“Are you sure about this, Mal?” Zoe asked Mal. Mal adjusted his wide-brimmed hat. “Even on the Inner Worlds, they've got to get vegetables to market. And I doubt the fine alliance federals are paid so badly they need to shake down citizens for onions.” “I suppose you're right,” she said. “Although we all look ridiculous in these beat-up clothes.” “You saw the fellow we bought these onions off. Did he look any better?” Mal asked. “Now shh, we're getting to the Eavesdown Docks now, that's where they'll be waiting for us.” Zoe lapsed into silence, fixing her veil and glancing at the back of the truck, where Jayne pretended to doze on top of the bags onions, beneath which were their main armaments. Sure enough, the first patrol of federals just waved them past. The second insisted on opening a few bags, but gave it up quickly and moved away, holding their noses. “Like they never smelled dirt before,” Mal muttered. “We do stink,” drawled Jayne from the back. “I thought that was part of the plan.” “Alright,” said Mal, steering the truck into an alley. “Here's the back of Badger's. We go in, find out what he wants, then truck back on out the other side of town, where Serenity will come pick us up.” “I've been meaning to ask, Mal,” Zoe said. “Should we be looking for another pilot, or have you decided to trust our lives to River?” “Do you have any complaints so far?” Mal replied. “She did fine today,” Jayne pitched in, “But you never know when she's going to see something and freak out, and that day will be a da-shiong bao-jah-shr duh la doo-tze.” “Look,” Mal whispered, looking around as he parked the truck. “She's a member of my crew, just like the rest of you, and I decide who does what.” “Well, not quite like the rest of us,” Zoe shot back. “For one thing--” “And if you think that's why I let her fly Serenity, you didn't learn much about me in the last 11 years. I would not risk my ship and my crew for something like that.” “Oh, come out and say it, Mal,” Zoe said. “Because you—because whatever you two did on the bridge. I'm not just saying this because it was Wash's job, I'm saying maybe you're making a mistake here. And we won't find out we're wrong until we're a smear on the landscape.” Mal got up and began working his way up the alley. “Let's just get this job done, dong-ma?” Jayne got up and pushed aside two bags of onions to reveal their weapons. Zoe followed Mal. “Ignoring this issue is not going to make it go away,” she whispered. “I'm not ignoring it. It's just not important.” “Gorram it, Mal, I'm the closest thing you've got to a best friend. I'm not talking as a member of your crew—I'm telling you, you're blinding yourself.” Mal moved ahead and pushed open the door to Badger's office, and stepped inside. Zoe followed, shaking her head and holding the door open for Jayne. Serenity flew low over Persephone's surface, looking for a place to land. River sat calmly at the controls, guiding the ship over the slums that surrounded Eavesdown Docks, singing softly, almost under her breath.

Oh, He robbed from the rich and he gave to the poor. Stood up to the man and he gave him what for...

“Simon!” she said, briefly turning her head from the controls as her brother entered the bridge, a cold compress held to his head. “Yeah, it's me,” he said, sinking into the copilot's chair. “I guess I should apologize.” River shrugged. “You were just looking out for me.” “I feel like an idiot.” “That too.” Simon looked over at her. “I do have to ask, why him?” “Well, to paraphrase something you once said, the other men on board include my brother and a mercenary who'd just as soon have turned us in to the feds...he's sort of the only one left.” That drew a small laugh from Simon. “But really, mei mei, why him?” “He's...” River lifted the ship over a small rise. “You wouldn't think to look at him, but he's really intense. He cares about things. And he can't do anything about them. It's lonely, being in charge, having to control what all of us do. But there's no other way, for him.” She turned to look at Simon. “And he never turned us in. He's a puzzle.” “A puzzle...well,” Simon replied. “That's about what I should have expected.” “Besides,” River said, “You're dating someone too. You have no right to complain. Now hold on, we're about to get buzzed by the Feds.” Indeed, a light lit up on the console. River pressed a button, and the face of an Alliance officer filled the screen. “Captain Malcolm Reynolds, of the Firefly transport Serenity, you are bound by law to land your ship.” “Over my gorram dead body,” replied River. The officer's eyebrows rose and he paused, clearly taken aback. “This is Captain Davidson, of the Alliance Federal Police. We are trailing you with fighters. Land or be shot down.” Simon shook his head. “This is bad, River, really bad.” River got on the com. “Crew of Serenity, buckle in. We're going for a ride.” She lowered the throttle and the ship burst forward, flinging them both back against their chairs. “River, what are you doing?” Simon shouted. “I told you we were all going to die!” River replied. An observer on the ground, and there were many, would have been treated to a real show. Serenity banked, then jumped to the side, as a pair of Alliance fighters soared by in pursuit. A laser blast fired from one of the fighters, but was dispersed by the heat of the firefly's exhaust. Serenity's engines were pointed nearly straight down, as the ship rose in a zigzag pattern, always keeping its exhaust between it and the fighters. River's hands tightly gripped the controls, as she struggled to outthink the fighter pilots. One of the fighters, firing from above, missed and strafed the ground, setting a building ablaze. The com on the bridge rang, and Kaylee's voice came through. “The ship can't take more of this!” she shouted. “We're not a fighter plane!” “Give me another 90 seconds,” River replied, then hit the main com switch. “Companion Serra, please report to the com unit in your shuttle at once.” “Already there,” Inara replied momentarily. “Kaylee, make it look like we're running without containment,” River said calmly. “Inara, cut your shuttle loose in the smoke and be ready to pick the ground crew up when they're ready.” “What?” Kaylee exclaimed. “I'll explain later,” River said. “Pretend I'm Mal and shouting at you. Just do it.” Black smoke began to billow out from the firefly's stern, followed by a larger chunk that was Inara's shuttle. River cut the visuals on the com. “What are you doing?” Simon asked, as River brought the ship around into a swooping dive, trailing a thick cloud of smoke. Below them, the crowds began to disperse in panic. “Creating hype,” River replied.

Badger's office was the same cluttered wreck Mal remembered from his last visit. Badger himself was the same, a short, unpleasant man sitting behind his desk with the news in his hands. He waved the group in as they entered and settled into the chairs provided. “So what have you got for us, Badger?” Zoe asked. Badger smiled. “That was quite an exploit, out at Miranda. I'm very impressed.” Mal nodded. “Many thanks.” “I knew you had it in you. Of course, you know the Academy's still searching for River, and there's still a pretty large price on your head.” “I know that, Badger,” Mal said. “By the way, your costumes look ridiculous.” “I'd take it as a kindness if you'd get to the point.” “Well,” Badger said, rising, “I've just made a very profitable deal concerning the Alliance--” he cocked his head. “You're still willing to go against them? Haven't been satisfied by the Miranda tapes?” “Would you please get to the point?” Zoe asked. Behind them, a curtain fell revealing a squad of Federal troopers. Badger threw up his hands. “They arrived just before you did. I had no choice.” Jayne got up, reaching across the table to grab Badger, but his arm was smacked away by a Federal's rifle. “Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Zoe (), Jayne Cobb, you are bound by law,” the officer said. Mal turned around, finding himself staring straight into the barrel of a gun. Slowly his hands went up, followed by Zoe's and Jayne's. One trooper moved behind each of them, cuffing their hands. “Sorry about that,” Badger said. “Now, where's my reward?” Jayne laughed. “The Feds don't give rewards to the likes of us,” Zoe said. One of the Federals dropped a small box on Badger's desk. Badger opened it, drawing out several coins. “Platinum,” he said, waving a coin in Zoe's face. “The likes of me aren't the likes of you.” Mal glared up at him. “We never sold you out. And we always got the job done.” “And see where it got you?” Badger sneered. The officer's com went off, in the loud whining sound of an urgent alarm. He swiftly switched it on, and a panicked voice filled the room. “The city is under attack by Reavers! We are evacuating the city! Calling all units, take evacuation stations!” The officer switched off the com. “Fay-fay duh pee-yen! Bring them with us.” The four soldiers shouldered Mal, Zoe, and Jayne to their feet and pushed them down the hallway toward the street. “What about me?” Badger called from the office. “Lock yourself down,” the officer called back. The eight-person line rushed down the corridor, the Serenities struggling to follow the hurrying officer with their hands bound behind their backs. Jayne, nearly stepping on Zoe in his hurry, called ahead to Mal “I have a hole in my pocket.” “You what?” Mal called back. An explosion rocked the corridor, sending Jayne sprawling into Zoe, who fell into Mal, who landed with a crunch onto the officer, whose head hit the wall hard, and fell unmoving. “A hole in my pocket!” Jayne shouted, getting to his feet. “With a grenade about to fall out.” He looked behind him—the blast had taken out the 3 closest soldiers, and blown the fourth back into Badger's office, as well as set the ceiling on fire. “Chur ni duh,” Zoe said, moaning. “Let's get out of here.” “Right, as soon as you get your shoulder out from between my ribs,” Mal said. The three staggered the rest of the way out of the building. The scene on the street was chaos, with panicked citizens running all about. Mal threw himself against the wall to avoid being run down by a fancy car as it barrelled along the street. Shouts of “Reavers!” filled the air. “Alright, where do we go from here?” Zoe asked Mal. “'Cause the job's gos se now.” “It was gos se from the start,” Jayne added. “But where did the reavers come from?” Mal asked. “Let's get back to the rendezvous, and not get caught in this crowd.” He set off at as much of a run as he could manage with his hands still bound, down the alley where they'd parked the truck, Zoe and Jayne following. As they rounded the corner, however, they could see that the truck was gone. “Ai ya, wo mun wan leh.” “Nee ta ma duh tyen-shia suo-yo duh run doh gai si, we know that,” Zoe responded. “Although how were you planning to drive?” A roaring, loud shadow flew overhead, then curved back around to hover above the alley. A door opened, and out fell a rope. Inara's voice was heard shouting: “Are you ready to leave?” “You're just in time,” Mal called up. “But we've all got our arms cuffed, can you do anything for us?” “Run-tse duh fwo-tzoo,” Inara said. “What did you get yourselves into?” “And out of,” Jayne replied. Mal shook his head. “I didn't think to get the keys off the officer back there.” “No way I'm running back out into that mess,” said Jayne. “All right, get out of the way, I'll come down for you!” Inara shouted, lowering the shuttle. The weight of the ship took the corner of one of the flimsy buildings down with it as she landed. Mal, Zoe, and Jayne climbed into the hatch, and Inara lifted off again. “I see you were set up as well,” she said, observing their handcuffs. “Tyen-sah duh feds,” Jayne remarked. “Where are the reavers?” Mal asked, looking out the front of the cockpit. “Reavers?” “The feds received a call about reavers landing, right after we were arrested.” Inara shook her head. “I didn't see any reavers coming down here...just two Alliance fighters that were chasing Serenity.” She scanned the horizon. “Now where did River put that ship?” With a roaring sound, Serenity flew overhead, followed by several other freighters. On the ground, the Eavesdown docks were full of ships taking flight, sometimes with people hanging onto the landing gear. Serenity slowed into a banking turn, allowing Inara to dock the shuttle, then boosted straight up for space.

Safely in deep space, Serenity floated. A skeleton key had been found to laboriously open the handcuffs, and Mal, Zoe, and Jayne had bathed and changed. Now they sat around the dining table, with Inara, Simon, and Kaylee. Jayne sipped from a flask and stared at the ceiling. Zoe cracked her knuckles. “Where's River?” Mal asked. “She's setting a few things on the bridge,” Kaylee replied. “She'll be down in a minute.” “Here I am,” River said, ducking through the doorway into the kitchen. She slipped around past Simon and Kaylee to give Mal a kiss, then slid into the seat between Zoe and Jayne. “What was the story with the reavers?” Mal asked. “We didn't see any of them on the boost out.” “Oh, that,” Kaylee said. “That?” River smiled broadly. “I had to lose those fighters somehow, so I had Kaylee fix the engine so it looked like we were flying without containment. And I sent out an alarm.” “But...” Zoe interjected, “Weren't all the reavers killed at Mr. Universe's?” River's smile grew. “They don't know that. We don't even know that. Those central worlders don't even know what reavers look like.” Mal leaned forward. “Brilliant. By which I mean tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiou sai-jin wuh duh pee-goo, I hope my ship's ok. But brilliant.” Jayne snapped his flask closed. “Can we just once go on a mission that doesn't involve us pretending to be reavers?” In his cabin, Mal paced. His arms still hurt from the day's exertions. Day's? They'd arrived on Persephone in the morning, local time, but he'd been up for hours before that getting the ship ready. Probably a good twenty-two hours he'd been awake, he estimated. And with Badger having betrayed them, work was going to be a good deal harder to find. He supposed the Operative had been right in thinking that the Allied Planets wouldn't stop coming after River and Simon once River's secret was known to everyone. She still represented how many man-hours of work to the Academy? Somewhere a scientist still wanted his star pupil, and somewhere a general still wanted a psychic genius martial artist. They wouldn't have learned from the last time. Serenity wasn't equipped to wipe the Academy from the map, even if he could find it, no matter how much he'd like to. And that wouldn't solve anything either. A knock came on the cabin door. “Come in,” he called up. The door swung open and down climbed River. “Good evening,” she said, “Or morning.” Mal took her hand in his. “Hey there...what brings you to my humble abode?” River hugged him tightly. “I'm glad you're OK. You really should listen to me more.” “I know, I've got a real resource in you...can see what we're getting into, which I'm never quite able to do.” Mal smiled slightly, stroking her hair. “But everything's dangerous. I can't break a contact whenever the feds are near—that'd drive this ship out of business. It's already hard enough to get jobs now, after Miranda.” “You're not sorry you did it, though.” River snuggled closer. “Of course not,” Mal said. “These are hard times, and sometimes a man doesn't look too closely at ways he can make money. But when he learns the truth about something like this...” River grinned. “He has a choice.” “I don't believe he does,” Mal replied. “Tyen, things were simpler back then. Speaking of all that, how's your brother doing?” “Oh, Simon...he takes so much looking after. He's come to terms with it, I guess.” “'Cause I don't want to test his hippocratic oath next time someone opens my skin,” Mal said with a small laugh. “He'll live,” River said. “Now close your eyes...” “What?” Mal said, but closed them. River deftly slipped away from his embrace and drew her dress down over her shoulders. “No cheating,” she whispered, then let it slide down to her waist, then pushed it over her hips to fall to the floor. Stepping over her dress, so approached Mal again, placing his arms around her waist. “You can open your eyes now...” Mal did. “Ai ya! Lao tyen yeh! Ta ma duh!” “That's the idea,” River said, leaning up to kiss him. Mal broke away, struggling to keep his eyes fixed on her face. “River, ah...” “It's been a long time since the Heart of Gold,” River whispered, pulling him back to her and placing his hands on her lower back. She leaned up to kiss his lips, pulling him into a full kiss and sending him back onto the bunk, landing atop him. “River, what--” Mal asked. “Oh Mal,” River whispered, “You know you want me...I--” “You know I want you?” Mal struggled to sit up. “I—gorram it, River, you're really attractive and intelligent and sometimes you even understand me, which no one else does, but it's more complicated than that. And you, of all people, should know that.” She slipped an arm around his back, and he caught her hand, pushing it aside. “No, listen to me. I'm beginning to think Simon was right...you don't really know what you're getting into.” River's face took on a faraway look, and she spoke quickly. “Sexual intercourse or coitus is the human form of copulation. Sexual intercourse may be preceded by foreplay which leads to sexual arousal of the partners, resulting in erection of the penis and natural lubrication of the vagina. To engage in sexual intercourse, the erect penis is inserted into the vagina and one or both of the partners move back and forth to repeatedly pull the penis out (but usally not all the way out) and push it back in. In this way, they stimulate themselves and each other usually until they achieve orgasm and ejaculation. During ejaculation, which normally accompanies male orgasm, a series of muscular contractions delivers semen containing male gametes known as sperm cells or spermatozoa into the vault of the vagina. The subsequent route of the sperm from the vault of the vagina, is through the cervix and into the uterus, and thence into the fallopian tubes. Sperm cells can survive up to nine days in the female body. When a fertile ovum from the female is present in the fallopian tubes, the male gamete joins with the ovum resulting in fertilization and the formation of a new embryo. When a fertilized ovum reaches the uterus, it becomes implanted in the lining of the uterus known as endometrium and a pregnancy begins. But that won't happen, because I borrowed some levonovalin from Simon's infirmary.” Mal shook his head. “Tyen shiao-duh!” “I'm sorry,” River said, burying her face in his lap. “It's OK,” Mal said, stroking her head. “This is just...a fair bit more to deal with than I think either of us can handle. The emotional part of things, that is—I don't think there's any problem with the physical.” “My cabin is next to Simon's,” River said, not looking up. “Sometimes I can sense him and Kaylee, at night. It's...I would like to be like that...with you.” She burrowed deeper into his lap. Mal leaned over and kissed her bare shoulder. “Why don't you get dressed and we'll start from the beginning?”