Word on the street is Captain Zoe Alleyne of Serenity is a solid, dependable thief. She's honest when the job doesn't require elsewise, levelheaded in conflict, and a natural leader. Someone you can trust your cargo and your reputation with. Close-mouthed, not prone to any speech at all much less talk of things better kept secret. She has a husband that flies, and a neater pilot you've never seen – he can pull off miracles in that beat up firefly of hers, which makes folk a lot more trusting with their more dubiously legal cargo.
She has other crew, too. The mechanic is young but a genius, keeping Serenity running smooth so's they're almost never late from mechanical troubles. There's a Companion with them, and while she's never directly involved in any of the crew's illegal activities, it is a mite easier to get Captain Alleyne's crew into certain areas than other ships without her. An air of respectability, Alleyne had once said after escaping a tighter spot than normal. Her employer had to agree. The merc, gossip concludes, is pretty dumb and horny. But Alleyne can control him, and the extra muscle is good for the rougher jobs.
Serenity does have its mystery, in the form of the fancy core Doctor and his sister shipping out with them, and why a thief's ship has a Shepherd of all things – but Rim folk love mystery, and everyone without their feet glued to the dirt knows how lonely it can get out there. A few miscellaneous hands are always good to keep the group from getting too inbred. All in all, they're a good, reliable crew, steady under pressure and well-led, devoted to getting coin so they stay bought, but not so much as to stick their fingers in pies that aren't theirs.
There's only one problem: that damned crazy first mate, Malcolm Reynolds. He's loyal as a dog, and nobody says otherwise. Been with Captain Alleyne since the war, and has the fighting ability to prove it. But he's a crazy bastard with less sense in his head than the merc. Fights when he should run and runs when he should fight unless Alleyne is there to say otherwise – and even then, sometimes he can override her own sense. He brawls and curses and swings his way in Alleyne's wake, and everybody knows she's the only thing keeping him tethered since the war ended. Usually, he isn't enough to put an employer off hiring them – but they always watch him with careful eyes as he hooks his thumbs on his gunbelt and smiles at them from next to his captain's shoulder, and they shudder to think what he'd do to anyone who dared harm any part of his crew.