Unfinished Business

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Thank God!” the sergeant said, as the hatch to Serenity’s cargo hold opened onto a sad and decrepit old shipping bay. The sergeant didn’t look much better than his gloomy station – his uniform was several years out of date and unbuttoned, exposing his faded undershirt, his cap was on backwards, and the smoldering stump of a cigar protruded from the left side of his mouth as if it had taken root and grown there from a seedling. If his face had seen his razor recently, it hadn’t been a long reunion. “I’ve been getting my gorram ass chewed out for days, wondering when this fei oo is gonna be in!”

Malcom and Kaylee were already moving the pallet that held the relay around to prepare it to move down the ramp.

“Well, ni hao to you, too,” Kaylee muttered. It was typical, she thought, whenever they put in on some forsaken frontier shithole, it didn’t matter what the situation was, everyone was always nice and polite. As soon as they docked with anything corewise, it was automatically a hurried, rude business. She could deal with it – had to deal with it – but after a week dealing with real mechanics and engineers who had fallen all over themselves to help her tend to the girl at the Gopher Hole, this was a rude awakening.

“Someone order a pizza?” Mal quipped as he steadied the relay. “Got a hot charter outta Persephone –”

“Yeah, yeah,” the sergeant dismissed. “Part of that was keeping your mouth shut. Remember that.”

“This some kinda secret spy base?” Kaylee asked, handing the sergeant a clipboard with the shipping receipt attached.

“Yeah, that’s us, keeping the Alliance safe from the alien hordes,” he grumbled as he inspected it. “Your tax dollars at work. I’d keep your questions to yourself, missy, if you know what’s good for you. Kwan ni ju ji du shu!”

Kaylee pouted, but nodded. The sergeant looked up at her expectantly. “This relay all you brought? You guys didn’t, uh, didn’t bring anything decent for a little off-the-books trade, did ya