Disclaimer: All previous ones still apply. Joss is Boss. I'm just borrowing. No money in it for me, just reviews. Please write some. Thank you for all of those who have.

Author's Note: Written in one shot, I hope there aren't any gaping holes. I also hope you train buffs don't skewer me. Not much dialogue, so it's pretty short.

Breaking In

The back of the train approached steadily. From the speeding Mule, Jayne Cobb eyed it warily. When he was about ten feet from the rear car, he nudged the Mule to the left as he leaned the same direction trying to see something. He then nudged the Mule to the right, straining to see something, anything. Gritting his teeth and growling, he moved the Mule back behind the train.

"Gorramit!" he cursed, "Nothin' to grab on to."

Jayne continued to stare at the back of the train car looking for anything that might be of use. The smooth steel paneling, however, seemed to silently mock him in this mental exercise. There weren't any hand rails, ladders or doors. It seemed to Jayne that there wasn't anything there that would allow him onboard. The rear two windows seemed to him like uncaring eyes on a masked face.

Frustrated, Jayne picked up his right hand and pretended to poke at those eyes. Then the expression on his face became more thoughtful, and he looked down at the parking hook on the Mule. Looking back at the rear of the train, Jayne said to himself, "Yeah, might work."

Unslinging Vera from his back, Jayne curled the rifle under his right arm as he steered the Mule with his left. Sighting through the scope, Jayne carefully squeezed Vera's trigger, sending off a burst of bullets that shot out the right rear window. Satisfied, he set Vera down and drove the Mule up to the rear of the train. Jayne then raised the parking hook and hooked it through the broken window. As he pulled the lever to lock the Mule against the back of the train, Jayne heard a large metal groan. Freezing from a moment, Jayne looked everything over before uneasily saying, "Well, should hold."

After turning off the Mule's engines, Jayne reslung Vera to his back, and shimmied up the parking arm to the window. The additional creaks and groans coming from the back of the train car further unnerved him. At the window, Jayne carefully looked inside. He saw a variety of metal, wood, and plastic boxes stacked around a central pathway. The car was lowly lit by a few lights on the ceiling causing quite a few shadows. Jayne couldn't see any people, however, so he cleared the rest of the broken glass with his revolver before entering.

Jayne entered the train car head first, and, while looking down, he saw an old rusted tool box below the window. Once his torso was inside, he held on to the edge of the window frame, bent over at the waist, and flipped himself the rest of the way in while landing his feet on top of the tool box. He then jumped down into a crouch and drew his revolver. There had been fresh footprints on the tool box before he entered.

Silently, Jayne moved along the path between the stacks of boxes and crates. There were plenty of places for someone to hide in the dimly lit car, and Jayne didn't want anyone surprising him while he was trying to rescue River. As he approached the corner of a couple of stacked crates, he noticed a gap between them and another stack of boxes. Pausing next to the corner, Jayne heard shallow gasps. Jayne then silently backed up, holstered his revolver, and stepped noisily forward.

A yell burst forth from the shadows followed by wrench held by a thin arm. Jayne deftly caught the arm with his left hand and grasped the neck of the young man who followed with his right. He then swung his attacker hard against a stack of crates on the opposite wall. The young man cried out in pain and dropped the wrench. Switching hands on his neck, Jayne drew his revolver and pointed it at the young man.

"Who're you?" Jayne asked menacingly.

The young man raised his hands and closed his eyes as he turned his head away from the barrel of the revolver. "I'm the engineer," he said frightfully.

Jayne looked the young man over and asked, "Ain't ya kinda young to be runnin' a train?"

"It's, it's a freight train, cargo," the engineer stuttered, "It's mostly automated."

"Automated?" Jayne sneered. "Means it runs itself, so what're you here for?"

Jayne pressed his revolver against the engineer's cheek. The young man shivered and answered, "To wave the station every hour. I let them know where the train is in case something happens."

"When's the last time ya waved 'em?" Jayne asked urgently.

The engineer carefully looked at the chronopiece on his left wrist before looking away again and shakily saying, "Thirty minutes ago."

Jayne lowered his revolver down to the engineer's chest. "So ya got half an hour 'fore ya gotta wave 'em again, right?"

"No," the young man stated.

Jayne looked confused. "What! What d'ya mean?"

The young man continued looking away from Jayne. "I'm not waving them again. I'm not running the train anymore."

Jayne still looked confused. "So who's runnin' it then?"

"The two men in the first car. I was told to let them take over when they got on," the young man answered. Jayne noticed the young engineer's eyes were bloodshot, he was sweaty, and his fingers twitched.

Jayne patted the pockets on the young engineer's overalls. "So why ya back here?"

The young man continued to twitch. "They told me to stay far away. I really didn't want to be near them. They're creepy. Wearing blue gloves. I got as far away as I could."

"Anyone else on the train?"

"No, just the two men, me, and now you."

Jayne noticed the man was warm to the touch even through his clothing. It wasn't very warm in the car, however. In fact, there seemed to be a chill in the air. "What're ya on?"

The young man shot a frightened look towards Jayne. "Nothing!"

"Yer lyin'!" Jayne could see the flushness in the young man's cheeks. He holstered his revolver and grabbed the young man's collar with both hands. "I knows when a man's doped, so don't lie ta me."

"It's, it's just something to keep me awake," the engineer pleaded.

"Stims, huh?" Jayne thought for a moment and then held out one of his hands while using the other to hold on to the man's collar. "Hand 'em over."

"But I need them," the engineer continued to plead.

Jayne shook the man hard. "I need 'em more! Now hand 'em over!"

Reluctantly, the engineer opened a zippered pocket on his left sleeve and pulled out two small injectors. Jayne snatched the injectors from the young man's hands and stuffed them into his jacket. He then asked the engineer, "How do I get in the first car without those men knowin'?"

"Wh,wh,why do you want to do that?" The young man tried to back out of Jayne's grip, but couldn't.

"'Cause they got somethin' o'mine, and I wants it back. Now tell me how ta get in there 'fore I decide to use yer head to bust the door down." Jayne started to haul the young man to the front of the car.

The young engineer dug in his heels. "Wait! Wait! There's a way! The maintenance tube!"

Jayne turned back. "Th' what?"

The young man caught his breath. "It's a tube that runs under each car. They connect through the sleeve between each car."

"How's I get to it?" Jayne asked.

The young man pointed to a panel in the floor near the door and Jayne's eyes followed. "There are two access panels, one near each door. You'll need a socket wrench to open it."

Jayne looked back. "And when I need ta get in, I ask them to open up?" he asked sarcastically.

"No!" the engineer replied. "The bolts are slotted on the bottom, so you can use a screwdriver."

Jayne looked at the young man cautiously. He unholstered his revolver as he released his grip on the engineer, and said, "Show me."

The engineer retreated to the tool box by the rear window. The young man opened the box and pulled out a socket wrench, and an attachment that looked like a long, thin flathead screwdriver. He then moved to a square metal panel in the floor that was near him. Using the socket wrench, he quickly removed the four bolts holding the panel down and lifted the panel. Then he picked up one of the bolts and showed Jayne how the screwdriver blade fit in the bottom end. Jayne approached slowly and looked down the hole that the engineer was crouching beside. It was dark, but Jayne could tell it didn't go all the way through.

Jayne gave the engineer a satisfied look. "Time for you to get off."

The young man blinked. "You're not going throw me from the train?"

Jayne snatched the tools from the engineer's hands and then led with his revolver. "If ya keep whinin' like that, I will. Now get over by the window."

The young man reluctantly complied. Jayne motioned him to stand on the tool box and look out. "Think ya can drive that?" Jayne asked. Looking at the Mule, the young man nodded.

Jayne pulled out his talk-box and put it in the young man's hands. "Alright, ya take it and get clear a the train. When ya done that, ya call Malcolm Reynolds on that talker there and tell 'im where yer at. Ya got it? Malcolm Reynolds!"

The young man looked at the talk-box, then to Jayne, and nodded. "Malcolm Reynolds."

"And don'tcha think about runnin' off, 'cause if ya do, I'll find ya kill ya like I shoulda done right here." The young man nodded more hastily this time.

Turning back to the window, the young man hesitated. "It doesn't look safe out there."

Jayne cocked his revolver. "No safer in here. Now git!"

The young man pulled himself up through the window with Jayne's help and then crawled out. Jayne stepped up on the tool box and looked out the window to see the young engineer shimmying down the parking arm to the Mule. Continuing to watch, Jayne saw the young man power up the Mule and unhook the parking arm. Then the Mule drifted away off the tracks into a large dirt plain and came to a stop.

Uncocking his revolver, Jayne stepped off the tool box and headed to the front door. Having followed the train for some time, he knew that there were ten cars behind the engine. Still, he approached each door cautiously, just in case the engineer had lied about the number of people on the train, or if one of River's blue-handed friends hand decided to check up on the engineer.

Jayne paused in one of the cars. "Two by two, hands of blue?" he asked himself before shaking his head and continuing on.

When Jayne reached the first car, he noticed a strong light emanating through the frosted glass door. He knelt beside it and listened. He could hear hard soles clicking against the wood floor on the other side of the door. Having confirmed they were inside, Jayne moved carefully back into the second car and silently shut the door. He then removed the tools he received from the engineer and started to work on the access panel to the maintenance tube. Once the panel was off, Jayne lowered himself into the tube and replaced the panel over his head. He hoped no one would notice the bolts were missing, if they came looking.

It was dark inside the tube, but Jayne could see a few rays of light coming in through vents spaced along the shaft. These helped him to know when he was passing through the sleeve and finally underneath the first car. It was also very cramped, so he had to take off Vera and move with her in front of him. When he was underneath the rear access panel of the first car, Jayne lifted his head to listen to the conversation between the two men inside.

"The subject's blood sample indicates increased hormonal activity," one male voice said.

"Noted. We will need to apply regression therapy," another male voice responded.

There was a pause, before the first voice announced, "The subject's hymen has been ruptured."

"Then it is confirmed, the subject was sexually active," the second voice said. "Further neural stripping will be implemented."

This turned Jayne's stomach. They were talking about River like she was some machine that they were going to fix. Their hands were on her. Touching her and probing her for their own selfish needs. He was about to pound on the access panel with is bare fists before he heard one of the men say, "We have an intruder."

Jayne paused. "Institute countermeasures."

Jayne heard one of the men exit to the rear and the other leave through the front. The car was empty except for River overhead. Jayne quickly set to work undoing the bolts on the panel from below. Once the panel was off, Jayne pulled himself up into the car and looked around. The men were definitely gone.

Standing up, Jayne saw two folding chairs next to a collapsible table that had a computer tablet and a bag that resembled Simon's med-kit on top of it. On the opposite wall there was a squat wooden crate that had the Blue Sun logo and the words "Biological Specimen" painted on the outside. The crate had its top removed and Jayne could see River lying in a metal coffin inside the crate. As he knelt beside her, she looked to him like she was sleeping , but it wasn't the happy, contented sleep he had seen on her some mornings. She looked troubled, like she knew she was asleep and was trying desperately to wake up.

A thought hit Jayne. "Hold on, sexy. I'm here and I got somethin' to help you fight the stuff they put in ya."

Setting Vera down beside him, Jayne pulled out one of the stim injectors and looked for needle marks on River's arm. He found a small circular bruise in the middle of the crease of her left elbow. He took a deep breath as he placed the needle of the injector over it and pressed the needle in. He felt the needle go in and the injector react. Then he pulled the needle out and let the injector fall to River's side.

The train car lurched, causing Vera to slide to the floor. Jayne looked around, and after seeing nothing, he started to shake River. "C'mon girl, ya gotta wake up, so's I can getcha outta here."

River remained unconscious despite Jayne's pleas. After some more shaking, Jayne pulled out the other injector. "Alright girl," Jayne said, "I'm guessin' ya need s'more help."

The front door slid open and a heavy-set man in a dark pinstriped suit, gray shirt, and blue gloves stepped in. Surprised, Jayne looked at him, dropped the injector, and reached for Vera. The heavy-set man ran in, stepped on Jayne's rifle, and kicked the mercenary across the face. This sent Jayne crashing back against the chairs and table on the opposite wall. Jayne then tried to reach for his revolver, but found his arm being twisted behind his back. Looking back, he saw the rear door closing and a thinner man in a dark suit twisting his arm.

The thinner man looked at the heavy-set man and said, "Countermeasures have been instituted."