Red Run 16

Ita Moon

The second message was from Beck. It requested Mal call him ASAP. Mal keyed in the wave link to Beck’s ship casually. Itan authorities didn’t seem too focused on Serenity as a cause of their local trouble, thanks to young Kyle, and no surface flights appeared to be leaving Ita City on an intercept course for Serenity, and no shuttles or other craft were directionally headed toward them from Ita Processing station or the surrounding sky, so Mal figured a few minutes of “bon mot” chat…with as little “bon” as possible…with an ex-adversary-now-desperate-for-Mal’s-good-grace would be food for his soul. In a twisting the knife, pouring salt on a wound kinda way.

Beck sighed, most likely with relief at a saved deal, upon seeing Mal‘s face on the vid screen. “Reynolds…we noticed a couple of shuttles returning to your boat…and there’s some trouble down on Ita Moon,…you folks wouldn’t need any assistance would you?” Beck’s transmission, if intercepted, wouldn’t have implicated Mal, and on the face of it seemed innocuous enough, but reading between the lines got to be second nature when tradin’ and livin’ in the Black. Beck guarding his interest ranked higher than humanic philanthropy as a motive for the “courtesy call“ with a request for a dollop of reassurance on the side implied for his and Mal‘s “deal“.

Given their past history, Mal decided crushing that reassurance was far more pleasurable than sustaining it. “That’s CAPTAIN Reynolds to you. And yeah…heap of trouble on Ita Moon. We’re pullin” out in a couple of minutes,” Mal relished the look of momentary panic on Beck’s face. Never having given a damn in the first place about what Beck had to say, Mal’s joy at crushing his hopes tasted like pure psychological gravy and biscuits…and he’d been eatin’ light on joy lately.

“We had a deal! I get to make my pitch and you listen. You agreed!” Beck’s composure, and his knuckles, were cracking under the strain.

Mal conceded this. “That’s true,” he even nodded his assent as additional end