The Return Home – Part 18

In all the scenarios he thought through and all the possibilities for his shaky plans, Mal had not expected this moment to occur, to be talking to the High Chancellor of the Alliance. At least not so soon. Ever since River’s probe of Forbes’s mind told them Cutter himself was coming to Haven, Mal did expect to talk to this evil man, eventually, whether he liked it or not. Cops were not on Mal’s list of people he liked to jaw with, and this guy was top cop in the whole galaxy. But the twists and turns of fate had brought Serenity and it crew to the fringes of space just above Haven and High Chancellor Adam Cutter was hailing them from an Alliance battle cruiser, wanting to have a “chat” as he described it so eloquently. Mal had never heard Cutter’s voice before and he suspected not many people had without feeling his wrath, but Mal had no doubt this was the real Cutter. What person would be fool enough to impersonate him? No one.

“Time to deal with the devil,” Mal said and then looked at Wash. “Open frequency. Voice only, no vid.”

Wash gave a bugged-eyed look to Mal and then to his wife sitting in the co-pilot’s seat and after her reassuring nod he hit the open frequency button.

“Howdy,” Mal started in a genial tone. “This is Captain Reynolds. I ain’t exactly partial to speaking to coppers but I reckon we got a few things to jaw on.”

There was a slight pause on the other end. “Nice to finally make your acquaintance, Captain. You and your ship have given my people a fine chase these last few years.”

“Well, your people ain’t exactly the brightest stars in the verse, so don’t go giving me and mine all the credit for staying out of one of your penal colonies,” Mal said and Wash almost burst out laughing and only Zoe’s stern look stopped him.

Again there was silence from Cutter’s end and then a cold reply. “You do know who you are talking to, Captain, don’t you?”

“Sure, you’re Cutter, man who gave the order that created the Reavers, who turns teenagers into assassins,