Pooka Madness

By KMS!

kmspider@aol.com

http://hometown.aol.com/kmspider/myhomepage/index.html

“So… Tell me again how Simon broke his arm?”

Kaylee squirmed in front of him and Mal almost regretted taking the tone he had, but damnit, the whole thing didn’t make a lick of sense.

He tilted his head expectantly at her and she crumbled like a stone wall made with bad mortar.

“It was when we turned the gravity back on, Cap’t. We’re sorry. Really we are. Even Jayne’s sorry.”

Mal flicked his eyes to the big mercenary, surprised to discover a regretful expression on his mug. Huh.

“You can turn the gravity off just in the cargo bay?”

“Sure, Cap’t. It’s on a separate switch. Didn’t ya know that?” Kaylee asked.

Well, no, actually, he didn’t. No need to tell his way-too-smart mechanic that the ‘Captain Dummy’ act wasn’t all an act.

“O-kay,” he said slowly, rubbing at a spot on his temple that was starting to feel like an ice pick was sticking in there. “And why was the gravity off?”

“Weren’t no other way to reach the rafters, Mal.” Jayne said it as if it should be obvious to the dumbest jackass in the herd.

“Right. And why did you need to reach the rafters?”

“How else were we gonna get the eggs off the ceiling?”

Of course. Silly Captain.

Mal looked around, wondering if he had somehow been magically transported to an alternate universe where all this made sense. If he crossed his eyes, would it help? Maybe the Alliance sabotaged their air supply at the last stop. Maybe they were all breathing laughing gas.

He scratched his nose thoughtfully, then tilted his head back to stare up at the ceiling of the cargo bay. Nope. No eggs there. Just to be safe, he squinted hard and peered into the darkest corners. Nope. No birds, or bird’s nest either.

He shifted his gaze to the two in front of him, stared hard into their eyes, and said one word with utter sincerity. “Eggs.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“It were River’s fault really, Mal. If she hadn’t decided the