Present…

Mal stormed after Asha. “A deal is a deal, there ain’t no goin’ back on it. Me and my crew have staked our lives on this!” Mal was furious at the sudden double dealing Asha was doing.

“I told you, Cap’n. You’ll get your pay. Have no fear of not makin’ any precious money from this little side trip.” Asha’s eyes blazed with anger and cold malicious intentions, which Mal could plainly read. He knew that something fishy and extremely rotten was going on and he wasn’t going to sit down like a lame puppy and wait for it to hit him.

“I don’t like bein’ left out in the cold like. Ain’t no proper way to conduct a deal betweens us’n. If’n there be a change in your plans, I need to know it.” Mal stopped just short of running into her, and crossed his arms, ready to defend his ground.

Asha stared at him and suddenly the rigidity left her stance, and a deadly calm came over her. “If you don’t like being left out of the information loop as Cap’n, well then, I think I can solve this little problem of yours.” She snapped her fingers, and the two men who always seemed to show up at the most uncomfortable of times, stepped out of the shadows from behind her. Their hands rested lightly on their guns, still holstered at their hips. “If bein’ a Cap’n of a little ol’ transport ship is such a burden upon you, I think I’ll give you the rare opportunity for a little ol’ vacation. From now on you are no longer Cap’n of this here fine ship…I am.” Her words rang out through the ship with a horrible metallic coldness.

Mal’s face went shock white as he realized what he had done by pushing her into a corner, but at the same time he wasn’t going to let some stuffed Alliance puppet push him around. “What the sphincter hell you thinkin’ you can pull on me? This ain’t some gorram Alliance ship were you got authority. This here my ship and mine alone. You ain’t got the right to do this.” His eyes blazed with an anger that he rarely let control of.

“You might be right that this ain’t some fancy dancy Alliance ship, but I think