To Quote Inara

Chapter 7

Malcolm Reynolds sat back into a chair he’d brought down from the ship’s galley and placed his booted feet up on another as he stared down the ramp of Serenity’s cargo bay opening. It was a beautiful afternoon and the Firefly transport was facing the opposite direction of the lowering sun. The brilliant light blanketed the entire scene of rocky desert, rugged terrain and heavy acres of twisted scrub brush.

The last couple of days had gone rather well except for some extra repairs that were needed to be done to his boat. The weather had been satisfactory and the time spent on Harvest had been somewhat pleasant. Wash had told the captain that he and Kaylee could use a couple more days…………when completed, Serenity would be better’n new.

There was no rush and Mal had agreed. The only thing wrong with living at this pace was that it didn’t put food on the table or money in ones pocket. Life expectancy wouldn’t be long if someone couldn’t find work or have a job or two on the wire. No worries though, Zoe had informed Wash that she’d collected a couple of simple business transactions from Badger so prospects were on the horizon. That, along with whatever small amount of benefit the crew could collect from Alexander’s jail-break would be enough to last them for a while.

Mal also thought about Alexandria. Such a sweet girl, and pretty. He had to admit there was an attraction there. Still, this was a business undertaking so he needed to treat it as such until “time” might change things.

He thought back to two days earlier when Alex had returned with Jayne after making the trip to Betsville. She had given him another hug. This time tighter than before. He was sure that Kaylee, Wash and Jayne were all wondering if their captain were becoming smitten by this attractive creature……”

“ Well I’m not.” Mal said aloud to himself almost thinking that to voice it out loud would be proof that the “love firefly” hadn’t taken a big hefty bite out of his heart. He had feelings for Serenity’s newcomer, but only those as bestowed upon any individual he felt were worth their character in gold.

Alexandria was gorgeous though, and smart. When she and Jayne had returned they’d gathered the clan and headed to the galley for some mudders milk and to begin the planning of the break out.

“Ok, this is what we can do, “ Alex started, “ night after tomorrow‘s, Jayne can take shuttle 2 and head back to the spot where we staged the shuttle earlier today. From there he can meet up with a prison guard that my brother has befriended and they can make their way onto the prison grounds. Once inside it won’t take much effort to locate the building that my brother is being kept in. Jayne can release him then it’s only a matter of the two of them waiting till day-break before they can walk out and can be on their merry.”

“ Wait! Why day-break?” Mal asked

“ Because that’s when there’s a changing of the guard. The shifts are from eleven at night till morning the following day. There’s more activity going on in the early morning with the prison being visited by family and clergy and the kitchen and maintenance personnel showing up to start the day. It’s a more confusing time so chances are better that way.”

“ Alex, I usually like sending more’n one person in on a job so sending Jayne alone doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.” Mal spoke again.

“ Mal I can handle it.” Jayne breathed deep, expanding his chest.

“ Yeah, he’s a big guy,” Alexandria said patting the mercenary’s muscular chest. “ Besides, my brother’s prison guard friend can get only one extra uniform and it’s likely to fit Jayne here the best.”

They all looked at her.

“See, the idea is that Jayne will be sporting prison guards clothing. He and Cecil, the other guard, will enter the walled compound at shift change that night. This place has a high turnover in it’s security workforce so new faces come and go all the time. Jayne will blend in nicely. He has that rugged scary, able to deal pain look.”

“ Yeah, pain is scary.” Mal popped with a little sarcasm under his breath.

They all looked at him.

“ Don’t ask. “ The captain added.

“Once they’re out they can head to the shuttle. Cecil will delay and confuses the search for a few days and from there we’re all home free.” Alex smiled at the last part.

“ Sounds like a good plan…..” Wash said.

“ Excellent..” Kaylee added.

“ Good to me…” Jayne was ready.

They all gazed over to Mal.

“ I think it’s a pretty good plan…….even better cause I didn’t have to think of it myself.

End part 7

To Quote Inara

Chapter 8

Alexandria Leads had just explained to the lot of Serenity’s currently small crew her plans of breaking her brother out of Betsville Prison’s minimum holding facility on Harvest.

They were all in agreement that it was a good plan but there were still some questions that needed answers.

“ What about payment and what’s in it for this Cecil guy?” Mal queried.

“ Well, that’s the iffy part….” Alex began….

The crew looked at her. “ No, No there will be restitution forthcoming,” She said to settle the crew down again.

“It’s just that it may take a little time and a bit of trickery that I’m not to happy about.” She paused, “ See my folks, our folks have refused to bail Alexander out of this jam he‘s come to be in. They aren’t willing to post three thousand credits to spring a fellow out of a place that they think could do him some good. “Hard love” you know. Nope a better prospect for seeing cash would be if we could convince them that we were being held for ransom. Namely your prisoners. We could likely get five times that much. I hate faking out my parents but inheritance money should be forthwith in my opinion. Alexander has had a pity time of trying to make a living and becoming independent.” She stopped.

“ Their eagerness in wanting him to become a changed man doesn’t extend to letting him be tortured though. I know they‘d be good for the payment. They‘re all about setting us on the path of rightness…..but not at the cost of having us suffer deep physical cruelty.”

“ Well I don’t like the idea of ripping off your folks.” Mal spoke up. None of the crew disagreed with his opinion…..well except for Jayne.

“ Hey, I’m all about helping the brother and sister out. It’s not like we ain’t done that before.”

They all looked at him. An unwritten rule of Serenity was that her secrets remained her secrets. Jayne knew he’d overstepped the line.

“ I mean for true we should help the kids out. besides it’s my birthday in a couple of days. Be nice to have a little squander money in my pocket.”

Alex continued,

“Look if anyone here has a bad notion that reliving my family of a few coin is such a terrible injustice then just look up the “Leads Banking Corporation” on Sihnon and tell me if you still believe that it’s wrong. Besides……Alex and I have two thousand credits stashed away in a local cache here so if you guys would be willing to split a thousand of that with Cecil then you could get your cut and be gone. Course if you wait a little longer it could be much more profitable.”

The galley was quiet for a while, then after some thought Mal spoke up.

“ We’ll do the job,” He said, “….and worry about the reward later.”

End Block 4