Wash was heading for the capital of Londinium, a metropolis that glittered and sparkled in the morning sun like inverted icicles made of glass. It was common knowledge that the city was called Helios, but even if he hadn't known, the large hovering banners with changing displays welcoming him to the 'City of Helios: Home of Blue Sun,' greeted him several times over as he descended.

His communications channel pinged as he reached traffic altitude, and he had to actually pull up and wait for a break in the vehicle flow before he could merge into the skyway. The channel pinged again, and he glanced down and noticed a readout asking for his clearance codes.

He provided them, and the light on the dash blinked several seconds before turning a steady green. He smiled and drifted through the traffic, dropping to lower and lower lanes. He slowed down with the traffic and looked for the Blue Sun building. Driving on an over-crowded skyway like this was something he hadn't done in nearly ten years, but he knew how they went and what sort of attitude he ought to apply to the situation. He'd spent too much time in traffic jams in his youth to forget.

He'd grown up in a city not too dissimilar to Helios. It had been a smaller city, of course; far dirtier, but similar. In some ways that was comforting, but it was mostly unsettling.

Someone honked somewhere, a loud blaring sound jarring and echoing throughout the shuttle; he had forgotten sounds like that after ten years in silent space. He checked his vectors; he wasn't off course, so the honking was probably directed at someone else. Still, his nerves were on edge, and he dropped a few more lanes until he was practically at street level traveling at a crawl.

In the distance he made out the distinctively tall building that was the headquarters of Blue Sun. The glass was tinted blue and radiated with intense light reflected from the sun. Wash was not an architect and he had an intense loathing for Blue Sun, but there was no denying the building was beautiful. It spiraled slowly like a glittering unicorn's horn and tapered to a fine point at the very top, where it was crowned by a silver tower that broadcasted the waves.

Unlike most of Blue Sun's products, there was no screen displaying advertisements on the building itself. Instead, it just had an old, traditional style stationary sign with "Blue Sun Corporation" and their Chinese logo. Their reach was so great that the logo was the only introduction they needed.

Wash piloted down another level, skimming now past other skyscrapers and buildings, until he reached the Blue Sun structure. He was directed towards parking, and, after being scanned and marked with a parking ticket to pay later, he was admitted through a gate. Small parking attendants in fancy navy blue uniforms directed him down aisles. He eventually parked the shuttle into a wide, berthed stall next to a Core shuttle that easily cost more than Serenity and all her contents combined.

He turned the shuttle off, picked up his briefcase, and exited. He resisted ogling the expensive shuttle as he closed and locked the hatch. He opened the briefcase and studied its contents. Beneath his resume pad and official-looking work items was a small, clear plastic disc containing both the trigger break code and the overwrite to wipe out the rest of their messages.

He fingered it lightly and took a deep breath, slipping it into his breast pocket. Closing the briefcase, he started walking and pulled on his Core world persona. He held his head high, lifted his chin, and stared straight ahead. When he began to pass other pedestrians, he consciously paid them no mind: he was above them now. He was going to get a job here, and they were beneath him. His strides grew longer and more confident as he proceeded.

Deep inside, though, he realized just how yuppie they looked. When he caught sight of his reflection in the brilliant blue glass of the building, he knew he fit in perfectly. It was simultaneously disconcerting and reassuring. The forethought on his mind, though, was that not only had Zoe hugged him, she had done it even though he'd looked like this.

The double doors at the entrance loomed in front of him as he turned a corner. They were large and could easily accommodate ten large men walking abreast. He knew this was to expedite the morning-rush queue, but there were no lines at the moment. He took a deep breath and held it. Stepping forward, he removed his sunglasses and bent for the retinal scan.

The green scanner flashed for several seconds while it processed, and then it pinged a cleared code for him. A friendly female voice cheerfully intoned, "Welcome to Blue Sun, Mr. Tian!" The voice repeated again in Chinese. He let out his breath, relieved. Overhead, a large screen began to play a Blue Sun commercial. Wash largely ignored it despite its jaunty tune.

He suddenly smiled confidently, straightened his back, and strode through the great doors into the larger reception area. It seemed as though his fear melted away as he passed into the building. The ground floor had no interior walls. There were titanium steel pillars throughout the structure, maintaining its integrity, but for as far as his eye could see, the view was unobstructed. The building stretched on and on. The ceiling was at least six meters high.

He quickly identified the receptionist area – a huge, navy blue crescent-shaped desk. There were several employees with phone headsets clipped daintily to their ears. They all wore practiced smiles on their faces and bore remarkably bright white teeth. He approached an unengaged woman and nodded at her. "Good afternoon. My name is Tian Tuan Ti," he stated, pleased at the even timbre of his voice. "I have an appointment with Mr. Mao at 1520."

She nodded and turned to the display screen in front of her. It was a transparent monitor displaying various things in a bright, floating red text. She touched the space in the air near some of the words, and the display changed. "Oh, yes." Her eyes lit up, and she nodded eagerly. "Yes, I've got you right here," she said, looking up at him with a more sincere smile. "Please follow the navy stripe straight down to the elevators at the far wall. CEO Mao is on the top level. He's expecting you." Her hand rose and gestured to the floor. "I've keyed you in."

Wash looked down and discovered a dark stripe that ran from the receptionist desk along the corrugated steel floor. The stripe turned in several places, leading off to different destinations, but ultimately it led to the glass elevator shaft near the wall. "Thank you," he nodded and smiled back at her.

"You're welcome. Thank you for coming, and please enjoy your stay. Live life with Blue Sun," she called after him.

He reached the elevator and placed his palm on the readout. His fingerprints were scanned, and the door opened. He took a deep breath, looked around the ground floor of the complex, and stepped inside. There was only a simple display and a thumb pad, no buttons to press. He shifted his arm and put his briefcase in his other hand. Pressing his thumb to the plate, the elevator hummed and took off. The transparent walls allowed him watch the interior workings of the building as he rose level after level.

Behind him, he could see the city of Helios as it sprawled out beyond him. The elevator trembled slightly and paused as it reached a great height. Then, it shifted and began to travel horizontally. The building tapered near the top, and the elevator rocked accommodatingly.

Eventually Wash found himself in a carriage at the very top of the building overlooking much of the cityscape, as the Blue Sun building dwarfed most of the other skyscrapers.

He took another deep breath and turned around. The doors opened, and he stepped out. The room he found himself in was much smaller and decorated in cream and tan. The walls were expensive wood–paneled, and the floor was glossy polished oak.

The atmosphere was also far softer and less industrial than the ground floor had been. There was another reception desk here, this one made of highly polished maple wood. Behind it sat a slim man in a black turtleneck. He had dark hair, a long, aquiline nose, and sharp eyes. His smile as Wash approached seemed bright and real. "Mr. Tian?" he asked pleasantly.

Wash nodded and approached the desk. "Yes," he answered in a smooth, cool voice.

Light, calming music played in the background. "CEO Mao is waiting for you," he noted charmingly. "He's very eager to speak with you." The receptionist picked up a small pad. "If I could just have you sign-in here?"

Wash pressed his thumb to the plate.

"Thank you," the man answered. He rose to his feet and gestured for Wash to follow him. "CEO Mao is behind these doors," he noted, opening them for Wash. "I'm Michael," he added and nodded. "Let me know if you need anything, Mr. Tian."

Wash gave a nod in thanks but paid the lackey little mind. He strode confidently through the double doors.

The room was an extremely large conference room. The cream and tan color theme carried over here, giving what might have otherwise been an intimidating room a warm, earthy feel to it. A long oak conference table filled most of the space with twelve matching chairs lining each side of it and two on each end. On the wall against the exterior was a massive window that overlooked the whole of Helios. The other side of the room had a small lounge with tan leather couches, a small oak bar, and several monitoring systems.

Wash took all of this in before he focused his eyes on the jovial man standing before him. CEO Mao was a rotund but happy man with a head of thick, black hair and a brilliant smile. He wore a fashionable suit similar to Wash's but slightly more mundane. "It's such a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Tian," he said, reaching out to shake Wash's hand.

Wash nodded and eagerly returned the handshake. "It's an extreme pleasure to finally meet you as well, Mr. Mao." He gave an easy smile. "The things you've done here are incredible."

"Please, Tuan Ti, call me Yu."

"Thank you, Mr. Yu," he replied with a giving nod of his head. He seemed genuinely pleased with that permission. "I'm very eager to tour this facility. I've heard so many things about the Blue Sun Corporation. It's almost hard to believe I'm really here."

Yu picked up a data pad from the oak table and brought up Wash's resume. "Although there aren't any massive facilities like this where you've worked, I'm sure you'll find what we do to be just like what you're used to, only on a much larger scale."

Yu gestured to the bar. "Can I fix you a drink or give you a few minutes to get comfortable before we begin?"

Wash shook his head. "That isn't necessary," he said expertly. "I came prepared."

"Excellent!" Yu replied and nodded. "Then please, follow me."

He led Wash out another set of doors and away from the receptionist to another smaller elevator. Yu keyed in with his thumb, and the doors opened to admit them both. Yu studied Wash's resume on his datapad as the doors closed.

"So, you worked on the outpost on Orion?" Yu questioned, his eyes lifting from the readout on his pad to fix on Wash.

Wash nodded. "Yes. I spent six years there as the head of engineering. I handled a great deal of the brainwork for the Core, mostly classified." He nodded politely. "Which is why I've ended up here."

"It says at the bottom you graduated from the Orion Flight Academy as well?" he added with a smile. "I've a good friend whose son went there."

Wash brightened. "Yes, I've always loved flying. It's a great passion of mine. What year did your friend's son graduate?"

"'15, I believe." He looked Wash over. "Probably a great deal after you, I'm sure. He did prattle on about the place. They're quite renowned."

Pleased, Wash nodded. "A great many pilots came from Orion. Of course, I only attended as a luxury. Computers are my passion."

It was Yu's turn to nod. "Yes, so your resume states." He shifted slightly as the elevator went horizontal again, but he kept talking. "In just six weeks on Yavin, you managed to boost their export by nearly thirty percent? That's incredible."

Wash grinned despite himself. "Well, they had their routers crossed incorrectly. It was a simple mistake, but since Yavin has such a large base of operation, the mistake was repeated 16,000 times at each junction. All we had to do was unwire them, reconvert the power so it'd stop dragging on the mainframe, and retighten the feeds. A simple concept, but a large undertaking."

"Still, they had three specialists who came in before you, none of whom could even identify the problem!" Yu laughed and gazed up fondly at Wash.

"Well, some people have gifts, and some have learned skills." He took a deep breath and sighed. "Sometimes I can just feel it. Computers talk to me."

Yu nodded, apparently impressed. The was a brief lull over the conversation as the elevator passed the ground floor, sinking into the basement levels. Wash cleared his throat. "Do you know what the main form of entertainment on Yavin is?" he questioned conversationally.

Yu brightened. "Juggling goslings, I do believe?"

Wash guffawed. "Yes! Have you been there?"

Yu patted his stomach fondly. "Oh, yes, of course. I've visited all the major broadcast centers. Yavin goslings are delicious. Did you try any while you were there? Extremely delicate when braised properly."

Shaking his head, Wash's brow furrowed just a little. "No, I didn't get to, unfortunately. I did try juggling a few." He laughed softly. "Perhaps some of my damaged attempts ended up as your dinner?"

The elevator pinged and the doors slid open. "Quite possible," Yu cheerfully said as he led Wash into the open. The room they found themselves in now was steel and concrete and full of large, churning machines. The whole air seemed to reverberate with energy. The walls were high with catwalks raising overhead. Yu led him down the hall to where the walls fell away.

Beyond them stretched the brain of the Cortex, a vast pit that sank into the ground. A cylinder of catwalks surrounded the large piston in the center. Electrical blue sparks danced along it sporadically, crackling with energy. Wash took out his sunglasses and put them on to view the dancing sparks.

A railing stretched around the edge of the chasm, and Wash leaned on it for a moment. "That must house a massive central Core. Of course, I'd seen pictures, but you never get the full scope . . ." He was in awe and shook his head, amazed. "If the brain is this size, where do you house the power generator?"

Yu grinned, very pleased with the question. "Below the chasm. Our operation is as tall as we are deep. Land is an extremely valuable commodity on this planet, as I'm sure you're keenly aware. We've made extremely good use of our resources."

"I'm suitably impressed," Wash noted, walking again. One side of the chasm had a small ledge that jutted out several meters. It had monitoring panels lined alongside it with several men manning them. "I left my last job because my boss wasn't able to make good judgment like this." His eyes narrowed slightly. "He didn't agree with the Alliance perhaps as much as he should have. The man had his heart in the right place, but his loyalties were faulty."

Yu's brow furrowed at this. "I'm sorry to hear that, Tuan Ti."

Wash shrugged it off. "It inspired me to set aside my aversion to crowds and come here. I want to work for the Alliance directly, and I see no better way than through Blue Sun."

Yu turned to him and patted his arm affectionately. "You really are everything your files said you would be." Gesturing forward, he said, "Well, I'm sure you're eager to get past all this hardware and onto your specialty. The mainframe is this way."

Wash paused as they passed the casing where the catwalk jutted out. A handful of technicians were carefully monitoring the output from the Core. There were several monitoring stations on different levels, but access to any one of them would serve Wash's purpose. Getting lost in the mainframe with Yu would do him no good. He pulled one of the technicians aside.

"What's your name?" Wash questioned.

The technician furrowed her brow, confused. Yu looked back, aware Wash had stopped following, and gave a curious expression. The girl, recognizing the CEO, finally answered. "Angeline," she said uncertainly. "Angeline Reyes."

Wash nodded. "How long have you worked here, Angeline?"

Yu settled, realizing Wash was simply testing one of his potential future subordinates. He crossed his arms and watched with a smirk.

"Five years, six months, sir," she answered and glanced around nervously. The other four technicians were trying hard not to pay attention to the conversation.

"Tell me, about the Cortex sub-routing system, Ms. Reyes--specifically about your junction crossings. Do you get anomalous readings every two weeks?"

She grinned brightly. "We used to, sir," she noted. "But a similar problem was detected on a sister operation. When the problem was identified and corrected, we had the circuitry rewired inside of a week."

Wash nodded, pleased. "And your efficiency increased?"

"Nearly thirty percent," she agreed.

Wash nodded and patted the girl on the back. He then moved to the railing and looked down the shaft. After several seconds of contemplation, he asked in an even tone, "Tell me, do you get suicides here?"

Angeline seemed even more confused. Her eyes darted to Yu, but it was clear Wash was talking to her. "Not that I'm aware of, sir."

Wash grinned, his expression lightening. "But I hear people are just dying to get in here." He laughed; after a few seconds, both Angeline and Yu began laughing, too.

"Must be the folks on the graveyard shift," Angeline noted and giggled more.

Wash hadn't expected her to join in, so the comment was even funnier than it might otherwise have been. He turned and leaned over the railing. "Well, if you dropped, you'd certainly be more than six feet under!" he cheered and laughed.

Yu and Angeline agreed with more laughter but stopped when Wash's sunglasses slipped off his nose, hit the railing, and bounce out into the shaft. They fell out of sight within seconds. "Your glasses!" Angeline cried.

Wash sobered a little. "Eh, don't worry. I have another pair at home."

"But nothing should go down there!" she cried. "They could short out the system if they hit anything fragile."

Yu straightened. "I'll have maintenance clean it up at once." He turned and grabbed another technician, pulling him aside and explaining the situation in a whisper. The technician's eyes widened. Angeline smiled nervously as Yu told her to go with the man as a witness to the incident. Now, only three men operated the observation deck. Wash grinned; his task seemed to be getting easier and easier.

"That should take care of the problem," Yu stated, turning back to Wash. "As I was saying, the mainframe is this way." As he gestured, the facility trembled with an explosion deep down in the shaft.

The three remaining technicians all exchanged frightened looks. They scrambled and began a lockdown procedure, uncertain as to what had just happened. Yu looked agitatedly at Wash, his expression changing from amiable peace to anger in an instant. "That was an explosion!" His eyes widened as he realized what that could entail, and then he focused them accusingly on Wash. "You've really done it now," he snarled. "If there's extensive damage from those glasses, I could lose my job!" he cried.

Wash had a hard time not smiling. "It was an accident," he noted plainly. "Besides, I know how that Core works. A pair of sunglasses couldn't damage the system like that, not even if they hit the most sensitive piece of equipment."

"Well, something happened down there!" Yu shouted.
The technicians were working quickly. Wash wanted to push between them and add his broadcast to the system, but he couldn't with Yu standing there. He was growing anxious. "What are the evacuation procedures?" he questioned next, hoping he might get the man to leave. He needed to access the Core, and if Yu didn't leave, he might have to start a fight. Being unarmed wasn't going to be advantageous, and Yu had about a hundred pounds on him. Wash felt he could potentially push the man over if he planned correctly, but then he'd have three other technicians to deal with. "It could be an attack!" he exclaimed, hoping to scare them off.

"An attack?" Yu countered. "From whom? We're at peace!" he frowned. Despite his apparent agitation, he wasn't leaving.

Wash clenched and unclenched his open fist. He didn't want to wrestle Yu, but he was getting impatient. If the technicians locked down the terminal before he could get to it, he wasn't sure he could override it. He set his briefcase down and took a deep breath. He wasn't a fighter, and doing this might prevent escaping the facility to his rendezvous, but he was willing to take the risk if it meant he could complete the mission.

Just as he raised his arm to strike, the alarms sounded overhead. Yu's eyes widened at the sound as he looked around fearfully. "Those are the evacuation alarms!" he cried. He focused his gaze back on to Wash, but now he seemed to think Wash had been telling the truth about the attack. "This is not good!" he shouted. He stalked off toward one of the elevators, shaking his head and muttering in Chinese. "I've got to evacuate the entire building," he wailed and got into the elevator. "I'm going to have words with you later, Mr. Tian!" he shouted before the doors closed around him.

"Go, go!" Wash urged the technicians as soon as Yu was out of sight. "Evacuation alarm, get out of here! This whole place might shut down! Who knows what happened?" The technicians seemed reluctant to leave their posts, but Wash looked official in his suit and conversation with Yu, so they eventually complied.

Wash finally found himself alone in the center of the Blue Sun Core. The alarms were annoying, but he was so close to finishing the job that he could taste it. He'd just plug in the rod, transmit the code, and evacuate with everyone else. Kaylee's exploding sunglasses had mocked up beautifully and passed all the inspections perfectly. The plan was going exceedingly well.

He raced to the Core terminal and found the clear cover housing over the slot for his disc. It was locked. He cursed and looked at the monitor, which was flashing "LOCKDOWN IN PROGRESS." He cursed and banged his fist on the console. It beeped at him blearily.

He stood there staring down at the screen for several moments. He had come all this way and failed. Then, it occurred to him that the system that triggered the alarms was the very one in front of him. The program that sent out the lockdown override was issued from his terminal or one very near it.

Laughing unexpectedly, he started typing on the keyboard again, imputing manual override codes. There were few commands he remembered from his younger days as a Cortex surfer, but the system was user–friendly. In just a few minutes time, he had the Core accessed. He imputed a few more codes and executed them.

Seconds later, the alarms shut off. He grinned; he could do this after all. With the alarms off, it was easier to concentrate on unlocking the rest of the Core. It failed, and he cursed again. Instead, he tried unlocking only the terminal he was using. When the locks popped off on the cover, he felt his heart leap into his throat.

His hand trembled as he reached out to open the plastic cover. It yielded easily and slipped into the console. He fumbled in his breast pocket for the disc and brought it out. He studied it for a second and then, nodding to himself, pressed it into the slot to load and execute the program.

It took several seconds to download.

The file blinked six times and flashed "transfer complete" on the screen. Immediately following that, the trigger break began to play. The room filled with the noise of it. Though it was a cacophony of static and unidentifiable sounds, it was music to Wash's ears. He couldn't let it distract him long; his task was only half complete.

With the programs unlocked, it was easy to gain access to the main Core from the terminal. He overrode the lockdown completely and directly entered the Core. He found the commercial database where the subliminal messages were stored and quickly started overriding all the files with the trigger. He wasn't a hacker by any stretch of the imagination, but he knew what he was doing in the most basic of senses. More importantly, he knew more or less where to install the overrides.

There were going to be pockets of networks unaffected by the overrides, but there was nothing he could do about that. He trusted that once he got the signal out, people would realize that not only had they forgotten about Miranda, they had been subliminally controlled. Hopefully, they would keep the signal going on their own. He tried not to worry about his less than thorough job.

When he'd done all he felt he safely could, he rested his hand on the keyboard and let out a deep sigh of relief. He suspected Mal had felt this way after the original broadcast on Miranda. An immense weight had lifted off his shoulders. He felt light and warm and there was a tight, burning sensation in his stomach that was intoxicating.

He rocked back onto his heels with eyes closed and a lazy smile. He'd done good. He'd come back from death and done the impossible. With the help of his family of friends, he'd toppled the Alliance that toppled them. They'd won this time; he was sure of it. His heart, artificial though it now was, told him they'd succeeded.

He wasn't surprised to hear the tromp of combat boots approaching quickly behind him as the power safeties of artillery weapons switched off. He shook his head and sighed at the inevitable. He cleared his mind, enjoying the moment of success for what it was. It looked like he wasn't going to be able to keep his promises after all, despite being told not to make them.

"Put your hands in the air and turn around slowly," a voice commanded.

Wash did as instructed, raising his hands slowly off the console. When he turned around, he found nearly ten armored federal agents staring him down. All of them had their weapons drawn and targeted on him. It was frightening, but he had to smile at the show of force against one little, unarmed man. A brilliant light was shone onto his face, and he blinked ruddily as he tilted his head down; he didn't dare lower his hands.

The same officer called out, "Hoban Washburn, by the authority of the Union of Allied Planets, you are now bound by law."