Damaged Goods: Part 1 & 2

Prologue:

Mal and the crew of Serenity find themselves on a return trip back towards the core planets. Their latest mission completed, the payment didn’t work out so well. They delivered furniture to an old acquaintance of Kaylee’s. Not that Mal was against doing this. There was no exchange of money, this was more of a bartered deal. Furniture for engine parts. Mal hated not getting paid…..but after what had happened not so long ago he had decided that if his mechanic needed a part for Serenity, then he’d better listen. That was the trade-off.

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Damaged Goods: Part 1&2

Malcolm Reynolds climbed down the structure to his bunk in the area of Serenity’s crew hall. Grabbing the suspenders of his daywear he began to undress until he noticed a small babushka doll sitting on the desk of his wave monitor. He stopped and walked over to the simple play-thing.

He uncorked the doll, but instead of there being another, smaller doll inside he found a piece of paper with writing. He opened up and read the note……..

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Twenty-four minutes later; Ship’s galley:

“ Come on Mal it’s been over thirty days since we had a decent payin job. Least we could do is check out Badger’s latest wave and decide if runnin insect cadavers over to the “School of Arachnid Studies” on Osirus would be worth our while.” Serenity’s resident mercenary Jayne Cobb was saying as he sat in a galley chair by the table.

“ No Jayne! Hauling dead bugs around the verse would be better left to the kind of folk who enjoy transporting weaving materials, or helium balloons to those who value them out on the rim worlds. We ain’t gotten that desperate yet.”

“ We’ve been close.” Wash, the pilot of Serenity added which cause the whole situation to defuse into a less serious mode. And made Simon, Kaylee and even Shepherd Book express a smile on their othe