Chapter 4: Between a Yanshi and a Jianying Place

"I thought Traids didn't use guns. Or do ya'll toil for some other crime syndicate?" Mal accused.

"We have to move with the times, when situations dictate the need." The leader said, his long, slanted eyes a steely calm hue of deep chocolate. "We only use blades to uphold our savage reputation, so that nobody thinks of crossing us. It's tradition, you understand."

Zoe was getting impatient. "We didn't call the feds. But they're gonna be swarming over this ship in a matter of minutes!"

"And that's why you're gonna help us." The man's long shanks hung loosely in a damp sweep across his brow and left eye.

Mal snorted, "Really now? Help you? You've brought trouble down on me and mine; suffice it to say that I am not a happy bunny."

"The Triads had no intention of ever getting you into trouble, Mr. Reynolds. But you should have taken the necessary precautions to avoid it."

Mal looked down at River and glared at the unconscious girl. If she wasn't unconscious he would have taken the opportunity to curse at her.

"Cap'n!" Jayne roared, "I don't much enjoy the feel of the tip of a cold gun pressed to my forehead! Let's put down our weapons and reason this one out, huh?"

"What do you want?" Mal said.

The Triad leader responded: "Start the engines back up and outrun them."

"That's not an option. They're breathing down our necks as we speak. The first sign of our engines re-bootin' and they're gonna put holes through this ship that'll suck us out into the black 'fore you can say 'Ai ya.'"

"Then get rid of them!"

"I can't!" Mal yelled back. "They are docking any second now!"

The Triads gave each other sideways glances, unsure of how to proceed. Mal waited them out, bent on bluffing right to the final second.

"We can hide y'all, and make sure the feds leave sharpish." Jayne said.

"And if you betray us we're sitting ducks inside some air vent, waiting to be taken down." He gestured to River and Jayne, "We're keeping these two with us, so that we can be sure you'll keep your end of the deal."

---

"So you're not really a Shepherd I take it?" Zoe asked as she screwed the plates back in over a group of four men.

"Actually, I am." Tong's voice said from behind the metal grills. "I had no idea these men were carryin' drugs – a whole handful of us had no idea; like the man who stole the chow."

Zoe sighed, crouching by the wall of the cargo bay in Mal's favorite hiding spot. "If things get ugly, you duck for cover, preacher man. Watch out for you and yours and don't try to be a hero."

She stood up and joined the rest of the crew, who were waiting in the center of the hold.

Simon had just joined them after hiding the dead man's body in a vent over the infirmary. He looked worried for his sister, as though he was barely containing his urge to attack the men who were holding her hostage. His flushed face was indignant with rage just simmering at the surface, and his fists clenched and unclenched as he stood facing the bay doors. Kaylee slipped an arm around his middle and he seemed to soften ever so slightly.

"River goes helpless right at the wrong time, don't she?" Mal muttered. He had visibly tensed up even more when the Triads had informed him that they were taking Inara hostage also. Right now she was being held somewhere under their feet, with a knife to her throat.

"They must have sneaked up on her." Simon said. "Captain, I'm not loosing her like this."

Mal studied the Doctor with the closest thing his expression ever got to sentimentality. "They'll have to cut me down 'fore I let anyone put a bullet to River." He looked towards the bay doors, where Kaylee was standing. "Let them come, Kaylee."

Kaylee slammed her palm on the large button and backed away quickly, her hands already in the air.

The feds flooded through the entrance – a full squad of twenty men – all searching the corners of the room through the scope of their Alliance rifles as they span this way and that; organized - at least to the common eye. The crew each had a gun trained on them before they could even say 'hi'.

"This is gettin' to be standard procedure for the law these days?" Mal said as the federal captain approached.

"Just keep your hands up, Captain. We won't take long on our search. In the mean time, I suggest you drop the indignation. We're not your enemies … at least not unless you're a criminal."

"Then we'd just love to throw you a tea-party after you've finished pointing lethal weapons at our skulls. Perhaps we can have cake, too. Kaylee, we got any cake?"

The fed squinted as if shocked and appalled that a lowly starship captain would even consider talking to him in such a tone.

"We got lots of cake mix, cap'n, which is just as good as."

"Delightful." Mal said with a smirk.

"Listen, indie!" Mal assumed that meant 'indipendant', which was meant as an insult nowadays, much in the same way 'commie' was five-hundred years back. "Don't think I wont beat you down just for –"

"Arrrrrrrrrrggggghhh!" Came a battle cry from somewhere at the back of the bay.

Shots were fired. One. Two. The fed Captain span – three - then he went down, a hole in his head and a gaseous cloud of scarlet dew drifting where he had been standing a moment before.

Mal grabbed Kaylee and yanked her to the side of the complex, heading quickly for the cargo crates. He slipped in behind a heap of them and was already pulling free a spare pistol from his leg-holster before the fifth shot was fired.

Zoe slid around the other side of the boxes and peaked over the top, not two feet from the Captain and Kaylee. "I thought they were gonna stay put?"

"Looks like they got cramp."

Simon ran for his life, his hands covering the back of his head as he leaped up the catwalk steps three at a time, heading for the duct where River had been stashed. A bullet skimmed his chest and tore a hole through his shirt, landing with a dull thud in the neck of a nearby federal officer as he attempted fall back to a defensible position.

"Simon, be careful!" Kaylee screamed as Mal passed her a handgun. "Who do I shoot?" She said, her eyes wide with fear.

"Preferably the Triads. But if a fed gets in your way, take him down. We'll write apology letters later."

Shepherd Tong pulled his way out of the vent and glanced around the chaos. In front of him a man with a machete charged down an officer, took a bullet in the stomach, but cut down into the man's head with a vicious cleave using the last ounce of his strength. Both men collapsed in a bleeding heap. Another man struggled to get clear of the melee, rushing unarmed for the med bay at full speed.

"Hans!" The shepherd called after him. But it was too late. He grimaced as the man was sprayed with a line of bullets raked across his back.

Tong dropped his hands to his belt. "Dear Lord." He said, as he snatched two handguns from his middle. "I apologize for the men that I am about to shoot. But frankly, Lord, they deserve it." He fired a flurry of wild shots at two officers who had taken up a defensive position at the metal staircase, and both men were sent falling backwards - dead before they hit the floor.

"Amen." He concluded.

Several Triads had come to the catwalk balcony that overlooked the cargo-bay, and they picked off a number of feds before they even knew where the fire was coming from. Bullets fell like deadly rain on the confused law men, and they fell back, seeking the haven of their ship. But before they could reach the open doorway, a Triad with a long dao knife slapped the controls, closing their escape.

But then Mal was there, his eyes wild with fury, his gun smoking as he used it to cut a path out before him. Three triads were gunned down by the Captain, who walked calmly through the chaos, firing at anyone who dared move. They had turned his ship into a warzone, and he came at them like a maternal bear protecting her young. A lawman made the mistake of aiming a rifle at him, but Mal just snarled and swiped a solid backhand blow across the man's face, which sent him scattering into the wall. Another uppercut to the kidneys and the federal agent simply crippled.

Zoe had got her hands on a shotgun, but she operated with a little more tactical finesse than her single-minded counterpart. With quick, precision aiming she ducked in-and-out of cover, shooting down targets near and far with very little prejudice. At one point, her gun trained on the Shepherd as she leaned around the tower of crates, but her astute reflexes froze her trigger finger just in time.

Kaylee was next to her, holding the gun she had been given in the same way a man might hold a live bomb.

Zoe sighed, "Kaylee, just stay put. If anyone gets past me, then you can worry about using that thing, OK?"

Kaylee cringed as Zoe stood up and fired another volley of shotgun bullets into the catwalk.

---

The Doctor held out his hand, as if he could use it to catch any bullets that were fired at him.

"You don't want to do this." Simon said to a group of three Triads who had come down inside of the dining area, having hidden in the overhead panels. One of them held River by the hair, and his knife rested calmly on her shoulder facing her neck.

"We warned you! You ratted on us the moment the feds were in position!"

"No!"

"We told you didn't we! Now the little girl has to pay in blood, if I'm gonna keep my word!"

"No! Wait!" Simon said frantically, his wide eyes staring into those of his Sister.

A metallic click came from somewhere behind him. The Triads froze.

"You men best get smart." The Shepherd said as he came to stand by Simon, his guns pointed at two of the three Triads – the meanest looking ones. "You didn't come here to spill blood."

"You gonna betray your own people, Shepherd? Your own blood?"

Tong looked down his nose at the men, "Just 'cos you the same color as me, jiaoyi zhe, don't mean you're my people."

The triad on the end pumped his shotgun threateningly, "You talk like a preacher, but you hold guns like a fighter. Which are you?"

"A little of both. Now let the girl go, she aint got nothin' to do with this."

"And if we let her go, what then? You gonna come with us and take care of the rest of the law men?" The man holding River said as he sidestepped around the dining table, nearly tripping over several chairs he passed them.

But the shooting had stopped sometime in the seconds gone. Either everyone was dead, or they were on their way to the upper decks to finish the job.

"Let her go and I'm your man. You'll need all the hands you can get if you're gettin' out of this alive, dealer." Tong spat, "Hell, I don't intend to wind up in no federal prison, neither. We're all in the same boat here."

"This is your Captain speaking." Came Mal's voice, echoing from all the adjacent rooms. "Please report to the cargo bay for a public execution – ooof…" There was a muffled thump.

Then another voice took his place: "All remaining crew get down here, or there will be a public execution. Starting with your lovely companion friend."