Since We Found Serenity (A Firefly Fanfiction)

Chapter 2: Party Crashers

Six Years Earlier...

The two smugglers watched carefully as the client surveyed the shipment.

"This everything?" He grunted.

The first mate, a woman, rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Yanzi, you know we have never held anything back—"

The captain held out his hand to stop her with a tap on the shoulder.

"It's all there," he answered. "Fifty pounds of authentic Philadelphian delicacies."

The client grinned as he lifted a crystalline sweetmeat and held it up to the light. Letting it drop back in the crate, he announced, "Three hundred credits."

The woman flinched. "You twisted scrounger! We carted that halfway across the galaxy for you! You make three times that in profits!"

"Zoe!" The captain cut in firmly. "Stand down!"

Zoe stopped talking, but she still held her stance like she still very much wanted to punch Yanzi, the owner of the most unique restaurant in the quadrant—ultimately the Galaxy. Or so he'd like to think.

"Stand down, Zoe," Captain Mal repeated.

Zoe backed up. "Yes, Captain," she said flatly.

"Now," Mal continued, stepping forward and assuming control of the situation. "It's a powerful dangerous journey for a box of crystals," he said slowly, holding Yanzi's gaze, "and a lot of risk just to keep your little cache of goodies stocked. You wouldn't want to lose customers because someone else has delicacies at a better price than you do, would you?"

Yanzi's mouth twitched, his mind racing to figure out what the captain might be planning.

"No," he answered.

"You wouldn't want a customer coming in and telling you what price they would pay for the delicacies, even though you have already informed them of this price you set, would you? Don't want them changing the price on you, just because they don't want to pay so much."

Yanzi started to sweat, as the captain's words began to hit home. He said nothing.

"The price we agreed on," continued the captain, "was one hundred credits per every ten pounds. Now, this here crate is fifty pounds. Zoe?" He directed the comment to her without taking his eyes off the client. "How much would that be, according to the price we agreed on?"

"Round about five hundred credits, Captain," she answered.

"Five hundred," Malcolm repeated.

"But—" Yanzi started to protest. "My business—"

Malcolm nodded. "I understand; the economy hits us all hard at times. Lucky for you, I am willing to negotiate. We'll take the three hundred credits, and leave you with thirty pounds of crystals. That's the deal, and we can sell the other twenty pounds to someone else."

"No!" Yanzi snapped, gripping the edge of the crate. "These are mine! My shipment!"

"Then give us our price!" Zoe retorted.

Yanzi hesitated for only a moment. "Fine!" He signaled his henchmen. "Show 'em the money, boys."

The burly men brought forward a case full of credits—all five hundred of them. Yanzi grinned as the shamefaced Zoe accepted the case, and offered the pair a sloppy salute. "Pleasure doing business with ya," he goaded.

Zoe felt Mal's hand grip her elbow tight, or she would have laid into the slimy swindler right then and there. The two entered their borrowed land skimmer in silence and commenced the long drive back to the ship.