Nothing In The Verse
Episode 05: Making A Name

TRIGGER WARNING for mention of Rape

En route to New Melbourne.

"Fish."

"Say again?" Rain asked from the pilot's seat.

"Fish. You asked what was cool 'bout New Melbourne. That's pretty much all there is 'sides a shippin' hub. Fish an' fish-related activities," Dani smiled at her daughter affectionately. "I know you wanna patch t'add to yer collection, but just be forewarned, it's likely gonna have a fish on it."

Rain looked down at her vest, nonplussed. "Mebbe I'll put it on my back."

Dani barked out a laugh, and moved out of her seat. "You gots the controls?"

"Sure thing, Capt'n."

Dani moved back to the galley where she followed the sounds of boisterous conversation. Jess was at her seat on the left of the table towards the head, entertaining some of the crew with a telling of a story from her days in Alliance Supply. Her hair today was caught up in an intricate swirl of a bun, held together with silver chopsticks. She admired the effect, but knew there was no gorram way she could pull something like it off.

Keith sat across from his wife, smiling and chuckling along with Maribelle and Julie. The two boys were, for a change, not tearing across the breadth of the ship, instead quietly reading in the nook below the observation dome.

Catching Julie's eye, she nodded over to the boys. "Your doin'?"

The retired teacher smiled back. "Yep. Found some interestin' stuff on the New Melbourne underwater adventures. They're entranced."

Dani laughed, and shook her head at the older woman. "Hey, if'n they get it into their heads to slip off ship an' go divin', I'm not goin' in after 'em."

Her chuckles broke off as three distinct torrents of Mandarin cussing issued from the back of the ship. Her eyebrows shot up, and she turned to Maribelle.

"Don't look at me," she exclaimed. "That's Cory alright, but I've never heard him so worked up before. Well," she amended. "I think maybe the boys may have set him off like that a time or two."

"I c'n only imagine," Dani resumed her chuckling. She started to move towards the engine room, if nothing else to make sure any physical fighting was moved to the cargo bay and not around the precious engine, when Cali bobbed into the galley, her panda hat askew and braided pigtails bouncing behind her angrily. C'n hair really be angry? Dani mused whimsically.

"Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng (frog-humping son of a bitch)..." she muttered, before looking up and noticing Dani standing before her. "Oh! Hi Kaasan!"

"Um, peanut," Dani started affectionately. "What's gotten you so worked up? And why're the other two thirds of my engineers still cussin'?"

"Oh! Well, lemme explain that…"

A good ten minutes later, Dani's eyes had started to glaze over. The rest of the crew had stopped their conversation, and were just looking on in amusement at the diminutive teenaged mechanic, flapping her arms about in outrage, occasionally pushing her panda hat back up on her head when it fell over her eyes. Dimly she realized that she no longer could hear Mike or Cory shouting, but that could just have been because time itself stopped.

"...An' that's when I said, 'No, ain't nothin' wrong with yer grav boot. Grav boot's just fine. Problem is, the reg couple's bad.' An' so I fixed it. An' I was right!" she finished exultantly.

Realizing she had come to her conclusion finally, Dani noticed the others behind her applauding softly. Cali beamed at them, but Dani just shot them a dirty look that said, "Not helping here."

Turning back to her youngest daughter, who was now looking up at her Captain with an expression of innocence so pure Dani was surprised a halo didn't spontaneously sprout from beneath the panda hat, Dani remarked, "So why're yer Uncles Cory and Mike so bent out of shape?"

"Oh, that." Cali looked down, abashed. "I kinda just made the fix, while the engine was still runnin', an' it coulda caused a bad blowback…" She looked back up excitedly. "But it didn' none! Everythin's shiny now!"

Dani looked at her feet, and seeing no inspiration there looked around the room instead. Her crew were looking anywhere but at her. Yeah, I really need to start workin' on the captainy-respect thing. "Ok peanut. We're gonnna walk back to th'engine room, yer gonna apologize, an' then we're all gonna have a lil' talk about safety in th'engine room so's we don' all blow up. Sound good?"

"Sure thing, Capt'n Kaasan, sir!"

On approach to New Melbourne.

"Time to get a landing pattern, it gets pretty busy 'round here," Dani remarked, entering the bridge.

Rain looked up from her console. "Remind me again, what're we carryin' this trip?"

"Nets."

"Nets?"

"Yep. Nets. Fer fish. 'Cause that's all there is on New Melbourne."

"Honestly Kaasan, I think it's unhealthy to hold in so much aggravation. Tell me how ya really feel 'bout New Melbourne."

Dani snorted in amusement and reached for her mike.

"New Melbourne approach, this is Firefly transport Fortune's Favour, requesting clearance to land at the central terminal."

After a pause, the reply came, "Standby, Firefly transport."

Dani rolled her eyes, and adjusted the flight path to enter a high orbit. "Like I said, gets pretty crowded. Might be here fer a spell."

"So," Rain commented into the silence. "What're we pickin' up here?"

"That's an excellent question, an' one I've been meanin' to pose with our Cargomaster."

"Well, ask away," Jess replied brightly as she entered the bridge, Keith on her heels. "What did you need to know?"

"Cargo," Dani answered, "an' the dispensation of such into our hold. Got anythin' lined up?"

"Of course! Have I let you down the the past month?"

Dani laughed, "No of course not. So what do we gots?"

"Fish!" Jess proclaimed.

With a groan, Dani slumped against her console dejectedly as a peal of laughter issued from Rain's lips.

"Firefly transport, this is New Melbourne central tower. Permission to land granted, please follow the beacon down. "

"Do we hafta?" Dani muttered.

New Melbourne. Landing field.

Dani stood by the ramp of the Favour, watching the crates of freeze-dried fish roll on inside, pushed by workers who smelled, quite frankly, of fish. Hmm, I wonder, if'n I get one of 'em to walk 'round shuttle number two, the odors might cancel each other out…

Her fanciful musings were interrupted by Jess striding up, a foreman at her side. She finished signing the papers, and looked up. "Captain, you want to look things over?"

Dani smiled at the consideration. "No worries Jess, I trust you. I'm just gonna check on the bridge an' make sure we're ready to lift off in our allotted slot."

Heading up to the bridge, she passed Mike who was trailing a fishing line with several large specimens of aquatic creatures. "Mike," she stopped him. "Where in the 'Verse were ya fishin' from?"

"Oh, just got back with the boys on a fishin' trip. Took shuttle number one. The boys loved the bumpy ride. Wanted to get somethin' fresh for Cory to use tonight."

"Oh, okay. Good deal." Dani moved on past, thoughts buzzing through her head. So does shuttle number one now smell of fish? Was she gonna hafta eat fish tonight? When did he leave? How did she not notice a shuttle was missin'? Should she be annoyed that he left without askin'? The answer to the latter was a definite no, she decided quickly. She trusted her family and crew, she was not their den mother, so long as everyone was on board when they were ready to fly, no harm. Should start a checkout an' checkin system, though, would suck to leave someone behind on a planet…

She was so busy with her thoughts she didn't notice the light blinking from the Cortex link on the bridge at first. When she did, she quickly reached over to log on. Hmm, a call fer me, from… George Summers? Where do I know that name from…

Her questions were answered immediately when she connected and saw the raven-haired aristocratic face looking back. "Hawk?"

"Hey there Angel, was hoping you'd remember me," he answered.

"Honestly, I'd forgotten yer real name. An' please, just call me Dani."

"Good enough, Dani. Listen, my wife Miriam and I are in a bit of a jam, one that requires a captain with her own ship and can appreciate the value of discretion. I heard from Tom that you might fit the description. Can you come to Ariel?"

"Oh, um, lemme check…" The cargo manifest had their freeze-dried fishy cargo heading to Londinium. "Sure, we're headin' Core-ward. We c'n be there in 'bout a week."

George sighed. "Okay, the delay can't be helped. Please, make as much haste as you can. I'll send you the address. And… again, I cannot stress this enough, discretion is key."

"No worries, George. I'll shave as much time off it as I c'n," she promised. Saying their goodbyes, she logged off, and then sat back bemusedly.

"If I was a suspicious type, which I am," a deep voice rumbled from behind her, "I'd be concerned about a set-up."

Dani quirked the corner of her mouth. "Stop lurkin' Keith. It's creepifyin'."

"That even a word?" he inquired as he moved fully onto the bridge, and sat in Rain's chair.

"'Course it is. I said it didn't I? And yeah, it seems a lil' fishy. More so than our cargo. Wanna come along with?"

Keith gave a dark smirk. "Would'nt miss it for the 'Verse."

Ariel. One week later. (Thereabouts.)

Dani and Keith strolled down the street together. Though neither the career spacer nor the spec force trooper looked to be visibly armed, most people gave them a wide berth.

"Stop that," Dani chided. "Yer scarin' the locals."

"What?" he rumbled innocently. "I'm just walkining here."

"Yeah, walkin' like yer on yer way to a beat-down. Ease up, didi (little brother). 'Sides, we're here."

They stopped and looked up at the imposing mansion. Dani looked at the address, checked it against what George had sent, and checked it again. "Yep. This's the place."

"Huh," Keith remarked. "Didn't tell me your war buddy was loaded."

"Didn't know."

"Huh," he repeated. The siblings looked at each other, and then strolled together up the walk.

Dani reached up and rang the doorbell. It was answered by (you gots to be ruttin' kiddin' me) an honest-to-God butler. "Yes?"

It was amazing how much condescension could be fit into one syllable, Dani mused. Guess it's a Core ability I never picked up on.

"Yes, Capt'n Danielle Grant, here to see George Summers. This's my first mate, Keith Grant."

"Hmmm… yes. You and your husband may follow me."

"Brother," Keith grunted irritably. Dani had no comment as she was busy trying to contain her laughter at the whole spectacle.

The pompous butler led them to the study, where George was seated at his desk, a woman seated in a sofa to the side of the room. Dani noticed George was outfitted with Core finery, but he seemed to wear it a bit uncomfortably. The woman, his wife Miriam she presumed, wore her finery like a station in life. She was elegant and refined, enough to give Jess a run for her money. But Dani immediately picked up on the fact that, though she was trying to conceal it, Miriam was deeply worried and had been crying recently. Interestin'…

George stood as the butler announced "Mr and Mrs Grant," much to Keith's annoyance. He shouldered his way past, and the unperturbed butler closed the door behind him.

Dani received the hug George proffered, recognizing the tenseness in his shoulders but not commenting on it. Glancing at her brother, she had a feeling he had picked up on it too.

"George," Dani began as they sat on a sofa, facing George as he moved next to his wife. "This's my brother and first mate, Keith."

"A pleasure, a pleasure. And this is my wife, Miriam."

The two hosts looked at each other uncertainly, as if unsure where to begin. Not wanting to sit through the usual pleasantries she remembered from growing up on Bernadette, Dani spoke up first. "George. You said you wanted to see me?"

His head whipped about, almost startled. "Yes, yes Dani, thank you for coming… We have a bit of a situation that we hope you can handle…" He hemmed a little more.

With a sigh, Miriam spoke up for the first time. "What George is having trouble coming out and saying is that our daughter Arrietty is missing."

Dani's eyes widened slightly. She wasn't expecting the conversation to go in that direction.

"We believe she was, in fact, kidnapped," Miriam continued. "As you might have realized, George was not born into this station, whereas I was. I met him shortly after the war ended, and, quite simply, we fell in love. " She looked at George with a wan smile, and he returned it lovingly. "I was a widow, my daughter from the prior marriage. Still, my parents wanted a suitor appropriate to our station, so we… faked a few things so that he seemed to be of a higher place in society."

She looked back at the siblings. "We haven't heard anything yet, but there's a distinct possibility this is the work of someone from my past, who wants to make trouble for us. Arrietty is eighteen, old enough to want to experience life, and she signed up for missionary work on Three Hills in the Georgia system. But," she paused, "she never arrived."

"Okay," Dani interrupted gently. "Have you considered other possibilities? That she left voluntarily, or that this was a case other than a personally-directed vendetta kidnappin'?"

Miriam grimaced slightly. "Yes, we considered the first. But we could confirm that the ship never arrived. The mission had several other teenagers on that ship, and they all went missing as well. As for the latter point…" she trailed off tearfully. "I'd rather assume it was a rational being I could deal with, than the alternative.

Dani glanced at her brother, who had been silent up to this point. He nodded slightly, indicating his acceptance of the facts and the job. "Alright, Miriam, George. We'll do what we c'n, but I can't go makin' any promises none. C'n you send the details of the ship, it's departure an' projected arrival, an' any other information you c'n think of?"

"Certainly, certainly," George responded with a warm smile. "And I have a line of credit set up for you. Please, feel free to draw from it for fuel, any other expenses you need. It should be good up to twenty thousand credits. Keep your receipts, please." He ended in a small voice.

Dani's eyes bulged slightly at the amount of credit being extended. She hadn't discussed payment yet, and was almost afraid to do so. Keith came to her rescue though.

"We'd like to discuss payment terms, if you please," he rumbled politely but firmly. "Agreement for payment of any fees associated with the search, repairs incurred during such activities, and situations that would allow for partial payment."

"Yes, yes of course. We understand. Here, let me draw something up…"

Walking back to their ship, Dani broke the silence first. "So."

"Yep."

"Sucks."

"Yep."

"You picked up some negotiatin' skills from yer wife?"

"That I did."

"Hmm. Okay. Good talk."

They shared identical smirks, and made their way back to the ship.

Shipping lane between Ariel and Three Hills.

"Not sure what we're lookin' fer," Rain complained quietly.

"Well, I know it's a lil' bit of a needle inna haystack, 'specially with a well-traveled shippin' lane, but the fact of the matter is there ain't been anyone on this route since the Lazarus went missin'. It's only been a month, an' not many fly all the way here from the core."

Dani looked up from her screen and continued. "Yeah the ship might've been taken whole, but if not there mebbe some clues left behind."

Rain gave a very Keith-like grunt, and returned to her own scanners. "Ya think this was a kidnappin'?"

Dani sighed quietly. "No, but I'm hopin' it's just pirates. Lil' too far out from usual Reaver activity. So, pirates."

Rain looked up sharply. "Reavers? Seriously?"

Dani gave another sigh. "Sweetie, when one spacer tells a tale, you c'n pass it off as legend and starin' out at the Black fer too long. When a whole mess of 'em confess to the same thing with the same amount of detail… ya start to think mebbe there's somethin' to it." She glanced up at Rain again. "I dunno what to think fer sure. But I'm not willin' to discard the possibility none."

She looked back at her screen again, and after a moment Rain did the same to her scanner, muttering darkly in Mandarin.

Just outside of Three Hills.

"Got somethin'!" Cali called out maybe an hour later. She and Jess had just come up to give Rain and Dani a break maybe a quarter of an hour ago. Dani rushed to her side from where she was resting at the navigator's station.

Peering over her shoulder, Dani noted the bearing and composition, and edged her aside to make a slight course correction. "You do indeed peanut, well done. Lessee if'n we caught anythin'."

"Fishing metaphors, Captain?" Jess teased.

"Oh, bi zui (shut up)."

Same little spot in the Black. Some time later.

The crew of the Fortune's Favour, minus Julie and the boys, were gathered around the debris in the cargo hold collected by Cory and Keith in spacesuits. They were each poking through what they could find.

"So," Dani summed up. "The Lazarus was mostly intact. We know somethin' latched on, an' tore it's way free in a messy-like manner, which caused the Lazarus to experience a hull breach. An' the only bodies you found were crew?"

Keith grunted in affirmation. "No passengers. It was sloppy, but effective. No gunfire I could see, but the ship itself was unarmed."

"Engines."

The crew looked up at Cory's quiet word. He seemed startled that he had even spoken, but continued. "It was bugging me, the state of the engines. But I think I get it now - the other ship used an EMP on the engines, shorting them out."

"Okay then," Dani said just as quietly. "Pirates."

"And," Keith picked up the narrative again, "I think I know where they're from. I need to do a little research to be sure, but I can see enough in this debris to tell what's from the pirate ship, like this piece here." He held up what seemed to be an outer airlock hatch lever.

Dani took it from him, and turned it over in her hands. "Tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiou sai-jin wuh duh pee-goo (shove all the planets in the universe up my ass)," she exclaimed quietly. "It's from a Trans-U. Bloody ancient things, but discreet. Good cover fer a pirate, unarmed but it c'n come with a magnetic grapple. Could that be rigged as an EMP charge as well?"

Cory nodded in agreement. "Sure, it'd be easy enough."

"Right." Dani dropped the piece of debris and stood up, dusting off her pants. "Keith, go do yer research. In case yer right, what course should we be settin'?"

Keith gave a smirk. "Jiangyin."

Dani just stared at him. "Gao yang jong duh goo yang (motherless goats of all motherless goats)," she exclaimed in disbelief. She looked at Mike, who was just as stunned. They watched Keith move up the stairs, and followed.

Jiangyin. Night.

Dani crouched on the hilltop alongside Keith, Mike, and Jess. Mike was setting up his scoped rifle, tweaking a few dials before he grunted, and started peering through to the compound below them about a mile away. Keith, for his part, was checking his gear, both the wicked-looking assault rifle slung across his arm as well as the Ares Crusader select-fire machine pistol on his hip. It was the big brother to Dani's sidearm, and she had given it an appreciative look while on the shuttle ride over.

"You can't have it," Keith said quietly, and patted the sidearm in its holster.

Dani gave a snort. "What, are ya Rain now? How d'ya know what I'm thinkin'?"

Keith just graced her with a look, as if to say Really?, and then went back to his obsessive gear-checking, this time moving on to his wife.

Dani just snorted again quietly, and made sure her own Ares was sitting snugly in its holster, but ready for drawing if she needed it. In her arms was her favorite shotgun, a SPAS 22 with a collapsible stock, now extended. It normally resided in an alcove next to the cargo bay airlock.

"Why do you even need a shotgun by the door?" Jess inquired, looking at Dani over Keith's head as he bent to check her harness.

"Fer uninvited guests," she replied snarkily.

"Get that many?" Jess grinned.

"No repeat offenders, that's fer sure," Dani replied, to the quiet laughter of the others.

Dani leaned back, and absorbed the moment. They were about to go into danger, yes, but they were all professionals of a sort. Jess, while not exactly combat-trained, was possibly the most athletic woman Dani had ever laid eyes on, and could sprint faster than it would take to track her with a rifle. She also had a husband who took their marriage vows very seriously, and made sure she was equipped to handle anything that came their way. Dani had no worries on that front, Jess handled her Beretta 101-T light semi-auto pistol, an anniversary gift from her husband, with efficiency and ease.

She also felt comfortable with Mike on overwatch. She knew what an excellent hunter he was, though she was slightly worried about his rate of fire with an old bolt-action, she knew if he need to fire that rapidly the gou se (crap) had really hit the fan.

As for Keith, to be honest she was slightly intimidated by his demeanor. Under the calm exterior was a ruthlessly efficient killing machine, government-trained, and could likely kill the other three of the group with one hand behind his back. Blindfolded. Hopping on one leg. Possibly even giving them a running head start. Okay, mebbe not Jess, that girl was freaky-fast-like.

Moving up to the summit of the hill to join Mike, Keith quietly conversed with him, likely going through some possible scenarios, exit points, and the like. Dani adjusted the earpiece of the communicator that Keith was nice enough to equip her with. She activated her mike, and spoke quietly in it.

"Mama Bear to nest, how do things look?"

"Honestly, if yer Mama Bear we should be a cave, or somethin'. A nest just don't work rightly."

Dani growled quietly, which must have come through, because Rain responded quickly and without the snark this time. "All clear on the scans. No activity here or yer location. Um, over."

She laughed quietly to herself. Maybe she needed to try growling more often. Looking up, she saw Keith give the signal, and the three crew from the Favour moved silently down the hill.

Between their approach and the compound was a very large tarp, stretching over an area larger than their own ship.. From the scans earlier, Dani knew it was a Trans-U, half-buried in a pit and below the camouflaging tarp. She still couldn't comprehend how these huh choo-shung tza-jiao duh tzang-huo (filthy fornicators of livestock) managed to stay hidden right under the noses of a populated Border planet. And her home turf, to boot.

The three shadows skirted around the partially-submerged ship, and approached the squat compound. They knew from earlier scouting that there was one main entrance, and one back one. The latter was their target.

Keith held up his hand, three fingers raised, as they crouched by the door. He counted down, and with his fist closed, he knocked. Violently. With his boot.

A startled guard fell off the chair he was sleeping on, and was quickly dispatched by Keith's boot knife. The three moved quickly inside to where they hoped the offices would be.

They didn't get far before they startled another guard, who managed to get his gun up. He never got the chance to fire it, as he slumped to the floor, a neat red circle right between his eyes.

Keith holstered his pistol, and shouldered his rifle. "That's done it, everyone will have heard that. Let's move."

The compound started showing signs of life as the residents stirred to the fact that there might be intruders. It was a measure of their complacency and cockiness that the response was slow and unorganized. Three more pirates were killed before Jess gave a shout, and moved to a door down a side corridor.

"This should be it, cover me!"

Keith stayed out in the hallway while Dani swept the room, finding it without occupants she stood over Jess as she worked on the terminal.

"Ha, they not only left the thing on, they left themselves logged in. Sloppy, sloppy, boys…" Jess giggled under her breath as she skimmed through the files. "No, no, wait… yes. Yes! Got it. Downloading… Okay, let's go! Exit exit exit!"

Keith's rifle barked in the doorway. "Right, moving out," he said calmly.

They walked single file, Keith leading followed by Jess and then Dani watching their rear.

Until they rounded a corner into a group of pirates, armed to the teeth. It was difficult to tell which group was more surprised, but Keith reacted faster, opening fire and pushing the others back around the corner.

"We need to go back! Get to the next corner Dani, make sure it's clear!"

Dani ran ten meters back to the previous corner and peeked around. Just as quickly she pulled her head back as a shot whizzed by her head. "Nope! Gimme a sec!" She pulled the strap for the shotgun over her head, and unholstered the Ares.

"What? Dani, find another route!" Keith barked.

Dani held up her finger as she waited for a pause in the suppressive fire coming from behind. Then she spun out suddenly, and fired three times with her pistol, very quickly.

"Okay, we're good, let's go!" She proceeded to run down the corridor to the next junction. Jess and Keith followed, but paused at the three corpses, each with an eye shot out.

"Well, cao (fuck). When did you learn to shoot like that, jiejie (older sister)?" Keith exclaimed.

Dani's only answer was to smirk over her shoulder as she ran towards the back door. She paused briefly, and whispered into her communicator, "Mike, you coverin'? We're 'bout to exit."

"One sec," came back, then a single sharp retort. "Clear," was the laconic reply.

The three crew spilled into the night, gathered up Mike, and headed for the shuttle, with the pirates still trying to figure out what the heck happened.

Jiangyin. Fortune's Favour.

Most of the crew were gathered around the Favour's galley table. All the returned ground team were gratefully drinking coffee, except for Dani who was handed a cup of tea by Maribelle. "Thanks sweetie," she said gratefully.

"So," Dani continued, "from tonight's activities, I'm guessin' that the kidnapped victims weren't in the compound? That was the signal ya gave, right Jess?"

"Right," she nodded firmly. "Records state the entire, er, 'loot' from the Lazarus was sold to a buyer on Hera."

"Really, Hera? Well, alrighty then, I'll go fire things up. Cory, start up the sequence please. Oh, and Julie?" Her sister-in-law looked up expectantly. "Make sure you thank yer parents fer the use of their land. Was awfully convenient on this side of the planet, to bypass official channels."

"Will do," she replied easily.

Dani headed up to the bridge, a sense of urgency fueling her actions, but she couldn't avoid thinking about the night's activities. She sat at her station and, after a moments pause, brought up her list of music from Beth's collection. Scrolling through, she selected a likely candidate, and soon the obscure vocals were drifting through the speakers.

Whatever comes, comes tomorrow
I wanna jump, don't care where I land
No one can stop me, here I go
Damned if I do
Damned if I don't
I'm gonna do whatever I want

As she was humming along, waiting for the green light to lift, she heard Keith's gravelly baritone from behind her. "So, you think you're any more damned than I am?"

"Nah," she spun around easily. "Just been awhile, that's all."

Keith quirked an eyebrow. "Really? And where exactly was it you learned to shoot like that? Flight school?"

Dani just grinned back at him. "There's flight school, an' then there's Flight School."

Seeing the green lights out of the corner of her eye, she spun back around and started the thrusters up.

Keith gave a grunt, recognizing that the conversation was over for now. Both siblings were cognizant of the fact that it wasn't over for good.

On approach to Hera.

"Alright people," Dani spoke over the mike. "Remember, we're not here to cause trouble yet. Let's play it nice an' cool an' subtle-like. We'll make it dirty if'n we need to, but hopefully it won't get to that point. Maribelle, prep the infirmary. Cali an' Cory, y'all gots th'engine room, Mike th'airlock. Everyone else keep to the galley fer now. Landin' in three."

She dropped the mike back into the holder, and looked over to Rain. "You sure yer okay landin'?"

"No problem," she returned confidently. "I gots this, been practicin', and 'sides, it's a nice open field."

"Okay," Dani smiled, and gave her a pat. She then moved down to the bay, where Keith and Jess had brought the Mule down from the suspension brackets and were prepping it to move out as soon as the Favour touched down and the doors opened.

Mike spoke up from his station by the door, "Sure you don' want me along none?"

"No worries," Dani smiled in response. "You just keep the homestead safe fer our return. We gots this."

Mike grunted in acknowledgement, and then again as the thud reverberated throughout the ship, indicating a landing. He quickly got the doors open and the Mule sailed out into the morning light, Keith driving, Jess in the back and Dani taking shotgun (literally).

Hera. An unnamed farmstead.

The Mule cruised up to the open gates of the farm at the coordinates indicated, and they went on through without pausing. As they pulled up to the front of the large manor in the center of the fenced-in area, several ranch hands walked out onto the porch.

"Y'all better gots business here, else you best be on yer way," said the largest of the hands. The other turned to each other and snickered.

Dani raised her eyebrow at Keith. "Subtle approach?"

Keith looked over at the hulking man, who stared back with a leer. "Pretty womenfolk with ya, boy, think mebbe you don't deserve 'em. Mebbe I'll make a sweet lil' plaything outta one." The rest of the hands outright laughed nastily.

Keith slowly swiveled his head back Dani. "I'm thinking… not so much." And he climbed out of the Mule, mounting the steps up to where the big brute was waiting, his hands clenching and unclenching. Dani and Jess settled in to enjoy the show.

To say the large fellow was outmatched was, well, a gross under representation of the facts. Perhaps on the level of calling the core of a sun, a little warmish.

Keith grinned up at the man as he mounted the last step. The ranch hand was taken back a bit, and opened his mouth, perhaps to offer another jibe, but he never got the chance. With a series of jabs and punches, Keith had the man lying on the ground with blood streaming from his nose and his right arm at an unnatural angle. He likely would have been screaming obscenities had his jaw not been broken, as it was he was just squealing in incoherent pain.

With his trademark Grant smirk, Keith looked up at the others. "Next?" he asked calmly.

It is perhaps understandable the haste at which the rest of the ranch hands evacuated the porch, some vaulting over the rail to escape behind the manor, some through the door, and one poor panicked soul through the window. Keith glanced back at the women still in the Mule, and said, his voice still eerily calm, "Be right back," as he strolled into the manor.

"No worries, we'll just keep watch out here," Dani replied airily, and then shared a giggle with her sister-in-law. She leaned back with her feet propped up on the dash, resting her shotgun lazily across her stomach.

Wasn't too long before Keith returned, dragging a babbling mouse of a man behind him. "Found the owner," he grunted as he was unceremoniously tossed off the porch and onto his backside. Dani put her feet down and hopped to the ground alongside Jess.

"Well now," Dani drawled out. "So this's the big bad slave owner."

The mousy little man got even more panicked, if it were possible. "N-n-n-nnoooo," he practically wailed. "In-indentured only! I-I-I only take…" he sputtered off as Dani got down on her haunches and glared at him, not saying a word.

"O-okay," he stammered. "M-m-maybe some of 'em, they they might not have been on the up-and-up, but it was all in g-g-good faith, I swear it!"

Dani just rolled her eyes, and Jess gave a sigh of exasperation. "We're wasting time here," she said as she examined her manicured nails. "If he can't tell us where they are, just kill him and we'll look around ourselves." Dani raised an eyebrow at the nonchalance with which Jess spoke, but Keith, still behind the squirming man, just grinned in amusement.

"No no no, I'll help! See, I'm very helpful! I'll show you where that batch went! Honest!" He leaped to his feet and started to scurry to the large barn next to the manor house.

"Not so fast," Keith grunted as he snagged him by the collar. "Let's stay nice and close, eh?" The three crewmembers let the man proceed them into the barn, where they were greeted by… nothing.

Keith's grip tightened on the man's neck. "Johnny-boy, you best not be wasting our time here. or leading us into a trap."

"No!" Johnny squealed. "It's right over here!"

He moved over to a pole, moved aside a panel and pressed a button. In one of the empty stalls, the floor began to rise, revealing a lift underneath.

"Okay then. No tricks, right?" Dani peered into the lift.

"No! None!"

The three climbed aboard and hit the button to go down. When they reached the bottom, at least two stories underground, they were met by a few more of the ranch hands from up top, as well as a couple of more merc-looking grunts. Keith didn't give any of them a chance to react, just pointed the business end of his rifle in their mid-sections. They quickly got the hint and dropped their weapons. He then herded the lot ahead of him, into the noise and gloom of a moderately-sized sweatshop. Some women and men were seen, as well as a goodly number of children. Walking between the rows was a gaunt-faced, pale man.

"Johnny!" he barked. "What's the meaning of this intrusion?"

"Um, visitors, Mr. Barklay, sir!"

The man, Barklay, took in the scene in front of him, and puffed his chest out indignantly. "You have no right to be here. What, you got someone working for me you don't think they should? These are all indentured servants. They are paying off their debt to me."

Dani, however, had been scanning the faces, and finally settled on a pale girl four rows up. "Except mebbe fer that one, eh?" she smirked, pointing. The girl's face lit up with hope.

"What?" Barklay sputtered. "No, you have no reason to-"

"Arrietty?" Dani cut him off. The pale girl nodded and stood up hesitantly. Dani walked over to her and pulled her out of the row of sewing machines. "Who else from yer ship're here?"

Arrietty pointed a trembling finger at the two girls next to her. "Ana, and Debbie."

"Right, you three, with us." Dani started back down the aisle, girls in tow.

She was almost up to Barklay, when another small face turned up to look at her. Dani saw the face behind the mass of brown curls, and stopped in shock.

"Sara?"

Jiangyin. 2 years pre-War.

Dani looked across the room at the three girls playing games on the Cortex unit. She smiled at the sounds of their laughter. Turning to the woman across the table, she replied to her earlier question.

"Yes, I know you have to follow him. Or at least you think you do. But you know he's always been like this - he's never satisfied, drifting from one job to the next, one con to the next. And now he wants you to move off-planet? To Shadow?"

Beth reached over, and Dani grasped her wife's hand, sighing. "I know, I know, it's a lost cause."

The woman across didn't answer, just looked down at the table morosely. Dani turned back to look at the children. The girl in the middle was in between both of her girls in age, but they were all fast friends and had been since birth.

"We're all going to miss Sara very much."

Hera. Unnamed farmstead. Today.

Dani shook herself, it was undeniably her, and it was confirmed by the girl's trembling, "Miss Dani?"

She would sort out the hows, the whys, and everything else later. Right now she had a course of action. Not taking her eyes off of Sara, she proclaimed, "This one comes too."

Barklay sputtered even more, "No! I forbid this, you can't just walk in here-"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off as Dani's arm whipped out, pistol in hand, to point unerringly at his right eye. She never took her eyes off of the girl in front of her.

"Come along now, ok sweetie? " she quietly prodded.

Sara nodded her head, and moved in line with the other three girls. Dani finally looked at Barklay, and what he saw made him take a step back.

"Don't you ever, EVER think of coming after any of these girls again. Understand?" Her words were clipped and with a distinct Core accent.

Barklay just nodded nervously. Keith spoke up from the room's entrance, "I think we need to get moving people. More reinforcements moving in, we're about to go from not-subtle to downright bloody."

Dani and Jess hustled the girls between them, up the lift and onto the Mule. Keith tore out of the property, Jess by his side with Arrietty, Dani in the back with the other girls. She held Sara's hand tightly, still not believing what happened.

As they crossed the gate, Dani turned to Sara, and held her cheek with her other hand. "Sara, sweetie… I know it's a lot to take in right now… but what happened? You were on Shadow, nothin' survived that bombardment…"

Sara looked up with tears in her eyes. "Almost nothin'," she said quietly. Dani just held her for the rest of the ride.

Enroute to Ariel.

As soon as they were aboard the ship, Dani had Rain leave atmo, and then replaced her on the bridge so she might join Cali in welcoming their friend back from the dead.

Sitting in her chair on the bridge, after having just Waved an ecstatic George, Dani reflected on the pain she felt when she heard of Shadow's bombardment. While she didn't feel any special loss as to the rest of Sara's family, she clearly remembered the sweet little girl that was as much her own daughter as Rain and Cali were.

Footsteps behind her woke her from her reverie. She turned to see Keith enter the bridge, cross over and plop himself in Rain's chair.

"Got your course set?" he inquired. Dani nodded in reply.

"I'll keep watch. Go talk to her."

Dani smiled her thanks, and as she started to leave, he asked over his shoulder, "She special to you?"

"Yeah," she replied, turning back briefly. "Like family."

Dani walked back towards the galley, where all four rescued girls were wrapped in warm blankets, given hot tea, and generally fussed over by Maribelle and Julie like mother hens. Jess watched it all with amusement by the kitchen, keeping the pot warm and bringing over refills when asked.

Cali and Rain were ensconced on either side of Sara, as if their presence there would keep her from leaving again. Dani poured herself a cup, winked at Jess, and then wandered over to the table to sit across from Sara.

"So, sweetie," she began hesitantly. "What happened to you?"

Sara stared down at her tea. The rest of the galley fell silent in anticipation.

"Okay." She said finally, her voice a pale whisper of her usual bubbly voice that could rival Cali's. "I guess I'll start at the beginnin'."

She sat up a little straighter, and looked Dani in the eye. She was startled to see something move behind her eyes, something dark, as Sara started to recollect the past.

"So we moved to Shadow," she began. "We lived there a few years 'fore the war started. Everyone was so fired up fer Independence, but my dad, well you knew him, didn' see any profit innit. Kept himself out, so did my big brother, though in his case it was just laziness." As the memories flowed, Sara looked back down at her cup.

"One night, don't rightly recall when 'xactly, I woke up under a pile of rubble. I could hear the screamin' from my neighbors next door, but I couldn' move none. Then more bombs started droppin', I suppose, an' I blacked out. Woke up the next mornin' to sunlight filterin' in through the cracks in what'd been my roof.

"Took me three days to dig myself out. 'Nother two days to find my family an' give 'em a decent burial."

Dani tried to keep her face impassive, but neither Rain nor Cali even bothered. They just held on to Sara, tears streaming down their faces quietly.

"So I don't know how long I survived on there. I know the water was bad, but there weren't anythin' else to drink. And yeah," she looked up at Dani again' "pretty sure that's why I stopped growin'. Came in handy later. But I'll get to that."

The more she talked, the stronger she seemed to become, confidence filling her voice as she recalled the story of her survival. Dani glanced around, except for Keith and the boys (who must have been put to bed already), the rest of the crew was in attendance, listening silently and respectfully.

Sara cleared her throat gently, and Dani looked back at her as she began again.

"I was raped five times. By the second, I learned to keep a shiv on me, an' they didn't live long after their guard was down. After the fifth, the other survivors left me alone, I weren't worth the risk." Dani heard several soft gasps at her calm announcement, but she wouldn't look away from Sara. She knew this was taking a toll on her to admit, but let her draw strength from her own gaze, unwavering and not judgemental.

Sara smiled slightly in gratitude and acknowledgement. "Some time after U-Day, an Alliance survey ship touched down. They were amazed by the fact that any survivors existed, but weren't prepared to help none. I stowed away on the ship an' got off on Persephone."

She paused to take a sip of tea. "Got into some gangs there. Not an easy livin' but at least I had food an' water. Learned howta take care of myself on the street. How to disappear, become invisible. My size was useful. I could fit where most of the bigger boys couldn't, squeeze through. Made a pretty good burglar," she mentioned with a little bit of pride.

And then she sighed again, looking back down. "An' then I robbed the wrong house, got caught by the Tong. In a way that was better, 'cause they recognized my skills an' supported me better'n the gangs did. But then there was also the fights 'tween Tongs. Won't get into the details any," she murmured distractedly, "but it was a busy time, tryin' to stay alive."

She finished her tea in one long gulp, set it down, and looked Dani in the eye again. She could see the steel in her backbone, missing from when she found her in the sweatshop. Dani wondered what they must have done to try and beat that steel out of her to make her more compliant.

"So that lasted as long as my Tong sponsors did, which was mebbe a year, mebbe more. They collapsed, I gots captured an' sent to Hera to pay off one of the Tong bosses' debt.

"An' then you found me," she finished, and looked at Dani expectantly.

Dani hesitated, not wanting to say the wrong thing. What would this poor, broken yet unbowed girl expect from her? Could she get away with sympathy, without it seeming to be disparaging? Just follow your heart, her inner voice said, still sounding a lot like Beth.

Okay then.

Dani rose from the table, and every eye in the room followed her movements. She reached across the table for Sara's hand, who offered it hesitantly.

"Well then," she said with a smirk, "gorram good thing I gots an extra crew bunk, right?"

Sara's eyes widened, clearly not expecting that response. Dani just chuckled and released her hand, moving towards her bunk. "Rain, Cali, get our newest crew member settled in. Rain, you gots next watch from yer Uncle Keith. Julie," she said, turning one last time at the doorway, "you gots the three we rescued?"

Julie just nodded silently, her eyes brimming with tears.

"All right then folk, we're on our way to Ariel to drop off our lost lil' girls, an' collect our payment. Jess, find us a cargo please."

She nodded to herself, not waiting for further response, and walked firmly to her cabin, dropping down and closing the hatch behind her.

Then she collapsed on her bed and cried her heart out.

NOTES: The idea for this overall episode came from an adventure I created for the Firefly Board Game. It adapted well.

And now we have a full crew.