Christopher Brown was a rather peaceful man, surprisingly laid back for a pirate. He calmly overrode all the locks and security measures on the companion's shuttle and pushed open the hatch. Inside it was just as he expected, a lavishly decorated room containing a beautiful woman.
"Hi-ya" he told her, he pulled out a radio and spoke to someone else, "Found the companion."
"You secure her?" came a disembodied voice
"Yeah, she's real secure"
"Good, get the stuff and head back to the ship."
"Will do chief" Then he turned back to Inara, "Sorry about the interruption, as I said, hi-ya"
"Uhm-hello" Inara responded. She was a little surprised by the pirate's jovial attitude. He began stuffing stuff into the empty bag he carried. "Excuse me"
"Yeah babe?" he stuffed a pillow into the bag and walked towards the table.
"Aren't you going to threaten me and tie me up or something?"
"No"
"Aren't you afraid I might stop you?"
"I out weigh you by 50 pounds, plus if you did get off your little pleasure boat here there are about 10 guys right below us looting the cargo bay. Some of them aren't too nice. Not like me." He gave her what he must have thought was a glowing smile. "So I'm just gonna recommend you stay put until we're gone." He stuffed her jewelry box into the bag. Inara was quite while he continued his work.
"What about the others?"
"They'll probably be tied up about the ship. We got a few real hot heads among us, but generally the crews usually fair pretty well."
"And you know as soon as your ship leaves I'm going to go untie everyone?"
"Yep, they always do"
"You do this a lot?"
"'Course cupcake." He had filled his bag to the top. The shuttle looked so empty now. Without a word Brown nodded towards Inara and left.
Staring upwards at the ceiling Simon just listened as the intruder cleaned out his medical supplies. The man swept the tiny glass bottles into boxes. He couldn't have moved to stop him even if had wanted to. The pain was like a lead weight on his chest. Breathing was hard and he could feel the blood sliding down his side. His arm was just numb. Eventually the infirmary grew silent. He was gone, Simon was alone. Time seemed to crawl. Simon was smart; the logical part of him knew it was passing normally. But, it was hard to get a feel for time lying on the floor, knowing your life is slowly ending.
River crawled down the hall on her hands and knees down the hall. She watched a short man roughly opening all the doors. River watched him for a minute. He disappeared into one; River scooted past as fast as she could. She was the tiger, they were hunting her. She continued crawling down the hall and suddenly stopped. She smiled broadly. She didn't have to be the hunted. River opened the door and slipped inside as quietly as possible.
It was Jayne's room. Jayne was sleeping on his bunk, one arm thrown over his eyes the other hanging off the edge of the bed. The noises he was making indicated it was probably a nice dream. "Wake up!" yelled River as she threw both her hands down on top of him. Jayne's eyes shot open, the hand that had been hanging free swung up to only millimeters away from the intruder and brandished a gun that had appeared from nowhere.
"Dam! You gotta be more careful!" he yelled, realizing it was just the ship's crazy girl.
"They're here! Kill, kill, kill" River explained calmly
"You never make sense kid, why don't you go bother that brother of yours." River looked down at her feet. Jayne didn't know what was going on, but he'd clearly upset her.
"Nearly forgot. A bad sister."
"Aw now, come on. You're just crazy is all. Whatever ya forgot is just cuz you're crazy."
In a moment of semi-clarity River explained, "Invaders took the ship, hunt the crew."
"What!" River shook her, trying to organize her thoughts.
"They came on Serenity, I don't know, don't know about Simon. Poor Simon."
"So there are intruders on Serenity?"
"Yes, poachers, coming to hunt us all. But we can fight back"
"You're damn right we will. Let's go girl!" Jayne uncovered his guns and picked up Maggie and Noel. Both very fine guns. "We'll get the low down, then eject those bastards. How many and where are they?"
"21-52.3% are in the cargo bay, 23.8% are leaving the cockpit, 9.52% are in the kitchen, 4.76% each in the Shepard's room, Inara's shuttle, and the infirmary."
"Uhm, wow. That's a lot of guys, and a lot of math."
"80.96% are heading back to their ship in the next 20 minutes"
"How many is that?"
"17"
"So if we staked out the cargo bay…"
T'we Lee opened the door at the first crew quarters on this side of the hall, it was empty. Lee moved to the next door. Somebody lived here, they just weren't home. Lee stuffed the few books into his bag. He looked but found nothing else of value. So he moved onto the next room. It was empty.
Book sat in his room. He could hear the invader approaching. He reached under the mattress he was laying on and pulled out a gun. It was no Vera, but it would do. Book trained his gun on the door. When it opened Book aimed for the knee and fired. But Lee was quick and spun out of the way. He jumped at the Preacher and pinned him against the bed. There was a struggle. Book managed to push him off and struggled to get his fingers back in position. With a squeeze the bullet flew from the chamber. As the Shepard hadn't bothered to aim the metal simply ripped into the intruder's foot. With a growl Lee clocked Book in the back of the head with his gun. The Shepard slid off the bed and hit the floor.
"Got the preacher" Lee announced into the radio. There was silence. "Also got shot"
"Fine, preacher's secure, get your wounded butt back on the ship."
"Will do"
In the cargo hold the shipment was just about loaded. Only 2 of the original 10 guys who'd been emptying the cargo remained. He'd sent Spitz and Rosenthal back as soon as their ransacking had been completed. Brown was back on board; Lee was in their infirmary where Donel and Farland had taken Harkins. Stevens had come back moments after Kinney and they had been helping Levin and the remaining 2 men, Curtis and Allen, to finish up.
"Curtis, Allen, why don't you head back, make sure we are ready to push off in a minute or two" Swanson suggested. The men nodded and jogged across the empty room towards their ship.
Jayne watched the men bounce off. Now there were 4. He and River had been watching the scene before them for several minutes now, waiting for the right time to strike. The element of surprise was on their side and from what he had heard they both were an incredible shot. "You ready?" he asked
"Hunter becomes the hunted" River calmly pronounced, continuing with her muddled safari metaphor.
The sounds of bullets flying filled the cargo bay. "Where the hell is that coming from! We got them all!" Captain Swanson yelled at his remaining crew as he pulled further behind a bulkhead.
"You Sure?" asked Kinney
"Brown had 1- the companion, Lee found the preacher, another 1. The pilot, the captain and a woman were all up on command with you guys, that's 3. Levin had 2 in the infirmary. 1+1+3+2=7!"
"I had 1 not 2" piped up Levin
"You said you had a guy and a girl, 2!"
"I just shot one guy, kinda forgot about the girl." Bullets flew from 2 distant directions now. They were moving in for the kill. Swanson recognized it and had no intention of dying for these idiots.
"Get off now!" came a strong man's voice
"Your little girl's gone through a change of life now hasn't she?" sneered Swanson at the incompetent Levin
"She really was a little girl!"
Jayne stepped around the wall protrusion the remaining pirates were hiding behind. River provided more than ample cover fire from her position on the stairs.
"The old man is snoring. He won't get up in the morning" she sing-songed. In the back Stevens reached for one of the guns they hadn't finished loading onto their ship. Rive shot cleanly through the center of his hand. The man screamed in pain and withdrew closer to the wall.
"You guys gonna give us our stuff back and head outta here right?"
"Not on your life you Neanderthal!" yelled Levin. Swanson turned around and planted a bullet in the middle of the aging man's foreheadad. Levin hit the deck, dead.
"That'll be fine" Swanson told Jayne, pulling out the radio. "I want the haul back on the deck here. Drop it and go, we're bailing, no job is worth our lives." Jayne continued to glare and keep a steady aim on Swanson as men streamed through the airlock and deposited bag after bag on the floor.
"So, who gave you this job?"
"You know how these things work, I can't tell you." River landed a series of bullets in the deck around Swanson. Then she giggled madly. "Clawfield, Mr. Clawfield pays us to raid his ships all the time."