DISCLAIMER:  I don´t own Firely, the characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and FOX ……….grrrrrrrrrr

NOTES: OK, took me a while to write this Chapter …..it´s kind of an interlude, so it was a little hard for me. All the wonderful and much appreciated feedback spurs me on to return with something good. I do my best not to disappoint you guys here ……. So I hope you still like what you read! Please continue to let me know…..

Don´t worry the next Chapter is almost done and will be up in a few days!!

I still have a few surprises up my sleeve….

SPIRAL

„ Captain…"

Malcolm Reynolds jolted awake. For a moment he had thought he had heard Kaylee or Inara crying out for him in sheer terror……but he was alone in his dark cabin. There was no screaming to be heard …….and Inara never called him captain.

" Captain Reynolds …"

Mal jumped out of bed, grabbing his gun. It was a mere whisper……a voice that sounded very far away.

He could hear contrived breathing……and found himself looking around franticly. This was not his cabin….

" River?"

" Can´t ……"

Mal heard her husky voice, but he could not see her. She sounded anxious and almost hysterical.

" Don´t have time ……no strength to keep up, I can´t reach this far …..you need to listen!"

" Where are you?"

" They are not after you anymore ….."

" Where are you , River? You need to tell me the coordinates of the shuttle!"

" She did ….something …not just ……..sent messages, can´t say were , she deleted the transmission….."

Mal heard shrieking and turned around, only to find the darkness moving in on him, erasing the walls and objects around him.

" No time left, I can´t fend her off like this …cannot reach this far …remember what I told you, captain …."

The uncomforting sound of the alarm going off brought Mal back to consciousness.

" We got a signal!"

Wash´s voice boomed through the entire ship.

" She must have activated the transmitter"

" How long will it take us to get there?" Mal yelled back through the intercom.

Above him he could hear the racing feet of his crew in the corridor.

" She set a course to intercept  Serenity……at top speed we could catch her in ten hours, maybe less!"

" Set the course, I´ll  come up!"

Malcolm Reynolds could not believe it. She was still alive ….it bordered on a miracle!

They are not after you anymore ….

The sentence gave Mal goose pimples, it rose to many questions that he did not even want to think about …..that he did not want to have the answer to….

What had she …or this other thing done?

Or  better yet, what was she capable of?

Malcolm did not want to acknowledge it, but the thought scared the hell out of him.

SHE WANTED HIM TO REMEMBER!

She was worried and she had told him, she did not trust that truce …..if not even a ship full of Reavers could stop that other thing, as she called it……..what in the ´verse could?

Mal shook his head and angrily rammed his fist into the metal wall.

Gorram´ alliance …….did they even know what they had created?

Was that why they wanted her back so  badly, because they were not finished with her yet?

Or did they know …….and they did not want her back, they knew ……and they needed to put an end to it?

Mal breathed in deep to clear his thoughts before he started to climb the ladder.

She had been right.

Lil´River Tam had seen through him, just like she had seen through Jayne. She knew that when push came to shove, he´d do anything to keep Serenity safe……anything.

He only hoped and prayed that she´d have the strength to keep the other thing at bay……..that she´d be the one who prevailed.

" Alright folks, there she is." Wash said over his shoulder.

" Doesn´t look damaged to me."

Malcolm Reynolds knew that his pilot was referring to the condition of the shuttle.

Behind the pilot seat Zoë, Jayne and Mal stared out of the cockpit- window. Right in front of them floated the lost shuttle peacefully in the blackness of space.

Wash turned to look at them. He did not like the gloomy expression on his wife´s face.

He shot Zoë a look that served to convey how uncomfortable he felt. She could see that her husband had more news and that he wasn´t sure if they would like it ……..that he wasn´t even sure if he liked it.

Mal caught the exchange between them.

" What else?" he demanded to know.

" My scanners picked up something else…"

" A ship?"

" No!" Wash shook his head and turned back to his controls.

" There is no other ship …..I´m not even sure if it´s of any relevance but….."

His fingers raked through his red hair nervously, and the impatient look  from Jayne didn´t help to relax him in any way….

" What is it, Wash?"  Mal inquired again.

" The scanners picked up a pressure-wave….most likely from an explosion."

" That supposed to tell us sumthin´?" Jayne growled.

Wash feared that the intensity of his stare might be enough to burn a whole through the shuttle.

Mal could see Zoë's brows knit together in dismay.

" Explain, honey."

" Well I took the liberty of following the shuttle´s estimated route towards this point by keeping track of it´s signal , you know? I mean ….since the tracking device was switched back on…….I was able to trace her course backwards to the …."

" In less than fifteen words Wash!" Mal told his pilot.

" The pressure-wave´s point of origin is also the place where our shuttle returned from….."

" So …..what you are saying is that the coordinates of that explosion is where the shuttle was, before the tracking- device was reactivated?"

Wash furrowed up his brow, his eyes wandering between his wife and his captain.

" Didn´t I just say that?"

" Big explosion?" Mal asked uneasily.

Wash shrugged.

" There´s no way to be sure but judging from the pressure-wave……I´d say pretty big."

" Now why in hell doesn´t this surprise me?"

Mal commented with a sideward glance at Jayne, whose eyes were still fixed on the seemingly undisturbed shuttle.

" Anybody here thinkin´what I´m thinkin´? "

" She blew up their whole gorram ship!" Jayne snarled, shaking his head.

Wash blinked a few times, trying to digest that piece of information.

" But …why, …how? Is that even possible?"

Mal gave the mercenary a questioning look.

"We had no explosives on board she could have taken with her, or did we?"

Jayne frowned shaking his head.

" Didn´t take them from my bunk, if that´s what you mean. I had none…..she only took a few of my guns."

" The shuttle is not armed and there was no space- suit either, so how …..maybe it wasn´t her." Zoe said.

" Oh …it was her." Without him realising, Jayne´s hands had balled into fists again. He was trying hard to control his temper, while every fibre of his body felt like screaming.

What had that ruddin´girl gotten herself into?

If he ever saw her alive again, he would make it his top priority to shake some sense into her…….the thought that she could have gotten herself hurt or even killed drove him mad.

What Reavers might do to someone like her …..could it compare to what the alliance had in store for her?

She had told him that she´d rather die than …….Jayne shook his head again.

Truthfully ……he was kidding himself. If she was still alive ….if she was in that shuttle….all he would do was grab her and hold her as long and tight as humanly possible.

 Once he had peeled her out of Simon´s arms that was ……and then , maybe he´d give her a piece of his mind.

In his whole life Jayne Cobb had never feared for someone else,  he had been as indifferent as possible to the people around him…….and now he finally knew why. Because to fear for someone else´s life was worse than fearing for one´s own life …..the feeling was consuming him  from the inside.

Since that one night in cargo- bay  so many things had changed

That gorram´girl …….

" But how could she blow up their ship if she didn´t even have explosives…." Wash asked again.

Mal´s eyes followed Jayne´s look to the shuttle. He squinted and pinched the bridge of his nose.

" She didn´t …..but I bet the Reavers had plenty…….she blew their ship up from the inside." He said into the silence.

" You tried hailing her?"

" Several times " Wash nodded, feeling more and more uncomfortable.

" No answer."

" Didn´t expect none…" Mal countered

" Now why not?"

They all turned to find Simon in the entrance of the cock-pit. His face was red and filled with worry and anger.

" Will you do something instead of talking?" he yelled at them. He couldn´t believe they were still standing there….River could be hurt!

" My sister is in that shuttle!"

" We´ll see about that, doctor." Mal told him seriously before he turned towards his pilot.

" Let´s haul her in."

They were armed to the teeth. Mal didn´t like it any more than Jayne or Zoë, but after all they did not know who or what really was in that shuttle.

The worst case scenario was a bunch of pissed off Reavers who did not take kindly to the destruction of their ship…..it was a stretch, but who could really know?

What awaited them when the shuttle-door opened with a mechanic hiss was beyond their wildest imaginations.

There were no Reavers, no devastation inside the shuttle …it was dark and ghostly quiet.

When their eyes fell on River, each of them inhaled deeply, trying to control the feeling of shock and alarm that arose among them.

" Oh my god.." Zoë breathed.

She lay sprawled on the floor, dressed only in a tight tank-top and shorts, her hair stuck to her arms and face. But the worst of it was that from head to toe …..River Tam was caked in blood.