'If you don't shut the ship down, we're all going to die!' Jack shouted at Mal. Serenity started to shake.

'Can't we run?' Mal shouted.

'No time, no time! If you want to live, you'll shut the ship down! Go dark! Hide! Whatever! Just DO IT!' Without a second's hesitation, Jack flipped three switches and the ship's interior went dark. Meanwhile, Mal went down to the engine room.

'Kaylee! Kaylee! Kaylee, where the Hell are you!' Mal shouted as he walked around. He heard giggling and whispering from Kaylee's room. He knocked, almost politely. 'Kaylee? We need you up here in the engine room. Otherwise, we'll apparently crash, burn. And you know how mighty upset I get when there's the prospect of crashing and burning.' The was a sudden, deathly silence, then Kaylee spoke.

'Yeah, I know, Captain. I'm on it.' She said, as she climbed up the ladder, looking ruffled, and walked off into the engine room. The Captain turned to go back to the bridge when he heard a crash down in Kaylee's room, so he climbed down to investigate, and came across Simon putting on his trousers. There was an embarrassing silence, and Mal climbed back up and went back to the bridge. Jayne was standing over Jack with a bemused expression.

'What is that? Don't look like any Alliance ship I ever seen.' Jayne said, looking hard at the small, weirdly-shaped vessel that was floating many miles in front of them. An unearthly hum started to pulse around the ship.

'Oh, crap!' Jack said.

'What now?' Asked Mal.

'It's attacking!' He said.

'That ain't no attack. That's someone with a twisted idea of music, but that ain't no attack.' Jayne said. The humming grew louder, and Serenity began to shake. In the distance, an alliance scout was fast approaching the other ship. Then it exploded.

'What the gorram Hell was that?' Mal shouted.

'The consequences of an attack.' Jack replied, matter-of-factly. Suddenly, the lights dimmed and the engine stopped, along with the humming. Mal turned to Jack.

'Now if I'm not mistaken, you've got some explaining to do.' Mal told him.

'You wouldn't believe me if I told you.' Jack said.

'Try me.'


It was like a family photo. Mal was sitting at the head of the table, like the proud father; Inara, at his side, the doting mother; Zoe, with her eight year-old son Hoban sitting beside her, the aunt and nephew; Jayne, the uncle, sitting in his usual uncaring manner with his woolly hat; Simon and Kaylee, the son and his wife, with the seven year-old twins, Miranda and David; River, the daughter, sitting next to Simon, yawning. You had to look hard to see Mal's anger with the man at the other end of the table, Jack, the stranger into their life. Mal sighed. It had been nearly nine years since he'd had this much trouble. Nine years since the incident on Miranda. He had argued with Kaylee and Simon about calling their daughter Miranda, but their resolve was final. They wanted to call her Miranda for two very good reasons: A - It was a pretty name. B - They felt it was a final tribute to the people of Miranda, who they told the universe about. They thought it had a sense of finality about it. He'd thought Hogan, as beautiful and as bouncing as a little baby boy could have been, would have been the last. He knew he'd been kidding himself, with Kaylee and Simon in love and all. They got married about two and a half years after Miranda. Malcomn Reynolds had hoped that the peace would last. For the kids' sakes, at least. But then again, it had lasted nearly nine years. Mal knew from experience, howerver, that you could only have so much peace in your life, and the lives of others, before God went about presenting a bill for all that happiness. With interest.

'Well, Jack,' Mal said, 'Why don't you begin.' Jack cleared his throat.

'Captain, may I have a word in private?' Mal nodded and went over with Jack to the hallway.

'Captain, I don't think I should be discussing this in front of the children. It could give them nightmares.' He said.

'Okay, I'll go speak to them.' Mal walked back to the table. 'Hey kids, we're gonna have some adult talk here, so if you wouldn't mind runnin' along?' The kids turned to their respective parents, and with an encouraging nod, the three children left the kitchen.

'About four hundred years ago, there was-' Jack began.

'Four hundred years? What does that have to do with anything?' Mal asked incredulously.

'My dear Mal, it has everything to do with it.' Jack told him, before beginning again. 'As I was saying, about four hundred years ago, there was a scientist who experimented with gene therapy and DNA. He discovered, through three decades of trial and error, that he could make humans more accurate by removing cell deterioration of the eye; that he could make lungs recycle oxygen without breathing; that he could make skin into a Kevlar-like material, and make bones unbreakable. After many years of toil, he managed to create the formula for a very literal super-soldier. His most important breath through came near the end of his research, when he modified the cell regeneration rate in the human body to such a point, that he could make someone immortal. He then proceeded to transform himself. Stronger, faster, deadlier, immortal. After a while, he realised that nothing could stop him. He raged through cities, taking what he needed. But soon, he became bored with his life. He wanted to die, and by God, did he try. He stabbed himself, threw himself in front of trains and off buildings. He stood in the flame of a rocket, tied a bomb to his chest, even tried swallowing a grenade. Nothing worked. He lived. After a while, he went insane. He went into populated areas and massacred citizens. Nothing stood in his path. He called himself the Traveller, and everywhere he went, he left death and chaos in his wake. We managed, after many decades, to trap him, dig a hole two hundred metres deep and throw him down. After that, we covered it with cement.' There was silence. Mal decided to speak.

'Well, that's a pretty nice story you got there, but what does it have to do with you being here?' He asked. The rest of the crew turned from Mal to Jack, awaiting an answer.

'Two years ago, he appeared on the satellite moon Regan. Ten thousand were dead before we knew what was happening, and when we arrived, he had already left. I say "we", because I lead a crack team of soldiers working for a government initiative known as ATLAS. We deal with very serious threats. So-' Mal interrupted.

'Hold up. Does this mean you're an…Operative?' Jayne asked, carefully. Mal stared at him and there was the sound of a pistol being cocked. Jack smirked.

'Yes, I heard all about your incident with Miranda. It was very interesting reading, I'll grant you that. I am an Operative of sorts. But I am, in fact, far superior in every way to any of the Alliance's soldiers.' Mal put back his pistol, keeping one eye warily on Jack.

'What was that ship back there?' He asked Jack. Everyone looked round at Jack, waiting for an answer. He hesitated, and looked uncertain.

'I…I don't know. They started appearing around the same time he did. It freaks me out. They do something to other ships, and they travel as fast as some of our fastest. That's not the worst, though.' The whole group bent inwards, intent on hearing. 'They appear out of nowhere, scan a planet, then disappear. Not just run, just…disappear. I didn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.' He shivered. 'We came back the next day. We had left a prosperous central planet. We came back to a mixture of burning forests, boiling seas and rotting, burnt-out bodies. We didn't know what did it, but they were all…gone. Dead. Not a square centimetre of land left that wasn't charred. Everyone, everything dead.' The table had gone deadly silent. They were staring in horror at Jack. Jack sniffed. 'Bodies. Everywhere. No sign of what had done it, just death. No oxygen, no atmosphere, just death, burnt.' A tear appeared in his eye. 'We found something. A recording. It said that a ship, a gigantic ship had appeared overhead. Not Alliance, Independence, Reavers or anyone they knew. It was odd and all. Then, there was a bang. Boom. Screaming. Fire, spreading. Unstoppable. Explosion. Death, dying. Then it shorted out.' The room was deadly silent. Kaylee was crying into Simon's shoulder. Zoe, Mal and Jayne were just staring at him, mouths open.

'This Traveller fella seems to be causin' a lot of unnecessary trouble, now.' Mal said, after a period. 'I don't think we could be helping you out, killin' the Traveller and all that.' Jayne shrugged.

'Sounds like a challenge to me. Jus' load up Vera and introduce her to this Traveller fella.' He said. Jack chuckled. Louder. Finally, he burst out laughing, and went on for about a minute. After that, he wiped the tears from his eyes and looked into Jayne's. He stopped laughing.

'You can't be serious.' Jack said.

'Oh, but he is always serious.' Mal said. Jack looked at both of them for a long time before speaking.

'Let me show you something. Wait here.' He said and walked out to his room. When he came back he was carrying a large, ominous bag. 'You see,' Jack said as he plonked the bag down on the table, 'My clearance allows me to have the best weapons known to man. One of the chief candidates for that title is this.' With that, he unzipped the bag and pulled out a weapon as big as the bag itself.

'Oh, good gorram.' Jayne said.

'What IS it!' Kaylee asked.

'This,' Jack told them, clearly enjoying himself, 'Is the Paragon cannon. A small version for individual infantry. It fires continuous beams of energy, which have the same effect as being struck by a lightning bolt every thousandth of a second for a near-limitless period. It could put a hole clean through this ship, and kill everything on board in little over a second.' Jayne stared at it, wide eyed.

'What's your point?' Mal asked.

'These are the best weapons in the galaxy for foot-soldiers. The Traveller barely gets a scratch.' There was a silence.

'River, how did you know that?'

'Flowing through your head, a stream of song, wretched, deadly song. Such sadness. You cram hankies into your ears, blocking the screaming. It never works.' Jack stared at her. There was silence. Mal cleared his throat.

'We'll discuss this in the morning. Right now, I think we all need some sleep.' Mal said. Jack kept looking at River as they walked out. She looked over at him right before she left.

'You couldn't have saved them. You know it.' And with that, River went to bed.


Author's note: I know I throw you right into the story, but I'll explain later. Probably.