“So you need our help?” Mal asked the woman who called herself Lieutenant Ursula Kalip. “Yes Captain,” Ursula had a slightly confused look on her face, “Did you not read the message? Did River Tam not decode the message properly?” “We read your message, we just…. now that is a point, how did you know that we had River ‘board my boat?” Ursula gave him another one of her smiles, though it was clear that she found something amusing this time, “Who do you think helped Simon Tam get his sister out of the Alliance Academy?” The older man with her, Colonel Arron Chung, smiled also at this. “Figures,” replied Mal. There was silence. Then Mal said, “So what exactly do you need our help for anyway? Seems you well organised bunch. Got yourselves a fancy looking ship,” he nodded towards their ship in the near distance, “You helped one man get his sister out of an Alliance facility. So why do you need our help?” Ursula seemed to consider the question for a moment. “We don’t have quite the resources we once did.” “Uh,” was all Mal said. Again there was a silence. “Captain Reynolds, while I appreciate your caution, I must ask that we go to somewhere out of the snow, and continue this conversation.” “I agree. We’ll go back to Serenity, talk there, though I will have to ask that we perform a search. Security you understand.” “Of course Captain.” “Wouldn’t want to have any breaches of security, traitors, that sort of thing.” The two former Independent Intelligence Division Officers choose to ignore this small dig at there unit’s slightly chequered history during the war. They made their way towards the Hovermule. Mal and Zoe were in the lead. Zoe inclined her head to her Captain. “Sir, are you sure about this?” “We’re just going to have a talk.” “Sir…” “Zoe, this isn’t a discussion I want to be having right now. Where in the ‘verse is Jayne, he was supposed to be covering our backs.” He called on the radio, “Jayne! Where are you?” Jayne’s voice came over the radio, “Err….I’m a little stuck in the snow at the moment Mal.” Mal couldn’t help but smile, “Well, make your way back to Serenity when you can.” “What about the Hovermule?” Jayne cried out over the radio. “We got two passengers to take back to Serenity. Mule only runs with four.” “Oh come on, Mal!” Jayne shouted over radio as Mal turned it off.

***

Thomas sat around the fire that the prisoners had going. There wasn’t a lot of dancing or chanting or singing, all the usual stuff you associated with camp fires. But everyone was sitting around talking, laughing or just looking into the fire pretending to be someplace else, like Thomas was. He thought about his home on Rhyddha (or Bant chan 'r Rhyddha to give its proper name). It was so far from here, but in that fire he could see and feel the hills and valleys. He could look up and feel the reflected heat from the giant………

***

Gareth Davies Space Mirror hung in orbit round the planet known as Rhyddha. The former Operative of the Alliance stood on the bridge of St. Elpis and saw the age-old mirror that kept the planet below warm enough for people to survive on it. It was so far from the sun that the mirror was required to ensure that enough sunlight was reflected on to it. The planet was so far from civilisation, that it had formed one of its own. One with no direct Alliance involvement at all. The locals liked that way, and so did the Operative. He wanted to be away from them. From the Alliance and here was the perfect place. He turned to the ship’s captain and asked, “How along till we touch down, Captain Garrett?” “Oh, won’t be long now, Mr Smith.” The Helmsman interrupted their conversion, “Captain, we’re being hailed by the Alliance Corvette ‘Longman’. Major Womack has demanded that we let board us, and conduct a tax check on our goods.” “What! Did you transmit your papers?” “Of course! But Major Womack says that this is a new tax from the Alliance, and he is here to collect.” “Damned zhū huì!” He turned to the Operative, “Sorry for this, Mr. Smith. Occasionally rouge elements in the Alliance enforcement try and take money from our cargo. It doesn’t happen often because we’re so far, huh, anywhere. Doesn’t sound that bad, but the people down world have few sources of income, and it hits them quite hard, when something like this happens. This Womack is new though, and by reputation he’s a hwoon dah!” The Operative nodded. He was angry inside. He didn’t know this Womack, but he knew the type. Officers from less than perfect backgrounds, found themselves in a position of power, decided that they weren’t going to make it to be Admirals and so instead set about making as much money as they could fleece. He wasn’t about to let this Womack steal from the Captain that he had come to admire. Captain Garrett was a simple and honest man. He did not deserve this. And the former Operative wanted to make amends to the universe; to the people he had killed. He walked over to communications officer. “Captain Garrett, I think that I can help.” He sat down at the console and started typing a stream of code……

***

On the bridge of the Longman, Major Womack turned to the Corporal manning the communications desk. “What did you say?” “We’ve just received an alpha code message telling us to fall back, and disengage from the St. Elpis, sir.” “Did they give a reason?” “No sir.” Womack grunted to himself. Probably some kind of damned black ops mission that Parliament didn’t want revealing if he started snooping round the ship. He thought about his position. It had cost him a lot to come out this far to try and gain something from this piece of gos se planet and its small but lucrative trade route. However he wasn’t stupid and if command or the Parliament heard about this little incident, then they would start investigating, and there were aspects of Womack’s operations that weren’t what you called legal. No, it wasn’t worth it, much as he hated to admit it. “Helmsman, turn us around, and head back to base.” “Aye aye, sir.”

***

Captain Garrett aboard the St. Elpis watched the Alliance Corvette turn from its trajectory parallel to them and head in the opposite direction. “Well I’ll be a FAY-FAY duh PEE-yen! What in the ‘verse happened?” He looked round the bridge. None of the crew seemed to know. He looked to the passenger known as John Smith and asked him, “You did something, sent them a message or something, didn’t you? Now what kind of respectable civilian manages to call off an Alliance ship, with no consequences, I wonder?” His face was stoic. The face of a man who was asking a question that required an answer. After a pause, Mr. Smith replied, “That is something that I may chose to tell you one day, Captain. But let me assure you that I’m of no danger to you or your crew, or anyone on Rhyddha.” There was another pause, a tension on the bridge, and then Garrett’s face broke into a smile. “Mr. Smith you have made your self some friends today, both on my ship and planet side when they hear about what you did here. The King himself will want to thank-you personally.” The mysterious friend of the St. Elpis smiled then said, “Did you say King?”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bant chan 'r Rhyddha - Valley of the Free (in Welsh) zhū huì – pig filth hwoon dahn – Bastard gos se – crap FAY-FAY duh PEE-yen - baboon’s arse crack

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Chapter 6: Ursula's Plan