Time Turner
. . . fiction by Odyssea
. . .Harvest Of Bones. . .
There was a time when Mal would just disappear. Only for about two weeks a year, he'd give everybody a nice, long shore leave and head off in Serenity to points unknown. In the early years he took Zo� with him, but after she married Wash, he left her behind, too. Wash and Kaylee wondered where he had gone, but Zo� never said a word.
After about three years, Mal stopped running off. He never mentioned where he had gone all those years, and never made reference to his disappearances again. By the time they took on Simon, River and Book, nobody on board really remembered Mal's old quirk. This year, they would all be surprised.
After the shootout at the whorehouse, after Inara left the Serenity for a cushy position on Persephone, the whole ship was in a bit of turmoil. Kaylee spent most days pouting, while River got angry and sullen, as if she was picking up on everybody's emotions. It didn't strike anyone but Zo� that Mal was going to do something about it.
It was simple. He got into one of the shuttles and flew off. The shuttle couldn't handle more than a short-range flight, which explained why Mal had Wash steer them into one of the more god-forsaken areas of the black. There were only a few planets out there, somewhat populated if only to give pretence of a unified Alliance presence. Nothing much worth stealing, nothing much at all. Wash couldn't figure it out, even before Mal had jumped ship.
Zo� had figured something like this would happen, and had carefully place trackers on the shuttles. The trackers led them to a tiny, dirty planet with barely a hundred settlers on it. Mal was nowhere near the tiny settlement, but instead on the opposite side.
Nobody spoke on board Serenity while they landed. Kaylee and Wash, at least, remembered this from before; the newer members of the crew were worried that Mal had snapped. Zo� knew, though, knew well and good what they would find here.
They found Mal, standing at the top of a little crevasse, staring into its depths. He didn't turn his head as he said, "Figured you'd come after me."
"Figured right, sir," Zo� replied. "You didn't think we'd just let you go?"
"No, I didn't. I just didn't want you all to see this."
"It's not like I haven't seen it before." Zo� walked up next to him, leaving the rest of them standing behind awkwardly. "It's a long sight worse than I remember, though."
Mal turned to face his crew. "You don't have to look at this. It's not a test, so if you want, you can turn right back again. We won't be here long. If you do look, well, just bear in mind this is how we remember."
He turned and walked away, towards the Serenity. The crew stepped up, one by one, slowly looking at the contents of the crevasse.
It was filled, almost to the brim, with shining ivory bones, weathered in the heat and wind.
Mal said to himself, "That's all war is. A gorram harvest of bones."
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