LIKE A FIREFLY
The years passed as they came and went. Sometimes the crew and assorted hangers-on aboard "Serenity" numbered well over a dozen. Sometimes it was just two or three lonely souls rattling around a tiny ship that now suddenly seemed to be so huge...
For almost a century, Kaylee had been the one constant. That wasn't exactly surprising. After all, she had been one of the youngest of Mal's crew, the one who took the least chances, and the one who just couldn't quite give up on the beloved and half-senescent bucket of bolts that was "Serenity".
"Escape velocity," the pilot quietly reported to Kaylee.
"Serenity" was pushing through the upper atmosphere of a barren moon, muscling her way out of yet another gravity well. They were carrying a load of mining equipment to another God-forsaken moon. The pilot was a tough young man named David. His grand-father had been one of the most decorated officers in the Alliance army. Sometimes Kaylee dreamed of an impossible world were Mal and Zoe met David... and eventually were forced to reluctantly admitted that he was a fine young man and definitely as good a pilot as Wash.
Mal... Zoe... Wash...
Book, Jayne, Inara, River...
Simon...
Simon...
The pang was still there although, of course, the years had worn away the worst of the pain. That was just the way it worked. It had been so long since the last of them died that - except for Kaylee - nobody now aboard "Serenity" had known any of them. And except for a very few (and getting fewer) old-timers scattered here and there throughout the worlds of the Alliance, there were damn few left who still remembered them at all.
That was just the way it worked. You lived and you died. You fought for a cause - or you didn't. You found someone - or you stayed alone. You got rich - or you spent your entire life struggling just to get by. You left something behind - or you didn't.
You were free - or you weren't.
And in the end, no matter what you had or hadn't done, you turned to dust. And then there were only a few memories that would also eventually pass. Every person's life was a short, brilliant streak of light that quickly went dark.
"Like a firefly," Kaylee half-whispered to herself.
"Ma'am?" David said, glancing at her and obviously puzzled by what she had said.
Kaylee smiled and ruffled the boy's hair, "Nothing. Davie. I'll be down in engineering."
"Where else?" David replied with a long-suffering smile as he hand-combed his hair back into place. He endured Kaylee's familiarity because she was a damn good captain.
"Only one other place to go," Kaylee chuckled. "And I'll be there soon enough."
The Captain left the cockpit. Behind her, David frowned and tried to puzzle out the meaning of what she had just said.