The night had come and gone on Pfalzenhoffer, and the day was once again waning. Inara had not heard from Jin. Initially waiting for Jin to call was kind of exciting—there was this sense of adventure, like the two of them were kids who might be able to sneak out of the house for a tryst. But after a while the hope of seeing him again began to fade, and being alone in the shuttle got kind of boring. Since he had paid for three days, seeking other work was out of the question, and Inara felt obligated not to travel too far in case he called. Her neighbors were, of course, all working during the day. Inara wondered if they would even talk to her—they were mostly construction workers, working on short-term expansion or renovation projects at the estates, and were unlikely to have known many companions.
Around noon, she had finally called Xenia. Under the circumstances, a call on a fellow companion in distress would be expected—after all, what was the guild if not a sisterhood? And Xenia had been one of Inara's instructors, even if they were never close.
But she was from Sihnon: not a client, like Jin, who had doubtless been told some pleasant tale by House Madrassa, but a companion, so Inara had hesitated. It was silly—Xenia had left Sihnon well before Inara had, following Zelmich to one of his other homes. And she was probably too distracted by her own problems to care about Inara even if she did know.
So Inara had rung Xenia, and the older woman had answered the call. She had looked just as Inara remembered, round eyes, high cheekbones, holding her shoulders back like a dancer. Her hair was now a dark red that complemented her pale skin, and while her skin was not unlined she still gave off an aura of glamour that brought Inara back to her Academy days. She remembered Xenia exclaiming to a group of students: "Being a companion is not a job. It is not a career. It is a way of life—it's who you are, not what you do!"
Once Inara explained who she was, Xenia said she remembered her face and invited Inara to visit that afternoon. Since her place wasn't really any further from the You estate than the docks, Inara agreed.
Xenia's home was a single-story building made out of fieldstone and mortar located about half-a-mile from the docks. While Inara thought the house was quite shuai, what with its well-kept little front yard, she knew that by Pfalzenhoffer standards it was probably considered a hovel.
Inside, the house was very clean, although Inara couldn't help but notice that most of the furniture was oversized and just a touch shabby—probably the cast-offs from whatever gargantuan castle Zelmich lived in with his new bride. Xenia seemed to be adjusting well to her reduced circumstances; she told Inara that she had been raised with two siblings in a one-room apartment on Persephone, and while Zelmich had bought her this house strictly to give her residency rights, she would sometimes stay in it when he was off-planet because it seemed cozier and "more human."
You didn't have to have companion training to realize that Xenia was both worried and upset. It didn't take much prompting for her to open up to Inara—she couldn't talk about the Amates to anybody on Pfalzenhoffer ("not even the other companions") without the risk of creating all the more fodder for gossip and scandal. But Inara gave her word as a companion that Xenia's confidences would be guarded, and since Inara didn't live there—well, Xenia needed to confide in someone.
So she told all. "Zelmich's losing his mind," Xenia said. He had always been strong-willed and difficult—he was self-made, much like Xenia herself. But in the past two years, he had become increasingly erratic and forgetful—and he refused to see a doctor. Xenia's role had increasingly become one of a nurse, and she seriously doubted that Desiree L'Amour was going to be up to the task.
His two children were also an enormous source of worry. Zelmich had divorced their mother a decade before when her drinking got so far out of control that she became an embarrassment to him. It was an acrimonious separation, and Tamara had never really embraced Xenia. Now that Desiree had caused the break with her father, Tamara wouldn't even see Xenia or talk to her "and I raised that child for six years!" Spead seemed to be following in his mother's footsteps—he was supposed to be staying with Xenia, but she hadn't seen him in four days and had no idea where he was.
"We've always worried about his drinking," said Xenia, then shook her head. "Listen to me! We worry—that's a sad, self-deluded lie, isn't it? I worry about the children. I worry. Me. We don't worry about anyone anymore, assuming we ever really did."
She put her head in her hands.
"You know, Inara, people who don't like companions say that we don't care. That we have sex with people, and we don't care. But you know that's not true. A true companion—not some jian huo like Desiree L'Amour, but the real thing—cares. We care," she looked at Inara with despair in her eyes. "But they don't."
And Inara just had no idea what to say.
Inara's shuttle never pinged her while she was at Xenia's, and Jin hadn't called during her flight back to the docks. The docks had a commissary that would deliver meals, so Inara ordered dinner and ate it alone in her shuttle. She tried to practice her calligraphy for a while and was just considering turning in early when her control panel lit up and began to ding. Inara gave herself a quick once-over in the mirror, then answered.
But the face that appeared was not of an older man. Inara realized with a start that she was speaking to Lily You.
"Lily!" she said, forcing herself to smile. "How are you?"
"Inara, hello," said Lily in a low, tense voice. "Can you meet me tomorrow?"
***
Simon kept silent until they were back on board, but the moment Kaylee sealed the doors he spoke. "Why can't I help her?" he asked Mal.
The captain turned around and looked at Simon like he had just grown two heads. "I would think that would be abundantly clear," he said. "The last thing you or your sister need is to have a passel of lawmen helping you poke through your past."
Mal turned away and River ran up and demanded "her" vest back. "Not now, River! Not now!" Simon snapped, then walked after the captain and stood in front of him. "These people aren't Alliance. They barely have anything but fruit."
"Ah, yes, and that bounty on you and your sister would help them mightily with their situation, wouldn't it now?" Mal replied.
"What's going on?" asked Kaylee.
"The doctor's found an old friend from his medacad days," said the captain. "She's off in the head, and he wants to get us all pinched helping her out."
"Figures," muttered Jayne, returning to his workout.
Simon rolled his eyes. "I know we'd have to be careful. But I have to help Annelore. I owe her."
"Because of what happened on Ariel?" Mal asked. "Simon, we don't know for sure that's even the same thing."
"We did rob a hospital there. And those officers didn't sound like they were having a party."
Jayne cackled.
"There was something I thought was odd about the arrest," Book said.
"Yes?" asked Simon, sensing an ally.
"She was arrested because they thought she belonged to the Red Dawn. Now that really was a terrorist group—but they were taken down back before you were born. Bioterrorists. Fanatics who believed that humanity should have died with Earth-That-Was."
"I love these little history lessons," said Wash.
Book gave a quick smile. "They were so tight-knit, you couldn't pay them to inform, and it took years to get someone on the inside. But they were all rounded up, it must have been 30 years ago."
"That's what they talk about back in the abbey?" Jayne asked, putting down his weights again. "The troublesome infiltrating of terrorist groups?"
"There's not much to do other than gossip," said Book.
"You think she was set up?" Mal asked Book.
"I think worse than that," Simon said. "That implant—only Frampold implants malfunction like that, all the newer models are safer. That's why Frampolds are so cheap."
"So, she was out on the Rim, and all they had…."
"Not possible. Annelore was from the Rim herself, her parents were sharecroppers before cholera killed them. I mean, think of it—they died of cholera in this day and age. You can imagine the place she grew up was like.
"She wound up in an orphanage and started winning scholarships—that's how she managed to attend medacad. But she was very political, very aware of the gap. She was the only person on Osiris ever I knew who felt the war to unite the planets ended badly."
The captain's eyebrows went up, and Simon felt a glimmer of hope.
"She was also very gifted mechanically—very good with devices and implants. If she had chosen to pursue that, she would have made the Medical Elect in no time. She wanted to practice general medicine out on the Rim, though—she said all implant specialists ever did was shut down the hunger centers in the brains of anorexic socialites. My point is, she knew about the Frampolds. She knew better than anyone how dangerous they are, and she even petitioned to have them outlawed. She often said she'd rather put a bullet in her brain than a Frampold."
"So, you think someone did this to her on purpose?" Book asked.
"I do," said Simon. "When a Frampold malfunctions like that, it typically shorts out so that it stops working. If the person actually has a seizure disorder, it's not long before they start having seizures again—that plus the brain damage from the malfunction itself are why Frampolds are so dangerous. But no one said she'd had a seizure since she's been here. Either she's an atypical case, or she never had seizure problems in the first place."
"If what you're saying is true, that's certainly quite a misfortune for her," said Mal. "But it doesn't change the landscape here. Bottom line is, she doesn't know you're on the run, and if you tell her, she'll forget—she could put you in danger without even knowing she's done it. And if you help her, if you call up all your old buddies from medacad, you'll get pinched for sure."
"Not necessarily," said Simon. "I know who I can call. A lawyer friend of Annelore's from Osiris. His name is Sisyphus Ting."
"What makes you think you can trust him?" Mal asked.
"I called him before," said Simon. "Two years ago, when River was still in that academy, and I was trying to get her out. He put me in touch with Annelore then. She was always very political, very involved in organizations, some of them fairly radical—not, you know, bioterrorists or anything, but…I thought she might know someone who could help."
"And did she?"
"I don't know. I was contacted by that underground group about six weeks after I spoke to her—that may have been her doing, or it may not have been. All I know is, Sisyphus was a reliable contact, and he was discrete—I never saw any fallout from contacting him. He could help her, and he'd do it without letting anyone know about it."
The captain was about to say something when the banging started. Both Zoe and Jayne stepped over to the closed airlock, positioning themselves on either side and making Simon feel rather exposed as he dumbly stood in the middle of the hold. Mal looked at Zoe and nodded, and she opened up the doors to the cargo hold.
The doors opened to reveal what Simon assumed was the better part of the Li family—Kerry and the woman who had been with Annelore, who both looked upset, and Jasmine, who held a rough sack and looked vaguely irritated, most likely by the fact that she was being forced to see them all again.
"Captain Reynolds," called Kerry.
"What the hell's going on?" asked the second woman.
"Jian Kang, please. Swearing will cost you," Kerry said to her, then stepped forward to Mal. "Captain Reynolds, you left us."
"You ran out!" said Jian Kang.
"Now, Captain, we're not making accusations, and we're not trying to cast your actions in a negative light. There's good in everyone."
"Especially in Annelore!" Jian Kang exclaimed. "God has not so abandoned that poor woman that she is without friends."
"Jian Kang, please!" said Kerry.
"Whatchya got in that bag there, little lady?" Jayne asked, and Simon realized with a start that he was talking to Jasmine. And that Jasmine was smiling at him.
"Cornbread and marmalade. Something for you to nabble on," said Jasmine, swaying a bit. A grin spread across Jayne's face.
"But you don't get any unless you help Annelore!" Jian Kang pointed her finger at Jayne. His grin disappeared and he looked at her through narrowed eyes.
This was getting out of control. "We're going to help," said Simon, quickly. Jasmine handed the bag to Jayne, taking longer than was entirely necessary to do it.
"We are," said Mal, with just a hint of a question in his voice.
"We are," Kaylee piped in, bless her. "We just need to be kind of, you know, quiet about it."
"Quiet?" asked Jian Kang.
"Discreet," said Simon.
"I can be discreet," Jayne said to Jasmine.
"Why?" asked Kerry.
"Ma, they're smugglers," said Jasmine, without turning.
"But Lawman Jude doesn't care about that," said Kerry.
"We'd just feel better if the doctor was allowed to make some inquiries—discreet inquiries—about Annelore without necessarily involving anyone who's in any law-enforcement type of role," said Mal.
Jian Kang glared at them, while Kerry had a fretful look on her face like she didn't want to believe bad things about such nice people, but….
"Simon borrows things," said River, accusingly. She was standing by Smith's boxes, but strode over to grab the sleeve of Simon's jacket. "He borrows them, and then he doesn't give them back."
A light went on in Kerry and Jian Kang's heads. "Oh, you owe money," said the older woman, and the two started laughing. Kerry walked over to Simon and patted him on the shoulder. "Trust me, you aren't the only person who's come to Glory of God one jump ahead of the bill collectors."
"Annelore always says, it's the richest kids who get in the worst trouble with money," Jian Kang said with a smile.
"I'm glad that's cleared up," said the captain.
"Where is Annelore, anyway?" asked Simon.
"She's back at the house with Jing Mei, don't worry," said Jian Kang. "That's one of my other sisters. She and I help out with the clinic and the medical stuff."
"One of us—me or my daughters—is with her at all times," said Kerry. Simon caught enough of Jasmine's expression to realize that this was not a duty all the Li women relished.
"Why is that?" he asked.
The question wiped the smiles off the Lis faces. Kerry suddenly looked like she was about to cry.
"Annelore is very, um, vulnerable the way she is now," said Jian Kang. "If someone does something to her and, you know, hides her afterwards, she doesn't know about it, and she doesn't know who did it."
"You said that she had been assaulted by those men on the ship," said Simon.
"That happened, yes," said Jian Kang. "There have also been two other—assaults. At first we thought that maybe it was another ship, but after the second time…."
"So is this why you're willing to risk maybe losing your doctor?" asked Mal.
"Yes, that. That and she's getting worse," said Jian Kang.
***
They had agreed to meet for tea—away from the You estate, of course. Lily had given Inara the coordinates for the tea shop and told her it was in a tall, silver building, which was a lucky thing because the shop had no sign, and aside from a nearby landing area surrounded by a screen of trees, there was nothing to indicate what it actually was. It looked like was a fat grain silo—a large silver cylinder polished to a brilliant shine that rose straight up out of the ground. It was about three stories tall and shaped just like the real thing, but it was too glossy and too perfectly smooth to be any silo Inara had ever seen on a real Rim world. Next to it was a large red-and-white barn that, like the silo, sparkled with cleanliness. There were no animals; instead, people walked casually from one building to the other.
One waved at her. It was Lily. She was wearing a high-necked dress with a long skirt and modestly flared sleeves that was made out of yellow-and-white checked cotton. She was carrying a plain wicker basket. Inara felt a sudden stab of insecurity about everything she had on—the off-the shoulder top, the velvet, the gold jewelry, the exposed navel. Everyone else, she realized, was dressed far more plainly, in cotton or with some of the men, suede leather.
The simple life of Pfalzenhoffer. Those outfits probably cost ten times what I'm wearing, Inara thought, as she and Lily smiled and air-kissed.
They walked in through a door in the side of the silo. Inside, the outer wall was clear glass, giving the patrons a full view of the rolling pastures and trees that surrounded it. Inara and Lily were seated up on the third floor, with Lily asking for a table located at a remove from the other diners. They ordered tea and the fruit-and-cookies plate, which was costly, but according to Lily, excellent.
"I feel so badly about what's happened," said Lily. "I wanted to apologize for ruining your and Father's time together."
"Nonsense," Inara replied, biting delicately into a sweet berry. "I trust Tamara is feeling better."
Lily sighed and pulled her mouth to one side. "Not really. Not at all. I had hoped to take her out today and treat her, but she doesn't want to leave the house."
"She's afraid that if she leave, Jin will...?" Inara asked.
"She's afraid of that, she's afraid she might see a companion wherever she goes, she's afraid people will see her and gossip. She can't go on like this—Father's arranged to have a doctor come speak with her, maybe give her something. It's not healthy."
"You're a good friend," Inara said, reaching out and holding Lily's hand. Looking down at Lily's sleeve, Inara noticed that her dress wasn't simply a check printed onto fabric—it was made entirely of yellow-and-white ribbon, woven together. A small design had been embroidered onto every square.
"Thank you—you've always been so nice to me. So I wanted to kind of make things up to you. I wanted to treat Tamara by taking her to the day spa next door." Lily pointed over to the barn. Inara briefly wondered if the bathrooms were designed to resemble outhouses. "But since she won't go—would you be my guest instead? It's fantastic. They have the most decadent treatments imaginable. They exfoliate with fresh grapefruit, and they make a moisturizing mask with avocadoes—the real thing, they mash them into the mask right in front of you!"
"Sounds heavenly," Inara said. "It's a shame Tamara won't go with you."
"I can't believe it either," said Lily. "I mean, I thought I could help, but…. She won't even talk to Xenia, and she's almost like her stepmother. The whole thing about companions is just insane. There are companions everywhere, in our circles at least. You really can't function if you don't want to see them—it's like being afraid of security staff or something."
"Well, your father's extraordinarily open. It's fairly unusual that a client is honest with his children about that part of his life. I've guess I've always wondered why—"
"I never had a problem with it?" Lilly finished. "Well, I guess in a way it should bother me. Some would say that the healthy thing for Father to do would be to get on with his life, considering how long it's been since Mother passed. But Father's close friends tell me that he'll always be a one-woman man. I mean, he and my mother fell in love when they were 16 and married as soon as they were old enough to make it legal. When you're that age, you know, everything's so romantic. Plus my grandparents thought that they were too young and opposed the relationship, so there was this whole Romeo-and-Juliet situation where Father would crawl out the window and foil the security systems to see her. Romance and adventure, plus true love and a happy marriage. I think he feels like that sort of thing—well, he can't replicate it, so why try? So I guess Father's use of companions doesn't bother me because it's sort of a tribute to her, to the love they had."
"Your mother sounds like an exceptional woman," Inara replied, keeping her voice casual. "Do you have a picture of her?"
"Oh yes," said Lily, reaching into her wicker basket and pulling out a small book. She opened it to reveal a flat screen on the right-hand side and a collection of data spikes in the left. She pulled out the spike labeled "Album" and inserted it into the screen.
She thought for a moment. "Wedding reception," she said to the screen, then smiled at Inara. "I always like seeing that."
Inara smiled back. Lily skipped the images forward for a little while, then turned the screen to Inara. The couple walking into the room looked familiar. Jin was much younger, of course, but was easily recognizable. The woman, though—she looked like something out of another still Inara had seen recently. Her nose was a little thinner and her jaw a little squarer, but the smile and the curly black hair, half-up-and-half-down, were familiar. She wore pearl studs in her ears and a chocker of fat pearls. Bright red sleeves flowed from the thin straps of her dress, placed so that they were almost off-the-shoulder. The thought came back to Inara like a mockery: Most people notice the cut first, even if they think they notice the color.
"Thank you so much for showing that to me," she said to Lily.
"So will you come with me to the day spa?" Lily asked.
"I'm afraid I can't—I have some business to attend to," Inara said. "Perhaps you should ask a friend?"
***
This place was just darling. Here it was, the middle of the day and hot as the dickens—lucky thing she had her parasol—and everyone was just stirring to life. Kaylee had set up chair by Serenity, but curiosity soon pulled her nearer to the cave entrance, which by now had people coming in and out. Some were hauling out plants in pots—some looked like herbs but others had lovely flowers. Others were setting up what looked like open packing boxes lined on the inside with reflective foil, then placing pots of whatever needed cooking in the center. Still others were setting up solar chargers, attaching them to a variety of batteries.
Then the flap covering the entrance whipped open and about a dozen people came walking out—toward Kaylee. Two of them had badges.
"Hi!" she said. "Are you ready to unload the cargo?"
The rest just nodded, but one of the lawmen—a blonde woman of slight build, stepped forward, smiled, and gave Kaylee a hearty shake of the hand. Her badge was attached to a tank top, which revealed a long, curvy scar across her collarbone.
"Ya, you know us, don't you?" she said. She had a charming lilt to her voice, and Kaylee liked her immediately.
"Just follow me, then. I'm Kaylee."
"I'm Xastare. Xastare Baxshesh," said the lawman. "So what do you do on the ship, Kaylee?"
They reached Serenity, and Kaylee let them in. Xastare said howdy to Mal, Jayne, and Zoe, then asked to see the cargo. It was an odd mix of things, a lot of solar sheeting, portable solar-powered heaters, filters, parts, some medicine. The solar stuff got taken outside, and its voltage was checked with what Kaylee realized was homemade equipment.
But she didn't get to watch things too closely. Jayne and the captain were keeping an eye on the goings-on outside anyway. And Kaylee was busy chatting with the very friendly Xastare. Like people often were, Xastare was curious that someone Kaylee's age would be a ship's mechanic—she really didn't look it, but Xastare was some 15 years older. So she was real curious about what all Kaylee knew about ships.
They were interrupted by the other lawman, who told Xastare that the cargo checked out. "Great, I'll radio in for the mule—" Xastare said, then a loud ringing noise interrupted, and she rolled her eyes. "After prayer!"
Then the lawmen walked out of the cargo hold to where the rest of their people were, and all the Glory of God people stopped what they were doing, got on their knees, pulled strings of beads out of their pockets, and began reciting prayers.
It took the crew a moment to figure out what was going on—Kaylee peeked out through the cargo door to make sure Mal wasn't going to do anything obnoxious, then bowed her head and clasped her hands. She had no idea if she should be saying something out loud, or should get on her knees, or what. They were reciting something all at the same time—it was pretty complicated, the lawmen would say something, and the settlers would all reply. Kaylee decided against saying anything to mess it up, especially because she was so rattled that "Nows I lays me down to sleep" was the only prayer she could think of.
Eventually they went quiet, but were obviously still praying—Mal almost said something, but Kaylee shook her head at him. A full minute went by, and then, just like that, the Glory of God people all got up and went back to what they had been doing, just like nothing had happened.
But not for long. "You are people of God?" a voice called out. River stepped forward to the doorway of the cargo hold.
Kaylee opened her mouth to say something, but Xastare had already replied, "Yes, we submit to the will of God."
"Then you must burn her," said River, putting her hands together behind her back. "This girl reads minds and spins falsehoods. She's a witch, and you must purge the devil from her with fire."
There was dead silence, as Kaylee, Jayne, and Mal exchanged glances. Then the laughter began. "Oh, I see you brought an ostrich to trade!" one of the settlers shouted at the captain, clapping his shoulder, and they all laughed harder after that. River looked confused for a moment, then began laughing too, harder than the settlers, even.
"That's one coffee-wit you've got with you there, isn't it?" Xastare asked Kaylee.
Kaylee was watching River, who was almost doubled over with laughter. It was a little alarming, really, how hard and how loud River was laughing. Louder, and louder, and louder River laughed, and all the settlers gradually stopped laughing and began looking at her. Then River abruptly stopped and looked at Kaylee with a lost expression on her face.
"She's not all there, is she?" Xastare asked.
"Um, no," said Kaylee. "She's not, not all there, and people don't always react, you know, well to her. Sometimes people are a little unkind."
"People can be fools, now can't they?" Xastare said. She walked over to River. "We're a Godly people indeed, dear girleen. But we don't go about persecuting the wounded. Anyone comes at you with a notion to tie you up and set you on fire, you send them over to me."
Xastare lifted her sleeveless shirt, and Kaylee saw—oh, it must have been at least two pistols and a knife holster tucked into her pants, plus some other hardware. Goodness, Kaylee thought, she dresses like Jayne.
"God has not abandoned you, girleen," Xastare said, touching River's chin. "You remember that."
"I understand," River said, just like a normal girl. "I do read minds, however."
"Can you read mine now?" That was Mal, suddenly cutting in. His expression made it so that even Kaylee could read his thoughts.
"She can't," River said to him. "She'd get in trouble."
"Well, there you have it," said Mal. "Let's get on with things, shall we now?"
______
TRANSLATIONS
shaui: Chinese, "cute"
jian huo: Chinese, "hussy"
Sisyphus Ting: More heartless teasing of the unfortunate Nathan Fillion (I blame my keyboard), who noted that weeping at the DVD's special features was not a "sissy pants ting."
Jian Kang: Chinese, "health"
Jing Mai: A character from the television show "ER." Sorry, couldn't resist.
Xastare Baxshesh. Persian (the first name should be spelled Xaastaare, but that's too funny-looking), "penance"
