THE TWO COMPANIONS PART V

(In which Relationship counseling takes on a whole new meaning when guns and heavy weaponry are involved)

When Inara and Jorge emerged into the cargo bay and Kaylee and Simon had exchanged furtive embraces and scuttled in dishabille to their respective stations, Mal called to Kaylee "If you hear gunfire and I give you the word, I want you to slam the inner airlock closed. That should buy us some time if things go south."

"That’s S.O.P.(Standard Operating Procedure) Cap." she yelled over her shoulder.

"Right." he acknowledged. "How many other boats even have a 'If things go south' S.O.P.?" he muttered to himself.

Jorge noticed Jayne nervously selecting weapons and ammo from his own extensive armory. Zoe was calmly checking the load on her sawed off Winchester “Mare’s Leg” carbine. He also observed with alarm that her belt contained several high explosive and fragmentation grenades. Even River was bouncing on the balls of her feet, nostrils flared and cocking her neck back and forth to loosen up her shoulders. Mal was absent mindedly fingering the Taurus 85 in his fast draw rig while he hefted an Independent assault rifle in his left hand. Mal’s gaze was out the open cargo bay.

Outside, a threatening crew of well muscled Orientals armed with crowbars, machetes, baseball bats and cargo hooks milled around the entrance while in back of them thugs armed with rifles, shotguns and submachine guns covered the open cargo bay door.

Jorge retrieved a well worn but well maintained Sten gun with a folding stock and a flash and noise suppressor from his rucksack. “What’s up Cap?” he asked.

“We’re Landlocked, even the outer bay door. There’s also a cortex block on our transmission. Your little trick with the cargo yesterday earned us a violation of the local longshoreman’s contract.” Mal answered.

Just then, a dapper little man stepped forward with a sheaf of high quality paper covered in dense legalese and began to spout writs of violation while an even better dressed rugg