Joss is Boss.
The girls looked at Jayne for a moment, then back at each other, before they each reached into various pockets and pulled out small wads of nice, cashy, money. Nova took the four from the other girls, and then lay them down on the table in front of Mal and Jayne with a slight bow.
"Anything else, Mr Jayne?" she asked, with sarcasm Jayne chose to ignore.
"Yeah. How'd five bitty little girls like you beat the livin' crap outta a bunch of guys nearly twice your ruttin' size? Aint no man can pull a man's arm out its socket so easy, never mind a little thing like you." He glared suspiciously at Taariq, who stared back until he looked away.
"Actually," Mal spoke up, finding it high time he should get back in control, as Captain. "That's something I wouldn't mind knowing my own self." He leaned down and took the money off the table. "You all got a notion to fill us in? Maybe include a chapter 'bout just why you were so keen to get away from home any available way?"
Again, the girls shared looks between themselves, and again, the talking was left to Nova, but before she got a chance to speak, she was interrupted.
"Special." River's voice sounded as vague as usual, yet as sure as anyone had heard it. "One became many, many became few. Two by two they came and took the pretty maids away coz they were special. Couldn't lure them in like me. Didn't want their brains. Took them in the dark. Took them in to make us sisters. Do things others can't." She stopped, and stared at Mal. "Think you know what you are. What's to come. You haven't even begun."
A long silence stretched over the company, each one trying to make some kind of sense out of River's speech. After a horribly uncomfortable moment, the silence was broken.
"That's it, I'm outta here." Kaige was halfway to the door before anyone had noticed she'd moved.
"Don't be stupid." Ebony's voice was heavy with disdain. Kaige turned back.
"Don't call me stupid! I don't wanna stay here with crazy people!"
"Well, it's not like you can go anywhere. We broke atmo. Unless you're just gonna waltz out the airlock, what're you gonna do? Go off and sulk in a corner of the cargo bay?"
"Well, maybe I will, just to get away from your whining!"
they continued in this vein, becoming more and more ferocious, to the point where the crew of Serenity were bordering on alarmed, not only because the two sisters appeared to be rapidly approaching violence, but because the three other girls just stood, either ignoring them, or watching in mild interest. Eventually, Ebony and Kaige were face to face, fists clenched by their sides. Just as Mal was considering stepping in, or separating them with a very long stick, they turned away from each other with simultaneous noises of disgust, to stand as far away from each other as the small room would allow. Nova looked up from her inspection of her fingernails.
"Have you finished?" she looked at each of them and rolled her eyes. "Can you feel the love?" she said, to the room in general, trying not to be too amused by the startled looks on the crew's faces. When they didn't answer, she continued. "Well, I have an idea. How bout you tell us the story of River, then we tell you the story of us?"
Mal kept her gaze.
"She's Dr Tam's sister."
Nova raised an eyebrow. Mal was stuck. These girls were still an unknown quantity. It could be that they'd seen a wanted poster with the Tam's faces on, and wanted the reward. It could just be that they were curious. Still searching for something to say, he was grateful when Simon butted in.
"She was a genius child," he said, moving to stand next to her. "One summer when we were in our early teens, she fell out of the tree she was climbing. Severe head trauma and surgery left her…..well…."
"Moonbrained." Jayne offered. Simon glared at him.
"A little unstable." He amended, putting his arm around her shoulders. She leaned her head against him, accepting the hug.
"Subterfuge," she said, smiling up at him. He smiled back, hoping that the newcomers didn't get any clues from her one word statement.
"I think we got all the key elements." Nova said. "Clever and crazy." She nodded. "I think that's all we need to know." She paused. "Your turn then. Bad neighbourhood, rough upbringing, self defence lessons from friends who moved off Allen roughly a year back. Any questions?"
This story, Mal reflected, might have stuck. It sounded right enough. It was spoiled though. While Nova had been talking, River had, unnoticed, taken a weighty metal beaker left on the table from dinner and had been hefting it between her hands. As Nova had finished talking, River had thrown the cup at her head with pinpoint accuracy, and enough force to cause moderate concussion. As everyone gasped in anticipation of the impact, Nova's hand reached up and caught the cup an inch from her skull, and held it there. Finally lowering it from head height, Nova began to toss the cup in the same hand, throwing it and catching it. She looked away from Mal, her blue eyes finding River's brown ones.
"That really wasn't very nice."