walked forward to greet Mal, grinning at his friend. “Nice to see you back on our world. It’s only been… what, three years since the last time we saw you?”
Mal grinned back at him, shrugging a little at Roger’s teasing comment. “Yeah, well, we’ve been a mite busy keeping ahead of the Alliance. Should’ve seen Kaylee’s face when she heard we’d be dropping by for a bit. She missed you all something fierce.”
“I can tell,” Roger said, glancing over at Mark and Kaylee, who had been joined by April, Maureen and the two from Mal’s ship that Roger didn’t recognize. “So who are those two?” he asked with a nod to the newcomers.
Mal glanced over. “Oh. You don’t know them.”
“Well I could’ve told you that. Who are they?” He waited for a moment as Mal eyed him warily, and finally Roger sighed, “Come on, Mal, you know you can trust me.”
“Fine, just don’t tell no one. That’s our doc and his sister… Simon and River. They’re on the run from the Alliance, and even if things have cooled off a bit lately…”
“I won’t tell anyone,” Roger promised, eyeing the two thoughtfully. They certainly didn’t look like the kind of people that became fugitives, a pretty-boy doctor and a ninety-pound girl who didn’t look like much of a threat to anyone, but he wasn’t going to press for details. He turned back to Mal, his tone shifting a bit as he asked, “So, who’s chasing you and how far away is he? And how much time are we going to have to prepare a nice warm welcome for him when he shows up?”
*
For some reason, Mark had insisted on being on the roof while they waited for Holder’s ships to show up. He always hated being inside when there was something important going on elsewhere, but it made Roger nervous to have Mark up here where he could get hurt, and in any case, he was fairly certain Mark had never fired a gun before in his life. And Kaylee had followed Mark up here as well, and April kept checking on them every now and then… Not a good situation, all in all, to have the noncombatants where they might get shot at.
Roger glanced to Mal, catching his eye, and jerked his head towards Mark and Kaylee. Mal looked over to the two of them, and after a moment said, “Hey, little Kaylee, why don’t you two head inside and see if you can rig something to muddle their navsat? Might slow ‘em down a bit, makin’ ‘em steer by sight. Could give us an edge.”
Kaylee paused and consulted with Mark, their voices low enough that Roger couldn’t hear them, and then smiled brightly to Mal. “We’ll see what we can do, Cap’n,” she said, and bounced toward the stairs. Mark hesitated, looking over at Roger. He hesitated a moment, obviously worried about him. He always did, when there was a chance someone might get hurt, though he should know by now that Roger always came out alright.
“Zhen tama yaoming. Zhuyi,” Mark said to Roger warningly before following Kaylee down the stairs. Roger could hear him saying to her, “I think I saw this done on an episode of Bonanza once. Well, sort of like this. More or less, just… without all the wires and shiny buttons and spaceships.”
Roger grinned as he heard Kaylee ask, “What’s Bonanza?” and the beginning of Mark’s (very probably long-winded) response, “From Earth-that-was…” before their voices faded out of hearing range. He shook his head and turned back to survey the sky for any sign of ships, just as the others on the roof were doing-Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Collins and Maureen. He grinned as he spotted the black shape of a Dodson class ship coming up quickly towards them.
“I think things are about to get interesting,” he called, just loudly enough for the others to hear.
Mal followed his gaze to the ship, and nodded slightly, quickly checking his gun to make sure it was ready to fire. “Looks like.”
Maureen smiled brightly as she watched the ships drawing closer, glad for a little excitement, as always. “Shiny.”
----
shia - affirmative
ni hao? - hello?
“Zhen tama yaoming. Zhuyi.” - “Watch your back.” [This is pretty damned dangerous. Pay attention.]