Part One

Out in the black a tiny firefly class transport boat named Serenity flew hell bent for leather trying to get away from a ship that resembled nothing as a space going shark. It was a reaver ship and Serenity was quickly running out of options.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds grimly tried to avoid the crazed cannibals on his tail. It was days like this that he really missed Wash. Not, that he didn't miss the pilot in general but, when he was being chased by something that wanted to wear his skin as clothes he found a great retroactive appreciation for his deceased friend. Mal Reynolds was not a 'leaf on the wind.'" That the reavers were catching up was a testament to that.

"Ta ma de!" Mal said with feeling as Serenity shook with another particle beam bombardment.

"Need to soar," said River's soft voice from behind him.

Mal grunted, "Little albatross, if you don't mind I'm tryin to concentrate here."

---

"Where's the spanner?" Kaylee asked as she bustled around her beloved engines.

Simon grabbed the engineer before the furiously rocking boat knocked her to the floor. Her brown eyes wide with panic.

Kaylee took in a deep breath. She smiled weekly at the doctor. She needed to find the spanner so they wouldn't all die. "You'd think I'd be used to this by now."

"Me too," Simon gave a tense laugh and kissed her forehead. "Will you be alright?"

Kaylee nodded.

"I'll go get the infirmary ready for the inevitable injuries," Simon said as they were unceremoniously thrown into a wall.

---

"Let go." River sat down in the copilots chair with an inpatient sniff. "Let me. I can soar; like a leaf on the wind."

Mal looked at River's set face and his breath whooshed out in a sigh. If anybody on board could out fly a reaver it would be the crazy girl.

"You've got the reins," Mal said making a take from here gesture.

River rerouted the helm to her control.

The shark ship and the firefly danced in the black. Then the universe went crazy.

"Oh, juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan..." Mal muttered as a special anomaly flared to life around them.

River's eyes widened, "Pretty." And it was; a swirling maelstrom of rainbow light.

Mal gave her an irritated look from the corner of his eye. There wasn't anything wrong with seeing the pretty of the tiger about to devour you per say… just a little in bad taste.

The anomaly began to swirl. If anything it resembled…a tornado.

"Go-se!" Malcolm exclaimed in horror as it began to pull both the firefly and the reaver ship into itself.

"The ship began to pitch," murmured River with a smile.

Ta ma de

Dammit

Oh, juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan...

Oh, this is a happy development...

Go-se

crap

DG was bored out of her mind. She decided that she hated parades with a fiery passion. Sometimes she wondered if Azkadelia faked being nervous around crowds just so she wouldn't have to make these kinds of public appearances.

Currently, she rode in a gilded carriage pulled by gray horses, her face frozen into a smile waving stiffly at the cheering throng. Why, oh why, had her parents chosen to give her this duty? She sucked at official princess stuff.

Wyatt Cain rode a white horse keeping pace with the carriage. He was bored out of his mind. It was great. No running after DG when she wandered off for the umpteenth time, no pulling her out of the newest nest of trouble she fallen in, no chasing off new suitors…

A smug smile hovered at his lips. The Gillikin township of Loonville (so named for the plum crested loons that lived in the neighboring swamp) was as safe a place as she could go. He'd made sure of it. Before, signing off on anything that would leave her outdoors and vulnerable he'd taken precautions; he'd had the town and surrounding countryside scoured for Longcoat dissidents and other troublemakers, he'd had Glitch install a force field in the carriage and he had a large number of his men in plain clothes wandering about the crowd.

The princess was safe for once. Cain groaned to himself. He really hadn't just thought that, did he? He wasn't a man given to superstition but like the phrase 'what could go wrong' he knew it was just tempting fate.

"How long does a parade take?" DG muttered.

Cain scanned all sides warily, "It'll take as long as it takes, kiddo."

DG's eyes narrowed at the reply. Just as she was going to make an angry retort something caught at the edges of her consciousness. It tweaked at her mind like melancholy cords from a guitar. Her face smile faded away and she stared at the sky.

You can't take the sky from me…

Elsewhere, Azkadelia paused in her walk of the garden and looked up…

Wyatt Cain scowled. Things never did go smooth. "What is it?"

DG didn't have to. The sky above them exploded of rainbow tinted light and something shot out before the sky faded back to blue.

With a sound like a sonic boom a thing that gleamed bronze flew over the momentarily hushed crowd.

DG stood up in the carriage—wonder in her eyes, "It's a spaceship!"

----

After a very bumpy landing Zoë stumbled into the cockpit, "What happened?"

"We hit atmo with a little turbulence," Malcolm said with a wry smile. He gave River a look, "Any idea where that whirligig o' fun landed us?"

River unstrapped herself from the copilots' chair, "Over the rainbow."

Reynolds rolled his eyes, "Well, aren't you a fount of nothin' today."

River rolled her eyes, "We went past the farthest edge of the black; two suns in the sky."

Zoë blinked at her, "That makes it all clear as crystal."

River patted her lightly on the stomach, "Not to fret mother wolf. Understanding comes."

She looked down and frowned, "Gotta go change. The princess is coming." With that the reader ran down the hall.

Mal sighed. "Does she always have to talk so metaphorical?"

"It does keep us on our toes, captain," The first officer said considering. She glanced out the cockpit window. "Course, it might not be so metaphorical."

The captain followed her nod. Two suns shone in the sky.

"Now that is all sorts of unsettlin," Mal breathed. He turned and gave her a crooked smile, "Ifin you don't get down to the medbay, the good doctor will come lookin for ya."

"I'm pregnant—not made of the glass," Zoë huffed."

---

Wyatt Cain didn't know quite what happened. First, he had quite clearly said no. He'd said it emphatically in fact. He recalled threatening to tie her to a tree. The result…DG sat in front of him on the horse as they led a small group of guards to checkout the 'spaceship.' He noted absently that DG smelt nice…like lilacs.

It was that wet thing DG did with her eyes and the pouty thing she did with her pink mouth; he was a sucker for it every time.

He listened patiently as she spoke of travel between stars in metal cans; they had some strange notions on the Other Side.

They stopped at a small corpse of trees and dismounted.

The vessel was a warm coppery bronze and it stood on two stubby little legs. Doors swung open and out came two figures.

Wordlessly Cain held out a hand and a guard smacked a pair of binoculars in them. Through the lenses he could see that the two figures were a man and a woman. One of the first things a Tin Man learned was how to read people; every facial tic gave something away.

The man was big, muscled and his posture clearly said hired thug. Also, he was heavily armed.

The woman in overalls on the other hand barely came up to the merc's shoulder gave off a wide eyed innocent vibe.

"I suppose you want to go meet them?" Cain said resignedly as DG eagerly snatched away the binoculars to take a look.

"Need you even ask?"

----

Jayne pulled out Vera with a growl at the sight of the contingent of armed men on horseback. Kaylee ducked behind them.

Mal ambled down the ramp with Zoë close behind him. "Is that how you greet folk that 're just passin through?"

A tall pale man with a shiny badge (was that tin?) stepped in front of the gun toting locals. He had a nice hat. "To be fair your man drew on us first."

"Is that right?" Mal gave him a lazy grin.

"Oh. For God's sake," a small woman with the biggest blue eyes that Mal had ever seen wove her way around the man in the hat. "If your guy puts down his gun, our guys will put down theirs. And nobody gets shot." Somehow this request, given as it was in a very pleasant voice, sounded a lot like an order.

Mal looked from Blue-Eyes to the man hovering at her elbow was obviously her bodyguard, the man's icy blue eyes held steady and the girl…something about that wide eyed stare made him fell all see-through.

"Put Vera away," Mal holstered his own weapon.

Zoë eased down the shotgun.

Grumbling Jayne stowed Vera away.

"Name's Malcolm Reynolds," Mal said eyeing the welcoming committee.

The lawman in front nodded fractionally, "Wyatt Cain, Tin Man."

"What in the garram hell is a Tin Man?" Jayne wondered.

Cain gave him a considering look as if ascertaining the best way to take him out, "Tin Men is what we call the law in these parts."

Blue-Eyes managed to look both amused and annoyed at the manly exchange Mal noted.

The twin suns caught Mal's eye, "How far from the Core would you say we were?"

"The Core?" the girl with the blue eyes asked.

Kaylee kind of gaped at her, "The core planets…" She trailed off at the girl's off expression.

Cain eyed the firefly speculatively, "I take it then you're not from around here."

Reynolds shrugged, "Not remotely. My boat got a mite roughed up a now we can't make atmo."

Blue-Eyes bounced up peering undue wonder at the firefly like she'd never seen a spaceship, "Is that your boat? What's her name?"

"Serenity. She's a firefly class transport." Mal said gauging the welcoming committees' expressions.

"Now that you're acquainted with myself and my boat would you like to introduce yourself?" Malcolm knew that she had to be someone important to have Cain and her very own posse to protect her.

"DG Gale," She said cheerfully.

Cain let out a long suffering sigh, "Princess DG of the house of Gale."

"Where the light will take you no one ever knows…" River silently slipped around to stand in front of the…princess. By the looks of it she must have borrowed a dress from Inara.

To Malcolm's surprise River actually dipped down into a graceful curtsy.

"I'm the river. Sometimes I'm a babbling brook. I'm honored to meet the young lady who fell from a star," River said to the bafflement of all.

----

Wyatt Cain didn't quite know what to make of Malcolm Reynolds and his crew. They were obviously criminals in some fashion, given they came with a ship he'd bet on smuggling. But, with the possible exception of their semi-tame merc it was clear they were good people.

Captain Reynolds had all the hallmarks of former military from the way he held himself to the clothes on his back. His only loyalties seemed to be for his people. Cain wondered what kind of iron suit he was put into once.

Zoë Washburne, first officer. She was a soldier through and through even though she didn't fight under any flag but Serenity's. Tough, reticent and caring; she was also pregnant and recently widowed.

Inara Serra was a woman of astounding beauty and poise. A 'Licensed Companion' which seemed to be some kind of high scale courtesan. She was genuinely surprised at the finding that her profession wasn't legal in the O.Z.

Then there was the hired gun. Jayne Cobb, the man had professional henchman written all over his face. If he didn't stop leering at DG he was going to get shot.

Ship's engineer Kaywinnit Lee 'Kaylee' Frye had to be the most cheerful girl in the universe. One of the nicest people he'd ever met; pretty and perky and a joy to be around. How she'd gotten herself on Serenity was anybodies guess.

The Tam siblings; Dr. Simon Tam was a serious young man who stood absolutely straight. He had the stunned look of someone who'd just recently stopped being chased but can't stop looking over his shoulder just yet.

And River; her eyes were as haunted as Azkadelia's and she moved as gracefully as a mist maiden.

Cain suspected that there were very good reasons for her brother to watch her as closely as he did.

"What do you mean Earth-That-Was?" DG's voice held a tinge of hysteria that pulled Cain right out of his reverie. "I grew up on Earth. Kansas, that's in the United States of America in the northern hemisphere."

Jayne let out a short nasty laugh, "What in the rutting hell are ya talkin about girl? Earth was used up centuries ago. You sound loonier than our own moonbrain."

DG glared.

Wyatt Cain gave Reynolds a bland smile.

Mal got the message. "Jayne, you'll want to be a mite more circumspect in your speech patterns. Also, apologize to the princess for bein a hwoon dahn."

Jayne let out a sullen sorry.

"You grew up on Earth?" Dr. Tam raised a skeptical brow. "Forgive me; but, that does seem somewhat unlikely."

"Not unlikely," River said. "Nor is it impossible. Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." River looked at DG. "Earth abides, still on the Other Side. Serenity was caught in a knot in the strings of time and space."

DG smiled, "So you're from an alternate reality then?"

"That made sense to you?" Zoë wondered.

The princess nodded, "String theory, I understand the basics. Kinda. If words are used and not you know…math."

The 'discussion' that followed the mention of parallel realities had been heated. And when magic had entered the equation…

The princess had calmly listened to their incredulousness before ripping out the rug from under them. DG sauntered over to a beech tree and had made it bring forth apple blossoms. That had shut the door of their disbelief in a hurry.

Princess DG smiled at Reynolds's disbelieving expression; eyes wide, mouth opened. "Welcome to the O.Z."

To Be Continued...

hwoon dahn

Jerk, bastard, scoundrel; literally, "bastard egg"