Mal stepped over the boy who was still on the floor under Zoë's boot.
"Aaah memories, stop flirting with that boy Zo, we got work to do."
Mal said, chucking to himself as he walked to his mark.
Bester was definitely a pretty boy. Almost too pretty Mal thought.
"Bester?" Mal asked, but he already knew the answer. By looking at the boy Mal knew Bester's and Jen's difference of opinion. The three of them sat down. Bester had this dumb grin on his face as he looked at Zoë.
"You're late." Zoë said trying to figure out if she should take Mal to see a head doctor, because he had gone completely off his rocker. First, he bought that deathtrap, and now he wants to hire this, surfer boy as a mechanic. Zoë wondered when Mal was going to actually listen to her.
Zoë didn't have a good first impression of her new sergeant. In fact she really didn't like him. He was much smaller than she thought. Not much to look at really. Feelings aside he was her sergeant and she had to follow orders. Their first job was pretty easy. All they had to do is deliver some supplies to the 42nd regiment on Ives. Simple enough.
Ives was a small moon, but it was very fertile. Ives was known for their rainforest. The 42nd had been station there for a few months and were running out of rations. They were a more scientific regiment then anything. Testing biochemical of the sorts.
Their trip was rather uneventful. Zoë tried her best to stay out of the way of her sergeant. She really didn't like him, he talked too much, and he had a way about him that rubbed her the wrong way. But despite her best efforts she couldn't get away from him. She was their navigator and pilot of their small transport. "How much longer Zo?" Mal asked as he walked into the cockpit. She hated when he called her "Zo". "Zo" was reserved for friends and family, not sergeants, too informal.
"Better prepare for landing, Sir, we're…." She stopped mid sentence. She looked at her screen.
"Zoë, qwai-gwai long duh dong going on?"
Zoë started flicking switches like crazy. Mal had a hard time reading her, the woman was like stone.
"Zoë!" Mal was getting a little peeved off, he had apologized for the "mix up" as he like to call it, but…
"Sir, I'm not getting any readings, there nothing coming from the scans?" Mal looked at the scanner; there was no type of life coming from Ives.
"Don't worry about it, remember Ives is a science stations, so it must be something sciencey about and that's why were not getting any readings. Just land us." Mal hoped he had sounded reassuring to his plot. Zoë took them into atomo. Mal kept looking at the readings nothing had change. There were no life readings on the screen, not human, not animal not nothing. Mal didn't have a good feeling.
"Just put her down, Zoë." Mal ordered as he walked out. Zoë joined the rest of her squad in the cargo bay. They were busy getting things together.
"Sir, Can I talk to you?" Zoë said, pulling Mal aside.
"Sir, I was able to dig out a distress signal, it's a couple of days old, Sir, they were hit by Reavers."
They looked at each other for a while. Mal had only heard stories of Reavers, men who went out to the edge of space, and well they didn't come back men.
"Sir?" Zoë looked at her sergeant, he was paler than before.
"We do the job. Like I said maybe they were doing some experiment…"
"Sir." she said cutting him off.
"We do the job." Mal said standing firm, making sure that his subordinate knew he was boss.
But Zoë held her ground. "Sir, have you ever seen Reavers? Do you know what they do to a man?" She stared him down.
"Linc, ready the mules, we got a job to do." Mal was the first one to break their deadlock. "Zoë you got a job to do, see to that."
The doors opened to the ship rather slowly. It was gone, everything was gone. The place was burn to the ground, the stench of burnt flesh, hit Mal and men's noses hard.
"Sir, wuh de tyein, ah what happened?" Linc asked as he stood beside Mal. Mal looked back at the faces of the rest of his men. They had the same dumb look as Linc had. "Ha, those science geeks probably went and blown themselves up. Let's do the job boys and go home." Mal walked down the ramp and the others followed behind with the goods.
They reached the research lab. There had been a struggle here.
"Sarg what happen here? Where's the 42nd?" Linc looked to his sergeant for answers. Answers Mal didn't have. "Let's go."
Mal proceeded to go forward. A dark shadow passed quickly in the corner of the building. Mal went for his gun. "We gotta go." Mal backed up slowly.
"But Sarg, what about the supplies?' Linc asked.
"Ma shong! private, leave the supplies." Mal's pace started to pick up when he heard a scream.
Reavers.
Mal stood in shock. He had heard stories, he thought they weren't real. Zoë was right. Damn. Mal pulled his gun. Bullets and blood started spraying everywhere. The men had lost their heads, it was totally chaos. Mal had lost his head. Then like a light of mercy, Zoë came blazing through. Mal had never seen any one move like that before. "Sir, we need to get off this rock, Ma shong." Mal was not going to argue with her. He followed her lead.
Two Reavers had Linc in their grasp, he was screaming. Without wincing Zoë shot Linc in-between the eyes. "Zoë….Linc…"
"Keep moving Sir, Linc was dead before I shot him."
Ang and Johnston were outside waiting for them. They where holding up Simmons and Locklin. They made it back to the ship. A bloody mess, but they made it back. As the door was closing, a harpoon made it threw taking Ang's head off. The rest just stood there.
Zoë went to the bridge and got them the hell out of there. Luckily the Reavers didn't follow. As soon as they were in the black Zoë put the ship on auto pilot and checked on her squad. They were still in the cargo bay. Shell shocked. They had come to Ives, a squad of 21, now there were 5.
Mal was tending to Locklin's wounds, his hands where trembling. Locklin had a blank stare on his face. "Let me do that." Zoë took the rag away from Mal. He stood up and looked at her. He looked around, they where gone. It was his fault his first squad and he had lead them to their deaths.
"Sir, you're hurt." Zoë sat Mal down on one of the crates. She took a clean rag and started cleaning his wounds. As she wiped his face their eyes meet. Mal started to open his mouth, but Zoë cut him off. "It's not your fault." They did not say anything else to each other.
They reached Lassiter safely. On their return they were greeted with lots of officials. There were two days worth of debriefing about what happened there. By the end of the talks everyone thought Mal to be the hero. They even had a big fancy dinner in his honor. He got the Purple Heart for courage under fire. Locklin was the one to pin it on him.
It all seem meaningless to him. He had leaded those men to their deaths. If he had listened to Zoë, and then maybe they would have still been alive. Mal looked around the ceremony Zoë wasn't there. She should have been there. She was the real hero not him. Mal left the ceremony early he didn't feel much like talking. He walked around a bit. He found himself at the docks of Merth.
Merth actually had lakes, real lakes not those bio luminance man made crap that they have on the core planets, but real lakes. He found Zoë sitting. She looked like a little girl in the moonlight. She had saved his life. Zoë was the one that deserved the accolades not him. Mal sat beside her. He took off his boots and rolled up his pants and put them in the water.
"It was a pretty fine shindig, you're missing. Yeah food's not bad, have a caterer…." Mal paused, he splashed he water with his foot. "It should have been you up there not me….I should have listen….you where right." Mal turned to Zoë. She looked at to him. Their eyes meet. This time there was no standoff. They stared for a while. "Thanks for saying, Sir." She stood up and started to put her boots on. "Apples?"
"Shah muh?"
"Apples? Sir, did they have apples?"
Mal looked at her puzzled
"Haven't had apples in a while."
She extended her hand to help Mal up. He took it. They walked back to the ceremony, not saying a word.