Take the Stars

BIRTHRIGHT

They took Serenity away from me at exactly 2:03 AM, and I, Rebecca and Will spent the night squatting in a dank hole that barely registered as a hotel until, after an eternity, dawn came.
I was the first up... I hadn’t slept. My dreams had been tattered and alarming, a voice drifting within the remains of a life I barely remembered. I felt aside from myself. The dark-eyed, pale little wench who stared back at me through the mirror… it wasn’t me. It wasn’t Captain Reynolds, notorious smuggler and daughter of the fallen war hero. It was a pathetic, frightened little lady who belonged on some distant, lush moon, a frail butterfly who would spend the morning combing snarls from her hair, instead of fighting for the one thing she had left in the whole vast empty universe.
But I could already feel it slipping through my grasp.
“Captain,” I heard a voice behind me. I started in alarm, but it was only Will in the reflection, studying me with the anxious eye of an older brother. I had caught him doing that, once or twice… trying to look out for me. His mother had been like that, too, always drifting on the edges of my childhood world, watching and waiting for trouble. But he wasn’t my brother, so I turned and fixed him with the sternest eye I could manage. “We got a good hour before the auction. Take everything we can do without into town and sell it.”
Will nodded, but I saw the way he shifted his feet from one to the other… a childhood tick I warned him would get him killed if he ever came across anyone with a sharp eye.
“Speak already, Will,” I snapped, more harsh than I’d intended.
He raised his dark black eyes to mine. “It’s no use, Captain. Serenity’s lost.”
“It ain’t lost ‘til I say it’s lost,” I charged,” And until then, I’m still your captain-so do I say, and move out. We’re burnin’ daylight.”
Will turned and left without another word; largely because we both knew he was right.

~

The air was cool and crisp; a perfect autumn morning on Galger as we hugged our cloaks tighter against us. Most of the town still remained snug in ransack little houses, but the docks were alive and bustling, shouts, curses, and the smell of engine fuel consuming our senses. I could see Serenity long before we reached it, and I couldn’t bare to take my eyes off her, even to see where I was going. If I was meant to lose my father’s ship, I’d keep it fixed within my mind ‘til my dying day, and no one could take that from me.
“Well!” a boisterous voice greeted us,” Miss Reynolds has come to fight for this piece of gong-se, has she?”
“It’s Captain Reynolds, Governor,” I said with little fight in my voice,” And don’t you forget it.”
“Why remember things of the past?” the Governor appeared from the bowels of my ship, smiling smugly to himself as he descended down the hatch,” Cheap little abomination, isn’t it? I’m surprised you didn’t sell it for parts long ago.”
“Spare me your theatrics, Orblacs,” I nearly snarled,” Let’s get this out with.”
“Oh, Miss Reynolds, you must allow me my gloating,” Governor Orblacs grinned wickedly into my unflinching stare,” I have been waiting a long time for this.”
“Here now!” another man appeared from a cargo bay, skinny and unruffled. He carried a wooden mallet in one hand, and thick book of tallies in the other. He smiled warmly at us, completely oblivious to the collective glares, and said cheerfully,” Aurora Reynolds, I presume?”
“Captain,” I corrected.
“Of course, of course. Good, then we may begin!” With a pompous clearing of his throat, he perched a pair of spectacles on his long nose and stared down into the pages of his book,” The item, in question, one model Firefly, name of Serenity, previous owner Mal Reynolds, circa-“
“Yes, yes, get on with it!” Orblacs growled.
“-passed into the ownership of Governor Hubert Orblacs by request of Inspector Tanner, until hereby time as it was seen fit, according to Article 3, Paragraph 10 of the Merchants’ Agreement-“
“GET ON WITH IT!” I and the Governor roared in unison.
Looking flustered, the gentleman slammed the book closed and raised his mallet,” Very well! Goodness. We shall begin the bidding at 5,000!”
“6,000!” I cried.
“7,000,” the Governor countered with an evil smile.
“8,000,” I felt myself begin to be sick.
“10,000.” He was playing with me, the pompous ass.
“12,000.”
“20,000.”
I glanced helplessly at Rebecca and Will. 15,000 had been the highest we could go. We had nothing else. I was losing her. Serenity. The only gift my father had ever given me, and she was lost…
“20,000! Going once, going twice…!”
“25,000.”
Each of us started in surprise-I, Will, Rebecca, and even Governor Orblacs. We turned in alarm, and standing just behind us was a figure dressed from head to toe in black, a hood pulled over the head to conceal any attempts at discovering identity.
The auctioneer barely paused a moment. “I’ve got 25,000…”
“30,000,” the Governor snapped.
“40,000,” the stranger said with ultimate calm.
“… 50,000!” Orblacs was visibly sweating, trying to stare down the upstart stranger. But the figure barely gave him a passing glance before announcing, evenly,” 100,000.”
“How… how DARE you!” Governor Orblacs sputtered, face glowing beat red,” This pile of junk isn’t worth 100,000! What do you think you’re doing?”
The stranger did not even look in his direction before replying,” I’ve taken a fancy to this ship. You’re correct, of course. She isn’t worth 100,000. She’s worth far more than that to me… so Auctioneer, why don’t we say 150,000? That seems adequate.”
“Are you insane, sir?” Governor Orblacs screeched,” Do you know who I am?”
“Hubert Orblacs, I believe the good man said,” the stranger’s tone was icy,” The most worthless governor this hole in the ground territory has ever seen.” The figure suddenly turned and demanded, softly,” The real question, sir… is do you know who I am?”
Orblacs turned from beat red to palest white.
The stranger turned back to the auctioneer, frozen at his podium with mallet still in hand. “I do believe the last bid was 150,000, my good sir.”
The gentleman quickly recovered himself,” You are entirely correct, good man! 150,000, going once, going twice… sold, to the gentleman in the black cloak!”
Governor Orblacs, too, had rapidly recovered. He adjusted his faux fir muffler around his shoulders with a pretentious snort, and turned to go… But as he reached the end of the dock, he turned and glared beadily at me.
“My one comfort,” he growled,” is that you, Miss Reynolds, are without a job, and Galger doesn’t take lightly to beggars. Perhaps I wasn’t the one to take it away, but you still lost your birthright… I hope that haunts you to the day you show up on my threshold, begging to get on your knees in front of me.” And with that, he waddled as fast as he could from the scene.