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Firefly: Deleted Scenes
Ficlet 36: Let's Go Visiting
By Gamera Obscura
"Only a few places that shuttle would make it to from where you left. Happy to find it intact."
-Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Episode 6, "Our Mrs. Reynolds"
(The following takes place during Episode 6, "Our Mrs. Reynolds".)
Mal looked over the star charts on the Bridge of Serenity as he considered the possibilities. "So, only three places she could have made it in the shuttle?"
"Uh, yeah," Wash said, doing the fuel computations. "From where she left, she could have made it to St. Alban's, Vishnu, or possibly New Istanbul, but only just barely."
"Which is closest?" Mal asked.
"St. Albans," said Wash, who shifted his legs so that Kaylee could have better access to the underside of his panel, where she was still working to undo the damage that Saffron had done with her impromptu but brilliant rewiring job to the Bridge stations.
"Then set a course, and we'll start there. When we're in range, attempt to activate the shuttle's transponder," said Mal. "With luck, she'll still be in one piece and we'll be able to get her back."
"You got it, Mal," Wash said, punching buttons on the keyboard on top of his panel.
Mal stood up and turned to leave. "I'm going to get some sleep before we get there."
O-O-O
Six hours later, following breakfast, Zoe and Mal took command of Shuttle 1, with Inara left safely aboard Serenity as Zoe assumed the controls and decoupled the shuttle from the ship.
Together, Mal and Zoe descended into atmo while the Serenity scanned the surface, trying to activate the Shuttle 2's transponder. Once Shuttle 1 had finished re-entry, they began flying over the frozen, mountainous terrain, which was mostly covered by evergreen trees. "Smells like a Buddhist temple in here," Zoe said.
"It's the incense," Mal said. "I rather enjoy the smell, myself."
"It covers the smell of a potential enemy," Zoe said. "And we'll smell like it, too. If we need stealth when we get where we're going, our scent could give us away."
"Good point," Mal said, continuing to scan the horizon and the terrain below as they flew over yet another settlement.
Wash's voice suddenly came over the comm, "Mal, we've got a heartbeat. Feeding you coordinates now," he said.
Zoe programmed the coordinates and changed course accordingly, the shuttle wheeling around. "Depending on the terrain," Mal said, "we'll land a couple of miles away and make the rest of the trip on foot."
Later, after doing a high-altitude recon flight over what appeared to be a cabin deep in the woods with the Shuttle 2 parked behind it, Shuttle 1 came for a landing in a glade some distance away, to prevent anyone inside the cabin from hearing them. Mal and Zoe exited the vehicle, and after Zoe had locked the door to the shuttle, with weapons drawn, they trudged through the snow towards the cabin.
Mal and Zoe crouched down as they approached the house, so that they would not be easily visible through the windows. "Zoe," Mal said, "go and cover the back door, if there is one. I'm goin' inside."
"You don't want to just take the shuttle?" Zoe asked.
"I have some unfinished business with Saffron," Mal said. Zoe nodded, then headed off.
After waiting about thirty seconds, Mal tried the doorknob gently, and found it locked. He then reared back and kicked the door in, his gun hand outstretched and trained on Saffron, who was wearing a bustier and a skirt, and had her hand on the butt of a pistol holstered at her side. She was near the door and standing next to a bed, just barely within arm's reach.
"Honey, I'm home," Mal said ironically.
Saffron turned her head away, then back to Mal before suddenly lashing out, knocking his gun hand away as the two struggled. She got her pistol out, but Mal's hand was on her arm and before she could get anywhere close to aiming it, he had knocked it our of her hand and onto the floor.
Before the struggle had gone on for more than five or six seconds, Mal pushed her down onto the bed and straddled her. "Looks like you get that wedding night after all," he said.
Eilish - Saffron - smirked and kneed him in the crotch, trying desperately to throw him off. The pair rolled onto the floor, and for a moment she was on top of him, but Mal used the momentum to roll her onto her back, and again he was on top of her, this time with his gun practically pressed to her temple. "It's the first time, darlin'. I think you should be gentle with me."
"You gonna kill me?" Eilish asked.
"Can you conjure up a compelling reason for me not to?" Mal countered.
"I didn't kill you," Eilish said.
"You handed me and my crew over to those that would kill us; that buys you nothin'."
"I made you dinner," Eilish said, coyly.
"Why the act? All the seduction games, the dancin' about folk; there has to be an easier way to steal." Mal offered.
"You're assuming the payoff is the point," Eilish said.
"I'm not assuming anything at this juncture," Mal said.
"How'd you find me?" Eilish asked.
"Only a few places that shuttle would make it to from where you left," Mal said. "Happy to find it intact."
Eilish smiled and began to squirm seductively beneath Mal. "You're quite a man, Malcolm Reynolds. I've been waiting a long time for someone good enough to take me down."
"Saffron, you even think about playin' me again, I will riddle you with holes."
Saffron's smile disappeared, all hint of pretense vanished from her face. "Everybody plays each other. That's all anybody ever does. We play parts."
Mal smirked at her. "You got all kinds o' learnin', and made me look the fool without tryin', and yet here I am, with a gun to your head. That's because I got people with me. People who trust each other, who do for each other, and ain't always lookin' for the advantage."
Saffron smirked back. "Promise me you're gonna kill me soon."
Mal got off of her and crouched next to Eilish on the floor. "Oh, you already know I ain't gonna."
"You know you did pretty well," Eilish said, propping herself up on her elbows and looking at Mal, smiling. "Most men, they're on me inside of ten minutes. Not tryin' to teach me to be strong and the like."
"I got one question for ya," Mal said. "Just one thing I'd like to know, straight up."
"Ask me," Eilish said, a smile still on her face.
"What's your real name?" Mal asked.
Eilish's smile faltered; she blinked several times as if the question had caught her off guard. She paused for a long while.
When Mal had had enough of her indecision, he cracked her across the skull with his pistol and knocked her out. "You'd only have lied anyway," he said.
Mal met Zoe out back, and both got into Shuttle 2, which Zoe piloted back to the glade. Once there, she came in for a landing, then got out and boarded Shuttle 1. The shuttles flew in formation back to Serenity.
O-O-O
Several hours later, the ship was back on its way to Beaumonde, and Wash relayed a call from a man on Paquin named Bernoulli to Mal in his bunk; Bernoulli had a load of contraband he needed taken from Canton on Higgins' Moon to its rightful purchaser. Mal had promised Inara two weeks on Beaumonde so she could finally see some clients, but Bernoulli was fine with that, as long as the job was done promptly afterward. Mal took down the details so he could inform the crew over dinner.
He then went to visit Inara, now back on board her shuttle, and River watched them in her mind as she lay in her bed, smiling at Mal's cluelessness and Inara's desire to hide her feelings from Mal no matter the cost. She did note that had Mal not been so completely wrong about why Inara had passed out, the Companion was prepared to admit that she had kissed him in his unconscious state, but better for him to think that she had kissed Saffron, Inara reasoned.
River laughed, and went back to drawing. "The vixen lives," she said with a wry smile on her face.
Next, Mal went to see Shepherd Book. "I've heard back from the pastor at Triumph," Book said. "They have no record of anyone named Saffron at the settlement, and not only do we not know her real name, we don't even know the last name of her alias. Based on that, he is unable to offer dispensation for a divorce."
"Wo de ma!" Mal exclaimed.
"Like it or not," Book continued, "you're married, and will remain so until you can haul her in front of the pastor or a Magistrate."
Mal rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. "This day just keeps getting better and better," he complained. "Am I still going to the Special Hell, preacher?"
Book smiled. "That remains to be seen," he said. "Did you kill her?"
"Should have," Mal said. "There's no telling how many deaths she's caused with her marriage scams, but no, I didn't kill her."
"Then you're one step closer to just going to Regular Hell," Book said.
"That's comforting," Mal said. "Saffron said something to me, before she kissed me. She said it was from the Bible. Let me try and remember… 'On the night of their betrothal, the wife shall open to the man as the furrow to the plow. And he shall work in her in and again, until she bring him to his full. And rest him then, upon the sweat of her breast.'"
Book grinned. "That's not from the Bible."
Mal was stunned. "It isn't?"
"No," Book said. "It's from one of the Hadiths of the Qur'an, a book of sayings and interpretations considered to be as authoritative as the Qur'an itself."
"So she's a Muslim?" Mal asked, amazed.
"I wouldn't presume to know," Book said. "But as Inara said, she's well-schooled."
"Not well schooled enough to kill the crew of Serenity, Shepherd," Mal said, and walked off.
(Author's Note: No, that isn't the last we've seen of Eilish-Saffron-Bridget-Yolanda-Ann Couler. We still have "Trash" (Episode 11), but even then, we may see her well before that, as there's always the question of how she ran into Monty, so maybe that's a story I'll be telling as well. Saffron always fascinated me, and I've always wondered about her backstory. A fan requested that last night, with suggestions about the reasons for her seeking to becoming a Companion, and I agreed with her that it was a story worth exploring, so if I can't merge it with the Monty story, I may do them separately, so there may be lots of Saffron goodness in your future if you are a daily reader of Deleted Scenes. Also, the scene with Mal and Saffron/Eilish (pronounced "AY-lish, and yes, I did get the name from the beautiful film, "Brooklyn" that came out this year, although the main character's name, while being pronounced the same, is written "Eilis"), in her cabin is verbatim from a scene near the end of Episode 6, "Our Mrs. Reynolds". If you have any stories about Saffron, or questions you'd like to see answered about her, now is the time to write in and tell me, so I can oblige you; as writers go, I am almost always happy to oblige. I love hearing from my readers, so let's keep those PMs rolling in. Also, if you're enjoying the series, why not favorite and/or follow it?)
(Next Time: The Hero Of Canton - Little Billy Murphy of Canton tells the town that Jayne Cobb has returned, and joins in the festivities as the workers celebrate his visit.)