Chapter 5: New Passengers
Kaylee sat beside Serenity's open loading ramp, sipping a glass of lemonade. She smiled at the tangy taste; Ezra had added some of the fresh raspberries they'd bought yesterday to the usual dehydrated lemon-flavored powder and water, as well as a dash of honey. A gaily decorated silk parasol protected her from New Hunan's hot sun. She watched as a middle-aged woman went from one ship to another. The raven-haired woman spoke to the ticketing agent for each vessel for a few minutes, then walked on. Kaylee wondered where the woman wanted to go, and if Serenity would be the ship to take her there.
"Ni hao," Kayelee greeted her politely. The young mechanic raised one brown eyebrow, surprised to see a red snake wrapped around the woman's shoulders.
The woman merely bowed her head in reply. Like most Asian women, her age was almost impossible to guess. A few strands of gray hair mingled with the black, and her face was not without wrinkles. She could have been anywhere between forty and sixty-five. "Your ship, where is it going?"
"Tuckaleechee," Kaylee replied.
"Is it possible you might be willing to go elsewhere?" the woman asked.
Kaylee agreed, "Anything's possible."
"I wish to charter your ship."
Both Kaylee's eyebrows rose. That would mean changing course, either delivering their cargo to Tuckaleechee late or else welching on the contract to deliver it, depending on where she wanted to go. But a charter might be good enough money to make it worth while. "Hang on just a minute. I'll go get the captain."
"I only hope," the woman said as Kaylee dashed up the ramp, "that they will be able to accommodate Scheherazade."
A few moments later Mal Reynolds came down the ramp, Kaylee at his heels. "Howdy," Mal said. "Captain Mal Reynolds. Kaylee tells me you're interested in chartering Serenity."
"If you are able to meet my needs."
"And what would those needs be, ma'am?"
"My family and I wish to go to Moab."
"How many folks we talking about here?" Mal asked.
"Fifteen people, ten animals."
"This ain't no luxury liner. I could do it, but quarters wouldn't be comfortable. People be doubling and tripling up, maybe some sharing cabins with my crew," Mal warned. "Maybe even in the hold with the animals."
"We are used to sharing space with our four-legged brethren," she assured him.
"Then why don't you come on board, and we can negotiate terms." Mal turned to Kaylee. "Go tell Standish to make a pot of tea, and fetch out some of those ginger cookies he baked. I've got business to discuss with …" he paused, waiting for her to introduce herself.
"Madame Nguyen," she obliged. "Of the Nguyen Family Circus."
Standish bit back the obscenity he wanted to shout. "Scheherazade, not again." He stared at her in dismay.
Madame Nguyen chose that moment to appear in the cargo hold.
"You be careful," she admonished Standish. "That's not to be wasted."
"I assure you, madam, I shall treat it as through it were made of gold." He went to fetch a shovel. She petted Scheherazade's face.
"Elephant dung worth less than gold, but more than foolish deckhand," Madame Nguyen retorted as she continued petting Scheherazade.
Standish said nothing, judging to safer to keep his mouth shut. The first time Scheherazade had defecated, Standish had thrown the dung out the airlock, fearing it would clog the ship's toilet systems. He hadn't known that Madame Nguyen's niece Giang Tien dried and shellacked the better examples of feces, then put plastic flowers in them, selling them as 'Blooming Elephant Turds,' nor that Madame Nguyen sold the remainder of Scheherazade's fecal matter to farmers as superior fertilizer. She had complained to Mal about the lost income, and Mal had docked him a day's pay to reimburse her for the loss.
They were three days into their trip to Moab, which Wash had estimated would take two weeks. With three dogs, four horses, an elephant, a parrot, and Madame Nguyen's pet snake, Standish feared it would be a very long fortnight.
That Madame Nguyen had given the crew of Serenity free passes to the circus' first performance had not surprised Standish. That Mal Reynolds had postponed their trip to Tuckaleechee with their belated cargo, and that Mal had permitted him to accompany the rest of the crew to the circus, did surprise him. On the other hand, since he was wedged in between Mal and Jayne, obviously the captain thought he was unlikely to take the opportunity to escape.
Standish was enjoying watching Kaylee and River and their reactions more than he was watching the performances. They stared as Tu Thuc and Tran Ngoc soared six meters overhead, as though they hadn't watched the Nguyen cousins practicing the same routine in the cargo hold every day for the past two weeks. They waved enthusiastically as Quynh Duo rode Scheherazade around the ring. Standish gave a half-grin as the two clowns, Lam Tai and Vo Dinh, improvised a comic routine out of which of them was to clean up after Scheherazade. He was glad he didn't need to worry about that chore any more. And he was glad to be getting his own cubicle back, despite how miniscule it was. The cargo for Tuckaleechee had been stored in his quarters, and he'd been forced to share with Simon. He wondered if Kaylee knew the object of her schoolgirl crush snored.