A/N: I own neither the crew of Serenity, who belong to Whedon and company, nor the that of the Vingilot (or any of the rest of Arda, for that matter).
Wash's voice crackled over the comm, causing a new flicker of concerned curiosity in the onlookers. "Zoe, honey… why are we talking with them?"
"Cap doesn't feel like fightin'," she responded, touching the comm button with her off hand. The other still firmly gripped her shotgun.
"Have we tried running?" her husband asked helpfully.
Zoe let her eyes drift over the mob, her mouth a thin, even line. "Don't think that'd do us much good right now."
"Last time I checked, Reavers weren't much for talking."
"These ain't Reavers." They're worse, she added unconsciously.
"So diplomacy wins the day, eh?"
"Long as we get our point across." Zoe pumped another round into the chamber. She wasn't sure she had enough. Even counting what they'd left back on the ship, she wasn't sure Jayne had enough. They'd have to bluster their way out of this one, but she and the captain had postured their way though worse odds. Not much worse odds, but at least she, Mal, and Janye were the only ones here carrying semi-automatic weaponry. "Gotta go, darlin'." She silenced the comm, hearing her husband's muffled Mandarin curses from memory as much from the comm itself.
"That's real sweet," Jayne said, sighting down his semi. "But you lovebirds are about to make us real dead, one o' these days."
"Let's just finish the job, Jayne." There was no rancor in her voice, but no room for teasing, either.
"You know, normally, you two ain't much for talking, either. Let's keep it to a tactical retreat right now, donh ma?" Mal cut in.
"Less talkin' 'n' more runnin' comin' right up." Jayne said, taking an equally measured step backward, sweeping the mob for anyone that looked to eager to start a fight. They did not precisely run, nor did they walk right in step, but the three backed away from the mob, using hand signs and the threat of the weapons to keep them from following. They only had to squeeze off a few more rounds into the armed, milling crowd to get their point across. It was not until they were very close to Serenity that the three dared turn their backs and run flat out. Cursing the tall grass that might hide a spy from them, Mal, Zoe and Jayne hurried up the ramp of the disabled ship.
They'd known they'd been rather low on fuel when the Alliance cruiser had come atop them. With a bit of creative piloting, Wash had managed to elude the fighters before they'd caused too much damage, but he'd managed to get himself lost in the process. With a leaking, battered engine and a hot cargo, Mal was understandably unhappy about this fact. They were out deep in the black, and there would be no running to one of their usual boltholes with the small amount of fuel they had left. So when Wash had found the planet more by accident than design, they limped over, hoping that it was a sign of a change in luck that for once would not be for the worse.
"What do we know about this place?" Mal asked, leaning over the dinosaur-strewn display.
"Nothin' on the Coretex," Zoe reported.
"Generally, I don't know much more than what you see on the screen," Wash admitted. "But it's got breathable atmo, decent gravity levels and no big city lights."
"You think they'll have a place to park? Kaylee's gonna have to shut her down and rebuild half the engine, if I understood her right. She's gonna need parts and fuel, Wash, and that can get mighty expensive."
"I think we'll find something down there." As the pilot spoke, the entire planet seemed to light up like a great blue and green jewel, backlit by a powerful lamp. The light slowly worked its way around, caressing the seas that sparkled beneath. At first, Mal was convinced that the planet was being orbited by a small sun, completely backwards to Earth-That-Was. The light coming from the satellite did not dim as it moved away from the main star's rays, leaving it to pulse and flicker with a light of its own. Wash fiddled with the controls, getting Serenity to visualize this minature star under a different spectrum.
"Some kind of ship," Zoe said, examining it closely. "Never seen one glow like that before, though."
"Never seen a boat designed like that before, either," Mal said, looking critically at the masts that held the solar panels. "Looks like somebody tried to get a boat off of Earth-That-Was and put her in the air without worrying about the open deck."
"That's closed over," Wash said. "Some plexiglass or something; can't tell quite what."
"Over the whole boat?" Mal asked.
"Near enough. She's giving off some signs of life; I even get what might be a skeleton crew on the bioscan."
"Well, if they can keep that thing in the air, they can probably trade us a little fuel, then," Mal said happily. Maybe things would go smooth for one day.
"Should we hail her, sir?" Zoe asked, indicating the glowing ship.
"Can we?" Mal asked. It was possible that this ship was not just glowing just to light up its course in orbit. The welcoming committee aboard might not feel quite friendly where a wounded smuggling ship was concerned. This might not be Alliance territory, but they weren't out of the woods yet.
Wash shook his head. "All the channels are silent, Mal. They're not saying anything to us, or letting us say anything to them. Guess we could go knock on their window and ask 'em to turn down the light, but it ain't happening over a wave."
"All right. We're goin' in and landing her, then, and then we'll find someone to talk to when we know what Serenity needs," Mal said. "Try not to park on any houses, Wash, but an ounce o' civilization wouldn't hurt."
"Right, sir." Wash guided Serenity past the glowing beacon, bringing her down to rest in a grassy plain. "There're a bunch of folks just south of here," the pilot said. "Though the scanners aren't working well enough for me to tell you who they are and what they're doing."
"Right. Wash, you get Book and Simon, and see what you all can help Kaylee with. Jayne, Zoe, and I'll go out and greet the neighbors." Mal said, checking his revolver and his rather lightweight coin purse. "We may be here a while, so we'd better get to know them."
"Should we take the ambassador?" Zoe asked.
"Nah, Inara'll be mad enough at me for putting her off schedule without draggin' her all over another backwater." Mal was not eager to explain to the Companion just how long they could potentially be stuck here.
He was considerably even less eager to inform the others after they had met the locals. They were filthy enough to be Reavers, certainly, and their grunts and howls seemed to promise as much harm to an unarmed man as a Reaver's might, but when Zoe's sawed-off shotgun went off, they backed down. They were smarter than Reavers. Maybe a little more cowardly, but some had called a few of his actions a bit cowardly, too.
Besides, there was something not quite right about those creatures. Under the grime and the scars and the deformations, they didn't quite look human. Mal had seen big men before, and Jayne was no delicate flower himself, but some of these bruisers had made Jayne look puny in comparison. Their teeth had been pointed, either with the help of a file, or more frighteningly, by nature itself. There was no single feature to them that clearly identified them as nonhuman, and, knowing what the human population might get up to on its own, Mal was reluctant to get voice to the fancy, but they definitely weren't quite right.
Leaving Zoe to catch up with her husband, who had been waiting at the hatch, Mal and Jayne wandered back towards the engine room in companionable silence, stewing in their private thoughts. Jayne stopped by the galley to grab a protien bar, bouncing the butt of his rifle against the counter. "Gonna need more," the big man mumbled to himself.
"If that thing goes off in my boat, you're gonna need a whole lot more of something," Mal snapped irritably.
Jayne grunted, tearing a chunk from the bar and chewing loudly. "Gonna go lift."
"Kaylee'll have plenty of things to lift," Mal said. "We need the engine fixed."
"Fine," Jayne said through another mouthful. "Long as we get away from those things. Ain't right." He unconsciously echoed the captain's thoughts.
"That's the plan," Mal replied, shepherding him aft. Too little of his life was currently going according to plan.
The engine room was a chaotic mess, now more so than usual. It seemed like every panel had either exploded in the blast or in the following diagnostics. The main drive sat still in its rotator, dripping a dark blue fluid. The smell of heavy engine oil and burned grease mixed with the more prosaic scents of old metal and Kaylee's favorite fruity perfume in the hot and muggy recycled air. "Now be careful with that!" the little mechanic said, rushing to help resettle the bulky piece that Simon struggled with. "Wouldn't want you to drop it on your foot after you volunteered to help." Her hands lingered on the metal perhaps a trifle longer than they needed to.
"If you'll just show me where to put it down, I'd be grateful." Simon tried to smile charmingly and unaffectedly through clenching teeth. Kaylee reconsidered the heavy object in the doctor's arms – Mal still wasn't sure what it did – and quickly redirected him to place it out of harm's way.
"I expect you've got a shopping list for us, mei mei," Mal said, following after Jayne and Book as they helped inventory the damage. "But I'm afraid the supply store is closed for the evenin'. How much do you think you can cobble back together outta what we got?"
"Won't be much, Cap'n," Kaylee said sadly. "They hit my girl pretty hard back there. I got the main and secondary life support running, so we don't have to worry none about our air, and the lights and 'tricity should be good -" Kaylee cut herself off when the cabin lights flickered briefly in time with the dull thump that echoed through the floor as Jayne and Book set down yet another piece of heavy equipment. "At least for a few days. I don't think I can get her to fly yet, though."
"See what you can do," Mal said. This definitely did not look good.
As usual, when the captain's luck decided to go sour, it didn't go by half measures. "Kaylee?" Inara's voice emerged from just beyond the engine room. "Is River back there with you?" Behind him, the captain heard something clang against the deck.
"When did you last see her, Inara?" Simon asked, moving around Mal. He was limping slightly, the captain noticed. The Core boy had done more than his fair share of the work. Mal wondered who Simon was trying to impress.
"She'd been staying in my shuttle, watching out the window. She's been a bit nervous today."
"Today'd make anybody jumpy," Kaylee said, trying to keep the group calm. "She's probably just hiding someplace she feels safest," the mechanic said optimistically.
"Someplace none of us know about," Mal grumbled. Letting Simon's crazy little madgirl sister on the loose had not been part of the plan. "Is your shuttle still there, at least, Inara?"
"Nothing out of place save River," Inara replied. "I went to get more tea out of the cabin and she was gone by the time I got back."
"Well, then, let's find her," Mal said, motioning a disraught Simon along with him and Inara. "Can't be too many hidey holes we don't know yet."
"She is still on the ship, is she not?" Book's cultured voice asked from behind them.
"She gorram well better be," Mal said, stalking off in search of the missing girl.