CHAPTER NINE
Serenity picked up a wave from the miner’s warning them not to come in. They didn’t respond to that wave. They only watched all the guns swivel to keep pace with Serenity as she circled the habitats. Serenity circled with her nose facing the asteroids.
Frequently the habitats were out of sight, occluded by the asteroids arranged around them to provide additional cover. Had the mining camp been more profitable, there would no doubt have been guns on the outer asteroids as well. Every fourth asteroid had fixed positioned cameras that allowed the miners to see what was coming. But they weren’t perfect. As Serenity circled the miner’s camp they were visible directly for brief moment and they were visible by asteroid cams but there were blinds spots. At opposite sides of the circle, inside the blind spot, shuttles departed Serenity. Both shuttles crept in closer to the asteroids taking advantage of those blind spots.
Shuttle one was designated North Pole of the spheroid shell of asteroids. Shuttle two, Inara’s shuttle was designated south pole. When Serenity returned to the ‘east’ position in its circle, shuttle one moved in. Guns swiveled towards it, haphazardly, revealing the human presence behind the controls. When Serenity hit the six o’clock position, it proceeded in. The guns closest it started to swivel back around. That’s when the first rocket left Serenity’s open airlock, fired by Jayne.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Jayne whooped, scoring a direct hit with his first shot. “Hand me another one of those firecrackers, Doc.”
“Are you sure this won’t penetrate the asteroids and depressurize them?” Simon asked.
“Of course I’m sure,” Jayne said. “Pretty sure. I guess it depends on how comfortable the miners are with thin walls.”
Inara’s shuttle followed Serenity in towards the camp, hiding in its shadow. As they passed over head of their intended target, Jayne took the gun turret off the top with the second missile. The guns tracked both Serenity and shuttle one as they passed each other. Shuttle two crept along the shadow of the target asteroid until it was up close and personal with the airlock.
The asteroid airlock had the big door for cargo haulers such as Serenity and a smaller door for the likes of shuttles and emergency tubular bridges. Inara’s shuttle crept up and latched onto the door. Malcom was double and triple armed, with a spare gun to pass to Zoe the moment he was in throwing distance of her. He confirmed the airlock was secure and pressurized and then flashed his shuttle’s beacon to visually alert Serenity that he was in place and going in.
Serenity made another pass, giving Jayne more practice with his rocket launcher. The first shuttle turned to make another pass, but the guns scored several hits. In its dying throws, Ely was barely able to fly it close enough to scrape the lower turret off the target asteroid. This action was enough to start the asteroid spinning, giving it a slight vector away from the other habitats. The spinning would not affect the inside orientation any, unless they had skimped on their artificial gravity deck plating as they had the wall plastics.
Serenity left the firing perimeter and began to circle again, the guns tracking it. He crept in close enough to allow Jayne to fire at the gun turrets. Unlike Serenity, the asteroids couldn’t take evasive action. Plus, Serenity could remain well outside of the miner’s optimum kill range. Something the miners hadn’t counted on when buying their defensive system. They weren’t military, just folks trying to make a living. True enough, their projectiles carried velocity, but it wouldn’t penetrate Serenity’s hull with one shot. It would take several shots, each shot scratch digging in, and distance enabled Serenity to move left or right of the projectile stream. With the type of ammo the miners were using, probably their own ingots, they would need to score sustained hits in the same place to pierce the ship and depressurized it. Unless they got lucky and hit the windows. They had skimped on the armaments as well, fortunately for Serenity, because explosive rounds would have changed the situation.
“That’s the last cannon!” Jayne yelled. “Take us in.” “What’s that?” Simon asked.
Jayne turned to see the business end of a rabbit coming towards Serenity. He looked about him and saw that there were at least ten rabbits with teeth coming.
“Huh choo-shung tza-jiao duh tzang-huo!” Jane cursed. “Um, Ely, you might want to kick in the gas. These rabbits bite.”
Serenity passed over the miner’s camp, chased by a ravenous pack of ore eating, gold pellet shooting rabbits. The rabbits accelerated, passing off pellets of ore and junk to lighten their load and increase their speed.
“I can’t shoot at them if I can’t see them!” Jayne yelled.
Serenity pivoted about, maintaining its current vector. The maneuver caused Simon to become ill in his suit from vertigo. Jayne was disgusted.
“Don’t drown in there,” Jayne said, reaching over to the Doctor to turn on the suit’s suction. Jayne wanted to puke himself at the sight of the volume that the Doctor had expelled. It disappeared and was vented through a flap valve and was expelled outwards of the ship. “I need you to keep handing me the rockets, hoe-tze duh pee-goo.” “Thank you,” Simon said, gasping for air, no doubt influenced by the smell. The contained smell in the suit could make someone want to keep vomiting. He grabbed hold of the line that secured him to Serenity for extra support.
“Now, be very, very, quiet,” Jayne said. “I’m huntin’ rabbits.”
♫♪►
When shuttle one collided with the asteroid, there was a jarring and rocking, but the airlock seal held. Malcom opened his side of the airlock, put an assist on the miner’s side, and opened it as well. He closed his side and then the miner’s side, just in case another explosion were to separate the shuttle from the far side. He didn’t want to die from lack of air, though, in all eventualities, that was probably the easiest, and most likely, way to go out. The sudden drop in air pressure would cause everyone to pass out before they died.
Malcom approached the inner airlock door cautiously and put his ear to it, hoping to get an idea of what the situation was on the other side. There was no hint. Nothing more to do, he simply opened the door, prepared to shoot the first person he saw. Relieved that no one was immediately present, he stepped in, and closed the door. The main cavern seemed much more spacious now that the ore had been removed. There were still pallets left, which offered places to hide behind in a fire fight, and he used them for cover as he made his way across the floor, a gun in each hand. There were three tunnels leading away from the cavern. He was just going to have to pick one.
“I hate rabbits,” Malcom mumbled to himself, oblivious that Book was near. Book said ‘go left’ and Malcom debated, finally choosing the closer tunnel. When Mal went the wrong way, Book faded, apparently frustrated. Malcom was perhaps a fourth of the way down the darkened tunnel when he felt a gun in the small of his back.
“I can’t let you take them girls,” the person behind him said, revealing a feminine voice.
“I’m just come to take what’s mine and be on my way,” Malcom said, hoping the female of the mining clan would be more open to rational talk. After all, she hadn’t shot him right away, so there’s was hope.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “These four will keep the boys entertained and take some of the pressure off me.”
“I can understand how your burden is lifted by the extra females, but I can’t let them be held here against their wills. You’ll have to kill me to stop me,” Malcom said.
She cocked the weapon.
“Or, we could negotiate,” Malcom offered quickly.
“The only thing you have that I want is passage out of here,” she said.
“If you help me, I’ll promise you that,” Malcom said.
“Then you and I have a deal?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” Malcom said.
“Very well then, the girls are being held at the end of the tunnel you just passed,” she said.
Malcom told himself, ‘I knew I should have gone that way,’ and turned to see the woman behind him and grimaced. She was no doubt by far the ugliest, fattest woman he had ever seen. She was stained with dirt and sweat, missing teeth, hair clumped and missing, and her skin blemished with bruises and sores. Some of them clearly fresh bruises.
“Guns empty by the way,” she said. “They don’t give me bullets cause they know
I’ll kill them. Name’s Anna.”
“Nicely met, Anna. I’d like to hurry this along, if you don’t mind,” Malcom said.
Anna scoffed. “Men. Always in a hurry,” she said, and pushed by him. Anna led the way to the holding pin where she and Malcom found twelve dead and six injured men lying prone on the ground, Zoe holding a weapon, obviously confiscated from one of the men, and River standing in the midst of the downed men, posed like a ballerina who had just finished act one of the ballet.
“What took you so long?” Zoe asked.
“I was waiting on you, actually,” Malcom said. He unhooked Zoe’s gun belt from around his waist and handed it to her. “I brought you your gun.”
“Thank you,” Zoe said. “They took Kaylee and Inara that way.”
“Boss never had him a proper Companion before,” Anna said. “Figure he’s trying to work it in before he dies.”
“Lead on,” Malcom said.
Anna opened a door, found it empty and moved down to the next door. The next room revealed Charley chasing Kaylee around a crate, protesting that she was just making it worse on herself. Kaylee flew to the Malcom, burying her face in his chest.
Charley slid to a halt uncertain what to make of this.
Malcom tilted Kaylee’s head back to make certain he had seen what he thought he had seen. Kaylee was going to have a nice shiner come morning.
“Did you hit her?” Malcom demanded.
“Of course,” Charley said. “She weren’t obeying my authoritah.”
Malcom directed Zoe to take Kaylee. As soon as she was out of sight, Malcom shot Charley right between the eyes. He gave a sermon about hitting women after the fact. He moved on to catch up with the girls. As they approached the end of the hall, and the last door, it opened and Inara walked out, looking none the worse for her troubles. The door closed behind her.
“You alright?” Malcom asked.
“Yes, thank you,” Inara said, standing tall, and all dignified.
Malcom went past her, opened the door, went in part way, and then returned. From outside the open door, Henry could be seen, his nudity interrupted by pillow, clumping of sheets, and the miscellaneous placed contents of the room. Malcom exited the room.
“He’s dead?” Malcom asked, pointing in with his weapon.
“Quite,” Inara said. “There’s more than one way to kill a man, Mal. You don’t always need a gun.”
“I’ll be sure to sleep lightly around you,” Malcom said. “Let’s be on our way.” They returned to the end of the tunnel to find the way blocked by men with guns. They retreated back into the tunnel as the miners opened fire on them.
“How many?” Zoe asked.
“Figure six, maybe seven,” Malcom said.
“Eleven,” River corrected.
“Or eleven,” Malcom corrected.
“May I have a gun?” River asked.
“I’d rather you not be killin,” Malcom said.
“They got us pinned down,” Zoe said.
“It looks that way,” Malcom said.
Gun fire erupted from the cavern. Men screamed, scrambling to reposition themselves. Malcom took a quick peek and saw an opportunity to shoot a couple as they were orientating their fire towards the airlock. He stepped around and shot one point blank and then shot another. Was about to shoot the third but Zoe got him. And then the gun fight was over. Jayne, Ely, and Simon walked out into the middle of the cavern.
“You alright?” Jayne asked.
“Yes,” Malcom said.
“I’m alright,” River protested as her brother checked her for injuries. After insuring his sister was alright, he went to Kaylee and gave her the same degree of scrutiny.
“I’m alright,” Kaylee told him, more concerned about Ely than she was about herself.
“Ely?” Inara asked, rushing to support him.
Ely set his gun down on a stack of gold and leaned into her.
“Fine,” Ely assured her. “You?”
“You shouldn’t be on your feet right now,” Inara said.
“Let’s get you back to medical,” Simon urged. “You no doubt tore my stitching up.”
“No doubt,” Ely said.
“Mind if I take a gold bar, Captain?” Jayne asked.
“Help yourself,” Malcom said. “Anna, are there any other women being held hostage in the other habitats?”
“No. They’re pretty rough on the women around here,” Anna said. “They don’t last long.”
“Make it quick, Jayne,” Malcom said. “We’re out of here.”
“But we can’t just leave all of this,” Jayne protested.
“We can and we are,” Malcom said. “Take what you can carry. Need to be gone before the others regroup.”
“But!” Jayne said, finding out two rabbit pellets worth of gold was all that he could carry. And he was struggling at that.
Anna grabbed one as well. So did River, Kaylee, and Zoe.
Back in Serenity, Malcom piloted the ship away from the habitats, pausing long enough to remote pilot Inara’s shuttle back into the bay. He then logged onto the rabbit net work and found a couple remaining rabbits. He redirected their diggings so that they would drill into the habitats. Serenity waited long enough to see the air vented from the habitats before powering up. A brilliant, silent swirl of orange and yellow enveloped the tail end of Serenity as it pushed away into the black.
CHAPTER TEN
Malcom found Inara sitting next to the observation window, watching over Ely as he slept. She saw his shadow, looked up, and gave a fraction of a smile.
“How’s he doing?” Malcom asked.
“He’ll live,” Inara said.
“Good,” Malcom said, and turned to walk away.
“Mal?” Inara asked.
Malcom paused, turned towards her, but didn’t meet her eyes. “It’s kind of funny,” he told her. “Had my mind on a certain direction of things and now I’m kind of feeling there’s an obstacle and I should just keep to myself, seeing how I haven’t actually earned the right to even entertain what I was…”
“Why is it so complicated?” Inara asked. “With all we’ve been through, you’ve earned the right to at least ask. And even if you hadn’t earn the right, it’s always reasonable to ask, because you know, it’s not about earning. True human value is not a value of a person’s level to produce. We’re not economic functions.”
“Perhaps. That’s a nice way to see things but not the way most people see things,” Malcom nodded. “And looking back, I’m seeing things that I obviously missed, things that make sense after your declaration.”
“Maybe you just didn’t want to see it,” Inara said.
“Quite possibly,” Malcom said. “And, I suppose I also never considered myself a candidate for you affections. There are so many better men, with more to offer, and given all the qualities you have that I hold in high esteem, I just always figured… Well, doesn’t matter what I figured. I made some assumptions, instead of simply doing the right thing and just asking.”
“I wouldn’t have stayed so long if I didn’t want to be here,” Inara said. “I only left because it pained me so much to be close to you and not be close to you.” “I’m also thinking, you could have been more direct with me, had you wanted,” Malcom said. “Might have decreased the number of fights we had.”
“You’re right,” Inara said. “I made some assumptions, instead of simply doing the right thing and just a