Yes, I know... fan fiction. So shoot me.
* * *
Captain Malcom Reynolds wasn't a stupid man. He knew his crew wasn't stupid either, and he knew he couldn't hide the truth much longer. He thought about what would happen if he did tell them about his past mistakes, though, such a secret could tear his crew apart.
"Hey Cap," said Kaylee, waking Mal out of his reveree. He looked around fondly at his crew of eight, sitting contently around the dinner table and knew he couldn't burden them with his secret, at least not now.
"What will the situation be on Gaurdian?" continued Kaylee, "You 'specting trouble or will it all be shiny. "
"Well Kaylee," answered Mal, "I've only worked with Pal O'Mer once before. He's a hard-hitting fellow, but he's fair."
Jayne snorted, "Fair? The bloke didn't give us full price when we deliver."
"True," answered Zoey, "But we did bring some of the goods back damaged... And why were some of the goods damaged, dear??"
Wash looked sheepishly down at his plate. "It was through no fault of my own that the Mule had a leaky combustion shell, it was dragging on the port side all by itself, which caused the goods to fall out. It's not my fault that Bester was too imcompetent to notice a simple thing like that.
Noting Simon's curious look, "He was our mechanic before Kaylee." explained Mal, "A right dunce too. Before we found Kaylee, he had us stranded for neigh on one month, had no idea what he was doing. Lucky we found ourselves a gifted mechanic."
Mal smiled and gace Kaylee a hug. Mal loved his crew, things were good, Jayne wasn't even fighting with River and Simon anymore, despite his usual roughness. Everyone else was also bonding just as tightly, although he had yet to figure our his relationship with Inara, the ship's 'Ambassador', yet.
As always seems to happen with Mal and his stalwart crew, just as things seem to look up, they usually come crashing down. In this case the crashing down was literal.
Mal was about to take a big bite into his protein ball, when the dreaded warning lights started to flash, an obnoxious siren went off and the ship shook violently.
The crew held onto the table to stabilze themselves, and Book fell off his chair letting off an "Oof"
Ah crap, Mal thought to himself, What the hell is it this time? "Kaylee!" He said outloud.
"On it Cap" Kayle shouted, while running to the engine room.
The engine room was a not a large, but it was packed to the bursting point with equipment and electronics and of course, the large engine smack in the middle. Also, pushed off to the side was a small cot that Kaylee used for quick naps.
Kaylee pushed back the engine cover and immediately saw that the engine wasn't spinning properly. It would move up halfway, then slow down, and fall.
"Cap, we got a serious problem!" Kaylee shouted.
Mal ran into the room, "What's up"
"The right Cuplink is out, and it's causing the motor drivers to move out of sync. "
"Ok, can you fix it?"
"Negative, Cap'n. The Cuplink is too specialized, I wouldn't know how to fix it even if I wanted to."
"Any spares?" asked Mal, though already knowing the answers. His ship ran on a tight budget.
Kaylee shook her head sadly, and Mal asked, "What are our options?
"Without the motor running," Kaylee explained, "We're drifting. At least it's not like last time we were 'out of gas'. We'll have oxygen and heat and we aint in the middle of the black. There's a good chance we'll get picked up, or hell, if we float close enough past a planet..."
Immediately, the ship started shaking violently, even more than before.
"Speak of the devil, Kaylee" said Mal, "That feels like..."
Wash's voice cut in over the PA system.
"Hey Cap... guess were we're headed."
to be continued...
