River sat in the pilot's chair of Serenity, checking courses for their next trip. She looked up at the dusk sky of Persephone, and licked her lips at the thought of dinner coming soon. At the navigator's terminal a few feet away, Jamison had snuck his arm out of his sling and begun working through some data he had recovered off of the ruined Cortex panel.

"Ghuh-Ghuh would be angry if he saw that."

Jamie looked over, seeing that River hadn't looked away from the navigation screen.

"Am I getting that much easier to read?"

"Your rate of typing had increased 1.7 times. Not hard to guess."

"Heh. Just don't snitch on me, huh?"

"He won't learn it from me." she murmured, then finished laying in courses; she could pick one as a primary, if the Captain would ever make up his gorram mind.

Badger'd said that he'd wave them when he got the next job lined up for them; thought it might be a few weeks though. Mal hadn't said anything to the crew, but River knew him like a book, even when she wasn't hearing his thoughts. He was thinking about taking a little vacation; setting the boat down on a nice peaceful planet, and letting them spend some of their hard-earned coin. She heard Meadow and Harvest and even Paquin floating around in the air; all in different directions. She sighed, tiring of the game, I think you do this sometimes just to annoy me, hearing a grin in response, and got up to see what Jamie was doing.

"What are you looking for?" she asked, seeing him scanning rapidly through a series of files filled with notation and diagrams.

"Tryin' to figure out what the guai these devices are used for. I'm real hesitant to just take 'em out of the bags until I know."

"I agree. Mustn't let the pets out to play until they're housebroken."

"From the way the others talked, they said you were hard to figure out when you got metaphorical. That sounded perfectly logical to me."

"It comes and goes. Back then, I was confusing; I could hear everyone's thoughts, and couldn't separate them from my own. The metaphors would flow from mixed together sequences in my brain."

"Ah. Must have been frustrating."

"You have no idea."

"You wanna take a look through these? Your eye might catch something I'm missing. I've got a few of them; this one seems to be a compact navigational computer, about 20 times smaller than the one in Serenity. This one is a sensor grid; could probably boost our sensors by a factor of 5. A couple things in here have circuitry that's just bewildering to me though."

"Have you considered a Faraday cage? We could establish one in the cargo bay."

"Huh, didn't even think of it, despite the fancy little bags we made. Definitely something we can try. Think Jayne'll be up for a little construction work?"

"It does not hurt to ask. Especially if he might get a new toy out of it." she grinned.

"Ha! I'll see what materials we'd need." he opened up a cortex shop of an electronics supplier, and began calculating square footage.

"I will go ask Captain Tightpants for some money."

"Okay, I've heard that one bounce around 3 or 4 times. What the ta ma de does that mean?"

River giggled, starting the story of Mal's duel. The story was interrupted by a 'Wave gong. Jamie looked at the sender, saw that it was Badger. He hit the accept button.

"Hey Badger."

"'Allo there Jamie, L'il Bit; Mal about? Got some of the information about the job sooner than expected."

"We'll go grab him." Jamie put the 'Wave on hold; turning to River, he asked "Did Badger look nervous to you just now?"

"No more than usual. I can't get a sense of him here, too much static from the other minds. What do you think?"

"Well, I can't read minds, but I can sure as hell read faces. Badger looked downright terrified there, though he thought he covered it. Run and get Mal, I think we may need to be goin' on a rescue mission."


"Badger. Didn't 'spect to be hearin' from you so soon."

"Some info came in a bit sooner than expected, Mal. When can ya come down to look it over?"

Mal glanced at River; Is it my imagination, or is he pronouncing too well?

I notice it now too.

"How does an hour work for you?"

"Works just fine, boyo. See ya then."

The 'Wave clicked off; the three looked at each other with senses of uneasiness. "So. Trap?"

"Trap."

"River, go get loaded up and tell Jayne as well. Let Simon know we might have casualties. Tell Zoe to get ready to hold the fort; we need Wash up here now, and have Inara stand by in the port shuttle in case we need a quick pickup."

River nodded once, then took off down the hall, shouting to the others. Kaylee looked up from the galley where she'd been cooking, somewhat startled. "Cap'n, what's going on?"

"L'il Kaylee, go down and get us ready to take off. Try to put dinner on hold if you can."

The two Hands stepped forward from the wall of Badger's office where they had stood, out of sight of the 'Wave console. "As soon as Captain Reynolds arrives, you will be rewarded."

"Wit' what, 'xactly? 30 coin, a traitor's reward?" Likely my own death.

"Just make sure to do exactly as we say, and you will live to face tomorrow."

River, Mal, and Jayne had just reached Badger's hideout, and immediately were on guard; the normal roughnecked hooligans that guarded the outside of his sanctum were nowhere in sight.

"Mal, what's going on?" whispered his earwig communicator.

"Badger's goons are missing." he whispered back. The three were back in the black suits they had procured for the New Kasmir job; they were suited quite well for dark-of-night raids.

River suddenly stiffened; now that she was close enough, the static didn't block them anymore. "Two by two, hands of blue..." she whispered, clearly shaken. She put her hand to her chrome-plated automatic, taking comfort in its well-worn grip.

"We try to go in silently; I'll be backup with the shotty here. You two, try to take them by surprise. Knives, if you can."

"I wouldn't suggest that, Mal. I tried going toe to toe with them a month ago, and they dislocated my shoulder for my troubles." whispered the earwig.

"Suggestions?"

"Shoot to kill. Anyone pressuring Badger means bad news."

"Right then. I know how to do that." he whispered. The others nodded, pulling their weapons of choice.

"River, go around the other way; I'll try to draw them from my side. Jayne, you're overwatch; if something goes wrong, try to take them out and get back to Serenity."

Mal Reynolds walked in, no shotgun evident. "Evening, Badger. Why the late meeting?"

"Good afternoon, Captain Reynolds. We were hoping to speak with you." the Blue Hands stepped forward, hands empty for the moment.

"That's a terrible shame. I've no intention of speaking ta you." with a single swift pull, he drew his trusty revolver and fired once, twice, three times at the right-hand Hand. All three chest shots would have killed instantly, yet the Huen Dahn stayed standing.

"I do not believe this conversation will be productive." one Hand pulled out his device. At that moment, his head blew, torn apart by a hollowpoint 9mm shell.

The other Hand reached for his device, panic becoming evident in his eyes, when a monstrous roar deafened Mal's right ear, as Jayne finished the job with the shotgun.

Mal jumped forward, grabbing Badger and pulling him with them. The little man seemed stunned at the sudden action; then, regaining his faculties, fought Mal for a moment. "Hold on, gorramit. I need to grab me effects."

He reached into a floor safe and withdrew a bag of platinum. "Wouldn't want to leave this fer th' scavengers, now would I?" He then set fire to his file cabinet, and grabbing a small travel case, joined the others. Running swiftly now, the three and Badger ran back towards the docks where Serenity sat awaiting takeoff.

Requesting standard permission, Serenity got airborne and quickly broke atmo, Wash's steady hands on the yoke.


Badger sat at the table with the others, between Inara and Wash, stuffing himself on Kaylee's cooking. "That right there is marvelous, l'il miss." Turning to the others, he doffed his bowler. "And ta for the rescue, lads and ladies. Right neat work."

Inara inched her chair slightly closer to Jamie, her nose slightly scrunched. Jamie grinned, eating with one hand as Simon watched his patient like a hawk.

"S' no problem, Badger. Couldn't let our favorite crime boss get killed, now could we?"

"'ey now, I prefer to be called a legitimate businessman." he grinned cheekily.

Zoe spoke up, saying "Well, we've got your room all set up for you, next to the shower and everything."

Badger seemed to miss the insinuation, but Jamie saw the others try their damnedest not to laugh.

"Where are you thinkin' on getting off, Badger?" Mal asked, glowering at the glance Badger had just given River.

"'ve got a little hole all set up on Kerry, if'n I was out that way."

"I was thinkin' on a nice vacation out on Meadow; seems to me Kerry is right near there." Kaylee's eyes lit up at that.

"That it is, boyo. Would appreciate it if'n ya could drop me off."

"Sounds fair. Well, with dinner about done, I'm afraid we don't offer much in the way of entertainment. Free to use the Cortex or the 'Wave on the bridge as long as somebody's there, otherwise I'd appreciate it if ya stayed in the passenger areas."

"And why's that, Mal? Got things ya don't want me findin?" he winked.

"Just the usual passenger rules."

"Fair 'nough. Anybody care for a game o'cards then?" To Mal's surprise, Jayne and Simon seemed willing. The three retired to the lounge, pulling out the Tall card deck.


Jamie and Inara retired to the passenger bunks, tired from the day's stress and worry. He collapsed on the bed, not even thinking about taking off his clothes or the slippers he wore about on board Serenity, but soon enough that problem was taken care of for him. Soon she slipped under the covers with him, cozy and warm, and they fell asleep, dreaming of the fields and woods of Meadow.

Mal and River were cozied up too, both zonked out on the couch in the common area, River practically laying across his lap. Badger walked by on the way to his own bunk later that night, and smirked at the sight of the two warriors, sprawled out across a couch and snoring. "True love, 'at is." he murmured, then went off to his sleep.


Badger was awakened early that morning by cries and moans, at first sitting up wildly, reaching for his gun; after a few moments, he realized the source of the sounds, and laughed despite himself. He quickly showered and dressed, and got to the galley as quick as humanly possible, closing the galley door behind him, to find the rest of the crew of Serenity already awake and sitting in the galley, trying to keep their minds off the sound.

Mal looked up from his morning coffee, "Morning Badger. Our breakfast cook for the morning is currently indisposed, so there's coffee in the dispenser while we wait for him to be done with her." Mal's face had more than a bit of a glower on it, and Badger guessed he wasn't particularly happy about that particular union just yet.

"Coffee sounds just right, Mally. Does this happen every morning on this gorram loveboat ye've got 'ere?"

"No, sometimes it happens at night too." River snarked, her own eyes bleary; her neck was cricked badly from falling asleep on the couch.

"I swear, Kaylee, we're gonna be soundproofing th' hell out of their bunk soon as we get ta Meadow."

Kaylee giggled, nodding. "Sounds about right. We can do some overhaul work on Serenity while we're at it; if the payoff from our last job was good enough. Daddy'd be happy for the work."

Badger laughed. "Ye could buy a whole ship wi' tha payoff from th' last job."

Badger sat down, and Mal turned to him, face now serious. "Which leads me to a question, Badger. How did you get yourself mixed up in this?"

"Th' huen dahns came by 'bout 2 hours before you showed up yesterday. All I 'eard before they got there were me boyos screamin' awful-like, then these Ung Jeong Jia Ching Jien Soh walked in all casual-like, started askin' questions about the cargo ye pulled in fer me a few days ago. It felt like they wasn't really worried 'bout the cargo, and got around to th' point; they was lookin' fer me boy Jamie and somebody they referred to 'tween themselves as Subject 0173." River broke out violently shuddering at that mention, and Mal put his arm around her, pulling her tightly to his side. She relaxed slightly in his grip.

"Mei yong ma duh tse gu yong." he snarled, as River rocked slightly, whispering "Wuo shang mei er, mei sheen, byen shi to!" He pulled her tighter, whispering into her hair "Don't worry bao bei; we ain't lettin' them have you ever."


Badger looked on sympathetically; clearly the Hands had been after this slip of a girl. He remembered the warrants out for her and the one called Simon on the Cortex, then they had vanished after that Ta ma de hun dan wi' th' sword had come callin', looking fer information on Serenity. Killed most of his best boyos, too. Badger'd barely got away that day, using his bolt hole behind his desk. Didn't hold any malice against Mal for the trouble though, after seeing the Miranda Broadwave and hearing some of the true story.

"Kaylee, can you take her down to yer bunk fer a while, settle her down?"

"Sure thing, Cap'n." Kaylee wrapped her arm around River and walked her to her bunk, whispering to her as they went.

Mal did something that Badger didn't expect; he put his head in his hands, and seemed close to weeping. He finally looked up at Badger after getting control of himself. "Thought we were past that." he murmured, clearly unsettled by this turn of events.

"I'm sorry, Mal. Didn' mean to worry th' poor girl."

"Ya couldn'a known. Gorramit! When we get to Kerry, you better find yourself a hole and pull it in after ya, Badger. Can't guarantee they won't be followin' us there, and torturin' our next course out of ya."

"I've already got a place prepared, Mal. Don't ya worry on me none."