Okay, from now until...whenever I get froggy enough to change it, I'll be posting random story summaries, the variety of which may never be translated to complete form.

The Reaverflies of Volturis

The Reaverflies are, basically, the last butterflies in the universe, which were exposed to the Pax in one of a handful of ways. I figure they either were on Miranda during the Pax and escaped on Reaver ships, they take in the Pax by feeding on the Reavers' radiation burns, the Reavers breathe the Pax and get it all over them, or they were the victim of a second Miranda-like experiment with the Pax. I knew that I didn't want the Reaverflies to be on Miranda because I didn't feel comfortable with sending Serenity's crew back to that God-forsaken rock, so I fabricated a new planet.

So, we know that there's miles and miles of "empty" space attributed to Reaver territory. Maybe there's planets out there. So, in my mind, after Miranda's secret is revealed, either the Alliance or the Rim Collective (which is how I refer to the Rim planets outside the Alliance in my head) pushes back into Reaver-dominated space and find planets, lots of them. Some are still terraformed, some are dead rocks again, but all of them were desecrated and then abandoned by the Reavers when the population either died off or ceased to hold their interest. One of these planets is Volturis, a large, lush planet that had been in the process of terraformation when the Reavers attacked. Now, the government who rediscovered it (either the Alliance or the Rim Collective, I still havn't decided) wants the process finished and is willing to pay dearly for transport ships willing to ferry passengers and terraformation supplies out into former Reaver territory.

This is where Serenity and her notorious crew come in. Serenity hasn't seen a decent job in months and they're semi-permanently docked at Haven so as to save on fuel costs. Somebody finds out about the government's bid for help (haven't decided who finds out yet, either) and Mal decides to take it, figuring it's a source of income, even if it IS an official government job.

About a week before they're supposed to set out and collect their passengers and cargo, River starts having dreams, nightmares, and hallucinations about butterflies. The crew just assumes that River's had another break with reality and is in a rather creative fugue state. Of course, at the same time, Jayne starts having accidents, such as busting his wrist, breaking a rib, getting his nose broken, etc., all of the wounds causing him to bleed. Again, this is brushed off as something inconsequential. When they arrive on Volturis, they find the ruins of the terraforming camp and a single permanent building: an old church/schoolhouse structure from Earth-That-Was. Inside, the Reaverflies have taken command, forming an enormous swarm. River has a moment of clarity where she realizes that these were the butterflies that have haunted her. Then Jayne starts spontaneously gushing blood from his nose, mouth, ears, and eyes, cursing all the time. The butterflies go into a feeding frenzy and damn near kill him.

Unfortunately, I haven't decided where I want to end just yet, so this is where my idea abruptly cuts off. I have some scenes written out, but I'm having problems with the missing puzzle pieces.