Moonbrains: Khonsu City

Chapter 1

Jayne couldn't hear over the gun blasts. Tanks were rolling along, firing their missiles at the enemy while warships buzzed overhead begging for notice. Jayne was on the big gun. He called her Amelia. She was a pretty anti-aircraft piece circa the first war. Reclaimed from an Alliance weapons collector and cleaned up nice for her comeback tour.

Mal was barking orders to hold the line, but Jayne barely heard him. Always the same orders out here near the black. Hold the line and maybe the Alliance will give up this time.

The only reason they ever did give up was River. Where was that girl?

Just as he was thinking it, River ran up from the front. She looked so different than the moonbrained kid who led them to Miranda. Long brown coat, armor showing through her worn T-shirt. Pants instead of a skirt. Boots over her normally bare feet. A warrior instead of a girl.

Jayne saw rather than heard her tell Mal something, probably something that would change the tide of the whole battle. Hell, maybe this time it would even change the tide of the whole war. Where to shoot. And when. That was River's forte.

Mal called for Zoe. Zoe played on the radio. Jayne kept shooting.

River was on her way towards him when an enemy craft, small, fast, and deadly, swooped low and began firing. Jayne fired back, hit it, and watched it crash into the mountainside. He turned back to smile cockily at River, but she was lying on the ground, blood pooling around her.

"Jayne!" River's voice over the intercom woke him up. Jayne snapped up and fell out of bed. "You should be more careful," River said sweetly as Jayne muttered to himself in Chinese. "Come up to the bridge. We're orbiting Khonsu."

Heart still pumping from his dream, Jayne shakily got up, dressed, and quickly made his way to the bridge. Mal gave him a curious look as Jayne entered and crossed the floor to stand behind River's seat.

"Having nightmares of terrifying space monkeys, Jayne?" Mal asked.

"Rabbits," Jayne said. "Scary little fur-covered monsters." Mal laughed. River looked up at Jayne, giving him the "I know you're lying, but I'm going to let you get away with it at the moment," look. "Thought you said this was a moon."

"Well, it ain't," Mal said.

"Orbital pattern is irregular. Looks like a moon part of the year. Looked like a moon when they named it," River said, tilting her head as she looked out the window.

"Why ain't we landing?" Jayne asked. "Don't fit that we're just orbitin'."

"Waiting for word from Monty. They've got a safe spot for us, just don't know where it is yet."

"Why ain't they done told ya before?"

"It changes," River said simply.

River looked out the window, wondering what in the hell kind of work Monty could have for them on this gorram too-close-to-the-core-for-comfort planet. From what Jayne could see, the planet was all city. In Jayne's experience, there was a dark look to planets like that, planets been terra-formed then cut up to make cities. Didn't look like a proper New Earth no more. Planets like this were cold, heartless, with nothing left of the natural world. Planets like this made Jayne's skin crawl. Too many factories and buildings. Too many humans all crowded together. Too many -

"Schools," River muttered, interrupting Jayne's thoughts. She looked back up at Jayne. "Khonsuians like their schools."

The screen bleeped. River hit a button. A woman's face appeared. She was about Zoe's age, with a hard look to her, like Zoe on the battlefield. All serious business. The woman had brown hair up in a tight bun and piercing green eyes. If she didn't look so shrewish, Jayne would have thought she looked kinda pretty. River twitched.

"Captain Reynolds?" the woman asked, looking at Jayne with a confused expression.

"Hell no," Jayne answered.

Mal pushed him out of the way and began to cover, "No, ma'am. Serenity is no longer owned by Captain Reynolds. I'm Captain Smith."

"Cut the crap, Mal," the woman said. "Monty sends his best, but he's been unavoidably detained on another mission." She paused. "We're going on without him. It was never really Monty who was in charge. And we've been waiting too gorram long on this planet for an endgame gonna be worth all this sneaking around."

"So the rumors are true then? Well, ain't that shiny?"

"What rumors?" Jayne asked River, his voice low.

"Browncoat underground has all but taken over Khonsu City."

"Which amounts to taking over the whole planet. Since it is all one big city. One big God-forsaken city."

"Who are you, lady?" Jayne asked.

"Sonja Geller." She paused again. "I'm sending you the location."

"No need, General Geller," River interrupted. "I know where you want us to go."

"Speaking of rumors being true. Shiny," Geller said. "See you planet-side, then."

The screen bleeped back off.

"River?" Mal asked.

"You always say I shouldn't answer a question that hasn't actually been asked."

"Can we trust her?"

"Monty was never going to meet us here. She just didn't think you'd come if it were anyone else asking." River paused for a moment. "But she's not Alliance. And she needs us. Don't know what for yet, but it's worth a second look. Bit hard being psychic from orbit."

"Well, then. Let's go be good guys," Mal said. "Take us down."

"Never been to a city like Khonsu before," Kaylee said, helping Jayne load the new mule, which was actually a worse wreck than the old mule, but at least it wasn't in a hundred pieces on a valley floor on Achilles. "Simon says it ain't like Ariel. Just enough of the black to make it a bit wild." They had just landed, and already Kaylee was rearing to get off the ship and touch real ground. Jayne knew she hadn't been doing so well the past couple of weeks. He tried awfully hard not to think about why.

"Khonsu City is just like every other core city. Big, shiny, and full of folk who don't care about anybody but themselves. Which is precisely why they didn't see the Browncoats comin'," Mal muttered, opening the airlock.

Jayne rechecked all his weapons before taking a step outside. His first impulse was to ask how anybody could actually breathe on this gorram planet. "What the hell is that?" he asked, coughing.

Kaylee retreated, taking the stairs toward Inara's shuttle, as River came down. "We're in the outskirts of Section One. It's a chemical recycling plant. Biggest one in the core."

"What, did they build this one and then decide it was too awful to try for any more so close to civilization?" Mal asked, his face contorted.

"Something like that," River nodded.

"Let's just get to the rendezvous," Mal said. "Kaylee!" he bellowed back into the ship.

From far off, Kaylee answered, "I'm comin', Captain! Not to fret!"

Inara, stepping into view, shook her head. "No, she's not coming," she said.

Mal sighed, shaking his head. "All right. You're staying on the ship. Simon, too," Mal said to Inara. He turned to walk out of the ship, spotted Jayne, and pointed at him. "You, too."

"What do ya mean, me too what?"

"Stay on the ship."

"With the womenfolk."

"And Simon," Inara said.

"Like I said. With the womenfolk," Jayne repeated.

"I ain't leaving them without protection. You stay on the ship. Closer her up, don't go sticking your nose anywhere. Just keep everyone out of trouble until we find out what we're here for."

Jayne exchanged a look with River as he walked back into the ship. He didn't want her to go alone. The last part of his dream came back to him. If anything happened to her -

River blinked at him, like she'd just realized something. Maybe she really hadn't known what his dream actually was about. Maybe she'd just known Jayne wasn't really afraid of bunny rabbits.

"Your fears are not rational," River stated, still staring at him.

"Generally speaking, Moonbrain, fear ain't supposed to be rational," Jayne retorted.

Zoe put an arm around River and started pulling her along behind Mal, who was now headed for the mule. "We won't be long, Jayne. Don't get any ideas about the ship."

"Don't worry. If he took it now, he'd be stuck with Simon." River stopped. She turned around, another surprised look etched on her face.

He wasn't no mind-reading genius, but Jayne was pretty sure what River was scared of. Jayne had been successfully avoiding being alone in a room with Simon since they all left Achilles. Now, Jayne supposed, he was out of places to hide and definitely out of excuses to run. In short, Jayne was humped.

Jayne stepped back into the hold, watching Mal drive away, Zoe riding shotgun and River in the back. He closed the door and turned around to find Simon staring at him from the overpass. He had those freakin' stupid sunglasses on, and it seemed to Jayne he was trying to hard to be a badass. "Doc," Jayne nodded at him, making his way up the stairs.

"I think it's time we had a talk, Jayne."

There was a reason Jayne never met their parents. Older brothers, he was beginning to realize, were even worse.

"About what, Simon?" Jayne asked, moving past him and heading for the kitchen.

"About my sister," Simon said, blocking Jayne's path.

"Ah, Simon. You better not talk about her behind her back. She'll find out, and then she'll kill you with her brain," Jayne said teasingly. Simon stared at him. "What do you want me to say? That we're just friends?"

"I'm really not in the mood to be lied to."

Jayne backed away slightly at his tone, then hated himself for it. This was Simon. Simon. Why the hell should he explain himself to Simon? What could he do to him?

That's when Simon remembered Ariel, and the Lassiter heist, and the infirmary table. And the first time River threatened to kill him with her brain. Okay, so maybe there was a lot Simon could do to him, given the right circumstances.

"Nor am I in the mood for any sort of details or explanation," Simon said, putting up a hand as Jayne was about to say that he and River were sleeping together. Jayne was glad he hadn't actually gotten that far in the sentence. "And I know you're intentions cannot be honorable, so I won't even ask."

Jayne was offended. "I got all sorts of honor."

Simon just looked at him.

"Well, I don't got any dishonor. Not with regards to River, anyway."

Simon shook his head. "I just wanted to make something clear. If you hurt her, assuming of course she doesn't get to you before I can, you will wish the Reavers had gotten a hold of you on Miranda." He locked eyes with Jayne. "Because if you hurt her, and she goes back to the black, all bets are off. Hippocrates or no Hippocrates."

Simon stared at him for a full minute just to let Jayne know he was serious before he turned and walked off down the corridor. Jayne was left on the overpass wondering who the hell Hippocrates was. He was pretty sure, though, that Simon meant to kill him if anything happened to River.

All in all, it seemed fair enough to Jayne. He'd killed a man for hurting his sister once. And he'd do it again.

"I think it's sweet," Kaylee said from behind him.

Jayne turned and raised an eyebrow, "Sweet? It's sweet that your baby-daddy wants to kill me?"

"No, it's sweet about you and River."

Jayne gave her his best, "I still don't know what you're talking about" look. It was one he'd perfected over the years of pretending to be a complete moron.

"It's been obvious for a while that you care about River. You're as protective of her as Mal or Simon is! And though it ain't so obvious to some people on this ship," Kaylee smiled sweetly, "River's had a crush on you for years."

Jayne blinked. "She tried to kill me."

"And you tried to kill her," Kaylee said in a "What's your point?" kind of tone. "Anyway," she continued, "I'm happy for you. Finally got yourself a woman who can handle you."

Jayne was about to take offense to being handled by anyone, but, even he had to admit, he rather enjoyed being handled by River. Out loud he said, "Finally got me a Moonbrain, is what you mean, Kaylee."

"Same thing. A woman's got to be a bit of a moonbrain to be with you, Jayne." With that she swooped around him and went off toward the engine room.