CHAPTER ONE

Almost one year post-Miranda

"You might wanna reconsider this," Malcolm Reynolds said calmly as he dropped his gun to the ground and put his hands in the air. Beside him, Zoe was copying his actions, and slightly in front of both of them, River's hands were slowly going up.

The leader of the group of bandits who had killed Fezz—Mal could see his contact lying on the ground in a pool of blood—laughed. "Yeah? Why's that? Y'all are the most pathetic group of thieves I ever did see."

"We got an honest job here," Mal said conversationally, noting out of the corner of his eye the calculating way River was eyeing the six bandits, and the way she slid one foot slightly forward. "You're the ones thievin'."

"You think you can come to our world and take off with our goods?"

"We're payin' for 'em," Mal replied reasonably.

"Well, you sure as hell ain't prepared for this place. Never did see a dumber bunch. She ain't even got a weapon!" The leader jabbed his gun at River.

"I don't like weapons," River said softly. "They cause too much damage. I don't need one. Besides, he's got weapons enough for both of us."

The loud click of a gun being cocked brought the bandits' attention behind them, where Jayne was holding two guns, both aimed at the bandit leader. Two of the bandits turned their weapons on him, but Jayne was unruffled. "Should I ought put a hole in him, Cap'n?"

"You do that and you'll still wind up dead," the leader said. "We's all arm—" His voice died as River swept forward in a movement too quick for Mal to follow, kicking the gun out of the leader's hand while grabbing the gun of the man next to him. By the time the bandits realized what was happening and turned their weapons on her, she had disarmed three men and knocked out the fourth with a solid kick to the head. The two others dropped their weapons as Mal and Zoe reclaimed their guns off the ground and Jayne jabbed his into the back of one's head.

River emptied the cartridges out of the guns and tossed them to the side, looking a little disgusted.

"She told you she didn't need 'em." Mal waved the men into the barracks nearby, past Fezz's body. "And I did warn you. Now, where's the goods?"

Ten minutes later, with the mule loaded with their cargo, they made their way back toward Serenity, leaving the bandits locked inside the barracks, awaiting the local law enforcement.

"That was a good call, darlin'," Mal called to River, who was in the back with Jayne, leaning out the side of the mule and letting the wind blast her face. "You were right on the mark."

"Aren't I always?" River asked wryly, turning her face to look at Mal. Her hair whipped out to the side in a long stream.

"Just wish we coulda known about it before Fezz was killed," Mal said. "He was one of the good men out here."

"Hey, but this way we got the goods without havin' to pay for 'em," Jayne said. River and Zoe gave Jayne respective looks that would have made a smarter man cringe, but Jayne just grinned. "Double payday for us."

"Don't get too excitable," Mal said. "The money ain't all ours. Belongs to Badger. In the case of a contact being dead, we split the money with him."

"Yeah, but he don't know Fezz is dead," Jayne argued. "I mean, are we thieves or ain't we?"

River rolled her eyes. "You are such a dolt," she told him, turning her face to the wind again.

"Yeah, well, you're a freak, so who're you to talk?" Jayne retorted.

"At least I'm smart in my freakishness," River retorted without looking back at him. "What's your justification?"

Mal allowed himself a chuckle before saying, "Should I pull over and split you two kids up?"

They reached Serenity and Mal steered the mule into the cargo bay. Within moments, Simon was there, checking up on River, like he did every time after a job. He didn't particularly like her going out on jobs with them, even though he knew she could take care of herself. The choice had been River's, though. She had approached Mal shortly after the events surrounding Miranda and requested work.

"You're already pilotin', River."

"I know. I want to do more. I can do more. I could help you on your jobs, read people. Make sure its safe."

"Simon ain't never been too keen on that."

"Simon has his life here. I have mine. This is my home, too, and I've been too lost to help. I'm not lost anymore. I want to be useful, Captain."

And she had been, at that. She'd been going on jobs with them for six months now. Mal had tried to give her a gun the first time, and she had looked at him with her eyebrows raised. "Weren't you the one who told me no touching guns?" she had asked, a note of irony in her voice. She understood—this was one of his ways of saying that he trusted her. She had accepted the trust, but refused the weapon.

In fact, Mal noted that she steered clear of violence in any way she could. She would defend herself and the crew, but she never hurt anyone if she could avoid it. And she certainly knew enough ways to take a man down without causing harmful or permanent damage. It was something that certainly made her unique to this business. Mal felt that he had really gotten to know River the person, instead of River the crazy science experiment. Oh, she still had moments where she would start to say something off, but then she would stop, knowing it wasn't coming out the way she intended. She would close her eyes in concentration, and then slowly speak what she meant to say. What with her brain being cleared of the Miranda ordeal, and the meds that her brother gave her on when she felt she was having an off day, she had become an invaluable member of his crew.

"I'm fine, Simon," River said now, clambering out of the mule. "You don't have to worry."

"I think that's just my lot in life," Simon said dryly.

"Zoe? I wanna be off this planet before the law comes round to question us," Mal told her.

"I'll take us out," Zoe said, heading up the stairs for the cockpit.

"How's…Fezz, is it?" Simon asked.

"Dead," Jayne grunted, lifting a box off of the mule.

Simon looked startled. "What?"

"Some mercenaries got the jump on him," Mal said, unloading another box. "They thought to take the goods and our money."

Simon rested his hand on River's shoulder and closed his eyes slowly. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut, which Mal thought wise of him, considering no one had been hurt. Well, except the bandits, but they'd deserved it.

"Where's Kaylee?" Mal asked, shoving the boxes toward one of his smuggling compartments.

"Sleeping," Simon said.

Mal rolled his eyes. "Well, somebody wake her up. Somethin' goes wrong on our exit, I don't fancy bein' caught with our mechanic takin' a nap."

All eyes turned to Simon, who raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"She's your wife, and I ain't got a death wish," Mal said. "So have at it, Doc."

Simon grumbled something under his breath, but turned to head for his and Kaylee's bunk. Mal shook his head and turned his attention to storing his cargo, thanking his lucky stars that he'd never got anyone knocked up. Though Kaylee was normally the most cheerful person he knew, these hormones of hers made her have some insensible reactions to things sometimes, and Mal preferred to steer clear of her when she was acting tetchy.

"Mood swings," River said, likely reading his mind. "Induced by changes in her hormone pattern."

Jayne snorted. "You'd know all about mood swings, eh, Crazy?"

"Ah, women don't need no excuse for mood swings," Mal grunted as he took a particularly heavy box from Jayne and dropped it into the compartment.

"Yes, but we always have plenty excuses available," River said, rolling back on the balls of her feet. "It's our right."

"Feng le women," Jayne muttered under his breath.

Mal was inclined to agree with him.

:-:-:

Late that night, River sat alone in the cockpit, staring out at the stars. She really didn't need to be there—the autopilot was set and it would be some days before they reached Persephone—but she loved the quiet here, just her and Serenity and the stars. When it was late and the others were asleep, their thoughts quieted in her mind, only wisps of thought and dreams filtering in and out of her head.

It was nice. It gave her mind a break from the constant barrage of noise coming from the crew all day long. Not that she minded so much anymore; her brain had learned to process so many thoughts crossing through it, but sometimes it was overwhelming and gave her a headache. Sometimes the thoughts weighed down on her so heavily that she thought she might just topple over. It would bother some. Bothered Jayne, but he was the quietest of all of them, and his thoughts, while definitely not the most pleasant, were easier on her mind. Maybe because he didn't try to do a lot of complex thinking.

She sighed and tucked her legs up against her chest, wrapping her arms around them and laying her head on her knees. People could be so strange sometimes. Everyone had fears. River understood that. She had them herself, but she had done her best to overcome them. Fear only had power if you let it. For River, who had lived with so much terror after the Academy, it had taken Simon coming close to death to truly overcome that terror and face her nightmares. She had faced them, quite literally, and come out stronger for it.

A soft beep brought River's head up, and she frowned slightly at the screen in front of her. There was a wave coming in. She answered it, and a moment later, a large man with a gray mustache appeared on the screen. His clothing and the star on his chest seemed to indicate that he was a sheriff, probably of one of the outer planets, but River wasn't going to assume anything. "Hello."

"Howdy there, miss." The man tipped his hat to her. "Your cap'n about?"

"Might be," River said neutrally, resting her chin on her knees. "What do you need?"

The man hesitated for a moment, his eyes narrowed, as if sizing her up. "I'm looking for Jayne Cobb. Was told he sails on this here boat."

A sheriff looking for Jayne? Big surprise. Still, assumptions could get them all into trouble, and Jayne might be a big, callous buffoon, but he was the crew's buffoon, and Mal wouldn't appreciate it if she got the crew into trouble. "Were you? I wonder who told you that," she replied dispassionately. She tilted her head to the side, without lifting her chin, and said contemplatively, "And isn't Jayne a girl's name?"

The sheriff's eyebrow went up. "Maybe this is the wrong boat. If you knew Jayne, you wouldn't say that, not to his face, anyhow."

River giggled to herself, but kept a perfectly straight face. "Sounds like a man with an awfully bad temper. Why are you looking for him?"

"If he ain't on board, there ain't no reason to tell you." Still, the sheriff didn't end the wave.

River lifted her head off of her knees and smiled pleasantly. "Well, then. I'm sorry I couldn't help you." She pressed the button to end the call, then counted slowly to three. It was a game of sorts. He knew that Jayne was on board, and River knew that he knew. It was just a matter of who would give out information first. Wouldn't be her.

There was a soft beep, and River answered the incoming call. To her surprise, the sheriff was laughing, big, hearty guffaws. "Seems Jayne's found himself with a decent sort o' folk. Who woulda thunk it? All right, then. Tell Jayne that ol' Tom is lookin' for him. Got somethin' that belongs to him." Still chuckling, he ended the call on his end.

:-:-:

The next morning, when Mal made his way to the kitchen after a decent night's rest, he found Kaylee and Zoe both there—Zoe was sitting at the table, eating a bowl of some sort of protein or another, and Kaylee was crouching in front of one of the cupboards, half of the contents strewn around her. Mal walked by her toward the coffee. "Mornin'. You looking for somethin' in particular or are you gonna empty out the whole kitchen?"

Kaylee sighed. "Mornin', Captain. I'm lookin' for tomatoes."

"Ain't they normally in the cooler?"

"They would be if we had any," Zoe said, her lips curling into a tiny smile as she glanced at Kaylee. "Seems our girl here's got quite the craving on her hands."

"For tomatoes?" Well, who was he to question? He could count on one hand the number of pregnant women he had ever been around. Living with Kaylee the past months had been an interesting experience, that was certain.

Kaylee sank back on her heels, rubbing her small bulge of a stomach almost absentmindedly. "Mm," she said dreamily. "And potatoes. All fried up in a big pan…" She turned her eyes on Mal. "But we ain't even got 'em canned. Or dried, or even anything flavored that way." She began shoving the food back into the pantry while Mal poured his coffee. She pushed herself to her feet as Mal sat down at the table. "Think I'm gonna have a talk with River 'bout food stuffs she buys on the next planet."

"Well, we'll be hittin' Persephone before too long, and might be they'll have food to settle your cravings." Mal took a swig of hot coffee. "Besides that—"

"Captain?" River's voice interrupted over the intercom. "There's a wave coming in for you."

Mal took another gulp of coffee, then stood to his feet once more. He gave Kaylee's shoulder a pat as he passed her, and quickly made his way to the cockpit, where River was sitting cross-legged in her chair. "Who's callin'?" he asked her.

"Alliance," she replied.

"What do they want?"

River gave him a pointed look. "They wouldn't say, and you know I can't read their minds when they're that far away."

"Right." Mal leaned over River's shoulder and pressed the button to connect with the messengers. He found himself looking into the face of a kid. Leastwise, it looked like a boy who had shoved himself into an Alliance uniform and was posing for the job of a man. 'Course, considering his pilot was an eighteen-year-old and his mechanic twenty-one, he couldn't say much about age. Hell, he'd been a kid when he'd left Shadow and joined the Independents. "What do you want?"

"Captain Reynolds?"

"What do you want?" Mal repeated.

The kid's eyes flickered over to River, then back to Mal. "I am Lieutenant Mathews, stationed on Osiris."

River stiffened ever so subtly beside Mal, a gesture so tiny that he wouldn't have noticed it had he not known her so well. Mal straightened and crossed his arms. "Well, fancy that. Osiris."

Mathews cleared his throat. "We are quite aware that you have Simon and River Tam on board your…vessel." There was a skeptical look on his face as his eyes flicked again to River. "My first order of business is to deliver River Tam a message. I will transfer that to you now." A few seconds later, Mal's screen beeped, indicating the message had been received. "My second order of business is to offer you a business proposal."

"A business proposal," Mal echoed disbelievingly. "After everything the Alliance has done to me and mine, you're offerin' business?"

"You might find this one of some interest," Mathews said stiffly. "The hospital in Capital City is preparing to send a shipment of medicine to some of the border planets. They need transport ships to carry the cargo."

"Really. You're tellin' me the Alliance don't have no other way to get it there?"

"Our ships have not been welcomed on the border planets," Mathews said even more laboriously, as if it pained him to say this.

"Hmm. Wonder why that could be. That still don't explain why you're sendin' meds, if you've been so unwelcome."

"To save face," River said softly. "Isn't that right, Lieutenant Mathews? The Alliance still needs control over the border planets. The settlers weren't too happy to learn that they could be attacked at any moment by monsters of the Alliance's creation. So you have to appease them."

Mathews eyed River wordlessly.

Mal nodded his head at River. "I'm inclined to agree with her. That leads me back to what I said in the first place: what in a hou-zi de pigu makes you think I would ever take the job? Last time we met Alliance, two of my crew died."

"You'd be very well compensated."

"Don't think I can be compensated for the dead."

"I meant for this job. Why don't you have Miss Tam open her message, and we'll contact you later? You might just change your mind."

Mal cut off the communication before Mathews could get another word out. He raised his eyebrows at River, who nodded and opened her message.

A recording of a very stately-looking woman appeared. She looked to be in her forties, and her clothes looked like they cost as much as a month's worth of food for Mal and his crew. She spoke in a very clear, cultured voice. "Miss Tam," she began, "I am Ari Velgese, member of the Parliament, stationed in Osiris. I would first like to apologize for any ill you feel you may have suffered while attending our Academy."

Mal's eyebrows went up. Any ill River felt she may have suffered? He wondered what this fancy Parliament woman would've thought if she'd been around River before the events of Miranda. A quick glance showed him that River had visibly tensed, her arms wrapped around herself.

"I was not a member of Parliament during the time you attended the Academy. You must understand that after the broadwave you helped send out concerning Miranda, many of the Parliament members chose to…retire. Those of us elected to take their place made it our first order of business to shut down the proceedings at the Academy. We have also revoked the warrants for your arrest, and the warrants on your brother, of course. We hope that this will be the first step in, if not a beneficial relationship, at least a passive one."

So they'd taken the warrants off River and Simon in hopes that they would secure River's cooperation—or at least silence—in the future. If they'd finally given up on trying to capture her or kill her, it would be a wise move on their part, considering how often and spectacularly they'd failed in the past.

The message blinked out, and Mal turned a speculative eye on River. "What do you think about it, River?"

"She's not being completely truthful," River said quietly. "Her body language spoke more than her words."

"Any idea what part weren't completely truthful?" Mal asked.

River shook her head. "The warrants will be easy enough to check, but the Academy—I don't know how they could afford to shut it down. There were others, my classmates…what happened to them?" She shivered. "They didn't have anyone to rescue them."

The thought of River's so-called school had crossed Mal's mind on more than one occasion, and the notion of a whole caboodle of trigger-happy, brain-washed teenagers with the ability to take down everyone in a crowded bar or wipe out several dozen Reavers single-handedly was not a comforting one.

Mal rested a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know, darlin'. Don't that I want to know. You think that's what she's lyin' about?"

"I don't know." River leaned her head back to look up at him. "Are you going to take the job?"

"Help the Alliance? Don't know about that. Might just tell them gou tsao de Parliament folks to stuff it."

"It would help the folks on the outer planets," River pointed out. "They need medicine."

"There is that, but there's other avenues for that, if the warrants are really gone. Besides, I don't want no business dealin' with the Alliance, even if they weren't lyin' about somethin'."