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Kelley thinks there’s a certain magic to living in space, even if it is all science and cold nothing and machines. There’s magic in the way that Pinoe’s hands ease up on the controls at just the right moment when they’re mid-getaway, and when Cap pushes back just hard enough on the negotiations with the other Kelly and they have cargo and Cap tries not to smile too much but she can’t manage to hold it in, or the days when Tobin’s all there and Alex actually manages to relax for more than a minute at a time. There’s definitely magic in the way she can just look at the guts of Serenity and know what’s hurting her, and she listens to the content hum Serenity’s putting out at the moment and gives her a pat. She’s a good ship. The best.
Kelly’s got them on some haul out to Dyton, since she’s currently out on a warrant there. All of Dyton knows Kelly Smith, but all of Dyton doesn’t know Captain Carli Lloyd (yet), and probably none of Dyton knows Kelley O’Hara. It’s why she got picked to go with Cap this go-round, even though Walshy protested pretty heavily and Abby had grunted, which in Abby-talk meant she didn’t much care as long as she got her cut.
They’re still a day’s worth of flying out of Dyton though, and Kelley’s gone through the plan three times with Cap, which is about as much as she can do beyond keep Serenity going. She watches Abby prep the hold for a bit, though there’s not much to it beyond moving the free weights her and the preacher use into a corner. Rampone’s been scarce the past few days anyway, and Kelley suspects it’s some kind of god emergency rather than moral opposition to the upcoming events they have planned. She keeps ending up in Hope’s shuttle, drinking tea that’s just a touch too hot, watching Hope read her books. Sometimes Hope combs her hair, with one of her fine delicate combs made of bone, sometimes just with one of her hands absentmindedly while she turns the pages of a history about the Independents. Kelley’s pretty sure that book could get you arrested on any Alliance planet.
(Kelley’s pretty sure Cap’s name is in there somewhere about the Battle of Serenity. Maybe Walshy’s too. But sometimes they go places in the outer rim and folks see Cap’s coat and distrust turns to a quiet respect. Kelley thinks it feels like mourning.)
It’s not that the plan goes pear-shaped exactly. Kelley thinks it can better be described as imploding then exploding, then they scrape the bits together only to have them spontaneously combust. Doesn’t help that the girl who Cap got accidentally ceremonially married to that one time was waiting for them on Dyton with plans of her own, which of course. Melissa Tancredi or Palma or whatever her name was this week had a way of getting under Cap’s skin, not to mention her not-so-hidden violent streak.
(Kelley was sure Cap was still wearing a boot imprint down the left side of her face, three days later.)
It’s not even two days before Tobin starts mumbling about rainbows and going around the moon, whatever that means. Alex’s shoulders go stiff with worry, and no one seems to notice that except Kelley. Kelley wishes they could have a break, one of these days, when the job goes smooth, no one shoots at them when they try to get paid, and they can sit and eat soup in the mess and listen to Cap and Walshy’s old war stories.
Tobin sprints through Serenity, which Kelley knows is an accident waiting to happen. The only two who can do it without eating it are her and Cap, and it’s only because they’re the two who love this ship and care to learn every uneven line of grating, the steps that don’t line up quite right. But Tobin makes it look easy, and somehow Alex makes it look even easier when she gives chase. Yet Alex still says Tobin’s the gifted one, the one with vision.
Their banging sets Cap’s teeth on edge. Kelley doesn’t mind so much. It’s not Tobin’s fault. Sometimes if it gets to be too much at night, she creeps up to Hope’s shuttle and sleeps there.
It’s another three days before Tobin settles back down again. By then, they’ve got another job.
No one gets shot on this one, which is new and exciting.
(She remembers the one time she got shot. Cap’s taken a bullet a few more times than she’d like to consider, but so far she’s only had the one. And Alex had saved her, and Hope had held her head, and Cap had run, just the once, just for her.)
She doesn’t get up to the bridge much, but there’s one night when she’s pretty sure that her and Pinoe are the only ones still up. They’ve got a load of fuel cells hidden away in the hold, and Serenity’s on a full burn as long as she can take to Three Hills. It’s the sort of quiet that Kelley knows will bring disaster, so she’s determined to enjoy it while it lasts. Getting a look at the stars will settle her nerves.
She hears Pinoe before she sees her, a long string of swearing followed by a crash.
“太空所有的星球塞盡我的屁股 太空所有的星球塞尽我的屁股”
“Hush now, everyone’s asleep ‘til we make orbit.”
“I just thought for a second-- it’s not important. We’re good. We’re all good.”
Pinoe flashes her one of those grins that are Walshy’s secret weakness, and Kelley puts her hand up and leans the way Cap does when she’s on the com. She tries to will her heart rate down.
Kelley gets engines, she gets the way Serenity gets put together and all the ways that Pinoe makes Serenity soar, but she sometimes thinks that at the end of the day, or in the middle of the night, she’s the one that has to get ‘em all where they’re going. And get ‘em there safe. The captain’s in charge, Abby’s the muscle, Walshy’s the brains, Pinoe’s the hands, but she’s the one who Serenity trusts to keep her running.
And without Serenity, they ain’t got nothing but dirt underneath their feet.
She takes a long look at the space over Pinoe’s shoulder, how it looks flatter than a piece of paper. There’s planets out there, and ships, and the Alliance, and jobs. So many jobs.
Serenity’ll keep flying until they work ‘em all.