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Chapter Three: It Doesn't Always Go Awry

He kept a weather eye on Simon when the three of them headed back into the main part of the ship where the rest of the crew was. As much as the doctor always seemed to argue with his Captain's every decision, once the first few hours passed okay, Mal figured Simon would go along with his plan. As soon as he had the rest of the plan clear, at least.

Jayne remained a big hulking question mark, so that was a problem to be put off 'til everybody else was settled. He'd always be a danger of turning on them all, and the big man was superstitious as anything to boot. He weren't too safe to keep around as either human or vampire, no matter which way you came at it. Still, the man was crew, and damn useful at intimidating the folk they dealt with. That was the whole reason they put up with the big ape in the first place. It was a tangly knot of uncertainty, to be sure.

The Companion was an issue, too. Beyond her job putting her too close with all kinds of untrustworthy strangers and yearly medical exams, she'd been plannin' on leaving anyhow. No reason to assume that would change, after. Worse, woman might be awful vexated at him and the rest for putting her career in jeopardy and he didn't rightly trust her reaction. Then again, for all her bold declarations, she still hadn't made any efforts he knew of to actually leave, so short of kicking her and her stuff off at the docks before they took off – a few hours in port, he'd trust the whole crew. Days and weeks out in the black, weren't at all likely they could keep the change secret nor keep someone from bein' tempted by the fresh blood. Didn't much care one way or t'other, except for he knew the Guild kept close tabs on their Companions. Inara went missing, they'd more than likely come looking for Serenity if'n she wasn't known to have disembarked.

Considering his mysterious past, Book was also a subject to be wondered on. A fella who kept around holy relics and was the most likely of anybody he knew to perhaps already know about the whole vampire business could certainly be a problem. They could just kill the three of 'em, once they got out in the black. It was probably the most sensible option. A good part of him wouldn't really care, would in fact enjoy it more than a bit to kill the extras. Thinking back on the way the sweet little thing his sire had tied up for him to eat on wakin' had screamed gave him all kinds of happy tingles. Still, there was a niggling sense that they could be useful and that it would set a bad precedent, they started off with killing crew.

He had never been inclined to letting others make decisions on his ship, but perhaps in this case it wouldn't hurt to get the rest of the crew's read on what to do 'bout those troublesome others. Didn't mean he'd follow their notions any, but it might not hurt to get a feel for where they stood. In the meantime, it was probably just as well Jayne and Book were still off-ship. Inara might be a problem, but hopefully with the three of them and the other three of the crew to turn things would go simple enough. Although the fact he couldn't order Inara around like the others was purely irksome. They could just stow Zoe and Wash in their bunk without anybody likely to find it suspicious, but the woman might go lookin' for some girl-type chatter with Kaylee.

Mal let the whole day pass, through the crew takin' dinner together. Was a good thing their kind could eat, though it felt like a pure waste to do so, as there weren't no nutritional value in it for 'em and the tasteless protein go se they generally had registered as even less interesting on his tongue now. Afterward, he assigned Wash to the bridge to do some figuring on their course for takeoff, much to Zoe's annoyance, and went to confer with the Tams.

He didn't much like the idea of leaving anything up to Simon, but the boy would start something they couldn't easily explain to the rest of the crew and might tip 'em off something was different, if he didn't let him have his turn. Weren't no surprise, either, the boy wanted to sink fangs into little Kaylee. He'd figured after all their years together he'd owed it to turn Zoe hisownself, and he trusted River well enough to handle the pilot. While Kaylee might potentially be left 'til later, Zoe and Wash had to go together, or there'd be undue fuss. As it was, with as little time left as they had before their intended departure window, they'd have to do 'em all roughly the same time. The one thing he was dead sure of was not having anyone they couldn't stand to lose still human when they took to the air.

Right on about now was the best time to get it done, too. That way everybody'd be up and about by tomorrow afternoon when they were scheduled to leave Greenleaf. Mal went over his admonitions about turning to the two Tams again until they were both on the verge of rolling their eyes at him, before giving it up and hoping nothing went wrong. He'd managed to convince Simon without too much challenge to explain to him where to go in town that afternoon and stock up on blood supply. Greenleaf was a good place for it – Mal didn't know much about the tech involved, but more advanced settlements like this, they had access to large cheap stocks of the lab-produced plasma that Simon usually kept in the infirmary. Such things would be harder to come by and more expensive on top of it from the less civilized worlds.

Inara was still wandering the boat now and then, which was a bit of a problem. She kept mostly to her shuttle lately, quite a bit moreso than before she said she was leavin'. With his luck, the contrary woman would pick today to want to socialize, though. On top of that, Jayne and the preacher might be returning at any time, and it wouldn't do to have them walking in on something they shouldn't see. Wasn't a problem for River and Simon so much, as the two of them had targets already in isolated parts of the ship. Zoe was a bit different. They might know each other better'n anyone else in the spinning verse, but they didn't make it a habit to invade one another's private spaces more often than could be helped.

Still, wasn't much of a choice in it. Though she didn't say anything beyond a particularly articulate arch of an eyebrow, Mal could tell she was suspicious when he asked her to talk some things over in private and moved towards his bunk. Zoe might have found it downright odd, but she trusted him and followed along with the idea easy enough. Woman wasn't even armed, walking about the ship not expecting trouble. Weren't so manly to admit it, but he'd always been fair sure Zoe could kick his ass any time she pleased. So being able to keep her pinned from effectively fighting back with barely more than a thought was funner than anything. Not so much for her, o' course.

As a matter of fact, the smell of fear on Zoe was so intoxicating he damn near forgot to stop feeding soon enough to change her. Was closer than he would have liked, but he managed to pull back soon enough and get her to drink. The process complete, he put her down on his bunk for the moment and went up to the hallway above and check the status with the process on the bridge with the pilot and River. He was worried how he was gonna figure things without takin' the chance of being a distraction at the wrong moment, but it didn't turn out to be a thing of consequence.

Door to the bridge was already open and no one was in there. His questions were answered as he was coming back down the stairs, wondering what had happened, and the hatch to the married couple's bunk popped open. River's head emerged from below first, followed by the rest of her.

"Everything shiny?" He asked the girl.

She cocked her head to the side, "No particular sheen visible. The age of components and insufficient scrubbing during regular maintenance would be unable to result in a refractive degree of polish. The plan went fine."

"Uh, good then. Good." He nodded. He hooked a thumb back over his shoulder, "I'll just go get Zoe then."

As planned, he hefted the limp shell of Zoe over his shoulder and hauled her out of his bunk and down into her own. River had already tied up Wash to make sure he didn't cause trouble when waking and had helpfully left restraints for him to use on Zoe. He made efficient work of tying her up. He hadn't bothered to do any such thing with Simon because he'd figured he could rightly handle anything the doc could manage to do. Zoe was a whole different animal and doing the three of them at once added its own dangers.

He'd gotten as much information out of the gal who'd turned him as he could manage in the limited time he had. One of the things she mentioned was that the change affected everyone differently. Some rose almost exactly as they had been before. Others, suddenly freed of the restrictions of humanity, such as guilt and the like, came out entirely different. Usually more assertive and often more vicious. She'd had to explain that much because she'd tied him up, too, and he'd asked what that was all about. Mal didn't much like the idea that any of the crew might turn like that and have to be put down, but it was a possibility had to be given due consideration. Especially when their current plan was to turn three at the same time. Any one of 'em got ideas 'bout not following orders anymore, let alone two of 'em colluded about it – well, it'd be right problematical.

So precautions had to be taken, yet they also had to keep their eyes out for the return of Book and Jayne, as well as any curiosity prompting Inara to wander the ship. They were comin' up real fast on their set time for leaving the planet now. It did work in their favor that it was getting into the later hours of the evening, so if anyone did come lookin' it wouldn't be too strange not to find many of the crew about. It didn't really help none that it wasn't possible to exactly predict how long it would take to rise again. Hopefully none of 'em would take so long into the afternoon that it'd put their departure time off.

In a place like Greenleaf, you had to follow a set procedure and arrange a window on the schedule for departure. If they missed the one they'd already reserved, it would take a while to get another, seeing as the officious types in charge usually placed a time or monetary penalty on such deviations. Of course, right at the moment, they could afford it - but not in a way he could explain to the parts of the crew he wasn't sure of changing yet.

Didn't take too much longer past when he got the married couple settled that Simon rejoined them. The doc said there hadn't been any troubles with Kaylee neither, and the soundproofing on the bunks had meant there wasn't any worry about her screaming disturbing anyone who might have come looking. Now all that was left to do was wait.

Jayne came wandering back home in pretty much the middle of the ship's night cycle, drunk and friendly as anything. The preacher returned early the next morning. The three of them were doing their best to keep an unobtrusive watch over their projects, though Wash still managed to wake up and get almost halfway out of his restraints before they noticed he'd woken up.

He stopped struggling when Mal came down the ladder into the bunk though, playing innocent. "Look who's awake," the Captain said.

"Zoe's dead." Shouldn't be a surprise that was the first concern of the pilot.

"No more'n the rest of us. She's just bein' abnormally lazy today, looks like."

"Let me guess! You bit my wife, like River did to me. Because you and Zoe! Zoe and you! Always together," he snarled. "I'm surprised you even bothered with me! Also, vampires with the sucking blood and the evil? Seriously? This is even crazier than psychics, and I thought we'd reached our quota on weird!"

Mal rolled his eyes and ignored the last part of the pilot's theatrics altogether. "Suppose it was too much to ask that dying would clear you of those notions about us. As much as I don't remotely understand it, Zoe married you. That ain't got nothing to do with who Zoe and I are to one another. Course, you ain't willing to take orders from me with this change in circumstance, maybe I shouldn'ta bothered."

Wash didn't address what he said at all, which Mal did not much like. "When is she gonna wake up?"

"Dunno. Seems to vary more'n a little."

"Am I gonna get untied anytime soon, or did you turn another pilot to fly your ship?"

"Gotta admit I'm wondering if I should. Had a pretty clear warning that anybody might turn on me after, they got half a chance. You never been the quietest about your objections to my authority to begin with. Are we gonna have a problem, or should I wait for Zoe to straighten you out?"

"What makes you so sure Zoe won't side with me?"

Mal shrugged, "Oh, I ain't."

"I'll bet that bothers you, doesn't it?"

He sounded right smug about that, so Mal took quite a great deal of joy in responding, "Not as much as it mighta before, gotta say. Great thing about what we are now, nothing bothers me quite so much."

It was the truth, but that didn't mean he wasn't hoping against it happening. It'd be a damn shame to have to replace either of them, let alone both. Still, he figured there was nothing could be done but what he had, and now it was time to wait and see how it turned out. Zoe and Kaylee woke up at just about the same time a few hours later. In the interim, he'd resorted to leaving River watching Wash, who never would say whether or not he was gonna cause problems.

He hadn't really thought much about Kaylee coming out different. He'd been most worried about Zoe, considering what had been said about repressed impulses – he didn't know anybody more controlled than Zoe. Strangely, he found his luck was holding out far better than it ever had when he'd been alive, both of them came through things fairly well. Kaylee didn't seem to have changed a jot, and was back whistling and working on the engine within an hour of getting up. Zoe seemed to be experiencing what he was – a sudden relief of burdens carried since the war. Truth to tell, it was a bit creepy to see her smiling and laughing quite so freely, but otherwise, she was much the same. Chided her husband for his contrariness with a smile, first off.

Did cross his mind, of course, that Zoe was just smarter than Wash and she was fakin' until later. This whole evil undead thing did seem to come with a certain amount of paranoia and desire to be in charge. Although he did trust his crew, and they were used to relying on each other, so maybe it wouldn't be an issue. As much as anything, that was the reason he'd come back to the ship instead of heading off elsewhere. This was his ship and they were his crew, simple as that.

He gave 'em all pretty much the same short talk, no killing anybody, yes that included Jayne, and they'd figure the rest out later. It was a little worrisome that he hadn't figured out any good way to get rid of Inara that would keep the Guild from possibly coming after them, but there just hadn't been time to sort the problem. Neither Jayne nor Book would be nearly so much of a snarl if something happened to 'em while they were in space.

They were ready to go at their scheduled takeoff time, and everything went, on the surface, like any other normal departure from a planet. Despite his uncertainty about Book, the Shepherd certainly didn't seem to catch on to anything being different, and neither did anyone else. His worries that the newly-turned would go after the remaining live members of the crew also managed to remain only worries through the first couple days of the trip without coming true.

When they got a chance to talk things over more in-depth, Zoe came down firmly on the side of leaving Jayne as he was. Mal could definitely see the sense in that. Jayne was handy to have around, but he would be far less dangerous to them all if he was left as a human, and quite frankly, if someone did slip up and kill him it wouldn't be such a loss. So that seemed to be fair decided. Might make things complicated so far as hiding what they were, but then again, Jayne wasn't really known for his curious nature. Like as not he may never even notice, as things that weren't immediately connected to weapons, whores, or quality food generally didn't interest him.

Zoe likewise brought up a good point about the Shepherd. The man had a powerfully mysterious backstory that none of them knew. He chose to spend his time praying rather than fighting, but he had too much knowledge that had to do only with fighting. Were he to be relieved of whatever guilt had set him on his current path, who knew what he'd be inclined to do? Mal had to seriously doubt that it would involve following his orders, when he put any thought into it. Keeping him in the dark would be a seriously more tricky proposition, too, because the man was always poking about and taking an interest.

Man was crew enough Mal felt that he should be magnanimous and let him off somewhere, so that night at dinner, he made a point of doing something towards getting rid of their remaining question marks.