The stars froze into a set pattern as main propulsion shut down and the cargo ship drifted toward its designated entry point. Harvest's rock of a moon grew bigger in the windscreen of Serenity's bridge, letting its pilot know that their journey was nearly complete. There calculations had been accurate and the craft slid harmlessly by the oversized asteroid as it proceeded silently toward their next burn point.
The pilot, an average height young woman of fair skin and slight build, made some final corrections, strapped her white hair into a quick bun and sat back in her chair. The hard part was still to come, but she could relax for now. Still, she was excited to be back at Harvest, for more reasons than one.
Harvest was a relatively small and fertile planet far enough in the central planets to be considered a border planet, but close enough to get heavy traffic now and again. River Tam preferred to stay away from crowds, if she could. They made her feel edgy. But there was more to Harvest than just space, there was the new Companion School that Inara Serra was building. That meant goods and, more importantly, books.
This Guild approved academy also offered a safe haven for Serenity to port where few would question its presence and many would welcome its crew. Although there was no formal connection between the Academy and Serenity, as its Director Inara Serra and the captain Malcolm Reynolds did not have an official marriage per se, it was common knowledge that the small freighter had a preference for Harvest as a port.
Harvest had many redeeming features. In particular, it lacked any official Alliance oversight, as yet, which was fine with the captain. It was also a convenient base of operations for River to further her private studies and experiments. Experiments that she preferred to keep to herself, experiments that might make her normal again.
Since her encounter with herself, now nearly three years ago, River had decided it was time for her to take over the task of normalizing her inner self and let Simon get on with his life. That meant reprogramming certain aspects of her life that she didn't need anymore, things she didn't want anymore.
She generally conducted these experiments in the privacy of the bridge, however, of late it had been less conducive to her needs and she was looking for an alternative. The voices of the crew, just down the hall, were growing closer again signaling an end to the silent solitude that River found necessary for her studies. Still she had a minute or so to finish her work.
'Bit stream 0100.0101.0101.0101.0100.0001'. River was trying to concentrate over the conversation that had just invaded her quiet space. 'Not bitter'.
"So I'm not sure what the problem is here, Kaylee." The captain asked.
'0100.1011.0100.1111.0100.1111.0101.0011.' The pilot pressed her mind to say on point. 'Not gummy.'
"He's just not himself, is all I'm sayin." The woman replied, wiping a smudge of grease off of her forehead with her wrist.
01010101010101010101010101. She bit her lip and squinted hard. 'Not – not, agh. Not magenta.'
"And this is a bad thing because?" Mal continued leadingly.
"Well – cause it means something's wrong?"
"Giggle!" River screamed at the top of her lungs, then she added in a soft tone. "Don't kill."
Kaylee stood shocked, not exactly knowing how to respond to the outburst. Mal had become used to the impromptu non-sequiturs of recent, but never ceased to be curious.
"O-Kay then." Mal finally said after and awkward moment.
"Why is everybody so loud?" River's fingers were arched in frustration, her eyes wide and her body tense. "Why does it always have to be so loud?" River stood and stormed off the bridge.
"You got any idea?"
"No Cap'n."
"Well, we'll be in Harvest in another forty minutes." Mal said matter-of-factly, getting back to their conversation. "See Kaylee, I ain't your therapist – I'm your Captain and you're the engineer. That means I tell you where and when to make the ship go – and you make it go there. I'm sure Inara won't mind helping you out with your Doctor problems when we get landside."
"But Cap'n, something's wrong and I …"
"Kaylee. Engine room."
"Yes Cap'n." Kaylee capitulated, as she walked back to the engine room. She looked more worried than upset, but Mal knew it would all be fixed in a few days or just blow over like so many things do.
Mal stood for a moment, crossed his arms and looked out the window. He watched Rock (Harvest's moon) slip by and surveyed their approach to the entry window. Then he looked at the empty pilot's chair, followed by the empty copilot's chair.
"Who's flying my gorram ship?"
An hour later Zoe looked down Serenity's cargo ramp right pleased to see Jayne at the bottom. She walked down the ramp to the temporary porting facilities and exchanged the typical warriors half hug, half slap on the back, as they met.
"It's good to see you Jayne."
"Likewise Zoe." Jayne replied, then quietly to her ear. "You gotta get me off this rock, I'm goin stir crazy."
"Well." Zoe smiled. 'Turns out Captain and I are looking for someone like you on this trip, that is if the Boss can do without you for a few days."
"Won't be a problem. The most threatening thing here is the cows. Pao li sheng wu are ugly as sin, and you best watch their back-ends." He added. "Very dangerous."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Say – where is Mal, anyway?" The big man called loudly as he limped up the ramp. River jogged up to Jayne, gave him a kiss on the cheek and ran down the ramp toward the school. "Guess she missed me. Mal ! I got a bone to pick with you!"
River stopped her jogging a few hundred yards from the Companion House. She walked slowly toward the half built compound enjoying the warmth of the late afternoon sun and the freshness of the southern breeze. The walk from the temporary spaceport to the buildings at the center of the compound was pleasant enough, but it was the distracting views she was after.
Recently she'd found that half clad young men, with large muscles and fair faces, were even more pleasant to look at than the landscape. The young woman was eager to continue her study of this fresh phenomenon, though it did make the relatively short walk a rather long affair.
This of course was not her only concern today, but just a side benefit of her visit. Today she needed to go to the Guild's library to pick up some new publications, and she needed to see Inara. The shirtless man watching was purely a recreational warm-up to some more serious work. Nonetheless it was one she was willing to take her time doing.
Normally this crowd of young men would be putting on their macho for a young woman such as River, however, her bright white hair and her reputation keep the lot of them subdued and focused on their work. They knew this woman. She was called the White Tiger for a reason and any one of them would have to be a fool to mess with anything as unpredictable and dangerous as that.
It didn't bother her so much, being treated differently. They looked good either way. Her studies in behavioral modification and mental reprogramming relied on feelings such as this. River was certainly not an expert in these matters, but she had read a few papers of late and she was excited to get started. Getting hold of these materials was no easy trick out in the boarder planets, but the young prodigy managed.
Since Inara set up shop on Harvest, the mechanics of finding new materials, and getting her hands on them, had gotten quite a bit easier. The Harvest Companion School was the perfect place for this kind of psychobabble and offered a base where few would ask prying questions. One common theme she'd found in all of these writings was that past behavior was not so much removed as modified, replaced by other behavior.
Her early experiments with small things taught her that she needed to replace her behaviors with other behaviors that carried stronger emotions than those that they were initially programmed with. This could be hard for her to fathom, as the scientists at the Alliance Academy that programmed her initially had hook some fairly strong behaviors to some trivial emotions. At the same time other more baseline behaviors were tie to stronger emotions.
One behavior, more important to her than any other, would require more time and concentration than any of the others. She had been working on it for months and getting nowhere. That is why she was visiting Inara today. Inara had something she needed.
Little Nathan had been holding Mal since he'd gotten to the compound two hours earlier. The small boy's hands gripped around the captain's neck like snap-tights on a pinion or mag-boots on a metal deck. Inara swore they were somehow physically attached, but it made the both of them happy, so she didn't mind.
Nathan was a naturally inquisitive child, never resting when his father was about, constantly asking about his ventures into the Rim and his flights to the Core. When his father was not around Nathan would bug River incessantly, to explain this or that. Today both were there, which made the four-year-old boy near manic with joy.
"Are there really Dragons on Liann Jiun" Nathan asked.
"Yes, there surely are." Mal replied, holding the boy up over his head.
"Can they fly?"
River just shook her head and milled about the room looking distracted.
"No – they lost their wing a long time ago." Mal answered, setting the boy firmly back on his hip.
"How big is they?" He asked.
"Big."
"Big enough to eats a man?" Nathan looked wide-eyed and nervously. … like you."
"No, Imp. They don't eat men." River answered irritably, pushing something into her pocket and headed slowly to the door.
River seemed snappish to the Companion today, which meant her part of this story would be especially short. Serenity's pilot had finally saturated with the never-ending litany of questions from her son and lost her patience. Still Inara worried about what affect these stories might have on her young son's mind. The Companion wasn't so much worried that Mal was training him to be a pirate, as she was of the growing wanderlust in the boy.
"They only eat children." She added. "Like' to swallow you up whole."
"River!" Inara scolded, a look of disapproval clouding her perfectly proportioned face and almond eyes.
"Well you don't want him running off to see for himself do you?" River defended as she pushed by Mie Lee, who'd come to put the boy down for his nap.
River had found what she'd come for and now was on her way to the library. She trotted out the door with a smile on her face.
"How come Tiger keeps calling me Imp?" Nathan asked.
'Well, maybe because you are one." Mal said settling into the lush couch Inara used to keep on his shuttle. "To her anyways." Mal was always honest to Nathan, except when he was lying, of course.
"Why?"
"Well you follow her around and keep asking her the 'why' for everything."
"I do nawt." Nathan complained."
"Yes you do." Inara laughed.
Nathan looked at his mother sheepishly. He could never argue the truth with Inara. She had a way of looking at him that shamed him into submission. She had the same effect of Mal, sometimes.
"Now its time for your nap." She ordered, as she sat gracefully next to Mal and kissed the boy on the forehead. "Mei lee, would you take Nathan?"
"Yes." The trainee answered with a slight bow. "Come little one."
Mei Lee separated the conjoined and, carrying the smaller away, left Mal to discuss plans with her mentor.
'So when will you be leaving?" Inara looked at Mal almost hoping he would reconsider going at all. They hadn't even managed a night together this time.
"Six to eight hour. Don't need to be too precise since we aren't using the gate. Should break void sometime – day after tomorrow. I'll send a wave back to you then, just to touch base."
"Mal, you sound almost responsible."
"Well, there's no call for side trips on this one, so I thought I'd go easy on you."
"And I appreciate that." Inara smiled. "Now remember that the marble and the shrine are already…"
"Paid for – I know." Mal completed. "So, tell me again what the little fat man has to do with training young women in the ways of the flesh?"
"It's not all about sex." Inara defended. "It's about comfort and harmony."
"Is that what they're calling it now?"
"Mal stop." Inara smiled sweetly. "I'm not going to miss you any less just because I'm mad at you. So we don't have to play this game."
"Well then." He capitulated. He didn't want her to think that she could figure him out so easily, but he had to throw her a bone once in a while. "Yours is a pick-up and drop-off. It shouldn't take long."
"Mine?"
"Yeah – I'm moving some water vaprators to Whitefall." Mal reminded. "Did you forget?"
"No, but I was hoping that you had." Inara looked worried. "Mal, I don't like that place. Whitefall has always been trouble."
"It's not so bad – since Patience passed." Mal cajoled "Anyway I got the space and they need the vaperators."
"Well don't let those Gorram things damage my shrine or my marble."
Zoe came to the door behind them. She was looking impatient, or more so than normal.
"Time to go, Sir. We got packing to do."
"You take care of him, Zoe." Inara demanded.
"As always."
"What makes you think I need lookin after?" Mal asked.
"Your son!" Inara countered.
Mal could never argue with the truth when confronted with it, and Inara was getting that look. If he didn't want a wrench in the works, it was time for him to leave. Zoe followed him out of the building and asked, as they descended the front stair.
"Inara know about the vaperators, Sir?"
"More or less."
"She know where we're getting them?"
"She never did ask."