Kaylee's Lament -- Part Twenty-Four
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Don't worry -- it ain't the end . . . yet!
CATEGORY: FICTION TIMES READ: 5722 RATING: 9.0 (PG13) SERIES: FIREFLY
Kaylee’s Lament
Part Twenty-Four
“We’re not going to catch them,” Wash said, shaking his head with an air of depressed finality. He was gripping the control yoke with white knuckles, his hands flying around the console as he tried to urge Serenity onward through complicated piloting tricks and sheer force of will. “We’re just too heavy. Even if we were stripped down, it’d be dicey. Any way you do the math, they just got too much legs.”
“That’s not what I pay you to tell me,” Mal said, a low, warning tone to his voice, as he hovered behind the pilot’s chair.
“Cap, I’ve got it to the floor,” insisted Wash. “I can’t get her to go one bit faster. Maybe if Kaylee was here to work some of her magic, we might – but failing that, we ain’t gonna catch her.”
“There’s got to be a way,” Mal declared. “That stunt we pulled to get away from the Red Rock Tong – can we do that again?”
“If Kaylee was here, sure – she even described it to me. But we need both shuttles for that, plus Kaylee re-routing the controls.”
“Then what can we do?”
“I’m tellin’ you Cap, we can’t do a gorram thing!”
“What if we ditch the shuttle? Will that lighten us enough to catch up?”
“Not even if we ditched the cargo,” answered Wash mournfully. “That Mothbat – did you know that some places use them as tugs? They got some powerful engines to start with, and that one’s been modified. I love Serenity as much as anyone, but she ain’t built for speed!”
“That’s not acceptable, Wash!” Mal warned.
“Cap, if I could flap my arms and speed us up, I would, but I’m tellin’ you the God’s honest truth. We’re fresh out of delta vee! There. Is. No. More. Speed.”
“What about Inara’s shuttle – fast enough?” asked Mal.
Wash was shaking his head before he even finished the sentence. “No gorram way. Think of it this way: that Mothbat has the mass of both our shuttles – but an engine just under Serenity’s in power. I couldn’t catch ‘em on a windy day.”
“There’s got to be something,” Mal muttered.
“Well perhaps you can g
StA
thank you!
Keep flyin',
K
Nice humor with the attempted pistol-whipping, and then Kaylee accidental firing.
I've got my fingers crossed that Kaylee and Simone will FINALLY get something going. My GUESS is that's the reason why screwthealliance has been having Book and others tell Simon how it is/or should be.
Wow, glad to see you're back up and running.
-Canton
You can't take the sky from me
WHile this is good. In an ongoing series it would seem to be the death of the character. Jayne should always have his bad side, as in Ariel where he turns in River and Simon to the Feds.
As soon as you start to round off the edges, you begin to lose the 'edginess' of the original scenario.
Characters have to develop but perhaps not too far outside the original concept.
All that said, you have filled a void with something so very shiny, more Firefly!
While I appreciate your astute analysis of the Jayne character, I'd aruge that the end of Ariel, where Mal and Jayne get into it, had a profound effect on the character, changing him fundamentally. This is subtly demonstrated in later episodes. I think that Jayne's confrontation with Mal led to what psychologists used to call "identification with the agressor", or the idea that the schoolyard bully will be the best friend and biggest supporter of the kid who finally beats him up. I'm not gonna say Jayne "learned his lesson" -- but I think it does point to a real development in the character, one which, in this story, is evident. That, and Jayne likes large wads of cash, which is his motivation in this one.
As far as the other characters and their relation to him, I think I've stuck pretty closely to the "Give Jayne a big stick and stand back" school of thought in KL. They still don't like him, but gorram if he ain't purty useful when the bullets start flyin' -- and they respect that, even if they don't respect him.
Just a thought.
BTW, I'm taking a little more time with the last few parts, as I have to carefully tie up all the loose ends, which means a little more consistancy research. I hope y'all will bear with me -- I think it'll be worth it.
'Sides -- I've written over 120,000 words in less than a month, posting an average of just over 5000 (10 pages) a day. I think I've earned a little extra time on the last couple of parts.
Thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to read this!
Screw the Alliance
I stand by my claim that one of the main attractions of Firefly is the edgyness of all the characters. TO last 5-10 seasons (if Sci-Fi picks it up, hopefully) the characters can develop, yet they would have to remain edgy.
For instance, Simon could morph over the seasons from a doctor to a criminal mastermind (you are making a very good start on this). So you would hear a lot less of the "trauma surgeon on Osiris" line and start to hear about ingenius new ideas for crime.
I'm one of those who felt a sense of loss after "Fight the Future" came out. The level of tension and sense of errie wonder just didn't reach the same levels for me afterward.
On a previous note, I mentioned having served aboard submarines. I have wondered from the beginning if Josh W. has an advisor on the set with similar background. THe 'crazy ivan' maneuver is an old Russian submariner trick to catch us following them. Very dangerous, hence the crazy part. Also the sounds in "Out of Gas" are hauntingly similar to groans our boat made when it struck something while submerged. Plus there is much about the set including the 'airtight' doors, 'watertight' in our case. Just curious, if anyone knows.
Let me give one last example of a second movie that I believe changes the character for the worse, story wise. The Riddick character in "Pitch Black" exhibited some very extreme character traits, yet he was still human. To me this made him very interesting because everything he became was his own doing. A twisted 'strength of character' that allowed him to fight and kill what were some rather toothy alien creatures. In the second movie however he is portrayed as coming from some super human race, so his power and skills become more genetic traits than won through his own hard efforts.
In light of this, I wonder where the River character is going, either in your story or in the upcoming movie and possible follow ons. I would hate to see River evolve into a manufactured thing. It is much more satisfying (personally) to think of her as a damaged person trying to cope with life after all the surgery. To make her a supergirl clone would be a loss. (Okay so I'm a Kafka fan!)
Keep her flyin! Great work.
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