badinlatin | Entries tagged with crew

"So, are you going to tell me why I'm driving the mule for an empty crate?" Wash asks. Mal beams back at him as Wash drives the mule down the cargo bay ramp and towards the center of town.

"Think about it, Wash." Mal certainly wasn't helping to ease Wash's confusion with this subject at all, and before Wash can ask again why a heavy metal crate was thrown onto the rear of their mule at the last minute, the precious coin inside the large lined container, a man exited the door of his office -- Trading Post And General Supply -- and waved while leaning on his cane.

"Collins!" Mal greets warmly. "How's the wife?"

"Don't get me started, Reynolds," Collins growls, pushing up the glasses from the tip of his nose almost violently, but reaching forward to shake Mal's hand anyway. A nod and smile to Wash in passing, and a 'Nice cane' gets a grin from the pilot in passing before a younger man exits the trading station to haul off the crate from the mule.

"Brought those supplies you ordered," Mal starts, counting off the seconds it takes for Collins' assistant to return to his line of sight out of habit and hard experience. "Suppose you've got my order ready?"

"As ordered indeed." Apparently the assistant had a friend; the pair were now struggling with a large, less sophisticated wooden plank box and finally manage to hoist up the heavy load onto the back of the mule.

Wash stared a little too long as the meter by half-meter box labeled "Blue Sun Engineering Corp - Restoration Kit", and Mal nudged him in the side.

"Looks like our business is done here, then," Mal offers to Collins, almost jovially. "...Maybe we'll be back on by when we get the chance."

"Hope so, hope so - you can take my wife with you, get 'er off my case. Besides," Collins shoves his glasses upward again, clicking his cane toward Mal a few steps. "Ain't too many people that can get me what you can that would get those kind of orders in return," gesturing to the 'Restoration Kit'. "That makes you...special."

Mal's smile ghosts faintly, but still keeps up the business appearance. "Glad to hear it."

Wash and Mal retreated to their seats on the mule, and Wash drove as calmly as possible back toward Serenity.

"Mal," he starts in an awed sort of tone. "Traders here don't deal in coin, so we needed to give him a box with the bit of Earth-that-Was, so...so he could...give us a huge rutting box of money."

Mal couldn't suppress his grin if he wanted to. "What was that you were saying about Naomi and flight school?"

Mal is on the bridge. Captainly duties and all requiring it, of course. If by captainly duties you mean flipping on the ~~boob tube~~ Cortex and seeing what the somnambulant public was receiving today.

The plain-looking newscaster Serenity is picking up from god only knows which moon they're passing is relaying some drivel or other before Mal tunes in on the words political candidacy and press conference recorded live today.

Mal sure as ruttin' hell hopes they're not asleep at their chairs at the moment, because finally - finally - there is something on worth watching.

"Doc? Anybody?" Mal calls down the main corridor leading from the bridge. "Gabriel's about to start talkin' front of a lot o' folk, and he looks business."

[OOC: From this.]

Aluthra and her novice Damiri are waiting very patiently, unlike two guests standing by her side behind the heavy curtains seperating the docking bay awaiting Serenity's approach.

"You look gorgeous, Sallie. No worries," the young blonde said for the thousandth time to the older woman, who looked like she was about to go before judge and jury. Sallie did look very fine; the makeup that the younger woman - Lilly, from their conversation earlier - had done up for Sallie suited her very well.

Sallie had asked as nicely as she knew how to see her son once they had arrived about twenty minutes ago; once the ceremony participants arrive however, they are kept apart from the witnesses until after the presentation. When Aluthra informed the pair that Serenity, which currently was registered to land under the name Tranquility, would be arriving momentarily, Sallie and Lilly were on Aluthra's heels as she walked to greet the newcomers on their platform.

The cargo bay door lowers, and Aluthra bows deeply to the disembarking crew members. Damiri stays behind the house priestess while Sallie and Lilly walk toward the ship with that the Companion can only assume to be very smirking grins.

It takes Mal a minute or two to winch up the rim on a chain in the center of the cargo bay.

It takes Mal even longer to arrange a carefully-placed stepladder of boxes along one side of the playing field.

The arena has been set.

Walking over to the shipboard comm, Mal calls:

"This is the captain. I need all personnel in the cargo bay."

Mal stands in the center of the field of battle and waits. Grinning.

Mal can stand again. He had called over the comm for everyone to get to the kitchen, sounding as calm and collected as possible. His right hand shakes still, but for an entirely different reason. Adrenaline.

Inara and Mal make it to the kitchen first, and Inara sits while Mal waits at the head of the table for everyone else to arrive. For as shaken as everyone is, Mal takes the moment to look straight at Kaylee and smile. He can only hope she understands.

The cylinder was sitting on the table since Mal had walked in the room, and he picks it up now. "This report is maybe twelve years old. Parliament buried it, and it stayed buried 'til River dug it up. This is what they feared she knew. And they were right to fear, 'cause there's a universe of folk that are gonna know it too. They're gonna see it. Somebody...has to speak for these people."

What do you think of that?

The crew is waiting for Mal to keep going, looking at him either like he's crazy or that he's finally sane; Mal can't decide which.

"You all got on this boat for different reasons, but you all come to the same place. So now I'm askin' more of you than I have before. Maybe all - as sure as I know anything I know this: They Will Try Again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground, swept clean. A year from now, ten, they will swing back to the belief that they can make people..." Mal pauses, eyeing River with a sudden clarity. "better. And I do not hold to that. So no more running.

"I aim to misbehave."

A long beat, where everyone just seems to be analyzing what Mal has just said.

Say something.

Beaumonde. Home to...well, pretty much everything, in very large amounts, all mixed together like so much debris from a storm of neon lights and rice cake vendors.

Mal'd never admit it to anyone that didn't know him, but he really does like coming to The Maidenhead. Except for the fact that the management makes Mal and his crew lock up their weapons with these go se key cards before walking down the center staircase. Simon and Kaylee first down the stairs, as they had no guns to stow, then Wash and Zoe are hand in hand while Mal and Jayne keep an eye out for the latest contacts for the last bit of business for the Lilac job.

Mal casts an eye to Wash and Zoe, who had been also scoping the bar for anyone seeming familiar, but Mal waves a hand in dismissal.

"Sir," Zoe offers in response to this, "You sure you don't want to---?"

"Go," is the more assertive cutoff. "Go get yourselves a nice romantic meal." Apparently this is more than enough motivation for Wash, who leads Zoe away from Mal and Jayne.

"Lilly, I don't know, I ain't really in too much of a mood to be goin' anywhere," Mal starts as the pair walk toward the door exiting Milliways Bar. "'Sides, where are you takin' me?"

"You'll see," Lilly responds. "Would I ever lead you astray?"

With Lilly's question, Mal leads the way through the door.

It's been eight years since Malcolm Beauregard Reynolds has stood on the Reynolds Ranch. Mal never came back to the ranch after Serenity Valley; too dangerous for his ma. Closest he came was to send a wave to David's parents after his body was shipped home.

Johnny Comes Marching Home Again Hurrah Hurrah

The willow by the porch of the small white house was larger than he remembered. Mal would have to check later to see if one can still tell where the bull's eye always hung for target practice.

We'll give him a hearty welcome then Hurrah Hurrah

The horses are still running around the paddock, ready to jump the fence and head off in between the trees just beyond; the cattle near the gated area behind the paddock seemed simply content to watch Mal and his crew arrive and step off the mule after rolling to a stop.

The men will cheer and the boys will shout The ladies they will all turn out

There is a hovercraft parked next to the front door of his mother's house. Mal's mother hates hovercrafts. Preferred horses.

And we'll all feel gay, When Johnny comes marching home.

Mal walked up the stoop and entered the unlocked door without knocking.

Rarely does he do this. However, Mal is the captain and can do whatever he wants. If Zoe lets him.

Thusly, he walks with purpose to the shipwide comm in his bunk and broadcasts the following:

"We need downtime, in case the thought hasn't occurred to you already. Thing is, way we're headed now, we'll be up on Shadow in not too long a while. Those that'd have a mind to do so, are welcome to come with me makin' a side stop to visit a ranc--my ranch. My family's ranch."

A pause.

"Let me know. That is all."

Mal's a strong guy. May not be built like Jayne, but he could hold his own. With that said, he is straining under the weight of every emotion possible that is filling the cargo bay.

Everyone is there. His crew is there, minus Wash and Kaylee, who have already claimed their positions in Serenity. Susan has taken up her spot with Kaylee in the engine room, leaving Roland and his tet crew in the cargo bay. Friends of Mal's crew, of Roland's crew, of River, have all gathered; those that know, that understand what needs to be done. No matter what.

Mal's eyes last rest on the beaded chain and cross Inara is wearing before hitting the comm speaker and addressing everyone in front of him.

"I ain't one for too many words, and we all know we ain't got the time for 'em. And for all our planning, I can't tell you exact what's gonna happen once we hit the Academy. Can't speak for all o' you; can only speak for myself - I ain't gonna lie and say I don't got worries."

Mal again casts a glance in the direction of his crew, attempting to guage their reactions and failing.

"But I don't have worries about us.

I worry about them. 'Cause they will never expect this."

Mal cuts himself off then. No more needs to be said, at least to his crew. They know him. For all that he ever hid from them - they know.

He walks through the others standing around him in the bay. Some stand silent, others react and connect with Mal somehow - eyes, a touch of an arm or a nod to affirm their readiness. Mal stops in front of Roland. The gunslinger and the sergeant. Browncoats.

Mal matches Roland's gaze. Not sizing him up, not forming a witty remark. Mal extends his right arm to the other dinh. A soldier's greeting. Equals.

"Let's go."