Inara walked up the remaining stairs slowly, peering over the railing to see if either Lily or the figure in velvet reappeared. They did not, and she took a moment before the doorway to Jin's quarters—his suite, she thought, I've been on board ship too long. His doorbell was shaped like an acorn, and she rang it briefly.
Jin opened the door. Some men, when they got older, just stopped trying. They put on weight, they abandoned good grooming, they let monkeys pick out their clothing. But not Jin. He was a tall, still-trim man with silver-and-black hair, which today as always was neatly clipped and impeccably styled. He was wearing a deep purple smoking jacket, belted at the waist, over silk pajama bottoms. The angular edges of the jacket gave his slim figure a decidedly dapper cast.
"Inara! " he said. "I'm just…I'm speechless. I knew that you were beautiful, but—"
He was, with all sincerity, struggling for words.
"Bu gan dang," said Inara, as they fondly embraced. Despite her humble words, she felt a quiet surge of pride. Jin never complained when you got it wrong, but he always let you know when you'd gotten it right.
Eventually, as she knew he would, he complimented her dress, saying that he especially liked the color. She smiled again. It was always best when they didn't know why they liked what they liked: Without the mystery, a companion's allure was just technique. And while good technique when recognized as such could generate admiration, it could never inspire passion.
They sat down on Jin's leather sofa, and he began spooning loose tea into a pot that was sitting on the wooden table.
"Jin!" said Inara, laughing. "Isn't that my job?"
"Oh, sorry," he said, moving the pot to her.
She looked at him slyly as she poured in the hot water. "You're not doing much to stop those rumors that you've had academy training," she teased.
He put his finger to his lips, smiling. "I guess I won't tell you about my dulcimer. So, did you see Lily on your way in?"
"Oh, yes," Inara said, after a moment's hesitation. Jin's greeting had put Lily and her mysterious friend quite out of Inara's mind. "She has grown into quite a sophisticated young lady."
"Is something wrong?" asked Jin—he had noticed, he always noticed, that was the downside of his attentiveness. "Oh. You met Tamara."
"Is that her name?" asked Inara. "I didn't exactly meet her—she saw us in the front hall and ran away. She seemed quite upset."
Jin sighed and threw up his arms. "Ah, Tamara is one of Lily's little wounded birds. She's Zelmich Amate's daughter—have you heard about that whole scandal?"
"Well, I know who Zelmich Amate is," said Inara. "He used to live on Sihnon." Zelmich Amate was a shipping magnate. Inara had never met him, but Xenia Brin, his personal companion, used to appear from time to time at the academy—one of a slew of older alumnae who would come and dazzle the students with their seemingly impossible glamour while instructing them on the finer points of table etiquette.
"Well, Zelmich has married his companion—and when his children protested, he kicked out of the house. He never gave them money of their own. And it seems never taught them a thing about budgeting or anything like that. It's been quite the scandal."
Jin said that lightly, as one who had been discussing said scandal on the cocktail circuit for weeks. But Inara was genuinely shocked.
"It surely is. I must say, I'm astounded. Xenia has been Zelmich Amate's personal companion for years! I met her when I was a student, and she always emphasized to us the need for someone in that position to get along well with the family and to protect their reputation from gossip. I'm just mortified that things would turn out this way!"
Jin took her hand and stroked it. "He didn't marry Xenia," he said. "It's some—I think she's 25 years old and just the most vulgar thing imaginable. She calls herself Desiree L'Amour, if you can believe it. Xenia's in the same boat as the children. Fortunately some years ago she made Zelmich buy her a property here on Pfalzenhoffer. It's in her name, otherwise the authorities would never let her stay. She's also been more prudent than the children with the money he gave her back when she was in his good graces. Spead is staying with her, although he's drinking like a soldier on leave nowadays. Tamara's decided that all companions are dreadful, so she's staying here—"
"Where she gets to meet the likes of me," Inara finished.
Jin put his hand to her face, gently. "Inara," he said. "Please don't feel that way. You are part of a wonderful, valuable tradition. You and Xenia, you are what companions are supposed to be—a help and a treasure. Seeing you, the joy you give me, it's just indescribable. I've so missed being with you."
He leaned over and kissed her warmly on the mouth.
It was almost an hour later and he was still kissing her, only now they were lying on the silky sheets of Jin's bed. As always, Jin had been a warm and attentive lover, vitally interested in her pleasure and remarkably appreciative of her charms. Inara felt a slight pang of guilt—she should have kept up with Jin, even after she left Sihnon. He had other homes, she should have made the effort. She had lost so much, there was so much she had to lose, why did she choose to lose him as well?
"Inara," Jin said. "This has been wonderful. And I hate to do this—"
"But you're going to have to ask me to go because of Tamara," she finished. He looked at her with surprise. "You've never taken me to bed this quickly before, Jin."
He rolled away from her on the bed and groaned.
"I'm sympathetic to the child, of course, but this whole foolish thing about companions! I had the best three days planned out—there's a party tonight, and tomorrow a boat ride with a picnic on this lovely little island…."
Jin turned his head to Inara. "She's quite emotional, you know. Lily is very concerned, and from what she tells me I think we may have to talk to a doctor."
"It's all right Jin, I understand," Inara said. He still looked troubled, so she touched him. "It's kind of you to take her in."
Jin rolled back to her and put his hand on her arm. "Maybe I can sneak out," he said, with a smile. "It's been ages since I climbed a wall to be with a beautiful woman."
Inara smiled back. "I'll keep my shuttle's com open."
"You have such lovely smile, Inara, really. You are such a warm, wonderful person," he said, and moved in closer. "I think Tamara's fragile psyche could withstand another 15 minutes, don't you?"
***
Mal was chatting up the amicable lawman when he saw the two woman walk in. One was dark and had a long, thin face like the one who met them, but she was older, and what with the less-surly expression, considerably more attractive. The other had curly brown hair and freckled skin, and was also not in any way surly. The curly-haired one saw Simon and it was like an electric current ran through her—she stopped dead in her tracks and yelled, "Simon! Simon Tam!"
Anyone looking at her at that moment could see that she was glad to see him, but of course Zoe wasn't and put her hand to her gun before she turned and relaxed—Mal looked at the lawman and the lawman was looking at him, but he was pretty sure the fellow had noticed Zoe's reaction.
Simon was frozen between them and the lady—his head was turned just far enough toward for her that she could catch his profile and recognize him, but not far enough so that he could see who was looking at him. He had a look on his face like he had just been run through the belly with a sword made of ice. It wouldn't take long for the lawman to notice him, too.
Mal nodded at him. "I think that pretty lady wants to speak with you, son."
Simon looked him, then his glace moved to Book, who also nodded. He turned to the lady. She shrieked. "Oh my God, Simon! It's you! It's really you!" she ran up and hugged him. The she turned to Mrs. Li who, come to think of it, was looking pretty gobsmacked herself, and said, "I know this man!"
"You know him?" Mrs. Li echoed her faintly.
"Annelore," said Simon. "How are you?"
"I know him! I know this man! This is Simon Tam! We went to the Capital City Medacad on Osiris together!" Annelore said, getting, if possible, even more excited.
"You know him," said Mrs. Li, again faintly.
"You know him!" exclaimed the woman who came in with Annelore.
"You know him?" asked the lawman. "He went to medacad with you?"
This was getting peculiar. "Yes, well, they know each other," said Mal. "Old classmates, yes. It's a small 'verse and all that. What say we head on back to our ship, and unload that—"
"You don't understand," said Annelore. "I know this man."
"So I hear," Mal said.
"Annelore, what's going on?" asked Simon. "I mean, yes, we know each other—knew really. Annelore—this is Annelore Hidalgo—was two years ahead of me at medacad, she was my peer advisor."
"And you were doing so well, too!" said Annelore. "How'd you finish—were you in the decimus?"
"Top three percent, actually—and you know that," said Simon.
"No she doesn't," said the lawman.
"I don't. I don't know much of anything that happened after I graduated," said Annelore. "I have amnesia."
"This! This is a miracle! Oh, thank you God!" exclaimed Mrs. Li. She and the other woman—Mal was going to bet that she too was one of Mrs. Li's daughters—began hugging each other.
Simon started talking to Annelore in that damned jargon, and it took some doing to get him to speak to people in a way that they could understand. Basically, this Annelore had no recollection of things that happened more than a couple of weeks after she graduated from medacad—the last 6 years of her life were pretty much gone. And she couldn't remember nothing now for more than maybe a couple of hours at a stretch. She could doctor—she still remembered everything she had learned and apparently was very faithful with the note-taking—but she always had to have a helper around to remind her of who people were and where things were at.
"What caused this?" asked Simon. "Was it a" and then he went into a slew of words—Mal recognized "trauma" but that was about it.
"Any of those things could have—I don't know," replied Annelore. "Mrs. Li?"
"Oh, Lawman Jude can tell you," said Mrs. Li.
"It seems that, Annelore has an implant in her head to keep her from having fits," the lawman said. "She was pushed down a flight of stairs on Boros, hit her head, and the implant broke. It damaged that part of the brain that holds and makes memories."
"What?" asked Simon.
Annelore started laughing. "Who would have thought me of all people would get a gou shi Frampold implant put in her head? I must have been someplace on the Rim where they had nothing better."
"Who pushed her down the stairs?" asked Simon.
"A fed," replied the lawman.
They all were surprised by that, particularly Annelore.
"Her advocate on Boros said that she was visiting the planet and was arrested because she was near a chemical warehouse that had just been robbed," the lawman continued.
"They thought I was a thief?" asked Annelore.
"They thought you were a terrorist," replied the lawman. "Apparently they're concerned about some group that calls itself the Red Dawn—bioterrorism. There's been medical supplies and chemicals stolen other places, and at this one hospital on Ariel, a bunch of drugs were taken and close to a dozen Alliance soldiers bled to death because of some weird virus."
Mal checked to see how Simon was taking this, but the doctor already looked so comic struck that nothing new registered on his face.
"You were dressed like someone from the Rim, and you said you was a doctress, so they arrested you. While you were being transferred to the interrogation room, this one fed—who had already made a name for himself beating folks up—pushed you down a flight of stairs. Your implant broke, and you lost your memory."
"And you was innocent!" exclaimed Mrs. Li.
"They never were able to find no cause to tie you to the crime. Crippling a doctress from the top medacad on Osiris surely got that fed fired—your advocate saw to that. And you were in a hospital on Boros."
"So how did she get here?" asked Simon.
"Well, that's where things get odd," replied the lawman. "A
man from a transport ship got her released from the hospital into his care. He
did it using paperwork signed by her parents."
"That's impossible," said Simon.
"My parents are dead," said Annelore. "They were taken by cholera when I was 10 years old."
"I know," said the lawman. "That ship took you off of Boros before your advocate realized what was going on. Then, they ditched you here."
"Why would they do that?" asked Annelore.
The lawman looked down at his feet, scratched the back of his head, and looked at Mrs. Li.
"Well?" she asked.
"Annelore," said Mrs. Li. "There are some things you are better off not remembering."
"One of the herdsmen found you. You were unconscious," the lawman continued. "The ship had taken off by then. We didn't know where you were from, and by the time you woke up, you couldn't tell us anything. We thought maybe they had whomped you on the head and that was why you couldn't remember nothing. We didn't find out different until the Alliance came. That ship got hit by Reavers. All six men we saw on board were killed."
"Why was I on Boros?" asked Annelore.
"We don't know," replied the lawman. "You didn't live there."
"You were probably buying medicine for your patients," replied Mrs. Li.
"So what you know is: Annelore was on the Rim, somewhere. She came to Boros for some reason, then was mysteriously taken here," said Simon. "I realize you probably don't have a lot of sophisticated investigative capabilities here—"
"That's the truth," said the lawman. "Usually we can fix whatever's happened just by cracking whatever ship's on the ground."
"—but if the Alliance was helping you with your investigation, why don't you know more?"
The lawman stifled a guffaw, and Mal already knew the answer.
"The Alliance wasn't helping us with our investigation, we had to help them with theirs. That transport ship was discovered by an Alliance cruiser. Reavers—well of course, according to the Alliance, there ain't no Reavers, so some other gang of murdering maniacs—set a time-detonator to the ship's life-support system. It clicked on automatically when internal sensors detected warmth and movement. Ten minutes later—"
The lawman made an explosive sound with his lips and gestured outward with his hands.
"Alliance lost something like 15 men and a couple of small ships, and their big ship was damaged. But the men had been sending a video feed to the main ship, and I watched it to verify that the bodies were those of the men who had come here. All six of those e mo were on that ship. Or at least their heads were."
"We were able to find out about Boros because that's where the ship was before it came here," said Mrs. Li. "That's how we found that Annelore had been there too and what had happened to her—her advocate was so worried. But that's as far as we've been able to get."
"Like you said," the lawman said to Simon, "we don't have a lot of fancy databases or great detecting gear—law enforcement around here usually translates into making sure people do their work assignments. Annelore ain't got no family. Most of the people she remembers from medacad we can't track down, and the few we've been able to find don't know nothing useful.
"But someone like you," he put a hand on Simon's left shoulder, "you could help. You remember the years she has lost. You might know where people have moved to."
"You're a blessing from God!" exclaimed Mrs. Li, grabbing Simon's right hand.
Zao gao. "Well, that he is," said Mal. "So we're going to head on back to our ship with our little blessing, and you all can swing by when you're ready to pick up your stuff."
And with that, he grabbed Simon's right shoulder, pointed him to the door, and got the hell out of that gorram place.
______
TRANSLATIONS
Bu gan dang: Chinese, "I don't deserve it" (said in response to a compliment)
Amate: Latin, "love"
Desiree L'Amour: French, "wanted" and "love"
Spead Amate: A joke at the expense of poor Nathan Fillion, who posted to the fans to "Spead the Firefly love," and no, I can't let it go.
Hidalgo: Spanish, although now a not-uncommon name, hidalgo came from the phrase hijo de algo, "son of something," and was used to refer to people who were of obscure nobility.
decimus: Latin, "tenth," used here to mean top ten percent
gou shi: Chinese, "dog excrement"
e mo: Chinese, "fiend," "devil"
zao gao: Chinese, "damn!" "awful!"
