Part Five

It was a bruised and battered crew that gathered around the kitchen table. Jayne had rejoined them, and the only sop to his ego was that others had faired even worse than he. Mal looked the worst with two black eyes and a bandage over the nose that Simon had reset for him.

"She's very angry with you," River explained.

They had spent two hours in the cargo bay, pulling access panels off and letting Hunts The Night into every nook and cranny they could find. There was no sight of the mouse. None of them had ever seen a cat stomp around in a fit of anger before.

Mal restrained himself from the answer that popped into his head. "Kaylee, how're things looking?"

Kaylee pressed her lips together unhappily. "We've got about ten times as many random faults as we normally would have. So far it's been limited to the boards in the cockpit we know the mice got to and a couple of areas next to and around the cargo bay. But, captain, if they get into the engine room..."

"I know," he snapped, then caught himself. "Doc, what have you got?"

Simon, one of the few who hadn't been clawed, bruised, battered, or bitten, inclined his head. "I set out twelve different traps – each with a different bait. When I checked half an hour ago, seven of them had been set off, the bait taken, but no mouse caught. For mice, these things are quite clever."

"Wash?" Mal continued, wishing he could take something strong enough to wipe out his headache.

"We go dirtside in less than 36 hours," Wash shrugged. "That is, if we make it, and if you want to take us into atmo."

"Sir," Zoe spoke up, "we could close off the hatches and pump the atmo out, one section at a time. It's standard procedure for infested ships."

"Doc?" Mal asked.

Simon nodded slowly. "Depressurization would certainly kill them off – if we isolate them to a section with nothing else alive in it. I'd hate for the cat to come to harm."

"Mal, what if they're in with us?" Inara asked.

"Then that doesn't work, and we start all over again, only with everyone in pressure suits. Kaylee, let's go prep the engine room for vacuum."

"Yessir."

There were days when she wanted to chew all her fur off and run in rings until she collapsed. And then there were days like this that made the former feel like a nap in a warm beam of sunlight.

The river girl had commiserated with her long enough for Hunts The Night to calm herself by bathing whatever she could reach. Almost. She'd almost had her enemy in her jaws. She'd almost tasted its blood and heard its death squeak. Except for those bloody humans. How they managed to rattle around the cosmos in this tin can they called a ship and not die in one of many gruesome manners was beyond her. Give her a planet any day. The brown, crunchy male should have known better. He'd had the air of a wary tomcat that had lost one too many lives. You didn't hunt by prancing about in front of your prey hoping they laughed themselves to death. You hunted by anticipating your prey's path and crossing it at the right moment with death at the point of your claws.

It had taken her hours to retrack her prey, and it was headed for the heart of this pulsing home. Had it joined its brothers? She paced down the corridor to the long narrow room where a turbine rolled with warm life. Did they strike here, they could be victorious.

Cautiously, she crept in, whiskers aquiver for anything suspicious. The sunny girl spent time in here. Her scent was all through the place. After this was done, she'd definitely spend more time with the sunny girl. She, at least, knew how to properly scratch behind the ears. There was a great deal to be said for a human who could do that.

The mousy scent led her to behind and underneath the turbine, which raised her hackles. Carefully, she ducked and crawled, looking for whatever recess, nook, cranny, or hole her enemy could have gone to ground in. Then, the scent of the two others hit her – far too strong for the enclosed space she was in.

In the split second she realized that she'd been lured into an ambush, she felt one latch on to the back of her neck, a second attack her flank and dig in with teeth and claws, the last crouched before her, staring with glowing red eyes filled with hate before it jumped at her face.

"Cap'n," Kaylee looked up at him with big, brown eyes, "do you think, I mean, after all this is over-"

"Kaylee," he interrupted, "I know what you're going to say."

"Please?" she pleaded. "You know she'd be a good cat, and we already know she's a first rate mouser. We'd never have any trouble with-"

"We didn't have any trouble with varmints 'til I was foolish enough to take some on as cargo."

"But, cap'n-"

She was cut off by the sudden sound of a cat howling and spitting in fury. She and Mal looked at each other and then took off at a run.

"She's under the turbine!" Kaylee yelled.

"Get it prepped for vacuum," Mal ordered. "I'll get her out of there."

Kaylee hesitated half a moment, and then started popping open wiring boxes and hitting switches. Mal grabbed one of the support beams and swung himself under the turbine. Hunts The Night was a blur of fur, claws and blood with three white balls of furry insane hatred attached. Bracing himself, he pulled his knife out of his boot, reached in and grabbed the first bit of cat that presented itself.

One of the mice reacted by detaching itself from the cat and taking a huge bite of his arm. Grimacing, Mal pulled Hunts The Night out from under the turbine and swung her up onto the floor. Then, crouching with the knife in his hand, he started prying the mouse's jaws off him.

"Kaylee, how long?" he shouted.

"Just a second," she answered, bending in half around one of the coolant pipes.

The mouse dug its claws in. Hunts The Night, no longer trapped in a tiny space, had redoubled her efforts. With one twist, she got a back claw under the mouse trying to chew through her neck and ripped it off her. The other mouse dove right for her eyes. She turned, and it caught an ear instead, ripping it into bloody tatters. Mal saw the first mouse run straight back at her, and stomped it with all his weight. There was a horrible, wet crunch.

The mouse on his arm finally let go, apparently deciding it would rather keep its lower jaw. Instead, it set its sights on Mal's face and ran up his arm. He nearly stabbed himself in the shoulder knocking it off. When it hit the ground, it reversed course and went straight for Kaylee.

"Mei-mei, look out!"

Kaylee looked up from the circuit she was rerouting to see a tiny chisel toothed horror coming for her and automatically held out the two wires in her hands, naked ends first. The mouse ran straight into them, and there was a muffled pop as electrocuted mouse guts spattered the bulkhead and underside of the turbine.

That left one mouse, which was currently locked in a battle to the death with Hunts The Night. She was hurt and torn up and tired, but there was no way she would let her enemy escape her. With one swipe, she knocked it against the hatch. It scrambled for the hatchway, but she was on it. She caught it by the neck between her jaws and felt the satisfying crunch of its skull and neck.

Mal took a deep breath. "That was three, right, mei-mei?

"Well, I got one, and so did Hunts The Night," she said in a small voice. "Where's the third?"

"Under my boot."

He lifted his foot a bit, and Kaylee made a very small noise in the back of her throat.

"Hey, cat," Mal looked at the tortoiseshell.

She did not look up from her kill.

Mal took the few steps over to her and hunkered down. "Hunts The Night."

She looked up, and Mal saw the cuts, bites, and clawmarks on her face. One eye was swollen closed. An ear had been torn nearly through. Her fur was smutched with blood, most of it her own. She was breathing hard and trembling.

"Don't worry," Mal murmured to her, holding out a hand. "I'll make sure the doc takes good care of you."

She studied him for a moment, then gave his hand a tiny headbutt.

In the end, Simon confirmed that all the mice had been male. Well, all but the one which had been on the wrong end of a live current. There hadn't been enough of that one remaining to do a necropsy on. All the remains Wash and Jayne could find were put back into the original cargo container and relatched. Simon spent time stitching Hunts The Night and cleaning her wounds. She endured it patiently, sitting in Kaylee's lap and kneading her legs with large paws. Her ear would never stand up properly again, but that was only permanent injury. Mal came in to check on her before they made landfall on Liang Ho.

"Kaylee, you promise me you'll take care of the litter box and such," he said, rubbing a thumb over the cat's skull, "and I'll pay for her feed out of my pocket."

Her bright grin was all the answer he needed. Hunts The Night's eyes slowly closed under his ministrations and her purring became audible.

"So how were you figuring on explaining to the owner that his six live mice aren't?" Zoe asked, as they waited for the cargo door to drop. Kaylee and Jayne were with them, as well as Hunts The Night, who sat on Kaylee's shoulder.

"I hadn't planned on tellin' any such thing," Mal responded. "Wash tells me there's a man who sells such things not a ten minute walk from here. Owner'll get six male white mice, just like the manifest says."

"And if he notices?"

"Then we'll have a little talk about why it was his mice tried to kill my crew."

Zoe looked heavenward as if appealing to an authority higher than her captain. "I'm sure that will go over just fine, sir."

The ramp hit dirt, and the four of them stepped out, right into the sights of three bounty hunters with weapons pointing at them. The middle one smelled of dirty laundry and spoiled cabbage.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" Mal asked.

"Hand 'em over," the stinky one said, gesturing with his rifle.

Mal and Zoe traded looks. They and Jayne could go for their guns, but Kaylee might well be caught in the crossfire, something Mal wasn't about to chance.

"You'll have to sign for them," Mal said, holding up the manifest on a clipboard.

The bounty hunters looked at each other, and the smelly one jerked his head to send one of the others up.

After scribbling something illegible and pressing his thumb onto the form, the second bounty hunter took the box from Mal and opened it.

"Uh...they're dead," he said to his boss.

"Yeah," Mal agreed. "Had a small problem with them. Don't worry. They won't trouble you at all."

There was a long moment of silence as the smelly man thought this over.

"Jim, dit say anything about them bein' live?" he asked the third bounty hunter.

The third bounty hunter looked up, trying to remember, and started moving his lips as though he were reading the contract. His eyes moved back and forth as he thought. Finally, he shook his head.

"Naw, just wants 'em back," Jim answered.

Satisfied, the second bounty hunter rejoined his boss and coworker, and the three of them pointed their weapons.

"There," Mal gestured to Zoe. "See how nicely it all works out?"

"And the cat," Stinky Man added.

"Or not," said Zoe.

Mal looked at bounty hunters, gauging them. He'd rather not start something right there, but as far as he was concerned Hunts The Night was a member of his crew, and no gorram bounty hunter smelling like dirty socks was going to change that.

"Yeah," Mal replied. "I'm gonna suggest that you stick with the mice. See this?" and he pointed at his nose and two black eyes. "And that?" He pointed at Jayne's face. "I've got three others in the infirmary with marks not so different from that."

"And?" Jim asked, a little nervously.

"Well, now, Kaylee there is the only one you might say's really made friends with the cat. All the rest of us, not so much."

"Your client did mention that she's an unusual cat, right?" Zoe asked them.

The bounty hunters looked at each other once again. On cue, Hunts The Night began a low, menacing growl, leaning forward on Kaylee's shoulder and fixing each man with a golden eyed stare. It suddenly occurred to the three that they had a long trip back to Persephone, and in that time, many things could happen. It also occurred to each of them, that a three way split of the money for the mice was a fair and equitable amount of wages for the work they'd done. There was, after all, no need to tempt fate.

With some awkward mumbles and a little scuffing of shoes, the three bounty hunters departed with six mouse corpses and no cat.

When they were gone, Hunts The Night jumped down from Kaylee's shoulder and surveyed the world before her. Liang Ho was a fairly well established colony world. It had cities and towns, ranches, farms, and factories. More than that, though, it had fields with mice, boulders that sat in direct sunlight and soaked up the heat of the day, and even a few tomcats worth bothering with. Her tail curled up into a question mark as she looked out over the landscape.

"Rrrow."

"But," Kaylee objected, "don't you want to stay with us?"

With a loud purr, Hunts The Night stropped Kaylee's legs and gave her a loving head butt. She turned to Mal, who squatted down and held out his hand, one finger extended. She gave it a sniff, then a lick, and then bestowed another head butt on him.

"You stay out of trouble," Mal told her. "Next time we're dirtside here, we'll check in with you."

"Mmmrrr."

And with one last sleepy blink, Hunts The Night left, blending in immediately with the shadows cast by the trees at the edge of the landing field. There was a glimpse of yellow eyes, and she was gone.

Kaylee sniffled, and Zoe put her arm around her for comfort.