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The Problem River stopped yelling. Her dark eyes were still wild, but she was letting Kaylee hold her. That allowed her brother to shift focus.
“Sorry?” Simon grabbed the woman’s arm again. While she flinched, she made no effort to pull herself free. “What do you mean you’re sorry, Mikiko?” “How do you know this woman?” Mal interrupted. The young doctor reluctantly tore his eyes from the woman to the captain. “She was a classmate of mine at med academy.” “I was more than a classmate, Simon Tam,” the woman spat. Wash came bounding down the stairs. “Is everything all right? I heard screaming a minute ago. Oh, we’re heading back towards more populated areas of the Rim, but we shouldn’t run into any Alliance presence.” He took a breath as he stopped by his wife. “What did I miss? And why did we pick a passenger from that barren piece of rock?” Mal grounded his teeth together. He exhaled loudly before speaking. “This here is apparently an old friend of the doctor’s. And like most things with Simon, it looks like she has a fair of amount of trouble attached to her.” “I didn’t ask any of you to interfere,” Mikiko said. “Well, yeah,” Jayne drawled, “but I wonder how a little thing like you could have gotten away from eight armed men.” “I would have found a way.” “I’m sure you would have,” Simon said, his voice rich with sarcasm. Mikiko did jerk her arm free then. “You must be loving this, Simon. Mikiko finally gets hers, right?” “Can you still hearing the children screaming?” River demanded, her voice stopping everyone. “Peek-a-boo! You’ll cry red! Don’t let the demon inside your head!” “Captain, I want off this ship! Now!” “And have another encounter with your bullet-happy friends? I don’t think so.” Mal glanced at Kaylee. “Get her out of here.” The mechanic moved quickly moved to comply with her captain’s order. Simon’s eyes followed the women until the disappeared into the living quarters. Then he, like everyone else, was focused on Mikiko. “I don’t want to be on this ship!” “Then you should have thought about that before boarding her! Now, who in the hell are you, woman?” She stared back at Mal, dark eyes defiant. “Her name is Mikiko Okada,” Simon supplied, “and like I said, she was a classmate of mine back in med academy. Graduated in the top 1% of our class and went into neurokinetics.” “Say, weren’t you only in the top 3% of the class, doc?” Jayne said. “Hey, Jayne,” Wash called, “at least he got through school.” “Enough!” Mal barked. “Okay, Dr. Okada, why were those men after you?” “It’s none of your concern, captain.” Mal gave her a dangerous grin. “You’re on my boat now, lady. Everything about you is my concern.” She sighed and sat down on a crate. “Those men hired me to treat a relative of theirs. The old man was in very bad shape and it was soon clear that he would not survive no matter what I did for him. They didn’t tell me until later that they would kill me if he died. Seeing very little choice, I fled and was going to join a transport as my ticket off that rock.” “Why did you say you were sorry?” The woman glared at Simon. “Your sister was screaming at me. I was trying to calm her down.” “No one said that she was my sister.” All the angry color drained from her face. Her eyes took a wild, trapped look. “Someone must have mentioned it,” she protested weakly. “No, no one did.” Simon’s voice was quiet with a dangerous undertone. “How do you know River, Mikiko?” “You don’t want to know, Simon,” she whispered. “Then let me guess. Your brilliant work in neurokinetics caught the attention of the Alliance. What did they use to lure you?” She sat still on the crate, her gaze unfocused. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” “What benefit do you have for lying?” “What beneft do I get for answering your questions?” Mal shifted his posture. Somehow the small movement drew everyone’s attention. “Well, it will get you several more minutes of oxygen.” “You wouldn’t.” “Oh, I would,” Mal assured her, “and I would still sleep well tonight. So, let’s start from the beginning.” She glared at the captain for a long moment. However, when she saw the tall, dumb-looking one heading to the cargo bay doors, she sighed. “Fine.” “Start talkin’,” Mal ordered. “My own lab and a sizeable grant,” she began, “that’s how they recruited me. At first, they had me designing training programs and screening subjects. Fascinating work for someone fresh out of fellowship.” “Training programs and subjects for what?” Zoe asked. “You must understand something. Human intelligence follows a distribution, a curve-if you will. Most people follow within a certain range. There are individuals outside this range. At the low end, you have the mentally challenged. At the other, you have the intellectually gifted. “The reason I tell you this is that there are outliers to the curve, people whose intelligence can’t be measured by usual means. Simon’s sister, River, is an example. “These individuals can have unique abilities besides their intelligence: clairvoyance, telepathy, even various forms of telekinesis. The Alliance wanted to know about every person with those abilities. They were always watching for signs of them.” “Wo de tian, a. The program offered to River was their way of finding her,” Book stated. Mikiko reluctantly nodded. “But that makes no sense,” Simon protested. “River had never showed signs of being a reader before going to the program.” “It was hard for the Alliance to find people with the abilities they were searching for. The focus widened to potentials. And that’s where my work came in. “The Alliance felt that if potential talents were submitted to the right stimuli, the abilities they were searching for would emerge. At first, the stimuli were fairly benign. But the Alliance grew impatient. They wanted results and they wanted them fast. We resorted to more dramatic methods and achieved a variety of results. River fared better than most subjects.” “Oh, that’s a great comfort,” Simon muttered bitterly. “So, now what do we do with her?” Jayne demanded. “I’m standing right here,” Mikiko growled. “Lock her in a room,” Mal ordered. “I’ll decide what to do with her later.” “Captain, I protest!” “Woman, don’t try my patience!” “Better do what he says, Mikiko,” Simon stated. His face, like his voice, lacked any emotion. “Jayne, show the lady to her quarters.” “Shia, captain,” Jayne said. He grabbed Mikiko’s arm. Immediately Mikiko jerked her arm free of Jayne’s grasp but made no other move of resistance. She followed him to the rooms. When they disappeared from sight, Simon let out a pent-up breath. “I’m going to check on River and Kaylee.” Mal shook his head. “Just once I’d like things to go as planned.” * * * * * Chinese to English translations from http:// fireflychinese. home. att. ent Wo de tian, a—dear god in heaven Shia—affirmative |
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