Blast From the Past
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
Nobody is what they seem
CATEGORY: FICTION TIMES READ: 6759 RATING: 6.0 (G) SERIES: FIREFLY
Rusty: Hear me out Captain. I need something shipped. It's perfectly legal.
Mal: So why me?
Rusty: You have a reputation for getting shipments through in... ah... adverse circumstances. Two of my last five shipments were destroyed. Another was 'lost' under Alliance protection. Those're pretty unusual odds, wouldn't you say?
Mal: Yeah, I'd say. For something legal it seems to be attracting a lot of attention. What is it?
Rusty: Medicine, Captain Reynolds. Not pills. A micro-pharmaceutical factory. I set 'em up on contract. It costs them an arm and a leg, but then deliveries are so reliable. Cheaper too. In the end everybody wins."
Mal: Except...
Rusty: Except the pharmas. Very powerful. Connections that go up out of sight. My biggest problem isn't marauders, Captain. I know how much money I've put into security. There's too much money behind it. Intelligence too. Things only the Alliance knows. I can't exaggerate how difficult our shipments have gotten.
Mal: I like a challenge as much as anyone.
Rusty: If I can solve this problem, Captain, I've got the pharmas by the balls and they know it. I can't afford to stiff my contractors. I need results. I'm paying four times the going rate for this shipment; half before shipping, and half on delivery.
Mal sits back in thought.
Rusty: As you can see, this shipment is important. We're keeping this under blackout. It'll come through Evangeline Tools. They think they're shipping parts. (laughs quietly) They are. There is one other complication. The micro-pharma needs a tech. She goes with the setup.
Mal: I don't take passengers!
Rusty: Your operations might be sensitive. I understand. I can restrict her to the cargo bay, but that's the best I can do. Is that good enough?
Mal: Can I say no? It seems I already know too much your good... or mine, for that matter.
Rusty: (smiles) Very simple Captain.
He brings up a small gun-shaped object. Mal lurches forward in his seat and is restrained by Guard 1's heavy hand on his s
I got partway through writing and realized that it'd make more sense that the spiked drink prevent prevent long-term potentiation (i.e. memory formation) and that the drug given is an antidote. I changed part but not all of the dialogue.
So read that as
"We'll give you this. Remember that drink in the bar? Well, you won't remember it tomorrow unless you get this. It's an antidote. I hate to pressure you into a deal, but the dose is running out. Youve got an hour to decide."
Here's another bit. It's a work in progress... someday it'll be whole.
------------------
Ziyov is sitting on her pallet leaning against the box. She appears to be thinking. Kaylee wanders by.
Kaylee: Hey. M'name's Kaylee, what's yours?
Ziyov: Greene. Ruby Greene. My folks had a sense of humor but I prefer Greene.
beat
Are you the engineer Kaylee?
Kaylee: (Shyly) Yeah, why d' ya want to know?
Ziyov: (looking around the cargo bay, up into the catwalks) You've got an honest ship.
Kaylee: smiling with pleasure. "how can you tell?"
Ziyov: (laughs) The vibrations. I've been parking my butt on the deck plates for the past few days. I can feel them. She's got a clean song. Did ya do something to the engines?
Kaylee: Yeah.
Ziyov: Change the cavitation point?
Kaylee: A little
Ziyov: It feels right.
Kaylee: Thanks.
walks away, beaming.
-The Same Anonymous Coward who asked the first time :)
Mal: It's over Greene.
Ziyov: No it isn't. The one thing the Alliance left me was my mind. The Rebellion isn't dead, it's hiding.
(adds parenthetically)
You have a great crew, Captain
Mal (Bristles at the thought of being sucked into another war effort)
Like hell, Greene.
Ziyov: (laughs) Until next time, Captain.
Anyway, here's the backbone of the story:
Against Mal's inclination they this tech comes aboard (in a cargo box, BTW, so nobodys knows she's there- shades of slave trade!) and he takes an immediate and unfathomable dislike to her. Turns out that although she's resticted to cargo bay, she's really, really good at getting info about the crew and the ship.
(The scene I posted is followed by a pull-up contest with Jayne and a hoedown that starts with ehr asking Inara to teach her how to dance.)
I can imagine Mal saying plaintively to Inara "Can't I just stuff her back in the box?"
They follow a circuitous route, in some cases hanging at a point to allow Alliance ships to follow their nml routine, but about 3/4 of the way there (about 2 weeks time) they find a ship apparently lying in wait for them as they come around a planet.
The ship looks like a typical marauder ship but it's much, much faster.
Mal, Jyane, and Wash in the bridge-
Wash: That's not a viper-class ship"
Mal: That's not a marauder, it's Alliance.
A blinding flash encircles Serenity and everything goes dark. This BTW, is a shaped EMP designed to overload even space-hardened circuits and allows anotehr crew to board the the ship w/o destroying it.)
Mal: (to Jayne) Cargo bay, NOW.
(Mal tosses a gun to Wash who looks at it uncertainly, and Mal and Jayne run off.)
What they (Mal, Jayne, and Zoe) find is that the other ship has docked to their cargo bay door and is forcing it open.) A larger group of armored soldiers is attmepting to board. Mal, Jayne, and Zoe fight them off. Ziyov mamage to dispatch a couple from behind her cargo boxes with a small gun and a very accurately thrown knife, and this is where Mal and everyone else gets the idea that she's not exactly "just" a tech.
Hmmm... this is getting WAAAY too much to type!
Email me: kjfn@ieee.org
~ LC Out
Questions that I'm already wondering - Is Ruby Greene similar to River in terms of mental abilities (except that the abilities are refined)? The way you describe some of her actions lends me to believe there is ALOT more to her then meets the eye. Also..she seems to be more then a "Tech"
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