Neveah Trynn sat down in the darkened room and held her hands together in a silent prayer.

If you hear me Lord

Deliver me from my sadness

Send me an angel

If you see fit then please send me a guiding light

She opened her eyes and got up slowly, peeking out the doorway from her chamber. The silver cross hanging from her neck cut in prismatic detail caught the sunlight streaming in dusty ribbons and bounced it back outside, as though announcing the purity of its wearer.

"Nevvie! Get out here!"

The girl, more woman really, opened up the door and walked out, "yes Mom, I'm here."

Whatever she wants, she thought silently while rolling her eyes, she just is asking for because she's so gorram bored with sugar farming.

The lush forest surrounded her in chirping and buzzing warmth, but she focused not on the beauty to which she was accustomed but to her mother standing proud and erect twenty yards ahead.

Suspicion began to strike Nevvie's mind as she saw the too sweet smile on her mother's face.

The statuesque woman looked at her daughter who was almost the same height and smiled lovingly, "Nevvie, look how you have grown. Here you are, twenty three and unwed. How can that be with such a lovely face? You've been trained as a Companion but gave that up as well. You can not let one bad Alliance client ruin it all for you, your father and I need you at work somehow."

She looked up at her mother, green eyes steady, "Mom, I chose not to be a Companion after I realized it was wrong. Not because of the Alliance client. We have been over that many times and I tire of it."

The bright sun illuminated Aliah Trynn as she stared down her calm daughter. How could one be so mislead? Shepherds were the only antiquated peoples who preached the gospel of Jesus Christ anymore, and few of them were living in more than abbeys and monasteries on poorly terra-formed moons on the outer edges. Her daughter, with her pleasant face and features, not to mention intelligence and wit, had given up a life of glamour and relative prestige to count herself among the ranks.

All thanks to a damn Shepherd.

It was all a mother could do to watch it happen and she would not have it. No power had stopped Aliah Trynn when it came to matters of her family and nothing in the verse could stop her now.

"Well dear Neveah if that truly is the case then you are going to work."

The suddenness of this claim hit its receiver like a ton of protein bricks, "What? Work where?"

Aliah smiled more smugly than a mother should, "I knew that would shake you out of your good Christian calm. At a ranch, not too far from here. A moon only an hour's space ride away. You are of no use to us here. You can't help with the sugar production nor are you willing to take up your better job," she paused and raised her eyebrows hopefully, "are you?"

Sticking her chin out defiantly Neveah shook her long brown hair from her shoulders and smiled back, "No, but I'll tell you what I can do for now."

There was a pause and both stared until her mother broke the silence, "And what would that be?"

"Pack my gorram bags!"

With that the tall lithe figure stormed off, satin dress kicking up dirt behind her.

Nevvie only slept a few winks that night, tossing and turning in her sleep. Her dreams were riddled with images of a fist striking, a little girl crying and a moment's solace in the midst of tears.

But the dreams were rapid as was the rising of the sun, and within a few hours she was standing in front of her parents' humble adobe home with her hair stuck up in chopsticks and a pair of overalls she hadn't worn since before the Academy on standing by her three cases of belongings.

Neveah's father stood by her in camaraderie and leaned sideways to whisper in her ear, "Don't worry, it'll all be over once your mother learns to calm down."

She laughed and her eyes twinkled back at him, "Don't worry Papa, I'll be home before you know it. It's only Mom who thinks that being a Companion is the only way of earning money and I'm sure she's just doing this so I'll get scared into going back to being one."

Her father smiled and nodded, "In fact I'm sure it is. You know we wouldn't send you to another moon because of finances, yes?"

"Yes Papa, I can tell Mom's scare tactics are just that and not that sugar has become any less rare."

But inside she felt the fear well up. What if her decision was the wrong one?

Before the thoughts got too far she saw a gleaming silver ship descend from the skies and land thirty yards away.

It was silent for a moment.

And stayed silent.

Unmoving.

What is this guy playing at? Does he own a ranch or is he planning to do a song and dance routine out the back of the boat?

Nevvie studied the thing with curiosity until a second later the ramp descended slowly and standing on top of it was a man not much older than her in brown breeches and a loose white shirt with brown leather suspenders. His face was out of focus until he stepped forward and walked towards the Trynn family with a long gait typical of youth.

"Mornin', are you the Trynns?"

Neveah's father stepped out and shook his hand.

Nevvie was momentarily stopped. This man was not particularly handsome, he was a few inches taller, granted, but it wasn't his face which stopped her. He had floppy brown hair that bounced above his eyes and drooped into them sweetly. His face was finely carved with defined cheekbones but weathered skin.

It was his eyes which stopped her breath for that second in time. They were no particular color, closest to blue, but they smiled when he wasn't, they moved with he seemed to stare. They flashed thought and emotion before she knew his name.

Woah, calm down Nevvie. That's just it, you don't know his name.

He turned to her and gave a quick and awkward bow, "Good mornin' Miss, I reckon you're Neveah. I'm not your employer, just her son. Name's Malcolm Reynolds."

OK, so now I do.