Chinese translations:

kong jian la ji: space junk
bi zui, xiao mei-mei: shut up, little sister

Justice

As Selene anticipated, the crew of the Alliance cruiser MacArthur practically fell over themselves to accommodate "Shepherd" Book and his guests. Book asked all the appropriately interesting questions, and made the appropriate flattering comments as to the efficiency of the command cruiser, which prompted Captain Wong to glow with pride, and embellish his descriptions of every little working of the vessel. Kaylee was trying her damnedest not to roll her eyes. She looked around at the impressive, metallic and polished structure Captain Wong seemed so enamoured with, but she found it cold, sterile, lacking the sound like a beating heart that she found on Serenity. Can't even get your hands dirty on this kind of ship, everything sealed off and controlled by panels and switches miles away from the real engines. And those engines, they weren't alive like Serenity's. She managed to keep her expression from Captain Wong, but poor Zoë got an eyeful every time Kaylee turned around. Zoë stifled a smile; she understood exactly what Kaylee felt, yet it was hard to keep in character with the little mechanic's eyes practically rolling out of her pretty head.

When they arrived at the Cortex mainframe, Kaylee got to work, and Zoë and Book continued to ask Captain Wong questions that required thoughtful, detailed answers. The captain was suitably distracted, what with Book's enquiries and Zoë's. Zoë didn't much understand technical inquiries about stuff like grid load limits, ratios of dish space to transponders, and so forth, but Selene had made her memorize and practice these questions. The purpose was to hide what Kaylee was really doing -- although she appeared to be taking readings with a small vid unit, Selene had loaded a program that was helping Kaylee hack into the mainframe and search the enforcement database for the files on Jayne and the Tams. She had found most everything on them, uploaded them to her unit, and deleted them from the mainframe. The only thing she was having a mite of trouble with was the file Mal had asked her to find. He had taken her aside, just before they left, spoke to her quietly, warned her to not let anyone else know she was looking for it. If she couldn't find it soon…. Aha! That was it, she uploaded it, but left the original on the mainframe, as Mal had instructed.

Kaylee looked up, catching Zoë's eye. "Hey, Zoë, come check out this transistor, it actually acts as a double failsafe …", blah blah blah, feedback loop, blah blah. Zoë wandered over to where Kaylee was crouched, only half listening to the girl as she eyed Book with some concern. The next move was up to him.

Selene had considered everything. She had asked the doctor for a little help on this one —- a capsule kept in the teeth, bit down upon at the appointed time. It would simulate a mild heart attack to the Alliance medical team, and allow Kaylee time to feed in the virus.

Book was listening attentively to Captain Wong when he got an odd look on his face, and requested a glass of water. The doctor had told him it would be a little disconcerting, this drugs he was carrying, but Book was feeling a bit more jarred than that. His heart really was racing, and he was growing faint….

As Book collapsed, Zoë rushed to his side, the officer calling for medical assistance, and Kaylee quickly did her work.

A little less than two hours later, on the shuttle, Book was smiling up weakly at Zoë as he lay back on a stretcher, and Kaylee took them out of the Alliance ship's range. Captain Wong had at first been insistent on Book remaining in their medical facilities for observation, but when their systems mysteriously crashed, Zoë was able to convince him that her "uncle" would be better off with his private doctors, only a few hours away by shuttle. Captain Wong reluctantly agreed, as he explained rather sheepishly that the medical facilities of the MacArthur were at this time working only sporadically as the Cortex "malfunction" had required a power down of all systems, which then had to come back on line in stages. It would be many hours before his engineers could guarantee full functionality to the medical bay.

"How are you feeling, preacher? That was some performance back there. You even had me worried there for a spell", Zoë had Book's hand in hers.

Book looked tired, but relieved. "Well child, you'll have to thank the good doctor for your anxieties, and mine too. That capsule of his did the trick, almost a little too well. Did Kaylee get what she needed?"

Kaylee piped in from her seat at the helm, "Got everything before I shut 'er down! Wait 'till you see Jayne's sheet; it was so long, took near a minute to download it!" Kaylee grinned. Zoë couldn't help but smile back at her, despite the doubts she had about Jayne's rap sheet being as entertaining as Kaylee seemed to suggest.

Instead, she asked "How long 'till we rendezvous with Serenity?"

"About an hour or so", Kaylee chirped. "How're you doing back there preacher?"

Book tilted his head back and said "Better now we're away from that big Alliance piece of kong jian la ji!"

Kaylee laughed out loud. "I couldn't agree more!"

Selene took the Circe around the shadowy side of the planet's moon. She and River knew the handlers' ship would be coming past them any time now; they were breaking planetary orbit and headed back towards the core systems, as Captain Reynolds had filed a manifest saying that's where Serenity was heading. River was anxious, and Selene was trying to keep her focussed, calm. But the anxiety was contagious, spreading through both of their minds. It made them edgier, and sharper with one another than they would have been. Selene tried one more time to instil in both of them the calm she needed to work. She closed her eyes. Picture the mandala, she thought, the lines and colours, the patterns, the intricacies. Let the exploration of it bring peace to your mind, hope to your heart.

River closed her eyes to Selene's voice in her mind. She stilled her worries, was able to push them back as Selene had taught her. Except for one. It nibbled at the edge of her concentration until she allowed it to come forward. Will they be able to make me obey them? The conditioning…. Selene opened her eyes, reached out and touched River's face, stroked her cheek gently. River's eyes opened.

They didn't finish, Selene said into River's mind. You've been near them before and not gone to them. You've resisted and escaped. If they had that kind of control over you, you would not be here now. Focus on what we need to do. I need you with me, River.

River smiled, relieved. She had not let that worry out of its cage before, and she was gratified at how quickly Selene was able to grasp her fears, and reassure her. Now it was her turn to relieve Selene of her worries. She put her hand over Selene's, which was still gently stroking her cheek. I'll be strong, she thought. You're my anchor and today I'll be your sword. You have to get back to him. Neither of you is sated ….

Selene dropped her hand from River's face, raised her eyebrows and thought bi zui, xiao mei-mei! But too late, she felt the blush creep up her body right into her hairline. Damn!

River giggled out loud, and she was almost skipping and twirling through Selene's mind now, teasing her. Selene had to shake her head and said "River" out loud before River snapped back to herself. Selene looked into River's eyes. What did you see?

River, sobered a little by Selene's harsh manner with her, said out loud, "I didn't mean to, it's just you keep thinking about him and the images pop into my head. I know it's private and I try to ignore them, but they … overwhelm me." She reached out and put her palm on Selene's upper sternum, where she could feel her heart. "Here. This is where he lives. The images I get, they come from here. You're scared of him being there, but he makes you stronger."

Selene's eyes were wide, meeting River's, and she put her hand over the girl's on her chest. "I am. Scared. I haven't never had this much to lose in a long time. The last time I lost … everything. My family, my home…. I can't afford to lose now …. Not him, not you". River smiled back at her.

"We won't lose. We can do this, together we are stronger than they ever imagined."

And just then, the Circe's proximity alarms sounded, a claxon warning that the Handlers' ship was about to come around the moon. River held Selene's eyes, still smiling. Time to go to work, she said in her mind. Selene's answering smile was feral; let's go, she thought.

The Handlers didn't know what hit them. The Circe shot out from behind the moon, on a collision course with the small Blue Sun vessel, Twilight. The handler piloting Twilight veered sharply to avoid a crash, but the Circe managed to hit their starboard stabilizers, and Twilight started tumbling towards the moon. The Circe kept forcing Twilight to the moon's surface, and it was all he could do to land the ship and not be obliterated by either the moon's gravity or the Circe, buzzing madly around Twilight like a mosquito. He couldn't even get the ship's weapons trained on the small Mermaid.

River and Selene were ready when they landed the Circe on top of the damaged Twilight -- they could access the handlers' ship through her upper bulkhead hatch, which they removed quickly. They entered the Twilight, no guns (at River's insistence, and Selene's hearty agreement), just Selene's favourite knife, their fighting skills, and a thirst to take back that which had been stolen from them. Handlers wouldn't stand a chance….