Rachel nodded cordially to Badger, not quite sure how to respond. As cliché as it might have seemed, she had quite honestly expected him to be taller. Granted, he looked to be taller than she was, but that wasn't much of a feat. Rachel cleared her throat. "Pleasure's ours, sir. This's my mechanic Carl Dexter, and my cook, Saul." Badger nodded politely, and Rachel looked around for a place to sit down. There were no chairs in the office except the one Badger was sitting in—this man obviously didn't want to his guests to forget their place. He wanted to keep them on edge. And that was exactly where Rachel was. "To what do we owe the honor of this meeting? The wave didn't…" "Aw, just wanted the chance to meet you, zhen qing. You're startin' to get a reputation, and I make it a point to know everyone's lookin' to make a name for themselves." Rachel looked at Dex, a little surprised. He shrugged. "Not to sound overly humble, but who exactly we got a reputation with?" "Oh, only in select circles. Word reached my ears, for instance, from a mutual business associate." He turned toward the navy curtains that separated the office from whatever room was behind it. "Won't you join us now, Cap'n?" As the heavyset red-haired man parted the curtains, Rachel's eyes widened and her hand instinctively went to the small of her back, where her ten-shooter would have been resting, had it not been in its holster on her bed back on Artemis. They'd all come unarmed—they had, after all, wanted to make a good impression. Captain Farr grinned. "So, Cap'n Farr. These the ones managed to bully you out of the fifth of that fruit was comin' my way?" Rachel swore silently to herself. It never went smooth… "Yessir. That's them." Badger grinned and turned back to his captive audience. "See, I had a pretty solid arrangement with Mr. Farr, 'ere. He uses his ironclad negotiatin' skills to make one of those crates disappear, it comes my way and I make it worth 'is while. Can anyone 'ere tell me why that song didn' play?" Rachel glanced silently back at her companions. Dex and Saul looked sidelong at each other, then nodded. If they each jumped a guard at the same time, Rachel might be able to take down Farr. Badger's beady eyes flitted around the room. "No takers? Allow me, then…" The crew of Artemis tensed. Their timing would have to be perfect if they were going to take out the guards before they could react. "The explanation is that you…" he pointed a thin finger at Rachel, "know 'ow to make a deal work in your favor." Rachel blinked, and the coiled energy she had prepared to spring on them evaporated into confusion. Everyone was looking at Badger now. Captain Farr's face had twisted into a scowl. "What the bei pan zhe ku zi're you pullin', Badger? You said they was gonna get what's comin' to 'em!" Badger lifted his hands wide as his guards raised their guns toward the fuming smuggler. "They are. Point of fact, you both are." He gestured simply to the guards, and they walked toward Captain Farr, pushing him over to the front door. "I don't think I'll be requirin' the Morningstar's services anytime soon, my dear Cap'n." Rachel dodged away from him passively as Farr was marched past, swearing bodily at her. She smiled flatly. She was starting to get used to that. Once he was outside and the silence settled back over the office, Badger smiled and gestured for the three to sit on the dining chairs three of his slaves had just dragged into the room. "Well, well, then…looks like I have a job opening." Mona and Mariah walked at the head of the group, Mona pointing out each of the tiny curio shops and gaudy boutiques that swarmed Persephone, and Mariah nodding approvingly or wrinkling her nose in comic disgust with each new fashion suggestion. Leo would have liked to walk closer to them, but his uncle preferred hanging back, complaining. "Shang Di, this planet's hot. How can you stand it? I've inhaled more of this prairie dust already…" Leo shook his head and grinned. "Would you rather be back on that big, empty ship, all by yourself?" "Yes, absolutely." Leo chuckled and took a deep breath, glad to be breathing something that hadn't been routed through an atmosphere pump for the last week. "I think it's amazing." He gestured to the tumult around them. "I've been reading about this life since I was a boy. I've always wanted to know what it was like out here…" Sir Anderson cast a frown at his nephew. "I refuse to believe that we are related." "Leo, come on, you've got to see the corrals!" Mona was jumping up and down waving at the edge of a rickety fence behind which a great number of gray and white sheep were milling about. Leo shrugged. "Girl says we've got to see the corrals." Sir Anderson scowled and made a futile attempt to knock the dust off of his pant leg. "I'll wait here. Tell me if the sheep were everything you hoped for." Leo thought about trying to persuade his uncle but, finally, tore himself away and allowed the teenage pilot to drag him to the corral to pet the sheep. Mona giggled as the doctor gingerly patted one of the ewes—then twitched back as the sheep shook free of his hand. Mariah smiled as she leaned over the side of the pen, her eyes on a lamb standing apart from the rest of the flock. "Come here, little one." Mona and Leo both turned to look at her as Mariah made kissy noises at the shy creature and, to their amazement, it eventually began to edge toward her. Mariah cooed as the lamb nuzzled against her hand. "That's a good girl." Leo shook his head in astonishment, and Mariah looked up at him. "You want to pet her?" Leo patted the lamb's back gently, but his focus was on Mariah. "How'd you do that? I can't even get the bloody creatures to stand still for me." Mariah shrugged. "Maybe I'm just non-threatening." Leo smiled, in what he could only hope was a dashing manner. "Oh, so I'm threatening?" Mariah smiled a little. "Maybe to sheep." As he petted the sheep, Leo's hand managed to come to rest on top of Mariah's. She blushed and looked down at the fence, but Leo didn't remove his hand right away. Luckily, before the doctor could say anything, Mariah was rescued by Mona pulling on her shoulder. "Come on, we still have to go shopping!" As Leo fell back into sync with his uncle, Mona leaned up toward Mariah's ear. "So, what do you think of Leo? He's really nice, huh?" Mariah cast an uneasy, almost unnoticeable glance behind them, where Leo was staring at her instead of listening to his uncle's complaints. "Yeah. Nice." Rachel glanced uncertainly at Dex. It certainly wasn't the kind of job they were used to. They'd done some smuggling, as had nearly everyone who owned a Firefly, but never something this clandestine. Badger broke the silence. "You interested or not, love?" Rachel cleared her throat. "Well, we got a standin' policy of not turnin' down high payin' work, but…we ain't arms dealers." "Got no need to deal. Buyer's already set up. All you got to do is get the goods there." Rachel sighed. This was an easy job. The route had almost no Alliance oversight, and the fact that the buy was already secured meant the only work was loading the crates into the cargo bay. That meant there was something he wasn't telling them. Was this a trust exercise, to see if they'd follow orders? Rachel sighed again. Whatever the catch was, the take had better be worth it. "All right." Badger grinned. "Excellent choice, Captain. My men'll bring the shipment by your boat this evening." As the guards led them out into the sun, Dex leaned closer to Rachel. "You sure about this?" Rachel frowned. "No, not really. But folk like us can't just say no to folk like him. If there's a problem comes up, we'll deal." Dex nodded and stepped back to walk beside Saul. Best friend or not, he hoped she knew what she was doing.