A/N: My first attempt at a Firefly fic – reviews are shiny!
"Down there."
Wash turned in the cockpit seat to see River standing behind him, watching the displays. She moved over to a display, tapping the surface of some unknown planet. Wash sighed.
"No, see, when you're carting trunkloads of stolen goods around the 'verse, it's usually a good idea to land on the right planet. That way everyone knows exactly where they are."
River shook her head, agitated.
"They're choking," she muttered. "Choking on a few raggedy dust mites."
Without warning, River lunged for Serenity's controls, wrenching them out of Wash's hands and making the ship bank sharply towards the apparently choking planet.
"Hey! Hey, whoa!" Wash yelled, fighting River for control of his ship. He'd just resorted to hitting her hand with a plastic stegosaurus in an attempt to get her to let go of the controls when Mal made his entrance.
"Wash, what the chou ma niao is going on?"
River stopped struggling, though she retained her grip on the controls, and turned to the captain.
"They're dancing," she informed him seriously. "The steps are still wrong, and they keep kicking up the dust… they're all choking. Again."
"That's as maybe," Mal replied, reaching over to gently prise Serenity's controls from River's grasp, "but unless that dirt you're referrin' to takes the shape of any Alliance patrols, we ain't – "
Mal's attempt to reason with River was cut off by a shrill proximity alert.
"Fay-fay duh pee-yen," Wash muttered. "Alliance."
Mal glanced at the display.
"They ain't headed our way, far as I can tell. Just means we got to step extra careful is all."
River rolled her eyes.
"Don't matter," she said. "They'll still be choking."
Mal gave her a strange look for a second.
"Chokin' on what?"
"Dust mites," River told him, her tone suggesting that it should be obvious. "Little brown dust mites, choking cause they can't dance like the others."
"Uh-huh. And in some language that's English?"
River held Mal's gaze for a long moment, brow furrowed, as if trying to make sense of something in her head.
"Serenity," she said softly, and suddenly she was gone, slipping out the bridge doorway and away. Wash sighed.
"Y'know, just when you think you're gonna get some sense out of that girl – "
"Wash." Mal was totally serious now, never taking his eyes off the display screen. "Take us in a little closer to that moon."
"You sure that's wise, what with the Alliance – "
"Wash. Just do it."
"Sir. Yes sir."
Serenity executed a graceful turn and changed course, Wash muttering to himself in Chinese and Mal ignoring him, staring at the display. They got close enough to see the planet's surface, and Wash's muttering abruptly stopped.
"Well, that's the last time we take advice from crazy people…" he whispered.
They were close enough now that they could just hear the sounds of gunfire, and explosion, and the occasional scream from the planet's surface. Wash glanced over at Mal, watching the lights from the war zone below them play over the captain's face. Even from this distance, Mal knew exactly who was winning. The few raggedy survivors left on the non-Alliance side were hopelessly outnumbered, being advanced on on all sides by enemy troops, still desperately fighting a battle they had to know they couldn't win…
Crouched in her room, River jerked with the force of planetside explosions she couldn't possibly feel.
"They're choking…" she muttered. "Choking on dust that can't speak…"
She stood abruptly, looking through Serenity's walls at the planet below her.
"Don't worry," River whispered. "We'll be your angels."