A LION’S MOUTH (01) Part (04)
Saturday, May 21, 2011
The questions continue and Mal revisits his darkest hours.
CATEGORY: FICTION TIMES READ: 4741 RATING: 9.0 (PG13) SERIES: FIREFLY
(01) A LION’S MOUTH
Part (04)
Follows the SERENITY MOVIE. Precedes The questions continue and Mal revisits his darkest hours. | * * * “I’d like to talk about Serenity Valley…” the Alliance patrol captain began. There it was. Always, always , they wanted to bring up the war. “Well I wouldn’t,” Mal answered, feeling the quick pulse of rising anger. “You see, I think you knew someone there who was very near and dear to me.” That wasn’t at all what he expected. He was stunned into silence for a beat. “Did you know Lieutenant Harold Baker?” She was asking now, not interrogating. After a brief moment of silence, Mal answered. “Yes.” He looked at her with new eyes. “You a relative?” She gave a small nod, and her next words were a request, not a command. “Please tell me everything you know.” Mal gathered his thoughts for a moment. Telling everything—that was something he hadn’t done for a while. Hadn’t done—地狱 dìyù, he’d avoided it as much as humanly possible. Tried never to think on it. Walled it off until it only crept out in unguarded moments and dreams. Never thought, and never got past thinking, about the war, about Serenity Valley, about all those men and women dead, and dead at his command. The Alliance defeated them, but Independent command abandoned them. He was a sergeant, just a sergeant 该死 gǎisǐ, yet at one point he’d commanded the equivalent of a regiment. And he’d seen them die, one by one, by squads, by platoons, by companies, the consequences of his command decisions laid out so graphically before his senses that it was not possible to avoid acknowledging them. The support of those
"You can't take the sky from me!"
In any case, this was a fantastic chapter, ebfiddler! Voices? Spot-on. Plot? Tight and powerful. Shines a light on Mal's cracked psyche? Every hairline fracture that needs healing up!
I'll be posting the next story soon--I'm working in a few revisions suggested by my beta reader, and retrospectively adding in some elements to make things more consistent with my storyline further down the pike.
EB
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