Jayne knew there was something really wrong when Santha didn't smile for a whole hour. Usually she was all giggles. Especially in the morning.
Today she was stormily looking over the trench they'd dug up with their spades. She had them outline the size and shape of their house so they could start building.
She insisted the walls had to be lots thicker than he wanted to make them. He'd argued, but then again, he'd never done this before. They were going to start setting rock in place today.
"Santha-girl." He brushed the hair over her shoulder so he could see her face better.
"What?" She frowned up at him.
"What's going on in your head?" Jayne asked.
"Nothing." She turned away.
"I know you better than that. There is something." Jayne insisted. He needed to know if there was a problem. He was good at fixing problems.
Santha sighed. "I'm running calculations on the house." She admitted. "I think my plan may be faulty."
"Yeah? What part? The circle part?" That was what gave Jayne the most trouble.
"No, not exactly." Her frown deepened. "I designed a fireplace like the one I tended at ho- in my parent's house." She lifted her chin as she corrected herself.
"We need a fire." Jayne said. "Stands to reason we need a fireplace."
River shook her head. "It is disharmonious."
"Uh, yeah," Jayne shook his head. "Explain that one, please."
"It is familiar to me, but it is inappropriate for the structure we are building." River gnawed at her bottom lip.
Jayne looked away. "We need to build a fire inside, right?"
"Undoubtedly." She agreed.
"Right, so where else would we put it? We need to get the smoke out." Jayne said. "Even I know smoke can kill you if it fouls the air."
"There may be an alternative to what I have planned. An opening in the center of the roof would serve a similar purpose." She winced.
"And let in the weather?" Jayne didn't much like that thought.
"Not necessarily." She paused. "Ancient structures often had a central hearth. If the roof slopes upwards as ours will, then there should be no problem." She gestured the shape their roof should take.
"Both kinds would work?" Jayne asked.
River thought a moment. "Yes." She finally agreed.
"Which kind means moving less stone?" He asked.
"The hole in the center of the roof." She said without hesitating.
"Then we should do that." Jayne said, just as quickly.
Santha's frown persisted for a moment. "Yes. We should." She favored him with one of her beautiful smiles. "And we will. Help me alter the outlines."
"Wash, can we be on Pele's Orchard in less than two weeks?" Inara asked from the doorway to the bridge.
"I'll have to check with the computer, but I think so." Wash looked up at her.
"Why? Did you find us a job?" Mal asked. He'd been keeping Wash company.
"Hopefully two, actually." Inara smiled and made a note on the personal organizer she was holding. "Things will go more smoothly if we can get there several days before the shipment is ready to go."
"What's the cargo?" Mal asked, not quite suspiciously. Low risk jobs were usually boring, dirty or low profit. They would have to resign themselves to that while Zoë was knocked up. He leaned back in his chair to ease his neck while looking up at Inara.
"Fifty seven tropical birds and one human handler." Inara said, watching carefully for his reaction. "The birds will stay in the cargo bay, we'll partition the air systems to minimize the smell and the client will provide us with new filters to install after they're gone."
"Huh." Mal said. Well, that was 'dirty' true enough. "What sort of pay?"
Inara named a figure that shocked Mal upright in his chair.
"That is," She continued. "Assuming we can get them to Bellerophon in time for Robin Grainer's tropically themed weekend party which begins in twenty six days."
"I'm working on it." Wash muttered. "Yes, we get to Athena in fourteen hours, do the job there and make it to Pele's in…nine days plus time on the ground. Bellerophon is six days from Pele's Orchard, easy." He hummed a little. "We can refuel on Pele's. Totally doable."
"Good you won't even need to rush the Athena job. The second job is available starting from Bellerophon as long as the first delivery is on time." Inara smiled and turned away.
"Inara?" He called after her.
She turned back.
"What's the second job." He asked.
She smiled. "Transporting eight large freezer containers of seafood to Hera. No passengers."
That one would be 'boring,' sure enough.
Mal turned to Wash. "Why ain't we had her be the brains before now?"
Wash shrugged.
Mal pinched his lower lip thoughtfully.
Jayne picked up the handles of his wheelbarrow and headed back to camp. As usual, Santha was right. She insisted that he start bringing the wall to them at a specific point. Each trip he took he had less distance to go, because the rocks he was moving were that much closer to camp.
That was smart, even though he'd argued at first.
Santha was a lot slower on each trip than he was. He passed her coming and going most times. She filled her cart with less rock - only as much as she could manage - and wandered on the way back, gathering up things to eat.
Jayne was nearly ready to tell her she should stick to camp. It wasn't that he resented her not helpingness, it was more that she could get more done if she weren't helping. He was the muscle, after all. She was the brain. He should do the heavy hauling.
Santha was in camp when he got there. She was separating rocks into piles and lines. Only she knew what she meant by everything.
Jayne smiled, more fondly than he was aware.
He stopped the barrow near his big pile and shook his head.
"I'm gonna get wet." He announced. He walked out, nearly hip deep and dropped into the water. He stood out again and shook his head before heading back to shore.
Santha was laughing at him by the time he lay out in the sun to dry off. Jayne didn't mind. She wasn't laughing mean. It was easing on his mind that she was happy.
"That was twenty, wasn't it?" Santha asked.
"Yep, unless I lost count." Jayne agreed. They'd agreed the first day that twenty loads was enough for a day's hauling. Now it was time to build. He rolled over and stood.
Santha looked mighty cute grubbing thru the rocks like she always did. Sunlight on her hair made it shine.
She was wearing one of the many blankets they'd been given as supplies. She cut a hole for her head and belted it with a length of rope. Shouldn't look near as good as it did.
Jayne blinked. He needed distraction.
He looked towards the house. Their walls were taking shape in just a couple days they were halfway to his knees. Santha had insisted on making them thicker than he would have done. At least he didn't have to fit stones together solidly the way the quarry-wall they were stealing from had been.
Santha had a method. They built up the inside and outside face of their walls and then filled the space between with mortar and small stones. Except for the places she called 'ribs.' At five places around the circle they built a solid stone column, glued together with mortar.
Santha insisted up and down that it was an ancient and proven way to build. Jayne had never seen or heard of a building like it.
"The time has come to level the floor." Santha said. "First we must add soil, then gravel then pave with flat stones." She pointed to an area where she'd laid out enough rocks to cover the whole floor inside the house.
All the rocks were lumpy as far as he could tell.
"Santha, I ain't walking on that." He warned.
She laughed. "The flat sides are down." She explained. "The uneven nature of the undersides will help them stay in place."
"Where do you want me to get the dirt from?" Jayne asked. He sure hoped it wasn't too far.
"Right here." Santha scurried over to a rectangle of ground that she'd outlined using the spade.
"You want me to dig a big hole in the ground right outside our door?" Jayne didn't bother to keep the disbelief out of his voice. Maybe he'd been to quick not to question her building decisions. He still thought round walls were more trouble than they were worth.
Santha laughed. "We need a root cellar." She explained. "We might as well combine the two tasks."
Jayne thought that over before nodding. "You think we'll need to store food?" Of course she did if she wanted a root house.
Santha pointed to the short pieces of log that he'd hacked off a tree trunk for seats. "Tree ring samples indicate severe winter conditions."
That gave him pause. Winter? Like the whole moon getting cold? He scratched at his drying scalp. Suddenly thick walls sounded better than ever.
"Right." He finally said. "Where did you put the spade?" He went to dump the wheelbarrow out. He was gonna need that to move earth.
Jayne didn't like digging with such a small tool. He'd already had a mess of that when they built the little kiln to bake rocks into powder. At least the mortar seemed to be working right.
Jayne glanced at his Santha-girl again and set to work digging with the spade and his hands.
Note: Sigh. We are at the point where I'm making it up as I go along. It won't drag out terribly long. I have a rough list of topics to cover. However, as you've seen, I'm taking longer with each one. Then I have the second half of the middle already written and then I'll be constructing again. This is a long one.
In case you wondered, I am also (slowly) working on an Alantris update.