54) Seek It Out And Ye Shall Find

Mal was worse than a bear with a sore paw and no berries or honey to sweeten his mood. Not that Riddick could really blame him. The Captain was leaning hard on Carolyn and River, all of the crew really, but those two in particular, to keep him on an even keel. Carolyn had taken on a lot of the duties Zoë had handled that kept her aboard the ship (rather than out at Mal's side on jobs). Riddick half smiled, he wasn't sure if Carolyn would ever be completely comfortable with guns or the casual violence that came along with some of their jobs, but she was adapting to the rest of it just fine.

So, Carolyn, when she wasn't on the bridge, devoted a lot of time to figuring a schedule for cargo jobs, keeping the ship properly supplied and soothing Mal. Jack assisted with the supplies somewhat, helping Carolyn keep the lists just as she had Zoë.

River had taken over the gunhand portion of Zoë's duties (which she and Riddick had been doing for a while anyway). That also meant she and Mal worked out how to fit the less than legal jobs into the schedule of the legal ones. So far, they'd muddled through, but no one was pleased with the situation.

Everyone split Emma duties. If someone was on the bridge, Emma was with them (diaper bag and all). Emma had spent time in every room of the ship except the shuttles and the engine room. And that wasn't because Kaylee didn't want her. But Serenity's engine was just a touch too loud for a baby's ears.

Emma did have a crib, though she spent most of her time in her basket, or on a blanket on the floor in the lounge getting what Simon called 'tummy time'. Riddick had some vague memory of seeing babies on their stomachs in playpens so they could roll around and not inadvertently get stepped on. Kaylee and River were still working on a playpen with a mobile over it, with tiny model ships, stars and planets. (Not to scale, River had explained with a shrug.)

But nobody had a ton of spare time lately, so the playpen was a work in progress still.

It'd been three months since they'd had to leave Zoë on that hospital ship. And it had taken a solid four and a half weeks for the hospital to release her into the 'care' of the Feds. So Zoë had taken Simon's advice and played for time as long as she was able. That was a good thing at least. Unfortunately (and it was really unfortunate because Mal just got worse and worse) they couldn't just stop working to search the 'verse over for Zoë.

And River still maintained that someone else was hunting them. Someone besides the hún dàn that had put those warrants out on Mal and Zoë. Turns out the man hadn't even met Zoë; he'd just heard from Badger that Mal and Zoë were inseparable and decided that was the best way to hurt Serenity and her crew.

He looked up as he heard the barest hint of a step behind him and gave River a smile as she practically appeared in the doorway. They hadn't gotten a lot of time alone either. A couple of kisses, a bit of cuddling. Sparring when they could manage it and that blew off some steam. But they'd agreed that dance lessons and all the temptations they presented, would be…unwise when they couldn't get much time to themselves. Or privacy.

"Any luck," Riddick held out his arm and smiled when she allowed him to wrap it around her waist and tug her into this lap. They didn't get to sit like this much. He liked it. More than he ever thought he would. River shook her head and he sighed. Her toe shoes had gone missing again. This time along with her colored pencils. "I'll take a look around when I get off shift," He promised. One of these days he was going to have the free time to figure out what was going on with her missing things.

"Grateful," She kissed his jaw and Riddick, mischievously turned his head and rubbed his mouth over hers. A quick sweet kiss. Nothing that would get either of them too worked up. No sense frustrating them both when they wouldn't have time or privacy for anything more than kissing. "Had some good fortune with other things though."

"Yeah?" He looked over at Emma, asleep in her basket. She didn't seem to mind his voice, but he liked to check that she wasn't waking up before he had too much conversation. Once Emma woke up, she didn't want to miss out on any excitement. She flat out refused to go back to sleep sometimes. He'd figured on boring her to sleep if she woke up again.

"She sleeps," River smiled over at the baby. "Little dreams of colors and sounds and warmth." She reluctantly lifted herself off his lap and sat in the co-pilot's chair, "Tracked down the recordings of the streets of Demeter... Public record, kept for a year before being discarded."

"That's interesting," Riddick wondered if that was so anyone could use the recordings.

"Public record means prosecutor's offices are not required to get warrants for the information," River explained quietly. "Freedom of information act. One of the reasons the crew cannot be prosecuted for other information shared. Did nothing illegal." Her hands moved gracefully over the keys, and he watched as she brought up recordings of Mal in the driver's seat of the mule, pulling up to the curb and parking in front of a bar. River climbed out behind him, and Riddick frowned as his own big frame followed River's smaller one. She'd been insistent upon a hood for him and a hat for her. And the 'crate' of drugs was actually two Styrofoam coolers hidden inside some shopping bags.

She'd also told Mal that they'd have more success with the job if they went into the bar and out the back, over to the actual job location through the alleys without cameras. Nobody had seen them leave out the back. And as far as anyone knew they'd been in the bar for a couple hours once they exited it again.

"So what'll you do with it?" He could see that obviously it was an alibi but if the warrant was because of that Atherton fella he didn't see how an alibi would help.

"Sending it, as well as a testimonial from Inara about Atherton Wing and his vendetta," River was working as she spoke. "To an attorney engaged for this purpose. Defender who specializes in finding the truth and making the courts see it. Simon has included a statement as well. Zoë was on bedrest, could not have climbed up a rope to rob a house." She shrugged, "Won't get Zoë out of jail but without a warrant or charges… no reason to look for her once we get her back."

"'Cause they won't get paid for a prisoner that doesn't have records proving why the prison should get paid," Riddick nodded. It was a little-known quirk of the prison system. Each was paid per prisoner, a set amount, to provide for food, clothing and housing. Some were private, some were strictly Alliance run and some were a mix of both. But all prisons were paid based upon population. The most successful were triple max slams where the environment and the other prisoners did the guards jobs for them. The wardens could get rich with minimal effort since not much of the 'allowance' per prisoner actually went to the care and feeding of the inmates.

"Exactly," River nodded. "No reason to chase someone who does not offer a payday."

"We any closer to figuring out where she is," Riddick glanced over at Emma as the baby made a little discontented noise.

"Wants feeding," River headed for the galley to get a bottle and warm it up. There was only so much formula they could pre-make, it tended to separate after about twelve hours. River had made some noise about looking for canned formula and mixing the powdered with it, doing half and half so it would stretch longer and keep better.

Emma fed, burped, changed and bored into sleep once again, Riddick looked at River, "Have we figured out where Zoë is? Heard anything?"

He half meant had she Read anyone's thoughts and half referred to the rumor mill of the criminal underground. But he just got a shake of her head.

"Husking to find records of the Alliance ships docked after Serenity left. To look for the officer in charge of taking her to a prison," She sighed. "Once we have the ship, we can track it."

"I'll work on the list of double and triple max slams," Riddick promised. "Maybe we can just husk the prisons and see if we can find her that way, like Jack suggested?"

"Come at it from both angles," River agreed. "Had to deal with the warrants first. Now that they are being dealt with, more time to husk the slams. Bad idea to attempt any sort of prison break with warrants outstanding."

They'd narrowed the search area down to six different slams, all of them triple or double max and all of them adding up to nasty. Problem was they were scattered 'verse-wide and Serenity (still) couldn't exactly sail hither and yon (one of Simon's particularly apt turns of phrase), wasting fuel and time with nothing to show for it.

So they had to find work in the area of whatever slam River needed to husk and they couldn't always find it quickly. And they were still trying to fly under the radar of whoever it was hunting the ship.

Mal had set a course for the Battle of Sturges and the notion had been a sound one. There were so many broken and blown out ships in the area without anyone even trying to salvage them that no one would notice one bitty Firefly. Especially if they weren't using the engines over much. Sturges wasn't far from Georgia star system which Mal found handy because there were a couple of slams there for River to husk.

Riddick wasn't inclined to argue with him, though he did suggest that if they were going to hide in a graveyard of ships, they should at least use the time productively. He and Mal and Kaylee got elected to put on the EVA suits and salvage usable parts from some of the wrecks. Best thing about EVA was he couldn't smell how unhappy Kaylee became seeing all the dead boats.

Of course, that didn't prevent her from talking on them. But they'd gotten enough of a haul that Kaylee figured to trade for some other supplies when they hit one of Kerry's moons. Kerry wasn't that far off at least.

River came down to help them with the suits and shook her head at Mal's hopeful look, "Found nothing in any of the slams of Georgia." She sighed. "Red Sun is the only system left that isn't Core."

"Aren't any real slams in the Core," Riddick shook his head. "If she's anywhere she's in Red Sun. Dyton Penal colony's our best bet."

"Thought that was for folks wanted time off their sentences," Mal frowned his confusion.

"That's only part of the prison," Riddick shook his head. "For the lower risk prisoners. The rest of it…" He shook his head. "It ain't pretty."

"Won't take long to trade parts for foodstuffs," Kaylee nodded towards the airlock.

"We got a good haul," Riddick agreed. "Kaylee, you marked the stuff you want to keep for Serenity?"

"Yep," She grinned, pleased as always to have parts for 'her girl'. "Got one of these on each of 'em." She held up a plastic tie.

"Let's shift those up to the engine room then," Mal ordered.

They'd gotten about halfway done with that little chore when Carolyn's voice came over the comms, "Cap'n, I've got a boat hailing us, they're gettin' pretty gorram close."

River tilted her head thoughtfully and then sighed, giving Mal a look, "Well... that'll be an interesting day." The accent she used (pure Rim and rough) along with the words sat strangely in her mouth. Riddick wondered if he'd ever get used to the way River could just drop into an accent nothing like her own as easily as slipping on a shirt.

Mal's steady cursing didn't bode well for whoever it was River referred, "Wángbā dàn de biǎo zi… That… yú chǔn zì jiāo de dà zi ròu… I oughta wring his thick dumb neck…"

Riddick glanced at River and Kaylee, "So…old friend?" Kaylee had a touch of unease in her scent and face, and he guessed she was worried about River maybe giving away to him that she knew things she couldn't or shouldn't, without being a Reader. Playing dumb was the only assurance he could give the little mechanic. Though he found it interesting as hell that River hadn't made the rest of the original crew aware that Riddick had figured out what she was. He could be absolutely certain she had her reasons. He just couldn't understand why she'd hide that from them. It was up to her though since they were her secrets.

Mal was still cursing as he headed into the bay, using the comms by the cargo door controls to let Carolyn know he was on his way. He did stop swearing for that long, though the litany of curses resumed the minute he put down the comms.

"Better get all of this put away," Riddick hefted a sack of parts over his shoulder. Life never got too dull aboard this boat. That and River were the two best things about it.

By the time they got the airlock cleared of parts Riddick could feel Serenity shifting around them. Kaylee had stayed in the engine room at Mal's behest while Riddick and River took a minute in the galley to get some tea.

"Jayne Cobb," River murmured to him as she poured the tea. "Offered a small fortune to find us. Former crew member. Left to become his own Captain."

"Think I remember you mentioning something about him," Riddick nodded.

"Mal sets course for Kerry, one of the little moons," River responded to his unvoiced question of where they were headed. "Will not allow a strange boat to connect with Serenity. Instructs them to land, we will land beside them, send over whoever it is wanted to find us so bad, Jayne with them. And we will take off and orbit while whatever they want is discussed."

"Land and leave 'em there again after," Riddick took his mug and lifted her hand to his jaw to kiss her palm in thanks for the tea. "It's a good play."

"Captain is very displeased," River shook her head. "Will not be welcoming."

"No reason he should be," Riddick agreed. Mal's voice over the comms was a bit too loud for his comfort but the instructions for all non-combatants to get themselves away from the cargo bay were needful. As were the orders for he and River to conceal themselves along the catwalk and prepare for trouble.

"Very displeased," River repeated as they stood. The tea would probably go cold before they could drink it, but it couldn't be helped.

Author's Note: Another thing I'm cherry picking from the comic books, Jayne helping some people to track Serenity down. But that doesn't mean we're going to be using that plotline completely.

Chinese Translations:

hún dàn (bastard) (individual who has at least two biological fathers and one biological mother - bastard / scoundrel / bastard / hoodlum / wretch)

Wángbā dàn de biǎo zi (whore's bastard/son of a bitch(insult))

yú chǔn zì jiāo de dà zi ròu (stupid inbred sack of meat)