Tensions were running high as Jason brought the Shire in to dock with the Alliance Tohoku class cruiser Nietzsche. "Here we go folks," he said over the com. "Time to be heroes."

Shutting down the engine he rose from his seat and headed back toward the cargo bay to greet the Alliance supply officer that would be waiting for him. As he passed through the common area he tossed his brown coat onto the old sofa. It would not do to be wearing that now.

The cargo bay door opened and Jason stepped forward to greet the supply officer, a bottle wrapped and a paper bag held in his hand. As the two came to stand facing each other, Jason passed him the whiskey in difference to old maritime tradition. Jason had also wanted to give him a carton of cigarettes, but had not had time to acquire them at the Ezra Skyplex. The man grinned in appreciation as he shook Jason's hand.

"Supply manifest is right here," Jason passed the man a clipboard listing everything that was scheduled for delivery. "My people can start unloading as soon as you like."

"Everything looks in order," said the supply officer after briefly studying the list. "Snap to it then."

Linda and Rick began lifting heavy plastiform crates that contained an assortment of weapons, food, and miscellaneous consumables and carrying them out of the Shire. In the large cruiser's cargo hold they stacked the crates in the bed of a cart that was hitched to a small mule.

The supply officer watched the first few crates loaded, then satisfied that all was well, turned and strode from the cargo bay, no doubt eager to sample Jason's gift. So far everything was going according to plan. The thought that he was about to see his sister for the first time in almost two years seemed surreal to Jason.

The Alliance grunt on the mule pressed down on the accelerator and they watched as it left the cargo bay and was hauled deep into the labyrinthine depths of the cruiser. Now, it was only a matter of waiting.

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Sarah waited silently in the pitch black of the crate’s interior. After an impossibly long drive, she felt it unloaded from the mule. She waited for several minutes after the last sounds outside the crate had died away then carefully lifted the lid of the crate. It had been placed in a darkened storeroom. Sarah quietly crawled out of the crate. After several minutes of searching she found the door. The most dangerous part of her task was about to begin. It was imperative that she not look suspicious or give any cause for anyone to question her as she had no valid Alliance identification card to back up her appearance.

Taking a deep breath, Sarah stepped purposefully into the hall and began walking down the corridor. It was not empty, but no one seemed to notice her aside from the occasional salacious look from a male crewmember. As she walked, Sarah tried her best to keep a severe expression on her face. She was dressed in the blue skirt and purple vest that was the dress uniform of a female Alliance Communications Officer, and between her glasses and her hair pulled back into a tight bun she looked the part. As she strode down the hallway with an artificial sense of purpose, she attempted to get her bearings. She needed to find a secure data terminal to deploy the virus.

Taking a stairwell up several levels, she stepped out to find herself confronted by a pair of heavily armed solders standing in front of a pair of heavy glass doors emblazoned with the seal of the Alliance. Her expression faltered as they registered her presence.

"Your identification, ma’am?" asked one of the guards.

"Excuse me?" asked Sarah.

"You do have clearance to enter the Academy section of the ship, do you not?"

Sarah, thought fast. "Oh, I must be in the wrong place," she replied, trying her best to use one of Kaylee's disarming smiles. "I'm looking for the cryptography lab. I'm somewhat new to this ship."

"Of course. Two levels down, take the left corridor almost as far as it goes. It's the third door before the end," one of the guards replied, smiling at her. "If you need any other help finding your way around, I'll be off shift in two hours." he added.

Sarah genuinely blushed at the offer. If only Jason would be so forward. "Maybe that would be nice, but unfortunately I'm on shift all night," she replied. "I best get going, I'm already a bit late."

Sarah hurried back into the stairwell. As soon as the door closed behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief; that had been close. Sarah hurried down the stairs and following the directions the guard had given her. Fifteen minutes later, she found the cryptography lab. Pushing her glasses up on her nose, she entered and sat down at an open terminal. She made a show of bringing up a few cortex windows. Then when no one appeared to be looking, she slipped a datachip out of her pocket and inserted it into the terminal. From the files on the chip, she started a highly illegal passive network diagnostic tool and ran it. Sarah soon had a rudimentary map of the Nietzsche's secure intranet. Making a few last minute modifications to her code, she compiled the final version of her virus.

"You, there. What are you doing here?" called a voice from behind her.

Sarah stiffened with surprise. She quickly doubled clicked the icon for the newly compiled virus as she heard the sound of footsteps begin to approach her. The virus took an agonizingly long two seconds to infiltrate the system. Sarah just managed to close the incriminating window as she felt a hand placed on her shoulder. She looked up into the eyes of the on duty ranking cryptography officer. "Checking email?" she offered sheepishly with a thin smile.

"I dont think so," came the reply as Sarah's expression fell.

"Surfing the cortex while on duty it looks more like to me," the man continued. "Liutennent Cobble is it?" he said reading her nametag. "Consider yourself lucky I don’t feel like going to the trouble of writing you up. Now get out of here."

"Yes sir," replied Sarah. She did not need to fake the look of fear that this threat would instill in a junior officer. Sarah was genuinely terrified as she quickly left the room. Now all that was left to do was wait.

Within minutes the effects of the virus became apparent as the lights in the corridor suddenly went out.

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"Sir," said a female Ensign from a console off to the side of the bridge, "We just experienced a massive systems failure. We've lost all power on decks E through H."

"What?" demanded the Captain. "We are two hours from crushing the rebels on Shadow. Fix it. Now!"

"Trying sir," replied the Ensign. "Nothing seems to be responding. It's like there's something attacking on our network."

"Don't be ridiculous," said the Captain. "Our critical networks are isolated."

"Wait," said a calm voice from behind him. "Please pull up the information on that cargo ship that just docked."

The captain looked back at the speaker in irritation. He hated being countermanded on his own ship. The other man regarded him with a steely gaze that silently said the words Full Parliamentary Override. "Do it," conceded the Captain.

A moment later the Operative looked over the Ensign’s shoulder at the data that had sprung up.

"The Ensign is correct. Its likely sabotage," said the Operative calmly.

"Don't be stupid," replied the Captain patronizingly. "There is no way the people on that ship could have broken into our firewalls. Their captain isn't even connected with the Independents, we run a background check on all our contractors."

"Really," replied the Operative. "Then you should know that their captain happens to be the brother of one of the test subjects." The Captain looked back in surprise at this unexpected revelation.

"Do you know what your sin is, Captain?" asked the Operative. "Sloth. We shall be discussing it later."

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Elizabeth Cho was strapped into the operating chair. The doctors were about to implant the last bit of subliminal programming that would be necessary for her mission on Shadow. It was the last stage before turning her and the other students loose to slaughter the Independent soldiers on the planet. It was an assignment she was looking forward to. A chance to get off of the ship, if only for a while, was a welcome prospect. The chance to use her skills also filled her with anticipation. She had nothing against the Independent soldiers. Rather, Elizabeth actually sympathized with them, as she hated the Alliance. Hated them for what they had done to her, the years of violations, both mental and physical.

The anger and rage that burned inside Elizabeth were palpable, now more intense than ever since they had begun giving her the modified Paxilon drug. Elizabeth felt lucky, the Paxilon had been a gift given only to a handful of the students. It had taken away the fear, taken it away and replaced it with something else. She now looked forward to the simulations, the sparring, and any other opportunity to vent her rage, whether her victim was deserving or not, and the more victims the better.

River Tam had been a prototype. Elizabeth along with the other two hundred test subjects, were the production model. They were more refined, able to function as weapons without going insane. She waited patiently for the familiar pain of the needle penetrating her skull. She used to fear the pain, fear the needles, but now the pain made her feel alive.

The lights suddenly went out, and the electronic mechanism restraining Elizabeth's wrists released. The doctors looked around in confusion. "What happened to the power?" asked the younger doctor. It was last thing he ever said.

Elizabeth steeped from the operating room to find herself standing between two armed guards. They looked at her in surprise and both quickly moved to draw their weapons. They never reached them. Elizabeth incapacitated both men simultaneously with a single blow to each of their throats. The two men forgot their weapons as they grasped at their crushed windpipes, gasping for breath. Elizabeth calmly drew their weapons from their belts, taking one in each hand, and shot them each in the chest with their own guns.

As Elizabeth walked back to the cells where her fellow students were housed, she absentmindedly shot any soldiers she happened upon. She did not even break stride as she dropped each of them with a single bullet to the head. Arriving at her destination, she keyed in the code she had picked from the brain of a dying guard. In response, all the cell doors swung open. Emma was one of the first to come out. Smiling at her friend, they embraced briefly before Elizabeth passed her one of her guns.

"Liz?" Emma asked. "How did you get out?"

"I got free when the power went out in the operating room," replied Elizabeth, sounding almost bored. "Ship seems to be having some kind of trouble."

Emma opened her mind and scanned through the thoughts of the thousand or so soldiers on the ship. Her eyes suddenly widened in surprise as she recognized one. "My brother, but how?" murmured Emma. "Liz, my brother's here to save us."

"We best find our weapons then," replied her friend. There was a glint of evil glee in her eyes. “It will be a good day for revenge.”

Emma frowned at Elizabeth. It saddened her, what had been done to her best friend. She wondered what ever happened to the sweet and caring girl that she used to know. The one that was too gentle to even raise a weapon. That girl that Emma had become friends with was certainly not the violent rage filled person that now stood in front of her.

Several minutes later the Academy students found the locker that housed the varied collection of bladed weapons that they had become accustomed to using, as not all of their sparring had been in simulation.

With a smile, Elizabeth pulled out the pair of katanas that she had become accustomed to using. She then passed Emma a niginata and a wakasashi. She knew the long staff with the wicked blade at one end was Emma's favored weapon, with the short sword being her close second. Sai, sabers, and all manner of other more obscure weapons were passed among the other students, until each held their favored weapon.

Elisabeth looked back at her friend and saw the concern written on her face and in her mind. Poor girl, she thought, she doesn’t lust for the glory of battle. She had been that way herself once, but no more. Elizabeth wondered again at what a gift the Pax had been for her. She would be sure to share it with her friend soon, her and all the other students as well. Elizabeth carefully shielded these last thoughts from Emma however. She would not understand them, not now.

"Lets get out of here," said Emma.

"No power in the 'Verse will stop us," replied Elizabeth with a wicked smile.

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The Operative quickly scanned through the system logs of the ship’s main computer. The perpetrator had apparently not bothered to cover their tracks and he soon discovered that the virus that plagued them had originated in the cryptography lab. Pulling up the security cameras, he was soon looking at the face of a young girl with light reddish brown hair and freckles.

“Who is this person,” he demanded of the Ensign seated in front of the console. The woman quickly ran the image through a standard facial recognition algorithm. When it completed, she had a frown on her face. “No record of her. The serial number on her collar does not even come up as valid."

“Scan all the cameras on the ship,” ordered the Operative. “Find her.”

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Rick was standing next to Linda in the cargo bay of the Shire, waiting for the inevitable firefight. It was likely that once the virus was discovered, someone on the ships crew was bound to put two and two together and come up with more than four. In preparation of this, both of then were wearing body armor, and Rick had his 9mm concealed under his denim jacket. Linda’s mare’s leg was also near at hand, propped surreptitiously out of sight behind a nearby crate.

When several MPs appeared in the adjacent cargo bay of the Alliance ship, Rick nodded to Linda and spoke into his com unit. “Jay, I think they’re onto us.”

When the soldiers marched in their direction, he felt the tension rise. “I’m going to have to ask you to come with us,” ordered one of the MP’s.

Linda’s response was to pull her weapon and fire at them. Rick pulled his handgun and began firing as well, pumping two shots into the chest of each of the soldier. Despite their armor, the men were knocked flat on their backs by the force of the impacts, buying Linda and Rick enough time to take cover before the soldiers could return fire. Linda, for her part, had loaded her carbine with armor piercing rounds. The men that she shot did not get back up.

Up in the cockpit, Jason was busy monitoring the Alliance Cruiser, waiting for signs that the ship had been disabled. When the lights emanating from the windows on several decks winked out, he knew that Sarah had accomplished her task. Turning to his radio, he sent an encoded signal out to the Independent ships that were waiting just beyond the Nietzsche’s sensor range. Now all that was left to do was to wait. He was just about to get up and go back to wait with Rick and Linda when the sound of gunfire erupted from the cargo hold. Jason smiled as he checked the clip in his gun. The battle was truly afoot.

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Sarah was walking down a corridor that looked identical to the last twenty she had seen. She wanted to find her way back to the Shire, but she seemed to have gotten lost in the massive cruiser. Any minute the sensors and main weapons systems would go down and the Independents would begin sending in their boarding parties. Sarah did not want to be out in the open and dressed in an Alliance uniform when that happened. The fact that lights periodically keep plunging portions of the ship into darkness did not help matters either.

“Excuse me, miss,” said a gentle voice behind her.

Sarah turned, “Can I help you?” she asked. When she looked behind her, Sarah found herself looking down the barrel of a gun.

“I’m afraid you will be coming with me,” said the Operative.

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“Oh dear,” said Emma, coming to a stop and cocking her head to one side.

“Stop dallying Emma,” said Elizabeth. “We need to get to the bridge.”

“My brother seems to have run into some trouble,” replied her friend.

“So,” said Elizabeth. “He’ll have to deal with it.”

“I’ll catch up with you later,” said Emma.

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When Jason ran down the steps to the cargo hold, he carried Linda’s two automatic rifles and Rick’s 45-70 long rifle. They had left the heavy weapons in the kitchen, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the Alliance soldiers, but now it didn’t really matter. Tossing two of the weapons to his crew members, he brought the second AK-47 to bear and began firing at the soldiers in the cargo hold of the Nietzsche.

The soldiers had little cover and were caught off guard by the sudden increase in their enemy's firepower. Those that were still standing soon surrendered. Linda quickly ran out and began binding their hands behind their backs while Rick and Jason kept their guns trained on them. When the last man had been bound, they turned their attention to the corridor leading deeper into the ship. There would doubtless be more soldiers coming soon.

Linda turned back to her Captain. “Cargo hold is secure sir. Only seventy more decks to go.”

"Those Browncoats don't get here soon, they'll miss all the fun," said Rick.

“Wipe those grins off your faces,” replied Jason. “No time to get cocky.” Truth be told, he had hoped that their hand in the plot would not be discovered for a while longer. It would take the better part of half an hour for the Independents ships to arrive and begin their assault. Until then, his small crew was on it’s own. The three of them would have to hold the cargo hold during that time, which would be far from an easy task.

They were in the middle of stacking several boxes in front of the corridor when another squad of Alliance soldiers soon could be heard running down the corridor. The soldiers were unable to approach the cargo hold, however, as Jason and his crew had fortified their position. Taking up a position behind the corner of an intersecting corridor about twenty yards from the cargo hold, the soldiers began firing at Jason and his crew. After several moments, the Alliance soldiers stopped shooting and Jason looked around the corner to see what was going on. He quickly raised his weapon toward a figure that was standing in the open.

"Hold your fire," said the man. "I believe this woman is one of yours."

Jason's heart sunk as he saw the man was holding Sarah in front of himself with one arm around her neck.

"Never seen her before," replied Jason. "Looks to be one of yours by the uniform."

"Ah, my mistake," said the Operative. "I'll just kill her then." He quickly drew a sword and brought it to Sarah's neck. "Don't worry, my dear, it will only hurt for a moment."

Jason watched in horror as the blade bit into Sarah’s neck and a bead of blood ran down her pale skin. "No!" cried Jason.

"Ah, so she is yours," said the Operative. "Put down your weapons or she dies."

"Jason, don’t, he'll kill you," yelled Sarah. Jason, however, lowered his weapon to the deck and raised his hands in surrender, Linda and Rick soon did the same. Soldiers quickly raced into the room to bind their hands. The Operative passed his hostage to a nearby soldier and waked over to Jason.

"Search the ship," said the Operative to two of the soldiers. Several minutes later, they returned with a struggling Matt.

"Just a boy," said one of the soldiers.

"Take those three to the brig," ordered the Operative, indicting Matt, Linda, and Rick. He then turned to look Jason in the eyes. "She seems rather fond of you," he said, indicating Sarah. "Perhaps you can convince her to remove the virus from our ship's computers."

"My crew rarely listens to me," replied Jason. "Guess I'm not a very good leader."

"Oh," said the Operative. "Somehow I doubt that very much."

The Operative slugged Jason in the solar plexus, drawing a grunt as Jason doubled over in pain. He followed up with a right hook to Jason's jaw that made his teeth rattle. Jason would have fallen to the ground, had a guard not been holding him up from behind.

"Stop," yelled Sarah as she struggled with the guard holding her. She managed to kick her captor in the knee. The man responded by viciously back handing the young woman. The blow knocked Sarah to the floor where she landed with a yelp.

The Operative turned to the girl now lying on the floor. "How do we remove the virus," he asked calmly. When she didn't answer, he turned back to Jason. This time, he stabbed him in the side with the tip of his sword. Jason tried his best to suppress his scream of agony, but met with only partial success.

"I am tiring of asking. The virus, how do we neutralize it?"

"Can't be," said Sarah. "It will delete itself in thirty minutes."

"See, that was easy," said the Operative. "Now, I see no further need for either of you."

The Operative turned back to Jason. "Do you know what your sin is?" he asked.

TO BE CONTINUED

Author's Notes:

Well, here it is, the last arc of my story. Love or hate it, it will soon be done. Let me know what you think.

On capitalization: Not quite sure, but when the word Captain is a pronoun (ex: “The Captain did X”) I think it should be capitalized. When it is a noun (ex: “a ship has a captain”) I believe not. If you know for sure, let me know. I’m an engineer not an English major.

Disclaimer: Jason and Co. are my creations, but they like to play in someone else's sandbox.