My Own Kind of Freedom

by Steven Brust

  “You give it back. We live through this, we return it.”

  “It’s in a locker in town, along with all my gear.”

  “Maybe we’ll have the chance to retrieve it.”

  “What about that fed?”

  “What about him?”

  “He in this?”

  “That’s up to him. He don’t take to us killing no one, and I intend some violence to take place.”

  “That’s why you want me back?”

  “No, I want you back cuz someone might want violence to take place toward us.”

  “What if I say no?”

  “We’ll try to get you somewhere safe, out of the area. No promises.”

  “Do I got some time to decide?”

  “All the time you want till we start to move.”

  “When will that be?”

  “About a minute. You’re asking a lot of questions, Jayne.”

  “Yeah, and you aren’t giving a lot of good answers.”

  “That mean you’re out?”

  “Naw, when have I ever been able to stay out of a fight?”

  “Whenever you couldn’t get anything out of it.”

  Couldn’t argue with that.

  He remembered the cell, and remembered what he’d realized there: there wasn’t any point in fighting it, he just wasn’t any good on his own.

  “Yeah. I’m in,” he said.

  Mal set the two pistols on the table, and slid them down to him, one at a time.

  Serenity: Bridge

  After a sleep that lasted around ten hours, he felt worlds better, and as ready as he ever would be.

  He played around the upper edges of atmo for a few seconds, just to test how she was responding. He wasn’t entirely happy with the result, but—

  “Can you do it?” asked Mal.

  “Think so,” he said. He badly wanted to add, “but I can’t think why we want to,” but he bit his tongue and concentrated on flying.

  The upper atmosphere of Hera smacked Serenity back and forth hard enough to penetrate the artificial gravity; he felt her bucking and kicking and wanting to put her nose down and tumble. The first chance he got, he leaned over and dialed down the cabin temperature, because he was sweating a lot. A fan kicked in, and a cool breeze struck his face, and it felt so good he almost smiled.

  The atmosphere thickened, making the resistance stronger but less variable: a Firefly was not built for aerodynamics; she ought not to be subject to updrafts, and cross-winds, and buffeting. At least not this much.

  He gave her an attitude adjustment just as she bucked the wrong way, and for a horrible second, Serenity almost flipped and tumbled, internal and external inertia wanting to combine to shoot her like a watermelon seed. A plastic pterodactyl and triceratops fell from his console and hit the floor.

  He brought Serenity’s nose back up, too busy for the moment to curse.

  The intercom crackled with Mal’s voice. “Wash! What the gorram hell is—”

  He shut it off and fought the air, the ship, the world.

  Mal had said, “Try to set us down east of Yuva, if you can find a clearing in the woods.”

  He had said, “Mal, if I can get us down in one piece it will be—No, I’m not looking for a clearing in the woods, I’m looking for the biggest flat empty space I can find, and then I’m praying like hell.”

  Mal had, for once, just accepted it.

  Why were they doing this, anyway?

  Because Mal was the captain, that’s why. And because, however stupid some of Mal’s stunts had been, somehow they had always pulled through, and kept flying.

  He wasn’t sure exactly where he was, but, that was a clear space below them. Okay, time for the fun part. He flipped the two side thrusters into landing position and spun the engine faster, getting more thrust to fight gravity. The shake through the yoke rattled his entire body.

  If I crack a tooth, I’m going to be annoyed.

  He focused on a single point on the ground through the primary scope; the true-alt numbers falling much too fast. Still more thrust, still less control—and he almost forgot to lower the landing gear, which would have been an embarrassing way to wreck the ship.

  Too much thrust to land; too little to fight the instability from the broken extender. At fifty meters: much too close to the ground to play, but still high enough to easily kill them all. At least the placement was good, and the angle was, had been good a second ago, was good again, but how did we get to one-fifty and, all right, she could yaw as much as she wanted to, but please don’t pitch down to seventy maybe just a bump careful careful too much and we’ll be on our belly and dead before you can say brontosaurus okay that one helped at the expense of fine, fine yaw can do what it wants until yes reduce that extra thrust so we come down to don’t roll! attitude good good just maybe if we swoop a bit we can get to the magic three meter mark and drop and just crack the landing gear which would okay stop that, nose is good again hold it hold it right there sweet baby please work with me one time one time and now nose down then up two meters? Cut cut cut! Nose up for the love of—

  He clicked on the intercom.

  “We’re down, fellow travelers. No sweat.”

  He leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes and if Mal had been on the bridge Wash would have punched him right in the mouth.

  Chapter 13

  My Own Kind of Answers

  Serenity: Passage

  HE WALKED with the captain, passing the glazed, exhausted, nearly stumbling pilot on their way to the bridge. The captain stopped as they passed. The pilot and the captain exchanged a few words, but he couldn’t quite make out what they were. Kit continued on to the bridge, where the captain joined him a moment later.

  The captain gestured toward the comm gear and said, “I take it you know how to use this stuff?”

  Kit bit back a sarcastic answer and just nodded.

  “The Alliance gave you all the training,” observed Reynolds.

  Kit nodded and waited for whatever point was coming.

  “And so,” continued the captain, “I guess that’s a good reason for you to sell your soul to them.”

  “Are you looking for an argument, captain?”

  “More curious about why you’d do something like that.”

  “Would it mean anything to you if I said job satisfaction?”

  “Might. But I have to wonder what sort of job satisfaction there is in—”

  “Shutting down people like Sakarya?”

  The captain shrugged and fell silent.

  Kit set the right channel on the comm, set up what little masking signal was available on this gear. It took a couple of minutes to pick up the WHORU; he sent back the IM and appropriate codes. It took another couple of minutes to get full access, then he settled in to ask his questions. The captain sat next to him, saying not a word, making not a motion.

  Kit made the first request, and waited. Into the silence he said, “There is one thing I’ve learned about Sakarya, and that’s that he’s good at what he does.”

  “How long you been on this?”

  “Eight months.”

  “Don’t seem like so much.”

  “I also got enough facts and figures to indict.”

  “Well then—”

  “Not enough to convict, though. Not reliably.”

  “My way is easier.”

  “Your way can be turned on you. Any time you piss off someone with the Alliance, we use your way, you could just be shot down. You like that idea?”

  The captain didn’t answer.

  “You got some indictments against you,” Kit continued, “but no convictions. You going to complain that we insist on evidence?”

  The captain shrugged.

  “But you missed the point about Sakarya being good at what he does,” said Kit.

  “Tell me.”

  “Part of being good at it is keeping careful records.”

  “The sort that could convict him?”

  “Yep.�
��

  “So, how do you get them?”

  “I’m working on that now.”

  As Kit worked, the captain said, “What I’m not sure of, is why you care.”

  “It’s what I do, go after the bad guys.”

  “Some might say we’re bad guys.”

  “You got no convictions on your record.”

  “No. But there’s talk we’re harbor—”

  “You trying to talk me into arresting you, Captain Reynolds?”

  “You wanted to do that, you would. I’m just satisfying some curiosity is all.”

  “So am I.”

  “About what?”

  Kit checked the signal strength and started the next cross-load.

  He looked up at the captain, and thought for a bit about how honest an answer to give. What the hell, he decided. “About why Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds, or Captain Malcolm Reynolds, who spends his time steering clear of the Alliance, and most of his energy keeping two badly wanted fugitives out of Alliance hands, went out of his way to save the life of a federal agent.”

  “Oh, that,” said the captain.

  “Yes.”

  “Was an accident. Didn’t know what you were.”

  “I figured out that part. It still doesn’t answer the question.”

  “Yes, it does.”

  “Then who did you think you were rescuing?”

  “Didn’t know; I just didn’t like the look of those two guys who were sitting around waiting to do someone.”

  “But it wasn’t any of your—”

  “They irritated me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because.”

  “Okay,” said Kit. “Maybe because you walked in there and figured what they were doing, and you couldn’t stand not to let them know how bad they were at it?”

  The captain didn’t answer, which, Kit decided, almost certainly counted as an affirmative. He returned his attention to the next and last cross-load he needed.

  “Okay, got it,” he said a minute later.

  “Oh, good,” said the Captain. “Then our problems are solved.”

  Kit didn’t reply; he was thinking over what he’d learned, and trying to come up with a way to use it.

  He was pretty sure there was one, and he didn’t much care for it.

  Yuva: Sakarya’s office

  Annalee Wuhan had been his personal secretary for five years, which was more than three times longer than anyone else had survived on his staff. She was efficient, loyal, unambitious, keenly observant, and had no sense of humor. She also had a long list of irritating traits, headed by a refusal to call him anything but Filo, which was how she had first been to introduced him, in a small schoolhouse where she had taught not twenty miles from this spot.

  She walked into the room, and sat down without being asked; which was another of the irritating traits.

  “Good morning, Filo,” she said.

  “Good morning, Miss Wuhan. What do we know?”

  “There is strong reason to believe the agent es—”

  “The traitor, Miss Wuhan. Let’s call things by their right name, shall we?”

  “Certainly, Filo. The agent escaped with the fugitive from Serenity in—”

  “What?”

  “Serenity. The ship. The agent and the fugitive escaped in a short range shuttle last night, and it is all but certain that they are now back on Serenity.”

  “Serenity.”

  “Yes.”

  “And is—Serenity—gone?”

  “As yet, we have been unable to confirm that. There has been no sign of a major thrust from that region escaping Hera, but they could, for one reason or another, have used low thrust, and we wouldn’t know.”

  “Or they could still be there.”

  “They could indeed.”

  “And the ship is certainly injured.”

  “A clean shot, but she was able to break atmo.”

  Sakarya sighed. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “What doesn’t Filo?”

  “We know about the traitor, and he knows we know. That removes his usefulness. Why would he stay? And why link up with—”

  “We don’t know that they’re still here.”

  Interrupting him was another of her annoying traits.

  “No, but we’re going to assume they are until we have proof they’ve left. And we do know that they’re all together. What could bring them together?”

  “You could, Filo.”

  “Me?”

  “They’d come together because they both hate you.”

  “They?”

  “I looked up the ship, Serenity.”

  “How did you learn the name?”

  “Sir, you hired that ship.”

  “I hired it?”

  “I hired it, in your name. To get the lumber for your son’s new Canteen.”

  “I see. Serenity. Interesting name.”

  “Filo, the name isn’t a coincidence.”

  “What—?”

  “Here’s the file.”

  He took the e-paper from her hand, automatically reached up to forward tab to skip to the second page, where the guts of the information usually started, but he stopped himself. It was right there, on the title page. “Serenity,” it said. “Firefly-class transport. Captain Malcolm Reynolds.”

  He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

  “Well,” he said.

  “Yes, Filo.”

  “Well, well, well.”

  “Yes, Filo.”

  “Bring me my new head of Security.”

  Serenity: Med bay

  “I saw Jayne walking by with a gun—”

  “He’s back on the crew,” said the captain.

  “Uh…okay.”

  “We’re going in. Stay with the ship, watch your sister, and be ready to patch us up when we get back.”

  “Aren’t I always?”

  “You are at that.”

  “What’s the caper this time?”

  “Caper?”

  “Is that the wrong word?”

  “Come to the dining room.”

  “Should I get River?”

  “She’s already there.”

  Simon nodded and followed the captain up the stairs and then forward. Everyone else was there, including Jayne, and including someone he hadn’t seen before: a stocky man with a neatly trimmed beard and mild eyes; he reminded Simon of a biology professor he’d liked quite a bit. He was speaking to River, who was looking at him as if he were a laboratory specimen of something completely new in the ’verse. He started toward her, but she looked up and caught his eye; she appeared to be all right.

  There is such a thing as being over-protective, he reminded himself, and took a seat next to Kaylee, who gave him a smile that made his heart skip a beat. He looked at the captain, who was standing at the head of the table, looking like—

  God! He reminds me of my father! No wonder I don’t trust him!

  He missed the first few words the captain spoke; when he came back to the present, he heard, “…just to be clear, there’s no money involved. It’s something I gotta do.”

  Wash said, “Mal, is this—” then he broke off. Simon noticed Zoë’s hand on his arm. Wash and Zoë looked at each other, but Simon couldn’t read whatever might have passed between them.

  Simon said, “Do we get to know anything about this, other than you might get us killed?”

  “Sure, Doctor. Might get us caught by the Alliance, too.”

  As he said that, his eyes shifted to the stranger.

  “Uh, not to be rude,” said Simon, “but can you tell me—”

  “Kit,” said the captain. “His name is Kit.”

  “He’s a fed,” said Zoë.

  “But he’s on our side,” said Jayne.

  Simon’s mind reeled. “He’s a what ?”

  River said, “Technically speaking, it isn’t treason if there are no violations of the law or explicit orders, or actions clearly contrary to the interest o
f the body to whom one owes loyalty.”

  “Thank you for that,” said the captain.

  “She’s right,” said the one who’d just been identified as a fed.

  “She often is,” said Simon.

  “Let’s focus on the job,” said the captain.

  “Good idea,” said Simon. “Let’s just ignore that there is an Alliance agent sitting—”

  “Yes,” said the captain. “Let’s ignore that.”

  Simon said, “I don’t think—”

  “Good. That’s how I like you best.”

  “Sir,” said Zoë, “I think he deserves an explanation. It’s his sister—”

  “It’s his sister,” said the fed, “who I am pretending does not exist, as part of a bargain I made with the captain, and if any of you ever tell anyone I said so, I’ll make it my life’s work to hunt you down and make you regret being born.”

  Simon’s biology teacher had never sounded like that.

  River said, “Technically speaking, it isn’t treason if there are—”

  “It doesn’t have to be,” said the fed.

  “Let’s move on,” said the captain. “I want to know if everyone is in.”

  “I’m always in,” said Kaylee.

  “I’m in,” said Zoë.

  “Already told you,” said Jayne.

  Wash said, “Can I just find out why —” then he looked at Zoë, shrugged, and said, “All right, I guess I’m being told I’m in.”

  “Good boy,” said Zoë.

  Simon felt the captain’s eyes on him. He hesitated, then said, “If someone comes in hurt, I’ll patch him up. Is there something else I’m supposed to do?”

  “Yes. Tell me you’re with us.”

  “Does that have some practical effect I don’t understand?”

  “No, I just want to hear it.”

  “Without letting me know what it is? What it’s about?”

  “Sakarya is a bad guy, and we mean to take him down.”

  “Now we’re in the business of taking down bad guys?”

  Kaylee said, “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Well, for one thing, we’re criminals. Doesn’t that make us bad guys?”

  “I expect it might,” said Mal.