Mal, Jayne and Zoe stand near the hatch in the cargo bay floor. All three are wrapped in scarves and with goggles tightly over their eyes. They're laughing. Their voices sound strange through the layers they're wearing to keep the sand at bay. Mal adjusts the tinted goggles he's wearing.
"It will be… uh, best not to talk s'much when we get down there. Don't wanna give our position away." his voice sounds strange, heavily muffled by the big woolly scarf around his head.
Jayne laughs loudly. He's wearing his knitted hat and as he laughs the pompom on top jiggles vigorously.
"You p'rolly sound the most hi-larious outta the lot of us, Mal." he says pulling his scarf tighter.
Zoe opens the hatch doors and yells over the sound of the wind.
"This sandstorm's good for us, means we got cover to sneak in and out." she yells to Mal who is still adjusting his goggles.
He nods in agreement.
Serenity drops down and, out of the swirl of orange dust a gray roof appears. Zoe points to Mal to go first. He hesitates on the edge a second, takes a deep breath and drops down, his coat billowing out around him. Zoe follows and Jayne goes last, tying his hat firmly under his chin as he goes.
Jayne lands with a loud thud on the roof. The three of them look up to see Serenity disappearing into the sandstorm, its hatch closing as it pulls up. Mal beckons Zoe and Jayne towards the hangers roof top access hatch. Mal pulls at it, but it doesn't shift. The rusty hinges hold it firmly in place. Jayne rolls his eyes and strides forward. He yanks the hatch door hard, the rusted hinges fail and the whole hatch opens up. Zoe drops down first onto the gangway below. Jayne follows, pushing Mal out of the way. Mal collects himself and then drops through. On the gangway the three of them get their bearings. Jayne goes to take his hat off but Zoe grabs his hand.
"No point, Jayne. You'll just have to put it all back on again when we leave…and we might be leavin' in a hurry." Zoe says getting a disgruntles look from Jayne.
"But I'm sweating like a hwun dun in all this." he moans.
Zoe raises her eyebrows behind her goggles. Jayne sighs.
"Ah, all right." he replies reluctantly tying his hat under his chin again.
Mal, Jayne and Zoe trudge down the gang way and look down. The whole hanger is packed with large boxes all stamped with the Alliance symbol. Jayne gives a muffles whistle, shocked at the quantity of supplies before them. There is more than enough to feed the outer ring for several years. Mal leads them towards an open lift. They get on and he punches the down button. The lift jerks and the three brace themselves for a sudden drop. The lift stops jerking and begins to make a painfully slow escape. Zoe shakes her head and Jayne rolls his eyes.
Kaylee sighs in relief as she gently brings Shuttle One to a rest. It straddles the road, not that the road can be seen in the sandstorm. River is lying back on the bed, her hands up in the air in front of her.
"Three distinct phalanges… trapezoid…" she pauses, sitting up, and looks over at Kaylee, who shuts the engine down and retracts the wings.
"Very, very unlucky," River says loudly, more to herself than Kaylee "…checked his stars… beware of head injuries… I couldn't find a rabbits foot." she lies back on the bed again.
Kaylee gets up, a little weak kneed and walks to the bed. She carefully gets onto her hands and knees and sticks her hand under the bed, pulling out a wrench. She gets back to her feet, careful not to stand on the hem of her dress and pops open the maintenance hatch on the control panel. She moves the intricate mass of wires out of the way. With difficulty she undoes a large part of machinery, looks sadly at it then puts it in her small handbag. She closes up the maintenance panel again and gives the controls a sad little pat of apology. She returns the wrench to its hiding place under the bed. She sits next to River and sighs.
"And now we wait." she says quietly.
Silence falls. River stares up at the ceiling steadily. Kaylee adjusts her dress. Both of them look very bored. River suddenly sits up.
"Do you want to play I-spy?" she asks quietly.
Kaylee turns to her and looks at her carefully.
"Only if you promise me that you won't use any of your voodoo mind tricks." Kaylee replies.
"I can't promise anything." River shrugs.
She gives Kaylee a pleading look and Kaylee gives in, smiling.
"Okay, okay! I spy with my little-" River cuts across her.
"It's sand…" she says quietly.
"Cheat!" Kaylee cries giving River a playful shove.
"Not really," River replies smiling "You were going to play from the moment I raised the query, 'Do you want to play I-spy'. You also made your mind up about what you were going to choose first at the same time… that's why I didn't promise." The two girls look at each other then both dissolve into a fit of giggles.
Wash checks the scanner as he guides Serenity into her hiding place. He tuts loudly as the scanner crackles with static, obscuring his view.
"The sandstorm is playing havoc with my instruments." he says, twisting a dial.
The picture returns clearer, but it's still crackling with static. Rem is sat in the co-pilots seat, relaying a message. Serenity dips into a crater and Wash sighs as she gently comes to rest. Rem finishes her message and checks the time nervously. Wash catches her.
"No need to keep checking the time. We've got all the time in the world…" he pauses and rethinks this, "Well for about an hour and a half." he laughs at his own joke.
He gets up and stretches, moving off towards the dining room.
"Do you want anything while I'm up," he yells back "We've got some of those Fruity Oaty bar things, Rem… Rem?" he turns and comes face to face with Rem.
She looks pale and sweaty. She spins and kicks Wash in the head. He falls to the floor and his head hit's the door frame on the way down. Rem kneels down next to him and turns him over, he's definitely out cold. She sighs and looks over to the controls. She gets up and flicks a few switches to enable the second shuttle to leave. She looks down at Wash and shakes her head sadly.
"I'm so sorry, but you'll understand. I promise you, you'll understand." she mutters.
She takes a deep breath and begins to hoist Wash's limp body through Serenity.
The lift has finally made its decent to the hanger floor. Mal, Jayne and Zoe step down and look around. The boxes are piled too height to see over. Mal leads them forward…straight into a group of Alliance troops. At last fifteen of them are stood pointing their guns at Mal, Jayne and Zoe. There's a second where the three of them freeze.
"Jen dao mai…" Mal mutters to himself, under his breath.
Jayne dives for cover and Zoe pulls Mal behind a stack of boxes.
"You are bound by law! Step out with your hands up!" yells an Alliance soldier.
Jayne hurriedly pulls open a pocket of his coat and pulls out a grenade. He goes to pull the pin out with his teeth and realises he can't. The Alliance soldiers begin to advance on them. He hurriedly pulls the pin and rolls the grenade towards the troops. There's a mighty explosion and both Jayne and Zoe step out, firing through the smoke left behind. Mal hesitates, spots an Alliance soldier sneaking up behind Jayne through the smoke and plugs him. Jayne turns suddenly at the noise to see the soldier fall, dead.
"I owe you one." he yells to Mal.
In the smoke the gunfire is slowly dying down until, after a last gunshot from Zoe, the noise stops. The smoke of the grenade finally begins to dissipate. Mal, Jayne and Zoe stand looking around at the carnage the gun fight has left behind. Zoe rolls over one of the soldiers with her foot to check if he's still alive. He isn't. She looks up at Mal who looks at her closely through his tinted goggles.
"This was a set up." she says quietly.