Just a Little Favor for a Friend Pt. 7
Wedding Ring Ranch, continued
***
Jayne and Mal paused at a point overlooking the open-cut mine. Below, the red twilight gleamed in running flashes off of burning slag. The patchy frame surrounding the blast furnace cracked, toppling onto an ore cart track. One man deliberately derailed a cart as the lesser of two potentials for disaster. Shouting, running, and general mayhem built up as horses found their own judgement superior to present humans' and clattered off all of a sudden for the slope up to town.
Mal ran his hand behind his neck. "Well, Jayne, what do you say? Would you call this a loss, or a win?"
Jayne considered the scene in the cut. A hissing secondary explosion blew a side cap off the furnace and the remaining framework creaked, shrieked, bent downward-- people attempting to fight the fire scattered. Jayne flicked his eyes towards the fleeing horses, scratched briefly at his short, brown beard and shrugged. "Do we get paid?"
***
2 days earlier:
A solitary Alioramus jogged over the landscape on his sturdy hind legs. He had begun the bright day with confidence; now he paused, occasionally, with growing suspicion that something was amiss. He considered changing course to the ridge, to see what lay on the other side-- the land he had come over so far seemed unusually slick, and his heavy rear claws were meant for running on a surface with some traction. He tried to recall the most recent conversation he'd had with Stegosaurus, in which his friend had persuaded him to take this shortcut. He felt a chill of uncertainty. In a split-second decision, Alioramus veered upward, along the ridge. Shockingly, the ridge dropped off at its peak, leaving him no recourse but to slide back down the slope he had been running on. He tried to scrabble, to grab onto something, anything, but the chasm at the foot of the slope came inexorably nearer. As he caught his last glimpse of land and sky before certain demise, into his line of vision, peering balanced over the bit of solid ground before the bottomless abyss, he saw Stegosaurus. Alioramus may have imagined it, but it seemed to him that the other dinosaur was... laughing.
"And, uh ... Rockslide." Wash dropped his boot onto rubber Alioramus's head.
"Wash, change course."
"Where to?"
Mal observed Alioramus sprawled, as loosely as a solid rubber dinosaur can sprawl, on the deck, Wash's dropped boot and stocking foot. "Playing footsie with your dinosaurs again, Wash?"
Wash dramatically shoved his foot back into his boot. "Mal, I'm shocked at you. Must you barge onto the bridge like this? Where to?"
"Wedding Ring Ranch, Court's."
"Not far. Shouldn't take us too long. Why there?"
"We're in the area and Inara wanted to visit a friend."
"A friend?"
"That's what she said. Said he might have a job for us. She'll be patching the call up here. I don't know what he's doing out here if he's one of her clients..."
"Corner of Boondocks and Main."
"Well, she wanted to make a stop. I'm not one to argue with the lady."
"New rule, huh?"
Mal feigned blameless ignorance. "Call coming in now... My, my, don't we dress well for Boondocks living. Open it up so he can hear us."
The channel provided a decent picture, though it was run through with some static. It showed a very skinny man with sunken cheeks in a narrow string tie and finely made, striped shirt. "Gentlemen. I have the pleasure of speaking with Captain Reynolds, yes?"
"That'd be me. Captain of Serenity. I take it you know Inara."
"I do know Inara. My name is Vincent Sheffield; you may refer to me as Vincent. Inara had suggested, though she would not, I may say, make presumptions on your part, that you might have the ability and the will to help me with a problem."
"Well, Vincent, we do jobs for pay, you could say sometimes we solve problems."
"I am to understand we have a little..." Vincent wavered a hand-- "--wiggle room, morally? Is that correct?"
"Put that way, sounds about okay."
"Good. I do want to talk to you more here, in person. I would rather not have it be known that I am personally bringing strangers in, due to a currently somewhat delicate situation. If you can, do make a wide sweep when you get to the ranch-- sending coordinates now-- and the Cowponies will show you where to land."
Mal nodded, confirmed verbally, and Wash closed off communication. Inara floated onto the bridge; Wash slightly dipped his chin respectfully to her.
"Inara," Mal began, "you've always been a complainer about how we go to too many backwater worlds and you can never get any good clients. Here we have a backwater world, and we have a well-off individual who would appear to be a client."
Inara blinked. "Vincent is a friend. It just so happens he only came to this 'backwater world' after he purchased a rather large portion of it."
"And he wears expensive shirts."
"You're not putting on your most self-flattering behavior at the moment, Captain Reynolds. Aren't you taking the job?"
"Gotta talk to him more in person."
"Of course, and when you do, would you please refrain, if it is at all possible for you to do so, from picking at details of my friend's life that make you jealous? We'll be trying to have a nice visit."
"Please. I am cultured and refined."
"Alright. If you say so. I cannot housetrain you. Lord knows I've tried." Everything Inara said was measured in tone and pace, so it was difficult to tell whether her tone was disgusted or affectionate.
***
Jayne and Mal paused at a point overlooking the open-cut mine. Below, the red twilight gleamed in running flashes off of burning slag. The patchy frame surrounding the blast furnace cracked, toppling onto an ore cart track. One man deliberately derailed a cart as the lesser of two potentials for disaster. Shouting, running, and general mayhem built up as horses found their own judgement superior to present humans' and clattered off all of a sudden for the slope up to town.
Mal ran his hand behind his neck. "Well, Jayne, what do you say? Would you call this a loss, or a win?"
Jayne considered the scene in the cut. A hissing secondary explosion blew a side cap off the furnace and the remaining framework creaked, shrieked, bent downward-- people attempting to fight the fire scattered. Jayne flicked his eyes towards the fleeing horses, scratched briefly at his short, brown beard and shrugged. "Do we get paid?"
***
2 days earlier:
A solitary Alioramus jogged over the landscape on his sturdy hind legs. He had begun the bright day with confidence; now he paused, occasionally, with growing suspicion that something was amiss. He considered changing course to the ridge, to see what lay on the other side-- the land he had come over so far seemed unusually slick, and his heavy rear claws were meant for running on a surface with some traction. He tried to recall the most recent conversation he'd had with Stegosaurus, in which his friend had persuaded him to take this shortcut. He felt a chill of uncertainty. In a split-second decision, Alioramus veered upward, along the ridge. Shockingly, the ridge dropped off at its peak, leaving him no recourse but to slide back down the slope he had been running on. He tried to scrabble, to grab onto something, anything, but the chasm at the foot of the slope came inexorably nearer. As he caught his last glimpse of land and sky before certain demise, into his line of vision, peering balanced over the bit of solid ground before the bottomless abyss, he saw Stegosaurus. Alioramus may have imagined it, but it seemed to him that the other dinosaur was... laughing.
"And, uh ... Rockslide." Wash dropped his boot onto rubber Alioramus's head.
"Wash, change course."
"Where to?"
Mal observed Alioramus sprawled, as loosely as a solid rubber dinosaur can sprawl, on the deck, Wash's dropped boot and stocking foot. "Playing footsie with your dinosaurs again, Wash?"
Wash dramatically shoved his foot back into his boot. "Mal, I'm shocked at you. Must you barge onto the bridge like this? Where to?"
"Wedding Ring Ranch, Court's."
"Not far. Shouldn't take us too long. Why there?"
"We're in the area and Inara wanted to visit a friend."
"A friend?"
"That's what she said. Said he might have a job for us. She'll be patching the call up here. I don't know what he's doing out here if he's one of her clients..."
"Corner of Boondocks and Main."
"Well, she wanted to make a stop. I'm not one to argue with the lady."
"New rule, huh?"
Mal feigned blameless ignorance. "Call coming in now... My, my, don't we dress well for Boondocks living. Open it up so he can hear us."
The channel provided a decent picture, though it was run through with some static. It showed a very skinny man with sunken cheeks in a narrow string tie and finely made, striped shirt. "Gentlemen. I have the pleasure of speaking with Captain Reynolds, yes?"
"That'd be me. Captain of Serenity. I take it you know Inara."
"I do know Inara. My name is Vincent Sheffield; you may refer to me as Vincent. Inara had suggested, though she would not, I may say, make presumptions on your part, that you might have the ability and the will to help me with a problem."
"Well, Vincent, we do jobs for pay, you could say sometimes we solve problems."
"I am to understand we have a little..." Vincent wavered a hand-- "--wiggle room, morally? Is that correct?"
"Put that way, sounds about okay."
"Good. I do want to talk to you more here, in person. I would rather not have it be known that I am personally bringing strangers in, due to a currently somewhat delicate situation. If you can, do make a wide sweep when you get to the ranch-- sending coordinates now-- and the Cowponies will show you where to land."
Mal nodded, confirmed verbally, and Wash closed off communication. Inara floated onto the bridge; Wash slightly dipped his chin respectfully to her.
"Inara," Mal began, "you've always been a complainer about how we go to too many backwater worlds and you can never get any good clients. Here we have a backwater world, and we have a well-off individual who would appear to be a client."
Inara blinked. "Vincent is a friend. It just so happens he only came to this 'backwater world' after he purchased a rather large portion of it."
"And he wears expensive shirts."
"You're not putting on your most self-flattering behavior at the moment, Captain Reynolds. Aren't you taking the job?"
"Gotta talk to him more in person."
"Of course, and when you do, would you please refrain, if it is at all possible for you to do so, from picking at details of my friend's life that make you jealous? We'll be trying to have a nice visit."
"Please. I am cultured and refined."
"Alright. If you say so. I cannot housetrain you. Lord knows I've tried." Everything Inara said was measured in tone and pace, so it was difficult to tell whether her tone was disgusted or affectionate.