River settled the shuttle about a mile from the centre of town, next to what looked like a junkyard. She didn't know what the moon was called, and didn't really care. That wasn't why she was here. She knew the others were coming, could feel them, but there were three moons in this cluster, and she was blocking Freya as much as possible. Still, better not to tarry.
She stepped out into the hot, dry air, feeling perspiration immediately dampen her skin. The sun was almost directly overhead, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.
"You selling?" asked a querulous voice.
She turned, saw an old man sitting on an upturned barrel outside the gates to the junkyard. He had a wide-brimmed hat jammed hard onto his head, but that hadn't stopped his skin tanning to the consistency and colour of leather.
"No. Parking."
"I can keep an eye out on it for ya, if ya want." He pointed towards town with the greasy pipe in his fingers. "Ain't exactly a place for the law-abiding," he admitted. "Some of 'em'll steal anything."
River reached into the pocket of her red dress. "Then stop them." She tossed him a coin.
He snatched it out of the air, faster than his age predicted. "No problem. It'll be here, if'n you come back."
"Thank you." She walked towards the low huddle of buildings, her booted feet causing little clouds of white dust to rise up before settling reluctantly back.
---
"Beacon?" Mal asked, standing behind Zoe as she disengaged the locking clamps and took off from Serenity.
"No sir. Looks like she disabled it." She brought up the system schematics. "There are three moons the shuttle could reach." She tapped the screen.
"Can Serenity track her?" Simon asked.
"Not without the beacon."
Mal pushed by the young doctor, going to where Freya was tying her holster to her leg. "Frey?"
"She's doing her best to block me."
"If we've got to search all three of those gorram rocks –"
"No. In a way she's made it plain where's she's heading, not her normal method at all. I think she's distracted somewhat. Basically, I know where she isn't."
"Frey, can you not talk like River?"
She smiled a little, then walked past him to the bridge. Leaning over Zoe's shoulder, she pointed to the screen. "That one."
"Cerberus?"
"That's the one."
"Any idea where? There's half a dozen mining towns –"
"You want me to take all the fun out of it?"
"Oh, no," Zoe responded dryly. "Wouldn't want that."
Freya squeezed, then added, "Sunward side, near the equator."
"Thanks." The first mate input the co-ordinates.
"Cerberus." Freya shook her head. "What's this thing people've got for names from mythology?"
"Mythology?" Zoe queried.
"Cerberus was the three-headed dog of the underworld, guardian of the gates of Hades," Simon supplied.
"Sounds like a fun place," Mal put in. "Just our kinda moon."
Jayne didn't say a word, just sat against the wall, staring into nothing.
---
It was noon as she walked down the main street, at least according to the clock over the church that was tolling the hours. The few people out in the heat stared at her, but none tried to talk to her, or stop her as she walked through the swing doors of the bar.
Letting her eyes adjust from the brightness, she could see half a dozen tables, each with four or five chairs, one occupied with a Tall Card game. She half-smiled. The dealer was cheating, but the other players didn't know. A dozen other men were in the room, in twos or threes, their conversation stilled as they watched her in the doorway. Music played from a Cortex link in the corner, but nobody was listening.
She walked up to the bar and the man behind looked at her with concern. "Miss, does your Pa know you're here?"
"No father," River said, her voice full of sadness. "No-one to care."
He leaned forward. "Look, this ain't the kinda place you wanna be saying that out loud. Ain't safe."
"I want a whiskey." She put a coin on the old wooden counter.
"Miss, I –"
"In a clean glass."
He stared at her. Eventually he said, "O-kay," placing a glass in front of her and filling it.
With a brilliant smile she picked it up and tossed the contents down her throat. She didn't even wince as the alcohol seared its way to her stomach.
"Again."
"No, now look, I've served you once –"
She slammed another coin down. "Again."
"No." This time his voice was firmer. "I've got daughters of about your age, and whatever ails you, getting drunk ain't gonna help."
River gazed at him, reading his honest concern from the back of his mind. And knew he wasn't going to pour another drink. For a moment she considered the twenty-three ways she could take the bottle from him, eighteen of which didn't actually involve killing him, but realised it was pointless. Besides, the man who'd just left the bar was suitable. His thoughts had burned.
"Okay," she said. "I'll go."
"Shiny." Amidst the relief that she was leaving his place, though, there was still a thread of worry. "Look, why don't I wave someone for you? Ask them to come get you? This ain't a town to be walking on your own. Not for a girl like you."
"No need to worry about me. I can take care of myself." She smiled for him.
"Somehow I kinda doubt that. Let me wave –"
But she was gone, out of the door and into the dry street, just a flutter of dust motes marking her passage.
---
The old timer watched a second shuttle come in to land, settling next to the first in the white dust. Only a moment later the hatch opened and a large man dropped out, followed by two younger men and two women.
"Been a while since we had so many visitors," he muttered, eyeing the strangers suspiciously as the big one crossed to the first shuttle, banging on the door.
"River!" he yelled.
"Ain't there, mister," the old timer said.
Jayne turned. "Where'd she go?"
"Well, that's an interesting point. Paid me to watch her things, but not to say where she walked." He sucked on his pipe. "Interesting."
Jayne didn't have the time to argue. He started ranging across the dirt, his eyes glued to the ground.
"Was she okay?" Mal asked.
"Walked of her own accord. Can't say she was okay, though. But she was a sight for sore eyes." He grinned, showing he had fewer teeth than fingers.
"Alone?"
"Surely was." He pointed at Mal with the pipe. "You want me to be looking after your shuttle too?"
"That's her tracks, Mal," Jayne interrupted, pointing down at what looked like little more than wind marks in the dust.
"You sure?"
Jayne didn't even bother to answer. Instead he was off at a jog, following them towards town.
"You chasing that girlie?" the man outside the junkyard asked.
"She's my crew." Mal glanced at the door to the shuttle, making sure it was locked up tight.
"Only she looked pretty determined."
"Yeah," Mal sighed. "She usually is."
---
They were following her. Well, not actually following. They'd spread out along the street behind the main buildings, keeping pace with her. They thought they were being clever, but she could see their desires like flames in the darkness.
A little way along one of them was lounging in the entrance to an alley, his eyes flickering up and down the street, checking nobody was watching. As she came level with him, he stepped forward.
"'Scuse me, miss. You ain't seen Raster around anywhere, have you?"
River studied him. He looked very young, but there was something in his eyes much older, and a scent around him of pain and destruction. "Raster?" she asked, letting her lips smile.
"My dog. Big thing. Kinda brown. Just a mutt, but he's the family dog. My sister'll be more'n angry with me if I don't bring him home. She's expecting, you see, and, well, he's more'n company for her."
The lies dripped blithely from his tongue.
"I haven't seen a dog anywhere. Not even one that's sort of brown."
"Well, that ain't good." He shook his head. "See, I keep thinking I've got him, but he goes the other way and I miss him."
"Oh."
He suddenly snapped his fingers. "Say, would you help? If I go this way, could you go down there and see if you can catch him as he runs away from me?"
"Shouldn't you be in school?" she asked, feeling them taking up their positions.
The young man grinned. "Nah. Need to find Raster." He tried again. "Just take a minute. If'n you'd just go down here …"
She almost wanted to tell him he was stupid, that no-one would ever fall for his ploy, but then she had set herself up as just someone who would. "All right," she agreed. "Just down here?"
"Yeah." He looked eager but his heat radiated off him. "It turns to the right. Follow it round and I'll go the other way."
"Okay." She started down the alley. At the end she went to the right, into a patch of deep shadow. An arm snaked out of the darkness and pulled her back against a solid chest, pinning hers to her side, at the same time as a hand covered her mouth.
"Don't even think on screaming," said a voice, dripping with malevolence and stinking with need as the hand across her travelled towards her breast.
---
"Where the ruttin' hell is she?" Jayne said, staring down the street.
"Frey?" Mal looked at his wife.
"She's here. I just can't tell exactly …" She concentrated, trying to get past the pain in her head.
The big mercenary wouldn't wait. He strode along, eyes taking in every detail.
Up ahead he saw a young man lounging against a wall, and it didn't take much of his tracker's instincts to recognise a lookout when he saw one. He headed for him, and the young man stood up, about to run, when something behind him drew enough of his attention to allow Jayne to grab him by the throat and pin him to the brickwork.
"Where is she?"
The sound of a scuffle filtered through from behind the building, and the big man slammed the lookout's head against the stone, knocking him out and dropping him in one motion. He ran through the alleyway, knowing the others were behind him.
Rage filled him at the sight of River surrounded by five men, despite the fact that another was on the ground already, wrapped around his belly like it was on fire.
"River, what the hell are you playing at?" Jayne was angry, so angry that he hit the man who had been holding River's arm so hard there was an audible crack as his jaw broke.
Surprised to hear his voice, to see him lay the man out, River didn't swerve in time to avoid a fist aimed at her cheek, and it connected. Her head snapped back and she saw bright lights in the darkness that dimmed as she slid to the ground, even as Jayne roared and tackled her assailant, going down on top of him and pummelling him into submission.
From the corner of his eye Jayne saw one of the others begin to draw his pistol, even as he felt the cheek of the man he was hitting part and blood begin to flow, but Simon grabbed his hand, allowing a well-aimed foot to catch the gunman in the chest, which Mal followed with an uppercut that laid him out.
Another one was faster, and the sound of a gun firing deafened them all in the confined space, even as chips of brick caught Freya's cheek. Zoe had her Mare's Leg out in an instant, and caught the man in the throat, leaving him gasping.
The last man tried to run, but Freya swung her arm, catching the man in the belly with her elbow and lifting him off his feet, slamming him into the wall. A double fist to the same place had him whimpering soundlessly on the hard packed earth.
"Mal, we have to go," she breathed, wiping the small amount of blood from her skin with the back of her hand. "Someone will have heard, and we really don't want to have to explain this."
"No." He looked at the young woman on the ground, her brother next to her. "Can she be moved?"
"She's just knocked out." Simon sounded angry, but it wasn't aimed at the captain.
"Jayne."
The mercenary nodded, lifting River easily so she hung over his shoulder.
"Sir." Zoe stood a little further off. "We can get out this way. Don't have to go through the town."
"Good." He followed his first mate, knowing the other two would follow, back out into the heat and the dry sunlight.
---
"See you found her," the old timer said, still sucking on his pipe.
"That we did," Mal said, coming to a halt. "Frey, you'd best pilot the other shuttle back."
She nodded, opening the door and climbing quickly inside.
"Jayne, go with her."
"Nope."
"Jayne."
"I wanna know what just happened there," the big man said, "and I figure River's gonna tell me."
"She's still out," Simon said.
"No, she ain't. She's been awake these last five minutes."
Simon's eyebrows raised, and he ducked under the fall of dark hair. "River?"
"Make him put me down," came the small voice.
"Jayne." Mal had the door open. "Inside first. Don't want her running off again."
The mercenary carried her inside, even as the other shuttle fired up and lifted off. Zoe hurried through to the bridge while Mal closed the hatch.
Jayne lifted her down, standing her on her feet on the deck. She staggered a little, and he put his hand out to steady her, but she moved back, sitting down on the bench.
"Sit still while I check you over," her brother said, joining her quickly.
"I'm okay."
"You were knocked out."
"He distracted me." River glared up at the big man.
"They were gonna hurt you!"
"No, they weren't. I knew what they wanted, and I wasn't going to …" Her voice faded away.
Jayne was livid. "You came here deliberate? Just to kill someone?" He towered over her. "You coulda got dead!"
"I knew what I was doing!" She glared up at him.
"Yeah? Don't look like it." He touched her cheek, his callused fingers pressing into the darkening flesh. "Don't look like it at all."
"Simon …" She called for him, that slightly wheedling tone that had her brother wrapping his arms around her.
"Later, Jayne," he said.
"Doc –"
"I said later."
Jayne threw himself across the shuttle and onto the bench, his fists curling and uncurling.
Mal shook his head. "Calling for your brother's protection ain't gonna work with me, albatross." He looked down at her, his face stern. "You could've gotten yourself badly hurt back there, and Jayne ain't the only one needs to know."
"Mal, let me just get River back to Serenity," Simon said firmly. "Then you can question her to your heart's content. Although I'd rather you waited until tomorrow."
"Doc, it's likely we killed one or two folks back there. I'd like to know why."
"And it can wait for a few hours."
Mal. He heard Freya's voice in his mind, and he looked up, even though his reasoning consciousness knew she was flying the other shuttle. She's not going anywhere.
Ain't the point, Frey. If she's likely to take it into her head to –
She won't. There's a reason.
What?
"Mal?" Simon saw his eyes widen.
Instead of answering, Mal stared at River, who snuggled down further into her brother's arms. Then he half turned. "Zoe, call Hank. If he's got Serenity back under control tell him to hightail it back here and pick us up," he ground out.
