When the call had come in about the job, an actual mostly legal job, Mal had been happy about catching the Wave. But the happy lasted only as long as it took for Zoe to tell him where the job was. A dry swallow ate the name Lilac, and he shoved it down into his gut with all the rest of his guilt and regrets.
“Captain?” Kaylee rocked on the toes of her boots beside him, a bright smile on her face. They both watched as the ramp lowered onto the dust bowl moon that was all the Reavers had left behind. “You all right?”
“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with me,” he said as he tugged on his gloves. “Make sure we’re ready to go soon as they get their cargo. Don’t want to spend anymore time here as we have to.”
“Don’t worry. Jayne an’ I’ll handle it. Where are you goin’?” her dark eyes filled with concern as Mal started walking down the ramp.
“Need to see a man ‘bout a mule,” was Mal’s bitter reply. The sun was brilliant, and not for the first time he wished that he wore a hat to shade his eyes. Serenity had landed near the new settlement where the Colonial refugees had made their home, but it wasn’t too terribly far from the old settlement where he and a trio of his crew were the last people to walk out on their own.
Even through the thick patina of dust and grime, he could still see the battle scars from the Reaver weapons on the walls of the surviving buildings. Here and there were the brown stains of the blood of the fallen. The Alliance had done a shiny job of hiding what had happened, but Malcolm Reynolds knew better he’d been there.
He stopped in front of the bar where he’d shot a man who’d been begging him for help. He’d called it a kindness to justify what he’d done, but that kindness was churning in his belly like a snake made out of broken glass.
“I’m sorry,” he said as the wind tore the words from his lips, drying the tear that slid down from one blue eye. “Should’ve taken the chance. Won’t forget what I done to you. I ain’t never goin’ to leave another soul behind that wants away from this or anyplace long as I can get to the Black.”
Reaching into his pocket, he drew out a pair of silver coins. Hunkering down on his heels, Mal scooped out a few inches of dusty soil and buried the twin coins. “They used to put coins on the eyes of the dead. This is the best I can do for you and yours.”
By the time he walked back to Serenity, he was more than ready to leave. Then she came asking for passage. It was almost as if he’d been the one who could read the future and not the little Albatross. He looked at the coins he’d been given by Kara Thrace, wasn’t nearly enough to get her off of any normal piss hole planet. He’d have tried to up the ante, see what else he could get from her.
But not on Lilac. Any amount of change was good enough on Lilac.
###
The cargo bay was empty when he prepped Serenity to break atmo. It’d be a good long time before the colonists had anything to trade to the outside world. For now all they had was money. Mal hoped that the seeds they’d brought would help them make something out of the place.
“There are worse planets,” Jayne said as he stomped onto the bridge. “Least there ain’t no more Reavers.”
“There are still Reavers, Jayne,” Mal answered as he started flipping switches along Wash’s station. It would always be Wash’s station, no matter how long Mal was filling in as pilot. Even if he hired a new one, they’d be told to use the co-pilot’s. ‘They just ain’t all covered in skin and piercings. Some of ‘em just work for the Feds is all. Our passenger all settled? I want off of this piece of shit now.”
“Think so. Zoe’s doin’ the tour.” The big mercenary rubbed at the back of his neck and shrugged. “She’s pretty.”
“Zoe?” Mal’s thought he heard Wash’s voice scream in his head that Jayne was NEVER to say that he thought Zoe was pretty. But then again, it might have been his own voice. “Yeah, Jayne Zoe’s pretty, but don’t tell her that. She’ll get a big head.”
“No, not Zoe Mal. The passenger. She’s pretty.”
“Didn’t notice,” Mal said with not a small amount of relief. The last thing he wanted was to watch Jayne get some kind of insane crush on Zoe. She was still hurt. She tried to hide it, but Mal knew her better than he knew himself. “All I noticed was her money was good.”
Wasn’t really all he’d noticed. But he didn’t really want to warn Jayne that Kara Thrace looked like she could kick the shit out of him just as easily as Zoe could. Where would the fun be in that?
“I’ll tell ‘em we’re leavin’ then.”
“You do that,” Mal said as he sat down in Wash’s seat. He waited until the sound of Jayne’s boots stopped echoing down the passageway, and started up Serenity’s engines. With his eyes closed, he listened to the rough thrum of the engine turning, and waited until he heard the sweet sound of her settling in. That was when it was time for lift off, not before. The take off was smooth as one of Inara’s silk dresses. “Well now, seems I’m gettin’ pretty good at this.”
“Thankfully,” Inara said as they broke into the Black. The stars in the sky nearly as bright as the sparkling jewels she’d woven into her hair. “But you do need to work on the landings. I still need to replace one of my tea sets.”
“I’m sure y’all make enough to replace it Inara.” He glanced back at her. She was dressed for work. A job he’d hoped she wouldn’t go back to, but it was the only way she knew. At least she was out there with them, and not at the temple teaching new girls. But with them, was never going to be the same as with him, and he knew it. “Picked up a passenger. Why don’t you go say hello?”
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