The Treasure of Lei Fong Wu

Chapter Ninety

“Well, whatdyaknow?” Wash said to himself with a grin as the comm. console beeped pleasantly. “We got cortex back! Kinda,” he added, as he saw the link was tenuous – not enough for full audio-visual real time communication, but enough for a third tier navigation link and data exchange. He punched in Serenity’s access code to establish the link, and saw the welcome screen for Kosmocom Corp. – the owner of the relay – pop up. Unsurprisingly, there were several pending waves for the crew and passengers – Serenity had been off-the-grid for weeks. Wash clapped his hands with glee as he saw a few for himself – the usual threatening letters from his student loan office, a notification that his piloting credentials were three years out of date, and something else, something unusual . . .

“Greetings, Travelers!” he said cheerfully into the intercom. “We’re not back in civilization, yet, but we’re within shoutin’ distance! Just made the link with Kosmocom, synched up, and guess what? You’ve got mail! Check your local terminal for specifics, and happy reading!”

With that, he deleted the student loan and piloting messages, unread. At this point he could quote both of them verbatim, he had read them so often. But that last one, that was new. He settled back and activated it, wondering what the heck Mr. Universe could possibly want with him . . .

*

*

*

“. . . wanted to drop you a line and let you know about our new satellite location, amigo,” the smooth Latin voice of Jorge Sanchez came from the monitor. Mal was in his quarters when Wash’s message came across, and had wasted no time in checking his mail. There were several waves from business associates and friends, sometimes both. He had been surprised at the wave from Madonna, and worried, at first, that their friends’ little trick with the Relentless had reaped unfortunate consequences. But Jorge’s suave grin betrayed nothing but good news. “My cousin Mannie is opening a shop on Boros, wit