Chapter 47: Shiney - Part 2

"Wa, zhè shì yīgè měilì de qiāng," Jayne murmured reverently as he softly stroked the revolver that Marie had been carrying. "What's her name?"

"Her name?" Marie asked bewildered and a little concerned for how Jayne was treating her weapon.

"Well sure! My favorite is Vera, here," he pointed towards a large black fully automatic rifle hung over his bunk.

"Um… I didn't name it. I've only had it for less than a day," Marie replied.

Jayne nodded understandingly. "Beauty like this takes time to name."

Upon leaving the pub with Mal, Zoe, and Jayne; Jack, Marie, and Elise found themselves being ushered politely to a docked mid-sized ship with Chinese lettering on the side, 宁静. Marie excitedly pointed it out to Elise who grinned back and whispered, "Serenity." There they met the rest of Mal's crew including Kaylee, Simon, Shepherd Book, Inara, and Wash. Elise and Marie quietly wondered where River was, but understood why she wouldn't be there. Jack filled the crew of the Serenity in on what he was trying to do, while Mal listened quietly. Mal and Zoe talked quietly together after Jack had finished then came back to say they were in.

"Really? Just like that?" Jack asked, skeptical.

"You're itchin' to steal from the Alliance, right?" Mal asked. "Make it harder for them to take over more territory?"

Jack merely nodded.

"Then we're in."

And that was all there was to it. After that, Jayne had approached the three newcomers with a grin while staring at their holstered weapons. Somehow, he talked Marie into looking at his "babies", which was how she found herself trying to think of a name for her Colt Walker Revolver. Suddenly, Elise poked her head down into Jayne's bunk. "Hey Marie!" she called out. "Kaylee's offering us a tour of the ship. Wanna go?"

"Yes, please!" she nearly bolted up the ladder and out of the bunk, grateful to her friend for pulling her out of the uncomfortable situation.

They spent the rest of the afternoon bonding with Kaylee and Inara, and they even caught sight of River once. However the young woman stayed hidden away for the rest of their visit. Jack spent his time with Mal, Zoe, and Wash, coordinating their plan of attack. Mal reasoned that Jack's original plan hadn't been bad, it just hadn't had a big enough distraction. They needed something to get nearly all of the guards out of the security office, something big. "A raid," Mal said simply.

"A raid, Sir?" Zoe asked skeptically.

"Sure, if they're thinking they can catch some big name criminal, then they'd be sending out all sorts of guards to do so, right?"

"But we're criminals, Sir," Zoe pointed out.

"They don't know that," Mal shrugged. "But I can think of someone we could tip them off."

"Ain't that sorta violating some kind of code of ethics?" Wash asked. "You know, thieves stick together… something like that a ringin' a bell?"

"Not if the thief in question has already turned on his own kind," Mal pointed out.

"Badger?" Zoe asked.

"Badger," Mal grinned. "I owe him one for what he did to us last time we was on Persephone."

"Great, wonderful, fantastic," Wash exclaimed. "But how are we going to tip the guards off without giving ourselves away?"

"That's where our new friends come in," Mal turned towards Marie and Elise. "From what I'm gatherin' about you folks, you ain't from around here. So it won't make no nevermind if the guards see your faces, right?"

"I suppose not," Marie replied.

"Shiney," Mal grinned. "Then we got ourselves some crime to be done."

Early the next morning, Elise and Marie hesitantly entered the security headquarters. They were praying that none of the guards recognized them from yesterday, and it appeared that for once, luck was on their side. They gave their "tip" about a big exchange of ill-gotten goods going on later that day and the location of Badger's hideout. When asked how they came about this information, Marie quickly lied by saying they overheard it in a pub.

The two women quickly left the security offices and returned to the Serenity via a circuitous route in case they were followed. However if anyone did follow them, all they saw was two young women chatting about the shipping dock, what they were going to do for lunch, and entering a firefly-class ship as passengers. Kaylee welcomed them back on board, but they were left to wait from there. Mal, Zoe, Jack, and Jayne were all out in the field ready to raid the security headquarters as soon as they left to find Badger and his encampment within the Eavesdown Docks.

Elise and Marie had no idea what was going on or if everyone was okay. Jack was their only way back to their own time, so they worried about him especially. Kaylee and Shepherd Book tried to distract them by playing a couple of card games around the table in the galley. They found out that Kaylee didn't have anything resembling a poker face, and that Shepherd Book had too good of a poker face. Inara stopped by in the middle of the game, and upon seeing how badly the three women were losing, held up a few fingers to indicate what was in Book's hand. It didn't help much, but they lost less pretzels that round than the previous ones.

Wash suddenly called out from the cockpit, "Hang on tight, ladies and gents! A speedy evacuation has just been requested from our fearless leader!" As he said this, the ship started to hum and Marie and Elise could feel the G-forces shift as the Serenity took off from the landing dock. Everyone in the galley had to grip the table quickly as Wash maneuvered them over to the security headquarters. "What's going on, Wash?!" Kaylee shouted out as they halted in midair above the offices.

"Do I ask questions? No, I follow directions," Wash shouted back. "Mal called for a quick evac, that's all I know!"

Elise and Marie both moved towards the cockpit in order to see out the front window. However half-way there, a loud BOOM rocked the ship sideways resulting in both women tumbling to the floor and skidding across the galley. They could barely hear the comm in the cockpit with Mal shouting, "We're in the back door. Get us out of here Wash!"

The G-forces accelerated again as Wash pointed the nose of Serenity skyward and took off like a bat out of hell. Everyone was stuck in place for a moment until the gravity compensators kicked on as they left Persephone's orbit. A couple of minutes later, as Elise and Marie were regaining their feet and sorting out their various bruises and cuts, Mal jogged through the galley and into the cockpit. "What was that, Mal?!" Wash shouted at his captain. "I do not remember any explosions being in the plan! None!"

"Unexpected events, Wash. Needed to improvise," Mal replied calmly as he looked out the front window. "Get us far enough out that any passing Alliance sweeps won't find us."

"Mind tellin' me where we're going?" Wash asked, but set in a course as Mal had asked.

"Just need to get off the radar for a little bit." With that the captain turned and walked back into the galley. He gave each person a glance to make sure they were okay before turning to Marie and Elise. "Might wanna get that checked out," he said pointing Elise's head.

She reached up to her brow only to discover a cut. Her fingers came back bloody. "Damn, must have happened when we fell," Elise muttered.

Marie frowned as she examined her friend. "Looks shallow. Some butterfly bandages should work." She turned back to Mal. "Where's Jack?"

"In sickbay."

"What?!" "Is he okay?!" Both women spoke at the same time.

Mal held up a hand to quiet them. "He'll be fine. Just got knocked around when the blast happened. Doc's looking at him now. You can see him when you go get that taken care of," he seemed to dismiss them as he turned towards Kaylee next and started talking mechanics.

"Come on," Marie said grabbing Elise's arm. "I remember where sickbay is… I think."

"I can show you," Shepherd Book said, overhearing their conversation.

"Thank you," Elise smiled at the kind faced man.

In no time at all, the three had made their way down to sickbay where Simon Tam had Jack Harkness lain out on a bed. Jack was unconscious, but aside from a few scratches, he looked okay. "Come in, come in," he said absently. "Take a seat over there," he pointed off to the side where a few stools sat next to the wall.

"He gonna be okay?" Elise asked as she took a seat.

"Yeah, he just has a concussion and a few scratches. Should wake up any minute now," Simon replied as he finished applying disinfectant to Jack's scratches. "What can I do for…" he trailed off as he looked up at the two women. "Ah, got banged around a bit?" He grabbed the disinfectant again and came over to where Elise sat. Shepherd Book and Marie stood off to the side to allow Simon to work. As the doctor was placing a butterfly bandage over the cut, Jack groaned. Marie moved over to his side, arms folded over her chest. "Did ya get it this time?" she asked with a straight face.

Jack opened his eyes and squinted up at her. "Yeah, I got it."

"Good, because that is the last time we help you with a mission," she growled. "What the hell exploded?"

"Just a couple dozen crates of dynamite," Jack replied sitting up.

"What? Dynamite?! Jack!" Marie seemed incapable of forming a sentence at the moment.

"We found some other information that the Alliance should not be allowed to have, so we decided to make sure it didn't fall in their hands," he responded rubbing his forehead gently. "You two ready to go home?" Jack asked pushing himself up from the bed.

"Oh no you don't!" Simon reprimanded, pushing Jack back down. "You aren't leaving until that concussion is gone."

"How long will that take?" Jack asked wincing as his headache spiked for a second.

"A week," Simon shrugged. "Maybe a bit more."

"A week?!" Elise exclaimed standing up suddenly. "But we have to catch a plane to Taiwan on Monday!"

"Elise," Marie drawled. "It's time travel. We can get back any time. Hell, we can get back before we left."

"Oh… yeah," Elise sat back down. The older of the two looked up then and spotted a small woman with long dark brown hair peering into sickbay from the door. "Hello," she said greeting her.

Simon turned at the greeting, his face going white upon seeing his sister. "River!" he exclaimed. "I thought I told you to stay put!"

River ignored him though, and wandered into sickbay towards Marie and Elise. "Didn't make sense," she said simply.

Simon let out a long breath, realizing that his sister's existence on Serenity was out of the bag. "What doesn't make sense?" he asked, a bit more calm now.

"Staying put," she replied as she flitted around the two women. She was looking them over as though they were a strange piece of technology she wasn't familiar with. "Makes no sense cuz they can't tell."

"Who can't tell?" Simon asked now giving Jack some painkillers for his headache.

River turned to look at her brother as though he was being particularly obtuse. "They can't," she said slowly. "They're outta time."

"Out of time for what, River?" Shepherd Book asked.

"They're outta time," she said again as she stood behind Marie and began fixing the woman's French braid. It seemed River had decided she liked the two strangers.

Simon sighed, giving up on figuring out what his sister was talking about. "Right. Okay, you, no strenuous activity or time travel until I say so," he said pointing at Jack. "And you two," he pointed at Elise and Marie. "Make sure he does what I said."

Marie snorted. "Yeah, we'll do our best," she mumbled, still a little bewildered by the shorter woman behind her fixing her braid.

It took nine whole days before Simon declared Jack recovered from his concussion. In that time, Marie and Elise had had fun hanging out with the crew of the Serenity. They played tag with Kaylee and River. They sat in Inara's quarters listening to stories of men who said they were in love with her. They learned a bit about piloting from Wash in the cockpit. And they also introduced the crew to a few different ways to cook. Marie and Elise felt they needed to contribute somehow to the crew for harboring them, so they took up kitchen duty. They cooked meals and cleaned up in exchange for room and board.

However the day came when they had to leave. Wash set them down on a small planet that had been recently terraformed and didn't really have a booming population yet. Jack had said that while it was possible to time travel from a moving space ship, it was a little bit more difficult to set the coordinates. So they landed and all said their goodbyes under the hot double suns. "Been good having you two around to cook and whatnot. You make some good grub," Jayne said as his way of goodbye.

"We'll miss you," Kaylee smiled, hugging each girl.

"Watch for the coming dawn," River said as she hugged them goodbye.

"The coming dawn?" Elise asked giving her a curious look.

However River only nodded and stepped back. "Right, thanks for everything," Jack said giving Mal a firm handshake.

"Sure, it was no problem. Thanks for helping us destroy that information," Mal replied.

Jack stepped back and tapped at his time vortex manipulator on his wrist for a few seconds. "Ready?" he asked. Elise and Marie nodded as they gripped his hands. "Here we go!" The ground under their feet disappeared and they felt themselves flying backwards. The feeling wasn't quite as jarring as the first time because they kind of knew what to expect, but both women were very glad when they could feel the hard concrete of the parking garage under their shoes once more.

"Thanks for helping out with that," Jack grinned at them. "I've brought us back to a few minutes after we originally left."

"Jack," Marie called out to him. "What information did you destroy?"

The Captain frowned and looked down. "Uh… someone had sent in a tip about the Tams being on Persephone," he replied quietly. "Found it when I was downloading my own files."

"Oh," Marie said quietly.

Jack grinned again and tapped at his time vortex manipulator. "Well, I've got to get going. Thanks again for helping! I'll call you if I need you again!"

"But Jack!" Marie objected, however the man only winked and disappeared. Marie groaned. "We're going on more missions with him, aren't we?"

"Yup," Elise replied, popping the 'P'.

They turned to get in the car, but a loud shout startled them and they turned back to find Elliot, still wearing his apron, running into the parking garage, a knife gripped in one hand. "Where is he?" he asked, eyes darting around.

"Who?" Elise asked looking at the knife.

"The guy who was following you! Saw him on the security tapes."

Marie and Elise looked at each other and started laughing.