Title: Serenity
Summary: The crew of Serenity are smugglers and general ne'er-do-gooders. And they're about to take on new passengers. Among them, a genius and a doctor...
Rating: T
Author/s: Aldythia Nightmare


Chapter 2: We'd Be Dead

"This shouldn't take us long. Put us down for departure in about three hours." I tell Kaylee as we exit Serenity with the rest of the crew. I turn to Wash, who is sitting on a little motorised vehicle, "Grab any supplies we're low on. And fuel for Serenity."
"I'd sure love to find a brand new compression coil for the steamer." Kaylee says as she moves towards the place card in front of our parking space.
"And I'd love to be king of all Londinum." I counter, "Just get us some passengers, anyone who can pay, all right?"
"Compression coil busts, we're drifting."
"Best not bust then." I smile at her and move back to Zoe and Jayne, Wash having left after telling Zoe to watch her back.


"Let me see your teeth." I hear Badger say from within the next room as we get shoved through a small and dingy building. "Yes."

We get shoved through the door just in time to see a young girl shoved through the curtains on the other side of the room.
"You're late." Badger says, turning sharply towards us
"You're lying." I counter quickly
"What did you just say to me?" Badger asks, obviously annoyed
"You're well aware that we landed two hours before we planned to, with all the goods you sent us after intact and ready to be handed over." I start, "So your decision to get tetchy, say we're late, means you're looking to put us on the defensive right up front. Which means something's gone wrong. It didn't go wrong on our end, so why don't we start again with you telling us what's up?"
"You're later than I'd like." Badger states, moving to sit behind his desk
"Well I'm sorry to hear that."
"If you'd gotten here sooner, you might've beaten the bulletin that came up" Badger says, holding up a piece of digital paper with the newest headlines scrolling across it "Sayin' a rogue vessel, classification 'Firefly', was spotted pulling illegal salvage on a derelict transport."
"Didn't ID us. Doesn't lead to you." I counter firmly. Hoping that he doesn't know the goods are imprinted
"No, it doesn't. But a government stamp on every molecule of the cargo just maybe might." Badger slurs back. Gorram it, there goes our last hope. "Oh, you noticed that. You were gonna hand over imprinted goods and just let me twist, is that the case?"
"We didn't pick the cargo." I say, hoping to weasel him into letting the deal run
"And I didn't pick to flash my ass at the gorram law." he throws back, "There's no deal."
"That ain't fair." Zoe pipes up from beside me, clearly pissed off
"Crime and politics, little girl, the situation is always..." Badger pauses, looking for the right word, "Fluid."
"The only fluid I see is the puddle of piss refusing to pay us our wage." Jayne growls out from beside me, drawing his gun. Badger stands up angrily, and all his henchmen draw their weapons and come out of their hiding places. Jayne glares at them all for a moment then backs down and puts his gun back in its holster, as he does so all of Badger's henchmen holster their weapons and retreat back into the shadows.
"It doesn't have to go this way. You know you can still unload those goods. So I can't help thinking there's something else at work here." I state calmly, shifting my weight slightly
"What were you in the war, that big war you failed to win? You were a Sergeant, yeah? Sergeant John Watson, Balls and Bayonets Brigade. Big tough veteran. Now you got yourself a ship and you're a captain." Badger slurs, he moves away from his desk as he continues, "Only I think you're still a Sergeant, see. Still a soldier, man of honour in a den of thieves."
"Well this is my gorram den, and I don't like the way you look down on me." Badger continues, now in my face. I resist the urge to laugh. I look down on him 'cause he's shorter than me, not by much, but still shorter. "I'm above you. Better than. I'm a businessman, see? Roots in the community. You're just a scavenger."
"Well maybe I'm not a fancy gentleman like you with your ..." I pause for a moment, trying to think of something sufficiently witty to say, "Very fine hat... But I do business, and we're here for business."
"Try one of the border planets. They're a lot more desperate there. Of course, they might kill you, but you stay here and I just know the Alliance'll track you down. I have that feeling."
"The wheel never stops turning, Badger." I say as I turn to leave. There's no point trying to push it anymore.
"That only matters to the people on the rim."


"I don't understand why we didn't leave that son of a bitch in a pool of his own blood." Jayne complains as we head back to Serenity

"We'd be dead." I answer, "Can't get paid if you're dead."
"Can't get paid if you crawl away like a bitty little bug, neither. We gotta share this job. Ten percent of nothing is... Let me do the math here... Nothing into nothing, carry the nothing." Jayne mutters, he's doing fake figures in the air behind me, but I ignore him, we're gonna get paid. Just not by Badger.
"So we'll find a buyer on Boros. There's gotta be a–" Zoe starts
"Boros is too big. It's crawling with Alliance, they could be waiting for us." I answer quickly
"You really think Badger'll sell us out to the Feds?"
"If he hasn't already."
"Alliance catches us with government goods, we'll lose the ship."
"Never gonna happen."
"Sir, we could just dump the cargo."
"No ruttin' way. We ain't had a job in weeks." Jayne complains, "I didn't sign on this crew to take in the sights. We need coin."
"Jayne." I say slowly, "You're talking again."
"Oh, I'm ready to stop talkin' –" Jayne growls. Great, now he's angry. Well, angrier.
"You're right, though. The last two jobs we had were weak tea. We got nothing saved, takin' on passengers won't help near enough." I pause for a moment, "We don't get paid for this cargo, we don't have enough money to fuel the ship, let alone keep her in repair. She'll be dead in the water."
"So we do like Badger said? The border planets?" Zoe asks
"I'm thinking Whitefall. Maybe talk to Patience." I answer, yup, Whitefall'll work I hear they're pretty desperate around there.
"Sir, we don't want to deal with Patience again." Zoe says firmly
"Why?" I ask, it's not like there's any grudges
"She shot you."
"Well, yeah, okay, she did a bit. But still."
"So we find someone else. Horowitz." Zoe suggests
"He can't afford it."
"Holden boys."
"They wouldn't touch it. Do you want me to go through the list?" I ask "Capshaw's are brain-blown. Gruvick's dead –"
"He's dead?"
"Town got hit by Reavers, burned down."
"I ain't going nowhere near Reaver territory." Jayne says fearfully, "Them people ain't human."
"Whitefall is the safest and the closest. Been a long time since Patience shot me and that was due to a perfectly legitimate conflict of interest. I got no grudge. She owns half that damn moon now. She can afford what we got and she just might need it." I explain, we need the money
"I still don't think the old lay's the way." Zoe says
"I'm not saying it won't be difficult, but we haven't got a choice." I answer, "We've just gotta keep our heads down, do the job, and pray there aren't any more surprises."

"John, this is Simon." Kaylee says as Jayne Zoe and I head up into Serenity, "Simon, this is our captain."
"Captain Watson." Simon says, offering me a hand. I look him over, he seems like he can pay, so I won't complain.
"Welcome aboard." I say as I shake his hand. I turn to Kaylee, "This all we've got?"

"Now we've got a boat full of citizens right on top of out... Stolen cargo." Zoe says slowly as we stand watching everyone settle in, "That a fun mix."
"There's no way in the 'verse they could find that compartment. Even –" I pause as one of the passengers, Dobson I think his name is, walks past "Even if they were looking for it."
"Why not?" Zoe asks. Damn, she had to ask that didn't she?
"Because?" I answer slowly
"Oh, yeah. This is gonna go great."
"If anyone gets to nosy just... I don't know... Shoot them."
"Shoot them?"
"Politely." I smile and head up the stairs to watch things happen from above.

"The Ambassador has returned!" I hear Wash say to Zoe
"We got a full house, Captain." Zoe calls to me
"Kaylee, I'm locking it up!" I call to Kaylee who stands by the ramp down to the ground.
"All aboard..." Kaylee says softly before grabbing her deck chair and closing the bay doors...


A/N: Hello again. 'Tis me. I'm worried no-one likes this story. I've gotten no reviews so far. Now, I know the first few chapters are just the events of Firefly being written down and with a few minor adjustments, but it will change soonish. I may discontinue this if I don't think anyone's interested. Please review. Even if it's just 'I like it so far'...