Chapter Four

Connor stepped off the elevator and peered around, amazed. All this was under Khonsu City. Now these looked like Browncoats. No pansy-asses pretending to be Alliance dogs down here. It was like a miniature city, and the complex spread out so far back that Connor couldn't make out the other end of the tunnel. It looked like a real war base, which was astounding as the people going about their normal lives up top barely seemed to know there was a war even going on.

There were half-finished warships, pieces and parts all over the place. Mechanics and crews worked on the ships trying to get them flight worthy again. To the left was a ship graveyard. It looked like a dumping ground. Hell, it probably was. Ships were docked in a row on the right side. Mules sped by carrying people to different parts of the base.

"Mess hall is past the heap on the left. Quarters are all the way down, straight. Can't miss 'em," Connor's guide said, giving Connor a little slap o the back before turning and going back up the elevator. "Find Cobb in the mess. He'll show you around!" he yelled as he went up.

Connor started walking. It didn't seem quite right that he should have to walk everywhere. Didn't these people realize who Connor was and how important he was to River Tam? And then to have to ask Cobb for help? Wait. Cobb?

Connor had a hard time believing Jayne Cobb would be in the mess hall, just waiting to give Connor a tour. For some reason the Hero of Canton had never liked Connor. But then, maybe River had told him to be nice. Cobb had a way of doing whatever River told him to do, Connor had noticed. Of course, you don't really argue with a mind-reading genius who can kill you with her brain. Or, if not her brain, then with one swift kick to the head.

Connor smiled to himself, thinking of his social clout as River Tam's man. Everyone knew he had won her. In coming to Khonsu, Connor hoped to prove it to any doubters out there. Everyone would see her leaving his quarters in the morning, and they would know. It wasn't Reynolds you had to see if you wanted River Tam on your mission. Not at all. The man you wanted was Kyle Connor.

Connor came upon the mess hall quite suddenly. He stopped short and a Browncoat behind him ran into him. "Watch it!" he yelled.

The Browncoat glared at him and said, "Ain't my problem your gorram brake lights ain't workin' right."

A woman ran up to the stranger and asked, "Is it true? Is Serenity really here, Sam?"

Sam smiled at her, "That's the rumor. And 'round here, rumors are usually true, Meg."

Meg squealed with delight. "Oh! I can't wait to meet them! I hear they're quite a sight! Biggest damn heroes the Browncoats have ever seen!"

"Yeah, well, can't believe everything you hear about them, that's my view on it."

"But you just said rumors - "

"Rumors ain't the same as legends."

"Well, I can tell you," Connor said with pride, "All them legends you're talking about are also true."

Sam and Meg looked at him, then back at each other. They started laughing. They were still laughing as they turned and walked away. Connor heard Sam say, "Yeah, stupid kid really knows something we don't. Bet he couldn't find his ass with both hands and a roadmap."

Connor was fuming as he entered the mess hall. His first impression was that someone had had fun building this place. It was only a mess hall in name. There were soldiers, and there were meals. But that's where the definition ceased to apply.

It was, actually, a bar. A big gorram bar. There were pool tables and card tables, and an area with no tables at all, which was at the moment crowded with people trying to dance. Music was playing somewhere, but Connor could barely hear it over the laughter and conversation of the crowd. No wonder the dancers seemed unsure what steps to try.

Connor took a few steps in, adjusting his pack, and looked around, aware that his face hid none of his astonishment.

"After a few days of lying to everyone you meet, folks just want to relax and have fun," a very tall fellow standing by the door said. "Connor right?" He pointed to the pack. "Figured it was you." Connor nodded. The man looked vaguely familiar. "Name's Jordan Cobb." He stuck out his hand. Connor shook it. "Damn glad to meet ya. Let's give you a proper Browncoat welcome."

Jordan gave a shrill whistle. Everyone stopped what they were doing. Now Connor could hear the music. It was a banjo. "This here's Connor! Let's get him a drink!"

Everyone cheered at him. Random folks hugged him. Someone handed him a glass. Someone else took his pack. Connor felt uncomfortable for a few minutes. Then he decided to get used to being welcomed like a hero and started drinking. In about five minutes he'd made a whole handful of new friends. He was having such a good time, he forgot to ask Jordan if he had a brother. Or a cousin. Or some kind of relation named Jayne.

Pretty soon Connor had what he liked best in the verse, an audience. He told them all about him and River Tam, how she was his girl and he was here on Khonsu because they couldn't stand to be apart for long. He was in the middle of telling them how much Captain Reynolds approved of his style when an older Browncoat put a hand on his shoulder.

"All right, loud mouth, time to go."

"But I was just starting to have fun!" Connor said. "Who are you, anyways?"

The Browncoat glared at him. He was tall and had an ugly scar on his neck. Seemed to Connor the man was a couple years older than the Captain. An Old School Browncoat. "Colonel Geming Smith." He nodded to the bar. "And that little sip of fun better last in your memory a good long time, 'cause that's the last bit you're gonna get in a long while."

"Hey, what'd I do? We were just having a welcoming party."

"What'd you do? I don't know. Maybe I just found out my latest recruit is a baby-faced idiot who can't hold his liquor or his tongue. I must be cursed, 'cause the same simple-minded worm also has intimate knowledge of Serenity and her entire crew."

"You have no idea how intimate, Sir," Jordan Cobb piped up from behind Connor.

"You shut your face, Cobb. Ain't it about time you had yourself a family reunion anyhow?"

Connor looked back at Jordan. The man shrugged, set down his glass, gave Colonel Smith a stiff salute, and walked out of the bar, "Suit yourself; means you get to show the kid around the base."

"Eyes front, soldier," Colonel Smith said. Connor's eyes snapped to him. "Until you learn how to shut the hell up, you ain't doing nothing without my approval, got it?" Connor didn't nod. Colonel Smith moved on, ticking off on his fingers the things Connor was now forbidden to do. "No smokin', no drinkin',. no women." He glared. "And no flying, neither. You're grounded. More than that, son, you ain't even going up top without my say-so. You got that, boy?" Connor glared right back at him. "I said, you got that, boy?"

"Sir, yes, sir," Connor muttered.

Colonel Smith didn't seem happy about that response, but he took it. "I ain't having you spilling River Tam's gorram shoe size to anyone what buys you a drink." He shook his head. "What you got to realize, son, is these ain't normal circumstances. We keep details to ourselves. We talk about the weather. Or nuthin'. Or things before the war. We don't talk about our most important ship, our most important weapon, and her crew. Ever."

"Come on, they're all Browncoats!" Connor yelped. A second later he added, "Sir."

Colonel Smith looked him hard in the eye. "You know that for sure, do you, boy? You know all them actually trust Reynolds? You think some of them aren't scared to death of River Tam bein' here and wantin' her gone? These are an angry lot, son. Information is a weapon to them. Even folks that call themselves Browncoats can be enemies in Khonsu City."

"With all due respect, Sir, I think you're overreacting."

"And I think you are dumbass. A dumbass what can find his own gorram way to his bunk and stay there until he's called upon." The Colonel threw Connor's pack into his chest and walked out of the bar.

Connor heard someone behind him mutter, "Buzz kill."

"Woo-ee, thought he'd have gotten better with Serenity docked here. Works real well into that master plan of his," someone else said.

"Maybe Reynolds ain't cooperating. That'd make him madder than hell."

Someone else laughed. "Way I sees it, you can't get much madder than Geming Smith anyway. That there's a mean son of a bitch."

"I thought you liked the guy! Just the other day you was spinning his war stories out for us."

"Yeah, well, he's a hell of a soldier. That there's true," the man replied, "but that don't make him sane."

"Hey, Connor, you'd better get to your bunk quick. Smith's the kind to throw you behind bars for sneezing. Would not wanna be caught disregarding orders."

Connor shouldered his pack and moved towards the door. His new friends called out a goodbye, which he answered with a slight wave. As he left the bar, though, he was muttering to himself in Chinese. Smith didn't realize how important Connor was. Soon he'd realize. Connor didn't have to take any slag from anybody. Not even a Colonel.

Readjusting his pack, Connor decided to go find Serenity. That would be his bunk. Soon Reynolds would ask him to stay on as part of the crew, seeing how attached River was to him. He would have to. And then Connor wouldn't have to answer to the regular Browncoats. He would prove he was just as good a pilot as Washburne had been. And smarter, too, 'cause Connor would stay the hell away from Reavers.

Connor walked among the side alleys and tracks along the base until finally he didn't know which way was up. He wandered aways more and spotted a Firefly. It was not Serenity. Connor knew that right away. This one looked even more like a bucket of rusty bolts than Serenity did. A difficult feat to accomplish. There weren't many Firefly class ships still flying. Connor doubted this one could even get an inch off the ground. It was half-finished, the shuttles were missing, and the hull plating looked like someone had tried to combine two different jigsaw puzzles into one picture.

An excited young girl was bouncing around on the opposite side of the ship. Connor could see her feet and hear her voice. "She don't look like much now, but she'll be sailin' in no time flat!"

Connor doubted that.

"You've got a fine start," a man said. Connor couldn't see him, but he recognized the voice. Reynolds. Thank God. Now Connor could finally stop wandering around. He started walking to the other side of the ship but stopped in his tracks as he came across a bizarre scene in a shadowy corner against the Firefly.

It took Connor a second for his brain to interpret the darkened images into coherent fact. A woman, his brain said River, had her arms around a man's neck, and she was kissing him like she had never kissed Connor. She had him up against the Firefly, and she kissed him hungrily, like she was trying to devour his lips with hers. The man was a mountain, and his brain told him it was Jayne Cobb, but Connor couldn't quite believe it. Jayne Cobb's hands were sliding over River's lower back as he met her kiss with a hunger of his own. As Connor watched, stunned for a moment, Jayne's hand slipped underneath River's shirt and began to creep up.

Connor yelled out in Chinese.

River sprang backward in surprise. Jayne Cobb raised a gun, but River put a hand on his arm, forcing the so-called Hero of Canton to lower his weapon.

"You bitch!" Connor spat at River. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I think I'm making out with Jayne," River said calmly.

How he hated her in that moment. The calmness in her voice after what she'd just done to him.

"If you don't want an answer, don't ask the question," River reminded him.

He wanted to kill her, take her neck in his hands and choke the life out of her. Teach her that she was his girl and would always be his girl. No one else's. Connor's very soul shook with rage.

"As if you even could kill me," River said. "As if you could even take a step towards without me knowing exactly what you were planning five minutes before you did it."

Connor shook his head, confused. He hadn't actually said those things aloud. He'd never really believed the stories about River Tam being able to read minds. That was just a war story.

"Wrong-oh," River said.

"All those months you pretended to be a normal girl, but you ain't! You really are the Moonbrained witch everyone says you are!"

"Please, act like you cared one second about me. Please do. Make sure everyone feels sorry for Kyle Connor. A little baby with delusions of being a prince. You have no power, Connor. You never did, and you never will. And that's the sad truth of you."

Connor glared. What the hell did she know? "You're just a common whore, River Tam! You hear me? A who - "

Jayne Cobb was on him before Connor knew what was happening. He hit Connor in the side of the head with his gun. The blow landed Connor on the floor. Jayne dragged him up and punched him in the face again and then a third time.

The world was growing very blurry. Connor heard someone yell, "Jayne, stop it!" Then Connor was on the ground again. He felt a jab in his ribcage as someone kicked him.

Chinese mutterings were followed by, "Better get him to the infirmary."

Connor liked that idea. He moaned in approval. Then someone kicked him again. This one landed on is head, and he passed out.