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The Two Companions Illustrated Ch. 01

By: rondori



We don't make any money in Joss's verse, we just play here. 

*

PART I- Post BDM: in which Inara teaches a couple of novices the tricks of the trade.

Prologue: When the original colony ships had arrived, the society was largely egalitarian due to the long shipboard confinement and huge sacrifices and death rates involved in terraforming and settling the raw worlds they found. Sacred prostitution by both males and females was seen as a public service and was actually done on a rotating basis among the whole population on some ships and in the early colonies.

As the core worlds gained in prosperity, the companions began to be elevated in status. As the clientele gained wealth and status, the guild chose to bar from their membership all but the most highly trained companions and excluding the more common prostitutes that serviced the working classes. The companions also began to incorporate elements of geisha and Greek companion standards and practices.

The settlement of the rim worlds also saw the rise of neo-Puritanism and the consequential rise in discrimination against the common prostitutes in their midst. The companions of the core worlds continued to rise in status while they in turn elevated the cult of Isis to ritualized ceremony with few actual believers.

The rim world colonists who largely came from the poor classes of the core worlds looked back with nostalgia on the culture and glamour of the core worlds and especially the companions.

With prestige, the guild gained power and became a significant player among the power elite. People who know how to manipulate lust, desire and considerable funds have to operate in the real world if for no other reason than self protection. 

And for self-protection, the guild had always maintained an elite group of covert agents drawn from within their own ranks who discreetly provided protection to the companions. Of course, all companions were trained in a variety of self-defense arts including weapons. It was a point of honor that no-one ever robbed or forced a companion against their will without suffering severe repercussions including death. 

Unlike the corporations, with their top-down hierarchical organization, the companion guild was always run by an association of elected officials with leadership coming from the most skilled practitioners and teachers of the sexual arts: that is: the priestesses. Like traditional prostitutes, most companions were female and the males as they got older tended to gravitate towards administration or enforcement.

Setting: Inara's shuttle:

As Inara sat in the pilot's seat, going through preflight check, flames lanced past her cockpit window. Like the true professional she was, she was extremely thorough. "I see Kaylee tightened up those coupling sleeves. I don't detect even the slightest leak." Their friendship and the adoration of a young mechanic meant that her shuttle always received loving attention. 

Inara paused to look outside at the flames blasting past the window and admired their beauty and thought once again "This is what the first astronauts must have seen". And with each buffet of flame she thought "There but for the buffer dampening shield, I would just be a puff of ash".

River's voice came over the intercom. "OK, Inara our speed is dropping down to MACH two and you're good to go". 

"Thanks Mei-mei, undocking, three-two-one undocked." As the shuttle cleared, Inara pulled up on the yoke, kicked the rudder and pulled a complete Immilman turn and headed towards her appointment. She then pulled a barrel roll out of sheer exuberance.

One thing that Inara had never confessed to Wash, Mal, or even River (though she was sure River knew) was that she loved to fly. Just then River's voice chirped "Yahoo, cowgirl – have fun."

"Thanks, I'll do my best. See you at the rendezvous. Out." As she hung inverted in the sky over Boros, Inara thought "Worlds like marbles in the sky and stars like dust beneath her feet" Such was the glamorous life she imaged when she set out to become a companion.

Of course, life these days was different. Ever since Miranda, she had become known as 'that Companion' who had helped to embarrass the Alliance and the major corporations who were running the government. Since most of her wealthy clients were corporate or government connected, and the point of having a companion was to show off their conspicuous consumption, Inara was suddenly without clients. Being publicly connected to a known terrorist (who obviously hated freedom as the corporate media put it) was not something they could afford. The plebs lionized Inara and her charms were publicly sung about and often embarrassingly exaggerated. But plebs could not pay her fees, nor could she cut her rates without violating guild law.

Inara had decided to utilize a little known pro bono clause because it was considered temple duty and released her from guild dues and fees. Inara would use her considerable skills and talents as a relationship counselor. This was also to mollify Mal's puritan prejudices. She conveniently neglected to mention that her services would include sex therapy.

Inara had always enjoyed the relationship and couple client classes at the training house and as a companion she had often been hired by celebratory couples for special occasions. She remembered with pleasure a unique night with two male dancers whose stamina was prodigious and only rivaled by their sweet nature and fashion sense. 

Speaking of which, she could use a relationship counselor herself for her relationship with Mal. They were strongly attracted to each other but they couldn't seem to get past her profession and his Puritanism. But that would have to wait; right now she had to earn a living. 

As she dropped in towards the town of White Pine, Boros, she couldn't help but notice how raw the world looked. Terraforming had stabilized Atmo and gravity and accelerated soil formation. But the soil was only inches thick and would not support real vegetation. The local community was operating under a boom economy due to rich and rare mineral deposits. Consequently local government employees were relatively impoverished. 

A couple she interviewed over the cortex both worked at the local terraforming quality control testing lab. On any settled planet they would have been comfortable middle class, but on this planet, planetary inflation had pushed them into poverty. Consequently they now qualified for pro bono services when they applied for relationship counseling.

During separate interviews Inara had established that the relationship was going on seven years with one child. They remained loving and committed to each other but somewhere the sex part went south. He complained that she was repressed and inhibited and the pressures of work left him with little time for romance. She complained that he often seemed disinterested and that when they did make love he was often finished too soon and she was left unsatisfied. 

Both of them seemed intelligent and described themselves as open-minded both were also overawed that a glamorous and legendary companion would deign to give them counseling and amazed that her fees were so reasonable. 

As her shuttle entered the landing pattern for the white pine spaceport she noticed the usual cluster of rough housing in cheap bars and casinos and brothels. They had grown up between the port and the workers quarters which were laid out in the traditional pattern of the terraforming authority with another cluster near the local mines and processing mills. 

Inara thought. "Oh well, this is how Londinium and Shinon had started out hundreds of years ago."

Once landed she contracted with a healthy looking and good natured Pedi cab driver who gave her a running commentary on the local sites such as they were. She had chosen a nondescript traveling cloak with hood and a sturdy traveling kit on wheels that Book had given her as a parting gift.

When she had arrived, Inara paid her driver and announced herself. She then greeted her clients in the traditional manner. Their child had been sent on a sleepover with trusted friends. 

After they welcomed her in, and they shared tea, Inara silently appraised them: Gabriel was a tall, muscular good looking man with a good mixture of African ancestry and Mocha colored skin. Harmony was a willow thin oriental of striking beauty. Both were obviously techno-geeks. Gabriel hid his nervousness and discomfort by being over solicitous and was obliviously relieved to be sent off on a superfluous errand. 

Inara and Harmony settled into girl talk and while the chatted; Inara asked her how she felt about her sexuality. Harmony replied that she had been raised in a traditional Chinese household with repressed sexuality and her few experiments in tech school were brief and unsatisfactory. She always felt that she was unattractive and that men felt intimidated by her intelligence. Inara laughed and stated that based on her looks, brains and grace, Harmony would have been considered as an obvious candidate for companion school.

Harmony blushed at the compliment and Inara took her hand in hers and said "Let's make you beautiful for Gabriel." While Inara supervised her toilette, she selected several items of jewelry for Harmony including toe rings and a belly necklace that would compliment her long delicate toes and tiny waist.. Inara also selected perfume, aphrodisiacs and sex crèmes. 

As Harmony dressed, and Inara washed, they talked about the life of a companion. It was clear that Harmony was starting to display a schoolgirl crush on Inara. She also confessed that she was secretly disappointed in her first encounter that Gabriel was a virgin with even less experience than she; however, his good looks and sweet nature had won her over.

Inara laughed and clapped her hands "Excellent, It looks like we have our work cut out for us, don't we?" Harmony charmingly blushed and smiled at the floor. When Gabriel arrived, Inara sent him into the shower with a simple garment and instructions to shave and put on a very small amount of his best cologne. When he emerged, they were all dressed in a simple toga-like silk garment that was clasped at the shoulder, the standard companion training outfit for the sex practical labs.

Candles had been lit, and Gabriel stood there in awe of the two beautiful women who stood in front of him, the glamorous companion and his suddenly gorgeous wife. Perhaps it was the aphrodisiac scented incense that Inara had lit or the seductive perfume that his wife was wearing. Inara then had Gabriel light a recently purchased pipe full of spice weed.

Inara then told them that they should consider themselves companions in training and that she would be their instructor. "Now I realize that we are all clean and relaxed, but I want to teach you how to wash each other's feet." Inara then taught them her specialty by example and had them repeat on each other and then on herself.

When they were pleasantly relaxed, Inara began to describe how beautiful she thought Harmony looked that night. She praised her shiny blue black hair and the smooth texture of her "old ivory" colored skin. "Now Gabriel, I want you to forget everything you know about Harmony and approach her as if pleasing her was the most important task of your life." 

Gabriel nervously swallowed and nervously reached out towards his wife. Inara was secretly both amused and touched at the slight tremble with which he stroked the mother of his child. Inara then had him approach Harmony from the back and smell her hair and neck while he stroked her arms and pressed her palms to his lips. At Inara's command, he loosed the clasp at his wife's shoulder and began a light massage and kissing of her back. "Now, Harmony, I want you to turn to Gabe and let him look at your breasts. Gabriel, really look at them and worship her perfectly conical breasts with gentle kisses and caresses" Inara again smiled inwardly at the tender and marveling manner that these life partners were treating one another.

As Harmony lay back on her bed, Inara had Gabriel kiss down her torso to her stomach and remove the rest of her toga. At that point Inara poured a small amount of a liquid into Harmony's navel that she had been warming against her own skin. She told them that it was an aphrodisiac and would increase Gabriel's stamina when he licked it out of her belly button. 

Inara instructed. "Now I would like you to kiss down one leg to her toes and then back up the other leg."

As he neared the juncture of her thighs, harmony began to open up her legs. When he hesitated, Inara asked Gabriel how much he knew about cunnilingus.

Gabriel turned a pleasing sort of pink and stammered "Next to nothing." 

Inara smiled "Good, I prefer to pour into an empty cup."

"Before we begin I want to stress that we will only be working on basic techniques that will be easy to repeat and that you will both enjoy. More advanced techniques are often complicated and stressful for beginning students of the sexual arts. Now, watch very carefully as I demonstrate because you will have to repeat the procedure." With that, she began kissing and licking around Harmony's bush, working her way to the soft and sensitive skin between her legs and mons. 

When Inara had approved Gabriel's attempts to copy her and Harmony was starting to moan, Inara took out a small vial filled with glittering dust. Unscrewing the cap, she extracted a feather and used it to lightly dust Harmony's nether lips. "This is an antimicrobial and antifungal herbal mix which will reduce friction and increase her sensitivity and tastes good to boot." 

She then lowered her head and with an open mouth, blew on Harmony's mound. Harmony groaned and raised her sex to Inara's lips. The companion lightly flicked her tongue up and down Harmony's labia. Harmony began to tremble and collapsed back on the bed. Inara looked up into Harmony's lust lidded eyes and turned to Gabriel "Now you try." 

As Gabriel began to imitate her, Inara guided Harmony's hand to top of Gabe's head in order to guide him in his ministrations to her now swollen and gleaming lips and protruding button. With both Inara and Gabe lying between Harmony's bent knees, the companion couldn't help but notice Gabriel's growing bulge pressing against her leg. "Now Gabriel, aren't you sorry you didn't try this before?"

Gabriel tried to respond but it came out something like "Yesh mamm"

Inara laughed "Don't try to talk with your mouth full." When Inara moved up to tell Harmony not to press Gabe's head so hard she placed her hand on Harmony's bicep, Harmony suddenly grabbed Inara's hand and pulled it to her breast. She arched her back, clamped her thighs on Gabe's head and began to buck up and down while her eyes rolled wildly in her head. Suddenly, she screwed her eyes shut and her face flushed scarlet while she gave a wild and beautiful scream of pleasure "Lao-tyen boo!" and collapsed back on the bed like a rag doll.

Gabriel looked up in surprise and Inara said "I think that's enough prep work Gabe, just hold her and let her catch her breath."

Harmony tremblingly pulled Gabriel into an embrace and kissed him "Xie-Xie, honey that never happened before!" Then she turned to Inara and kissed her too and gushed "Xie-Xie, Inara, Runtse de SHANG-DEE, you are a wonderful teacher!"

Inara nodded her head modestly "No, I just had good teachers." She paused. "Well, if you are ready, it is your turn to be the student and Gabriel will be the subject. Gabe, sit up and let Harmony take off your smock."

Gabriel complied and the lifted garment revealed a very large erection. As his face reddened under Inara's gaze, she commented "Well, Gabriel, your 'Trumpet' is very impressive but let's make sure you don't sound it too soon." Gabriel laughed and Inara could see the tension go out of his shoulders. "Now Harmony, what do you know about felatio?"

It was Harmony's turn to look embarrassed " Well, my girlfriend and I tried to experiment on a male techie back at the U." when Gabriel looked astounded, she defended herself "Look, honey, nothing happened, he was too drunk to even get it up."

Inara exclaimed "Excellent, another tabla Rosa to work with. Harmony, I want you to start with Gabe's chest, lick and kiss him, paying particular attention to his very sensitive nipples." While she was dong this, Gabriel attempted to fondle Harmony's breasts. Inara swatted him away "She's the student and you're the subject, wait your turn." 

When Harmony inquired if she too would be drinking from Gabriel's navel, Inara replied "No Mei-mei, orgasm just gives women more energy not less; besides, with Gabe here at full gantry, I doubt if you could even get to his navel." 

Harmony laughed nervously "I don't even know where to start."

Inara smiled "Start by kissing and licking in large circles everywhere but his genitals, gradually weave your net tighter and tighter. Remember, you are not a dog and this is not a bone. Instead, think like a cat playing with its' prey." To Gabriel's alarmed look, Inara calmed him with "It's only metaphors, silly."

When Harmony had worked her way inward but still hesitated, Inara approved "Good, now let me apply this gel. It will reduce his sensitivy and it's anti-microbial and I think you will like the taste." With that she applied the gel with both hands and her fingers laced and working them up and down in a swirling pattern (thinking, "Sweet Buddha, this thing requires two hands!"). When it was completely glistening, she cupped her hands under his basket and lowered her mouth to gently blow up and down his shaft then lick with a flickering tongue back up to his glans. She slowed down to bathe the head and then to pop it into her mouth like a large ripe strawberry. The sight of the beautiful companion performing expert felatio held both her clients in complete awe.

When Gabriel began to rapidly pant and twitch, Inara gave the base a firm squeeze and raised her head to look him in the eye. "Daoist health theory states that the ratio of your wife's orgasms to yours is in direct proportion to the health, longevity and the sexual prowess of both of you. Therefore, the more you can hold back, the better it will be for all concerned." 

Inara then turned to Harmony and releasing her grip on Gabriel "Now you try, and remember to monitor the tightness of the skin of his basket and tighten your grip on the shaft when he starts to get excited." Monitoring Harmony's technique and offering helpful comments, Inara noticed that Harmony was spending too much bobbing of her head up and down and trying to jam as much as possible of him into her mouth. "No Mei-mei, "that technique will produce a tired jaw and would only be useful in getting him off which is not what we are striving for, is it?'

"Sorry, Sufi, I was just getting into it."

"Well, that's enough hors 'd orderves; let's move on to the main course. I want you both of you to lie down on your right sides with Harmony in front." "Harmony, place Gabriel's staff of jade between your legs and apply this lubricant to him while working your cinnabar gate against him as you rock back and forth. Both of you should use your left hands to touch one another because it's the best path to the right brain and that's the quickest way to learn."

When Gabriel finally did push into Harmony, she saw Harmony's eyes glaze over and her lids grow heavy with lust. When he had achieved full penetration, Inara told him to stop and just experience the moment and the feel of his wife and to carefully explore her cinnabar gate while Harmony should cradle his sack of gold in order to appreciate his virility and to monitor his excitement.


The Two Companions Illustrated Ch. 01



"Ok, Gabriel, now pull out until only the head is still in and make small, shallow thrusts alternating with slow deep penetration in a ratio of seven to one. Gradually decrease the ratio until its all deep and then reverse the process. This will produce a pattern of peaks and troughs to her arousal."

Inara watched with approval and smiled with amusement when she noticed that Gabriel was silently counting his strokes. She reached over and slapped his butt "Lighten up Gabe; this is a dance, it's not a formula. Listen to the music and pay attention to your partner." 

"Don't worry; it's also the way he dances." Gabriel laughed and Harmony panted as she threw her leg over his and clasped him closer. As the two of them began to work together, a sweat formed on their bodies. Increasing their pace, they began to syncopate until Harmony suddenly froze and reached down to squeeze Gabe. "Not yet, please Bao-bei, not yet." When they began anew, Harmony looked up at Inara and with a mix of gratitude and pleasure; she grasped the companion's hand.

Inara returned the clasp with a tender touch and for a moment there was a silent communication and celebration of the sexual spirituality and communion with the Goddess that was the highest form of the companion's art. As Inara gazed down on their mutual writhing, she marveled at how beautiful they were in both raw sexuality and in the tender mutual labor of love and how unlike her wealthy core clients and their posturing and pretense. The sight, sound and smell of good sex surged over her washing away all her detached and critical reserve.

Just then Harmony's face clouded over and her eyes rolled back in her head. Pulling her husband into her, she cried "now, Bao-bei, for sweet Buddha's sake, now!" Both of them gave a mighty roar and shuddered and jerked to a powerful climax. Inara's own vagina clenched in sympathy and she trembled in the sudden wash of feeling. Harmony turned to Gabriel and gave him a long tender kiss and then pulled their teacher to her to deliver the same kiss. "Sufi, please join us." 



 Inara smiled "How could I refuse such wonderful clients? But as your teacher I need to remind you that once I was as green as you and that only through long practice with a light heart can you become the great lovers that lie within you."

The companion then dropped her own garment to reveal the loveliness of her olive skin and the perfection of her body. And with a feral grin and a twinkle in her eye she lay down beside the lovers. "Now let's have fun, shall we?" 

With the dawn, Inara slipped out of her new friend's home still tingling with the feel of shared delight (and Gabriel's 'horn') and not a little of the tenderness that comes with a good workout. She stepped to the Pedi cab stand buoyant but tired and noted with surprise that her Pedi cab driver was still at the curb sitting with his conical hat pulled down over his face. As she stepped closer, he rose with a sly smile and she noted with alarm that it was not the same man and took a step backwards only to feel the slap of an expertly applied cosh to the base of her skull from a second man who had slipped up behind her. As she slid towards blackness, she thought "How stupid…."

To be continued...



The Two Companions Illustrated Ch. 02



PART TWO (In which Inara must teach two more and meets her master.)

As Inara groggily awoke, she became aware of the presence of two men standing over her. She kept her eyes shut and assessed her situation. The companion was lying on her back on some kind of bed with her wrists bound with what felt like plastic zip ties. Her legs were bent and from the cool air on them, she was evidently naked from the waist down with her gown bunched up on her belly. From the sounds of the street outside, they were on at least the second floor of a thinly walled building. Moreover, she could feel a certain cloudy haze around her thoughts tempting her to relax and drift with her emotions. That combined with a burning at the corners of her eyes told her one thing: Drops! Instantly adrenalin flooded her system as she realized that she was in deep trouble.

"It looks like she's coming around; go outside and keep watch while I start breaking her in. We'll take turns until she's ready to cooperate." 

The other man whined "But it's my turn to be first."

"Listen, go-se for brains, I'm the boss and I'm always first!"

Inara heard the door close. She opened her eyes to see a rough and scruffy man removing an incongruously fine linen shirt and unbuttoning his pants. "Ah yes, my little coney, I've checked you out and you're prime stuff alright. Everybody on Boros knows I'm the boss of this town, why didn't you come to me first before you tried to peddle your wares in my jurisdiction? Now you'll just have to learn the first lesson of life around here, Always give your betters their due." With that he began to lift her calves up onto his forearms.

"You're never going to get away with this, I'm a companion!"

He paused and laughed. "Yes, and I'm the King of Londondinium, with a shiny hat on my head. Now you just relax, if you please me I'll make you part of my stable. If you don't, you're still screwed only you'll be doing it as a slave on some dump like Higgins' Moon begging to sell what's left of your body for drops." As he paused to spit on his palm and lubricate himself, Inara slid her legs up his arms towards his shoulders. "Shiny, you're a bright one, you get the point straightaway don't cha?"

Inara suddenly slammed her ankles into the sides of his neck, locking her toes behind his head and began to squeeze his carotids, jugulars and the nerves running along their sides. "I'll kill you to Gorram Emma's' Hell you piece of go se pimp." The inverted companion was rewarded by the glazed look of the pimps' bulging eyes as he froze in paralysis. Inara thought "I don't have time for this; his partner could walk in any time."

She gave a mighty twist and hurled him headfirst at the window with the aim of defenestrating him through the glass and out into the street below. Instead, the pimp smacked into the window and bounced back to crumple on the floor. "Gorram Plexi." Inara grumbled as she brought her knees to her chin and her wrists past her feet. As she gained her feet and was fighting off wooziness, she spotted her bag against the wall. Out of the corner of her eye something was rushing at her head. Instinct and training turned her face to the side and her body arching back so that the powerful roundhouse blow merely grazed her ear as she fell backwards onto the bed.

Instantly, the pimp was on top of her with his powerful hands around her throat. "I'll kill you, you gorram whore!" He hoarsely roared as he locked his arms and began to squeeze. 

Inara countered by dropping her chin and tightening her neck muscles while wrapping her legs around his midsection exerting a crushing pressure on his internal organs with her powerful thighs. The pimps' face turned from red to purple as his grip weakened and he turned to claw at her legs. "Gotcha sucker!" Inara thought as she dropped her still bound wrists around his neck and rotated the radii until the formed an even more effective vice than her ankles had previously. This time she held it for what seemed like an eternity until his drumming feet and the suddenly dead weight between her legs told her that the pimp had gone on to his richly deserved reward.

Quickly, she scrambled to her feet and rushed to hide behind the door as the lookout burst in. "Sweet Buddha, What a smell! Did you really kill another one?" His voice trailed off as he beheld his former boss sprawled with his tongue hanging out of his purple face.

Inara quietly stole up behind him to drop her arms around his neck in an embrace with her shoulder behind his head and her cheek beside his ear. "Good bye, Go-Se." she whispered as she launched herself feet first backward to land with a smack on her belly. Go Se landed flat on his back but his head was still straight up on a neck that was suddenly much longer than it was before the companions ministrations. She scrambled up to grab his boot knife and release her wrists from the zip ties and quietly steal down the stairs with her cape and bag.

Go Se was suddenly standing beside his boss at the gate to Emma's Hell. "Gorram it Leroy, that was the toughest hooker you ever picked on!"

Inara moved quickly but quietly down the early morning streets towards the spaceport and the relative safety of her shuttle. 

Suddenly, a male voice yelled behind her "Inara; Inara Sera!" Inara dropped her bag and whirled in a combat stance to face a hooded figure a few yards behind her.

The hood dropped to reveal the coal black face and short dreadlocks of a very handsome man. "I do not hear the song of the birimbau or the beat of the dun-dun. Why do you greet me thus?"

Inara relalaxed and rose to give the slight bow of respect of a caprista "Maiestre." She intoned with a wry smile.

He continued in his role as her teacher."And what of these bruises I see on you?"

"They are the kisses of the training floor Maiestre."

"You are training here? And what of your pardner?"

"Partners actually, and they dance with the lord of the underworld now."

"Ah I see, is that why you hurry then?"

"Yes," she said. "I fear the wrath of the vice police that have suddenly lost their paymaster."

"Good, then I will take your bag and we can move more quickly."

"Thank you, Jorge."

When they reached the relative safety of her shuttle, cleared and launched without incident, Inara turned to inquire "What are you doing here? The last I heard you were still Master at Arms of House Madarassa and well on your way to becoming the first male companion to head the House." 

Jorge observed Inara's pale complexion and trembling fingers and the fatigue and stress in her voice. "We had better set down some where. I can see that we need to perform the cleansing ritual."

While they were quietly sponging each other on the floor of her shuttle sitting on a quiet hill Jorge began his tale. "I was sent on a mission of retribution. A wealthy client had beaten a young companion on her first solo assignment because she had displeased him. He then tried to bribe her into silence and when that failed, he had her killed. I took it as a point of honor to be chosen to avenge her death. His death was fitting and went without incident. However, when I returned to House Madarassa all of the young companions' records had been purged and the House publicly disavowed me and my mission and named me as the clients' murderer. I've been on the run ever since then. I truly believe that it was the work of the Vice-Priestess and a conservative faction opposed to the idea of a male Head Priest."

Inara interrupted in a shocked tone. "Jorge, that's terrible! How will you ever clear your name?"

"I don't know but in a few weeks, the uploaded financial records of House Madarassa will be coming out in blogs all over the cortex detailing the financial dealings of a certain faction and heads will start to roll. By that time, I plan to be sitting zazen and chanting sutras with a shaven pate and an assumed name in a monastery on New Mount Heiai."

Inara's eyes widened and she started to laugh and then collapsed in tears against his bare ebony chest as a sense of overwhelming loss overtook her . "Have we both fallen so low that we live on the run now with no place to call home?"

Jorge just held her and stroked her hair as she cried herself out against him. "You know, Inara that you were my first training client."

"As you were mine," she replied.

He continued. "It seems so long ago; were we really that young once? I was so nervous knowing that there were hidden monitors and that we were getting our final grades based on how well we performed. You were so calm and strong: you made everything seem so easy."

"What? I was the nervous one; you were the one who got us both top marks." She looked up into his dark eyes and gave Jorge a soft lingering kiss. She smiled with her eyes glistening. "Let's finish the cleansing with Tantric meditation. After all, we have to get you in shape for the monastery, don't we?"

"I sincerely doubt that form of meditation will be in use among the monks of the monastery; but I could never resist you."

"I can see that!" as she looked down at his lap. "I can see that the maestre's staff is as good as it ever was. Why don't you just put a cord and gourd on that and use it for a birimbau?

Jorge just grinned and pantomimed playing the birimbau using his own curving shaft to represent the bow of the instrument. "You can see I already have the gourd." As he cluched his sack "That is what a birimbau is supposed to represent anyway."

Jorge laughed, and dragging out a buckwheat zafu that he sat upon and quickly folded his legs into a full lotus posture. Inara stepped up to straddle him while he lubricated himself. 

Jorge looked up to find himself face to yoni with Inara's nether region. "Oh, what a beautiful rosebush that catches mine eye." He quipped as he inhaled her clean and musky scent.

Inara looked down at his brilliant white smile and replied. "You're terrible." And then she sank down on his member as she wrapped her legs around his buttocks, forming a gracefully erotic sculpture of her light olive beige and his purple black skin. "Oh you cheater, you used the warming gel!" as a warmth flooded her inner regions. 

"Nah, that's just your yoni welcoming her old friend, my lingam."

Inara laughed, "That may be true but you still cheated."

"What else could I do when confronted with these four beauties?" as he quickly kissed both her breasts and squeezed her buttocks.

"Stop that!" Inara lightly slapped the top of Jorge's head. "This is supposed to be meditation."

Jorge responded by straightening his back and neck into a perfect plumb line and placing his outstretched arms on her knees, touching his middle fingers to his thumbs while Inara did the same on the tops of his arms. Together the chanted: 





The Two Companions Illustrated Ch. 03



PART III

(In which River presses her attentions on the new Companion and winds up on her backside)

Inara and Jorge came down the steps into Serenity's cargo bay to face the scrutiny of the crew assembled in a rough semicircle to gawk at the new arrival. Zoë, Simon and Kaylee were there in friendly curiosity while Jane stood with his arms crossed in annoyance that the companion was a male while Mal was just plain annoyed that here was another non-paying mouth to fill with food and air.

Mal opened with "Great, other useless, broke, fancy pants, core-worlder on the run; just what we need."

Kaylee interrupted. "Now wait a minute Captain, I'm sure that he has his good qualities." Less sure of herself, she added "You do, don't cha? By the way, I'm Kaylee Frye, ships' mechanic."

"Hello, I'm Simon Tam, ships' doctor. Are you from Shinon, like Inara?"

Jorge responded "My name is Jorge Mayweather. It's true that I came from House Madrassa but I was born in space. My people were spacers since before we left Earth-That-Was. Mayweathers were ship's crew on the colony ships. My family took our flight and settlement bonus and built and operated some of the first 'verse' transport ships."

Jane was obviously not impressed. "Mayweather, eh; no wonder ya turned out sly."

Jorge gave a small grin. "It's Jane isn't it? No, I am defiantly not sly. You of all people should know that what your name is or what you do as part of your job does not define who you are. But I am highly qualified in that aspect of my profession if that is what you are interested in."

"Bull, Mayweather, sly is as sly does no matter what." Jane responded with his hands tightening on the bulging biceps of his crossed arms.

"Jane, I can tell that you did time. Is what you did there define what you are now?"

Jane suddenly flushed in embarrassment. "Who told you about that?"

"You just did." And the bay erupted in laughter. Jorge reached into his rucksack to produce a bunch of fresh plantains and a bottle of 60 year old rum. "Let's continue this in the galley and then you can decide whether to space me or not."

After Jorge had prepared a delicious meal of plantains and saffron rice, they started eating and passing around the rum.

Zoe spoke first. "I'm Zoe Washburn, First Mate. Are you any kin to the blockade running Mayweathers of the 'Cutty Sark' what got hulled over Shadow at the beginning of the war?"

Jorge was suddenly very sober. "Yes, that was my family and I was the only survivor. My cousins and siblings used to have races to don our EV suits and I always won. I wished I was slower for a long time afterwards. The feds picked me up out of the wreckage and then sold me into slavery because I was too young to go into the detention camps."

The table went silent as everyone acknowledged that here was someone else who had suffered as the result of the war. Zoë just reached over and silently hugged Jorge. 

Kaylee broke the silence. "Slavery, how did ya get outa that?"

"Well, I always was a good cook. A traveling recruiter from House Madarassa tasted one of my meals at a rim world tavern and promptly bought out my contract and brought me back to cook at the House. It was only later that I tested for Companion."

Mal spoke up. "Ok, Mr. Mayweather, I'm glad to shake the hand of anybody from the Cutty Sark. The way those hun-dans drilled your ship without even a warning shot was what got me to join up with the browncoats in the first place."

Jorge reached over. "And I'm proud to shake the hand of anyone who was at Serenity Valley. Is it true that you jumped into that hellhole?"

"Jumped? Zoë and I were pathfinders. We HALO (High Altitude-Low Opening) ed from 20 klicks up and opened or chutes at just under one third klick to get under their radar. We set up the beacons for the first space-borne wave of the Overlanders to take the high ground at the Valley. Our motto was 'Fall like a cannonball, strike like a bayonet."

"20 klicks?" Jorge exclaimed. "Don't you need oxygen for that?"

"Nah." Zoë answered. "If you just hold your breath in a head down, streamlined attitude, terminal velocity at over 300 KPH will get ya into breathing air before you have to take another breath. We were jumping Fireflies back then and that's why the Cap here bought Serenity after the war."

Jane interrupted. "Oh great, more space-borne stories, pretty soon Mal n' Zoë are gonna be singing "Blood upon the risers and doing parachute landing falls off the galley table!"

"Oh no, they won't!" Simon interjected. "The last time that happened, I used up all of my sprain medicine and we were fixing furniture for a week."

Mal spoke up. "If you were a rebel and Inara was for Union how did you wind up friends with her?"

Inara laughed. "You should have seen the fights we had!"

Jorge quipped "I still have scars from the things she threw at me!" 

Just then River stepped down from the cockpit "Not just fights but hurts deeper than scars."

Inara suddenly lost her gaiety but hid it with her drink. 

Mal turned. "And this little mistress of the non sequitur is our pilot River Tam, lucky albatross and little sis to the Doc."

Jorge looked up and the sight caught him like a blow; this was the superwoman that so many Alliance agents had been seeking until Miranda had changed the 'Verse'. She was so small and lovely and yet her bearing and grace spoke volumes to the dancer and martial artist in him. Jorge was a natural empath, being able to read emotion in clients and opponents as well but here was sensitivity itself. Mal and Zoë were warriors but here was Kali and Shiva in the flesh. He was Scarlatti to her Mozart and he knew it. Her combination of innocence, genius, beauty and the promise of her ripening sexuality set of a wave of desire in his subconscious. Her next words completely floored him.

"Maestre, will you dance to the birimbau and the tam-tam with me some time?"

On River's part she saw the good looks and read the dancer, fighter, lover and adventurer within but the images, sounds and smells of lovemaking that flitted through his brain and the desire that flooded out of his subconscious produced a resonance which flushed her skin and made her nostrils flare. An older and more experienced woman would have recognized these feelings and ascribed them to just lust and infatuation. However, lust and infatuation were new emotions for River and though she understood them emotionally and had eavesdropped on them in other peoples skulls, this was the first time that she owned the emotions and they rocked her to the core. Unfortunately, her unfamiliarity with the emotions provoked flight or fight responses. She picked Caproerea out of his psyche; the images and memories intrigued the dancer and martial artist in her and thus the challenge. 

Mal, Jane, Kaylee and Simon didn't notice anything in the exchange but Zoë did and she folded her arms and considered shooting Jorge on general principle while Inara just murmured into her drink. "Oh Lordy, here we go."

The next afternoon, ships time, the crew was gathered around to watch the entertainment on the clear area of the ship's cargo deck. The betting in ship chores was running heavily on the ships favorite: River, but Inara was backing Jorge even though she was unsure of the outcome.

Inara consented to play the birimbau and Jane's experience on the bongos was put into use on the tam-tam after Jorge taught him the beat. After preliminary ceremonies and stretches River in tight t-shirt and drawstring pants and Jorge in just pants began dancing and weaving around each other with mock feints in order to judge each others' responses. River tried to 'read' Jorge but all she could see was her own self in his eyes along with a vague sense of loving protection and a desire to push her limits. 



River opened with a backwards spinning roundhouse kick at his head but Jorge just dropped under her arching foot and swept her supporting leg with his foot. Only her superb balance and pre-awareness allowed her to spin in mid air to land in a crouch. She came back up with a lotus kick and he responded with an arching backwards summersault. River advanced with a series of muy-thai punches, straight and scythe kicks but he just faded like smoke before her onslaught dancing just out of reach to the rhythm of the music. Once, she almost caught him with a combination punch and roundhouse kick but he turned a graceful cartwheel that caught her behind the leg and sent her of on an awkward cartwheel of her own.

She began to analyze the sound of the birimbau and she realized that Inara was 'suggesting' various openings and Jorge was creating tactical 'gaps' that were dictating her attacks. River responded by trying to goad Jorge. "Why don't you attack? You're the Maestre!" She panted. 

"Attack requires planning, you're a reader. You'd know it before I did. I'm better off just responding to your initiative, besides I'm just lazy." He grinned.

The sight of his grinning face and the light sheen of his ebony skin vs. her reddening skin and dripping sweat provoked her into launching a screaming flying crane kick that switched from left to right foot in mid flight. Jorge merely leaned to the side and his hand appeared from out of nowhere to grab her ankle and send her crashing to the deck.

The crew gasped but River caught herself on her out spread fingers and toes, caporea style. "Excellent save, little albatross!" The Maestre complemented her.

With a roar born of humiliation, rage and frustration, she came off the deck in a ferocious head-butt aimed squarely at Jorge's solar plexus. Instantly his ebony six-pack turned into a padded brick wall as he tensed his abdomen. River bounced off his mid-section to land stunned and sitting on the deck rubbing her skull and neck. "Ow, that really hurt!"

Everyone expected Simon to rush up in protective outrage to comfort and defend his little sister; instead he commented. "It serves you right, River." And turning to Jorge he explained. "You don't know how many times River did that to me when we were kids and she lost her temper and knew I couldn't hit her back."

The hold erupted in laughter and Jorge announced: "Magnificently played!" He then produced another bottle of rum and passed it around to congratulatory toasts from all. "I hereby give you the Caporea babtismo name of 'Alcatrazista,' long may you fly!" 

As they were leaving the hold, Simon noticed that Jorge was limping. "Mr. Mayweather, were you injured back there?"

"Please, just Jorge. No, this is just a souvenir of my last encounter with bounty hunters. I caught a ricochet and I was able to treat it but it's still lodged near my femur."

Simon blanched and hauled Jorge into the infirmary. "Ricochets are often jagged and that's near your femoral artery."

Half an hour later, Jorge was lying face down and prepped on the operating table while Simon was administering a local into his spine and Inara was assisting in the surgery. 

Jorge looked over his shoulder. "Thanks for the local, Doc. I don't trust being unconscious around Inara. The last time I got drunk with her and her friends I woke up painted green."

"Well it was St. Patrick's Day and you made a lovely leprechaun."

"Is that why you painted my nuts gold?"

"Sure and begorra, every leprechaun needs a pot of gold at the end of his rainbow. Oh look, we've gone and made the Doctor blush!" Inara then apologized to Simon for their rowdy companion humor. "After all, you come from a refined background."

"I didn't have time for much but studies and later 16 hour shifts in the ER as an intern didn't leave much time for anything but sleeping...alone!" Simon added. After a tense silence, he managed to remove the jagged bullet in one piece. Astonished, he remarked. "Maybe you do have the luck of the Irish, half a millimeter closer to your femoral and I'd be doing your autopsy rather than stitching you up."

Jorge looked up "Maybe you could paint a bull's eye on my butt, it might improve their shooting." 

Inara laughed "With a butt that sticks out like yours, who needs a bull's eye?"

Simon interrupted "When I was growing up, I thought Companions were much more sophisticated than this. When they came to our house, I thought they were so refined and graceful. Every anniversary my parents would contract a Companion and there were a few times I secretly wished that I was the product of one of those encounters."

Inara and Jorge just looked at each other. 

The next day as he was recuperating, Jorge limped down to the engine room where he found Kaylee lovingly ministering to her 'girl' and fighting her endless quest to keep her in the air and not on the drift. Jorge offered to assist and they began to talk spacecraft.

"You know, this takes me back, I practically grew up in an engine room, I wasn't born in one but I do know that I was conceived in an engine room." Jorge remarked looking around the environs of Serenity's beating heart.

Kaylee looked at him in surprise. "You mean...your parents? I thought because I was turned on by engines that it was just something that made me a freak."

"No Kaylee, in my family, being conceived in the engine room was the mark of a real spacer, what we called a boomer. As we saw it that type of start was lucky and kept you from harm on the ship. We kids would sneak through the ductwork to watch and I think that was the beginning of my sexual education and my fascination with the art and poetry of sex."

Kaylee laughed "I guess that I've been one of River's instructional aids. But then again, it's gorram hard to keep anything from that girl. I don't know why Simon even tries but he's alla time looking over his shoulder when we're lovin' and it's getting on my nerves. Course he'd still have to know what he's doing. Gorramit!" as a wrench slipped and she barked a knuckle.

As she sucked on her knuckle she looked at Jorge. "Say, you're a Companion and a male, do you think you could give Simon some pointers? I love him and all but as his sister says, he's a boob when it comes to women n sexin'." 

"Of course, besides, I owe him my life now." Jorge thought a while. "Aren't we putting down on New Kashmir next week? I've got a cousin in Nuevo Bahia who was going to shelter me in the restaurant he built after the war. I'll borrow Inara's shuttle and take you two to dinner."

"Really?" Kaylee replied "But me, 'hick girl', out with two sophisticated core-worlders at a fancy restaurant?"

Jorge laughed "The Doc is just as lacking in social graces as anyone else. He's just a nerd who spent all his time fixing bodies the way you fix engines. And I'm just an old boomer masquerading as a sophisticated Companion. You'll do fine."

"But how's all this gonna improve Simon's sexin skills?"

"Well, since Simon, like most surgeons is a visual-kinesthetic learner, I doubt that anything I say will have a chance to sink in without demonstration and supervised practice. I'm afraid that once again you will have to serve as an instructional aide.

Kaylee's eyes widened as the thought sank in. She blushed and then grinned. "Shiny!" was all she said.

TO BE CONTINUED...



The Two Companions Illustrated Ch. 04



(In which our hero, Jorge, settles some old affairs, honors some old traditions and pulls off the hat trick with Serenity's lovely ladies in our little ship on the edge of the black.)

As Serenity climbed out of the ionosphere of New Kashmir, River was idly singing Mera Joota Hai Japani from an old Bollywood rasta about leaving while she danced in the pilot's seat and calculated atmospheric drift, relative velocities and trajectories to their next destination. However the majority of her brain was devoted to analysis of the complex emotions she had observed in the two couples in Inara's shuttle yesterday. That was a puzzle worthy of her attention. 

Mal looked on in bemusement and then drifted down into the galley thinking _ "She's going to outgrow this boat someday and I'm going to need a new pilot."_ 

Jorge had just come up from the hold where he had been leading a capoeira session. Even Jayne and Zoe were learning the fundamentals after Jorge explained that it had been invented by a people who were in chains and that it could even be used if you were in handcuffs. Jayne figured that it could be a useful job skill and Zoe just wanted an excuse to kick Jayne's butt.

Taking a seat beside Jorge, Mal inquired "You ever want to be a pilot, Jorge?"

"You mean besides a shuttle? Well when I was a kid, I always figured I'd end up a ship's pilot. My Ma was a pilot and I think my Pa was one too."

Mal queried "You think your Pa was a pilot?"

"Yeah" Jorge responded "'cause intra-crew procreation sex was always prohibited due to inbreeding fears. The mother's usually knew but occasional ship meet-ups were often multi-day free-for-alls so that alliances could be maintained between ships without jealousy rearing its ugly head. Kids were never told their dad's name. Pilots and mechanics usually got first crack at using the engine room and that's where My Ma told me I got started and I know that she had a weakness for other pilots."

"Huh." Mal responded.

"Property and rank always got handed down from Mother to Daughter and my only hope of an officer's berth was to become a pilot. However, as a kid, what I did was hang around with the cook and the loaders and mechanics where I could make myself feel useful. I felt that men were mostly for muscle and in a fight if necessary. Decision making was a female prerogative. Those old ramrod officer women always intimidated me and I didn't like being up in Officer Country. I probably wasn't cut out to be one anyway." 

"Yeah," Mal replied "I felt the same way about officers and that's why I didn't become one either. But what you say about female inheritance and tradition got me to thinking. My ma came from a ship's crew family and Reynolds was her and my grandma's name. I always thought that the reason I didn't know my Pa's or Grandpa's name was cause my Ma and Grandma got taken advantage of and abandoned. And I always thought that my sister inherited the ranch on Shadow cause I ran off and joined the Independents. But If what you say is true of ship's family traditions, I didn't run away from any responsibility. I just avoided being a ranch hand for my sister."

Mal continued "And take Zoe: her ma was a captain but she was the sixth daughter and there was no way she could inherit anything and all her older sisters just used to boss her around. At least with me, she only has one boss, plus if I get kilt, she gets the boat."

Jorge laughed "Welcome to the world of the super-numeraries. I guess we're both soldiers of fortune for the same reason. But look at it from a female point of view: why would a woman who worked hard all her life on a ranch or a ship want to turn it over to some Hun-dan  just because he consented to be the father of her children?"

As Mal sat lost in thought, Jorge continued. "You know that a woman can be just as fond of her freedom and her self-possession as a man. Just because she falls in love doesn't dictate that she has to stop being herself or give up everything she is to being somebody's 'helpmate'. Even if they have a kid, they don't become the property of some man. What happened at the Heart of Gold should have taught you that. 

"Oh, you heard about that, huh?" Mal responded.

"Yeah, that has become a favorite story among companions. You're big damn heroes with them and other sex workers." Jorge continued.

"Great, now I'm a hero among wh..." his voice trailed off as Mal remembered who he was talking to.

"Careful now, I can hurt you" Jorge quietly remarked.

Mal relaxed when he realized that Jorge was only kidding. "I'm sorry. I'm just starting to realize that being a companion isn't about selling your body to the highest bidder."

"That's right, Mal, what's being sold is skill, insight, knowledge, expertise and understanding. The fact that the body is involved is no different from an actor, dancer, surgeon or even a soldier."

Mal grinned "Yeah, when we got paid, it was for putting our asses on the line and for making sure our asses stayed where they were supposed to be when things went south. When you put it that way, being a companion is just as respectable as anything I've ever done and probably more respectable than a lot of things I've done."

Another thought crossed Mal's mind. "Say, you wouldn't be speaking in the interest of a certain female companion, would you?"

Jorge threw up his hands. "Actually, Im speaking against the expressed wishes of a certain female companion and I don't want her to find out about it. Besides, as hard headed as you both are you probably deserve each other." Suddenly sober he continued "Mal,trust me, she really does love you and as her friend, I want her to be happy. I think you're a good man and I sense from the way you look at her that you are just as much in love. Anyway, if you bring her pain, I'll just track you down and shoot you." 

"Shoot me?"

"Yes, you know, politely."

Mal and Jorge both laughed and Jorge continued "But seriously, you and Inara have been my saviors and I owe you at least dinner. I have enough food that I liberated from my cousins to fix a meal for both of you. If I fix it for the crew, Jayne will just eat most of it without even noticing anything about it."

"Ok, given that line of reasoning," Mal replied "If Inara accepts, so will I."

Inara accepted with some misgivings after Jorge asked her to accept the meal as his parting gift and begged her to give Mal a chance if he could be on his best behavior. 

Jorge began to prepare for the meal. The next evening, ship's time, Jorge escorted Mal to Inara's shuttle where she greeted them dressed in a very fine kimono bound with an ornate obi around her waist. She served them both with tea and had them remove their shoes and socks prior to washing their feet. Jorge then taught Malcolm how to wash Inara's feet. When Mal remarked on her long graceful toes, Jorge and Inara looked at each other. When Jorge started to speak, Inara interjected "It's my story, I'll tell it."

"Prior to leaving Earth-that-was my family were miners in the astroid belt before the invention of the gravity drive or generators: real old school rocket prospectors. Because what we did was considered highly valuable to society, we were given one of the last gene-mod permits before they became totally illegal. The mod allowed us to grip with our toes in micro-gee when we needed both hands. The mod bred true and all my family have long toes. In fact my nickname was stub-toe because everyone else had much longer toes. It was said that my great aunt would dial down the grav in her room and hang from the ceiling to sleep. She claimed that it improved her posture" 

Mal looked at her to tell if she was pulling his leg but then decided to play along. "I always wondered about those sharp little canine teeth of yours. Hey, let go of my thumb with those toes!"

Jorge just grinned and handed Mal the towel to dry off her feet. "We are all equals now. Let me pour you some fruit juice batidas and then I'll get the food from the galley." Jorge brought back a beautiful seafood vapata and moquia that he had spent all afternoon and a great deal of saffron and other aphrodisiacs in it's skillful preparation. As Jorge shared the the meal, he kept them well lubricated with cachaca and rum. He also kept the conversation light but kept praising Inara's beauty until he actually had her blushing.

When Jorge started to feel his own arousal he judged that it was time to withdraw and he bid them both good night, placing a do not disturb sign on the hatch to Inara's shuttle. 

Feeling slightly uncomfortable in the absence of his 'wingman' and anxious not to say the wrong thing and screw up once again, Mal decided to complement Inara on the job of redecorating that she and Kaylee had done on her shuttle. 

"Thank you Malcolm, especially after you made a special trip to get my things back on Bena. It's not easy living out of a trunk, even if I'm not entertaining clients."

"I was glad to be of assistance but I'm real sorry that the mess I got you into ruined your reputation with your upper class clientele. I realize now that you probably had to work pretty hard to develop your client base." Mal apologized.

"Mal, My client base turned out to be as fickle and undependable as the petty criminals who made up yours. I never told you this but I did not come from wealth. I was not royalty descended from a priest or priestess. My family were as hard working as yours and even though I enjoy the finer things in life, I can live without them. Right now I am enjoying dealing with people who have to work for a living. I don't see it as as a step down but more like a breath of fresh air."

Inara continued "As the saying goes, a door doesn't close without another opening somewhere else. At least now your reputation is 'solid' as Niska put it and people see you as someone who can get the job done no matter what. I just hope that your reputation of having a conscience doesn't get in the way of your client's general lack of one."

Mal grinned at the backhanded compliment. "I bet you say that to all the fellas."

"No, Mal I don't and at least I think it's time to be honest with each other. It's just you and me in here. You've never been my client and after Miranda I'm not really your tenant anymore. I chip in to help keep this boat in the air and I'm as much a part of this crew as anybody else. We've faced death, hardship and hard times not to mention thieves, thugs, con-artists, psychotics and cannibals. You don't own me and I don't own you, we're pardners."

Mal replied "Careful now, you don't want to be putting yourself in the same category as Jayne if you call yourself crew. But,... well yes, I guess we are business associates and pardners in a way."

Inara answered "Mal, I believe the term is criminal co-conspirators."

Mal smiled "And I do believe that you are the most beautiful criminal I've ever conspired with."

"Why Malcolm, I think that is the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

"Try not to faint, occasionally I do say the right thing."

"And you should stop while you're ahead." Inara leaned forward to begin what became a very passionate kiss. When his hands started to roam, she stood and unwrapped her obi and let it fall to the floor. Her kimono hung open, revealing an expanse of skin along her left side and a gaping darkness between her hip and the garment. As he stared into that looming darkness that defined her waist, the awareness came to both of them that if he reached into that darkness to pull her to himself, everything would be different. The 'verse would change for both of them. As Mal looked up into her eyes, Inara spoke "Mal, when we were trapped in that horrible vault at Mr. Universe's I vowed that if I ever survived I would never be afraid again. I also vowed that if you came back alive I would never be afraid to express my feelings for you."

Mal's eyebrows came up "What do you have to be afraid of?" he asked without thinking.

The corners of Inara's eyes crinkled she smiled in bemusement and remarked off-handily "Well, Jorge did promise to come back and shoot me if I screwed this up."

"You too? How well does he shoot?"

"Wings off a fly, Mal." She joked.

"We better do it right then." as he reached into her kimono to pull her close into a mutually hungry kiss.

Both their hands were busy, his with exploring the beautiful mystery of the woman he had wanted so long and hers with unbuttoning his shirt and exploring his chest. When she was pushing his suspenders off his shoulders, Mal felt her unbuttoning his pants and looked down in astonishment to see her toes nimbly releasing and then stroking his manhood.

When he looked up in astonishment, Inara's eyes were laughing. "Malcolm, you are so attractive when you're speechless." She then urged him to his feet and started kissing again while removing his shirt and he followed suit with her kimono. Inara pulled him close with her arms around his neck. As she lifted one leg to wrap around his waist her big toe grasped the waistband of his tight pants and she shucked him like an ear of corn. Suddenly, both of them were as God (or their mothers) made them.

Malcolm grinned at her "You're pretty handy with those toes of yours, aren't ya?"



Inara grinned back "Captain sans pants, you truly have no idea." and hooked his knee from behind with her ankle. They both tumbled into the bed which quickly became the setting for a mutual carnal devouring. The white-hot passion fueled by pent up desire more than made up for the lack of finesse. Still, he managed to hold himself back until she peaked before joining her in a wild bucking climax.

"Wo-cao Inara...I've broken wild horses that were tamer than that ride." She just purred in contentment and snuggled against his broad chest. He began a slow stroking of her lovely rump and legs that gradually descended into the dark mystery of silken curls that lay at the juncture of her thighs. Mal then began a careful repetition of the stroking and patterned probing that Jorge had carefully taught him earlier. 

Under the influence of the aphrodisiacs and the siren song of her own nerve endings, Inara at first did not recognize the technique that her first lover perfected on her nether regions so long ago. But then the teacher in her kicked in and she snapped to the realization that this was just too good to be the product of a gifted amateur, and she at first suspected some kind of cheap trick on Mal's part. Gradually her own arousal and the grudging admiration of his grasp of the complex technique plus the inspired riffs that he brought to the composition with his tongue and lips convinced her that Mal really was worshiping the goddess at the altar of her cinnabar gate. When he finally sucked her yin di into a wavering crescendo she sailed into a soaring all-consuming orgasm that left her shivering. The realization that Mal had taken the trouble to learn and Jorge to teach made her understand that she truly was loved and that people she truly cared about cared enough to gift her with this kind of pleasure. 

Unbidden tears came to her eyes and sobs of gratitude shook her frame. Mal looked up in confusion, "I wasn't that bad, was I?" 

A crooked smile broke across her tear-stained face"Oh Mal!" and she pulled him up to deliver a grateful kiss which became even more passionate until she worked down his torso to engulf his rising staff of jade in her own symphony of worship to the goddess. When she rose up to impale herself on his upthrust mast, they both embarked on a mutual labor of love that left them gasping and exhausted.

Inara finally propped herself up on one elbow and asked with a grin "Oh captain, my captain... what happens next?"

It was Mal's turn to look at her in bemusement "Truly, darlin', I have no idea."

"Good answer, Mal." 

"Uh, Inara...'

_"Oh, no here it comes."_ she thought.

"How am I doin'? ...I mean as your lover." Mal asked as if he really expected a truthful answer.

_"Mal, you dummy."_ she thought _"he really does deserve this."_ "Well Malcolm, to tell you the truth, you're really not my type. I usually prefer my lovers to be married because it makes everything less messy. But...I forgot! You are married! Or you are according to that little piece of trash that suckered you twice, left you naked and sunburnt and nearly got us all killed. What was her name, Saffron, Yolanda,.. Bridge-work?"

As Mal detected the twinkle in her eye, he realized she was yanking his chain. He rose up to pounce on her. "You little minx... I'm gonna tickle you until..."

But she was ready and spun under him so that her toes were under his armpits before he could get anywhere near her.

"Hey, no fair!" Mal cried and clamped his arms down to pin her feet. Inara held him at bay with her powerful thighs while he hung over her pressing down. As he looked at her, dressed in nothing but a healthy glow and a sheen of sweat, his gaze traveled down from her feral grin past her heaving breasts and her lightly rounded abdomen to the thicket of dark wet curls and the swollen lower lips which still gleamed with the products of their passion. 

As his body responded and his face softened from mock rage to lust, Inara also responded by gradually lowering her knees to her chest so that his rising manhood met her womanhood and he entered her welcoming love channel. 

"Perfect docking Captain." she quipped. 

"Permission to come aboard, Mam."

"Permission granted, Captain."

As he resumed a slow but powerful rocking she embraced his well muscled broad back and buttocks with caves and forearms. With a sigh and a whisper barely loud enough to hear she murmured "You're doing fine Mal...we're both doing fine."

Meanwhile...,

Jorge had pulled out a bottle of fine old rum and was settling down to a well deserved drink in the galley. Zoe walked in and turned a chair around and straddled it to sit across the table from him. When Jorge produced a second glass and offered it to Zoe she thanked him and clinked his glass in a toast. "To the Captain and Inara getting sexed. Those two been dancin' around and snappin' at each other so long that I was considerin' gittin' em drunk and tossin' in a bunk my own self. Glad to see that you got it done up proper." 

"Thanks, Zoe; but I sense that congratulating me is not all that you're about." as Jorge poured another round of rum.

"You're right, maistre. I trust you're aware of the old ship's tradition of gettin' a shipmate sexed when they come of age?"

"Right, adult virgins are bad luck, they invite disaster." He leaned closer and lowered his voice "I trust that this is not for Doc Tam's ears."

"Right, now I got my share of cashy money after our last job and I know I can't afford your normal companion rates but I figured you might cut a fellow crew mate a deal and still do her up right."

Jorge was about to reply that he would consider it an honor to do it for nothing when River stepped down from the passage to the cockpit. "Not so fast. I'm not doing it if she isn't. She needs it more than I do. She 'ain't had no lovin' since January, February, June or July'." quoting an old song called 'Harvest Moon' and laying a tender hand on Zoe's shoulder. "She flies true but she's been banged up pretty bad. Remember Jorge, you took an oath to offer sexual healing to the sick at heart and the bereaved."

Zoe demurred "Oh River, bao-bei, I don't know if I'm ready."

River just cocked her head and gave Zoe one of her 'looks' as if to say "_Right, as if I couldn't read your state of mind_." "Besides, Wash thinks it's a great idea." 

Zoe burst out laughing "That sounds like my Man. He always did want to watch."




The Two Companions Illustrated Ch. 04



River leaned close to Zoe's ear. "You can't lie to me, you're as wet as the lake region of Londinium at the thought."

"Well as a special favor to the recently departed and even though I can't afford it I'll give you my whole bonus in a package deal. Hows a bout' it Jorge? You ever been with a couple of warrior women?" Zoe queried.

River leaned to Jorge's ear "I know about all those aphrodisiacs that you just had with 'Nara and the Cap. I know you'll do it for nothing and you know it too."

Jorge just looked at River "I want you for my lawyer if I ever go to trial."

River thought for a moment. She'd gotten her PhD in Math/Physics long distance at New Niels Bohr Institute when she was sixteen. What kind of obstacle was a bar exam? "Deal, consider this my retainer fee." and shook his hand.

"Ok, Zoe, it's all taken care of. I've set the auto-pilot and the long distance proximity alarm. I've got an agreement with Kaylee that she'll keep my brother occupied if I don't go snooping around the engine room. She has something top secret going she called the 'boomer project'"

Jorge and Zoe just looked at each other. River's eyes went wide "Oh...oh my, you're boomers! That would be why he was giving Kaylee and himself anti-contraception shots."

Zoe laughed "He'll do anything for her now since Mr. Companion here taught them how to have good sex." and she gave Jorge a playful jab in the arm. Zoe continued "Where we gonna do all this? The spare shuttle is filled with Kaylee's spare parts since we filled up the hold with cargo."

River answered "My room and Jorge's are out because there's no privacy in the passenger dorms. My brother or even worse: Jayne could come by. Zoe's bunk is bigger and we can lock the overhead. My brother would never think to look there."

Zoe replied "Alright, I just cleaned up and it's presentable and I screwed enough in the trenches that I don't have any privacy issues but It's just down the passage from Jayne's bunk, aren't we gonna raise his curiosity when we all go trooping up there?" 

Jorge interjected "Don't worry about him, I've got a present I've been meaning to give him that should keep him occupied for some time. You two go on ahead and I'll meet you up there."

While they were freshening up and before Jorge arrived, Zoe asked "River, this is your night, do you want to go first?"

"No, you're my sempai and you should go first, besides human physiological responses to observation of the sex act will increase the lubrication I will need for the probable girth of Jorge's reproductive organ."

Zoe laughed "Glad to see you got it all sussed out litl' genius-girl."

Sometime later, River sat dressed in her usual brightly colored shift at the foot of Zoe's bed watching the other two and analyzing the butterflies she felt inside. For her whole life she had never felt anxious about what she was about to do: dance performances, piano recitals, final exams and thesis defenses had just filled her with confidence in her own competence. Why did this simple act fill her with the same emotion she felt on Christmas eve when she was a child? She had watched Zoe and Jorge's calm acceptance and appreciation of each other and even though they were both aroused, they still took care not to rush.

Zoe wanted to prolong the moment as long as possible and Jorge was motivated by professional pride in his craft. She decided to focus on their emotions and found that they too were anxious about what they were doing. Zoe was struggling with her deep-seated longings and grief for Wash and the powerful arousal she was feeling for the large black male she was presently straddling and grinding her pelvis against and on whom she impaled herself repeatedly and with increasing frequency.



Jorge was filled with the same kind of anxiety that he felt when presenting a well crafted meal to an unknown palate and whose emotional volatility was unknown because of her too long suppression of her own grief. Of course he was also aroused from the aphrodisiacs and it didn't help that purely by chance Zoe resembled in both facial characteristics and pheromones the mother that he had tragically lost so long ago.

When they both finally surrendered to the moment and focused on the mutual sensory experience, their emotions and actions came together like a beautifully executed duet or a balletic pas-deux. To River's eyes, the climax was beautifully poetic and the tender way they supported each other afterward almost caused her to leap to her feet with cries of bravo and clapping. However, Zoe's tears and convulsive sobbing drove her to scramble up onto the bed to comfort her friend.

Both Jorge and River hugged and comforted Zoe as the carefully crafted facade and dam that she had constructed around her own grief crumbled and the pent up despair flowed out into the sheltering arms of the friends that surrounded her. Jorge held her and stroked her long curls while River kissed the tears on her cheeks and chin.

Suddenly River put her lips to Zoe's and delivered a long and sensual kiss and whispered "Wash wanted me to do that, He loves you very much and he thinks you are hot as hell." Then she turned to Jorge "Wash wants me to thank you too and he thinks you did a wonderful job even with your limited equipment."

Jorge looked puzzled and Zoe burst out laughing. Addressing the air above her head she admonished "Honey, it's impolite to brag in front of guests about your endowment but I love you too anyway." To Jorge she said "Don't mind him, You did great maistre, and thanks for the tumble. Guess I'll head down to the galley and give you two some privacy."

River put a hand to Zoe's shoulder "No sempai, I want you to stay. I watched you make something beautiful, I want you to watch me make something beautiful too."

Rising and stepping over Zoe's supine form she stood in front of Jorge between his bent knees. Bending from the waist she lowered her face to examine his spent manhood. She hefted and examined it and ran her hand down it's slippery length and then lifted her fingers to taste the product of Jorge and Zoe's passion. "So different on my own than on other people's tongues. Ergo, I need to gain my own experience in life and not just live vicariously in other minds."

River then reached over to the nightstand for Jorge's rum and took a large swig, exhaled violently and then inhaled before grabbing the hem of her dress and pulling it off over her head to reveal both her lack of underwear and her trim and nubile young body. She was pleased to sense the admiring gaze of her two bed-mates. She knelt in front of Jorge "First things first." and she leaned forward to give a long and lingering kiss to his large, soft lips. "I, like my brother am a traditionalist. First kiss before first fornication." then she lowered her head to lick and suck on Jorge's tool thinking _"If Kaylee can handle this big old black doorknocker, so can I."_ Gradually, the taste and feel of the stiffening male organ in her mouth plus his pheromones began to further arouse her. While having him completely at her mercy she was able to arouse him which further excited her.

When Jorge sat up to reach down behind her thigh to pull her towards himself. She looked up "Isn't this the school solution to reset the male sexual response?" 

"Yes, but part of my arousal involves my ability to enjoy your sex too." Jorge gently suggested.

"Oh!" River said "I forgot that you can enjoy my erectile tissue as much as I do yours; Sorry." and wiggled her pretty little rump around to face him and then lifted her thigh to straddle his chest and then lowered her sex onto his sensual and talented lips and tongue. "Oh...OH... yes! Now I'm really sorry that that I didn't do this before." and she resumed her role as felatrix. She quickly lost all thought of being in control as he plied his specialty on her dark haired mound of venus, inner thighs, swollen forbidden folds and her increasingly prominent yin di. 

What was even more arousing were the strong carnal images and emotions that came out of Jorge's subconscious to her own combined with the feedback loop that was developing between River's mouth, Jorge's lingam, his arousal and her own mounting excitement emanating from her own cinnabar gate. Lacking the normal filters that most people have to sort their personal experience out of the chaos of sensory data that bombards their conscious mind, River felt as if she was trying to swim into a torrent and that she was drowning. She knew this road and she hated and feared it. Only the fact that she had observed Jorge and Zoe letting go earlier of their personal struggles saved her. In addition, Jorge was mentally urging her to let go as he pushed his tongue into her. 

As she stopped fighting and turned to swim with the torrent she was suddenly weightless and soaring in ecstasy. She was no one and she was everyone, she was the ship and the universe surrounding it, she was nowhere. Joyous oblivion beckoned. When she came back to consciousness, she turned herself around to kiss Jorge and found that she had drenched Jorge"s smiling face in her own essence.

"Do you like how you taste, River? 'Cause I think you're great!" Jorge exclaimed. 

"Hmm... I may be low in potassium." She joked "But I'm glad to see that I taste as wonderful as you and Zoe. And by the way, that was fantastic, well worth my retainer fee."

"River, that was just the hors 'd orderves, the main course is just coming up." and as if to emphasize his point, his lingam rose up to softly smack her red, wet bottom. She grinned at him and reaching behind her, she pulled him up between her cheeks to rub the length of him against her now slick and shining lower lips.

"She understands but doesn't comprehend. I'm just starting to comprehend that what goes on with my body pales in comparison with what goes on in my head." River remarked.

"As the companion manual states on the first page:..." Jorge began.

"The brain is the most important sexual organ" River completed "but not necessarily the most fun one." as she grasped Jorge's black 'birinbau' and rose up to begin working him into herself. She winced momentarily but then slid about halfway down until girth and depth stopped her progress. "Unh... female reproductive physiology is considered both mailable and mutable." She remarked and attempted to press herself downward with her face reddening.

"Unh...River, bao-bei, it's easier this way." and Jorge grasped her hips in his strong black hands to lift her up until just the glans was still inside her and then gently lower and raise River a couple of inches at a time for several repetitions. He then lowered her until her progress stopped again but this time much further down the shaft.

"Oh...oh! That's good. I get it, absence makes the heart grow fonder, in this case the heart of my yoni is more and more fond of your lingam." River sighed as she rose up to repeat the previous actions. After a short time, she was impaling herself the length of him and rocking back and forth on his pubic bone.

This time, River didn't even bother to try to preserve her 'self' as she felt the feedback loop start to build between Jorge's and her own arousal. This was dance and she understood dance: You became one with the music and your pardner and everything around yourself. And what a pardner she had in Jorge, this was his dance, his art and his craft. River was so happy to have such a dance pardner with whom she could abandon herself in safety and trust. Jorge's strong empath skills responded to her emotions and brought him to the same soaring realization that this was something truly unique.

As the tempo of the dance increased, River began to realize that Jorge was also taken up in the spirit of the dance and was actually engaged in a type of worship that celebrated their joint carnality and spirituality. Instead of rejecting the notion, she came to realize that he was worshiping the goddess in both of them and so was she. Unbidden, Schiller's 'Ode to Joy set to Beethoven's Sixth symphony soared in both their heads. At their peak, a golden epiphany descended on both of them so that their climax was almost a hymn and a prayer that left them both shaken and grateful as they clutched at each other drenched in joy and sweat.



River never felt clearer or more healed. All of her brother's bravery, care and medicine had gotten her to this point, but it was her own letting go and embracing the universe with Jorge's help that made her whole. Her own future stretched out in front of her with it's branching possibilities and probability nodes. She was amazed to observe how strongly her probable fates looped and twined with those of the people beside her.

For his part, Jorge was just grateful to have found such a pardner and it made the pain and deprivation of the past months worthwhile and he too felt healed and complete. After years of striving to commune with the Goddess, to have achieved his goal was truly amazing for he was a true believer and he finally felt peace within.

River turned her gaze on Zoe to find tears streaming down her face. Zoe sobbed "My little mei-mei all growed up into a big strong woman. I'm so proud."

"Oh Zoe, I'll always be your mei-mei." River moved off of Jorge to hug Zoe and began to kiss away the tears. When the kisses became more insistent and her lips found Zoe's there was a passionate response of lips and tongue only to have Zoe finally pull back and stare at her with wide open eyes. "Zoe, It's OK for me to want you, sexual orientation experimentation is very common in the young; you remember."

Suddenly a parade of soldiers: young men and women friends and lovers stepped out of Zoe's memory in a long procession ending with Wash. All of them gone leaving big holes in Zoe. Tears started to flow again and River pulled her close. "Zoe... Zoe it's OK, they were all glad that you were in their lives and they are all glad that you are still strong and flying true. I'll never leave you. In fact..." she leaned in close to whisper "We're gonna have babies together!"

Zoe looked at her in alarm, wondering if she were having another 'episode'. River continued to whisper "No, silly, not now but in a couple of years when I represent..." and she shifted her eyes to indicate the bliss-ed out male in back of her. "He'll be so grateful when I get him exonerated and before he becomes head priest he'll agree to contract for breeding both of us. With his linage and prestige, our children will have access to every level of society and we will be the foundation of a 'verse'-wide shipping line. But we've got a lot of hard work to do to get ourselves and this boat ready. We have both a nursery and a matriarchy to build. "

Zoe whispered back "And you can see all this?" 

River answered "I'm reading the probabilities and I'm seeing a confidence level of... 97.9% on this one. Of course there is the outside chance that one of us is gonna end up marrying Jayne and moving back with him to live naked with his momma and get fat with ten kids."

Zoe laughed out loud and kissed River. The kiss became passionate and their hands began to explore the bodies so much like their own but so different. Gradually, their sex play attracted the attention of Jorge and his arousal caused River to reach behind and pull Jorge towards her back. Zoe assisted in his re-entry and she continued to fondle and stroke their joining as River explored Zoe's cinnabar gate and they all resumed their worship of the goddess.



In the middle of this gentle reciprocal shared horizontal dance, River became aware that she was gonna be an aunt to Serenity's first boomer and she was filled with such warm joy that she felt like singing. Mal was wrong, she wasn't gonna outgrow this boat, This boat was gonna grow around her. An old boomer lullaby based on the ancient poet Dylan came into her mind and she began to sing:

"Rock me Poppa like I got no bone, rock me Momma 'till the cows come home."

Jorge and Zoe joined in:

"Rock me Poppa by the pale moonlight, rock me Momma 'till the broad daylight. Oh, rock me Momma."

And so our little ship on the edge of the black sailed on with it's crew of happy lovers. "And what of Jayne?" you might ask, oh gentle reader. Well, he was quite busy with the hacked records provided to him by the former head of security for house Madarassa: the training 'captures' of a certain discredited former companion-in-training known to the crew as Saffron or Yolanda or Bridget or simply as our Mrs. Reynolds.

On Serenity's bridge, the specter of the former pilot sat down in his former seat to gaze out at his beloved stars and to light up the specters of cigars with the specter of a former Sheppard and together they began to sing to his plastic dinosaurs:

"Oh rock me Momma like a wagon wheel, rock me anyway you feel,Oh rock me Momma like the wind and the rain, rock me like a southbound train. Oh, rock me Momma."

FIN



The Two Companions Illustrated Ch. 05



(In which our hero, Jorge, settles some old affairs, honors some old traditions and pulls off the hat trick with Serenity's lovely ladies in our little ship on the edge of the black.)
 *

As Serenity climbed out of the ionosphere of New Kashmir, River was idly singing Mera Joota Hai Japani from an old Bollywood rasta about leaving while she danced in the pilot's seat and calculated atmospheric drift, relative velocities and trajectories to their next destination. However the majority of her brain was devoted to analysis of the complex emotions she had observed in the two couples in Inara's shuttle yesterday. That was a puzzle worthy of her attention. 

Mal looked on in bemusement and then drifted down into the galley thinking _ "She's going to outgrow this boat someday and I'm going to need a new pilot."

Jorge had just come up from the hold where he had been leading a capoeira session. Even Jayne and Zoe were learning the fundamentals after Jorge explained that it had been invented by a people who were in chains and that it could even be used if you were in handcuffs. Jayne figured that it could be a useful job skill and Zoe just wanted an excuse to kick Jayne's butt.

Taking a seat beside Jorge, Mal inquired "You ever want to be a pilot, Jorge?"

"You mean besides a shuttle? Well when I was a kid, I always figured I'd end up a ship's pilot. My Ma was a pilot and I think my Pa was one too."

Mal queried "You think your Pa was a pilot?"

"Yeah" Jorge responded "'cause intra-crew procreation sex was always prohibited due to inbreeding fears. The mother's usually knew but occasional ship meet-ups were often multi-day free-for-alls so that alliances could be maintained between ships without jealousy rearing its ugly head. Kids were never told their dad's name. Pilots and mechanics usually got first crack at using the engine room and that's where My Ma told me I got started and I know that she had a weakness for other pilots."

"Huh." Mal responded.

"Property and rank always got handed down from Mother to Daughter and my only hope of an officer's berth was to become a pilot. However, as a kid, what I did was hang around with the cook and the loaders and mechanics where I could make myself feel useful. I felt that men were mostly for muscle and in a fight if necessary. Decision making was a female prerogative. Those old ramrod officer women always intimidated me and I didn't like being up in Officer Country. I probably wasn't cut out to be one anyway." 

"Yeah," Mal replied "I felt the same way about officers and that's why I didn't become one either. But what you say about female inheritance and tradition got me to thinking. My ma came from a ship's crew family and Reynolds was her and my grandma's name. I always thought that the reason I didn't know my Pa's or Grandpa's name was cause my Ma and Grandma got taken advantage of and abandoned. And I always thought that my sister inherited the ranch on Shadow cause I ran off and joined the Independents. But If what you say is true of ship's family traditions, I didn't run away from any responsibility. I just avoided being a ranch hand for my sister."

Mal continued "And take Zoe: her ma was a captain but she was the sixth daughter and there was no way she could inherit anything and all her older sisters just used to boss her around. At least with me, she only has one boss, plus if I get kilt, she gets the boat."

Jorge laughed "Welcome to the world of the super-numeraries. I guess we're both soldiers of fortune for the same reason. But look at it from a female point of view: why would a woman who worked hard all her life on a ranch or a ship want to turn it over to some Hun-dan  just because he consented to be the father of her children?"

As Mal sat lost in thought, Jorge continued. "You know that a woman can be just as fond of her freedom and her self-possession as a man. Just because she falls in love doesn't dictate that she has to stop being herself or give up everything she is to being somebody's 'helpmate'. Even if they have a kid, they don't become the property of some man. What happened at the Heart of Gold should have taught you that. 

"Oh, you heard about that, huh?" Mal responded.

"Yeah, that has become a favorite story among companions. You're big damn heroes with them and other sex workers." Jorge continued.

"Great, now I'm a hero among wh..." his voice trailed off as Mal remembered who he was talking to.

"Careful now, I can hurt you" Jorge quietly remarked.

Mal relaxed when he realized that Jorge was only kidding. "I'm sorry. I'm just starting to realize that being a companion isn't about selling your body to the highest bidder."

"That's right, Mal, what's being sold is skill, insight, knowledge, expertise and understanding. The fact that the body is involved is no different from an actor, dancer, surgeon or even a soldier."

Mal grinned "Yeah, when we got paid, it was for putting our asses on the line and for making sure our asses stayed where they were supposed to be when things went south. When you put it that way, being a companion is just as respectable as anything I've ever done and probably more respectable than a lot of things I've done."

Another thought crossed Mal's mind. "Say, you wouldn't be speaking in the interest of a certain female companion, would you?"

Jorge threw up his hands. "Actually, Im speaking against the expressed wishes of a certain female companion and I don't want her to find out about it. Besides, as hard headed as you both are you probably deserve each other." Suddenly sober he continued "Mal,trust me, she really does love you and as her friend, I want her to be happy. I think you're a good man and I sense from the way you look at her that you are just as much in love. Anyway, if you bring her pain, I'll just track you down and shoot you." 

"Shoot me?"

"Yes, you know, politely."

Mal and Jorge both laughed and Jorge continued "But seriously, you and Inara have been my saviors and I owe you at least dinner. I have enough food that I liberated from my cousins to fix a meal for both of you. If I fix it for the crew, Jayne will just eat most of it without even noticing anything about it."

"Ok, given that line of reasoning," Mal replied "If Inara accepts, so will I."

Inara accepted with some misgivings after Jorge asked her to accept the meal as his parting gift and begged her to give Mal a chance if he could be on his best behavior. 

Jorge began to prepare for the meal. The next evening, ship's time, Jorge escorted Mal to Inara's shuttle where she greeted them dressed in a very fine kimono bound with an ornate obi around her waist. She served them both with tea and had them remove their shoes and socks prior to washing their feet. Jorge then taught Malcolm how to wash Inara's feet. When Mal remarked on her long graceful toes, Jorge and Inara looked at each other. When Jorge started to speak, Inara interjected "It's my story, I'll tell it."

"Prior to leaving Earth-that-was my family were miners in the astroid belt before the invention of the gravity drive or generators: real old school rocket prospectors. Because what we did was considered highly valuable to society, we were given one of the last gene-mod permits before they became totally illegal. The mod allowed us to grip with our toes in micro-gee when we needed both hands. The mod bred true and all my family have long toes. In fact my nickname was stub-toe because everyone else had much longer toes. It was said that my great aunt would dial down the grav in her room and hang from the ceiling to sleep. She claimed that it improved her posture" 

Mal looked at her to tell if she was pulling his leg but then decided to play along. "I always wondered about those sharp little canine teeth of yours. Hey, let go of my thumb with those toes!"

Jorge just grinned and handed Mal the towel to dry off her feet. "We are all equals now. Let me pour you some fruit juice batidas and then I'll get the food from the galley." Jorge brought back a beautiful seafood vapata and moquia that he had spent all afternoon and a great deal of saffron and other aphrodisiacs in it's skillful preparation. As Jorge shared the the meal, he kept them well lubricated with cachaca and rum. He also kept the conversation light but kept praising Inara's beauty until he actually had her blushing.

When Jorge started to feel his own arousal he judged that it was time to withdraw and he bid them both good night, placing a do not disturb sign on the hatch to Inara's shuttle. 

Feeling slightly uncomfortable in the absence of his 'wingman' and anxious not to say the wrong thing and screw up once again, Mal decided to complement Inara on the job of redecorating that she and Kaylee had done on her shuttle. 

"Thank you Malcolm, especially after you made a special trip to get my things back on Bena. It's not easy living out of a trunk, even if I'm not entertaining clients."

"I was glad to be of assistance but I'm real sorry that the mess I got you into ruined your reputation with your upper class clientele. I realize now that you probably had to work pretty hard to develop your client base." Mal apologized.

"Mal, My client base turned out to be as fickle and undependable as the petty criminals who made up yours. I never told you this but I did not come from wealth. I was not royalty descended from a priest or priestess. My family were as hard working as yours and even though I enjoy the finer things in life, I can live without them. Right now I am enjoying dealing with people who have to work for a living. I don't see it as as a step down but more like a breath of fresh air."

Inara continued "As the saying goes, a door doesn't close without another opening somewhere else. At least now your reputation is 'solid' as Niska put it and people see you as someone who can get the job done no matter what. I just hope that your reputation of having a conscience doesn't get in the way of your client's general lack of one."

Mal grinned at the backhanded compliment. "I bet you say that to all the fellas."

"No, Mal I don't and at least I think it's time to be honest with each other. It's just you and me in here. You've never been my client and after Miranda I'm not really your tenant anymore. I chip in to help keep this boat in the air and I'm as much a part of this crew as anybody else. We've faced death, hardship and hard times not to mention thieves, thugs, con-artists, psychotics and cannibals. You don't own me and I don't own you, we're pardners."

Mal replied "Careful now, you don't want to be putting yourself in the same category as Jayne if you call yourself crew. But,... well yes, I guess we are business associates and pardners in a way."

Inara answered "Mal, I believe the term is criminal co-conspirators."

Mal smiled "And I do believe that you are the most beautiful criminal I've ever conspired with."

"Why Malcolm, I think that is the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

"Try not to faint, occasionally I do say the right thing."

"And you should stop while you're ahead." Inara leaned forward to begin what became a very passionate kiss. When his hands started to roam, she stood and unwrapped her obi and let it fall to the floor. Her kimono hung open, revealing an expanse of skin along her left side and a gaping darkness between her hip and the garment. As he stared into that looming darkness that defined her waist, the awareness came to both of them that if he reached into that darkness to pull her to himself, everything would be different. The 'verse would change for both of them. As Mal looked up into her eyes, Inara spoke "Mal, when we were trapped in that horrible vault at Mr. Universe's I vowed that if I ever survived I would never be afraid again. I also vowed that if you came back alive I would never be afraid to express my feelings for you."

Mal's eyebrows came up "What do you have to be afraid of?" he asked without thinking.

The corners of Inara's eyes crinkled she smiled in bemusement and remarked off-handily "Well, Jorge did promise to come back and shoot me if I screwed this up."

"You too? How well does he shoot?"

"Wings off a fly, Mal." She joked.

"We better do it right then." as he reached into her kimono to pull her close into a mutually hungry kiss.

Both their hands were busy, his with exploring the beautiful mystery of the woman he had wanted so long and hers with unbuttoning his shirt and exploring his chest. When she was pushing his suspenders off his shoulders, Mal felt her unbuttoning his pants and looked down in astonishment to see her toes nimbly releasing and then stroking his manhood.

When he looked up in astonishment, Inara's eyes were laughing. "Malcolm, you are so attractive when you're speechless." She then urged him to his feet and started kissing again while removing his shirt and he followed suit with her kimono. Inara pulled him close with her arms around his neck. As she lifted one leg to wrap around his waist her big toe grasped the waistband of his tight pants and she shucked him like an ear of corn. Suddenly, both of them were as God (or their mothers) made them.

Malcolm grinned at her "You're pretty handy with those toes of yours, aren't ya?"



Inara grinned back "Captain sans pants, you truly have no idea." and hooked his knee from behind with her ankle. They both tumbled into the bed which quickly became the setting for a mutual carnal devouring. The white-hot passion fueled by pent up desire more than made up for the lack of finesse. Still, he managed to hold himself back until she peaked before joining her in a wild bucking climax.

"Wo-cao Inara...I've broken wild horses that were tamer than that ride." She just purred in contentment and snuggled against his broad chest. He began a slow stroking of her lovely rump and legs that gradually descended into the dark mystery of silken curls that lay at the juncture of her thighs. Mal then began a careful repetition of the stroking and patterned probing that Jorge had carefully taught him earlier. 

Under the influence of the aphrodisiacs and the siren song of her own nerve endings, Inara at first did not recognize the technique that her first lover perfected on her nether regions so long ago. But then the teacher in her kicked in and she snapped to the realization that this was just too good to be the product of a gifted amateur, and she at first suspected some kind of cheap trick on Mal's part. Gradually her own arousal and the grudging admiration of his grasp of the complex technique plus the inspired riffs that he brought to the composition with his tongue and lips convinced her that Mal really was worshiping the goddess at the altar of her cinnabar gate. When he finally sucked her yin di into a wavering crescendo she sailed into a soaring all-consuming orgasm that left her shivering. The realization that Mal had taken the trouble to learn and Jorge to teach made her understand that she truly was loved and that people she truly cared about cared enough to gift her with this kind of pleasure. 

Unbidden tears came to her eyes and sobs of gratitude shook her frame. Mal looked up in confusion, "I wasn't that bad, was I?" 

A crooked smile broke across her tear-stained face"Oh Mal!" and she pulled him up to deliver a grateful kiss which became even more passionate until she worked down his torso to engulf his rising staff of jade in her own symphony of worship to the goddess. When she rose up to impale herself on his upthrust mast, they both embarked on a mutual labor of love that left them gasping and exhausted.

Inara finally propped herself up on one elbow and asked with a grin "Oh captain, my captain... what happens next?"

It was Mal's turn to look at her in bemusement "Truly, darlin', I have no idea."

"Good answer, Mal." 

"Uh, Inara...'

_"Oh, no here it comes."_ she thought.

"How am I doin'? ...I mean as your lover." Mal asked as if he really expected a truthful answer.

_"Mal, you dummy."_ she thought _"he really does deserve this."_ "Well Malcolm, to tell you the truth, you're really not my type. I usually prefer my lovers to be married because it makes everything less messy. But...I forgot! You are married! Or you are according to that little piece of trash that suckered you twice, left you naked and sunburnt and nearly got us all killed. What was her name, Saffron, Yolanda,.. Bridge-work?"

As Mal detected the twinkle in her eye, he realized she was yanking his chain. He rose up to pounce on her. "You little minx... I'm gonna tickle you until..."

But she was ready and spun under him so that her toes were under his armpits before he could get anywhere near her.

"Hey, no fair!" Mal cried and clamped his arms down to pin her feet. Inara held him at bay with her powerful thighs while he hung over her pressing down. As he looked at her, dressed in nothing but a healthy glow and a sheen of sweat, his gaze traveled down from her feral grin past her heaving breasts and her lightly rounded abdomen to the thicket of dark wet curls and the swollen lower lips which still gleamed with the products of their passion. 

As his body responded and his face softened from mock rage to lust, Inara also responded by gradually lowering her knees to her chest so that his rising manhood met her womanhood and he entered her welcoming love channel. 

"Perfect docking Captain." she quipped. 

"Permission to come aboard, Mam."

"Permission granted, Captain."

As he resumed a slow but powerful rocking she embraced his well muscled broad back and buttocks with caves and forearms. With a sigh and a whisper barely loud enough to hear she murmured "You're doing fine Mal...we're both doing fine."

Meanwhile...,

Jorge had pulled out a bottle of fine old rum and was settling down to a well deserved drink in the galley. Zoe walked in and turned a chair around and straddled it to sit across the table from him. When Jorge produced a second glass and offered it to Zoe she thanked him and clinked his glass in a toast. "To the Captain and Inara getting sexed. Those two been dancin' around and snappin' at each other so long that I was considerin' gittin' em drunk and tossin' in a bunk my own self. Glad to see that you got it done up proper." 

"Thanks, Zoe; but I sense that congratulating me is not all that you're about." as Jorge poured another round of rum.

"You're right, maistre. I trust you're aware of the old ship's tradition of gettin' a shipmate sexed when they come of age?"

"Right, adult virgins are bad luck, they invite disaster." He leaned closer and lowered his voice "I trust that this is not for Doc Tam's ears."

"Right, now I got my share of cashy money after our last job and I know I can't afford your normal companion rates but I figured you might cut a fellow crew mate a deal and still do her up right."

Jorge was about to reply that he would consider it an honor to do it for nothing when River stepped down from the passage to the cockpit. "Not so fast. I'm not doing it if she isn't. She needs it more than I do. She 'ain't had no lovin' since January, February, June or July'." quoting an old song called 'Harvest Moon' and laying a tender hand on Zoe's shoulder. "She flies true but she's been banged up pretty bad. Remember Jorge, you took an oath to offer sexual healing to the sick at heart and the bereaved."

Zoe demurred "Oh River, bao-bei, I don't know if I'm ready."

River just cocked her head and gave Zoe one of her 'looks' as if to say "_Right, as if I couldn't read your state of mind_." "Besides, Wash thinks it's a great idea." 

Zoe burst out laughing "That sounds like my Man. He always did want to watch."

River leaned close to Zoe's ear. "You can't lie to me, you're as wet as the lake region of Londinium at the thought."




The Two Companions Illustrated Ch. 05



"Well as a special favor to the recently departed and even though I can't afford it I'll give you my whole bonus in a package deal. Hows a bout' it Jorge? You ever been with a couple of warrior women?" Zoe queried.

River leaned to Jorge's ear "I know about all those aphrodisiacs that you just had with 'Nara and the Cap. I know you'll do it for nothing and you know it too."

Jorge just looked at River "I want you for my lawyer if I ever go to trial."

River thought for a moment. She'd gotten her PhD in Math/Physics long distance at New Niels Bohr Institute when she was sixteen. What kind of obstacle was a bar exam? "Deal, consider this my retainer fee." and shook his hand.

"Ok, Zoe, it's all taken care of. I've set the auto-pilot and the long distance proximity alarm. I've got an agreement with Kaylee that she'll keep my brother occupied if I don't go snooping around the engine room. She has something top secret going she called the 'boomer project'"

Jorge and Zoe just looked at each other. River's eyes went wide "Oh...oh my, you're boomers! That would be why he was giving Kaylee and himself anti-contraception shots."

Zoe laughed "He'll do anything for her now since Mr. Companion here taught them how to have good sex." and she gave Jorge a playful jab in the arm. Zoe continued "Where we gonna do all this? The spare shuttle is filled with Kaylee's spare parts since we filled up the hold with cargo."

River answered "My room and Jorge's are out because there's no privacy in the passenger dorms. My brother or even worse: Jayne could come by. Zoe's bunk is bigger and we can lock the overhead. My brother would never think to look there."

Zoe replied "Alright, I just cleaned up and it's presentable and I screwed enough in the trenches that I don't have any privacy issues but It's just down the passage from Jayne's bunk, aren't we gonna raise his curiosity when we all go trooping up there?" 

Jorge interjected "Don't worry about him, I've got a present I've been meaning to give him that should keep him occupied for some time. You two go on ahead and I'll meet you up there."

While they were freshening up and before Jorge arrived, Zoe asked "River, this is your night, do you want to go first?"

"No, you're my sempai and you should go first, besides human physiological responses to observation of the sex act will increase the lubrication I will need for the probable girth of Jorge's reproductive organ."

Zoe laughed "Glad to see you got it all sussed out litl' genius-girl."

Sometime later, River sat dressed in her usual brightly colored shift at the foot of Zoe's bed watching the other two and analyzing the butterflies she felt inside. For her whole life she had never felt anxious about what she was about to do: dance performances, piano recitals, final exams and thesis defenses had just filled her with confidence in her own competence. Why did this simple act fill her with the same emotion she felt on Christmas eve when she was a child? She had watched Zoe and Jorge's calm acceptance and appreciation of each other and even though they were both aroused, they still took care not to rush.

Zoe wanted to prolong the moment as long as possible and Jorge was motivated by professional pride in his craft. She decided to focus on their emotions and found that they too were anxious about what they were doing. Zoe was struggling with her deep-seated longings and grief for Wash and the powerful arousal she was feeling for the large black male she was presently straddling and grinding her pelvis against and on whom she impaled herself repeatedly and with increasing frequency.



Jorge was filled with the same kind of anxiety that he felt when presenting a well crafted meal to an unknown palate and whose emotional volatility was unknown because of her too long suppression of her own grief. Of course he was also aroused from the aphrodisiacs and it didn't help that purely by chance Zoe resembled in both facial characteristics and pheromones the mother that he had tragically lost so long ago.

When they both finally surrendered to the moment and focused on the mutual sensory experience, their emotions and actions came together like a beautifully executed duet or a balletic pas-deux. To River's eyes, the climax was beautifully poetic and the tender way they supported each other afterward almost caused her to leap to her feet with cries of bravo and clapping. However, Zoe's tears and convulsive sobbing drove her to scramble up onto the bed to comfort her friend.

Both Jorge and River hugged and comforted Zoe as the carefully crafted facade and dam that she had constructed around her own grief crumbled and the pent up despair flowed out into the sheltering arms of the friends that surrounded her. Jorge held her and stroked her long curls while River kissed the tears on her cheeks and chin.

Suddenly River put her lips to Zoe's and delivered a long and sensual kiss and whispered "Wash wanted me to do that, He loves you very much and he thinks you are hot as hell." Then she turned to Jorge "Wash wants me to thank you too and he thinks you did a wonderful job even with your limited equipment."

Jorge looked puzzled and Zoe burst out laughing. Addressing the air above her head she admonished "Honey, it's impolite to brag in front of guests about your endowment but I love you too anyway." To Jorge she said "Don't mind him, You did great maistre, and thanks for the tumble. Guess I'll head down to the galley and give you two some privacy."

River put a hand to Zoe's shoulder "No sempai, I want you to stay. I watched you make something beautiful, I want you to watch me make something beautiful too."

Rising and stepping over Zoe's supine form she stood in front of Jorge between his bent knees. Bending from the waist she lowered her face to examine his spent manhood. She hefted and examined it and ran her hand down it's slippery length and then lifted her fingers to taste the product of Jorge and Zoe's passion. "So different on my own than on other people's tongues. Ergo, I need to gain my own experience in life and not just live vicariously in other minds."

River then reached over to the nightstand for Jorge's rum and took a large swig, exhaled violently and then inhaled before grabbing the hem of her dress and pulling it off over her head to reveal both her lack of underwear and her trim and nubile young body. She was pleased to sense the admiring gaze of her two bed-mates. She knelt in front of Jorge "First things first." and she leaned forward to give a long and lingering kiss to his large, soft lips. "I, like my brother am a traditionalist. First kiss before first fornication." then she lowered her head to lick and suck on Jorge's tool thinking _"If Kaylee can handle this big old black doorknocker, so can I."_ Gradually, the taste and feel of the stiffening male organ in her mouth plus his pheromones began to further arouse her. While having him completely at her mercy she was able to arouse him which further excited her.

When Jorge sat up to reach down behind her thigh to pull her towards himself. She looked up "Isn't this the school solution to reset the male sexual response?" 

"Yes, but part of my arousal involves my ability to enjoy your sex too." Jorge gently suggested.

"Oh!" River said "I forgot that you can enjoy my erectile tissue as much as I do yours; Sorry." and wiggled her pretty little rump around to face him and then lifted her thigh to straddle his chest and then lowered her sex onto his sensual and talented lips and tongue. "Oh...OH... yes! Now I'm really sorry that that I didn't do this before." and she resumed her role as felatrix. She quickly lost all thought of being in control as he plied his specialty on her dark haired mound of venus, inner thighs, swollen forbidden folds and her increasingly prominent yin di. 

What was even more arousing were the strong carnal images and emotions that came out of Jorge's subconscious to her own combined with the feedback loop that was developing between River's mouth, Jorge's lingam, his arousal and her own mounting excitement emanating from her own cinnabar gate. Lacking the normal filters that most people have to sort their personal experience out of the chaos of sensory data that bombards their conscious mind, River felt as if she was trying to swim into a torrent and that she was drowning. She knew this road and she hated and feared it. Only the fact that she had observed Jorge and Zoe letting go earlier of their personal struggles saved her. In addition, Jorge was mentally urging her to let go as he pushed his tongue into her. 

As she stopped fighting and turned to swim with the torrent she was suddenly weightless and soaring in ecstasy. She was no one and she was everyone, she was the ship and the universe surrounding it, she was nowhere. Joyous oblivion beckoned. When she came back to consciousness, she turned herself around to kiss Jorge and found that she had drenched Jorge"s smiling face in her own essence.

"Do you like how you taste, River? 'Cause I think you're great!" Jorge exclaimed. 

"Hmm... I may be low in potassium." She joked "But I'm glad to see that I taste as wonderful as you and Zoe. And by the way, that was fantastic, well worth my retainer fee."

"River, that was just the hors 'd orderves, the main course is just coming up." and as if to emphasize his point, his lingam rose up to softly smack her red, wet bottom. She grinned at him and reaching behind her, she pulled him up between her cheeks to rub the length of him against her now slick and shining lower lips.

"She understands but doesn't comprehend. I'm just starting to comprehend that what goes on with my body pales in comparison with what goes on in my head." River remarked.

"As the companion manual states on the first page:..." Jorge began.

"The brain is the most important sexual organ" River completed "but not necessarily the most fun one." as she grasped Jorge's black 'birinbau' and rose up to begin working him into herself. She winced momentarily but then slid about halfway down until girth and depth stopped her progress. "Unh... female reproductive physiology is considered both mailable and mutable." She remarked and attempted to press herself downward with her face reddening.

"Unh...River, bao-bei, it's easier this way." and Jorge grasped her hips in his strong black hands to lift her up until just the glans was still inside her and then gently lower and raise River a couple of inches at a time for several repetitions. He then lowered her until her progress stopped again but this time much further down the shaft.

"Oh...oh! That's good. I get it, absence makes the heart grow fonder, in this case the heart of my yoni is more and more fond of your lingam." River sighed as she rose up to repeat the previous actions. After a short time, she was impaling herself the length of him and rocking back and forth on his pubic bone.

This time, River didn't even bother to try to preserve her 'self' as she felt the feedback loop start to build between Jorge's and her own arousal. This was dance and she understood dance: You became one with the music and your pardner and everything around yourself. And what a pardner she had in Jorge, this was his dance, his art and his craft. River was so happy to have such a dance pardner with whom she could abandon herself in safety and trust. Jorge's strong empath skills responded to her emotions and brought him to the same soaring realization that this was something truly unique.

As the tempo of the dance increased, River began to realize that Jorge was also taken up in the spirit of the dance and was actually engaged in a type of worship that celebrated their joint carnality and spirituality. Instead of rejecting the notion, she came to realize that he was worshiping the goddess in both of them and so was she. Unbidden, Schiller's 'Ode to Joy set to Beethoven's Sixth symphony soared in both their heads. At their peak, a golden epiphany descended on both of them so that their climax was almost a hymn and a prayer that left them both shaken and grateful as they clutched at each other drenched in joy and sweat.



River never felt clearer or more healed. All of her brother's bravery, care and medicine had gotten her to this point, but it was her own letting go and embracing the universe with Jorge's help that made her whole. Her own future stretched out in front of her with it's branching possibilities and probability nodes. She was amazed to observe how strongly her probable fates looped and twined with those of the people beside her.

For his part, Jorge was just grateful to have found such a pardner and it made the pain and deprivation of the past months worthwhile and he too felt healed and complete. After years of striving to commune with the Goddess, to have achieved his goal was truly amazing for he was a true believer and he finally felt peace within.

River turned her gaze on Zoe to find tears streaming down her face. Zoe sobbed "My little mei-mei all growed up into a big strong woman. I'm so proud."

"Oh Zoe, I'll always be your mei-mei." River moved off of Jorge to hug Zoe and began to kiss away the tears. When the kisses became more insistent and her lips found Zoe's there was a passionate response of lips and tongue only to have Zoe finally pull back and stare at her with wide open eyes. "Zoe, It's OK for me to want you, sexual orientation experimentation is very common in the young; you remember."

Suddenly a parade of soldiers: young men and women friends and lovers stepped out of Zoe's memory in a long procession ending with Wash. All of them gone leaving big holes in Zoe. Tears started to flow again and River pulled her close. "Zoe... Zoe it's OK, they were all glad that you were in their lives and they are all glad that you are still strong and flying true. I'll never leave you. In fact..." she leaned in close to whisper "We're gonna have babies together!"

Zoe looked at her in alarm, wondering if she were having another 'episode'. River continued to whisper "No, silly, not now but in a couple of years when I represent..." and she shifted her eyes to indicate the bliss-ed out male in back of her. "He'll be so grateful when I get him exonerated and before he becomes head priest he'll agree to contract for breeding both of us. With his linage and prestige, our children will have access to every level of society and we will be the foundation of a 'verse'-wide shipping line. But we've got a lot of hard work to do to get ourselves and this boat ready. We have both a nursery and a matriarchy to build. "

Zoe whispered back "And you can see all this?" 

River answered "I'm reading the probabilities and I'm seeing a confidence level of... 97.9% on this one. Of course there is the outside chance that one of us is gonna end up marrying Jayne and moving back with him to live naked with his momma and get fat with ten kids."

Zoe laughed out loud and kissed River. The kiss became passionate and their hands began to explore the bodies so much like their own but so different. Gradually, their sex play attracted the attention of Jorge and his arousal caused River to reach behind and pull Jorge towards her back. Zoe assisted in his re-entry and she continued to fondle and stroke their joining as River explored Zoe's cinnabar gate and they all resumed their worship of the goddess.



In the middle of this gentle reciprocal shared horizontal dance, River became aware that she was gonna be an aunt to Serenity's first boomer and she was filled with such warm joy that she felt like singing. Mal was wrong, she wasn't gonna outgrow this boat, This boat was gonna grow around her. An old boomer lullaby based on the ancient poet Dylan came into her mind and she began to sing:

"Rock me Poppa like I got no bone, rock me Momma 'till the cows come home."

Jorge and Zoe joined in:

"Rock me Poppa by the pale moonlight, rock me Momma 'till the broad daylight. Oh, rock me Momma."

And so our little ship on the edge of the black sailed on with it's crew of happy lovers. "And what of Jayne?" you might ask, oh gentle reader. Well, he was quite busy with the hacked records provided to him by the former head of security for house Madarassa: the training 'captures' of a certain discredited former companion-in-training known to the crew as Saffron or Yolanda or Bridget or simply as our Mrs. Reynolds.

On Serenity's bridge, the specter of the former pilot sat down in his former seat to gaze out at his beloved stars and to light up the specters of cigars with the specter of a former Sheppard and together they began to sing to his plastic dinosaurs:

"Oh rock me Momma like a wagon wheel, rock me anyway you feel, Oh rock me Momma like the wind and the rain, rock me like a southbound train.Oh, rock me Momma."

FIN