The trip out to the scrap belt is a long one, and since Diana is the newest and most mysterious person on board, much of the conversation is with her and about her.

It’s fueled even more by her evasive answers to their major questions, and finally Simon decides to be more direct; “Diana, we’ve been sailing out to the rim for days now, and we feel we should know more about our destination. But we never get a straight answer. I’m beginning think you don’t know yourself. Do you actually know where we’re going?”

A direct question gets a direct answer: “No. But I’ll know when we’re there.”

That’s not very helpful, but better than anything they’ve heard before, so Simon presses on. “We’d also like to know why the Alliance Lieutenant backed away when you showed him your Ident.”

“I don’t know that either. But it always works. I’m hoping I can find answers to both your questions in the Scrap Belt”

That seems honest, if not exactly satisfying. But it seems that’s all they’ll get…

The good thing about Diana is that’s she’s very likable, friendly and talkative on a whole range of other topics, and has added more than just conversation to dinner. She also turns out to be a superb cook, making gourmet meals out of basic rations.

Inara is especially complimentary one night; “Diana, this roast Duck in fresh Cherry sauce is superb. I’ve never had anything quite like it.”

Kaylee agrees, “Yes, it’s shiny – but I know there were no ducks in those stores.”

Zoë adds, “Nor any fresh cherries.”

Diana smiles mysteriously; “It’s amazing what one can do with the right spices. A man can live on packaged food from here to judgment day if he’s got enough Rosemary.”

Simon turns to his sister; “I seem to remember hearing that ‘Rosemary’ line before…”

River looks blank, then touches Simon’s forehead. She pulls back – “Preacher Man.”

Soon the ship has a new position it’s never had before - Ship’s Cook! Diana is now an integral part of Serenity’s crew.

In the midst of one of Diana’s incredible meals, the wave beacon beeps. Mal scowls; “Yi wang wu ji (As far as the eye can see) there’s nothing but Black, and someone wants to talk to us. Probably a wrong number.”

But it isn’t. Mal punches the comm button and hears, “Firefly ship Harmony calling Serenity – looking for a meet.”

Zoë says, “That voice is familiar – from a long time ago…”

Mal also recognizes it, and decides it’s worth an answer; “Harmony, this is Captain Reynolds, who’m I talkin’ to?”

“Well, Hello Mal, This is Jack Nolan, from the old 49th Overlanders Brigade – been a long time. When I realized it was your ship, I just had to get in touch, see if we could deal. Good to see some of the old team is still flyin’!

Mal answers cheerily, “Oh yeah, now I remember. It has been a long time.” Then he flips off the transmit switch, and looks at Zoë; “Kinda odd, Jack showing up like this. Didn’t even know he was flyin’, and here he is in the middle of nowhere.”

Zoë agrees it’s odd, but adds; “But he always seemed to be an upright type. I wonder what he wants.”

“Let’s find out…” he clicks on the switch again; “Jack, good to hear your voice. You said you have some sort of deal for us? Always interested in deals.”

“Well, Mal, it’s like this… I was talking to a buddy of mine about how hard it was to get good food at a reasonable price. He mentioned he’d heard you had left Persephone all of a sudden with a cargo of the best. Now I see you goin’ out Kaldisa way. It so happens we’ve got a cargo of some valuable medicines for Salisbury, and it sounds like we could arrange a mutually beneficial trade.”

Mal is at least interested; “So what are you suggestin’?”

“I was thinkin’ if you give me six months or so food, I’ll give you the medicine, and you can sell it for whatever you can get. You make money, we avoid that long expensive ride out there, and end up with enough food to carry on for a few months.”

Mal has doubts – “I’m not sure we’d be welcome on Salisbury, but it’s worth considerin’. Why don’t you send over a list of the meds you got, so’s our Doctor can see if they’re worth our while?”

No Problem, I thought you’d want to take a look. It’s on the cortex already. By the way, we’re coming up right behind you – be alongside in about 20 minutes.”

Zoë turns on the rear camera and begins to search. As she does so, Simon begins reading the printout. “Looks genuine – a lot of drugs that the Rim worlds would need badly. We could make enough to pay for for several trips to the Core and back…”

Mal is not as impressed. In fact, it increases his uneasiness; “Treasure like that, seems odd that they’d trade it for a bit of food…”

Finally Zoë announces; “There it is – looks like a Firefly mostly, but there’s something different…”

Diana takes a peek at the screen – “Well, isn’t that odd…”

The already suspicious Mal says; “I don’t like odd, it’s usually the first step to trouble – tell me about odd.”

“That’s a Firefly Model 05.”

“They never made any Model 5’s!”

“It never went into full commercial production, but about a half dozen prototypes were made as military troop carriers, all sold to the Alliance.”

“Military! Alliance? Armed?”

“Oh, not much, light stuff, mostly – and a Beam Cannon. The ship’s not much good for fighting – too big, not very maneuverable…”

“Beam Cannon? Not maneuverable? River, hard right!”

River jams the controls over, causing Serenity to slam everyone to the port side as she goes to maximum acceleration. A proton beam lights the sky behind them…

“Hun Dan! (Damn!) That was close – any idea how we can get away from them?”

I understand that the reason they didn’t make any more of them is because their engines were electronically noisy – their sensors don’t work well under full power.”

“River, plot a course -” But it’s unnecessary. River has already plotted a pseudo random course at maximum speed… In about 20 minutes, Harmony is nowhere to be seen.

Mal can finally breathe easier. "I suspected that we wouldn't get away with all that government food without some sort of debate."

Zoë nods, then turns to Diana; “Someday you’ll have to tell us just where you learned all that.”

“I’ve travelled a lot, learned as I went.”

“I think I’d like a few more details.”