" - so we just drift along with this drift until they lose interest and go seeking some easier prey." Mal concluded. "Which means none of you is to do anything using power until further notice. In fact it would be best if you all took a little nap, like Jayne here."
Jayne, who'd had to be rooted out of his bunk to join the others in the dining room, gave his captain an unfocused glare still looking a bit green about the gills. "Beating on the skinny ass of that sonofabitch pilot won't use no power." he muttered.
"I leave that for you and Zoe to settle between you." Mal said pointedly, turned on his heel and headed back to the bridge.
Jayne muttered some more and followed, going back to his bunk.
"Guess I can do a little cleaning while everything's shut down." Kaylee said and took the aft passage back to her beloved engines.
"Take a nap." said River, putting her head down on the table and closing her eyes.
Margot looked at Book. "Django would backtrack and scan any drift across the trail for mass."
"Not everybody has your partner's persistence, nor his gadgetry." Shepard answered.
The corners of her mouth went down. "Six ships working together means this is no picayune operation." she pointed out unhappily.
Book shot a glance at Simon and Inara's nervous faces "You got any better ideas, Margot?"
She shook her head ruefully. "None at all. But you know me, Derrial, I'm a worrier."
"So you are." Shepard turned to the others. "Odds say Mal's plan will work."
Inara grimaced. "Given past experience I'd say the odds are it won't."
"Sleep." said River suddenly, head still down. "Need it later." They all looked at her.
"Jayne seems a mite unhappy with you, Wash." Mal said, replacing Zoe in the co-pilot's chair.
"My heart's broken." he grunted, making a tiny correction to keep them in the thick of the comet nucleus.
Chunks of rock and ice bounced and scraped over the canopy and could be heard pinging off the plates. Zoe double checked the boards for power leakages. Mal kept his eye fixed on the scope. The bright spots were clustered at the far edge. "Minute they're off scope we make a run for it." he told Wash. The pilot grunted acknowledgement.
But instead of fading into the distance as Mal had hoped the ships started coming back and behind them came a much brighter signal, the huge silhouette of some kind of mother-ship. "(Luck is not with us)."
"Make a run for it, sir?" Zoe asked urgently.
"Mal, Serenity hasn't got all that much speed." Wash reminded him.
"We lie doggo," Mal decided after a long pause for thought. "It's still our best chance."
All three watched tensely as the cluster of ships came closer, the little ones forming a v-formation in front of the big.
"Back tracking the shuttle." said Wash, stating the obvious.
Mal grunted and deliberately unclenched his hands.
"Sir, if they have mass detectors -" Zoe began.
"And they will on a ship that size." he cut in grimly. "Looks like we're up against some true professionals here."
"They're getting closer." Wash warned.
Mal's eyes narrowed. "Power up." Zoe obediently started hitting buttons, after a brief, startled look Wash followed suit. The captain got back on the 'phone. "Kaylee I want you to pour on everything we've got. The rest of you, brace yourselves, it's liable to be a bumpy ride."
The lights came up and the engines roared to life, much louder than usual. "Wash, when they get within five hundred klicks drive right at the big ship as if you're gonna ram, pull up as late as you dare and keep pouring it on."
"Yessir!"
In his bunk Jayne swore some more and burrowed his face into his pillow.
In the dining area River sat bolt upright, eyes wide and staring.
"Hang on, Mei mei." Simon told her, getting a good grip on the table himself.
"Sounds like there's been a change of plan." Inara muttered fatalistically.
Margot looked at Book. "Sometimes I hate being right."
"And I surely do hate it when you are." he answered.
Table and chairs slid a few centimeters aft as the boat accelerated, engines howling.
As Mal had expect the smaller boats broke formation at a thousand klicks to circle their drift leaving the mother-ship unshielded. When it got within five hundred Wash pushed the stick all the way forward, aiming straight at the big ship's bridge ports
As it grew in front of them, eclipsing the stars, Zoe said; "Sir, isn't that -"
"An Independent Battlewagon." he finished. "Sure looks like."
"Big guns." said Wash.
"We're inside their range." Mal clutched the console, white knuckled. "Ain't it 'bout time you pulled up?"
"Not yet," the pilot said coolly, "just a few more seconds..."
They were close enough to see people behind the ports. "Wash!"
"Now!" he pulled back on the stick just enough to send Serenity skimming over the back of the battlewagon shooting by the big guns and into the Black beyond.
The jolt knocked Jayne right off his bunk. "Gonna kill me that (shitty asshole) pilot." he muttered, climbing back in.
In the dining room it toppled the empty chairs and made the table buck. "What do you suppose they're doing?" Simon asked, hanging on.
"I don't think I want to know." said Inara.
The boat vibrated under the stresses of her unaccustomed speed. 'Phone pinged. It was Kaylee, of course: "Captain, she's getting real hot."
"Nurse her, girl, nurse her as only you can!" he answered, eyes on the scope. As he'd hoped he'd left some confusion behind him. Took the lil' boats more'n a few critical seconds to recover themselves and start pursuit. No doubt the big ship was still checking for damages while her captain and bridge crew changed their pants. "Wash, steer her for the rubble," the Oort cloud on the fringes of the yellow sun's system, "and find us a big rock to hug onto."
"Way ahead of you Cap'n." he answered sounding cheerful. Looked like they were gonna get out of this yet.
Then two boats appeared out the cloud ahead, close enough to eyeball, and space exploded on either side of Serenity.
"Looks like they were too big for us, Sir." said Zoe.
Mal nodded. "Looks like." he forced the words out, hating every one. "Wave 'em, tell 'em we surrender."
...
Mal gathered everybody in the Cargo hold, as per instructions, while they waited for the mother-ship to catch up and swallow them. "Just keep your mouths shut and let me do any talking that's to be done." for once there were no smart comebacks. Seemed everybody understood the seriousness of the situation.
He glanced at the horses, still twitchy after the rough ride but calming rapidly under their owner's ministrations. "Margot, I'm afraid you're like to lose your cargo."
She looked briefly at him and nodded. Seemed calm enough, so why was Shepard Book eyeing her that way?
Mal turned next to Simon. "Keep your crazy sister quiet, I mean quiet. No telling how these folk might react to her jabber.
The doctor boy was deathly pale. Girl looked the better of the two, she gave him a brave smile. Suddenly Mal felt bad talking about her like she wasn't right there listening to him.
"It's important we don't rile these folks in any way we can avoid, River." he said to her, almost apologetically.
"I understand, sir." she said gravely, sounding sane as you please. Maybe this was going to be one of her good days. If so it was shaping up to be the only good thing about it.
"Inara..." he didn't know how to go on. She was the one he was scaredest for. He was trying real hard not to imagine the uses pirates might make of a beautiful desirable woman like Inara.
She smiled too, brave and determined. "I do know something about how to handle men, Captain."
Right. Right, she was a whore wasn't she? No need for him to be worrying about her honor...but the knot in his belly didn't untie.
Mal continued. "Could be these pirates are former Independents which may give Zoe and me some leverage. It's just possible we'll be able to negotiate a way out of this mess, providing nobody does anything stupid. Understood?"
Crew and passengers alike nodded, the lot of them looking unaccustomedly sober, even Jayne didn't seem in a mood to argue for all he was glaring lasers at Wash.
The deck quivered under their feet as Serenity set down inside the big ship's hanger. Mal took a deep breath and walked over to the controls, fisting the opening button, then turned towards the bright yellow light beginning to leak around the edges of the slowly lowering door ramp.
Note: ( ) indicates Chinese phrases.