Blue Sun Room FICTION - GENERAL

The Losing Side, chapter 28

Monday, September 18, 2006

After Khiloh leaves, Mal and Wash get to talking war, and in consequence this is not a happy chapter. If you need cheering up, suffice it to say reading this will not work. Dong ma? Oh, and Wash learns a lot more about Zoe.

CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 2906    RATING: 9.0 (PG13)    SERIES: FIREFLY

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Finally Wash spoke. “I’m sure the story behind that’s gonna scare me half to death. But by all means go on.”

Mal looked away again. Truth was, he wasn’t sure he even wanted to tell Wash, or anyone, this story. He wanted it locked safely away in his mind where he didn’t have to look at it, but another part of him desperately wanted someone to listen, to tell him it was okay. Problem was, he strongly doubted that person would be Wash.

“Mal?” asked Wash softly.

What the hell. “We – we’d been fighting half the night. Finally what was left of the Alliance troops we’d been fighting fell back, and everything went all quiet. Lieutenant got on the radio, found out it was because the Alliance was sneaking up on our left flank in force. We all went round in circles for a bit, finally got orders to scram ourselves and head up on this big hill to set our own trap. All the different squads broke off an’ headed out, just so happens we were the last to leave.”

Mal swallowed and paused for a long minute. Finally he spoke again. “I was getting the troops together when I seen Zoe, standin’ off to the side and lookin’ grim. She waved me over, quiet.”

“There was an Alliance soldier huddled up behind a rock, been listening to every word we said. She was wounded, got left behind in the retreat. Zoe covered me, I walked up, disarmed her. I – was being pretty – it was a combat zone. She looked at me, and there was such dread on her face. All this time, I was looking for a different way to go about it, but she heard everything we said. We leave her alive, Alliance finds out all about our little plan. I knew it, she knew I knew it. She was hurt too bad to take prisoner, would’ve slowed us down and been hell for her.”

Mal closed his eyes for a minute. “She was shaking,” he said quietly. “Pain, fear, everything that makes you want to reach out to a person. So I did. I was calm and gentle as could be, looked her in the eyes and told her she was okay. Told her we’d fix her up a bit an’ leave her for he

Comments
Monday, 18 September 2006 19:39
Now that is what I'm talkin' about. I'm not a fan of gratuitous violence, but finally, someone has cleanly written about the brutal choices that a man (or woman) has to make during a time of war, and how that same person can retain their humanity during such trying times. Keep up the good work!



"I start fightin' a war, I guarantee you'll see somethin' new."

Rob O.
Wednesday, 20 September 2006 01:33
I admire immensely the way you've thought all this through and are presenting the moral dilemas and realities. The chapter had a bit of a 'talking heads' atmosphere to it, however, without a real sense of the physical characters grounded in their setting.

As ever, I remain eager to see more of this tale--as long as you care to take it, and whereever you care to take it. Darned good work.
Wednesday, 20 September 2006 14:16
Definitely a mighty shiny piece of work you've done here, jetflair...especially with showing Mal's subdue self-hate and sadness over knowing he is someone capable of looking a person in the eye, knowing they are another human being and shooting them dead without hesitation. Really goes to showing how sanity sudden becomes a burdern when you have to use fatal violence.

Also, I really liked how you had Mal bascially call Wash the better man, in that he's never gonna be someone who can turn his compassion and humanity off to do the greater good. It's always amazing to see Mal's inner humility and compassion, and this really hits home that Mal is a lot more complex and caring than people might think:D

BEB
Wednesday, 20 September 2006 22:46
Fabulous. I like the way this was written with such incredible integrity, getting to the heart of a very brutalising subuect and the real cost of killing another human being. Loved also how Mal explained his relationship to Zoe and how he had started out a greenhorn Sergeant and Zoe had been the ones to show him the ropes and keep his head on straight. Total kudos to you for a wonderful series. Just love this to bits. Ali D :~)
You can't take the sky from me
Monday, 16 October 2006 14:19
The more I read this, the more I wonder if you've had some personal experience with the military and war. You've done such an excellent job of portraying the various aspects of military life, at least from my perspective as a military dependent.

I'm going to have to disagree with Guildsister. I didn't feel like I was reading 'talking heads'. In my opinion, the narrative flowed very smoothly. Any more description of the setting and such would have interrupted that. Of course, I'm reading it without the time break between chapters. *g*

Excellent job, as always.

"I love my captain."
Thursday, 04 January 2007 23:34
This is one of the most stunningly beautiful stories I've read - and your pen picture of Zoe in this chapter is outstanding.

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