KING D. AUGUSTUS III - BEGIN LOG ENTRY : 9 July 2528: 23:10

I have found many obligations as King and otherwise. If someone would have told me ten years ago that I would someday be King of Londinum, well, I’d believe them actually since I am the only heir. By no means does it say that I was ready. I am the age of twenty-five now and I still do not know what I am doing. Those who admit their ignorance are full of wisdom, as my father says.

Anyway, I digress.

When we left Boros with Delphi and the evidence in tow, we were barely hours from the beginning of the trial. Boros was quite a ways from Londinum, but River and Kaylee made it their mission to high tail it back in time. As Jayne tied up the still unconscious Mrs. Busby, Mal came from behind me as I watched with glee to announce, “We’ll get to Londinum just in time for the trial. That evidence will do them good for somewhere on the side of infinity being locked up.”

Being the arrogant teen that I was then, I had to say back, “Then you and your crew will take your coin and shove off.”

Jayne looked back at Mal and Mal looked down at the grated floor with a solemn look and said, “That’s not entirely exact.”

I was confused. “What does that mean?”

“We sorta contacted your dad to get him all caught up on our misplacement of you.”

“I bet that went well.”

“Yeah,” Jayne replied, “we got ourselves one fine talkin’ to.”

I chuckled, “I know all about those talking to’s. So, he’s paying you less now?”

“Much less,” Mal answered. “In fact, the figure is actually down to one single digit.”

“Uh huh. That digit wouldn’t be a zero, would it?”

“That’d be so.”

“Wait a minute, you mean you’re not getting paid for your rescue of me?”

“Not unless we get paid in kindness,” Mal said.

Jayne quipped, “And that ain’t likely, neither. King Daddy was pretty steamed.”

“He ordered us off the job and said something about sending his Army. We had your position from the tracking gel and we gave it to him.”

“Yeah, but some Captain who shall be nameless grew a h