River’s Run – Part 8

River sat at the dining table of the Rose, sipping a cup of herbal tea the pilot had made for her, still suffering from the aftereffects of her cyro sleep. She was dressed now, but still felt naked as everyone kept glancing toward her as they talked about what had happened to get them to this point. They were all sitting around the table, drinking something strong, River didn’t know what and didn’t want to find out.

“No rutting way,” said the Chinese crewman as Mal explained about how River was the one who leaked the plans for the Frye drive on the Cortex. “You all know Kaylee Frye?”

“Yeah,” said Jayne, as he drank more water along with a shot of the strong stuff, still dehydrated after spending what seemed like forever in the cramp hiding space of the Rose’s cargo hole while the Alliance searched for River. “Going on what…how many years has it been?”

Wash put on a drunken, silly, yet puzzled expression, obviously having too much of the strong stuff already. “That depends on how you count. Let’s see….”

“Wash…” Zoe said in a warning tone and Mal jumped right in before Wash said a bit too much.

“Four years,” Mal quickly said as he shot Wash a dirty look. “Kaylee built it and we tested it and the damn thing works. Then the Alliance took it and her away from me. And that’s the story. River’s our friend and crewmate and we are trying to protect her from them that want to see her drop at the end of a rope.”

River felt a suddenly burst of warmness all over as she heard Mal say these words. She let her gaze fall to his eyes and he saw the look and knew what it meant and just nodded slightly.

“Thank you, Captain,” she barely managed to say in a whisper, which no one heard.

“Well, the details don’t add up, Mr. Reynolds,” the Rose’s captain said. “You ain’t exactly explained why and how the Alliance could take your ship if she had an FTL.”

“I said what I said and won’t say anymore,” Mal replied evenly and then reached inside his top shirt pocket and pulled out a stack of Al