Ch 0: The News These Days | Ch 1: Port Introspection | Ch 2: What We Hath Wrought | Ch 3: Long Time, No Piss Off | Ch 4: The Dig Ch 5: Communication Breakdown | Ch 6: The Deep End (1/2) | Ch 6: The Deep End (2/2)

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Continued from Part Two of Chapter 6: The Deep End On the other side of the planet, in a small but glitzy city named Semele, in a well populated bar called “Empty Promises”, River held a silver coin just under her eye, “Shoot.” Across the stand up table was a large merchant spacer hanging on for life. He held his coin up and blinked at the double image of the shot glass in between them. The table had gathered a small audience. This little girl had taken out three other pacers from the same company. The spacer took a deep breath then flicked the coin at the table. The coin bounced off the table and barely missed the glass. The crowd around them laughed. “That was so close,” said River. “I was scared there.” She flicked her coin at the table but missed. The crowd became excited. Would this end the girl’s unprecedented winning streak? “I got you now, girly,” said the spacer. He braced himself on the table and took his shot. Another miss. “It’s okay. It’s okay. She ain’t got no luck left.” River weaved her coin in between her fingers a few times then held it up for the crowd to see, “Double bounce.” “Tsway-niou ,” said the spacer. River released the coin. It bounced once on River’s side. It flipped over the glass onto the spacer’s side. Then, to everyone’s amazement, it bounced back towards the glass and landed in it with hardly any bounce. A raucous roar from the crowd thundered inside the bar and drowned out the bass heavy music pumping through the speakers. The spacer slapped both hands against his face, “What! No way! There’s no way that happened! You cheated!” The crowd booed the spacer and threw wadded up bar napkins at him until he ceded victory to River. A bar tender was standing by to take the drink orders and officiate the competition, “What’ll it be this time, Miss?” River cupped her hand over her mouth and whispered into the bar tender’s ear. She whispered back in the same fashion. They went back and forth for almost a minute before the bartender left with a grin on her face and rubbing her hands together. The spacer shook his head. “Way to go River!” shouted Kaylee from a table across the bar. “You’re unstoppable.” “I don’t like this,” said Simon who sat by Kaylee. “We’re attracting way too much attention.” “Oh come on. Loosen up a little, babe.” “And who’s that creep dancing behind my sister?” Simon was referring to a tall drunk man who was constantly trying to get River’s attention while moving to the music. He looked like he hit the bar right after work with his wrinkled dark gray button shirt opened to reveal a white tank top stretched across a broad chest. “Oh, he’s harmless.” “How do you and River know that? “Ya see he’s too nervous to actually put a move on River. But River keeps on give’n him little looks and laughs to keep him there. Keep’n him there deters other guys from approaching River. It’s the old plausible boyfriend buffer defense.” Kaylee nodded in admiration, “She’s done a mighty fine job of executing it.” Simon thought for a second then said, “You taught her that didn’t you?” “No,” Kaylee lied, “girls just know this sort of thing.” Behind Simon and Kaylee, Jayne was trying to take more bets on River’s coinage match, “Three to two?” asked Jayne. “No,” replied the gambler. “Three to one?” “No.” “Four to one?” “No.” “Five to one? Come on! Can’t ya see the girl’s on her last leg? Ten to one?” “She don’t look like she’s on her last leg,” said the gambler. “Fine, three to one against the guy puke’n after this shot,” offered Jayne. He smiled to assure the gambler. The gambler looked at River’s opponent who was trying to wave away the stench of one of his own belches. “Ten to one,” said the gambler finally. Jayne pushed against the gambler’s chest with both hands, “Get outa here! Waste of my rutt’n time.” Jayne sat down at Simon and Kaylee’s table and pulled out a roll of bills to count. Simon leaned towards Jayne, “Hey, what do you think about that guy dancing around River?” Jayne continued counting, “Don’t worry me none. I think I recall your sister being able to handle herself in a bar.” Jayne looked up suddenly, “Matter-o-fact ain’t that the same dress?” Kaylee squinted at River, “Think so. I see a big dark splotch on the hem.” The bartender returned to River’s table and set the drink in front of the spacer. “What the hell is that?” the spacer whined. The shot had three layers. The bottom layer was an opaque dark brown liquid, the middle was a clear rusty color, and the top layer was a bright yellow liquid. “It’s a Blonde Browncoat ,” replied the bartender. The spacer picked the shot up and sniffed it. He quickly set it back down shaking his head, “No I can’t. Too sweet. My stomach’s full of beer and...” The crowd around them began to chant, “Drink! Drink! Drink!” The spacer looked to the bartender for mercy. “You cause a riot in this place and you won’t be coming back,” she said. The spacer looked at the drink for long time as if he was staring it down. Finally he snatched it up and downed it in one motion. The crowd cheered him as he raised the empty glass in the air. “One more round!” he yelled. Two minutes later the spacer was covering his mouth and breathing heavily through his nostrils. His skin literally looked green. He would pinch his eyes shut and make moaning noises every few seconds. The bar tender made sure a path to the exit was clear of any bystanders. River had purposely missed every shot to string the spacer along, “Your shot.” The spacer looked at River and nodded. He picked his coin up and concentrated. A loud rumbling sound emanated from his body, “No...” The spacer sprinted for the door. It quickly slid open but before he could pass the threshold vomit erupted from his face. He tripped and tumbled out of Empty Promises. Pedestrians on the sidewalk looked on in shock as the spacer wailed and spewed all over the pavement. The bartender gestured to River, “Winner!” The crowd spilled their drinks as they rowdily cheered. The bartender walked to the exit and shouted at the vanquished spacer, “You’re banned for the rest of the month for the mess, you bum!” “Whoo!” shouted River’s dancing male shadow. “River rules!” River started to move her body to the music as the crowd chanted her name, “How you doing there, Donnie?” “I’m awesome. I can’t believe you took those four guys out. I’ve never seen a twenty three year old girl dominate like that before!” River laughed, “I’m not twenty three. I’m twenty five.” “What? I thought you told the bartender...” “No, silly. I’m twenty five.” River looked deep into the drunk man’s eyes and lowered her voice, “I’ve always been twenty five.” Donnie shook his head and blinked, “Oh, okay. Twenty five is where it’s at, baby. Whoo!” He began to thrust his hips to the music next to River. This made River uncomfortable, “Uh, say there Donnie. You wanna do me a favor?” “Yeah baby, anything for you. Whoo!” “Fetch me another challenger. Make sure he’s even bigger this time. Like three hundred pounds. I’m going to take a little break. These heels are killing me.” “Alright I’ll reel in a big one. Whoo!” “Oh, and Donnie, make sure they know something.” “Sure.” “It’s my birthday today. I’m twenty one. I’ve always been twenty one.” “Yeah baby! Happy birthday to River. Twenty one is where it’s at. Whoo!” Donnie walked away pumping his fist to the music. River sauntered over to her crew’s table and sat down, “How are we doing, Jayne?” “Five hundred so far,” said Jayne as he fanned himself with the cash. “That ain’t bad but we could be running better odds if we hopped to a bar on the other end of the strip. One where they ain’t seen you lay low four full grown men.” “What if the next one is as big as a whale?” “That might be something. I overheard you talk’n to dancin’ boy. Were you like...planting suggestions and whatnot?” “No,” said River, “I only did that with the door man.” “I heard it too,” said Simon. “You convinced him you were twenty three, then twenty five, and then down to twenty one.” “That guy is as high as the angels. He’ll go along with anything you say to him. He’s strung out on drops.” Simon smirked, “No way.” “Try it. It’s fun. Just say anything to him. He’s right over there and his name is Donnie.” Simon twisted in his seat and found Donnie talking to somebody large enough to be a sumo wrestler. Simon made note of his gray shirt. “Hey Donnie,” Simon yelled, “that green shirt looks awesome on you.” “Thanks dude!” Donnie replied. “I love green. Whoo!” The humungous man Donnie was talking too looked at him incredulously. The four Serenity crew members exploded in laughter. After few seconds Jayne took a long sip of his lowball glass of spiced rum and ice. He leaned to River, “See the pair of honeys at the bar over there?” River craned her neck to see two scantily clad girls facing each other on bar stools talking over fruity drinks with umbrellas. One had her hand on the other’s thigh. “I see them.” “Are they just friends or are they a little more than that?” “Well I could tell you but that wouldn’t be very fun. Aren’t you in it for the thrill of the hunt?” Jayne shook his head, “No. I’d be just as happy to skip to the haul’n off the trophy. And mount it on my wall.” “I’m definitely not telling you now.” Jayne turned to Simon, “What do you think?” Simon shrugged, “They look like friends to me. Girls are more touchy feely.” Jayne nodded at the insight. “Not that touchy feely,” said Kaylee. “Look how the one’s holding that leg. Very firm. Very butch.” “Well I ain’t goanna solve the mystery here,” said Jayne. He licked both of his index fingers and used them to smooth out his eyebrows. “Wish me luck.” He made his way to the bar. “Get’em stud,” said Kaylee. “I’m wishing those girls luck,” Simon said out of the side of his mouth. “Now stop that,” said Kaylee. “That’s exactly the kinda thing that’s got him so upset with Mal. It ain’t easy being Jayne.” “Are you serious?” asked Simon. “It isn’t easy being me. It isn’t easy being you. It isn’t easy being River. It isn’t easy being Donnie over there.” “Whoo!” yelled Donnie. “Well Donnie ain’t goanna save your life.” “Kaylee, we’re not talking about life and death right now. This is the issue between him and Mal. My issue with him is that he offers no consideration to other people’s feelings. If you don’t do that, even a little, it’s really hard to be liked. And I don’t think he cares much about that.” Jayne came back to the table, “Well time to get mount’n.” Jayne stuffed his hand into his pants pocket, “River, here’s the winnings for the evening. Simon here’s my wallet. I don’t exactly trust these two. Don’t let Mal leave Persephone without me.” Jayne turned on his heel and headed for the door where his dates waited. “So I take it they’re strait,” said Kaylee. “Nope you were right,” said Jayne. “They’re lesbians... they’re just up for somethin’ new tonight.” ***** The next day after Badger had paid them Mal, Zoe, and River followed Monty through a narrow alley they had never seen in Eavesdown. Fire escapes, clotheslines, and skywalks crisscrossed above their heads and trash rustled around their feet like autumn leaves. At one point the alley led to a hole in the wall of a condemned building. The building had no ceiling. The floor was carpeted with bird droppings. Monty led them to a back room where there was another hole in the wall that led to another alley. “You know Monty,” said Mal, “if they wanted to give up their secrecy and make some money this would be a fun labyrinth or place for a scavenger hunt.” Zoe sniffed the air, “Maybe around Halloween. I don’t... we’re so turned around here I can’t even tell which direction we’re going.” “South by Southwest,” said River. Monty led them around another corner. “Northwest.” “It smells real pretty ‘round these parts, Monty,” said Mal. “And you ain’t never goanna get used to it,” said Monty. “The biggest industrial complex on Persephone is close by.” “Are we there yet,” said River. Monty motioned for Mal to walk at his side, “Uh, I’m not sure how they’ll take to let’n a kid in.” “I don’t go nowhere without my pilot, Monty.” “I could put some feelers out there if you’re looking for a proper pilot.” “What? Nonsense. River is... special.” “Yeah, I’m sure she won the spelling bee every year through grammar school.” They continued to twist through the ghetto labyrinth until they finally came to an unremarkable cellar door. Monty turned to face the three Serenity crewmembers, “We’re here. You might find these folks... a little bashful and untrusting. But they have plenty of jobs and cash to pay for them. So let’s behave ourselves and remember not everybody’s like us.” Monty gave Mal a meaningful look. “Why is everybody afraid to introduce me to new people?” asked Mal. Monty tapped his knuckle on the door. A second later servo operated locks wound up and the door popped open. As they stepped through the door Mal noticed the thick finely machined bars recessed into a heavy steal frame. It would be easier to knock the building down than to get through the door, thought Mal. Inside two guards dressed in plain clothes flanked another door. “They scan for weapons here,” said Monty. “It’ll take a few visits before they trust you enough to pack in here.” Mal pulled his pistol out of the holster with his finger and thumb to hand it over to one of the guards. “That’s quite alright Captain Reynolds,” said one of the guards. “You’re free to keep your weapon.” The other guard smiled at Mal warmly. Mal shrugged and stepped through the second door with everybody else following. The next room was little more than a corridor lined with wine racks. Upon closer inspection Mal could see the bottles weren’t very full and they had wires leading into them. As they approached the door at the end opened. Mal entered the next room and stopped. These people ain’t from these parts, he thought. Although their clothes were wrinkled and faces unshaved; the thirty or so people standing around computer monitors and carrying on discussions in small groups in this dingy alcove set an alarm off in Mal’s head. They were all young yet serious. Beyond where the people congregated pallets of supplies were being sorted by a few workers. Mal looked at Monty, “So who are we supposed to be talk’n to?” Monty pointed to a door to the left, “Over here. This is Jutta Gudrun’s little hole. Don’t use that name outside this place or, better yet, any place she doesn’t visit. She’s not look’n for any kinda rep.” “I figure,” said Mal. “She knows we’re here. She’ll come out when she can.” Mal looked at Zoe and gave her a concerned look. She just shrugged in response. He turned to River. Her head was very still as she played with a thin lock of her shiny black hair but her eyes were wide and darting around the room. “Anything?” he asked her. “They’re excited that we’re here... hopeful,” replied River. “Hopeful for what?” “Don’t know.” “That’s it. Monty, what’s going on here? Who are these kids? No more mysteries. I’ve been here for ninety seconds and I feel like it’s been way too long.” Monty frowned, “Settle down, Mal. Here she comes.” Across the room Jutta Gudrun emerged from the door. They could not actually see where she came from because there was a heavy black curtain blocking their view inside her office. Mal was surprised to see she was in her mid twenties. She wore plain shoes, brown slacks and a green long sleeve shirt. At five and a half feet tall with glasses and a head of strait brunette hair in a simple braid she looked more like a secretary than a criminal ringleader. Jutta smiled and shook her head like she could not believe something. She made her way to them, “Where’s my hug, Monty?” “Always ‘round the corner,” said Monty. He stretched his arms out and received her. “Jutta, meet Malcom. Second best smuggler in the ‘Verse.” Jutta stood erect and extended her hand, “Captain Reynolds, it is an honor to meet you. We are so fortunate to have you with us.” “Really?” asked a puzzled Monty. Mal gave Zoe a look. It appeared to him she was finally catching on. He turned to the woman shaking his hand, “What’s going on here? Where are we?” “The movement,” Jutta replied. “The underground.” Mal’s head seemed to fall to his chest, “Monty, how could you have done this?” “Done what?” asked Monty defensively. “These people got work, Mal. Good paying work that ain’t stuffing the pockets of the Alliance or pimps like Badger.” “What they got is a whole world of trouble,” said Mal. “Please Captain, don’t be angry with Monty,” said Jutta. “He had no idea it was you. We didn’t know until he mentioned your ship last night.” Completely lost in the conversation, Monty said to Jutta, “Didn’t know they was who?” “Your friends are the people responsible for the Miranda broadwave,” said Jutta in a flat tone. Monty laughed, “That ain’t so. It’s... Mal. Ain’t no way that’s true. This is just one big misunderstanding. Tell’er Mal. Mal?” His longtime friend could not look him in the eye. Zoe covered her mouth with her interlaced fingers. The girl pilot looked like she had seen a ghost. “I... I don’t get it. How? Why?” “Don’t have any answers for you, Monty,” said Mal quietly. Everybody in the room had stopped their activities to listen to the conversation. It was so quite everyone could hear Monty’s brain churning the information. “Zoe? Was that how Wash was killed?” asked Monty. Zoe nodded, “And a passenger, who was a Sheppard... and his entire township. Fanty and Mingo. Sanchez. A lot of the people we knew were killed to get to us.” Monty’s mouth hung open as he searched for the words to express his feelings. Finally he said, “Mal, should I kick the shit out of you?” Mal said nothing. Jutta stepped forward and projected her voice loudly, “Your friends did a great thing. They sacrificed and suffered so much to warn the people under God’s shining stars of the truth behind Alliance control. A truth that you always suspect is there but can’t see until you’re allowed to peek inside the shell game of Alliance society and culture. The Alliance killed millions in the course of that game and would have stopped at nothing to erase it from memory. Those that were murdered for the cover up did not die in vain because of Serenity.” Mal had picked his head back up and leveled his eyes on Jutta with a look more serious than he gave some of the men he killed in the past. “Don’t want to ruin your fine speech there but everybody that gets killed dies in vain. Truth is we got into Miranda because they were come’n after us and we needed something to use against them. Something to get their minds off of us. Well it worked. Now look at things. They’re worse than before for most.” “Things always get worse before they get better,” said Jutta. “But from our perspective,” continued Mal, “nothing changes for us if they come after us again. They find us talk’n to you... they’ll come. And they’ll kill innocent people to do it again.” “They won’t find you here,” said Jutta with complete confidence. “There’s much more to this place than what you can see. Everybody in this section of town is evaluated for risk. We’ve been operating here for two years. We’re solid. Uninfiltrated.” “Won’t make a damn bit of difference if they can put us even near you people,” said Mal. Monty held up his hand, “Jutta, how did you find all this out?” “We have many eyes inside the Alliance political structure and military,” said Jutta. She turned to River, “We also have some connections in places like Osiris.” River jumped at hearing her home planet name and turned away. Jutta gestured to a man standing against a nearby rack of network servers, “Alfonso here is our chief security guru and communicates with out extended network.” Alfonso looked like every sketch artists’ rendition of the dark haired, dark eyed, six foot tall caucasian burglar in the night. He was completely plain and unremarkable. He moved to a desk and twisted the viewscreen of the computer there around for everyone to see, “Play video FF-003.” An image of a bright static electrical mess swirled on the screen then stopped. The camera panned counter clockwise to reveal a planet with a massive Alliance fleet assembled in box formation. The wing of another space craft entered frame from the left. “These are Alliance two-man fighter/attack ships in combat formation. This vid was taken at the battle over the communication post where the Miranda broadwave originated. Not many people know this, but a lot of vids of this fight with the Reavers are in circulation. The Alliance films everything but they’ve had a hard time keeping it locked away lately.” A small vessel emerged from the ion cloud. The camera rushed into a close up. “Pause. Here we have a Firefly class transport. Despite the shadow and paint, with a little enhancement you can clearly see the hull marking of Serenity.” Monty looked at Mal. “Play.” Serenity hurled towards the fleet which opened its many weapon pods and housings to obliterate her. Then the Reavers emerged. Although River, Zoe, and Mal were all there to witness the battle, the image still took their breath away. The trick to doing something that crazy was not looking back. In a short time Serenity disappeared behind the port side of an exploding ship. The screen went blank. “Truly, sir,” said Alfonso to Mal, “never in the entire human history of naval engagements has something like that been accomplished. I am in complete awe every time I see it.” Mal shrugged then folded his arms, “Ain’t never been anything that gives chase like a Reaver. “We received that vid a month ago through a reliable channel,” said Alfonso. “A month before that, Monty told us about a captain of a Firefly that he had not seen in a while and was worried about. We didn’t put it together until last night.” “What do you people want from us?” Jutta frowned. Her voice laden with sighing disappointment, “It’s obvious Captain that you will not do what we had hoped. We sincerely understand your feelings. I actually feel ashamed now that we were going to ask. I apologize. Really, for people that have given so much too so many people that you will never even meet, the real question is: What can we do for you?” The apology had a profound and unexpected calming affect on Mal. He was taken aback for a long moment. He finally said, “Monty said you might have work for us. If that’s the case we might be interested in a deal. A risk premium will have to be applied of course.” It was Jutta’s turn to be taken aback, “You... want to run supplies for us?” “If you got’em.” Jutta smiled, “Sure. Uh, do you charge by poundage?” “We can. How about point ninety per day of travel.” “What? Can we get a bulk discount?” “Nope, don’t want to muck up the math.” “Then it’s seven and a half. Six if you’re late.” “Monty is the contact. I don’t ever want to see you again. Any of you.” “Well there’s a load similar to the one over there that needs to get to Beaumonde,” said Jutta. She bowed her head, “Maybe it’s for the better. You have a deal.” Mal curtly shook her hand then turned to leave with River and Zoe closely behind, “Have the supplies in my ship before nightfall.” Monty said to Jutta, “I’m goanna talk to him for a sec.” Monty followed the trio out of the building, “Mal, what are you doing? Why won’t you help us?” “I am. I’m do’in a job for them.” “Come on Mal. This is a second chance here. These kids... know things. They have skills and abilities that we never had back then.” “Back then? A second chance? I don’t know what their plans are and I don’t want to know. But I have a hard time believing those core kids are interested in leaving the outer rim alone. That’s what we wanted, if you’ll remember. As much as they don’t like the Alliance they’re still from that culture. You can’t always ally yourself with somebody ‘cause you’ve got a common enemy.” Mal rested his hand on his friends shoulder. “Monty, I hope that you’re not in too deep here and you have an out. When the hammer comes down here there will be no forgiveness.” “What’s that mean?” asked Monty. “The bombings.” “That ain’t us, Mal. I swear.” Mal shook his head, “Two questions: One, do you know that for sure or do you just not know? Two, is anybody goanna believe that when they search that place and find the wine rack?” “It’s an F.A.E set up, isn’t it?” asked Zoe. “Yeah,” admitted Monty. “A real nasty one.” Mal stepped back and held his hands up, “I rest my case, old buddy. Somebody sees that kind of craftsmanship and they don’t need more proof. If there’s work here that pays the bills and lets you sleep at night, that’s shiny. Most people like us won’t have that usually. But don’t get stuck, Monty. I’m worried about you now.” Monty nodded his head, “I’ll get that stuff over to you. Take care, Mal, and send me gorram wave once in a while you asshole.” Monty returned to the hideout. He walked especially slow in the booby trapped corridor. Somebody had to look very close to see the trap. Mal saw it in an instant. He entered the main room and firmly knocked on Jutta’s office door. The cipher lock clicked open and he pushed through the door and curtain. Alfonso was standing in front of Jutta’s desk showing her some file. Jutta took one look at Monty and said, “Alfy, let’s take a break. Why don’t you go get something to eat?” “Sure Jutta,” Alfonso replied. He left the room without looking at Monty. Monty pulled a chair up to Jutta’s desk. There wasn’t much room in the office. About all but fifteen of the one hundred twenty square feet were occupied by communication equipment, safes, and her desk. He sat down without saying anything. Jutta produced a whiskey bottle and two lowball glasses from one of the many nooks in her cluttered desk. She never drank the stuff strait before she met Monty. She took a deep breath as she filled the glasses, “I keep telling myself that I didn’t use you to get to your friend. To meet somebody that I had built up as a hero in my mind. I keep telling myself that I didn’t have some fantasy of him doing incredible things for the movement. The word that bounces back from my conscious is ‘liar’.” Monty sipped his whiskey, “What am I, your gorram confessor?” “You’re not mad at me?” “I’m still take’n it all in, darlin’. Mal discovered Miranda. The Alliance killed a quarter of the people I did business with. I found you guys. Mal turns up alive. Now he doesn’t want a thing to do with us.” “He’s moving goods for us.” Monty scoffed, “If only you knew the types he does jobs for.” “But still... having him involved at all is only a good thing. Whether we want them to or not people will be whispering amongst themselves that the hero of Miranda is still alive.” “What’s the deal with the girl? You seem to know something there.” Jutta looked into her whiskey, “I’m sorry, Monty. It’s better if I don’t say anything about that.” Monty brought his glass down from his lips, “I’ll just ask Mal the next time I see him.” “You can try that,” she tapped her glass against his and sipped. Monty set his glass down and frowned at her. “Monty, you know that’s how it is sometimes.” He looked away. “Don’t pout. Come on.” Jutta reached across the desk and stroked the man’s proud beard a few times before gently grabbing hold of it. She pulled him to her lips and kissed. “Women,” said Monty as he returned to his side of the desk. “Can’t live without’em and one of them is bound to get me killed.” ***** “It was a hell of an end to a hell of a week,” said Mal. Zoe, Summer, and he was having a preflight meeting on the bridge with the door shut. Monty had just finished delivering the goods. “Got paid a load of cash by Badger and landed in a hornets nest of fugitives, spies, bomb experts, and who knows what. Not exactly smooth but it’s been bumpier before.” “I feel sorry, sir, for pushing you to find somebody else to do business with,” said Zoe. “I just hope it doesn’t cause more problems.” “I imagine everybody feels sorry,” said Mal. “I know I do. I knew I should have turned Monty down. He’s my friend and a great smuggler but he ain’t the best judge of character. What about you, albatross. Anything on your mind that’s, you know, relevant?” “Hundreds,” she replied quietly. “Uh, care to narrow that down a little for us?” “Why do you trust me again?” “Generally speaking, I never stopped once I started.” “What about Santo?” “That was definitely a bad decision on your part and I don’t take back a thing that I yelled. But I never said I can’t trust you anymore.” “I don’t understand.” “Well it’s like this: You let me down in Santo. You took on a responsibility that was mine. One that, if it went wrong, you would carry it around all your life. That was a let down. But we’ve had those many times before. I’ve let Zoe down and she’s let me down but we never stopped trusting each other. Because trust ain’t a guarantee, little one, it’s like a promise.” “Promise of what?” asked River. She truly had no idea where Mal was going with this because he himself had never pondered the question. “A promise that says no matter how bad it gets and how bad we let each other down, those things can’t break us apart forever. We might yell and curse at each other, go our separate ways, or whatever. But in the end,” Mal paused to find the words in his heart, “it can’t change how we feel about the importance of our relationship. That’s trust.” Mal looked at Zoe who was smiling at him. River looked down at the deck. She could not help but think of her family. The part that was not content to leave her in that asylum while her brain was butchered, her childhood stolen, and her soul tortured. Her brother. She walked over to Mal and hugged him. She buried her face into his shoulder and sobbed, “Thank you.” Mal wrapped his arms around the girl and patted her on the back. After a moment he looked down into her scalp, “Okay. That’s enough. We have to stop this before I get weepy too.” “Right,” sobbed River, “that wouldn’t be captainy.” Mal gently pushed River away from him, “That’s right. Besides... every time I see Monty I feel like I need to go on hug detox.” Zoe and River laughed at the joke. Mal smiled at River, “Anything else?” River knew what he meant, “I can’t say now. When nothing is happening it’s easier to see what will happen. When things are happening it’s more difficult. When things are happening because of you it get’s even more uncertain.” “We’re the cause?” River nodded her head, “It became very clear to me in the hideout that we were changing things as we went along.” “What does that mean?” asked Zoe. “The things we change can come back to us or they can affect people we’ll never see.” Mal sighed and rubbed his forehead, “Knowing us it’ll be a whole lot of both. Okay. River, prepare to lift off and plot us a nice lonely route to Beaumonde. Zoe, make sure Jayne’s pair of skanks are off my ship.” “Aye, Captain,” said Zoe as she left the bridge. Mal followed Zoe out but turned back to River, “You were right, you know. We should’ve kept moving. We stayed here one night and look what happened. We got a bomb dropped on us.” ***** Samuel Ling’s head was about to explode. Only two days had passed after getting his subsidy package through Parliament and there he was reviewing a proposal for the next one. Five thousand pages of jargon and handouts. But they were all integral to his plan to keep the Alliance on life support. He looked out his window for a moment. Bright and shining Londinium always looked very dull on a rainy day to him. He continued with his researching until somebody slapped an envelope on his desk labeled as “Top Secret: HVPCO” “Serenity and the Tams are back in play,” said a firm female voice. Samuel slowly looked up from the envelope to see Jian Qiaolian. Qiaolian was widely known to be the best arm twister in the lower chamber. Most people she visited could not decide if they were being seduced or bullied into a position. Samuel and Qiaolian were enrolled in the same internship program together and did not have much regard for each other. Now she worked for a large camp of incumbents that have been closely aligned with Blue Sun for ages. A camp that was much larger and much opposed to Samuel’s camp. Samuel returned his eyes to his screen, “I say no.” Qiaolian’s eyes bored into Samuel’s skull through the screen, “Is that your next beggar’s bill?” “Yep.” “Good job on the last one. I hear Hawthorne Inc. really cleaned up.” “We all have our beneficiaries. Blue Sun didn’t exactly get left out in the cold. They weren’t running the show but they weren’t left out.” Qiaolian’s hands braced her hips, “Open that envelope and we can stop wasting our fucking gorram time, Sammy.” “Since you asked so nicely...” Samuel thumbed the identification pad and the envelope released the top flap. He pulled out a photo slider and activated it. It displayed Malcom Reynolds, Zoe Washburne, and River Tam following some large ogre of a brown coat. “That’s them. Who’s the man-beast?” “Montgomery Larcen. He served with Reynolds in the Unification Wars and he’s a convicted smuggler with two warrants. He’s been linked to the Undies. We have high confidence that he was leading them to an HQ of some kind.” “You have the location?” “Tagging these Undies is like tagging prairie dogs. They go in one hole and dig themselves out by a new one.” “Did they take a job?” Qiaolian looked away. Samuel smiled, “Ah. So what you’re saying is you have no solid surveillance of the area and you don’t have anybody on the inside. You can’t go in too close or they’ll just disappear like the spies before them on Osiris, Sihnon, and Aerial.” Qiaolian’s attention snapped back to Samuel. “Oh yes. I knew that too. And I also know that by the time you have this sorted out the Underground will already know what you know and whatever you decide to do will be for not.” “So we sit on our hands while our most powerful enemy joins up with our biggest threat?” “Most powerful enemy?” Samuel repeated the question in disbelief. “A brief history lesson is in order. After a year in office I give the only dissenting speech in the secret session that created that Blue Sun freak show science project that killed half the kids duped into it and turned the others completely insane. I lost every committee seat I had. Most of them went to you.” Qiaolian gave him a pinched smile. “River escapes and I say ‘Lets take the project out of Blue Sun’s hands,’ and my district starts hearing all these rumors about me and underage boys. Blue Sun fails miserably at recovering her and I say to leave it alone. It had been almost a year we had not experienced any blowback. Your camp activates an operative and he vanishes from the Verse while Miranda makes six o’clock news on every screen. If these people have any power at all it is only because we have empowered them.” “Bull shit. I can’t listen to this anymore. You think you can win this war by charming peasants with handouts. You’ve got another thing coming.” “What war? What’s the mission? What’s the goal, Qiao? To get revenge? To be vindicated? I don’t think so. Our main goal should be to restore some measure of faith in this government. That’s a lot easier to do with the Rim than it is with the Core. The Core would never have expected Miranda from us. The Rim always has. So we do the Rim first. Play against their expectations. Send some goodwill out there and in time it will come back to us. If we’re still here.” Qiaolian’s almond shaped brown eyes burned with rage, “We’ll get the information. We’ll find these people. We’ll call session. Then we’ll vote. And then we will act.” “Oh you’ll get the information you’re looking for,” said Samuel. “You always do that.” Qiaolian snatched the photo slider from Samuel’s hands and shoved it back into the envelope, “I knew this would be a waste of time because you never had the balls for this kind of thing.” “I don’t collect them like you.” “Get back to your beggar bill,” Qiaolian turned to leave. “I still believe in this government, you know,” said Samuel. Qiaolian stopped at the door but did not look at him. Samuel continued, “Cynicism aside, I still think Parliament is the system’s best hope for civilization. Another crisis like Miranda will destroy Parliament. If you go after Serenity again and people find out who is on that ship and what we’ve done to them, it will be over. I know you didn’t listen to that so here’s something you will listen to. Be as indirect as possible. Whoever you get to take care of Serenity can have no knowledge of why they’re doing it and for whom they’re doing it. They must believe they are doing it for their own reasons.” Qiaolian looked over her shoulder and smiled, “I never said you didn’t have the brains for this kind of thing.” “Screw it up and you’ll loose more than committee chairs and face, Qiao. That goes for your entire camp. I don’t want the job but if they put us in the hole again I will see them gone and I’ll be Chief Prolocutor of the Upper Chamber. So get used to what you’re doing right now.” “What is that?” asked Qiaolian. “Looking over your shoulder.”

This isn’t THE END ...it’ll just be a while to the next show.