First of all, this story is the next phase of an arc that started with Void, so it's suggested that you read that first, as this more or less directly continues the tale.

In Void, I named each chapter with a one word summary and, as an experiment, included a segment from the next chapter as a 'Next on Void' section. I'm not doing that for this phase; instead there will be a (slightly) more complicated system of chapters. This is a longer story, and I wanted to write it accordingly, with a set out structure. Void had 12 chapters because that's all the story stretched to, and it seemed appropriately biblical with the crew facing their Judgements. With this tale there are 'days' and 'chapters'. Each chapter will belong to a 'day', relative to the last day of Void that spanned the last 6 chapters, 'Day Zero' being the same day as that. It helps to keep track of the time, the need for which will become obvious shortly. So without further ado…the prologue…

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Suffocation. Soft, pulsating suffocation. Occasionally there were moments of lucidity where the outside world started to fade through the drowsy semi-consciousness, but for the most part there was silence.

But in those brief, almost alert moments, she heard things. The voices of her friends. Explosions. Cries of pain. Screams that belonged in nightmares. But mostly, she felt the thing reaching down into her, growing, and perhaps those moments were only brief because the mind can only take so much horror; there reaches a point where it simply closes itself away, where the horrible things can no longer do it any harm.

And for a time, that was all she knew. 'Knew' is maybe the wrong word to use, because it implies a certain level of awareness that involves the accumulation and storage of information, but with Kaylee there was none of that. She simply was, lost in a sea of being, somewhere between being alive and being dead.

But then the thing pressing against her fell away from her, and she no longer suffocated because of its presence. She felt the world coming back to her, but it was sharply removed from her grasp by a wave of cold.

After that, she knew nothing.

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"Is she awake?"

"Not yet. It takes time to come out of the coma. Give her a few minutes."

"All right. Doctor knows best."

The voices were tantalisingly close, and almost familiar. She frowned ever so slightly, exercising weak and stiffened muscles to try and stir from the rest she found herself rousing from. Then, a hand on her shoulder.

"Be careful, not too fast."

"She's a big girl now, Doc. She can take care of herself."

"I'm well aware of what she's capable of."

"Didn't mean no disrespect, I just…"

"…I know. It's strange seeing her after so long."

"…That it is."

She tried to open her eyes, but light shone into her retina, temporarily blinding her. The voices were quick to respond.

"Dim the lights," but the harsh illumination was being dimmed before the voice had finished speaking. She found she could open her eyes now, although the resident burn stayed on her vision, casting an orange spot on everything she saw.

She blinked repeatedly, for even the dimmed light was almost painful to endure. Eventually she found herself becoming conditioned to it, and that the more she could see, the more her body responded to her commands. Her character and memories started to flood back onto the blank slate her mind had become, and she gasped as it threatened to overwhelm her.

The hand touched her shoulder again. It was a reassuring strength that gripped her.

"Kaylee. It's going to be all right."

Her eyes finally focussed on what was in front of her and as her vision floated back into clarity, she beheld Simon sitting beside her, his eyes open wide and a small smile playing on the edge of his lips. She frowned, having more success with the expression this time.

"…Simon?" she asked, but then coughed. Her mouth felt like a sewer. A glass of water was offered to her, and she took it eagerly. The hand that had previously reassured her held the base still, as to control her consumption.

"Small sips," advised Simon, and she was glad to have followed his advice. She coughed and spluttered into the glass, but soldiered on with the endeavour. Ultimately she was rewarded when she had drunk the whole glass and thirstily looked for a second. Simon gave a short snort of amusement and set the empty glass back onto the bedside table.

A bed. She was on a bed. Suddenly she looked around her and saw her surroundings for the first time.

A small, dark room that contained nothing but the bare essentials. A bed. A stool. A small port that revealed a view of…the stars. They were in space.

There was a chuckle from the doorway. "It's like watchin' a kitten. Everything's new to you again, ain't it?"

"Cap'n?" she asked, and Mal nodded to her greeting. "Where are we?"

"We're on a space station," replied Simon, shooting a look at Mal. "But that's not important right now. How do you feel?"

"Like I've been hit by a mule."

Simon almost smiled again. "What do you remember?"

Kaylee frowned – an expression she was quickly becoming adept at. "Not much…I remember bein' in the shuttle over that moon…and then the Alliance picked us up. After that it gets a bit blurry."

"How?"

"…Smothering. That's all I remember." The memory was genuinely gone. In the same way a person forgets a dream after they have woken up, Kaylee's memories had faded after she awoke in this strange room, replaced only by a vague feeling. She looked over to Mal, remembering something.

"Serenity – what happened to Serenity?"

A dark expression washed over Mal's face, but it was gone almost as soon as she noticed it, replaced by a warm affability that Kaylee now knew was being forced.

"She, uh…we lost her. She sank down under the ocean of that moon and then the Alliance threw a few depth charges down after her. She's gone." Said so bluntly, yet with such a repressed emotion that it hit her like a brick wall.

She cried for a while then, Simon hugging her gently. The ship that was her pride and joy was gone…the ship that had offered her a refuge while she sought out her destiny among the stars. Her safe place. But after a while the grief ebbed away, replaced by more alarming emotions as she recalled the events prior to the one that caused the destruction of the ship.

"What about everyone else?" she said, realising she had taken for granted that they would be okay. "What about that thing on the ship, the Night Stalker? Where are we?"

Simon held up his hands as if that would stem the flow of questions emerging from her mouth, but she quietened down more out of a selfish need to know the answers, not because he had asked her to.

"We'll explain everything. I promise. I just…uh…I need to explain something else to you first."

The serious note in his voice made her pay rapt attention to him. Suddenly she noticed his eyes; they were worn with a deep-seated weariness, coupled with a burden that he had yet to allude to. Both Mal and Simon had painful looking bruises on the parts of their bodies she could see, and Simon's lip was split.

"Since the time on the moon…Kaylee, you've been away for over a month."

A month? That was ridiculous. It seemed like five minutes ago. She snorted, shaking her head. Smiling, she turned to Mal, but he just stonily gazed back at her.

"A month?"

Simon nodded, emotion starting to play at his voice. He clutched at her hand with his own. "Uh…I don't know how much you remember about when the Alliance took you…I mean, I know you said you don't remember, but…there's something that I need to tell you that isn't good news…and I don't know exactly how to say it, but…"

"Simon! Just say it!" she exclaimed sharply, anxiety building with his every word. But he just gazed at her helplessly.

"There's one of them inside of you," said Mal. His eyes shielded Kaylee from the maelstrom of emotion raging beneath the surface, and though she knew it was there she prayed thanks that he had done so, because she knew that to look into it would drive her insane.

In the long silence that stretched afterwards, many thoughts ran through Kaylee's mind. But ultimately, the one that mattered most slipped through her lips and out into the air.

"No…" she whispered. It was coming back to her now. The smug Operative. The white room. The assembled scientists. And finally, the grimy cell with the grated deck. The one with the small circular hatch built into the floor.

"No!" she screamed. She could feel it now, the almost imperceptible movement irregular to her breathing pattern. Lurking between her lungs, and next to her heart. Waiting to burst through in a grisly display of gore in an insult to the natural order of things.

"We can get it out!" said Simon, and the strength behind his words stopped Kaylee's grief in its tracks. She looked into his eyes and saw a steely resolve that she had previously not thought him capable of. Between him and the Captain, her sanity kept itself in check and she kept the terrible knowledge at bay long enough for him to explain what he had just said.

"There's a procedure we can perform. That I can perform. I'll be the one doing it," he said, his thoughts obviously scattered. "The thing is…it's never been done before. There's a chemical that we…uh, found that might heal you. But I have no idea what it will do to you if I put it inside of you. That's why we woke you up, to ask your consent."

Kaylee's eyes stung again, but for another reason. "So…you woke me up just to put me back asleep again?"

"No, it's not like that…"

Mal stepped forward. "Kaylee's right. We can't just present this choice to her. We gotta tell her how we got here, how she got here…and where that chemical came from."

Simon gave an almost imperceptible sigh. "Do we have time…?"

Mal almost smiled. "You're the doctor."

Eventually, after spending moments lost in thought, Simon nodded. "As your doctor," he said to Kaylee. "I can't recommend putting off the treatment for very long. But as your…" He trailed off.

Kaylee nodded, awash with bewilderment, and fear, and all sorts of negative emotions, some of which she didn't even know the name of. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and it was that display of helplessness that Mal and Simon had to address.

"Before we get started, it might be best to get the girl some refreshments; we might be here for a few hours," said Mal.

"She shouldn't eat before a procedure…"

"Something to drink then." Simon wandered across to a call button built into the lighting controls, and as he did so Mal took the seat he had previously sat on. He took Kaylee's hands in his.

"You're gonna be okay," he said. "Pay no attention to what the Doc says. I don't care what the odds are; you're gonna make it through this."

Kaylee tried to smile, but the expression failed. "Simon never had a good bedside manner. You're just tryin' to pretty up what he has to say." But Mal shook his head forcibly.

"No. That ain't true. Once you hear what we've been through this past month, you'll change your mind about that. We didn't come through it all just so you could go and die on us now."

Simon had wandered back to the foot of her bed, and nodded reassuringly at her. With her reserve of courage somewhat restored, she felt ready to listen to their story.

"So are you gonna tell me a tale or what?" she asked.

"Well, where do we…?" asked Simon. "How you got off the ship?"

"No," said Mal. "It started before then. I know exactly where to begin."

Kaylee leaned forward slightly in anticipation, and Mal mirrored the gesture, as if he were imparting some top-secret information.

"Remember Andrews?" he asked.

And he started to talk.