Derrial rubbed the tip of his nose with his thumb. Anyone who knew him well would recognize the anxiety in the gesture. He was opening a can of worms here. Not that he was going to change his mind.
He pressed the button to engage the Cortex link. He'd waited until they were docked on Hera so he could use a public machine for the call. Paradoxically, it was easier to delete his trail and there was less possibility of effective surveillance. Everything was recorded, but the copies could be tracked down. He had already taken care of that.
"Codex?" The woman on the other end of the call blinked at him then her hands started flying. She was deleting their transmission from her end too and securing the channel.
Yelena was as beautiful as ever in her own rather unorthodox way. She was purple today. Hair, makeup and clothing. Amazing. She had such an eye for stylized self presentation.
"Holy shit, Codex. You don't call, you don't write…"
"You're right, baby. Not unless I need something." Derrial's mouth twisted. "You're making me feel guilty."
"I looked you up a while back." She cocked her head. "The monks said you got itchy feet?"
"Basically." He agreed. "I got a report I wanted to confirm for myself, then I got Involved."
"You?" Her perfectly sculpted purple eyebrow raised. "Never thought I'd see the day."
"I need to call in a favor." Derrial said, his fingers started tapping of their own accord.
"Dear sweet man, you saved my life." Yelena drawled. "You could call that in every day from here to eternity and I still wouldn't call it paid."
"Don't tempt me, beautiful." Derrial drawled.
"What is it this time?" She tugged on a long lock of her hair. He noted the gesture, the line was secure.
"I need you to create an identity for a colleague of mine. One of my boys had his cover compromised and we're worried about internal threats." Derrial was a little disturbed at how easily the half lies rolled off his tongue. "I have a tight-beam of details and pictures for you to use."
"Sure thing, I thought you were going to ask something difficult or at least outside of my job description." She grinned. "You also need to visit me sometime." She pressed the pad of her thumb into the underside of her jaw. A signal to meet with her in person.
Derrial froze. It was bad enough contacting her this way, but showing up on Londinum, walking into the office like no time had passed. He made a reciprocating negative gesture.
Yelena licked her teeth under her lips. Then rolled her eyes.
She opened the files he sent her and scrolled through. "You want a full background that will hold up under hard scrutiny?"
Derrial nodded. "He's going deep under until the heat dies down. Give him a degree, a double major in Biology and Chemistry. We'll need an official transcript."
A line appeared on her forehead. "I can do that. It does take more time. Did you include his electives?"
"Not all of them. Be a little creative based on what 'his' college offers. I trust you." He did, too. There wasn't anyone he'd rather turn to.
"There isn't anything else beyond normal?"
Derrial shook his head. "Just the normal who, what, when, where, why and how."
"No problem. Just give me a little narrative." Yelena instructed. "After he graduated…"
"Right after graduation he took a medical aptitude exam, I included the scores. Then he hopped a boat, under protest from his parents. Just a dumb kid intending to see the 'Verse before medical school. He got a little distracted, a couple of years worth of distraction, moving from one port to another. Last known location Persephone. Possibly seen entering a Firefly called Serenity."
An impulse caused him to make a gesture indicating that was his own current location. It wasn't like the information wasn't already in the central computer banks at a security level she had access to. His last known location was recorded when Mal had sought medical aid for him on an Alliance vessel.
"Alright." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "I should have most of the groundwork laid in just a few hours. Where shall I send his papers?"
"I knew I could count on you. Send everything to the post office on Avery Skyplex." Derrial reached for the off switch.
"I miss you, Codex." Yelena touched leaned forward, he could see that the purple powder, or whatever it was, went all the way down her cleavage. "We all do."
"Thanks, Chimera." He winced. "I'll try to keep in better contact."
She terminated the connection.
Derrial spent a little time cleaning up after himself, including wiping prints off everything he touched.
Jayne knew that he'd be worse than lost without Santha. Dead in the water. Starving to death in the middle of more edibles than he'd ever known about. She was always finding more stuff they could eat and that gorram book of hers had more useful knowledge in it than he'd thought possible.
Just now he'd been out, scouting about, collecting possible edibles. He brought a 'sample' to Ri-Santha, like she told him. He never tried a plant she wasn't sure of. He'd found three large plant patches in the area he'd just looked at. He held them up for Santha to see.
"Keep, gather, dispose, that one is poisonous." She pointed at each, then immediately returned to the stones she was knocking together.
A few days ago, just after the kiln was filled with clay pots and bowls, Santha had thrown a crazy fit. When she'd settled, she announced they needed to gather up as much food as they could find. She was specific. When he gathered up a food plant he was supposed to pick every other one and be careful not to trample the plants he left behind.
Jayne still wasn't sure what that was all about, but he figured it could mean that winter was coming. She was preserving the food. In some cases, that seemed to involve holding it over the fire, in other cases she laid it out in the sun or just piled it up in those big baskets she'd gotten so good at making.
"Ow! What the devil are you doing?" A sharp shard of her stone hit his leg.
"He shouldn't stand so close." She looked amused when she said it, but then she quickly set down the stone in her hand. "Hurts? Show me."
Jayne raised his pant leg. The shard was embedded in his shin. Santha inspected it closely before simply reaching out and plucking the offending piece of stone out of his leg. She pointed to the boiled water.
"Wash and bandage." She ordered. "He shouldn't get himself hurt."
"Hey!" He limped towards obeying. "I ain't the one playing with dangerous rocks."
Santha started up with the hitting the rocks together, so Jayne came up behind her when he was done washing his wound. The bleeding was almost stopped so he didn't bother with the bandage foam. It was better to save that for when Santha was hurt.
Jayne watched Santha work for a while, confused at the usefulness of this when she was so worked up over food gathering.
"What the hell are you doing, anyway?" He finally asked.
Santha opened the data book and handed it to him. He squinted and glared at the writing.
"Flint Ka-nap-ping?"
"Knapping." She corrected, not looking up. "And the stone in question is actually an obsidian byproduct of the terraforming."
Jayne continued to read, his mouth moving with the words.
"Huh." He closed the reader and set it down beside her again. "So, whacha making?"
She looked up at him, considered for a moment, then must have decided he wasn't mocking her. She pointed to the various rocks in front of her.
"Knife, spear points, maybe arrowheads." She grinned up at him and pointed to the tiny chip still covered in his blood. "Jamie trap."
"Brat."
"Yes." She said solemnly. "Santha knows that Jamie is a brat."
He picked up the one she called a knife and tested the edge. The damned thing drew blood with almost no effort.
"Sharp." Santha warned.
"No kidding." Jayne laughed, sucking on his thumb. "You figured out how to do this with the book?"
She nodded. "Santha had need of a knife and grew tired of the awkward hatchet."
He hefted a spear point. "Not bad balance."
"My skill level is still low." She said. "I've made numerous caltrops as well."
"Caltrops?" The word sounded familiar, like he'd heard it before, but didn't know what it meant then either.
"Old war term. Means… You scatter them and people step on them, unawares." She growled, she could tell he wasn't getting it. "Put them in the river, the enemy bleeds in the water."
"Oh." Jayne suddenly saw the strategic uses of the little shards.
Santha nodded, knowing he got it.
"I'll keep an eye out for spear poles." He offered.
"That would be most satisfactory." She agreed.
Jayne took the 'gather' plant and a basket with a carry strap to carry the harvest in.
"You need anything before I head off again?" He stole a drying berry he'd gathered yesterday.
"The more you consume, the less you will have later." Santha warned. She wasn't mad, more amused. "I have no immediate needs. Do we want a fish supper?"
"You asked, so I'm guessing you do." Jayne thought he was getting to know her.
Santha laughed. "I just want to get my feet wet. Oh, we should preserve some fish too. I think the river might freeze over."
"Be careful." Jayne didn't let his desperation not to lose her enter his voice. He looked away and his eyes rested on the kiln.
"I promise." She smiled.
She insisted they had to let the pots and bowls dry inside before they lit up the fire. Jayne hadn't realized what a pyro he was until the first time they set fire to it to make mortar.
"Alright then. I won't be too far." He cleared his throat. "Call out if you need me."
Jayne took up the handles of his wheelbarrow and strode off, his mind working overtime. Spears would be good, that would mean red meat, assuming he could manage a spear. He wondered all the time if they were eating enough of the right things.
It was easy to tell on the ship. You're supposed to eat each protein color at least once a week. You fill in the spaces with rice noodles or potato flakes. Eat greens any time you can get them and cook it all in a bit of grease. Olive oil, if you can afford it. Even he could manage that.
This real food thing creeped him out. It did weird things to his guts too. He burped. Too much discomforting naturalness.
He thought back to the plant Santha had told him was poison. If it wasn't for her, he'd be rationing out his processed food to the very bite and still be killing himself on the plant life. After the first day they'd agreed to save the food they'd been dropped with in case of emergency.
And now she made knives. She really was useful.
Jayne grinned. There weren't many people he'd ever met - ever - who he'd rather be stuck in the wilderness with.
He squelched the 'easy on the eyes' thought that tried to creep into his brain. He'd survived this long without disgracing his ma's teaching. He wasn't gonna let himself slip up.
And he certainly wasn't gonna admit, even to himself, that while he'd stood behind her, watching her work, he'd had a right nice look down her shirt. No, sir. No, ma'am.
He looked back over his shoulder. He could still hear the tap-tippity-tap of her knapping them stones together.
"I'll be in my bunk." He whispered to the quiet trees. He was ever so grateful not to be in that damned sleeper cell.
"What's this?" Simon looked at the paper wrapped parcel, then up at the Shepherd who'd just set it in front of him. It was addressed to his new name, care of Shepherd Book.
"Hmm," Book said. "Should be your papers, unless you're expecting another delivery."
Simon looked back at the package again.
"Go on and open it, Ray." Book sat next to him.
The ID card was on top, then an official birth certificate with proper seals, a formal passport including stamps from three controlled ports.
It was the diploma that threw him off the most. He touched his new name.
"There should be a hard copy of your transcript too." The holy man smiled.
"Here it is." Simon opened an envelope with the official seal of the school that issued the diploma and pulled out more papers. "My grades could be better."
"It isn't in your best interest to stand out." Book reminded him.
"Right." Simon agreed.
"Congratulations, Ray, you're an official member of society." Book said.
"Thank you. I'll repay you somehow." Simon swallowed.
"Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me." Book said, quoting scripture. "Get your doctor license, serve the people. That will be sufficient repayment."
Simon nodded, leafing through his new papers. "I think this is yours." He handed another, smaller envelope to the shepherd.
Book stiffened, seeing his name sprawled across it in a very distinctive hand. The purple ink made him wince. Yelena knew better.
"Excuse me." He stood, taking the little envelope with him.