Disclaimer – I don't own anything apart from the idea itself

A/N: Thank you for reviewing the story

The White Sun system – Aboard the Firefly

The captain of the Firefly watched with folded arms as Toby ducked down beside the metal cylinder. Though he was trying not to show it, Mal was becoming more and more intrigued and desperate to find out what was inside. The first thing he thought it could be was supplies, or something valuable which he could sell on the black market.

"How much longer is this going to take?" Mal asked impatiently. He was beginning to wonder what Toby could be after in the container.

"Not much longer, there is a reason Jesse made this metal box, because he didn't want it to be opened unless it was absolutely necessary, but I need to get the ship away, before the Authority catch up to us. There's a price on the ship itself and you seem like you have enough on your plate. I mean, with all the black market and unlicensed dealings that are going on." Toby jumped back as the final click echoed in the silent hanger. "Right," he murmured, opening the cylinder a little.

Mal peered around to see the inside of the cylinder, but Toby seemed suddenly agitated.

"No, wait!" he snapped, stuffing something in his pocket and slamming the cylinder shut. "I've got what I need, so I'll be on my way. The cylinder is all yours. Pleasure doing business with you, Captain Reynolds." Toby held his hand out to Mal, who reluctantly shook it.

After Toby and the small spaceship had disappeared into the distant empty space, Mal could barely hold the excitement in, but he felt a small bit of doubt from Toby's recent actions and reaction when he opened the cylinder.

Placing his hands on the cylinder, Mal braced himself for what might be within. The metal didn't even feel cold to him and when he opened it enough to see what was inside, he instantly dropped the lid and staggered backwards. Feeling sick to the stomach, he held the back of his hand to his mouth.

"What kind of sick-"

"I take it you didn't find what you wanted then?"

Mal looked up to see Simon standing at the top of the steps with a slight smirk plastered across his face.

"No- of course I did."

"Why don't you let me take a look?" Simon walked down the stairs and put his hands under the lid of the cylinder. "Well, why don't you help me?"

Mal raised an eyebrow as if to say 'really?' but he eventually gave in and helped Simon lift the lid.

"Oh," was all that Simon could muster.

Inside the cylinder and what the pair were looking at, was something they had never seen before. It was a girl – a woman – she had some familiar looking injuries and her clothes were dirty with cuts and tears in them that were crusted with blood. Despite being in tatters, the girl wore a dark green shirt, brown trousers that sat high on her waist and had braces hanging down and a holster was attached to a loose belt.

"What do you think that is?" Simon asked. "Do you think it's-"

"It's reaver alright, and I want it off my ship. And if I can't do that, I'll put a bullet in its skull."

Simon shook his head as Mal walked away. "I don't think so, the injuries may look like a reaver inflicted them, but she is still human."

At the mention of the word 'human', Mal turned back, squaring up to Simon. "If I say I want it off my ship, I want it off my ship."

Before Simon could say another word, Mal shut the cylinder and walked up towards the hull. The young doctor debated hiding the cylinder to run tests on it, but decided against it – Mal was angry enough with him and he didn't need another excuse to make everything worse. Simon paced up the stairs after the Captain when he was met by Kaylee.

"Hey Simon," she said, smiling broadly.

"Kaylee… I was just going to the-" Simon pointed down the corridor.

"Me too!" she interrupted, pulling him that way.

The pair passed Jayne who strode in between them, heading for the hanger to get a quick peek at the cylinder's content, but when he reached the hanger, the lid was at a right angle, propped open. As he got a closer look inside it, Jayne was irritated when he saw that it was empty.

"Wow… That was not worth the health scare," he muttered.

A gentle snarling growl could be heard in the corner which alerted Jayne of the presence of another being in the hanger.

Instinctively, Jayne pulled out his pistol and held it pointing upwards. Nothing was going to stop him missing the target. He followed the sound of the growling, towards the corner of the hanger. As he reached the comms unit, he held the button down to patch through to the hull.

"Somehow, I don't think that it was a good thing in that metal casket."

"What?" he heard Mal reply.

"The casket's empty…"

The silence told Jayne no one else was expecting the metal cylinder would be empty. Jayne still couldn't resist a good chase with the aim to kill. When he was sure which crate the intruder was behind, Jayne aimed a warning shot to the right of the crate, so that it would escape around the left.

Just as he thought it would, the intruder crawled out the left side, ready for a kill shot from Jayne.

"Jayne!"

The shout caught Jayne off guard and he completely missed the intruder who cowered back in the corner. Gritting his teeth, Jayne turned to see Simon, Kaylee, Zoe and Mal standing along the walkway above him.

"Jayne, come this way, slowly and carefully," Mal suggested strongly. "Seeing as everything is already harnessed down in the hanger, we can just easily flush it out the airlock. Clear the hanger!"

"Mal – we need to be reasonable," Simon sighed. "At least let me carry out some tests on her. I just want to clarify a few things first, and if I can cure it I need to be sure…"

"No one is going near that thing," Mal replied once Jayne was at the bottom of the stairs.

"So it's true, we have an unexpected guest on the ship."

Everyone turned to see Inara walk across towards them in a majestic manner.

"It's nothing you need to worry about, Inara," Mal ushered the others out from the hanger.

Inara grabbed his arm, "Is that her?" she asked, looking at the woman crouching on the floor and simply observing the crew. "I have to agree with Simon on this one, Mal. We can't just flush her out, because we don't understand something. You of all people should remember that." Inara stared at Mal with eyes full of memories that they shared.

"Well I don't think we should just kill it… Simon's right, he might be able to find a way to save her before it's too late," Kaylee added boldly, just so that she would be heard.

"I wonder why," Jayne muttered quietly.

Simon disappeared down the walkway, towards the infirmary.

"Stop," the young woman called out. Her cleaner hand shot up to her forehead. "No!" Her scream echoed throughout Firefly.

The crew watched her cautiously as she got up to her feet.

"Jay- Jay-."

"Is she- is she saying, Jayne?" Kaylee asked, leaning forwards a little, thankful for the distance between her and the new inhabitant – if that is what the content of the metal cylinder may be called.

Inara held up a finger. "No, it doesn't sound like Jayne, Jaydah, or Jaina maybe- there's definitely an extra syllable in there."

Appearing a little rattled and annoyed that someone had taken his kill shot, Jayne pulled out his gun from its holster and squeezed the trigger.

The woman threw herself towards Jayne as soon as the gun was taken out of its holster. Caught off guard, Jayne crashed to the floor feeling a crushing pain in his back. The woman cracked Jayne's gun hand down on the metal floor causing it to drop from his grip before she rolled away behind another crate.

All that could be heard was her heavy breathing. Simon slid rapidly down the stairs, past Jayne as he got up, a grimacing look on his face.

"Be careful, Simon," Kaylee said quietly, watching Simon open up the case he had picked up from the infirmary.

"I'll be okay," Simon replied calmly, flicking a syringe and watching a tiny bit of liquid squirt out on the floor. "Here we go…" Carefully, the doctor approached the young woman who looked more like a girl to him.

In a swift movement, the injection was administered. Within less than a minute, the woman slumped down so that she was lying face down on the hanger deck. Taking her wrist, Simon inserted a needle into the flesh and watched as a connecting tube started to fill a bloodbag on the other end.

"What are you going to do, Simon?" Zoe queried, overthrown with curiosity.

"You'll see in due time," Simon replied.

After plugging the blood into a reader that the Firefly crew had looted many moons ago, Simon found something incredibly intriguing.

"That can't be right. No, it can't, because that's impossible." Simon looked between the screen of the device and the unconscious part reaver girl that lay motionless on the medical chair.

"You going to say what's so impossible, right Simon?"

Simon felt himself jump, startled by the voice of the ship's captain by the door.

"Something peculiar. Not only are her antibodies fighting the reaver infection, but her DNA has an identical base sequence to yours. Your DNA and her DNA show too much of a similarity for you to not be related."

Mal frowned, unable to comply with what Simon was saying.

"Congratulations- I guess?"

But the captain shook his head. "No- not in the world. It makes no sense."

"Captain!" Wash yelled out from the hull of the ship. "We've got a problem!"

Mal quickly abandoned Simon and headed to the hull. "What's the problem?"

"Just the fact that our number one fan has found us once again- and I don't think they're after your autograph this time."

One of the computer screens showed up with a senior officer from the Authority sitting behind a console.

"Captain Reynolds of the Serenity class ship called Firefly, you are ordered to stand down and prepare for boarding."

"And we can't outrun them either – we've just about got enough fuel to get to the nearest planet," Zoe whispered quietly, squeezing Mal's arm, she knew all too well that this was his usual plan of action.

"This is Captain Reynolds – why don't you tell us what business you have coming aboard and then we'll discuss having a little tea party?"

"You are in possession of Jaina Reign- a subject of the Authority's, she is unstable and she needs to be returned to us before she becomes a risk to your crew."

On the screen, an image of the part reaver woman's face before a reaver attack appeared. Mal didn't know if it was just because Simon had told him that their DNA was so similar, but he was starting to see all these similarities between them. What caught his attention was the way that her surname had been spelt – Reyn.

So do I give her up? Mal thought to himself. I have to, she's not related to me, and I have to put my crew first…

Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = So I guess you didn't see that coming – (I'm guessing here – I've no idea!)