Thanks for the review, TheAmazingDave! I'm looking forward to completing this story!
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One year into the war with the Alliance…
Sergeant Conall did call for Mal and Pete, and they both returned to his cabin. The five of them met in his living room. Mal and his brother stood at attention, and Princess Corrington and Zoe stood just off to the side of the sergeant, who reported, "Our orders are to send troops to Jiangyin before sunrise. Privates Reynolds and Alleyne, you will deploy with your squadron in the morning. You are dismissed."
They both saluted him and in unison said, "Yes, sir." They exited the cabin, leaving Mal in the audience of the princess and the sergeant.
Sergeant Conall turned to Mal. "It will be your assignment to escort Princess Corrington to and from her planet of Erude."
Mal said softly. "Sir?"
"Her involvement with the Independents will proceed. The General feels this is an opportunity that has not presented itself before and may not present itself a second time." He said to Mal. "You will choose a military location for her highness to leave from in her own shuttle and return to once information is obtained. Your highness, your role will be to continue to ascertain information regarding Erude's military plans and tactics."
The princess spoke up. "You want me to return to Erude, gather information from my family, and then return here to report. Upon my arrival, I will then return to my planet again and the trips will continue as such."
The Sergeant said, "The idea is that you've managed to do this once. It should therefore not be difficult for you to repeat this a second time."
"How will I explain my absence?"
The Sergeant said. "We will give you information to bring from our own military intelligence. Whether this information is true or false is no concern of yours. Your only job is to deliver it to the king and the prince and have them believe that you are ferreting out that information from us."
For the first time since her arrival, the princess' face began to pale.
The Sergeant asked. "Will you be able to accomplish this?"
After a full minute of thought, which both the Sergeant and Mal allowed her, she said, "Yes. Yes, I will."
"Excellent. Corporal Reynolds will show you to your lodgings for the night." The Sergeant turned away, and it appeared he had finished their debriefing. Then he asked, "Your highness, in the middle of the meeting with my superiors, a wave came from Erude negating its first announcement that Erude had sided with the Alliance, saying its position remained neutral. Before there was a chance to respond, within three minutes, another wave came reporting that this message arrived in error. Do you have any insight into why this might have happened?"
She gave her next answer fairly quickly. "I do not, sir. However, when I arrive in Erude, I will investigate into the reasons for this occurrence."
The Sergeant nodded. "Good night, your highness." He turned to Mal. "Corporal. You are dismissed."
Mal led the princess into a tent not less than a hundred meters away from the sergeant's cabin. He tossed aside the canvas doorway and walked them through. "Here you are, your highness."
He and Princess Corrington stepped inside the tent. They looked upon the dirt floor, sleeping bag, lantern, and not much else.
Mal said, "It don't have all the usual trappings of wealth and status." He walked over and noisily set down a bucket. Then he put a roll of paper and a small shovel down next to it. "But it's got all the necessities us military folk require." Mal went to take his leave.
Princess Corrington said, "Corporal Reynolds."
He stopped and turned around.
She said, "I can't imagine it will mean very much right now, but if there was a way that I could have kept your brother outside of this, I would have."
"Right, I'm sure you did your level best to shelter him from all unpleasantness, and through no fault of your own, he got himself entangled in your design to take off and make a visit us Independents. Remind me, how did you get yourself to our side of the world?"
"I would answer, though I doubt it's slipped your mind so easily."
"Mind's a tricky thing, highness. Can forget all manner of important details when it sees fit, now can't it?"
The princess looked at him and Mal stared back. She seemed to reel through a number of responses in her head, before she chose one. "Thank you. For the lodgings."
"Oh, don't thank me, your highness. You can thank the Sergeant and the Independents as a whole for this kindness. Don't get too comfortable now. You're back to Erude soon as sun-up."
"Has Pete been told of this?"
Hearing her use his brother's nickname plucked a nerve in Mal. It elicited his next reaction. "Let's get a few things straight, highness. I don't appreciate fancy folk from fancy planets comin' down from the skies to stir up trouble in my own field. Couple things you and I won't be discussin' past tonight. First one's any information 'bout my army and what our plans may or may not be. If you get that information, you'll get that from the Sergeant or those above him see fit to give it. Second thing we won't be discussin' is my brother and anything you think you might be knowin' 'bout him. Now, do we got an understanding of that?"
"Understood, corporal."
"Shiny." He left, saying, "Be careful of any field mice and carpenter ants now. They're drawn to things smell of perfume."
Present Day on Baldu
Mal and Zoe stood at the end of Serenity's gangplank, readying themselves to walk into the green jungle around them. Zoe secured a knife into a leather sheath at her side. She said to Mal, "Big planet. Lots of places for things to get stuffed away and hidden."
Mal stared up into the early morning sun before saying. "You're right about that. But we won't be lookin' for long."
"What makes you say that, sir?"
With a flair, the captain reached into his side pocket and presented a wilting, folded piece of paper. "Tian-ling-ling. De ling-ling. Behold." He handed it to his first mate.
Zoe unfolded the paper and held it out in front of her. "Looks like a treasure map."
"You've got a fine eye, Zoe. Don't ever let it be said different."
She added. "Which five year old do we have on board that drew this thing?"
"That'd be your husband."
Zoe raised her eyebrows as if to say 'well, that explains it'.
Mal looked over Zoe's shoulder to peruse the treasure map along with her. "Though it looks like he might've embellished it a little." Along with a route to take and landmarks to look for along the way, Wash had added his own touch by drawing mythical creatures and beasts at a couple of the markers. One, a pair of dinosaurs that had a striking familiarity to the ones on the bridge of the cockpit and a second, a buxom mermaid, who had either forgotten or never had thought to put on her top that day.
Jayne lumbered over towards them. He stared down at the map over Zoe's shoulders. He pointed to the picture of the mermaid. "Hey, her hair kinda looks like your hair. Any other similarities I don't know about?"
Zoe rolled her eyes and pulled the map down and away. "When it comes to womenfolk, we could fill a Trans-U with what you don't know about."
"Ooo, tetchy." Jayne leaned over to Mal. "Means it's true."
Mal blinked and appraised Jayne. "What's with all the heavy artillery?"
Jayne stood tall, his sides laden with guns, bandoliers across his chest, and held one arm up to support his very favorite gun, Vera.
Mal asked, "We gonna run afoul of a planetary military demonstration I don't know about?"
Jayne brought down his gun. "We run across any ruttin' criminals wanna take this treasure from us? I don't want to miss."
Mal smirked. This coming from a man who could hit a target the side of Mal's thumb from couple thousand yards away. "Only criminals we'll run across are standin' right here, I imagine. According to Fordayn, we're the only ones to get this far."
Zoe asked. "Get this far, sir?"
"Apparently, he's sent folk out to claim Crazy Ivan's Gold in other planets at other times. See, it's never in the same place twice, or so the legend goes."
Jayne scrunched up his face and asked, "What happened to the other poor suckers who went after it?"
"Most of 'em didn't even get to touch down on the planet he sent them to. Whoever guarded the treasure had a cruiser waitin' with big ammo that scared them off." Mal stepped forward. "So that either makes us very lucky or very stupid. Or both. But we got this far. We got ourselves a map. We got ourselves heavy artillery."
Jayne loaded his gun and kicked it ready in response.
Mal ended, "And we got ourselves a job from Fordayn. Who says all he needs to see is proof that Crazy Ivan's Gold is there, and he'll do the rest from there."
Zoe frowned. "So, he trusts us to find a treasure, bring him back proof, and then not take the whole lot ourselves?"
"Guess I just got one of those faces," Mal said smiling. "You look like you got a question in mind, Zoe."
"Only because I know there's something about this I'm not hearing yet, and I'm wondering what that might be."
Mal obliged her saying, "Way back when, Fordayn become obsessed with this treasure and still is to this day. Now, he'd like us to show him some proof that the treasure is here. However, whether we find something or not, all we have to do is bring proof that we somewhat tried to find it, and he said he'd pay us some wage for our trouble."
Zoe nodded thoughtfully, considering some things. Mal could guess what those things were as he had considered them, too. "So, we look around the jungle, have ourselves a day out in the sun, and …"
"And bring home some parts and fuel for Serenity no matter what."
The three of them began walking forward and Jayne's face fell. "Wait, so now you're telling me there's no treasure? And I went and cleaned myself up and strapped all these weapons to me, for what? Just for gorram show?"
Zoe asked, "You cleaned yourself up?"
"Wanted to look good for all that gold I'd find."
"Now," Mal said. "No one's saying that there's no gold here or there's no trouble to be found tryin' to get ourselves some bonafide treasure just might make our lives easy down the line. Just saying, no matter what, we get paid. I don't know about you, but that's the kind of deal I like to hear."
Zoe said. "Sounds simple."
Mal breathed out, "Well, yeah."
"I don't trust it." Zoe held Mal's eye. Mal sighed, knowing she still wasn't convinced that she'd learned everything there was to do with the job. That was, of course, because she was smart, and they'd known each other a shade too long not to know when the other one wasn't telling the truth and the whole truth so help him.
All the same, the three of them delved deep into the jungle, looking under rock and tree and cave for any sign found on the map dictated by Fordayn and drawn by Wash. They trod carefully across streams and through swamps and took their share of bug bites, no matter how much repellant they seemed to assail themselves with. At one point, while they were walking, they did find a path and it was in fact on the map. They took that route, until a fork came in the road.
"Now where's this on your map?" Jayne asked, annoyed.
"It ain't," Mal said. "All right. Jayne, you take one way. Zoe, you come with me we'll take the road to the left."
Jayne took his path as directed, and Mal and Zoe took theirs. They kept their eyes peeled for any one thing out of the ordinary in the trees and green they'd been walking through from that morning into the afternoon.
Brandishing her gun, Zoe said, "I heard a rumor in that old, rundown bar not two jobs ago, and if I saw right, you heard that rumor, too." Her next statement sounded like more a question. "Even if there's a mite bit a truth to it, you don't expect anything will come from it."
"I don't. That rumor ain't the reason we're on this planet."
"Still, funny how two months go by, and we're here all the same though."
Mal spoke softly, truthfully. "You have to admit. That rumor, then Fordayn offers us this job? It's an avenue that might not present itself again."
Zoe seemed to understand something in that. She was about to say something when she heard Jayne's loud, bellowing voice shout, "Hey! Hey, you guys! I found it! I gorram found it!"
Mal and Zoe looked at each other and took off running back the way they came. They sprinted up the path Jayne had taken, and they reached him within minutes. Jayne met them wearing a wide watermelon grin.
Mal asked. "Where is it? What'd you find?"
Jayne pulled back brush and trees to show a hidden path that led forward to a cave. A tree stood with a red triangle painted on its trunk. Mal looked down at the map to see Wash's drawing of a tree, a triangle, and a red dot inside it.
"Good work, Jayne," Mal said.
Mal and Zoe walked forward while Jayne bounded towards the cave. He jumped over a small but clearly human-constructed fence. As she and Mal stepped over the fence themselves, Zoe squinted. "You see that sign up there?"
Mal squinted along with her.
Zoe said, "What's it read? I can't…"
Mal shouted, "JAYNE! STOP!"
Jayne froze in his tracks. "What are you ruttin' shoutin' 'bout?"
"Don't move!" Mal shouted. "Stay right where you are!"
Zoe's breath caught in her throat as they read the sign written in Mandarin Chinese about a hundred yards away from them by the cave. It loosely translated into "Danger. Minefield."
Jayne's face held terror as he looked down at his boot. He stood atop a mine, half-hidden in the dirt. Jayne panicked, and Mal watched as he turned to run and his foot came off from on top of it.
Mal cried, "NO!" He shielded Zoe and the both of them leapt out of the way and threw themselves down on the ground. Mal covered Zoe and listened for the deafening explosion… Then he heard only birds chirping in the distance.
He looked over his shoulder to see Jayne standing holding out his arms. Jayne laughed, the laugh of a man who narrowly avoided a collision in space. He called to them, "It didn't go off!"
Mal released a deep breath of relief, and Zoe expelled the same.
Zoe breathed out, "Shiny."
Mal let out an audible "wheeew" and climbed to his feet.
