Part 4

After Jorge contacted his cousin Armando and arraigned for dinner he found that they would arrive in the middle of Carnival. "Great, what better place to hide ourselves than in a crowd?"

When they had landed on New Kashmir, Jorge was talking to Mal at the top of the loading ramp in the pleasant early morning air "I guess this was a pretty hard fight during the war."

"Yea, Intel screwed up and we got dropped right on top of a heavy roller Division. It was practically a reenactment of the battle of Arnheim from Earth-That-Was. Zoë and I were part of the rear guard in the operation that got us out of the city for extraction. When the rollers came out onto that plain after us, our bombers suddenly showed up and pounded them into the landscape. That's when we started calling them our angels." Mal paused and looked around. "I'm glad to see the city rebuilt after what those hun-dans did to it."

Just then Jane walked up the loading ramp. "Mal, what in Emma's hell are you thinking? You're taking on more cargo? We're practically full now! Where we gonna put it all?"

"Well Jane, I generally as a rule don't turn down cargo. And I recon Mr. Mayweather here can give us some of his space savvy and help us out." Mal joked, challenging Jorge's background.

Jorge cast a practiced eye on the hold and then turned to Mal. "Give me a copy of your manifest and I'll organize your cargo boomer style by port of call and date of shipment."

"Right," the big man fumed. "And guess who's gonna be doin' all the work!"

Jorge just cocked his head at Jane. "We both can do this, I'll pitch and you catch."

Jane quickly backed up "I told you I don't do that anymore."

Jorge laughed and called to Kaylee over intra-ship. "How much gravity can you kill in the hold?"

"In the bottom of a gravity well? It'll be tricky but I recon about point nine."

"Great! Jane, fetch some E-V suits for us."

Donning the suits but leaving the tops off so that they had the mag boots for traction, they only had to deal with inertia. Jorge began to propel the crates using leg power for propulsion and his arms for guidance. Jane used his bulk and upper body strength to catch and guide the cargo into place. After a few mishaps, they quickly developed a rhythm that turned the old firefly class transport hold into boomer ship-shape. While they worked, Jorge asked the bigger man how he came by his name if he didn't mind telling.

"Oh, my Ma named me after her family religion. We were sky-clad but I got tired of bein' nekkid all the time and practicing temperance and non-violence and no possessions, so I just up and run off. I guess you could call me a 'jack' Jane."

Jorge laughed "Well, you're the first non-stockbroker Jane I've ever met."

After a couple more hours with gravity restored and the suits off, Jane beamed with appreciation. "Come on Maestre, let's go get us a drink!"

"Sorry Jane, but I'm taking Kaylee and the doc to dinner down in Nuevo Bahia this evening and I have to go get ready." In return for his cargo work, Jorge borrowed Mal's formalwear and he and Simon dressed for dinner. Meanwhile Kaylee was in Inara's shuttle nervously fretting about the upcoming evening. "What if I make a mistake and embarrass myself in front of Simon and Jorge?"

"Don't worry Mei-mei, It's Jorge's job to help you through everything. If you are unsure, Jorge will quietly whisper what you should do for the occasion. Not to change the subject but I am sure that Nuevo Bahia will be too warm for your ball gown so why don't we pick out something a little lighter?" Inara laid out several silk dresses for Kaylee's selection.

"Oooh, pretty! Are you sure Inara?"

"The way you fixed my coupling sleeves; I think this is the least I can do. Let's work on your hair too, after all the point of fixing a woman's hair up is all about when she lets it down." And Inara began to fuss with Kaylee's mahogany brown tresses.

When Jorge and Simon arrived in silk dinner jackets and vests, Kaylee's hair was piled up and she was in a lime-green silk sheath slit to mid thigh and high at the collar but with bare arms and a embossed dragon running from shoulder to hip. Simon whistled in appreciation while Jorge announced "Lady Frye, your ebony and ivory escorts await."

Inara in a comfortable kimono bid them a pleasant evening and gracefully headed to the galley as the trio pulled out in her shuttle.

Half a continent away, close to the equator on the tranquil sea of New Kashmir, the shuttle settled into the dusty field outside of Nuevo Bahia. Kaylee looked out at the thick whitewashed walls of the medium sized town. "It looks kind of dead; hot too."

"That's just because everyone is resting during the heat of the day. Armando's has evap-cooling and both of you can rest while I prepare our dinner with my cousin."

After a joyous greeting, Armando showed Kaylee and Simon to a darkened room and a wide hammock and bid them rest until dark. "Don't worry about us; mechanics and ER docs know how to nap when they can."

Later, as dusk was falling, Simon and Kaylee were aroused with a fresh batida made from tangerines, passion fruit and cachaca (fermented cane juice).

"Whoa, that's good!" Kaylee praised and asked for more.

Jorge helped them out of the hammock. "All in good time, little Kaylee, in this culture you have to learn to pace yourself. Now freshen up in the necessary and we will join my cousins at dinner."

When they arrived in the dining room, the tables were set with the finest linen, silver and crystal. The place was packed with a well dressed crowd. The streets outside were also crowded with carnival goers; all were in boisterous spirits. Armando's family was already drinking cachaca toasts and warmly welcomed the new arrivals. The aromatic dishes being set out and included vapata: a tasty mix of corn meal, cashews, peanuts, red pepper, shrimp, coconut, salt, ginger and onions. There main dish was a wonderful lobster - fish moquica that had Simon complementing Armando. He demurred that Jorge was the chef.

"When will you join my kitchen Jorge? We always have a place for you."

Jorge smiled "I think I'll have to become a Zen monk first. I know what you pay your staff and I know I'll have to take a vow of poverty in order to work here."

The table erupted in laughter and Armando countered with "Monk eh? Well at least with your head shaved, your hair won't wind up in the moquica." The meal continued with wine and cachaca toasts and finished with a fine old rum and sugar cured cigars.

As the table cleared and everyone bustled off to prepare their costumes for the festival, Kaylee longingly remarked "That looks like fun, too bad I'm out with two wanted men; bein' tourists, we'd stick out like sore thumbs."

"Au contraire, mistress mechanic; I have everything in hand. Here are the basics of the Samba, if Richard Feynman can learn it, so can you." Soon Jorge had them performing rudimentary Samba steps as he accompanied them on the guitar.

"What about costumes?" Simon inquired.

"Just so" Jorge left and returned with a set of white wings, three shiny bikini pants and elaborate feather masks, one white and angelic with halo and two red devil masks. Simon sputtered. "We're not going to stick out like this?"

"That's the beauty, in these outfits nobody will be looking at our faces."

"Where's my top?" Kaylee inquired.

In reply, Jorge just held up red and white cans of glitter spray body paint. Simon and Kaylee just stood there with their mouths open.

Half an hour later with Kaylee as a shiny white angel trying unsuccessfully to conceal herself with her wings accompanied by two even less attired attendant devils, joined the similarly clothed members of the Armando Samba School as it took it's place in the carnival lineup. Everyone applauded Jorge's and Simon's good looking torsos and Kaylee's shapely curves. Bottles of cachaca and splifs of spiceweed were passed around to calm the jitters at the beginning of the competition.

Kaylee at first was shy and self conscious but Jorge whispered in her ear. "You are a very beautiful woman, nobody knows you here. Your charms have been hidden far too long- flaunt them, this is your night to shine." By mid-parade, under the influence of the alcohol and the excitement of the swirling dancers around her, Kaylee was dancing with wild abandon and wide open wings and beaming under her mask. Simon gamely kept up until they reached the judges stand. There Jorge had him lie down with Kaylee standing triumphantly with one foot on his hip. Armando's school swirled around them under the expert direction of his wife while Jorge contributed with acrobatics and dazzling Caproerea moves that had the crowd screaming for more.

When the school took second place with honors, they all celebrated with more cachaca and all of the males made a point of embracing Kaylee while the females hugged Simon to their paint covered bosoms while making sly comments about his large 'basket'.

As they returned to the shuttle, Kaylee was covered in smeared red and white paint and singing Samba songs. After they all washed each other off, Kaylee clearly buzzed by the night and alcohol and the sight and feel of much naked flesh, pulled Simon towards Inara's bed. Still wearing her wings and a wicked grin, she said "Maestre, I think it's time for the Doc's lessons."

Judging that Simon was also aroused, Jorge began "Ok, Simon, the first thing to keep in mind is that she should always feel that she is beautiful and desired in your eyes. Start by stroking her hair while she lets it down and compliment her on how beautiful she is tonight. Really look at her and comment on what you see. Now stroke her arms and thighs. then massage her sore muscles and loosen her neck and shoulder tendons. Kiss her head, neck and shoulders."

Kaylee just closed her eyes and shivered with pleasure at the touch and attention she was getting from her sweet Bao-bei.

"Now Simon, I want you to kiss Kaylee, kiss her eyelids, kiss her ears, kiss her cheeks, kiss her chin. Brush her lips with your eyelashes and then devour her mouth with kisses. Some slow and lingering, some rapid and ravishing, some chaste and tender, some in which you imagine yourself penetrating every orifice in her body."

When Kaylee began to clutch at Simon, Jorge told her that she was still the instructional aide and just to relax and enjoy the class. "Simon, kneel in front of her and continue to kiss her neck and shoulders while you cup and fondle her breasts. Brush, twist and tweak her nipples. Kiss them and suck them. Slowly kiss and lick your way down the ribcage and across the belly."

Kaylee dropped her head back with a beautiful and lust lidded smile and lay down on her wings with a resigned but sensuous sigh.

As the doc started to peel off the shiny bikini, the companion instructed him and demonstrated how to kiss each revealed inch down her outer thighs and calves to linger at her beautiful feet before working back up the inner caves and thighs to the tender skin between her thighs and the dark mahogany haired mound of Venus.