"Please try to hold still." Rachel sighed and relaxed under Doctor Chen's grip, letting her button-down shirt dangle in her free hand. He shifted his fingers slightly to the left. "Do you feel that?"

"No."

He nodded absentmindedly. "All right. The local's had time to start working." He leaned over to the instrument table and picked up a weave suture, then immediately began working the thin blue stitches into the captain's upper arm. "So, how exactly did this happen? If you don't mind my asking."

Rachel shrugged with her free shoulder. "Fell into a corner durin' that fantastic landing Mona just pulled." She looked over at the doctor's progress, and saw that he was smiling. "Somethin' funny about that?"

Leopold stole a glance up at her bemused eyes, then looked back down to his work. "No, not at all, it's just…when my uncle said we had to head for the frontier and that I might have to bring my skills into play, I imagined I'd be treating…" He shook his head.

Rachel was looking at him again with interest. Over the past week since he and Sir Anderson had come on the ship, she'd seen more and more of a wild streak on the young doctor. "What?"

He shrugged dismissively. "I don't know. Bullet holes. Knife wounds, laser burns, grenade shrapnel, like that."

Rachel smiled just a little. "You're saying you wish we got wounded more often?"

"Well…" The doctor paused for a moment, as if seriously thinking about it. "Not more often, just more…creatively." He grinned, and Rachel's smile widened momentarily. "Just, since we left Paquin, I've treated a headache, an ingrown toenail and, lest I forget, a severe case of the hiccups."

Rachel grinned as she thought back on Daphne's 'medical emergency.' "I kinda wish you'd left her like that, now you mention. Seemed like we'd finally struck a surefire way to keep Daphne from talkin'."

"You two really don't get along, do you?" Leopold pinched the sides of the applicator and the severed end of the last stitch adhered to the rest. "Why is that?"

"We have different styles."

"Yeah, I noticed that right off. Still, the way she talks to you, it's almost like…" He let the sentence trail off.

Rachel's smile faded. "Got things need attendin'." She lifted herself out of the exam chair and slipped her blouse up over her undershirt, buttoning it half-way up as she headed for the door.

Leopold set down the applicator and took a step after her. "Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry…"

Rachel paused, then spun back to face the infirmary. "No, it's…fine. I just don't talk about…" She cleared her throat. "Thanks for the weave, doctor."

"Please, call me Leo."

Rachel slid her eyes up to meet his, and the ghost of another smile passed over her face. "Course…Leo." It looked as if she was about to say something more, but instead her gaze faltered. "We'll be on Persephone a day. You need any supplies, tell Saul or Mona, they'll be makin' a run this afternoon." Leo nodded. Again, the captain looked as if she was going to speak, then turned back toward the door and, without a word, stepped out toward the stairs to the upper level.

Mona confirmed Artemis' departure time on the interface and leaned back in the pilot's seat, causing her to nearly fall over as the receiver began to buzz. Rachel stepped onto the bridge just as Mona brought the wave on screen. "Perfect timing, Cap'n, just got a message on local band."

"Who from?"

"See for yourself."

Rachel leaned over the chair to look at the front console. "Bu lai ji xiang. You're sure this is for us?"

Mona shrugged. "Our registry's in the receipt column."

Rachel shook her head in amazement. Based on what she'd heard of the man, this could either be very good or very bad. "Send a response. Tell him we'll be by." Dex climbed the stairs to the bridge, wiping engine grease on the legs of his jumpsuit.

"Happy to report that, just this once, we seem to have landed without a single critical part goin' boom. Nice flyin', ai zi wa." He ruffled Mona's hair and she squirmed out from under him, her nose wrinkling in mock disgust.

"Surprised you had enough time to do a check at all. Figured you'd be off jie wen bu chi yu with Mariah…"

Rachel had to shake her head as Mona grinned and Dex turned beet red. The two treated each other like brother and sister. Sometimes, it was cute. Others, it started to grate on the nerves. This was quickly becoming the latter. "Za suo you geng yao you xian…" The pilot and mechanic both backed off, shooting apologetic glances at the captain. "Mona, ask Mariah or the do…Leo to go with you when you head out for supplies. I'm gonna take Saul and Dex with me."

"Where we goin'?"

Rachel tapped the screen with an outstretched finger. "We got an audience."

Dex adjusted his glasses and peered through at the wave. "Ci fo. I've heard of this guy. S'posed to be a big player in the underground here. Real xiu ji dan. What's he want with us?"

Rachel shrugged. "Job?"

"When do we meet him?"

Rachel was already headed down the stairs. "Soon as we get there. Oh, and Dex?" He paused his steps after her. She looked down at the oil-covered gray jumpsuit. "Change." She turned back down the hall. "We want to make a good first impression, after all…"

"So who is this ao huan, anyway?" Saul was a pace behind Rachel, on the opposite side as Dex, who smiled at the question.

"Figured you would've run across him your last job."

The cook elbowed his way through the dense crowd that mulled about the Eavesdown docks. "Yeah, well, bountyin' don't make you as many friends in low places as you might think. Some reason, wanted criminals didn't seem to buddy up to me." Rachel glanced back over her shoulder. For the first time in recent memory, Saul had very nearly made a joke.

"Well, in the grand scheme, he's nothin', but he's a higher rung o' nothin' than we are. Got his hands in everything, so I hear."

"Rach, you sure we oughta be dealin' with folk like him? Mean, cargo work ain't gettin' any more lucrative, but th' last thing we need is all our faces showin' up on a wanted poster."

Rachel sighed. "I'm not sayin' there ain't truth to that. But we've taken illegal jobs before, and it wouldn't hurt to have the extra cash in hand. I think it's worth the risk." The trio fell silent as they approached a compartment building set up off the main road, two very large men with very large guns flanking the door. They raised the weapons as Rachel approached, hands spread wide. "I'm Rachel Wu. We have an appointment." One guard glanced at the other—he nodded. The first guard slid the door open and the three were admitted into the shadows of the office, a stark contrast to the merciless heat of the noonday sun.

"Captain Wu." The chair at the far end of the room, partially obscured behind a desk and flanked by two more large guards, swiveled around to reveal a scrawny man with a hawkish nose and beady eyes. The new arrivals shifted nervously under his gaze, and Badger's features curled into a thin smirk. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

…

Rachel nodded cordially to Badger, not quite sure how to respond. As cliché as it might have seemed, she had quite honestly expected him to be taller. Granted, he looked to be taller than she was, but that wasn't much of a feat. Rachel cleared her throat. "Pleasure's ours, sir. This's my mechanic Carl Dexter, and my cook, Saul." Badger nodded politely, and Rachel looked around for a place to sit down. There were no chairs in the office except the one Badger was sitting in—this man obviously didn't want to his guests to forget their place. He wanted to keep them on edge. And that was exactly where Rachel was. "To what do we owe the honor of this meeting? The wave didn't…"

"Aw, just wanted the chance to meet you, zhen qing. You're startin' to get a reputation, and I make it a point to know everyone's lookin' to make a name for themselves."

Rachel looked at Dex, a little surprised. He shrugged. "Not to sound overly humble, but who exactly we got a reputation with?"

"Oh, only in select circles. Word reached my ears, for instance, from a mutual business associate." He turned toward the navy curtains that separated the office from whatever room was behind it. "Won't you join us now, Cap'n?"

As the heavyset red-haired man parted the curtains, Rachel's eyes widened and her hand instinctively went to the small of her back, where her ten-shooter would have been resting, had it not been in its holster on her bed back on Artemis. They'd all come unarmed—they had, after all, wanted to make a good impression. Captain Farr grinned.

"So, Cap'n Farr. These the ones managed to bully you out of the fifth of that fruit was comin' my way?"

Rachel swore silently to herself. It never went smooth…

"Yessir. That's them."

Badger grinned and turned back to his captive audience. "See, I had a pretty solid arrangement with Mr. Farr, 'ere. He uses his ironclad negotiatin' skills to make one of those crates disappear, it comes my way and I make it worth 'is while. Can anyone 'ere tell me why that song didn' play?" Rachel glanced silently back at her companions. Dex and Saul looked sidelong at each other, then nodded. If they each jumped a guard at the same time, Rachel might be able to take down Farr. Badger's beady eyes flitted around the room. "No takers? Allow me, then…" The crew of Artemis tensed. Their timing would have to be perfect if they were going to take out the guards before they could react. "The explanation is that you…" he pointed a thin finger at Rachel, "know 'ow to make a deal work in your favor." Rachel blinked, and the coiled energy she had prepared to spring on them evaporated into confusion.

Everyone was looking at Badger now. Captain Farr's face had twisted into a scowl. "What the bei pan zhe ku zi're you pullin', Badger? You said they was gonna get what's comin' to 'em!"

Badger lifted his hands wide as his guards raised their guns toward the fuming smuggler. "They are. Point of fact, you both are." He gestured simply to the guards, and they walked toward Captain Farr, pushing him over to the front door. "I don't think I'll be requirin' the Morningstar's services anytime soon, my dear Cap'n."

Rachel dodged away from him passively as Farr was marched past, swearing bodily at her. She smiled flatly. She was starting to get used to that. Once he was outside and the silence settled back over the office, Badger smiled and gestured for the three to sit on the dining chairs three of his slaves had just dragged into the room. "Well, well, then…looks like I have a job opening."

Mona and Mariah walked at the head of the group, Mona pointing out each of the tiny curio shops and gaudy boutiques that swarmed Persephone, and Mariah nodding approvingly or wrinkling her nose in comic disgust with each new fashion suggestion. Leo would have liked to walk closer to them, but his uncle preferred hanging back, complaining. "Shang Di, this planet's hot. How can you stand it? I've inhaled more of this prairie dust already…"

Leo shook his head and grinned. "Would you rather be back on that big, empty ship, all by yourself?"

"Yes, absolutely."

Leo chuckled and took a deep breath, glad to be breathing something that hadn't been routed through an atmosphere pump for the last week. "I think it's amazing." He gestured to the tumult around them. "I've been reading about this life since I was a boy. I've always wanted to know what it was like out here…"

Sir Anderson cast a frown at his nephew. "I refuse to believe that we are related."

"Leo, come on, you've got to see the corrals!" Mona was jumping up and down waving at the edge of a rickety fence behind which a great number of gray and white sheep were milling about.

Leo shrugged. "Girl says we've got to see the corrals."

Sir Anderson scowled and made a futile attempt to knock the dust off of his pant leg. "I'll wait here. Tell me if the sheep were everything you hoped for."

Leo thought about trying to persuade his uncle but, finally, tore himself away and allowed the teenage pilot to drag him to the corral to pet the sheep. Mona giggled as the doctor gingerly patted one of the ewes—then twitched back as the sheep shook free of his hand. Mariah smiled as she leaned over the side of the pen, her eyes on a lamb standing apart from the rest of the flock.

"Come here, little one." Mona and Leo both turned to look at her as Mariah made kissy noises at the shy creature and, to their amazement, it eventually began to edge toward her. Mariah cooed as the lamb nuzzled against her hand. "That's a good girl." Leo shook his head in astonishment, and Mariah looked up at him. "You want to pet her?"

Leo patted the lamb's back gently, but his focus was on Mariah. "How'd you do that? I can't even get the bloody creatures to stand still for me."

Mariah shrugged. "Maybe I'm just non-threatening."

Leo smiled, in what he could only hope was a dashing manner. "Oh, so I'm threatening?"

Mariah smiled a little. "Maybe to sheep."

As he petted the sheep, Leo's hand managed to come to rest on top of Mariah's. She blushed and looked down at the fence, but Leo didn't remove his hand right away. Luckily, before the doctor could say anything, Mariah was rescued by Mona pulling on her shoulder. "Come on, we still have to go shopping!"

As Leo fell back into sync with his uncle, Mona leaned up toward Mariah's ear. "So, what do you think of Leo? He's really nice, huh?"

Mariah cast an uneasy, almost unnoticeable glance behind them, where Leo was staring at her instead of listening to his uncle's complaints. "Yeah. Nice."

Rachel glanced uncertainly at Dex. It certainly wasn't the kind of job they were used to. They'd done some smuggling, as had nearly everyone who owned a Firefly, but never something this clandestine. Badger broke the silence. "You interested or not, love?"

Rachel cleared her throat. "Well, we got a standin' policy of not turnin' down high payin' work, but…we ain't arms dealers."

"Got no need to deal. Buyer's already set up. All you got to do is get the goods there."

Rachel sighed. This was an easy job. The route had almost no Alliance oversight, and the fact that the buy was already secured meant the only work was loading the crates into the cargo bay. That meant there was something he wasn't telling them. Was this a trust exercise, to see if they'd follow orders? Rachel sighed again. Whatever the catch was, the take had better be worth it. "All right."

Badger grinned. "Excellent choice, Captain. My men'll bring the shipment by your boat this evening."

As the guards led them out into the sun, Dex leaned closer to Rachel. "You sure about this?"

Rachel frowned. "No, not really. But folk like us can't just say no to folk like him. If there's a problem comes up, we'll deal."

Dex nodded and stepped back to walk beside Saul. Best friend or not, he hoped she knew what she was doing.

…

As Rachel and Dex slid the first crate into the oblong smuggling compartment near the stairs, Saul cracked open the other box and ran his fingers across the barrel of one of the sleek weapons. Unprofessional as it might have been, he finally couldn't resist lifting one of the rifles out, just to test its balance and feel its weight in his hands. As she looked up from the compartment, Rachel smiled in spite of herself and nudged Dex. He grinned.

"Should we leave you two alone?"

Saul remembered himself and, with an embarrassed grunt, lowered the gun to his waist. "Think the buyer'd let me keep one o' these?"

Rachel shrugged. "Not on your salary."

Saul nodded, then glanced down at the gun longingly. "Can I have a raise?"

Rachel smiled. His first few months had been awkward, but Saul was finally starting to fit in. He even lifted weights with Dex during their downtime. "Wo men jiang chou. Just get it stowed. I'd rather not have to…" Rachel heard a tap at the door frame behind her and cursed under her breath. Too late.

Sir Anderson straightened out his coat as he stopped dead in the door between the lounge and the cargo bay, Leo trying in vain to get out from behind him. "I apologize, Captain, I don't mean to interrupt, I was just wondering…" He stopped wondering. Despite Dex's attempts to sidle between it and Sir Anderson, it was clear he could see the pentagonal hole in the wall, to say nothing of the terribly expensive-looking weapon the cook was holding. His face twisted into a knowing scowl. "I didn't realize we were taking on cargo at Persephone."

Rachel cleared her throat. "Sir, I…I realize what this must look like, but—"

"Oh, really, Captain? And what exactly does it look like?" Leo tried to restrain his uncle with a look and a touch on the shoulder, but the old man jerked free of his nephew's hand and strided into the cargo bay. "Because to me it looks like my understanding that this was a legitimate transport vessel was less than accurate."

Rachel sighed. This was exactly what she did not need. "Look, your Lordship, I understand your position, I do, but—"

"I really don't think that you do, Captain. I am a loyal citizen of the Alliance. More importantly, I already have the largest crime family on Osiris hungering for my blood, and if there is one thing I do not need, it is for your unscrupulous dealings to make the federal government join them!"

"Guang cai bo, they're trying to help us…"

Sir Anderson waved off his nephew and stepped further into the cargo bay, the thought that he was facing down three criminals—one of whom was carrying a rather uncomfortable-looking Newtech rifle—apparently not enough to make him slink back to his bunk and mind his own business. "I am not going to endanger my life and the life of my nephew because you want to wei zhuang qing jie zhong tou ying you jin you bu bao xian!"

Rachel snapped forward as Dex and Saul shot a worried glance at each other. "Let me tell you something, your highness, I will do whatever I gotta to be sure my crew gets to eat and my boat gets to stay in the air. If our survivin' the only way we got offends your He Xin sensibilities, you may as well start packin', so's you can get the hell off my boat the second we touch air. And, by the way, if we were really the hardened criminals you seem to reckon, woulda shot you th' second you stepped into this cargo bay."

"All right, we got a course all locked in for Gloria Station, should be there in about…" Mona stopped halfway down the stairs and glanced around the cargo bay floor, at Sir Anderson and Captain Wu glaring at each other while Dex, Leo, and Saul shot each other nervous glances. She smiled painfully as they all finally looked up at her. "…I'll just…come back later, then."

As Mona retreated back toward the cockpit, Rachel spun back toward her crew. "Get the other crate put away." She whirled on Sir Anderson. "I'll understand if you want to spend the rest of your stay here in your room." She shoved past him, up the stairs toward the bridge. Sir Anderson gestured for Leo to follow him back toward the guest quarters but, after a moment's glance in either direction, Leo broke off and took the stairs after the captain.

"Captain, wait, please." Rachel turned around to meet Leo's eyes as he jogged to the top of the staircase after her. "I want to apologize for my uncle."

"Man wanted to apologize, he'd do it for hisself."

"He can be…stubborn. He used to be a barrister. The letter of the law…it's what he's comfortable with. Everything's black and white as far as he's concerned."

Rachel nodded, then cast an eye up at the young doctor. "What about you?"

Leo paused. "Those guns are illegal?"

"They are, 'cept for the Feds."

"Who are you selling them to?"

Rachel sighed. "The kinda folks could afford two dozen Newtech laser rifles and want to use 'em."

"I see." Leo's gaze dropped from Rachel's. "The rules are different out here. I don't quite know them yet." He shrugged. "I wanted adventure."

Rachel shook her head. "Look, Leo…even if your uncle gets off, there's no reason you have to…"

"Captain…"

"Rachel."

"Rachel…I'm all he has. As little as I know about life out here…he treats everywhere he goes like the Core. I owe him more than that. I mean, I'd like to…"

Rachel pulled her head back. She hadn't noticed how close their faces had gotten. "I gotta get to the bridge."

Leo watched her go. It was just as well. He hadn't really known what to say.

As they slid the second crate into the hiding place, Saul glanced up at the door to the lounge, then straightened up and cracked his neck. "Well, I'm gonna go get started on supper."

Dex squinted up at the big man. "What? It's nowhere near time for…" Saul flicked his eyes in the direction of the lounge and Dex swallowed the rest of the sentence. Saul cracked a barely-perceptible smile as he headed up the center stairs. Dex looked up and Mariah was standing in the doorway, smiling gingerly. "Hey, Mariah, it's good…how are you?"

"I'm fine." She stepped into the cargo bay uneasily. After what had just transpired, he couldn't blame her. "So…smuggling?"

Dex nodded. "Take it you heard all that?"

"From my room. Sound really carries in here."

Dex slid the wall panel back into place and stood up, pushing his wire-rim glasses back up over the tip of his nose. "'Specially when everyone's hollerin' at the top of their lungs." Mariah smiled. Dex took a deep breath. "Look, it's near five hours 'fore we hit Gloria. I mean, I don't know if, if maybe you…want to go up to the dining room and…I don't know, have a…"

"Dex, could you come on up to the bridge?"

The store of confidence Dex had been building up for the occasion began to funnel out toward his shoes. As he leaned over toward the comm, he tried to look at Mariah, to gauge what her reaction might have been if he'd managed to finish his sentence. Her eyes flitted up toward him, and he instead looked back down at the radio button. "Well, I…what's wrong?"

Rachel bent over the side console and squinted, scarcely able to believe it herself. "We're gettin' a distress call."

…

Daphne and Sir Anderson's arrival on the bridge made eight. The nobleman cast a cowed glance in Rachel's direction, but she ignored it. She had more important things to worry about right now. Daphne squinted toward the consoles from the back of the group. "What's going on?"

Mona flipped a toggle to isolate the signal. "We're receivin' a distress call."

Daphne blinked. "Receiving? You mean, as in the kind where we're not the ones in distress?" The Companion looked around Artemis' rickety cockpit, then nodded. "Well, that's refreshing."

Rachel frowned in her general direction. "Mona, what exactly are we lookin' at?"

Mona tapped a few controls and squinted at the panel. "Well, it…"

Dex leaned closer. "Is it automated or live?"

"Well, I haven't had…"

Sir Anderson stepped forward, scanning the black horizon. "Where's it coming from?"

"Hey!" The questions stopped as Mona shoved back from the console. "Best pilot on the Border, here. Let me work, xing bei ni men?"

Now that the other seven people on the bridge had stopped talking, Mona nodded, and scooted the chair back toward the console. "All right, then." She began to work at the controls. "It's coming from…what looks like a salvage scow, about…twenty minutes from here. It's a live signal, and…" Mona blinked in surprise and looked up at the captain. "We're gettin' a video feed."

Rachel nodded, her eyebrows creased in curiosity. "Put it on monitors."

Mona depressed two buttons and the image of a tired-looking middle-aged man faded onto all the screens on the bridge. "I'll play it from the beginning."

Mona tapped the control and the fuzzy image groaned to life. "Please…this is Captain Hyram Goode of Unified Reclamation Survey Ship 40190. We…we had an accident." The picture began to fade. "…still not sure what happened. My engineer's de…" The picture faded into gray snow again. "…stimate we have no more than two hours of air left. Qing fu chi wo men. Plea…" The picture faded, and then cut out entirely. The bridge was silent as Mona dropped the transmission from the screens.

"We have to help those people." Mariah shrank back a little as they all looked at her. "Don't we?"

Rachel sighed and looked at Mona. "When was this sent out?"

"Time stamp says…" Mona looked up at Captain Wu. She looked horrified. "Near two hours ago."

Dex's face twisted in empathy. "Think we can get there in time?"

Rachel glanced nervously at Saul, who shrugged. "Could be a trap, Cap'n."

Rachel nodded, then turned back to her pilot. "How many people on a ship like that?"

Mona bit her lip. "That's a Jonson Vertical. Standard crew's thirty-five."

Rachel let out a heavy breath. "All right, set a course. Get us there quick as you can."

The residents of Artemis began to drain out of the bridge. Dex, Mariah, and Leo headed aft, Daphne went down the stairs toward the cargo bay, and Saul settled into the copilot's seat. Rachel headed down into the front corridor, but Sir Anderson's hand slowed her. "Might want to be movin' that hand 'fore I do."

"I…I suppose I know what you think of me, but…Mr. Horton is right. I mean, I don't know everything about space travel, but this does seem like a rather convenient place for an ambush."

Rachel jerked her shoulder out of the old man's grip. "Yeah, you're right. It might be a trap. But what if it ain't?" She started down the hallway, leaving the noble standing. "Ain't gonna have thirty-five bodies weighin' me down. Don't suppose someone never got his hands dirty'd understand a thing as that."

Sir Anderson sighed. As much as it killed him to admit it, he did understand.

"Gravity's normal, and atmo's low but breathable, but we ain't gettin' any responses on wideband. We got a hard seal."

"All right, thank you, Mona." Rachel released the toggle on the radio receiver and pressed the button that caused the cargo doors to slide open. "Y'all ready?"

Dex nodded, strapping the tool harness over his jumpsuit. "You bet."

"Leo?"

The doctor nodded, looking more confident than she had ever seen someone about to waltz onto a desiccated ship to possibly deal with the bloated, oxygen-deprived bodies of the men and women who had called it home. The two men stepped forward, and Saul pulled the captain to the side. "Still think I should be goin' with you, ma'am."

Rachel shook her head lightly. "If anything goes wrong, I want you here to keep an eye on the women and children."

Saul nodded, then his eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. "Which one's Sir Chen?"

Rachel shrugged. "Hain't really made up my mind yet."

Saul almost chuckled, then nodded and stepped back into the cargo bay, shutting the doors behind them.

The ship's lights were out entirely in most places, with only a few flickering bulbs remaining. Dex and Rachel lit their flashlights, and motioned for the doctor to do the same. Waving the light around at the tight corridors, Leo examined the walls. There wasn't any damage, at least not that he could see. "How come there's atmosphere in here?"

Dex shrugged absentmindedly, tapping at the frozen keys of a computer access panel. "Could be they managed to get it repaired 'fore they…well, you know. Just took too long to get back to a breathable level. Can happen on a big ship like this."

Leo nodded appreciatively as Rachel moved ahead to examine the forks in front of them. "You really know a lot about machines."

Dex shrugged. "I guess."

"Where'd you study?"

"Did a few years at Pett Trade."

"Never heard of it."

"Yeah, well, it's a pretty small school. Back on Beaumonde. Anyway, mostly I just picked it up on the farm."

"Your parents were farmers."

Dex grew suddenly very silent. "Somethin' like that."

Leo eyed the mechanic, not entirely understanding his unease. He had assumed that the red-head had grown up on the Border or the Rim. It was certainly nothing to be ashamed of. "Hey, sorry, mate, just trying to make small talk."

"No, it's fine. Just forget it."

Leo nodded. "So…how well do you know Miss Boleyn? I mean, I've sort of been thinking about…" Dex narrowed his eyes at the doctor, then stepped forward to follow Rachel down the nearest corridor. Leo grimaced and fell into step a few paces after them. "Right." That was another thing to make note of.

Captain Wu darted her light around the corridor, at the bare walls of a ship that was more a place of business than a home. "Power's out."

"Whatever they got left's prob'ly keepin' life support and the distress beacon goin'."

Rachel squeezed the radio on her shoulder. "Mona, how do we get to the bridge from here?"

Mona glanced to the adjacent console at Mariah studying the schematics. The debutante pointed at a juncture headed from the airlock to the top of the craft. Mona nodded. "Straight on ahead, then turn back down towards th' center of the boat. 'S a set of stairs leadin' up into the command module."

"All right, we'll check it out." Rachel dropped her hand and turned back to see…empty corridor. "Dex? Leo?" She turned back they way they had been going and moved her hand back up for the radio. She saw of flash of gray and felt a dull pain in her upper cheek before she careened to the floor.

…

"So, you and the cap'n are fightin' again?"

Sir Anderson glanced at the young pilot. He had just come to the bridge to stretch his legs, and really wasn't looking for a conversation. "Yes, I suppose we are."

"Why?"

He sighed. "I don't know. I probably shouldn't have called her a criminal, however."

"Yeah, we criminals tend not to like that."

Sir Anderson glared at Mona. "How you can manage to be flippant at a time like this is beyond me."

Mona rolled her eyes. This guy needed to lighten up; he was almost as bad as Saul. "So, Andy…"

The nobleman's head snapped around, a horrified look on his face. "My name is Sir Anderson Chen. You should learn how to address your elders properly, Miss Ramona."

The pilot twitched. "It's Mona. Only my father calls me Ramona."

"Well then, you understand how I feel."

Mona sighed and nodded. "Perfectly."

"I think I'll head back to my quarters."

"All right. See you later, Andy."

Sir Anderson shivered and stepped off the bridge. This was the reason he had never reproduced. "I look forward to it, Ramona." As he went down the corridor, Sir Anderson could hear the pilot's muttered Chinese curses echoing down the hall, and a faint smile passed over his lips.

When Rachel opened her eyes, she thought she was blindfolded. But she didn't feel the blindfold. It was just very dark. She tried to move her hands—they were zip-tied. "Dex?"

A low groan drifted up from her left, then a shuffling sound. He was just regaining consciousness. "Rachel? What's going on, what are you doing in my quarters?"

Rachel shook her head. She loved the man like a brother, but, Buddha help him, he just couldn't hold his chloroform. "Leo, you in here?"

"Over here. They drug you too?"

"Yeah, with a handgun. Your arms tied?"

"Yeah. Been tryin' to break out since I woke up."

Rachel sighed. "You know, I am gettin' real tired of people takin' advantage of my kind and generous nature."

"You think the distress call was a plant?" said the vague outline to her left that was probably Dex.

"I don't know. We just gotta figure a way out of here befor…"

Rachel squinted as light flooded the room, which she now saw was a storage closet. Dex and Leo looked unharmed, but the man standing in the open doorway was probably looking to change that. "Which one o' y'all's in charge?"

Rachel immediately tried to lift herself to her feet. "I'm Captain Rachel Wu of the Firefly Artemis, now what the can chen shu ju…" The breath escaped from Rachel's body as the massive man kicked her back against the wall.

"Bi zuie, biao zi. You thank I'm stupid?" He looked around at the possible choices and decided that the dignified-looking man in black was the one she had been covering for. He hoisted Leo by his collar. "Come on."

Before Rachel could protest, the sasquatch yanked Leo outside and slammed the door—she and Dex were plunged back into darkness. "What the hell was that?"

"Guess he thought you couldn't be in charge 'cause you're a girl."

"You know, that usually works to my advantage." She could feel Dex pressing against her back, trying to help her up from the wall. With a grunt, she managed to stand up again, but her gut was killing her.

"Think the doc can take whatever they're gonna do?"

"Don't think anyone could. We have to get out of here." Rachel wracked her brain for a moment, then a flash hit her; her hair was still up. "Dex, they didn't take my hairpin."

"So?"

"So it's a knife."

"You keep a knife in your hair?"

"Yeah, 's somethin' wrong with that?"

"No, I just…how did I not know that?"

"S'posed to be a surprise. Think you can get it?" Rachel felt Dex's hands touch her back and begin to move up. Eventually, they got to her head, and began flexing around for the hairpin. "Up more."

"All right, got it." A moment later she heard a snap. "Okay, I'm out. Give me your hands."

She spun her hands in the direction she thought Dex was and felt a light poke into her palm. "Ow!"

"Sorry, sorry." Rachel felt the tie fall away and pulled her hands apart. Dex cleared his throat and passed her the knife as safely as possible in total darkness. "Now what?"

Leo looked up at the leader of the ragtag crew standing over him, grinning. It wasn't the man from the transmission, and they certainly didn't seem like the types Unified Reclamation would employ, even out here. "Who are you people?"

The haphazardly-shaven leader crossed his arms. "You first. 'Less you want us to call that pretty Firefly o' yours and tell 'em we just killed their captain."

"I'm not the captain, I'm the doctor, you idiot. Your ju ren qu dan shi wei xing nao friend couldn't tell us apart."

The pirate captain glanced up at the giant man, Hector. He shrugged. "All right, Penny, get t'others out here."

Dex was on the far side of the door as it began to open, and Rachel was flattened against the side closer to the opening. Rachel's arm snaked out as the small redheaded woman entered, pressing the knife expertly against her throat. Dex rushed in, relieving her of her gun, and Rachel pushed her back into the cell, sealing the door behind them as they left. "All right, first thing we gotta find our radios and get Saul over here."

"I don't see 'em. They musta took our stuff with 'em."

Rachel sighed and nodded. Dex tossed her the gun, and they took the last corner onto the bridge just as the captain began to inquire what was taking Penny so long. The rest of his crew had their guns out before Dex cleared the corner, but it was obvious to everyone that Rachel would have had the first shot, and she intended to use it. The pirate captain smiled wanly as she leveled the gun at his head. "See, this is exactly what I didn't want. Now we got a sit'ation to resolve."

Leo crawled over to the group and, as Dex cut his bindings, Rachel fingered the trigger threateningly. "Who the hell are you?"

The other captain shrugged. "Just folk, like yourself. Got a distress call, came lookin' 'bout twenty minutes 'fore you did. Thought there might be somethin' we needed."

Rachel's nose wrinkled in disgust. "You're vultures."

"You ain't got no right to talk, girl. You're here same as us."

"We came to help these people."

A few of the crew chuckled. "Yeah, well, they're pretty well beyond that."

"Saw to that yourselves, did you?"

"Gotta tie up your loose ends, girl."

"Yeah, well we're tyin' ours back to our ship, you got no objections."

The captain spread his hands. "No, not at all. Always do what keeps me from bein' shot."

Rachel smiled bitterly and retreated back down the corridor, keeping the gun on the captain until he disappeared around the corner.

As soon as they were gone, the captain leaned over to Hector and deVille. "You boys take the other corridor, kill 'em 'fore they get home." Almost as an afterthought, he grabbed Hector by the arm. "Try 'n keep the girl alive. Think I could find a use for 'er." The big man flashed a menacing grin.

Rachel was practically running. Given what she'd seen, she had some doubts as to the quality of the good captain's word. She spared a glance back at Leo. "Excitin' enough for ya?"

Leo barely had a chance to laugh and shake his head before he saw the huge pirate round the corner and level a sub-machine gun. "Down!"

Dex rolled around the corner of the T-shaped corridor as Hector opened fire.

Saul's ears perked up and he resettled the barbell. That was definitely gunfire.

Mona looked back as the cook's image filled the door to the bridge. "Heard shots. You gettin' anything on their radios?"

Mona glanced at the console. "No, nothin'."

Saul nodded solemnly. "All right, I'm gonna go check it out."

Mona nodded, then turned back to the communications panel just as it began to beep. "Saul…"

Mona pressed the display button. "This is Alliance Patrol Cruiser IAV Xian Cheng, responding to a distress call. All docked vessels stand down and prepare to be boarded."

Mona looked up for his reaction, but Saul wasn't listening. His attention was fixed on the green-and-gray city ship that suddenly filled the cockpit glass. "Never mind."

…

Rachel leaned around the corner, gun hand first, but the two men slid out of her view before she could fire. She checked the LED indicator on the side of the stolen pistol; there were six rounds left in the clip—less than half full. That was proof enough for her that these people had killed what remained of the UR crew. That, and the fact that two very angry men with assault weapons had them pinned down.

"Dex, do you see any other way to get back to the airlocks from here?"

The mechanic's eyes darted around at the corridors surrounding them as he muttered to himself about the dimensions of the ship. Finally, he pointed further down their path at a curving tunnel that faded in the half-lit distance. "That hallway turns back toward us, see?" Rachel nodded. "Means its followin' the curve of the ship. We stay with it long enough goin' t'other way, we'll reach the docking layer."

Leo peeked around the edge of the wall, then snapped back with a burst of gunfire. "If we go that way, won't they be able to cut us off?"

"Only if they know what we're doin'." Rachel glanced down the rounded corridor, then back toward their covered opponents. "We need a distraction."

"Easy. Surrender." Rachel and Dex looked back at him horrified. Leo shrugged. "Yell out that I'm hit and we're ready to give up. Throw…I don't know, something about the size of your gun out into the corridor."

"Then when they come over here, we circle around until they're a junction behind us again." Leo nodded curtly. Rachel shrugged in appreciation and turned to Dex, who grudgingly nodded.

"Good plan."

"Thank you. But we still need a gun."

Dex's gaze flitted around the tight corridor, and he smiled. "Knife." Rachel handed him the thin weapon, and he carefully cut a section of the exposed atmosphere duct away. With a few more deft cuts, he bent down a handle and held it in place with a 'trigger guard' cut from the end of the pipe and looped through small holes in the handle and barrel. When he was finished, the ten inch segment of plastic insulating pipe looked remarkably like a handgun. Leo whistled under his breath. "It's hard plastic, too, so it should make the right sound when it hits the ground."

Leo shook his head. "You think of everything, don't you?"

Dex shrugged. "Don't you?"

Rachel took the 'gun' and lifted her head just beyond the edge of the metal bulkhead. "Hold your fire! One of my men's hit. We're ready to give up!"

"T'row out th' gun!"

Rachel smiled as the mutilated scrap of plastic hit the floor grating with a suitable clatter. These cu lou were almost too predictable.

One eye over the edge of the wall, Rachel patted Dex on the shoulder as soon as the smaller man stepped into the corridor. Rachel followed the mechanic and the doctor as quietly as possible down the corridor, then turned left back toward their pursuers' original position. About the time they reached the next junction, Rachel heard the pirates' confused swearing and tromping boots. Wordlessly, the group broke into a run.

Saul eyed the smuggling compartment nervously. It was well-disguised, and they didn't have anything illegal on board except Badger's shipment, but it was still more than enough to put everyone on board in jail if the Alliance found it. Well, almost everyone.

"What's going on?" Sir Anderson joined Daphne and Mona as they headed down toward the cargo bay floor.

"Alliance's on their way. They're prob'ly boardin' the 40190 right now."

Daphne took the stairs ahead of everyone else. "Which compartment do you want me to keep them away from?" Saul gestured, and Daphne nodded. As she pursed her lips nervously, Sir Anderson lightly touched her shoulder.

"Miss Penn, I…you're a Companion, why are you helping these people commit a crime?"

Daphne shrugged, as if she hadn't even considered it. "When I asked for passage on the Border, they didn't ask what I was running away from."

"Well, they asked me."

Daphne's eyebrows leaned in critically. "With all due respect, your lordship, they didn't ask until you almost got them killed. You've just got to trust each other to survive out here."

Sir Anderson pulled his hand back and sighed as Daphne stepped forward and Mariah finally joined the rest of the passengers on the bay floor. From her quick conversation with Mona, it was clear that she was equally willing to lie about the cargo. Sir Anderson shook his head. He hadn't thought about it quite like that.

Rachel saw the first of the airlocks hugging the gentle slope of the hull. She could nearly see Artemis' bay doors farther down, but a chorus of bullets sent her diving into a shallow alcove opposite the docking ports. She fired two shots toward their furious pursuers as Dex and Leo dove for the other side, and Rachel followed them into the well of one of the airlocks. Dex looked around for any possible egress when something caught his eye. The pressure lock on the port they were trapped in front of—the light should have been orange. It was purple. Someone was docked there.

Before the mechanic could bring the fact to Rachel or Leo's attention, Hector and deVille rounded the airlock, guns raised.

"Well, warn't that excitin'. Exercise like that always gets ma appetite whet, don't it, Sid?"

deVille grinned. "Well, what you reckon we do now, Hector?"

"Well, I think we ought show 'em how much we appurciated that little chu zhong trick they pulled back there."

The shorter man grinned even wider. "I get t' appurciate 'er first."

"Oh, yeah, that's smart. Threaten the woman with the gun."

"We got more guns'n you do, girl. Maybe you ought show us a li'l respect, or we might just not turn you over t' Cap'n Jack after all."

The two shifted their guns as Leo stepped forward. "Just keep talking, ben zhuo jun lei. You don't really think we came here alone, do you?"

Leo was about to continue intimidating them, but he fell aside as the airlock doors behind them rushed open, and a surprised squadron of Alliance Federals hurriedly leveled their weapons at a significantly smaller but equally surprised group of pirates.

As the Feds moved through the crowd, attaching handcuffs indiscriminately and stripping weapons, Dex leaned toward the doctor. "How'd you manage that?"

"Manage what? I was just trying to buy us some more time."

Rachel shrugged as the Feds led the three of them away from the pirates. "Well, whatever works."

Rachel rubbed her wrists as the marshals led 'Cap'n Jack' and his crew off past Artemis' airlock, the standard litany of rights fading in and out as they passed. "…authority of the Union of Allied Planets, you are hereby bound by law. Your ship will be sold at auction and the proceeds contributed to the cost of your defense…" It was a recitation that, despite Daphne's shameless flirting with the men attempting to search the cargo bay, Rachel might be hearing again any minute. The officer in charge of this detachment had obviously served on the Rim for a while—once the men were finished with their inspection, he had them begin tapping on the bulkheads for hollow spots and, Daphne's increasingly indecent efforts aside, they were getting closer to the compartment by the stairs. Rachel cast a desperate glance back at the crew. Mona looked down at the floor, Dex shrugged helplessly, and Saul shook his head.

As the marshals moved to the second panel from the compartment, Sir Anderson stepped forward out of the tight crowd. Rachel cursed internally as the nobleman fished out his ident card and began to speak. "Commander, I assume we are nearly done here. I do have business appointments to keep."

The officer glanced down at the card reader and startled, bowing his head slightly. "Uh…apologies, your Lordship. Just standard procedure."

"I hardly think that manhandling my crew and turning my ship upside down are standard procedure. Or am I to understand that you believe my people to be less than trustworthy?"

The cowed officer cleared his throat and motioned for his men to return to the front of the ship. "Of course, Sir…I mean, of course not, Sir. You're of course free to…we need to file the men who perpetrated this act."

Sir Anderson smiled tersely as the Feds stepped down Artemis' boarding ramp and a shaken Dex pushed the button to close the cargo doors. Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. "Mona, get us aloft before they change their minds."

The captain walked up beside the elderly noble, still smiling. "Thought you were gettin' off."

"Don't be ridiculous." Sir Anderson sniffed and straightened his jacket. "You, my dear Captain, need to learn to trust people."

As Sir Anderson padded back toward the guest quarters, his nephew offered to escort Mariah back to her room, Dex shot the doctor a jealous glance, and Rachel grinned.