Chapter 3
Zoe and Jayne reached the mouth of the alley in time to see Mal catch River as she fell down the ship's ramp. A second later Mal took a bullet to the back and he and River both fell to the ground. Jayne tensed and readied himself to run out and help when Zoe grabbed his shirt and held him back.
"Zo what are ay doin? We gotta go help em." Jayne shouted as he struggled against Zoe's grip.
"Look up on the roof Jayne." Zoe instructed and pointed.
Jayne scanned the roofs surrounding them and spotted at least six snipers all with guns aimed toward Mal and River.
"Shit!" Jayne yelled again.
"I know. We gotta let em go for now. Let's go get Simon and Kaylee." Zoe said in the same calm voice she always used.
The two of them hurried toward the market where they hoped Simon and Kaylee were shopping without trouble.
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Mal woke up slowly but held still so that no one would know he was awake. He used his other senses to try and give him some clue to his current situation before opening his eyes. He could hear and feel the gentle hum of an engine and figured that it felt small enough to probably be just a shuttle. This was good news in his opinion, it meant that wherever he was being taken he wasn't there yet, which meant more chances of escape. He could feel a tight pair of handcuffs digging into his wrists. He could also feel at least two bodies pressed against his. He squinted his eyes open slowly and glanced around. He sighed with relief when he saw that the body pressed against his right side was River, he could make out the top of her head and long dark hair. Mal slid his eyes to the left and saw that the other body pressed against his was Simon, both of the Tam siblings seemed to be unconscious.
Finally Mal worked up enough courage to open both eyes widely and look fully around the room. They were in the small storage area at the back of what Mal recognized as an Alliance shuttle. River was lying on her side with her head and upper body pressed against Mal. The Alliance was obviously taking no chances with her, while he was only shackled at the wrists, River's hands and ankles had both been tightly bound and long chains ran from the cuffs to a chain that had been locked around her waist.
Once he was sure that River was breathing steadily Mal turned to take a closer look at Simon. Unlike his sister Simon had only been handcuffed like Mal, but he had obviously taken a brutal beating. Both of his eyes were swollen and black and his bottom lip was split, a long stream of blood ran from his mouth and onto the front of his white shirt. When Mal began to wiggle to try and get a better view of Simon's injuries the doctor moaned and began to stir.
"Simon. Hey ya with me Doc?" Mal whispered.
"Wha… Where are we?" Simon croaked in a hoarse whisper.
"Alliance shuttle best I can tell. You think you can sit up? You're kinda smashing me." Mal asked and gently nudged Simon into a sitting position.
As soon as Simon's weight had moved off Mal's shoulder the captain felt a sharp twinge of pain and looked down to see blood pouring out of his chest just below his shoulder.
Simon's confused expression quickly turned to one of concern when he saw the blood. He moved closer to Mal and pressed both of his bound hands to the wound.
"Wuh de ma! Mal this is bad, I think the bullet nicked one of the arteries in your chest. We have to get the bleeding stopped or you're going to bleed out." Simon whispered and looked around frantically for something to stem the flow of blood.
Finally not seeing anything Simon ripped the sleeve off of his shirt and tied it tightly around Mal's shoulder. Mal hissed in pain as Simon pulled the sleeve viscously tight.
"I'm sorry but we have to make it as tight as possible. It would be a lot easier without these gorram cuffs on, but I think that should stop the bleeding enough to keep you alive for a while." Simon apologized. "You know if they hadn't thrown me on top of you when they put us in here you would have bled to death already." Simon commented.
"Yeah I'll be sure to thank them for that. Before they start torturing and experimenting on River and possibly us as well." Mal whispered back sarcastically.
"Is River alright?" Simon asked and did his best to wiggle in the cramped space over to his sister.
"She's breathing steady, but I think they tranqued her. She passed out soon as I got to the ship and I'm pretty sure I saw a dart in her leg when she fell." Mal explained.
"What happened to Kaylee?" Mal whispered a second later, afraid to hear the answer.
"I think she's alright. I saw them coming so I pushed her into a supply closet at the back of the store then I took off and tried to lead them away from her. They beat the go-se out of me when they caught up with me." Simon explained and Mal felt his stress lift a little to know that his mei-mei was safe.
"Is the tranquilizer gonna hurt the babies?" Mal asked hating the fact that he kept having to ask Simon difficult questions that he was afraid to hear the answers to.
"There's a chance that it could, but it's fairly small. I would never recommend giving a pregnant woman a tranquilizer, but really that's just a safety precaution. The placenta should filter out most of the medicine before it reaches the babies." Simon assured him and Mal again felt his heart lighten a little.
"Do you think they're taking us to the Academy?" Simon asked taking his turn to ask a difficult question.
"Not sure. Honestly that's probably where they'll take River and maybe you as well, don't really know what they'd do with me at that place, my brain ain't all souped up like the two a you's." Mal answered.
Mal heard Simon take a sharp breath of air and saw that the doctor's face had grown ashen. He knew that Simon's worst fear in the world, aside from something happening to Kaylee, was River being taken back to the Academy and now he was being faced with that situation. Add to that the fact that he himself might be facing the same torture they'd put his sister through and Mal thought that Simon was handling the news surprisingly well.
"We have to get out of this. I'm not letting them screw with her brain again. After everything she's been through, she's been doing so well, I can't let her go back to that." Simon whispered desperately.
"I know we'll figure something out." Mal promised trying to reassure the younger man.
Both men squinted suddenly as the small door to the cargo hold was thrown open suddenly bathing the darkened room in harsh white light.
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Zoe and Jayne were able to find the spot where the Alliance had attacked Simon easily. There was a large crowd gathered around still talking about what had happened.
"Hey what's goin on?" Jayne asked grabbing the scruff of the neck of a young boy who ran by.
"Purple bellies beat the go-se outta some guy. Said he was a fugitive." The boy explained excitedly.
"They get him?" Jayne asked.
"Yep loaded him up on a shuttle. They took off a minute ago." The boy answered and then ran off to dart among the crowd of onlookers.
"So we know they got Mal, Simon, and River. You think they got Kaylee too?" Jayne asked with concern. Like Mal Jayne thought of Kaylee as a little sister, the thought of her in the hands of the Alliance was disturbing.
"Don't know. The kid didn't say anything about a girl, so maybe she got away." Zoe said hopefully and then in an uncharacteristic display of emotion she reached over and gripped Jayne's hand tightly.
Jayne pulled Zoe to her and wrapped her in a tight hug, as much for his comfort as her own. Over Zoe's shoulder Jayne saw a figure moving through the crowd towards them. A second later he recognized that it was Kaylee hurrying in the direction of Serenity. She cried out suddenly when she saw Jayne and Zoe and broke into a sprint towards them.
"They took 'im. The Alliance they got Simon!" She yelled and threw herself into Zoe and Jayne's arms crying hysterically.
"Hey mei-mei it's alright we'll get them back I promise." Zoe comforted.
"Them?" Kaylee asked through her tears.
"They got Mal and River too." Jayne said quietly hating to give Kaylee anything more to cry over.
Kaylee's eyes grew wide with horror, but she didn't start crying again.
"Let's get back to the ship. We'll figure something out from there." Zoe suggested and turned Kaylee in the direction of the docks.
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"Finally the infamous Tam siblings and Malcolm Reynolds. You know I think the three of you have caused the Alliance a bigger headache than anyone else in the Verse since the war ended." Captain Syler said with a grin as he stared into the cargo hold.
"Imagine the promotion I'll receive when I hand the three of you over." He exclaimed delightedly.
"Well congratulations on the career advancement." Mal replied sarcastically.
"Where are you taking us?" Simon demanded.
"I thought you would have figured that out by now Dr. Tam, perhaps those genius brains of yours were overestimated a bit? We're taking you home to your mother, to the Academy she started for the both of you. I'm sure you have plenty you'll want to catch up on with her." Syler said with a smirk of glee on his face.