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“Stay with the shuttle? And do what?”

Fiona sighed, causing Jayne’s hands to spasm. It was instinct to look for an impending fight when she got frustrated. “And be ready, Jayne. When I get Michael, we may have to leave fast.”

“Me being on the shuttle won’t help that. I ain’t no gorram pilot.”

“You’re not a lot of things, Jayne, but take-off from a planet isn’t that difficult. And if Michael or I aren’t there to land it, well, piloting will be the least of your problems.” Her words carry a lot more than a warning about heat from the Feds. As much as he knows she likes to work on her own, he’s also learned that she carries a special grudge for anyone who leaves her behind. Like say, one Michael Westen. “If anything comes up, I’ll wave you for tactical support,” she says in parting.

Jayne throws his weight into the pilot seat in protest. Figures, a classic Fiona-shaped explosion in the making and he has to sit here and listen to it instead of being involved in the fun. Better make sure all the guns are loaded just in case she underestimates the amount of resistance from the local authorities. Or the amount of coin that the pimp wants for keeping Westen breathing and out of the clink.

The cortex buzzes loud enough to almost make him drop Suzy, his pistol. “Gorramit, I tried to tell her-“ he stops when a purple uniform fills the screen instead of Fiona’s angry visage. The uniform ends in the old man’s full gizzard. Sam Axe, he remembers now.

“Where the hell is Fiona? And where are you two at?” Sam demands.

“Don’t think that’s any of your business.”

“Gorramit, Cobb, I don’t know what that damn Dyton woman is up this time, but the alerts are lighting up like she’s staging a coup in Londinium. Whatever she’s planning, tell her to stop it. And to stay the hell off Hera.”

Jayne’s fingers are twitching again. And his bowels feel a lot like they did right before he acquired Vera. “Why?”

“Because there’s about to be a full-scale assault, that’s why, you gorram back-berth. Now where are you?”

“An assault for Westen?” What the hell did the little man do?

“For the war! I don’t think even Mikey could have done something to justify the amount of artillery about to land on that rock. Now answer the gorram question, or I swear I will find the absolute worst rock to strand you on when you’re next in custody.”

Jayne starts grabbing guns. “Hera. How long?”

“Shit. The timetables are need to know, and I clearly don’t need to know. Get them off that rock, Cobb.” Even without knowing the Fed very well, the unspoken message comes through loud and clear. If Jayne doesn’t get Fiona and Westen off Hera, he’d better hope he doesn’t meet this certain purple-belly again.



TBC