Chapter 02

The Gomeria Gambit

Leonard pulled out his tablet as he sat in the coffee shop next door to the salon waiting for Penny to finish having her hair done. He had seen the email message alerting him that Anathema Divine had published a second chapter in the Firefly story before he and Penny had left for the salon. He followed the link.

Chapter Two: Gomeria, by Anathema Divine

Larry stood on the Firefly deck holding his puppy. "Thank you so much, Captain, for sending Mr. Cobb to my Uncle Floyd's for my puppy Chipper. Jayne, I owe you big time."

Leonard looked up from his screen and said, "Chipper? Uncle Floyd? Hmmm." He returned to viewing the screen.

"It ain't nothing," Jayne said. "Your Uncle Floyd gave me a jar of hooch and said to tell you 'Good luck.' I'm keeping the hooch."

Kaylee squealed, "Puppy!" and ran to Larry, taking Chipper from him.

Chipper squirmed in her arms and licked her face as Inara and Zoe came over and began making a fuss of him.

River looked down on them from the walkway above saying, "Warm bed, food, toys, love my boy, love my boy, good to be a puppy."

"Everyone find a seat, strap in, and let's get this show on the road," the Captain said. "Larry, the dog's your responsibility."

"I'll help," Kaylee said. "Aren't you the sweetest thing. Larry, is it all right if I take him to engineering? I can make him a bed in the corner while I work."

. . .

Five days later, Hoban Washburn set Serenity down in a clearing on the outskirts of New Mayberry on the planet Gomeria. He noticed the signature of a recent explosion three clicks north. He walked to the deck, where Inara was helping prepare his wife Zoe. He looked at what Inara was doing and said, "Mal, I really don't like this."

Captain Reynolds said, "Relax. Zoe and I have bought weapons from this dealer before. She knows the drill."

"Sweetheart," Zoe said as Inara carefully applied heavy makeup to her eyes and thick, sticky, bright red color to her lips, "Mal doesn't have a choice. We really need the weapons, and he needs me with him to look them over and make sure we're not getting ripped-off. Since we had to stop off here anyway, we may as well buy them from the Kalikaks. We'll make a 5000 percent profit when we sell them on Galaxia."

"Why do you have to go as his slave?" Hoban asked.

Mal said, "Slavery is not only legal here, but they have barbaric views about women. If Zoe showed up in public walking around with me as an equal, they would assume she is an unattached outworlder and would capture her and sell her into slavery. I'm going to chain the symbol around her neck that indicates that she has been sold, and our cover story is going to be that I am delivering her to her buyer."

"Sweetheart, please go back to the bridge," Zoe said. "I don't want you to get upset. Please understand I'm all right. Mal isn't going to allow anything to happen to me."

Hoban kissed Zoe, turned, and left for the bridge.

Inara finished applying the slave makeup to Zoe. Kaylee was watching the process. She asked, "Inara, what are you doing with slave makeup?"

Inara said, "Sometimes, my clients prefer to relate to me as a pleasure slave rather than as an equal. I make sure we have all understandings up front, so they know how far they can take that fantasy."

"Sounds nice," Kaylee said. "Sometimes, I wonder how it would be to be a companion-or even a pleasure slave."

Inara said, "Kaylee, I think you have the spirit of a companion. A pleasure slave, though, it looks glamorous from far away, but not from a close range. Why don't I make you up when Mal and Zoe leave? I can teach you how to do it yourself."

"I would love that," Kaylee said.

"I think Simon's around here somewhere," Inara said. "He might skip a few heartbeats to see you all fixed up instead of being covered in grease and carrying a wrench."

Inara and Kaylee took Zoe's clothes and weapons as she completely stripped. Mal chained a leash around her neck and tied her hands behind her back with a leather thong. Zoe's attitude abruptly changed from that of a proud warrior to that of a confident but submissive pleasure slave. Jayne pressed the button opening the ramp, and Mal started down pulling Zoe along at the end of the leash. Larry walked beside Mal.

Mal said, "Larry, don't react if I scream at or even if I strike Zoe. That's all part of the act. I won't do any more than the people here will expect. If anyone thinks she's really not a slave I'm taking for delivery to her new buyer, they will cause us problems, and they may even seize her and sell her into slavery for real. We're low on weapons and ammunition for sale, and the dealer here will have everything we need. I have to bring Zoe with me. She's the weapons expert on this ship." He turned to the others and said over his shoulder, "Inara, Kaylee, make sure you stay in the ship, and make sure you keep an eye on River. If anyone spots any of you, they will capture you and sell you as slaves."

Inara said, "That's why we companions refuse to do business on this planet. The slavers here captured and enslaved the first group of companions who came here, so we have boycotted the planet ever since."

. . .

Mal saw the expression on Larry's face and said, "Try not to gawk," as they walked past the first area where merchants had their slaves for sale. Crowds of people milled about examining the slaves. Free women, their faces covered, ridiculed the naked females on display on the waist-high platform in the humiliating slave position.

"It's barbaric," Larry said, looking at a group of painted women chained together by their throats with their hands tied behind their backs.

"Remember, they're goods on display," Mal said. "Look away. You're beginning to attract notice."

"Hey, buddy. How much do you want for your slave?" a man approaching them asked. "Oh, sorry," he said as he saw the plate chained around Zoe's neck indicating that she had been sold. "My mistake."

"This one's not for sale," Mal said. "My client bought her last week, and I came to take possession and deliver her to him."

"Pity," the man said. "I own a pleasure house in the center of town, and she would bring in a lot of good business. You boys be sure to pay us a visit while you're here."

"Good day to you, friend," Mal said, shaking the man's hand.

"What's his problem?" the man asked, nodding at Larry.

"That's my sister's son," Mal said. "A mule kicked him in the head. He ain't been right since then. Don't pay him no mind."

. . .

Mal, Larry, and Zoe arrived at the public house at an alley off the main street. "Down, slave!" Mal barked for the befit of a group of young men watching Zoe with interest.

Zoe backed up to a post and squatted on her knees.

Mal took the chain he had used to leash her, wrapped it around her neck, and then locked it around the post, forcing her to sit up against the post unable to move. "Display yourself, slave!" he said, slapping her across the face.

Zoe arched her back and assumed the slave display position. She wet her lips and looked in the direction of the gawking men.

Mal said, "One sound out of you, slave, and I will cut out your tongue and nail it to this post. I'll have to pay your new master for that, but I will not tolerate a noisy slave!" He looked around at the interested men and said, "Anyone touches her, and I'll have your tongues nailed up alongside hers!"

The men backed away but still gawked at Zoe.

Mal and Larry went into the pub under the sign that said no outside slaves were allowed.

Larry whispered, "Will she be all right?"

Mal said, "She'll be fine. Tampering with another man's slave is a crime here punishable by enslavement or, if the owner really presses it, death. Even with her hands secured behind her and chained to the post without any weapons, Zoe can take care of herself."

Mal went up to the bar and indicated for Larry to sit next to him.

"Do you have anything without alcohol?" the tall man who walked up and sat next to Larry asked.

Larry turned toward the man and said, "I understand this establishment has a nice peach cider."

The bartender said, "Buddy, I don't know what you're talking about. We ain't got no cider of no kind."

"My mistake," Larry said. "What do you have for my friend then? He is taking medicine for his heart and can't have anything with alcohol in it."

"The only thing we got without no alcohol in it is goat's milk," the bartender said, his expression hinting that he smelled something unpleasant.

"That will be fine," the other man said. The man looked around. When the bartender brought his goat's milk, Larry paid for it and said, "My treat."

"Thankee," the man said. He got up and said, "Would you and your uncle like to join me?"

"That's kind of you," Larry said.

Larry and Mal took their beers to the corner table and sat with the man. They talked about the weather and the exorbitant price of field slaves this season. Mal and Larry finished their drinks. Larry wiped his mouth with a napkin he had taken out of his pocket and put it on the table next to the other man's glass. He and Mal stood and walked out of the pub.

Mal unchained Zoe from the post outside of the pub, barked, "Up, slave," and jerked her to her feet.

As the three walked down the backstreet toward the other side of the settlement, Larry said, "The note on the back of the napkin I left said in code for my three friends to come 20 minutes apart and use the password Jayne and I arranged when they approach the ship and Jayne challenges them."

"Why did they come to a godforsaken place like this to hide from the Alliance?" Mal asked. "I don't cotton to no slavery. I wouldn't-a done no weapons buyin' if we wasn't already coming here. I have this dream of getting together an army and coming here and freeing the slaves. I could be their Jimmy Carter."

"Jimmy Carter?" Larry asked.

"You know," Mal said. "He was the president of the old United Kingdom during the American Revolution. He freed the slaves with the Magna Carta."

Larry smiled and said, "About my friends, they had to leave in a hurry, and the only transport not on the Alliance' radar was a black market ship heading here with humans for trafficking. We didn't like it, but we didn't have any choice. I volunteered to stay behind to find a ship to take us to Galaxia."

. . .

Mal, Larry, and Zoe walked back down the street in the general direction of the ship. When no one was near them, Mal called on the radio, "Jayne, there will be three wagons just after dark. The driver of the middle wagon will ask if you can spare some water for their mules. We arranged for everything we need. Zoe came through for us and got us a great deal."

"Got it," Jayne said. "The first of our meat deliveries has arrived. Its name is Eldon."

"Roger," Mal said.

As the three came around the corner into the slaver area, they heard shrieking.

"No! I'm not a slave! I deliver ships! I just stopped to refuel and repair the ship, and these men took me! I demand you untie my hands!"

They saw a beautiful blond woman struggling with two men. A third man, who held her leash, struck her across the face and said, "I told you to shut your pie hole! So, Samos," he said, turning toward the heavy man who was standing next to the group of women displayed for sale, "What would you give me for this one?"

"You have a legal right to her, Jax?" the other man asked. "I am not going to run afoul of the authorities for selling a slave you stole from someone else or you took illegally. You've come to the attention of the authorities before under suspicious circumstances. You want to make fast money, so you take too many liberties with the law."

"She was a lone female with no markings to indicate ownership or marriage," Jax said. "You know our laws. It was my right to claim her and take her as a slave or sell her. I have no use for her. I said shut up!" he said striking the shrieking woman again.

Larry started to step forward, but Mal put his hand on his arm and shook his head no.

"I'll get you for this! I am not a slave! As I told you, I deliver ships to their buyers and then catch transports back to my planet. I wouldn't have stopped here if the ship I was delivering had not leaked fuel and I had to find the nearest port."

Samos walked over to the woman and lifted her chin. The woman spat in his face and called him an obscene name that asserted misconduct with pigs. He calmly wiped his face with a cloth and glanced at Jax, who stuck a hypodermic needle into the woman's neck.

The woman tried to scream, but, suddenly, she did not utter a sound, even though she worked her mouth. Her knees became wobbly, and she nearly fell.

"Hold her," Jax said, as his men kept the woman in a standing position. He looked at Samos, who said, "I don't buy raw, untrained slaves. All of my slaves have been through the training houses where they have learned to be proper slaves. I prefer to buy slaves who were born into slavery and do not have histories of freedom to remember. This one is worse than even the most untrained of slaves."

"At least let me clean her up and show you," Jax said. "She is very beautiful; she just got filthy when we had to subdue her. She would make a good pleasure slave."

The woman looked Larry in the eye and silently mouthed, "Help me."

Larry whispered in Mal's ear, "We can't let this happen."

"Just keep your mouth shut," Mal said. "Let's move on. Now is not the time."

By now, Jax' men were cutting away the woman's clothing and throwing it into the nearby fire. One was washing the grime from the woman's face with a wet cloth.

Mal tried to get Larry to move on, but Larry stood where he was and watched the scenario playing out before him.

One of Samos' women came over and began to paint the woman's face. The woman tried to struggle, but her eyes rolled back in her head and her knees buckled.

"She is the most beautiful human being I've ever seen," Larry whispered.

"She's not for you," Mal whispered. "Where we're going, you can't have a slave, and I would never give passage to anyone who would own a slave."

"I would never own a slave," Larry said, "But I can't let this happen to her."

Samos stood back and looked at the freshly stripped and painted slave.

Samos' woman said, "Master, I only had time to apply a small amount of paint. If you want me to take her off and bring her back in a few minutes, I can do a better job-especially if you give me switching rights over her."

The blond woman drowsily tried to lick the thick, deep red color from her lips. She continued to wobble, the men on either side still holding her in a standing position.

"That is good enough," Samos said. "Jax, she is indeed a supremely beautiful woman. She would fetch much money selling her to one of the top pleasure houses in one of the big cities if she were trained. But, as I said before, I don't trade in untrained slaves, especially untrained pleasure slaves. You need to take her to one of the training houses and see what they will give you for her. Given this woman's fighting spirit, I'll wager that won't be much."

Samos walked back over to where a buyer was examining the teeth of one of his women on display and began telling the buyer about all of the woman's selling points.

Jax turned and nearly ran into Larry, pulling the woman forward by her leash, causing her to stumble to her knees. "What are you looking at?" he demanded.

The men with Jax pulled the woman to her feet.

Mal quickly said, "My nephew here is learning my trade. I deliver slaves to their buyers. I sometimes also work as an agent for those who want to sell their slaves or buy select slaves. My nephew was watching because he is new to the business and is my apprentice. He wanted to see how another master slaver operates. Good day to you, sir. We will be on our way."

"How much do you want for her?" Larry blurted out.

"Excuse me?" Mal asked, turning toward Larry. "Jabez, you are not licensed for the slave trade yet. You are still serving your apprenticeship."

"No," Larry said, "But I do not have a slave to cook and clean for me and to provide me comfort on cold nights. Any free man can buy a slave for his own use."

Mal gave Larry a warning look.

"How much are you willing to spend?" Jax asked.

The woman struggled weakly to free her bound hands. Her painted lips opened and closed as she attempted to cry out. Jax backhanded her, snapping her head back. She hung her head, stunned.

Mal looked into Larry's eyes for a couple of moments and said, "My nephew would offer you 12 Kronas."

"Twelve Kronas?" Jax demanded. "For a woman like this? You see how beautiful she is. I could fetch 100 times that for her in any pleasure house in the galaxy."

"Not as she is, you won't," Mal said. "She was a free woman until you captured her. Even if you sent her to a training house, she would carry the memory of freedom for the rest of her life. She would plot every moment how to gain her freedom-or kill you. No, 12 Kronas is a very generous offer. My nephew here is going to have to arrange for her training at his own expense, and, from what I've seen, that is going to take a long time and cost a lot of money."

"Twenty Kronas," Jax said.

"No," Mal said. "Let's go, Jabez. Come, slave." He turned, jerked Zoe forward by her leash, and began to walk away.

"Fifteen," Jax said to Mal's retreating back. "That's my final offer."

Mal turned and looked Jax in the eyes. "Throw in the leash and the bindings and give her another shot of the discipline drug," he said. "We will need to be able to get her to our quarters, and she is beginning to struggle. Even with her hands bound behind her, she is difficult to control."

"Done," Jax said. He pulled another needle from his pocket and injected another shot into the woman's neck.

"Pay the man," Mal said to Larry, as the woman's knees buckled and Jax' men struggled to maintain her in a standing position.

Larry paid Jax. Jax and the woman briefly made eye contact.

Jax tied a cord around the woman's neck with a sign on it signifying that she had been sold.

"What happened to the ship she was delivering?" Mal asked.

Jax said, "She must have activated the security the seller put on the ship before we captured her, because my men tell me it exploded after we left with her, killing two of my best men. It was about four clicks north, on the other side of yon hill [pointing]."

"Pity," Mal said. "I might have had use for it."

Samos, who had been watching the transaction from a distance, approached the men and looked Larry in the eye. "May the seven gods have mercy on your soul," he said to Larry. "I think, my young and impetuous friend, that you have had the last moment's peace that you will have until you rid yourself of this slut. If she belonged to me, I would take her into the woods and tie her to a tree for the sleen to eat her."

Jax smiled as he watched the four as they walked away with Larry guiding the stumbling woman by the arm.

"Slaver scum," Larry said under his breath.

The two men and two bound women walked in the direction of the ship, Mal dragging Zoe behind him by her leash, occasionally slapping her across the face or on her bottom and telling her to keep up. Larry supported the blond woman by the arm as she stumbled along.

Larry reached to untie the woman's hands from behind her back, and Mal softly said, "No, we're not away from prying eyes. Wait until we're safely in the ship. And pull her by the leash; don't support her by the arm. Treat her as if she were your slave and didn't amount to anything other than 15 Kronas. People are still watching us." He walked over to the blond woman and slapped her across the face. "Walk, slave!" he loudly said.

. . .

Jayne greeted Mal, Larry, Zoe, and the new blond woman as they came up the ramp. He raised the ramp. Mal began untying Zoe's hands from behind her back, while Inara brought her a robe.

Zoe began rubbing the feeling back into her hands.

Kaylee, who was still wearing the nice dress Inara had loaned her and the makeup Inara had applied, walked up to the group.

"Wow, Kaylee," Zoe said, "You are as pretty as a companion."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Kaylee said.

"Who's this?" Jayne demanded.

"Our professor here has bought hisself a sex slave," Mal said.

"She's not my slave," Larry said. "I free her."

"There's no such thing on this world as a freed slave," Mal said. "That's the hard reality of this planet. Once a slave, always a slave. She's not free until we get out of the air space."

"What do we do with her?" Jayne asked.

"Her seller gave her the discipline drug," Larry said. "I bought her to keep her from being sold into slavery. I would never own a slave. I bought her to prevent her from losing her freedom."

"Idiot," Jayne said.

Inara and Kaylee looked long and hard at Larry. Inara smiled. Kaylee walked over, kissed Larry on the cheek, and said, "We have a gentleman among us. I hope if I'm ever sold into slavery you come along and rescue me."

Larry said, "Just look at her. She is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Our children will be smart and beautiful."

Leonard looked up from his tablet. A wide grin began to spread across his face. "Gotcha," he said softly. He continued reading.

Inara said, "There is no antidote to the drug. We'll have to keep her comfortable until it wears off. It will be best if we allow her to sleep and wake up on her own. By the way, Larry, she is understanding and will remember everything we say, she simply cannot respond."

"Oh, no," Larry said. He looked at the woman and said, "I'm so sorry."

"What's her name?" Kaylee asked.

"Whatever her master here says it is," Jayne said, grinning a wolfish grin at Larry.

"I have no idea," Larry said. "Miss, I'm Larry. I did not buy you to be my slave, I bought you to keep those bastards from taking your freedom. I'm sorry the Captain here had to strike you, but we had to make it look believable that we were enslaving you. We are going to the Altair colonies next, where we will release you. I'll pay your transport to wherever you want to go. You can even go to Galaxia with my friends and me after Altair if you think you can get a better transport from there. We need to take you with us now, though."

The blond woman briefly made eye contact with Larry, and then her eyes rolled back in her head.

"She's going to go down," Inara said as the woman's knees buckled.

Larry, Kaylee, and Inara grabbed the woman and walked her over to a bench, where they had her sit. Inara went to get her a robe while Larry untied her hands and removed the leash and the sold sign from around her neck.

"Where are my friends?" Larry asked.

Kaylee said, "They are all hiding in the engine room. We thought it best to hide them in case the authorities boarded the ship. You're going to have to do something about Eldon. He's been on the bridge trying to tell Hoban how to pilot a ship. Hoban's going to kill him if he comes back to the bridge."

Kaylee helped Larry guide the blond woman to her room. She said, "We'll make arrangement for her quarters when she wakes. I prefer to keep her where I can keep an eye on her until she shakes off the effects of the drug."

"I'll call Simon and get him to examine her," Inara said.

Mal said, "Jayne, let's you and me go looking for her ship. We may be able to salvage something."

Larry, Inara, and Kaylee managed put the woman to bed. The woman closed her eyes, became very still, and began breathing slowly. Inara left to allow her to get some rest, and Kaylee went to get her some food for when she waked. Larry turned his back to go to the other side of the room and get a chair. The woman opened one eye slightly, only closing it when Larry turned back toward her. Larry set the chair down next to the bed and sat.

#

"I'm setting the timer for 20 minutes," Laura said to Penny.

"Great," Penny said. "I'll let my boyfriend know." She pulled out her iPhone and texted Leonard: "20 min for highlights, prob 45 min tot. Go if u need 2, will text 10 min before time. ILY"

Penny saw that she had email. She pulled down her menu, which said she had 47 new notifications from the fan fiction site, including one that Twyla Mercedes had published a new chapter in her ghost story Knock for Once Upon a Time. She opened the link and began reading the story.

"What are you reading?" Laura asked.

"This is fan fiction," Penny said. "I really like this writer's story, so I'm following her. Since my friends introduced me to fan fiction, I've decided that I'll register for creative writing this semester at Pasadena Community College. My adviser said I should take an elective in the arts."

#

On the other side of town, in his apartment in an old converted watch factory, Raj read, "Our children will be smart and beautiful." He looked over at Cinnamon and said, "Aha! The plot thickens."

#

At Chez Wolowitz, Bernadette was reading Anathema Divine's second chapter aloud to Howard.

"Our children will be smart and beautiful," she read.

She and Howard looked at each other. "Oh, my goodness," Bernadette said. I know who Anathema Divine is."

"Me too," Howard said.

Howard dialed Raj.

#

At 2311 North Robles Avenue, Amy and Sheldon were reading on their laptops. Amy asked, "Are you working on your fan fiction?"

Sheldon said, "No, I've put it aside for a bit, since no one's interested in it. I'm watching an episode of Kalara, Warrior Queen on Netflix. What are you doing?"

Amy said, "There's a new Anathema Divine chapter. It's really good so far. Listen to this: 'Our children will be smart and beautiful.'" She looked at Sheldon and asked, "Sheldon, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I think so," Sheldon said. "I'm beginning to wonder if I am going to be one of those brilliant scientists no one appreciates until 100 years after his time."

Amy brought out her cell phone and called Bernadette. She said, "Bernadette: I know who Anathema Divine is!"

#

Leonard had a broad grin on his face as Penny came out into the salon's front area. He walked over to the cashier and asked, "What's the damage?"

The cashier rang up the total. Penny added a jar of the super conditioning treatment. Leonard paid and left the stylist a nice tip.

"Thank you, Sweetie," Penny said. She looked closely at him and said, "What are you grinning about?"

"Oh, nothing."

Penny's phone notified her of a text message. She pulled up the message. It was from Bernadette and read, "Penny: Howard, Raj, Amy, and I read the new Anathema Divine chapter today. We figured it out at the same time. LEONARD IS ANATHEMA DIVINE!"