Firefly: The Ghost Machine is a 2020 novel by James Lovegrove set in the Firefly 'Verse. It is fourth in a series set between the events of Firefly and Serenity.
The diminished crew of Serenity are on another job, meeting some go-betweens to pick up an item to deliver to Badger. Well, they're trying to, but Mal has a funny feeling about this job, and declines. Jayne, however, is less willing to part with a potential payday, so sneaks the offending item aboard Serenity when no one else is looking.
One of these days, you'd think Jayne would learn.
This Novel contains examples of the following tropes:
- Arc Words: "Are you happy? Is this everything you ever wanted?"
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: More or less what River has to go through to snap people out of the Ghost Machine dreams. It's tough. Trying to talk them out doesn't work to well, the dream will react to her presence and try and shut her out.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: In Jayne's dream, his brother Mattie is killed by being suspended face-down, then shallow cuts repeatedly made in his belly, until his abdominal muscles give way and his guts spill out.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Ghost Machine. It was designed by the Blue Sun Corporation for the Alliance as a crowd control device, stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain and inducing a trance-like state in which the victims are locked in beautiful daydream. Unfortunately, as the device continues to work, it also stimulates other parts of the brain, quickly turning this pleasant fantasy into a horrific nightmare, and the trance into blind panic or blind rage. So, not so useful as a crowd control device.
- Mal is married to Inara, they have two kids, and are living on Sihnon. Things start going bad when Reavers arrive.
- Zoe sees the Independents win the Battle of Serenity Valley, and ultimately the war, and she becomes a bounty hunter tracking down Alliance war criminals. Things start going bad when Mal leads her down a dark alley and helps some thugs bushwhack her.
- Wash is still married to Zoe, but together they run the most successful shipping business in the 'Verse, personally fly a big luxurious starship, have several mansions in the good parts of good worlds, and have three kids. Things start going bad as the business takes hits, Wash realizes he's the junior partner to Zoe in business and in their marriage, and that marriage starts deteriorating.
- Jayne is back home with his Ma and his brother Mattie, who is no longer sick with damplung. Notably, because this is Jayne, things are still looking up when he and Mattie fight off some cattle rustlers. Things start going bad when an army of cattle rustlers show up.
- Kaylee is back home with her mom and dad (even though her dad's dead), and she's become a full partner in his mechanic business. Things start going bad when Kaylee takes a rich client over her father's objections.
- Simon is home with his family, including River, who is completely lucid and has a PhD in Theoretical Physics. He's also dating Kaylee, who runs a mechanic shop not far from the hospital Simon works at. Things start going bad when his father and uncles kidnap Kaylee because she's not an appropriate match for Simon, and try to get Simon to kill her.
- No-Sell: The Butcher of Baylix can take any attack River can dish out in the dream. Because he's Shepherd Book, and River likes Book and doesn't actually want to hurt him, even this fictional version of him.
- Race Against the Clock: The whole crew is out, including River (sedated by Simon before the Ghost Machine really got to work). Because Wash isn't flying, Serenity is moving in the direction he happened to point her before the visions started, and that happens to be on a collision course with a small moon. River has to use her Psychic Powers to try and wake up someone to change course before Serenity hits the moon at a few million miles per hour. They avoid the collision with four seconds to spare.
- Storm in a Teacup: Badger was hired by Adelai Niska to obtain the Ghost Machine. Badger in turn hired Malcolm Reynolds to pick up the Ghost Machine and bring it to Badger, who would then pass it on to Niska. When Mal refuses to pick up the cargo, Badger is fretting over how to explain that delivery will be late, or possibly not occur at all, in a way that won't end up with Badger hanging up in Niska's meat locker. While he's trying to sort this out, Niska calls him, and says he no longer wants the Ghost Machine, and since he's the one backing out of the arrangement, it's only fair if Badger keeps the down payment and can do whatever he likes with the device (that he doesn't actually have). Badger can only sigh in relief and marvel at his good fortune.
- Torture Technician: The Butcher of Baylix, appearing in Zoe's dream. An Alliance interrogator wanted for exceptionally brutal crimes, nothing at all is known about him, the only evidence he even exists are some blood-stained fatigues. It's revealed he's actually Shepherd Derrial Book, though this Dream!Book flat-out states to River he's a fictional character, created out of Zoe's suspicion that Book has a past with the Alliance, and has become a Shepherd to run away from it.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Subverted. While the stresses the Ghost Machine dreams place on a person as they turn to nightmares are no joke, as Simon clinically observes when River snaps him out of his, they're still only dreams, and you can't really be hurt in them (physically, at least). River lets Simon see her get killed in his dream to wake him up, slaps Kaylee to snap her out of her dream, and straight-up kills Mal in his to shock him out of it.
