Fragile by Proxii Bleu
III
"Well that would explain what River said." The crew was now sitting in the mess eating dinner, all with the exception of River, Simon, and Inara who were all dining aboard the Companion's shuttle. Jayne hadn't said a word sine he'd heard the news, Kaylee was more hyper than usual, and Book was solemnly silent. Zoe on the other hand was eyeing the large amount of food Wash had piled onto her plate. Pregnant or not there was not way she would be able to eat over four helpings of food.
"What did River say?" asked Mal as he forked some imitation potatoes into his mouth. Wash edged Zoe's plate cloer to her, and attacked his own meal.
"She said that Zoe's mind was too clouded because she wanted to make her own waters. I thought she was babbling, but now-"
"It's obvious then that the girl merely picked up on what was on Zoe's mind," said Book. "But whatever the Alliance did to her has left her inacapable of communicating her insights clearly." Mal drained his glass of water, and refilled it from the pitcher on the table.
"But that's what has me worried," he said as he relieved Zoe of some of her potatoes. "When the time comes where she is capable of communicating clearly. It's obvious that she has no control over this thing of hers."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." said Wash softly.
"Excuse me?" said Mal. Kaylee looked up from her plate, and over at the pilot. River was a good friend of hers, even though there were times when she could be incredibly weird. It didn't bother her much that River was a seer, there were readers in her family, but like Mal had said - they had control over it.
"Well when she was talking to me in the cockpit she said that she couldn't get into your mind, not unless she had your say-so. She also gave me the impression that she can keep out of Inara and Jayne's as well because they're - " Wash broke off, and stared down at the table.
"Because they're what Wash?"
"Troubled, and they make her sad."
"Oh." Mal went back to his meal, and about five minutes of silence stretched between them. River wasn't exactly dangerous, not so long as she was kept out of the hands of the Alliance, but like most people Mal liked to think that he could keep to himself. If the youngest Tam was unable or unwilling to get into his mind he honestly wanted to know why, also he wondered about what she had meant about Inara's mind being troubled. He knew that Jayne had problems, or as Simon put it - issues, but the Companion? He figured it just showed that you really didn't know a person as well as you thought.
"You think she's dangerous?" Kaylee's voice intruded on his thoughts. Looking over at her, Mal shook his head, and scraped up the last of his food with his fork. For a person who was supposedly eating for two, Zoe had given Mal most of her food. Although, given the amount he didn't really blame her.
"If River were dangerous, she wouldn't be on this ship. I think that as she stays away from the Alliance whatever they did to make her like she is now has been wearing off, but I prefer that we continue to keep an eye on her just to be sure she doesn't do anything untoward."
"You mean cut me up again?" asked Jayne. Mal nodded solemnly as the crew got up, put the dishes in the washer, and headed off to various parts of the ship. No one bothered to look up to see the thin form wrapped around the pipes hanging from the ceiling, but the shadowed figure noted the worry in Book's mind as he headed back to his quarters. Jubal Early for all of his insanity and violence had not been lying when he said that Preacher Book was not a Shepard, and the person hanging off of the pipes knew this all to well. Whether or not he was truly part of the only organization that posed a threat to the Alliance was something that was buried so deep in Books mind, that the small spy could not find it.
Yet.
IV
Harvest was a small world at the very edge of the territories with a history of raids by Reavers, pirates, and Alliance personnel when it suited their agendas. Other than that it was a beautiful blue planet with large oceans, and continents that were nothing more than large islands hovering in the middle of the blue explanse.
Wash put Serenity down next to the XaiXai market where their contact was supposed to meet them. According to the message they had received on the Cortex, they were to transport three passengers for one client, feed for various cattle for another, and the third wanted them to pick up a crate of electronic equipment for delivery to their wharehouse. All in all it would be a good haul for the crew, with plenty of credits to earn.
With their most popular fugitives on board Simon would have to try and stay out of sight as much as possible, while River had changed in appearance entirely. Her long black hair was gone, close-cropped, and tinted on the ends with little strands of purple just like the girl in the magazine flexi. Inara had shown her how to apply some basic color to her eyes and cheeks, and with a litte color to her lips she looked like a completely different person.
Mal let out a low whistle as River slowly walked down the loading dock of the ship, and stood staring out at the small market. Her brown eyes following everything as she took in the environment, a small foot hovered overthe edge of the ramp when Mal stopped her.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Out."
"With the entire Alliance looking for you?"
"I don't look like what the Alliance wants." That much was true, River did look different, but there was always a chance. Mal decided to use a different angle. Leading her back up the ramp, Mal drew her into a corner within earshot of her brother.
"River, now lately you have been a little better than you were when you fist came aboard."
"I am a lot better, not so many voices speaking, I can make them quiet."
"I know that, but only a month ago you said that purple elephants were flying."
"They were, but you did not comprehend, or understand." Mal sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. If River Tam was anything she was irritating.
"River there are more voices out there than on Serentiy, and you might get overwhelmed and sick again. Do you want that?"
"No, but I cannot stay buried forever." With that she stalked away from Mal angrily, her back stiff as she brushed past Zoe who merely raised an eyebrow at River's retreating form.
"Something go wrong?"
"Mal told her she couldn't go outside." said Simon as he checked through his list of supplies he needed for his medbay. Some of them he might not be able to afford, others would probably be on the black market, and some he most likely would be able to make himself from the local herbal plantlife if the ingredients were available. Wash rolled down the ramp on the mule, and looked over at Zoe who was sliding a .45 into one of her holsters. The mule went down the ramp, without Wash leaving jayne to chase after it.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Out with Mal."
" You? With my baby."
"Your baby?" Zoe just stared at her husband. "I see, so you concieved this child all on your own with no help from me whatsoever? Strange, I thought the doctor said that there was more to it." Wash rubbed his eyes, and shook his head.
"I meant our baby, but-" he yelled in frustration. "okay, Zoe when a woman is pregnant she isn't supposed to go out into a dangerous market filled with scum carrying a gun, it makes her a target, and it makes the baby a victim. Is it so bad to stay behind for once?" Mal strode down from his perch on the stairs, and joined the two.
"Wash has a point Zoe, it's not safe for you to be wandering around in your...condition."
"It's not a condition sir."
"Well look, River's been getting antsy about going out to stretch her legs, and while Kaylee can be right responsible at times she can't handle River all by herself when she has a fit."
"You want me to watch Simon's sister?"
"Yes."
"Why not have Simon do it?"
"Because he needs to get some supplies, so that the next time one of us gets shot he can actaully do something besides move over and let Book give us our last rights." Zoe let out a sigh of defeat, and turned to look at River who was smiling innocently from her seat on the catwalk.
"Honey, just think of it as practice for when out little one is born, and starts stretching it's legs." Wash looked over at the Doctor. "It will have legs won't it?" Simon smiled patiently.
"In another three months, right now it's just goo." Wash smiled at his wife.
"We have our own goo." Mal adopted a pained expression as Wash went back to the mule, and headed off with Jayne to pick up their cargo. Zoe scratched her neck, and turned around.
"You married him why?"
"Because sir, I love him, and he makes me laugh." Mal just shook he head, and walked off into the market.
V
Watching River was hard.
Zoe sat on Kaylee's lawn chair on the ramp of Serenity trying to keep a close eye on Simon's sister. So far River had made a giant map out of the loose yellow clay of the local area, even though she had never set foot on it beyond the salvage ship. Played hide-and-go-seek with Kaylee until Zoe had told them to knock it off NOW, because the noise was incredible, and currently was lying on her side admist her dirt-map sleeping in the shade of the afternoon sun.
Zoe shifted unfomfortably in her seat as she tried to think of something other than using the bathroom, less and only food since her stomach was feeling rather queasy. Kaylee was sitting on the ground next to River with a blissed-out look on her face, her eyes almost glazed over as she stared at the waters of a large lake in the distance.
Zoe twisted in her seat once more before she decided that she needed to use a bathroom ASAP, before Kaylee had a wet lawn chair.
"Kaylee?" The ship's engineer snapped out of her reverie, and looked up at Zoe.
"Yeah?"
"Could you keep an eye on River for a minute, while I go check on something?"
"Sure." Kaylee watched Zoe race up the stairs, and then turned back to her water-watching. River was sitting up.
"Want to play hide-and-seek again?" she asked. Kaylee shifted in her seat on the ground, and shrugged.
"Okay, but this time you hide first." River smiled, and took off into a clump of bushes. Turning her back, Kaylee started counting down from twenty, a bog smile creeping across her pale features as she already started calculating the most likely spot in which River was hiding.
***
Ten minutes later Zoe returned from her little trip to the bathroom, and strode down the loading ramp. She was only halfway down when Kaylee came running in with panic written all over her face. River was nowhere to be seen, which meant only one thing.
"I thought I told you to watch her!"
"I did, we were playing hide-and-seek, and when I went to find her I couldn't!"
"Did you find her before?"
"Yes, but the third time I couldn't!" Zoe looked out at the open expanse in front of her, and then down at her flat front. If this was any indication of what motherhood was going to be like, then Wash was a dead man when he got back to Serenity. Dragging Kaylee behind her Zoe shut up the large ship, and headed for the nearby market in order to find River.
"Shouldn't we tell Mal?" asked Kaylee as she tried to keep up with Zoe. "He's in the market, maybe he could find her?" Admitting that she had lost Simon's sister was not something Zoe wanted to do, but Kaylee had a point. Radioing Mal, she mentally bit the bullet as his voice came in over the comm.
"Mal."
"What is it Zoe?"
"River gave us the slip, and headed into the market."
"WHAT?"
"She's in the market, most likely - okay I don't know where the most likely place for her to be is, but just try thinking like a seventeen-year-old girl." With that she cut the link before Mal could gather himself enough to start screaming at her through the comm.
VI
"Gorram girl doesn't have any ruttin sense." Mal wandered through the market trying aimlessly to think like River, and figure out where the girl had headed. It wasn't hard to imagine that she had given Zoe and Kaylee the slip, hell she had managed to escape those blue-handed freaks sent after he by the Alliance, but that aside wandering around in a market was not good for her.
If she was what her brother and the rest of the crew thought she was then being in an environment with so much stimuli could overwhelm her, and send her spiraling back into the mess they had fist found her in. It had taken almost eight months for the trauma she had endured to start wearing off, and even now she was still recovering. A market was no place for her to be.
Mal turned another corner, and found himself looking down a street lined with shops filled with clothes, trinkets, pets, and basically things that had drawn a large crowd of young people who were mainly in River's age group.
Bingo.
Weaving through the crowd, Mal peered into the booths looking for a certain purple-headed mind reader. Each one was devoid of her, until he reached a small booth filled with odds and ends that had been gathered from different colonies. Most of them were old doo-dads that no one used anymore, such as old tech, and so forth. But in the back there were 'rarities', a term usually used in reference to items that were supposedly smuggled out of Alliance archaeological digs where alien artifacts had been found. Mal didnt buy into the whole 'not alone in the 'verse' schtick, but there were some such as River who was standing in the corner arguing with the shop keeper over some large gold disc.
Pushing his way through the crowd, Mal came up behind River and peered down at the disc she was holding. It was the size of a platter with odd symbols drawn on its surface. To Mal it looked like a cheap forgery, but there was something about it that had River engaged in the heated battle with the owner of the shop in order to purchase it.
"Fifteen credits." he snarled.
"Ten."
"Fifteen."
"Twelve, my final offer."
"Fifteen is mine." Mal slid his chip across the counter, and smiled boradly at the burly red-necked man in the sweaty t-shirt.
"Here's twelve, now either take it and quit bothering my little girl, or we can discuss prices in the back" Mal pushed back the edge of his coat revealing his gun. The man swiped the money off of the cloudy glass, and dumped it in the register.
"Fine, you got your disc, now beat it."
"Gladly." Mal grabbed River by the arm, and hauled her out of the shop. If she noticed that he was mad at her it didn't show as she was apparently focused on the disc, her hands running over it's smooth surface as she toyed with the black symbols.
"It's very old."
"Your not listening is getting old. Do you know what kind of danger you're in?"
"Yes."
"Then why did you do this?"
"Because I wanted to know why the Alliance wanted me so badly."
"And wandering around in a market it going to tell you that?"
"No," said River holding up her disc. "This is." Mal stared at the disc again, it didn't look like most forgeries he had seen, and in fact it looked somewhat authentic. Nervous Mal took it from River, and looked at it more closely. If he didn't know any better it looked like the object was made out of pure gold, the symbols on it's sruface created by some sort of etching tool that had created a black resin inside of the glyphs. Stars, galaxies, and writing was displayed on it's front while on the back the bottom looked like the underside of a vid-disc. Frowning he handed it back to River who tucked it inside of her shirt, and headed out of the market.
There were times when River Tam could babble on four hours in code and metaphor, but only when she was lucid did Malcolm Reynolds actually feel uneasy around the small genius. Hopefully, the disc really was just a piece of junk, and not something important.
However, if he had turned around he would have noticed two well-dressed men with blue hands entering the little shop, and if the noise hadn't been so loud he would have heard the owner's agonized scream.
III
"Well that would explain what River said." The crew was now sitting in the mess eating dinner, all with the exception of River, Simon, and Inara who were all dining aboard the Companion's shuttle. Jayne hadn't said a word sine he'd heard the news, Kaylee was more hyper than usual, and Book was solemnly silent. Zoe on the other hand was eyeing the large amount of food Wash had piled onto her plate. Pregnant or not there was not way she would be able to eat over four helpings of food.
"What did River say?" asked Mal as he forked some imitation potatoes into his mouth. Wash edged Zoe's plate cloer to her, and attacked his own meal.
"She said that Zoe's mind was too clouded because she wanted to make her own waters. I thought she was babbling, but now-"
"It's obvious then that the girl merely picked up on what was on Zoe's mind," said Book. "But whatever the Alliance did to her has left her inacapable of communicating her insights clearly." Mal drained his glass of water, and refilled it from the pitcher on the table.
"But that's what has me worried," he said as he relieved Zoe of some of her potatoes. "When the time comes where she is capable of communicating clearly. It's obvious that she has no control over this thing of hers."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." said Wash softly.
"Excuse me?" said Mal. Kaylee looked up from her plate, and over at the pilot. River was a good friend of hers, even though there were times when she could be incredibly weird. It didn't bother her much that River was a seer, there were readers in her family, but like Mal had said - they had control over it.
"Well when she was talking to me in the cockpit she said that she couldn't get into your mind, not unless she had your say-so. She also gave me the impression that she can keep out of Inara and Jayne's as well because they're - " Wash broke off, and stared down at the table.
"Because they're what Wash?"
"Troubled, and they make her sad."
"Oh." Mal went back to his meal, and about five minutes of silence stretched between them. River wasn't exactly dangerous, not so long as she was kept out of the hands of the Alliance, but like most people Mal liked to think that he could keep to himself. If the youngest Tam was unable or unwilling to get into his mind he honestly wanted to know why, also he wondered about what she had meant about Inara's mind being troubled. He knew that Jayne had problems, or as Simon put it - issues, but the Companion? He figured it just showed that you really didn't know a person as well as you thought.
"You think she's dangerous?" Kaylee's voice intruded on his thoughts. Looking over at her, Mal shook his head, and scraped up the last of his food with his fork. For a person who was supposedly eating for two, Zoe had given Mal most of her food. Although, given the amount he didn't really blame her.
"If River were dangerous, she wouldn't be on this ship. I think that as she stays away from the Alliance whatever they did to make her like she is now has been wearing off, but I prefer that we continue to keep an eye on her just to be sure she doesn't do anything untoward."
"You mean cut me up again?" asked Jayne. Mal nodded solemnly as the crew got up, put the dishes in the washer, and headed off to various parts of the ship. No one bothered to look up to see the thin form wrapped around the pipes hanging from the ceiling, but the shadowed figure noted the worry in Book's mind as he headed back to his quarters. Jubal Early for all of his insanity and violence had not been lying when he said that Preacher Book was not a Shepard, and the person hanging off of the pipes knew this all to well. Whether or not he was truly part of the only organization that posed a threat to the Alliance was something that was buried so deep in Books mind, that the small spy could not find it.
Yet.
IV
Harvest was a small world at the very edge of the territories with a history of raids by Reavers, pirates, and Alliance personnel when it suited their agendas. Other than that it was a beautiful blue planet with large oceans, and continents that were nothing more than large islands hovering in the middle of the blue explanse.
Wash put Serenity down next to the XaiXai market where their contact was supposed to meet them. According to the message they had received on the Cortex, they were to transport three passengers for one client, feed for various cattle for another, and the third wanted them to pick up a crate of electronic equipment for delivery to their wharehouse. All in all it would be a good haul for the crew, with plenty of credits to earn.
With their most popular fugitives on board Simon would have to try and stay out of sight as much as possible, while River had changed in appearance entirely. Her long black hair was gone, close-cropped, and tinted on the ends with little strands of purple just like the girl in the magazine flexi. Inara had shown her how to apply some basic color to her eyes and cheeks, and with a litte color to her lips she looked like a completely different person.
Mal let out a low whistle as River slowly walked down the loading dock of the ship, and stood staring out at the small market. Her brown eyes following everything as she took in the environment, a small foot hovered overthe edge of the ramp when Mal stopped her.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Out."
"With the entire Alliance looking for you?"
"I don't look like what the Alliance wants." That much was true, River did look different, but there was always a chance. Mal decided to use a different angle. Leading her back up the ramp, Mal drew her into a corner within earshot of her brother.
"River, now lately you have been a little better than you were when you fist came aboard."
"I am a lot better, not so many voices speaking, I can make them quiet."
"I know that, but only a month ago you said that purple elephants were flying."
"They were, but you did not comprehend, or understand." Mal sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. If River Tam was anything she was irritating.
"River there are more voices out there than on Serentiy, and you might get overwhelmed and sick again. Do you want that?"
"No, but I cannot stay buried forever." With that she stalked away from Mal angrily, her back stiff as she brushed past Zoe who merely raised an eyebrow at River's retreating form.
"Something go wrong?"
"Mal told her she couldn't go outside." said Simon as he checked through his list of supplies he needed for his medbay. Some of them he might not be able to afford, others would probably be on the black market, and some he most likely would be able to make himself from the local herbal plantlife if the ingredients were available. Wash rolled down the ramp on the mule, and looked over at Zoe who was sliding a .45 into one of her holsters. The mule went down the ramp, without Wash leaving jayne to chase after it.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Out with Mal."
" You? With my baby."
"Your baby?" Zoe just stared at her husband. "I see, so you concieved this child all on your own with no help from me whatsoever? Strange, I thought the doctor said that there was more to it." Wash rubbed his eyes, and shook his head.
"I meant our baby, but-" he yelled in frustration. "okay, Zoe when a woman is pregnant she isn't supposed to go out into a dangerous market filled with scum carrying a gun, it makes her a target, and it makes the baby a victim. Is it so bad to stay behind for once?" Mal strode down from his perch on the stairs, and joined the two.
"Wash has a point Zoe, it's not safe for you to be wandering around in your...condition."
"It's not a condition sir."
"Well look, River's been getting antsy about going out to stretch her legs, and while Kaylee can be right responsible at times she can't handle River all by herself when she has a fit."
"You want me to watch Simon's sister?"
"Yes."
"Why not have Simon do it?"
"Because he needs to get some supplies, so that the next time one of us gets shot he can actaully do something besides move over and let Book give us our last rights." Zoe let out a sigh of defeat, and turned to look at River who was smiling innocently from her seat on the catwalk.
"Honey, just think of it as practice for when out little one is born, and starts stretching it's legs." Wash looked over at the Doctor. "It will have legs won't it?" Simon smiled patiently.
"In another three months, right now it's just goo." Wash smiled at his wife.
"We have our own goo." Mal adopted a pained expression as Wash went back to the mule, and headed off with Jayne to pick up their cargo. Zoe scratched her neck, and turned around.
"You married him why?"
"Because sir, I love him, and he makes me laugh." Mal just shook he head, and walked off into the market.
V
Watching River was hard.
Zoe sat on Kaylee's lawn chair on the ramp of Serenity trying to keep a close eye on Simon's sister. So far River had made a giant map out of the loose yellow clay of the local area, even though she had never set foot on it beyond the salvage ship. Played hide-and-go-seek with Kaylee until Zoe had told them to knock it off NOW, because the noise was incredible, and currently was lying on her side admist her dirt-map sleeping in the shade of the afternoon sun.
Zoe shifted unfomfortably in her seat as she tried to think of something other than using the bathroom, less and only food since her stomach was feeling rather queasy. Kaylee was sitting on the ground next to River with a blissed-out look on her face, her eyes almost glazed over as she stared at the waters of a large lake in the distance.
Zoe twisted in her seat once more before she decided that she needed to use a bathroom ASAP, before Kaylee had a wet lawn chair.
"Kaylee?" The ship's engineer snapped out of her reverie, and looked up at Zoe.
"Yeah?"
"Could you keep an eye on River for a minute, while I go check on something?"
"Sure." Kaylee watched Zoe race up the stairs, and then turned back to her water-watching. River was sitting up.
"Want to play hide-and-seek again?" she asked. Kaylee shifted in her seat on the ground, and shrugged.
"Okay, but this time you hide first." River smiled, and took off into a clump of bushes. Turning her back, Kaylee started counting down from twenty, a bog smile creeping across her pale features as she already started calculating the most likely spot in which River was hiding.
***
Ten minutes later Zoe returned from her little trip to the bathroom, and strode down the loading ramp. She was only halfway down when Kaylee came running in with panic written all over her face. River was nowhere to be seen, which meant only one thing.
"I thought I told you to watch her!"
"I did, we were playing hide-and-seek, and when I went to find her I couldn't!"
"Did you find her before?"
"Yes, but the third time I couldn't!" Zoe looked out at the open expanse in front of her, and then down at her flat front. If this was any indication of what motherhood was going to be like, then Wash was a dead man when he got back to Serenity. Dragging Kaylee behind her Zoe shut up the large ship, and headed for the nearby market in order to find River.
"Shouldn't we tell Mal?" asked Kaylee as she tried to keep up with Zoe. "He's in the market, maybe he could find her?" Admitting that she had lost Simon's sister was not something Zoe wanted to do, but Kaylee had a point. Radioing Mal, she mentally bit the bullet as his voice came in over the comm.
"Mal."
"What is it Zoe?"
"River gave us the slip, and headed into the market."
"WHAT?"
"She's in the market, most likely - okay I don't know where the most likely place for her to be is, but just try thinking like a seventeen-year-old girl." With that she cut the link before Mal could gather himself enough to start screaming at her through the comm.
VI
"Gorram girl doesn't have any ruttin sense." Mal wandered through the market trying aimlessly to think like River, and figure out where the girl had headed. It wasn't hard to imagine that she had given Zoe and Kaylee the slip, hell she had managed to escape those blue-handed freaks sent after he by the Alliance, but that aside wandering around in a market was not good for her.
If she was what her brother and the rest of the crew thought she was then being in an environment with so much stimuli could overwhelm her, and send her spiraling back into the mess they had fist found her in. It had taken almost eight months for the trauma she had endured to start wearing off, and even now she was still recovering. A market was no place for her to be.
Mal turned another corner, and found himself looking down a street lined with shops filled with clothes, trinkets, pets, and basically things that had drawn a large crowd of young people who were mainly in River's age group.
Bingo.
Weaving through the crowd, Mal peered into the booths looking for a certain purple-headed mind reader. Each one was devoid of her, until he reached a small booth filled with odds and ends that had been gathered from different colonies. Most of them were old doo-dads that no one used anymore, such as old tech, and so forth. But in the back there were 'rarities', a term usually used in reference to items that were supposedly smuggled out of Alliance archaeological digs where alien artifacts had been found. Mal didnt buy into the whole 'not alone in the 'verse' schtick, but there were some such as River who was standing in the corner arguing with the shop keeper over some large gold disc.
Pushing his way through the crowd, Mal came up behind River and peered down at the disc she was holding. It was the size of a platter with odd symbols drawn on its surface. To Mal it looked like a cheap forgery, but there was something about it that had River engaged in the heated battle with the owner of the shop in order to purchase it.
"Fifteen credits." he snarled.
"Ten."
"Fifteen."
"Twelve, my final offer."
"Fifteen is mine." Mal slid his chip across the counter, and smiled boradly at the burly red-necked man in the sweaty t-shirt.
"Here's twelve, now either take it and quit bothering my little girl, or we can discuss prices in the back" Mal pushed back the edge of his coat revealing his gun. The man swiped the money off of the cloudy glass, and dumped it in the register.
"Fine, you got your disc, now beat it."
"Gladly." Mal grabbed River by the arm, and hauled her out of the shop. If she noticed that he was mad at her it didn't show as she was apparently focused on the disc, her hands running over it's smooth surface as she toyed with the black symbols.
"It's very old."
"Your not listening is getting old. Do you know what kind of danger you're in?"
"Yes."
"Then why did you do this?"
"Because I wanted to know why the Alliance wanted me so badly."
"And wandering around in a market it going to tell you that?"
"No," said River holding up her disc. "This is." Mal stared at the disc again, it didn't look like most forgeries he had seen, and in fact it looked somewhat authentic. Nervous Mal took it from River, and looked at it more closely. If he didn't know any better it looked like the object was made out of pure gold, the symbols on it's sruface created by some sort of etching tool that had created a black resin inside of the glyphs. Stars, galaxies, and writing was displayed on it's front while on the back the bottom looked like the underside of a vid-disc. Frowning he handed it back to River who tucked it inside of her shirt, and headed out of the market.
There were times when River Tam could babble on four hours in code and metaphor, but only when she was lucid did Malcolm Reynolds actually feel uneasy around the small genius. Hopefully, the disc really was just a piece of junk, and not something important.
However, if he had turned around he would have noticed two well-dressed men with blue hands entering the little shop, and if the noise hadn't been so loud he would have heard the owner's agonized scream.