Spoilers for A Shepherd's Tale

[faithfixesyou]

I'm not saying 'no,' I'm just saying that we really need to talk this over before we come to a decision. Someone discovered the bio-optic camera in my eye. I'm glad she took it as well as she did, but now she's offering to upgrade it?

I haven't even thought about the thing in years, it's just an eye, it lets me see. If the feed could even be re-activated, the people it was transmitting to have been long gone for, what, fifteen, twenty years? Since the very start of the Unification War. That wasn't a good time in my life. It's hard to say if my mission succeeded or failed, and either way, I am still working towards redemption of my actions during it.

"If thine eye offend thee...?" I've never quite believed in taking Matthew that literally. I shouldn't get rid of it, no sense in that.

I foolishly took the offer in the first place, to be a mole, out of pride and vanity. But was it truly foolish, if this part of me can become something more useful here? I've been led here for a reason, just like I was led to the Serenity for a reason. It's just getting a little harder to see the right path.

Maybe clearer vision is exactly what I need, then.

Comments

[be_in_my_bunk]

... one of them eyes ain't real?

[ That's totally what he got out of that, yep. ]

[wrench_and_ruffles]

Shepherd... I think ya need to back up a bit. Eye? Mole?

[pompous_today]

Well, sounds like that's quite a life you have led.

[faithfixesyou]

[Sometimes cutting to the simplest part of the issue, which Jayne is good at, is best.]

"It's real, in that I can see with it. Just, some other people used to be able to see through it, too."

[faithfixesyou]

"I'm hardly alone in that regard. We all have our stories to tell. And it appears that this part of mine isn't over yet."

"As a doctor, what would you advise?"

[faithfixesyou]

[A gentle smile for Kaylee.]

"I've always told you that I wasn't always a Shepherd. It's just coming back to find me now. I guess, what part should I start with?"

[wrench_and_ruffles]

They've got somethin' to do with each other, right? Whichever came first, I guess.

[faithfixesyou]

"Well. Don't- tell Mal, if he hears this story, he needs to hear it from me."

"I was in the Rebellion. Right when it all first started, before the Unification War kicked off. Someone had an idea, a plan to infiltrate the Alliance military. I...volunteered."

[wrench_and_ruffles]

[Mal needs to hear from the right person has become a rather key point lately]

You were... spyin' on them?

[faithfixesyou]

"On the Alliance, spy from the inside. I enlisted. Made a name for myself, looked like the perfect officer. All the while feeding everything I saw back to the Rebellion. Every move I made, there was a counter from the Rebellion waiting, or the targets suddenly weren't there any more."

[wrench_and_ruffles]

[It's starting to come together]

And they never caught on.

[pompous_today]

I would say that the point is moot now- but it's also as yet impossible to spontaneously regrow body parts.

Sorry for the delay, personal matters came up.

[be_in_my_bunk]

[ Pause. Jayne gets closer, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms. ]

People ain't lookin' through it now, are they?

[faithfixesyou]

"Spontaneously, no. I'm not getting my old eye back. But, what if an- upgrade could be done to the fake one? My concern is that messing with it at all is going to make it stop working."

[faithfixesyou]

"I assure you, everyone who used to be looking through it is dead. It's not showing to anywhere now."

[faithfixesyou]

"Never did. I eventually got discharged after one operation went wrong on so big a scale, they couldn't believe it. But they just thought I was incompetent, never thought I was a spy."

[wrench_and_ruffles]

And that's why your ID card changed everythin'.

[faithfixesyou]

"It is. I'd rather- if I think about it, it's ironic that the card saved my life that day. My mistakes cost lives, Kaylee. My penance to pay is to live, to remember, and to be remembered for what I've done."