Bandiagara, Part 4b
Simon joins the club. How to make a meal of molded protein.
Mal was bursting with pride as Simon brought Shuttle Two in for a clean, precise docking with Serenity. They'd just flown another circuit around the ship, and for the fourth time in a row, Simon had nailed it. Boy was a fast learner. Reckon that Top Three Percent brain of his was good for more than just the medical stuff. Never would do to let it show, though. He folded his arms and fixed a stern expression on his face. "Not half bad, Simon, but you forgot to power down the lateral thrusters after contact. Could damage the locking mechanism, was they to go off unexpected." He stood up. "Right, you're gonna take her out again, make the circuit, and dock. Only this time don't forget the thrusters." He headed for the hatch.
"Where are you going, Mal?" Simon asked. "Captain?"
"Back to Serenity," Mal replied unemotionally. "You're cleared to solo." He shut the hatch on Simon's dumbfounded expression.
Simon returned to the pilot's seat and collected himself. Right. 一个深呼吸 Yī gè shēn hūxī. It wasn't brain surgery, after all. It was less familiar, and therefore more difficult. He reminded himself that it was just a sequence of logical steps, executed in order. He opened his eyes, ignoring the gaping maw of the Black, and pressed the initiatior. He flipped the three check switches as he began the pre-flight procedure.
. . .
Mal waited calmly until the hatch hissed shut behind him. Then he turned and sprinted to the bridge, nearly knocking into Jayne in the galley.
"Where the 地狱 dìyù you goin' in such a hurry, Mal?" Jayne grumbled after the Captain's long-gone shadow.
He took the stairs up to the bridge three at a time. "River, activate external vid and track it on Shuttle Two, 马上 mǎshàng. Pull up a virtual duplicate of Shuttle Two controls and send it down to Inara's shuttle. Send 'em both down to Inara's." He turned and bolted from the bridge.
River smiled after the Captain's retreating form. She'd been watching the lessons in Shuttle Two this morning, and already had the vid and the virtual controls on the monitor. As she pressed the button to send to Shuttle One, she had to smile again. Simon had begged their parents for a car when he was sixteen. She remembered her mother, worried, telling him how the Ojikutus had given their son an expensive hovercar for his sixteenth birthday, and how the boy —an entitled, arrogant imbecile if ever River met one—had promptly smashed it into a lamp post. She remembered her father, angrily thundering that no son of his was going to be seen driving a vehicle like a common lackey, not as long as he had the money to hire a menial to do the job. River snorted to herself as she adjusted Serenity's trim and okay'ed the course adjustment she'd pre-programmed, in response to a prompt from the ship's nav system. If only Father could see his children now.
. . .
The pilot's console in her shuttle suddenly came to life, and Inara had just pulled aside the curtain to ascertain why, when Mal burst in.
"You could at least knock," she commented acidly. "I was beginning to think I had you trained—"
He slammed the hatch shut behind him and strode across the shuttle. "Sorry, Inara," he muttered as he pushed past her and sat himself in the pilot's seat, adjusting the vid screens and quickly running through the start-up sequence.
"What are you doing?" Her voice expressed both surprise and irritation.
He ignored her and continued his workings until he had the shuttle ready to fly, then focused his attention on the vid screens. She was having trouble reading him. Was it some sort of emergency? His hasty actions pointed that way, but he also seemed nervous…and—was that pride? She looked more closely at the vid screens, and saw that one of them showed a shuttle's control panel, as someone went systematically through the standard pre-flight checklist. The other vid screen showed a grainy image from Serenity's external security camera—a lousy old piece of equipment, but it was the only thing they had. As she watched, a shuttle detached itself from Serenity's starboard side and flitted gently off into space.
"Who's flying the shuttle, Mal?"
He glanced at her over his shoulder with a nervous grin. "Simon. It's his first solo." He turned back to the monitors, and together they watched as Simon circled Serenity in a wide arc. Mal gripped the yoke with white knuckles as he watched the docking procedure, which went perfectly smooth. A precision landing. Neat as a pin. Slick as spit.
"—Mal. Mal. You can let go of the yoke, Mal. He's docked. Nicely done, too." She wrapped her arms around him from behind the chair and kissed the side of his forehead. "You've been teaching him to fly. Good work, Captain."
He turned and gave her a huge, silly smile. "Thanks, Inara," he said, and scurried out of the shuttle, bouncing like a little boy.
. . .
Simon completed the shut-down sequence, and walked over to open the hatch. His nerves were still on edge, but he also felt pride in his accomplishment. He'd done everything right—even remembering to power down the lateral thrusters. The hatch slid open, and Simon found himself confronting the Captain. Mal's face was set in a grumpy scowl, but his cheeks were flushed and his eyes were glittering. Simon couldn't read his expression.
"Not bad," Mal grunted, and punched Simon in the shoulder. He turned and stalked away.
Simon opened his mouth, shut it again, and rubbed his shoulder. He'd probably have a bruise. 混蛋 Húndàn. Then his face split into a big grin. The Captain was proud of him, and he'd just been welcomed into the club.
. . .
"Give you a hand?" Zoe offered, as she entered the galley.
"Thank you, Zoe," Inara replied, as she chopped the protein into pieces.
"What're we makin'?" Zoe asked.
"Five-spice chicken and vegetable stir-fry," Inara replied. Zoe looked sharply at her. "Well, minus the chicken. And minus the vegetables. It is chicken-style molded protein. And I did find one packet of vegetable-style vitamin supplements." Inara suppressed a sigh. When she and River had purchased foodstuffs on Beylix (the first grocery shopping Inara had done in a long while, to tell the truth), Inara had been shocked at the prices of fruits and vegetables. The bulk of Serenity's foodstores were sealed packets of shelf-stable protein, pressed together in various configurations—chicken-style, beef-style, tofu-style, fish-style—but all derived from the same basic fusarium fungus, mixed with yeast, microalgae, and other supplements to complete the nutritional profile. Spices and creative modes of preparation helped, but still, the food aboard Serenity had a monotony to it. When he could afford it, Mal authorized expenditures for the more expensive fresh and preserved foods to supplement and give variety to the staple diet of protein, but this time it had been clear that they didn't have a budget for anything beyond the basics. Thanks to 仁慈的佛 réncí de Fó she had her private stores of spices and tea to supplement their diet.
Shopping for stores with River had been an interesting experience. Inara saw many things in the store she would have liked to add to their cart, but River loaded their pallet with bags of millet and bulk boxes of the cheapest available protein packets. Every time Inara so much as glanced at anything with a brand name, let alone anything with a resemblance to fresh food, River shook her head and re-directed them to the generic, no-name blue boxes unattractively displayed in a back corner. When the pallet was about half-full, River stopped loading it. Inara stepped in to help, adding one more box, but River returned it to the shelf, saying, "Reached budgetary limits. Only six platinum to spare."
Inara carried a hand-basket with her own choices, and determined to add a number of items that would make the boxes of bland protein taste better. Spices, preserved aromatics, and bottled sauces joined her favorite tea, fruit preserves, and a bottle of honey in the basket. River gave her a look as she filled her basket. "The Captain won't like it if he knew you were buying food for the whole crew."
"Well, then, he needn't know," Inara replied. "I am free to spend my own money how I choose."
River gave her an odd look.
"—Inara." Inara snapped out of her reverie to find Zoe looking curiously at her. "Chopping's done. What's next?"
"Making the sauce," she replied smoothly, wondering how long she'd been chopping on auto-pilot and marveling that all her fingers were still intact.
"What've we got to make sauce with, Inara? Seems to me we ain't got much more than soy sauce—" Zoe broke off suddenly as Inara opened her locker to reveal ginger, garlic, toasted sesame oil, rice wine, and a number of other flavorful supplements, lined up next to the tea that she always kept there. Zoe stretched her eyes, but said nothing. This explained why Inara's cook days always turned out much better food than normal.
The two women worked silently in concert to round out the menu.
. . .
Gorrammit, weren't nothin' here worth eatin', Jayne thought as he dumped the contents of the protein packets into the pot and added water. Where the 地狱 dìyù was Doc 'Noyman's crouton detector when you needed it? It wasn't that Jayne actually liked eating food that smelled like crotch—well alright, maybe smelling like crotch weren't actually all that high on his list of bad things—but what was a fella to do? There weren't nothin' but soy sauce in the cabinet, and Jayne was sick of soy sauce. The food Inara made yesterday didn't taste like boring old soy sauce. She musta done something to it to make the sauce taste different. Some kind of secret Companion trick, no doubt, because there weren't nothin' in this here storage locker but soy sauce. Didn't do nothing for the taste of the food, except ta make it taste like soy sauce, and it didn't give no variety to the texture neither. Croutons woulda been good, 'cause they added some crunch, but fresh veggies woulda been better. Jayne knew he weren't no picky eater. Couldn't be a picky eater when you grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in industrial Boros. Not if'n ya wanted to grow up. Hell, he'd eat anything that could be subdued and brought to the table. He knew the Cap'n bought them processed protein packets because they were the cheapest, and it weren't often that there was money to spare for luxuries like fruit. But still, sometimes he wondered why it was that them gorram protein packets from Blue Sun were the cheapest eats on the market.
. . .
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glossary
一个深呼吸 Yī gè shēn hūxī [Take a deep breath]
地狱 dìyù [hell]
马上 mǎshàng [right away]
混蛋 Húndàn [Bastard]
仁慈的佛 réncí de Fó [merciful Buddha]
So, would you rather eat Five-Spice Chicken and Vegetable Stir-Fry without the chicken and vegetables, or would you prefer Jayne's dump-and-boil concoction? And how about that flying lesson? Let me know what you think.