Big Damn Hero

20

No sooner were Simon and River inside the shuttle than Zoë sealed and locked the hatch. Inara wasn’t kidding about being ready to launch. Once the red light beside the hatch winked on, indicating a closed airlock, the shuttle uncoupled from Serenity’s power and sensory connections.

“Good riddance,” Jayne grumbled.

Zoë, Jayne and Kaylee watched through the door’s porthole as the shuttle undocked and the released umbilicals retracted. When the shuttle had drifted clear of the docking bay, its thrusters roared and flared. The blinding pulse of light grew rapidly smaller and fainter, until it winked out and vanished into the Black.

Jayne expelled air from his cheeks. “Do you think they’ll be all right?”

“Sure do.” Kaylee sounded forlorn.

Zoë knew Inara had shut down all the shuttle systems, including life support. They’d be breathing canned air for a little while, but it wasn’t for long, so it should be okay. They’d be coasting through null grav at high speed, putting distance between themselves and the cruiser. With no electromagnetic signature, nothing to draw the attention of the Alliance sensors, the shuttle would look like a small asteroid or a hunk of drifting space junk.

Zoë doubted Simon and River had even had time to buckle in before Inara lit ’em up. Now all they could do was hunker down and wait, hoping the initial blast had gone unnoticed.

“Where was River hiding?” Kaylee asked.

“She wasn’t really hiding,” Zoë said. “She was down in the cargo bay, in plain sight, talking to one of Badger’s crates. She was really worried about them.”

“I am too,” Jayne said. “Worried we ain’t never gonna get paid for all the trouble we’re goin’ through.”

Engineer and first mate shared a look.

“Maybe I better check the cargo? No point in taking any chances,” Kaylee ventured.

“Yeah, maybe you better,” Zoë said with a sigh of resignation. “Everyone needs to stay calm. Alliance will be here soon.”

Jayne grumbled something about feds and sticky fingers and that he was going to go back to his quarters to hide all his weapons. Zoë let him go. Kaylee headed for the cargo bay and Zoë hurried to the flight deck.

Her husband was hunched forward in the pilot’s chair, his fingers flitting over the controls, eyes darting from viewing port array to console readouts and back. He was way in the zone.

“How far off is Stormfront?” she asked Wash as she stepped up behind him.

“Three hundred klicks out, and decelerating,” he said over his shoulder. “Maybe an hour until they slide up alongside us. If Inara plays her cards right, if she can stay dark for a bit longer, she’ll be okay. You know, the Alliance’s line-of-sight blind spot gets bigger and bigger the nearer they come.”

Yeah, she knew that. Everybody who wasn’t a complete idiot knew that. Wash was being hyper and jangly, and he had good reason. The inbound Alliance cruiser had to have its missiles and cannons locked onto Serenity. The bastards didn’t need much of an excuse to cut loose.

“We played it really close,” Zoë said. “But they’re gone.”

“And it’s not over,” Wash said. “I could’ve made a break for it when we first saw the cruiser, maybe lost them with some jīng căi astrobatics, but now it’s too late. We’ve got to stay here to run interference for Inara and the Tams. We better pray that Badger’s paperwork is rock solid.”

“And the feds don’t mess with the crates.”

“With all those warning decals all over them?”

“They might think we slapped those decals on just to dissuade them from looking too close,” Zoë said.

What would Mal do if he were here? Give the Alliance officers a whole load of bluff, bluster and baloney. But amiably, with a winning smile on his face.

Push comes to shove, she thought, that’s what I’m going to have to do too.

Her game wasn’t nearly as good as Mal’s. But as long as it was good enough…