MAL
Well, let's see what a man like you would kill for.
SIMON
No, don't!
Mal kicks off the top of the box.
It flies off, clattering to the floor
as the smoke clears from over what's inside.
Mal steps forward, looks.
ANGLE: ABOVE THE BOX
Curled inside is a naked, unconscious teenage girl.
The box is clearly a cryo-chamber of some sort, perfectly conformed to her body, a sleep metallic womb.
Mal looks at the girl.
At Simon. At the girl.
MAL
Huh.
BLACK OUT.
INT. SERENITY - DINING ROOM - LATER
Book and Kaylee have made dinner. People are gathering, sitting, helping themselves to things -- everybody's moving and talking
over each other and everyone's there
save Wash and Inara.
ZOE
Oh, this is incredible.
BOOK
It's not much -- I had a garden
at the Abbey, thought I should
bring what I could.
SIMON
It's very kind of you to share with
all of us.
ZOE
I'm gonna make a plate for Wash...
BOOK
(to Simon)
Well, it won't last, and they're never the same when they're frozen.
The important thing is the spices.
A man can live on packaged food from here 'til Judgment Day
if he's got enough rosemary.
DOBSON
(over this, to Jayne)
Can you pass me the tomatoes?
He does, after taking several slices.
People settle.
BOOK :
Captain, you mind if I Say Grace?
MAL (which means ‘Bad’) :
Only if you say it out loud.
A beat -- Mal has broken the mood.
He starts eating, others follow.
Book lowers his head a moment, as do Kaylee, Dobson, and Jayne,
then they eat as well.
SIMON
So, does it happen a lot?
Government commandeering Your Ship,
telling you where to go?
MAL
That's what Governments are for --
get in a man's way.
DOBSON
Well, it's good, if the supplies are
needed.
JAYNE
We're just happy to be doing Good Works.
DOBSON
I hear a lot of the border moons
are
in bad shape. Plagues, and famine...
ZOE
Well, some of that's exaggerated, and some of it ain't.
All those moons --
just like the central planets,
they're as close to Earth-That-Was as
we could make 'em: gravity, atmosphere,
and such, but...
MAL
Once they're terraformed, They'll
dump settlers on there with nothing
but blankets, hatchets, maybe a herd.
Some of them make it, some of them…
SIMON
Then I guess it's good we're helping.
KAYLEE
(to Simon)
You're a Doctor, right?
SIMON
Oh. Uh, yes. Yes, I was a trauma surgeon on Osiris, in Capital City.
MAL
Long way from here.
KAYLEE
(to Simon)
You seem so Young. To be A Doctor.
SIMON
(changing the subject)
Yeah. You're pretty young
to be a ship's mechanic.
KAYLEE
No how. Machines just got workings,
and they talk to me.
BOOK
That's a rare gift.
KAYLEE
Oh, not like being a doctor.
Helping fix people, that's important.
JAYNE
Little Kaylee here just wishes
you was a gynecologist.
Jayne cackles. Kaylee, visibly humiliated, looks down.
MAL
(hard)
Jayne.
You'll keep a civil tongue in that mouth
or I will sew it shut,
is there an understanding between us?
JAYNE
You don't pay me to talk pretty.
Just because Kaylee gets lubed-up
over some big city dandy --
MAL
Walk away from this table. Right now.
A beat. Jayne doesn't believe it,
but Mal's expression is stony.
Jayne goes, grabbing a bunch of food as he does.
Everyone is silent a moment.
SIMON
What do you pay him for?
MAL
What?
SIMON
I was just wondering
what His Job is.
On The Ship.
Mal stares a moment.
MAL
….Public Relations.
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