The Code of Randomness

Wash sat back in his pilots seat. The cortex screen went blank and he settled himself to just looking out at the blankness of space. They ( Serenity) were in-between jobs and Malcolm Reynolds, the captain had given him the free duty of just taking the ship anywhere he pleased. Well, anywhere but Alliance patrolled territory or anything too far out in the blackness of space.

Wash pondered over the last thing he’d seen on the viewing monitor. A program from the old “Earth that Was” series. Wash knew that he could always tune in to Mr. Universes broadcasts to be entertained by old tv shows from humankinds original home planet.

The show he’d just finished watching was one about the wildlife that used to exists on a place called Africa. It had shown a herd of zebra animals being chased by some meat eating monster of a creature. No it hadn’t been a dinosaur. It was from the cat family……..a lion. Actually it was a lioness, the female of the species….out to get food for her young. Kinda reminded him of Zoey. Anyway, out of two zebra that were lagging behind the pack the female cat had chosen the one on the right. Why had she done that he’d questioned to himself? They’d both seemed to have been older animals, the zebras, and they both looked as if it would take the same amount of effort to catch either one. Why had she chosen the one on her right?

Wash thought for a second. He would apply the code of randomness to this quizitation. It was something that he’d just made up. Why, in the course of events and happening do things turn out the way that they do, or people choose certain options over another although the choices are the same?

He thought of this a while. He could have chosen any direction he had wanted to go, within the bounds of Mal’s instructions of course, so why had he chosen this direction to steer Serenity? Or for that matter why had Shepherd Book signed on to fly with this crew? Simon and River…..why had Simon put in with the merry band of bandits when he’d had other options? Why had he (Wash) himself selected to pilot this old bucket of bolts when other captains on better ships had wanted his abilities just as badly?

“ Sorry ‘ol girl.” Wash whispered an apology to the ship for his thoughts, a vessel he’d grown to love despite all of her flaws. He patted the consol in front of him.

The question was still up in the air, WHY?

He looked into the darkness of space. Witch direction to go? There were a multitude of stars. Which one would he head for? There was a twinkle. One of the heavenly bodies seemed to be winking at him. It shown brighter in the dark sky. Wash chose his pathway…..a somewhat dimmer star to the right of the bright shiny one. Wash had never been one to follow the obvious. Course he knew these weren’t stars but planets and moons. The ones giving off more light could simply be that there were more cities on that world, more civilization….maybe ALLIANCE!

Nope, better to stick to the more dimly lit destinations. See, that wasn’t a choice of randomness at all. Course he knew that that didn’t apply to every situation. There were some things that were completely random. He punched in the coordinates and sat back for the journey.

He decided to tune in to another entertainment program from Mr. Universe’s world. He felt like watching something with a “horror” slant to it. He punched in the code and was immediately given a list sub-categories.

“Comic-Horror. Yeah that’s one.” He whispered and brought up a menu of 50 titles.

He brought his finger down the list. Nothing seemed to interest him at first….but then he saw it, tenth from the top.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” He pushed the select button.

It was a completely random choice of course.

Z

END