Chapter Four – Catch 22

There was a moment's silence as everybody processed what River had just said. Mal looked at her with an expression that was a combination of surprise, curiosity and unease. He clearly hadn't been expecting an answer that was quite so sinister. "Well, that don't sound good," he said after a pause, looking from River to the crate and giving a slight frown.

Kaylee spoke up next. "Cap'n, I'm not sayin' River trying to open the airlock weren't dangerous and all, but she was just trying to help us. If whatever in there's so bad perhaps we did ought to get rid of it?"

Mal was still looking at the box with an uneasy expression. "I know, Kaylee, but it ain't that simple," he replied, and seemed about to say more when Jayne interrupted again.

"Look, that was all very ominous-sounding, but if she ain't gunna tell us any more than that," he ranted, gesturing at River, "Then I don't think the ramblings of a crazy girl are enough to justify tossing the payload. Unless of course, Captain, you found another source of income this month that you ain't tellin' us about."

Jayne was glaring fiercely at Mal, and at that point the captain rounded on him with a look that was equally intense. "I hear you, Jayne," Mal said darkly, "But I ain't about to risk everybody's life for a box that we don't know the contents of, no matter how good the pay is. My guess is the reason we got offered so much for this job is because whatever's in there's dangerous, and if that turns out to be the case then I won't hesitate to get rid of it."

"Oh yeah?" Jayne said, squaring up to him, "Well it's been on board five days and the most dangerous thing that's happened in that time is River here going berserk just now, so unless anybody can tell me what exactly is in there I say we take our chances and just get the gorram thing to Copernica."

Mal glared at him, but for a few moments didn't say a word. Nobody else spoke, the atmosphere too tense for them to want to interfere in the two men's conflict, but after a few seconds Mal turned to River and said quite calmly. "River, why don't you tell us what about the bug's so dangerous?"

Everybody's attention turned to River at that point, Jayne looking at her quite sceptically. She stared right back at him. "I can't see it," she answered, "Only hear it."

"Well, that gives us a lot to go on," Jayne remarked sarcastically, but River continued talking.

"I can hear it wants to kill us," she said, her voice rising slightly in pitch. "It's angry; it doesn't like being contained. It wants to get out."

Mal and Jayne exchanged glances again, Jayne still not looking convinced, and then River said, "It sounds like Reavers."

Jayne's eyes widened. That one word was enough to send a chill through all of them. None of them spoke for several seconds, and then it was Simon who swallowed and managed to ask his sister. "How do you mean?"

"Violent. Not human," she replied, her own voice sounding scared.

Mal looked at her, and then cast his gaze over the others before fixing his attention on the box. "Right," he said determinedly, before purposefully striding over to the crate and kneeling down beside it.

"Don't stand too close!" River suddenly yelled at him, and he looked at her in surprise, a little taken aback by the suddenness of her outburst. Then his expression darkened and he brought up his pistol to point at the crate.

"It's solid steel," he said, "If anything does try to get out I'll have plenty of chance to shoot it first." He leant in closer to the crate and seemed to be studying it carefully.

Sounding nervous, Inara spoke up, "Mal, if you think it's that dangerous don't do anything stupid."

"We can't do nothing until we know what it is, Inara," he responded, deliberately not commenting on the 'doing something stupid' part. "There's a living creature in there, right?" he said, looking at River, who nodded. "But we've had it on board five days and it's only just started bothering River. So why now?"

He looked at the others for suggestions. It was Simon who responded first. "It's possible it was hibernating," he said, "Hibernation is usually seasonal planetside; being in space could be enough to disrupt its cycle and cause it to wake early."

Mal looked at him and frowned, trying to make sense of the situation, but Zoe had something to add. "That still doesn't help us work out what it is," she said, "Or why Mr. Yutani is paying so much to transport it to Copernica for him. Captain, do we even know who we're delivering it to?" she asked.

Mal shook his head grimly. "No, we've just been given a rendezvous point," he answered her, and the look exchanged between them clearly showed how suspicious they both were.

Jayne was still reluctant to back down, although he certainly seemed much more uncomfortable with the idea of having the crate on board now that River had brought up Reavers. "Look, I know this don't seem good," he said, "But it's less than twenty four hours to Copernica now. If this thing's been fine for five days can't we just get it to the rendezvous point, collect the money, and then be rid of it? It's not like we have to keep it on board much longer."

Both Mal and Zoe gave him admonishing looks. "And then what, Jayne?" Mal said, "Leave it to do harm to everyone on that moon? 'Cause I ain't gunna be the one responsible for that."

Jayne fixed him with a confrontational glare. "You don't even know what it's gunna do," he snapped back, "You're just making guesses based on River saying stuff that's a bit creepifying. Now yeah, that disturbs me too, but look at the crate, Mal. It ain't even big enough for us to for us to fit Kaylee in there. Whatever's in it might be dangerous enough to us if we keep it on the boat too much longer, but I doubt it's big enough to bring harm to an entire moon."

Mal continued to glare at him, but he could understand why Jayne was reluctant to just let them throw away their next pay cheque. Perhaps the risk for a few more hours would be worth it if it meant they'd be guaranteed to afford food for the next two months. Of course, that was assuming Mr. Yutani's contacts could be trusted to pay them at all.

"Captain?" Zoe was speaking to him, and Mal turned to look at her.

"What is it?"

"You got the job from a Mr. Yutani, right?"

Mal nodded, thinking he knew where this might be going. "Yeah."

"You remember the company Weyland-Yutani?"

Mal did remember it, but Inara beat him to replying. "Weyland-Yutani? They were one of the main companies that terraformed the 'Verse after the exodus from Earth-That-Was. You think they're related to this?" She seemed both surprised and confused as to what Zoe's thought processes might be.

"They weren't just a terraforming company," Zoe explained, "They manufactured weapons during the war. Started out supplying to both sides, as I recall, before they signed a contract with the Alliance. Now the war may be over, but that don't mean weapons aren't still in demand. And since the Alliance were the winning side the company's best profit would come..."

"From staying in business with them," Mal finished, understanding what Zoe was getting at, although it still didn't make complete sense to him.

Zoe gave a nod. "Captain, I ain't no expert on that company's history, but I remember they got in trouble for some illegal organic-weapons experiment some time ago. I don't know the details, but it was some kind of Government sponsored project that they tried to cover up. Now, could just be coincidence that your guy's called Yutani, but with that company's reputation I'd say it weren't impossible that the were doing something like that again. If so they'd be looking for someone like us to transport dangerous cargo, and I'd also say it weren't impossible that the Alliance are in on it."

It was possible, Mal had to admit that, but he still felt that explanation didn't quite fit. "But Zoe, you didn't meet this Yutani guy," he said. "I don't think he's in with the Alliance. He ain't some high-class core world businessman, just a crime lord that's gotten rich off of the work of others. No different to Badger, except the accent's even funnier."

Zoe was still looking at him grimly. "But what if that's exactly what they wanted you to think, Mal?" she said, "That's company's taken Government money and used it for illegal things before. If Yutani did have a contract to develop weapons for the Alliance then they wouldn't want anybody to know about it, which means there's no way he'd let on to you what's in the box. Plus, he couldn't afford to pay us so highly for this unless that money came from a large company or the Alliance."

Mal was inclined to agree with her, but then Inara put in something else. "Except that doesn't make sense," she said, "For one thing, Weyland-Yutani isn't actually owned by people called Weyland or Yutani anymore, it changed hands over a century ago. And if the Alliance were involved I really doubt they'd be getting you of all people to transport their cargo for them. There's something else going on here, although that doesn't bring us any closer to finding out what exactly is in that box."

Realising she was right, Mal let out a sigh of frustration. "No, it doesn't," he said, "And we ain't gunna know unless we open it."

At that point a tense silence fell upon the room. After a moment Kaylee said, "You ain't gunna open it, are you Cap'n? I mean, not after what River's said might be in there."

Mal looked at her. "No, I ain't," he answered, "I can't open it because I don't know what's in there, but I can't do nothin' with it unless I find out." He was sounding increasingly exasperated, and understandably so. The situation seemed to be a catch 22. Keeping the crate on board could be dangerous, but if there was a formidable company like Weyland-Yutaniinvolved, then failing to deliver to their clients could be just as risky. "Now I'm trusting River on this," Mal said, addressing all of them, "She's been right before and if she thinks there's something bad in this box I'm gunna take her seriously. But if we throw this crate out now then we stand a lot to lose."

"Yeah, a lot," Jayne remarked, and Mal shot him a hard look.

"I don't just mean the money, Jayne. If Zoe's right and the Alliance or their weapon suppliers are involved in this somehow, then we could be pissing off some very powerful people. I'm sure I don't need to spell out what route that could go down."

"So what are we going to do then, Captain?" Zoe asked, sounding like she wouldn't like the answer whatever Mal said.

Mal looked over at her, seeming like he honestly had no idea what to do, but he was spared having to make a decision by the sound of an alarm going off in the cargo bay.

River looked up. "Proximity alert," she said, recognising the noise.

Mal turned to look at her, seemingly now even more frustrated than ever by the unfortunate timing. "Alright, Zoe and I will see to that," he said, the pair of them beginning to head back towards the centre of the ship. "Kaylee, can you go the engine room, make sure we're ready to get moving if we have to. And River…" Mal paused as he noticed the way River was still staring transfixed at the crate, but then realised that talking to her would be the only way to snap her out of it. "River, you think you're up for some piloting?" he asked. Although he was more than a little concerned about letting her near the controls after that bizarre episode, everything was happening so quickly he found he wasn't left with many other options. It would be better to have her on standby to fly the ship rather than just him.

She looked over at him. "Of course," she answered, and then stepped away from the crate to walk over to join him and Zoe. "Mustn't let them get too close or we'll get sucked in."

"Right…" Mal said, and then looked at Simon who appeared to be following her. He was about to tell him not to, but then realised than Simon was actually going with Kaylee instead. The mechanic was heading off to the engine room, as instructed, but she was still casting nervous glances back at the box. She looked worried. Mal decided it was best to let Simon go with her.

That left Inara and Jayne. "Jayne, Inara, keep an eye on that box. Make sure whatever's in it don't do nothing," Mal called back as he, River and Zoe almost reached the exit.

"Sure thing," Jayne replied, giving the box a hostile scowl and bringing his gun up slightly.

Inara looked over at Mal just as he was about to leave, but she didn't have chance to say anything before he'd turned and was out the door. She let out a sigh of frustration. That was just like him. He must have known she wanted to go with him and find out what was going on, but instead he'd instructed her to stay here with Jayne, even though having two of them watch the box wasn't strictly necessary. In a way that hurt. It felt like he was keeping her at arm's length. Like he'd been trying to distance himself from her ever since she'd decided to stay on board after that business with Miranda. And Inara couldn't work out why.

Not that she had much chance to think on it at a time like this.

"So," Jayne was saying, "What d'you think's in there?" He rapped on the box with the butt of his gun, causing a hollow, metallic sound to reverberate through the room.

Inara gave him a slightly disapproving frown. "I don't know, Jayne, but if it's dangerous I don't think you should be knocking on the box like that."

He shrugged. "Why not? Might give us some clue as to what this bug thing is." He tapped on the box again.

"Jayne…" Inara began to protest, but then stopped as she heard another sound. This one coming from inside the box.

She and Jayne exchanged glances. Inara looked nervous, whereas Jayne seemed quite satisfied. "See," he said, and then leant over the box and landed three more knocks on its surface.

Inara listened, and there was no mistaking the three knocks that sounded back.

End note: Apologies that was another dialogue-heavy chapter with not a lot of action, but I promise we're getting there. I'm also still a little dissatisfied with the way I've written the characters, but I think I'm just struggling with establishing the story in general. I've actually written a few chapters for later in the story well in advance and I'm finding them much easier, but I think that's because I have a much clearer idea of what's going to happen. Hold out just a little bit longer and some full blown xenomorph chaos will be on its way.

Also a note about Weyland-Yutani supplying weapons during the Unification War – if you watch the pilot episode of Firefly at the point where Mal's on the AA gun you can see the Weyland-Yutani logo in the top centre of the screen, so I've decided that WY are a canon-complicit part of the 'Verse. Also, the WY slogan is "Building Better Worlds", which sounds awfully similar to some things the Operative said in the BDM. I thought that makes an interesting crossover element.