Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own any of these wonderful characters, or even the setting and world of Firefly. They all belong to Fox/Universal and Joss Whedon.
James Norrington and related belongs to Disney, Gore and Ted and Terry.
Setting: Takes place right after Down the Aisle
Pairings: Kaylee/Simon, Mal/Inara
Can’t Stop the Music
Chapter 7: Rhapsody
-
“Hold your fire and lower your weapons,” Malcolm instructed. He was still overcome by the feeling of extreme shock at the site of one of his former soldier, more than that, but the fact that she was the captain of the pirate ship.
“Captain,” Both Kaylee and James addressed him in a questioning tone.
“That is an order,” Mal did not glance at them. He had kept his eyes on the petite woman standing in front of him.
“They got River,” Simon protested. “And Jayne. I need to get them to the infirmary.”
Malcolm stared briefly at the ground. Seven of the pirates were lying unconscious around River. One young woman with a braided cloth headband was still holding onto her tranquilizer gun. The others on the ground were clutching their wounds; most were in the arms and legs. One was struck in the stomach.
“You need to get everyone who was shot in the infirmary,” Malcolm instructed before he stared into Katy’s brown eyes. “You have your own doctor I take it?”
“One of yours had managed to knock Trisk out,” Katy pointed a glove covered hand at one of the men River had knocked out. “R.J. and your doctor could be enough.”
Mal nodded. “Doc, you and R.J. get this guy into the infirmary at once.” He pointed at the guy with the wounded stomach.
“What about Jayne?” Simon pointed towards the sleeping mercenary. “The drop may have broken something.”
“After you treat this kid,” the wounded pirate was a young man, barely older than Simon.
“Mal,” Inara hissed. She was armed with both a sword and a laser pistol. Mal told her it was all that she had needed and she had better not waste any time trying to dig through their things in search of her bow and arrows. “What is going on?”
“Sorry if I am not being well mannered enough for you,” Mal kept his eyes on the two doctors as they slowly carried the most seriously injured man to the infirmary. “This is Katy Chalmers.” He nodded towards the pirate captain. “She was with us during out last days in Serenity Valley.” He turned back to face his former soldier. “Never thought to see you as your own captain.”
“I guess you can say I have learned from the best,” Katy shrugged. She wasn’t as pale or sickly as she used to be, but then again the last memory Mal had of her was her trying to sleep off an illness and stubbornly refusing to accept Mal’s own food rations for herself. Lying on the ground she was almost transparent with bluish gray half moons under her eyes and lips that had turned ashen and formed cracks.
“She was the only survivor of her original platoon,” Zoë added. If she was still as perplexed as Mal was about the situation she did not show it.
“Cap’n?” Kaylee had long dropped her own weapon. “What about the others.”
“Dane,” Katy pointed to a tall man with red hair. “We need to get everyone who is injured into the infirmary.”
“Yes, Captain,” Dane nodded before he several more pirates had begun to grab their injured crewmembers and help them to their feet.
“It is nice to see you again, Katy,” Mal wasn’t sure if he should be angry with her or not. She and her crew did attack his ship, but then again they were all armed with tranquilizer guns and odd weapon really. “I think this reunion would have been a little bit warmer if you hadn’t attacked my crew.”
“You were the ones using bullets,” a black member of Katy’s crew said. “And swords. And she used her hands and feet.” He pointed at River.
“You fired your cannon’s at our ship first,” James pointed out.
“It was a warning shot,” Katy tossed her head, causing her dark hair to flip up. Mal had remembered Katy’s hair at being a color that one could not pinpoint exactly. Too light to be brown and to dark to be blond, almost like his but in certain light it had taken on a ginger color. He wondered when she started to dye her hair to make it appear bluish black. She also wasn’t one for make up either. He never pictured her to wear gold colored shadow and thick coats of mascara and ruby red lipstick that did nothing to cover up the scar near her upper lip
“When did you decide to go all pirate on us?” Zoë asked the question that had been on Mal’s mind since they came across their former Browncoat.
“Months after I got out of that hospital,” Katy explained. “I returned to my home moon and got a couple of jobs, taught people how to shoot during the day and I poured drinks at night. One of my co-workers at the bar got sick from pneumonia. Our little clinic didn’t have enough medicine to treat her proper. One of the bouncers and I decided to go out on a little trip to get the right medicine. One of my students had a ship and a few others and I went to get the medicine, except it wasn’t cheap.”
“You robbed them,” James accused.
“We didn’t have much of a choice,” Katy glared at him. “The Alliance barely comes out here to the rim. There is not enough to live on.”
“So you rob from the rich to give to the poor?” Mal asked; disappointment had quickly faded away.
“Now and then, we gotta make a profit for ourselves.”
“Boarding innocent ships and attacking everyone aboard,” James glared.
“What is with him?” Katy nodded towards the former commodore.
“Not really fond of pirates,” Mal shrugged. “Even if you don’t really hut the people you attack.”
“That is not how things are run by Captain Chalmers,” Katy puffed out her chest proudly. “We send warning shots at first and only upgrade the ammo if they can fire back. Once we board we shoot them with tranqs and while they sleep we take their goods. We make sure they are in autopilot before we leave.”
“What about if they do attack?”
“We wear Deflect pads under our clothes,” Katy explained. “Mostly on our elbows and knees and chest and gut guard.” She furrowed her brown. “This is the first time anything has managed to pierce through our armor.”
“Jayne likes to play around with his guns,” Mal said and quickly added. “Vera is technically his bride of Frankenstein. Who knows what he does with the ammo.” He had hoped no one would have taken what he had first said as Euphuism. “I have to say you guys are without a doubt the worst pirates I have come across.” He ignored the choked cough coming from James.
“How often do you come across pirates?” Katy raised her eyebrows.
“Twice in the past year.”
“Sir,” Zoë spoke up. “You might want to mention the distress signal to Katy.”
“Distress signal?” Another of Katy’s crewmates asked. “They finked on us?”
“You were attacking our ship,” James said.
“We wouldn’t if we knew it was you,” Kaylee tried to cover. “And you wouldn’t have attacked us if you knew the Captain was aboard.” She pointed at Mal.
“Gut reaction,” Mal confessed.
“How many times have you stated that we will not get things done with rash actions?” Katy asked him.
Mal chuckled. “And how many times have I done something rash?”
“You did plan it.”
“True that may be,” Mal shrugged. “Gotta improvise now and then, and right now we cannot hang around and talk. You gotta get your crew off my boat.” He turned to the others. “Get Jayne and River into the infirmary.”
“He is kind of heavy,” Kaylee pointed towards Jayne.
“You, the commodore and Zoë can carry him. Inara can carry River.” He turned back to Katy. “The rest of your crew can take care of the sleeping beauties?”
Katy nodded. “What of my crew in the infirmary?”
“We will get them as patched up as soon as possible,” and then get them the hell out of here.
-
Simon had no idea that any of the pirate crew had donned armor. He had no inkling until after he had drugged the man and pulled back his shirt.
“I’m surprised it managed to get through,” R. J. said. “This stuff is supposed to be as strong as it is flexible.”
“You were all wearing it?” Simon removed the armor and tossed aside. He could see it had slowed down the bullet, one look in the bleeding hole and he could see the metal end. It was only a few millimeters below the surface.
“We wear it all the time,” another pirate said as she removed the sleek black armor sleeve from her arm, blue deflect pads covered the elbow and parts of her upper and lower arm with only a little bare material in between them, just enough for the wearer to flex and move about comfortably. “What the hell was that guy firing at us?” She tossed the slip aside, including the bullet that was wedged in the center of one of the Deflect parts.
“Vera,” Simon didn’t look up. “It isn’t too deep. I don’t think he lost too much blood.”
“I’ll take care of the others,” R.J turned to one man with a bleeding leg wound.
“Was your captain an Independent soldier?” Simon carefully and quickly removed the bullet and dropped it into the dish.
“How did you know?” The man with the leg wound asked as R.J. injected anesthesia into his leg.
“It would explain how they knew each other.” Simon cleaned the wound with the antibacterial cleaners and grabbed his suture gun.
“I’m not going to need much,” another prate said as he peeled off his own arm protection. “They didn’t get through. Just cracked it.”
“And it is sticking into your flesh,” R.J said before he injected more anesthesia into his shoulder. “Might not need much suturing.”
“He is taking care of,” The last suture was put. “He just needs to take it easy for a while. “Do you wear that armor all the time?”
“Only when we are hunting down other ships,” R.J injected the last patient. “They did a good job of protecting, but they can get hot under there.
“And that can lead us to get a little ripe,” the female pirate said.
“I can understand why you won’t want to wear it that often.” Simon removed the bullet from her arm.
“What were you carrying anyway?”
“That is none of our business,” R.J had placed the bullet he had removed one of his crewman’s legs.
“We ship everything and anything,” Simon instantly thought of the livestock they had carried in the past, along with those bobble head geisha dolls. “For whoever hires us.”
“Even illegal cargo?”
“I can’t really say.” Simon moved onto another patient.
“You guys are really not that much different from us.”
“I would like to think that we are.”
“I told you he was heavy,” Kaylee’s voice was heard outside and accompanied by a few grunts.
Simon stared out one of the windows. “What is going on?” He could see Zoë and Kaylee were carrying Jayne by the legs and James had him by his arms and shoulders.
“Captain needs for you to heal them faster,” Zoë said as the placed the mercenary onto one of the sofas. “We don’t know when the feds will arrive.”
“Who tipped them off we were here?” R.J dropped another bullet into the dish.
“The captain must have sent out a distress signal,” Simon guessed. “Treating them as fast as we can.”
“I can wait till we get back on our ship,” the man with the cut said. “I can walk.”
“So can I,” the woman slid off the counter.
“We are going to need more to get everyone off,” R.J cleaned and sutured the wound.
As if by answer several of Katy’s pirate crew entered the room. Two of them grabbed the one with the stomach injury and carried him out.
“Most of them have already been treated,” Simon told them. “Their limbs are still numb from the anesthesia though.
“We understand,” one man helped one of his injured comrades to his feet.
“Be careful when you move them.”
“They are my crew,” R.J. smiled and nodded at him. “I’ll take over from here.”
“Thanks,” Simon turned to the common area as Inara was setting River down on the other sofa. “You can bring them in here.”
“I don’t think she suffered from any serious injury,” Inara watched over his sister with concern. “I didn’t see any bruises, nor any scrapes on her.”
“Bring Jayne in first.”
Kaylee blinked and stared at the sleeping man ape. “Okay. Let’s do this again.”
“I’ll make it easier for you this time,” Simon set down his tools. Four heads were better than three when it comes to carrying heavy objects and people.
-
Mal watched as the uninjured crew carried their wounded back to their own ship. “I almost wish things haven’t been so brief.”
“I don’t blame you for sending the signal,” Katy sighed. “If the situation was reversed I would have done the same.”
“Have you ever looked up famous pirates of the past?” Mal wasn’t sure why he asked the question, one of those bit of whims that sometimes entered his head.
“Read about many of them.”
“You wouldn’t have any pirate codes on you. You don’t answer to parley?”
“What is that?”
“I think Inara mentioned it was a French word. Not exactly certain what it means. I think it has something to do with mercy. Pirates used it so they could be unharmed until they were taken to see another crew’s captain.”
Katy shrugged. “I usually accept I surrender, or peace, or mercy itself.”
“Whatever happens?”
“Happens,” Katy shrugged. “I’m not the only one who turned pirate.”
“Who has?”
“You remember the trio?”
“How could I forget them?” He would sooner forget Miranda than he would forget the trio. Their names were Tony, Tanya and Terry and while their names all began with the same letter they were not related, far from it. Terry was pretty much the brains of the group and rarely spoke at all. Tanya was good at impressions and Tony was a scrapper despite his height. The three fought together, ate together, went out on missions together and of course played pranks together.
“They got together with several other formal soldiers and formed their own crew.”
“Who else have you come across?” Mal was intrigued.
“Cam Wilex. I don’t know what she was doing, only mentioned she had work on the way outer rim. Esteban has become a history teacher and turned to the ash and then there is Monty and he has a smuggler business.”
“Monty and I are in the same business,” Mal stated. “He and his crew was at the wedding of my mechanic and doc. Byron has a store on one of the Skyplex’s. Daisy has a similar job to Monty and Carlburt has a legit transport service. Haven’t really run into more than them.” He did not want to bring up Tracy or Declan, less she knew about their fates the better.
“Monty mentioned you and said your ship was a Firefly,” she smiled sheepishly. “If he had told me the name of your ship I wouldn’t have fired.”
“We tend to be forgetful at times.” He smacked his hands together. He had seen the last crewmember leave his ship. It was time for goodbyes. “Be careful out there.”
“I should say the same to you.”
“Oh and one warning. If you see a pretty young woman with short ginger hair about yeah tall,” He brought his hand up to where he had remembered Saffron’s height. “Very cunning and clever and she has the sweetest little voice when she tries to act all naïve and innocent.”
Katy smiled and shook her head. “You have come across Pepper?”
“Pepper?” Mal blinked. Of all the aliases she had used that was the most ridiculous one. “I knew she had other names.”
“That would be her,” Katy nodded before she held her hand up in a salute. “Stay strong Sergeant.”
“You too soldier,” Mal folded his arms across his chest and did not remove his eyes from his former soldier until she had boarded her own ship and the air lock had completely closed.
-