A/N: I'm not sure why, but despite knowing exactly what I want to happen I found this chapter insanely difficult to write. It took me two hours to write 600 words, and I'm still not entirely happy with the end result, so sorry if it's not very good. I've worked out that the xenomorphs aren't going to make an appearance for another couple of chapters, but I'm hoping that by the end of this chapter or the next one it's going to be clear how they become a threat.
Updated A/N: This is a partially rewritten version of the chapter thanks to a review I received from JoeEngland, who pointed out that some aspects of the original were somewhat implausible. I've made a few alterations which I hope make the events in this chapter more believable. I also intend to address the point he made about River, but in a later chapter which will explain how and why things worked out this way.
Chapter Five – Offloading
They were just about to reach the steps to the bridge when the message radioed over the ship's loudspeakers. "Firefly class ship Serenity, this is Captain Hallerton of the Alliance capital vessel Meridian. You are ordered to hold course and prepare for boarding."
Up until that point none of them had suspected that they might've run into the Alliance, but immediately after the message finished the three of them stopped walking and exchanged worried glances with each other."Ok, if that's the Alliance, why are we still flying?" Mal said, not understanding why they hadn't been blown out of the sky yet. In the two months since Miranda they'd managed to steer clear of Alliance vessels, but Mal had thought that if they did run into them again they were pretty much done for.
"I don't know, sir," Zoe said, looking equally confused and apprehensive, "But if they're looking to board us then maybe they think we've got something on the ship that they want."
Mal looked at her grimly. "You mean like that crate?" he said, "'Cause that's the only thing we've picked up recently that isn't food or ammo."
Zoe nodded. "A mysterious crate with some unidentified dangerous creature in? I can see the Alliance wanting to get hold of that."
"Yeah, I can see them wanting to get hold of it too," Mal responded, "What I can't see so much is how they know we've got it on board, or why we just happen to be the ones carrying it. Even when I deliberately avoid taking jobs that involve stealing Alliance goods it seems I end up running into them anyway."
"Maybe we're just real unlucky, sir," Zoe said dryly, although she agreed with him that there was something off about the situation.
"This ain't just coincidence," Mal continued, "If they've not started shooting at us yet then there's something else going on here." He then turned to River. "River, you're a reader. Any chance you can read them from here? 'Cause it'd be real helpful to me to know what they're after."
River nodded as she understood what he was asking, and then stared at the floor in concentration. As a few seconds passed her expression grew gradually more confused, and then she shook her head. "It doesn't make sense," she said, sounding a little distressed, "None of it makes sense. They're all just...messy."
Mal sighed in frustration, but knew there was nothing he could do to force an explanation from anywhere. "Alright," he said, "Looks like we'll be finding out the hard way then."
He then turned back to Zoe and she gave him a look as if asking for instructions. "So are we going to make a run for it, sir?"
Mal seemed to seriously consider that for a moment, but then slowly shook his head. "No. It's a capital vessel, a warship. We don't have a chance of outrunning it, especially since they're armed and we ain't. For now we'll stay on course and try and find out what they want," he said as he headed to the foot of the steps, but then turned back to look at River. "River, you ain't exactly their favourite person in the 'Verse right now so it might be best you don't talk to them. Wait out here," he instructed as he began to ascend the steps.
"You ain't too popular with them yourself, Captain," Zoe commented as she came up the steps behind him.
"Maybe," Mal responded, "But at least when they talk to me they won't get panicked that I can hear what they're thinkin'. I don't want them knowing she's on board." River had shuffled to one side to wait at the bottom of the steps and Mal and Zoe both stepped through the door into the cockpit. Through the window opposite a large military spacecraft had come into view, and to make matters worse it was flanked by two smaller ships on either side.
"Go se," Mal muttered, heading over to the right hand pilot's seat.
"Three ships to intercept one Firefly? Why do you think that is?" Zoe said nervously, eyeing the vessels in front of them with a look of apprehension.
"I don't know," Mal replied, "But I'm certain it ain't good." Before reaching for the comms equipment Mal did up a couple more buttons on his shirt and tried to flatten his hair. He wasn't self conscious, but he didn't want the Alliance knowing that they'd caught them at a time when most of them had been in bed. It made them seem more vulnerable and unprepared, like too much of an easy target, and that was the last impression he wanted to give.
He was just reaching to turn on the video link when Zoe spoke again. "Sir, try not to say anything to piss them off. I know it's fun, but just because they haven't opened fire yet it doesn't mean that they won't."
Mal turned to look at her. "Way I see it Zoe, if they've sent three warships after us they already know exactly what they're gunna do, and nothin' I say is likely to change that. If we do end up being shot out of the sky then I'd at least like to think I pissed them off plenty beforehand."
Turning back to the controls, Mal flicked a switch on the console and the screen in front of him crackled into life to display the image of a man in an Alliance officer's uniform. The man was about Mal's age, maybe slightly older, with close cropped dark hair, cold grey eyes and a high forehead that was creased in a stern frown. "Am I speaking to Captain Reynolds?" the officer said coolly as the visual came into focus.
"Yes," Mal replied, trying to keep his tone neutral despite the worry her felt as to what the captain wanted with them. "I take it you're Captain Hallerton."
"I am," Hallerton replied, eyeing Mal with a cold expression. "And I expect we'll be meeting each other in person shortly. You have something of ours on board that we'd like to collect."
There was a pause before Mal answered as he tried to decide how he ought to play it. He suspected that Hallerton meant the crate, but he wasn't sure if he should let the captain be aware of that. In the end Mal decided it would be best to play ignorant. "Something of yours?" he said, acting innocent. "I'm sorry Captain, but we ain't got any Alliance goods on board. You must be mistaken again, like when you seemed to think River Tam was some sort of property of yours. I can assure you that any thing or any person on this ship don't belong to you, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't waste your time boarding us and just let us be on our way."
In response to that Hallerton's expression of cool disdain turned into an openly hostile glare. The Alliance captain didn't reply immediately but Mal heard Zoe mutter off to his left, "I think that may count as pissing them off."
That had been Mal's intention. Not that he didn't understand the risks of getting on the wrong side of the Alliance, but they were so far on the wrong side of them already that Mal didn't see how stirring up more trouble could hurt.
The expression on Hallerton's face, however, suggested that it could possibly hurt them quite a bit. "Captain Reynolds, did I actually just hear you order us to not waste our time boarding you and let you go?" he said in a tone that seemed dangerously calm, not matching the livid look in his eyes.
Mal met Hallerton's gaze with a cold look. "Not order, no," he said, "Politely request, is more like it."
Hallerton's eyes narrowed. "You really think you're in any position to make requests like that?" he said threateningly.
Mal kept up his impudence, not one to be threatened into submission. "Well, since I don't have anything of yours on board I hardly think I'm being unreasonable."
Hallerton's eyes flashed dangerously for a moment, but then he seemed to calm himself and spoke in a very controlled tone. "But of course you would say that if you had our property on board," he said, "Although I will give you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps it is you who is mistaken, Captain. I think it's possible that you may not realise what you are carrying belongs to us." Before Mal had chance to ask what that was Hallerton added with a sneer, "Oh, and how is River by the way, since you mention her? Still travelling with you?"
Mal gave a glare in return. "She ain't a fugitive anymore, which means it ain't any of your business where she is.
Hallerton just shrugged. "Maybe not, although it would seem odd that after you went to so much trouble to keep her from us she would leave your ship now. You made our lives rather difficult on that account, Captain Reynolds, and we certainly don't appreciate you leaking classified information to the entire 'Verse. If there weren't other pressing matters that I have to deal with I would happily arrest you for it now, but at this moment in time that isn't my priority. It may be possible for you to begin making amends for all that trouble if you were to just hand over to us what we want."
The more Hallerton said the more Mal's suspicions grew. The Alliance captain had just practically admitted that he wasn't about to come after Serenity, which meant that whatever they were carrying meant more to the Alliance that getting revenge. Mal wondered what could possibly be so important to them that they'd even give up hunting him down to get it. "Which is what?" Mal snapped, sick of trying to guess what was happening and just wanting a straight answer. "All we've got on board is food supplies and cargo we transporting for…"
"A Mr. Kasuke Yutani," Hallerton finished, and in his surprise Mal shut up. The Alliance captain smirked at him. "Yes, we know who he is. We have certain dealings with him. The cargo you're delivering is due to reach our people on Copernica some time in the next twenty four hours, but we thought we'd save you the trouble of taking it all the way there and collect it out here."
Mal remained silent, his mind going into overdrive as he tried to work out what was going on. He heard Zoe coming closer to him and he glanced over at her with a look as if to say you were right. Turning back to the camera, he put on a polite but dangerous smile. "Really, Captain, that's very thoughtful of you but we need to dock on Copernica anyway to refuel and all. It won't be any trouble to us to deliver it ourselves."
"Is that so?" Hallerton said coolly, "Because the planet Rhodes is about four hours closer than Copernica if you were needing to refuel. It sounds to me like you're trying to avoid being boarded. Perhaps you do have something else on board that you don't want us to know about?"
Mal continued to glare at him, aware of how dangerous the situation was becoming but not wanting to back down. Zoe had appeared behind him and was looking at the screen over his shoulder. "Tell us what's in the crate," she shot at Hallerton in a no-nonsense tone.
Hallerton looked at her, and raised an eyebrow as he noticed she was dressed for bed. "I'm sorry, Captain," he said, still addressing Mal and avoiding the question, "Did we catch you at a bad time?"
"Not at all," Zoe replied, forcing him to pay attention to her, "Now answer me.
Hallerton gave a smile, but his eyes flashed dangerously. "What is in that crate is classified information," he said, "And since we are about to take it off you it certainly isn't anything you need to worry about. Now, prepare your ship for boarding. I'm extending my docking equipment now and I'll be down there with an escort to collect the cargo in five minutes."
The captain seemed to think that he'd ended the conversation with those orders, but Mal wasn't finished. He still wanted to know what was going on. "And then what?" he said forcibly, "You expect me to believe you'll just let us go?"
Hallerton looked irritated that they were even still discussing us, but leaned closer to the camera to continue speaking. "We didn't choose you for this job, Captain, we left that down to Mr. Yutani, and it is somewhat inconvenient to us that he chose you as courier. All things considered it really isn't practical for us to arrest you right now, but if I were you I'd stop asking questions and just be grateful for that."
Being told to do stop asking questions wasn't an order Mal was prepared to obey. "Now, it being impractical to arrest us might be something I can understand," Mal said, "But those two war frigates you got with you suggest you weren't planning on just letting us walk away. It ain't much incentive to me to hand this thing over if I believe you'll just start shooting at us the moment you have what you want, so why do you think I'd give it to you?"
Hallerton leaned back in his chair again, continuing to survey Mal with a cool stare. "Let me be honest with you, Captain," he said, "All I want is to get what I came here for and leave. I really don't have much of an inclination to open fire on you right now."
To Mal, that really didn't make sense. "That why you brought two warships with you?" he asked.
"They're more of a precaution," Hallerton answered, "Just in case you decide to be…less than co-operative. Truth is, Captain, I personally feel that shooting you down would be something of a waste."
Now that hadn't been what Mal was expecting, and he certainly wasn't sure that he believed it. "Really?" he said sceptically, "That's my guarantee? You'd pass up the reward for killing me because it would be a waste?"
Hallerton smirked again. "I'll be rewarded well enough once I've carried out my orders," he said casually. "But Captain, looking at your war record, how you went about revealing Miranda…it's all rather impressive, despite being done in the name of the wrong side. If you'd only stop fighting us then you could be of great service to the Alliance, and certainly surpass undoing all this mess you've made. It would seem a shame to kill you without ever having giving you chance to put right your mistakes."
Mal didn't believe that for a second, and he was struggling to buy that Hallerton believed it either. There had to be some other reason why Hallerton was prepared not to fire at them, but what Mal found most disconcerting was that he couldn't think of an obvious reason why not being shot at would be bad. Of course, Hallerton could just be lying, but why was he making such an effort to be cordial when he could just take what he wanted by force? "Captain," Mal said, giving Hallerton a dark look, "If you genuinely believe that I would ever work for the Alliance, then your brain's fried even worse than what your people did to River Tam."
If that had been an attempt to provoke a reaction from the Alliance captain then he didn't rise to it. Instead, Hallerton just leaned forward in his seat again, looking as if he'd grown bored with the conversation "Except of course, Captain, it seems on this occasion you already are. Now, like I said, I'll be down to collect that Alliance property you are carrying in five minutes. Is that understood?"
Mal looked at him for a few moments, apparently deliberating, and then said abruptly, "Of course, Captain. Five minutes," before reaching out to flick a switch to terminate the video link.
As the screen went black Zoe looked at him, sensing that he was going to be far less obedient than that last sentence had suggested. "Of course? That's it?" she asked, not believing for a second that Mal actually intended to do as he was told. Although she didn't see they had much choice other than to hand it over – and perhaps that was a good thing – she'd never known Mal Reynolds to back down so easily.
"No, that ain't it," Mal answered as he got up and headed to the door. "We ain't giving it to them."
"We ain't?" Zoe said, still trying to work out what he planning. "'Cause I don't see how we're gunna go about avoiding that when we're facing an Alliance cruiser and two armed frigates."
Mal paused before reaching the door and turned to her. "Zoe, look at what they're doing: not telling us what's in the crate, coming out here to pick it up, stopping us ever reaching Copernica. Whatever's going on they're trying to cover it up, just like they did Miranda. And if River's right about what's in that box, then we could be carrying the tools for them to unleash something else just as bad as the pax. I ain't about to hand it over to them."
He did have a point, but Zoe was still cautious. "You really think they'd risk doing something like that, sir? This soon after Miranda leaked?"
"Might be exactly why they're doing it," Mal said, stepping through the cockpit door, "Trying to reassert control now that…" he trailed off as he noticed River standing on the other side of the door with her ear pressed against the wall. She had her eyes closed and appeared to be concentrating. "River?" Mal said, a little puzzled as to what she doing, "You hearing anythin' from them? 'Cause any information you can get would be mighty helpful to us right now."
"Shh," River said, not giving a response he could make sense of, "She needs to listen…real…hard."
Mal looked at her for a moment as if he might be about to ask, "Listen to what?" but then decided there wasn't time to try and decipher the answer he might get. Instead he said, "Right, but unless you can tell us what's in that crate you be done listenin' and get ready to fly us out of here quickly."
River opened her eyes and looked at him for a second, then said, "The albatross is ready," before straightening up and stepping through the door in the direction he'd come from.
Taking that to mean she'd understood, Mal turned and continued to hurry back to the cargo bay with Zoe following. She had a feeling he was planning to do something reckless. "Sir, it still doesn't make sense why they'd want to do something like that again. Or how they'd go about doing it with just one small thing in a crate. Or why we're the ones carrying it, for that matter."
"Zoe, there's a lot about this that don't make sense," Mal said as they reached the top of the cargo bay again. "But it ain't coincidence that we were supposed to deliver this thing to Copernica and just as we were considerin' throwing it off the ship they show up out of nowhere to take it off us without even taking a shot at us too. There's something suspicious goin' on here."
"I'm not saying that ain't so," Zoe responded, following him down the steps to the floor, "But how do you plan on escaping the Alliance without handing the crate over? And more to the point, if it's so dangerous do you really think it's a good idea to keep it on board?"
"It being so dangerous is exactly why I don't plan on letting the Alliance get hold of it," Mal said, and before Zoe had chance to say anything back Jayne had shouted out to them from the opposite end of the bay.
"We heard it was the Alliance over the loudspeakers. What's going on?" he said as Mal and Zoe approached.
"Jayne, 'Nara, we're being boarded in less than five minutes," Mal explained as he reached them. "We need to move this crate."
Jayne and Inara both looked confused. "Why? What do they want?" Inara asked, looking worried. "If they're after us aren't we going to run?"
"It's not us they're after. Not this time at least," Mal said, beginning to push the crate over the floor. "They want whatever's in here, and they ain't gunna get it. Jayne, there's another crate back there with ammo in, about the same size as this. Help me switch them round."
Jayne didn't move. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Mal."
"Yeah, well I ain't asking what you think. Just do it," Mal snapped.
Jayne glared at him and seemed to consider for a moment, but in the end still didn't move.
Noticing he was being disobeyed, Mal stopped pushing the crate and shot a fierce glare at the insubordinate mercenary. "Jayne, I'm not gunna tell you again."
Jayne didn't answer back, but Zoe spoke up instead. "Mal, switching the crates won't work. They can scan the contents and they'll know it's the wrong one. I'm not saying I don't see why it's bad, but the only choice we've got is to give them the box."
Mal turned his attention on her. "Zoe, they know we don't have any idea what's in here. All we did is collect a crate from a weapons dealer on Persephone, who's to say it didn't have ammo in it? And if they want to keep it secret they won't check the contents while we're still around. Now radio Kaylee and River and tell them to get ready to move off at full speed. We can still get out of here without giving this thing up."
Zoe stayed put. "Sir, it isn't going to work," she said firmly. As much as she respected Mal as her captain, she wasn't about to obey a stupid order.
Mal looked for a moment like he couldn't quite believe she wasn't taking his side, but then Inara spoke up to reinforce her. "She's right. Whatever it is, it's too dangerous to keep on board and there's no way to fool the Alliance on this. Mal, can we please just hand it over?"
Mal felt completely outnumbered, and when it was by his own crew that didn't sit well with him. "Look," he snapped, "There's isn't time to argue about this. I get why you want it off the ship. I know it's dangerous, but in the hands of the Alliance it could be a thousand times worse. So stop protesting and help me move it!" With the last sentence he slammed his fist down hard on the crate in frustration, and as he did so Inara's eyes widened.
"Mal, get away from the crate," she said urgently.
He just looked at her, a little confused. "'Nara, can we just stop…" he broke off suddenly as a loud banging noise sounded from inside the crate, and he jumped back in surprise. "Ok…" Mal said, staring at the crate in shock. "It wasn't doing that before."
Inara looked at him with a worried expression. "It's been doing that since about five minutes ago," she said, "If you knock on the crate it knocks back."
Mal looked at her and then at Jayne, beginning to think that maybe keeping it on board would be even more dangerous than he'd realised. Jayne met his gaze and nodded. "I don't like it, Mal. If the Alliance want to take it off us, I say we just give it to 'em."
Mal just looked at him, realising that by now it was too late to switch the crates anyway. It seemed he was going to have to hand it over to Hallerton, but that didn't stop him feeling uneasy about what the Alliance were going to do with it.
The next sound they all heard was Kaylee's voice over the intercom. "What's going on? The engine's ready to go at full power but I heard the Alliance radio us over the loudspeakers. What's happening?"
Zoe was closest to the door, and she hurried to the intercom to talk back. As she did so the others heard the sound of the Meridian's docking gear engaging with the outside of the airlock. "We're about to be boarded," Zoe explained to the mechanic, "Stay where you are, I think the Captain's got plans to get us out of here quick soon after."
"Boarded? Why? We're not gunna be arrested, are we?" Kaylee asked back, sounding panicked, and they heard Simon say something in the background.
"No, they're not coming after us for some reason, it's just this strange crate they want," Zoe answered, "Just stand by. I'm hopin' this'll be over with quickly."
There was another sound of knocking from outside the ship as Hallerton's boarding party reached the other side of the airlock. Mal glanced round at the other three before walking to the door controls and hitting the button to open the inner hatch.
Jayne watched him. "Wait," he said, as if something had just occurred to him. "If we give them it now we do still get paid, right?"
Mal gave him a look as if to say, "I can't believe that's what you're worrying about," but he didn't actually speak before the door in the airlock opened and Captain Hallerton stepped through, followed by about ten armed Alliance soldiers.
"Captain Reynolds," he said as he stepped on board, casting a scornful eye around the cargo bay. He looked over the four Serenity crew members in front of him and smirked as he noticed that most of them did indeed seem to have only recently gotten out of bed. "It seems we did catch you at a bad time," he remarked.
"It's as good a time as any," Mal responded coolly.
Hallerton said nothing in response to that, but briefly glanced round the bay once more before his gaze came to rest on the crate that was just a couple of yards away from Mal. He then raised his head to look the Firefly captain in the eye. "I take it that's the cargo you were delivering to us?"
Mal held his gaze, giving the Alliance officer a hard stare. "It is," he answered abruptly.
"Really?" Hallerton said, in a tone that suggested he didn't trust him. Mal wondered if he'd guessed at his plan to switch the crates. "Can you confirm this is the cargo you picked up from Kasuke Yutani five days ago on Persephone?"
Hallerton had spoken it almost as a challenge, and Mal rose to match it. "I can," he said firmly, not breaking eye contact, "That's the crate we collected five days ago from Eavesdown Docks, in the exact same condition as when we picked it up: safe and untampered with."
Hallerton eyed him suspiciously for moment longer, and then gave a brief nod and motioned for one of the accompanying soldiers to check the crate. One of them came forward and lowered his rifle, before taking a digital device off his belt and using it to scan the crate. When he was done he turned to look back at Hallerton and nodded in confirmation that it was what they were after.
With a jerk of his head the Alliance officer signalled for some of the men to collect the crate and carry it on board the Meridian, before turning his attention back to Mal. "Thank you for bringing it this far. We'll be taking it with us now," he said with a definite underlying tone of warning in his voice. "Now in reward for the service you've done us on this occasion we'll let you be on your way. However, there are a few conditions. You'll wait for us to be at least outside your visual range before you start to make a move again. Don't think to come anywhere near Copernica any time soon; if you need to refuel I suggest you start making your way towards Rhodes. And you certainly don't try and follow us. If there's any of that you aren't clear on bear in mind I have two armed frigates as an escort." Those sentences had been directed at Mal, but then he turned his attention to Jayne. "You also might want to think about putting that weapon down."
Mal turned to look over to his left, and saw Jayne was stood still holding his gun which he now had levelled at Hallerton. In response, several of the Alliance soldiers had brought up their own rifles to point at the members of Serenity's crew. "Jayne," Mal said in a warning tone, not wanting the situation to get out of hand. Hallerton may have implied that the Alliance weren't about to do anything to harm them, but Mal didn't want to take his chances.
Jayne's eyes flickered over to him briefly but then he returned his attention to Hallerton, holding his ground. "I ain't looking for trouble, but there's still the issue of us being paid," he said aggressively. "We were promised we'd get the money when we finished delivering it, and if you're the people we're delivering it to then you ought to keep your end of the deal."
Hallerton's eyes flashed dangerously, seemingly furious that Jayne had dared to challenge him. "You ought to just be grateful that..." he began to say venomously, but Mal quickly interjected.
"Told you, we need to refuel," he said, and Hallerton stopped speaking and suddenly rounded on him. Mal didn't much like having to ask for money and risk provoking the Alliance officer further, but truth was he needed it. Jayne hadn't exactly gone about asking for it in the most diplomatic way, but he did have a point. "We planned on refueling with the money we got on Copernica," Mal explained to Hallerton, "But if we don't get it and go to Rhodes as you suggested, we'll end up pretty much stranded there. Now if you want us to steer clear of Copernica, it'd be helpful if we could actually afford to get the ship out of this quadrant."
Hallerton glared at him angrily for a few more seconds, but then he appeared to get a hold on himself and forced a smile. "Of course," he said, reaching into his jacket to take out a wallet. "Couldn't have you thinking that the Alliance don't pay people for their service. Three hundred credits, I believe that was the price you negotiated with our client?" He counted out some paper notes, which he then collected up and held out in front of him. He offered them to Mal, not to Jayne, who took them off him somewhat warily.
"Yes, that's what we agreed," Mal said as he accepted the notes, trying to work out why Hallerton had given in so easily. The Alliance captain must surely know he could just fly away from here without paying them a penny, and there'd be nothing Mal or the others could do about it. But yet for some reason he'd decided to uphold Yutani's end of the bargain.
Hallerton then turned his attention to Jayne, and seemed to be smirking as he noticed how his actions had confused the crew. "Satisfied?" he asked somewhat condescendingly.
Jayne's eyes narrowed slightly, a little suspicious that that had been so easy, but then he looked at the wad of notes in Mal's hand and gave a grunt of approval.
"Very well," Hallerton said before looking back at Mal. "In that case we will be leaving now. Remember my instructions, and don't imagine this is the last you'll be seeing of us." He turned to follow the soldiers that had carried the crate through the door, but then all of them heard a sound they hadn't been expecting.
"It's gone quiet. They've turned the volume off."
At the sound of the young girl's voice everyone turned to see River Tam standing in the doorway at the back of the cargo bay, looking out at them with an expression of confusion.
Captain Hallerton raised an eyebrow. "So she is still on board?" he said in a tone that seemed mildly amused. "I wonder what else you haven't been telling me, Captain."
Mal turned back to him with a fierce glare. He was wishing like crazy that River hadn't for some reason decided to leave the bridge and come back down here, but there was no way he was going to let the Alliance do anything that might harm her more now. "She isn't what you're here for," he snarled at Hallerton, "You have what you wanted, now just go."
Hallerton's eyes narrowed and he shot Mal a dangerous look, but then one of the Alliance soldiers came back through the door and whispered something in his ear. The captain listened in silence for a few seconds, and then he gave a nod and gestured for the soldier to leave, his expression grim. "Alright," he said, addressing Mal. "We'll leave. For now."
Some of the soldiers remaining in the cargo bay headed for the door and Hallerton followed them, but he paused to look back for a moment before reaching the exit. He stared straight at River who looked him right back in the eye.
"What did you do?" she said. "She can't hear. You made everything go fuzzy."
Hallerton raised an eyebrow again and then looked at Mal, who was glaring at him. Mal had no clue what River meant, but he did know that before he tried to find out he wanted Hallerton off his ship.
The Alliance captain smirked at him. "I must commend you, Captain, not many people would take on board someone as crazy as her," he taunted. "Although some would say you're just as crazy yourself to put up with all the trouble she's brought you." Those were his final words before he left the ship and closed the door behind him, leaving the crew of Serenity to listen to the sound of the docking gear disconnecting and wondering what the hell had just happened.
A/N: That was so much longer than expected, but I did manage to cover all the points that I wanted to. Sorry if there were any parts of it that didn't make complete sense, but I will try and clarify everything in future chapters. I'm trying to get the balance between making sure people can follow the story and not giving away too much, and I'm hoping this will be the last 'intro' chapter. Next time I plan to get to the main 'meat' of the story and have plenty more action and give the plot a much clearer direction.
Update 9/1/14: It's been quite some time. Almost two years, in fact, and I am somewhat disappointed with myself that I haven't updated since then. However, I've now got far too many unfinished or WIP stories that I can never hope to keep up with, and since I've left this dormant for so long I'm sorry to say that this falls into that category. I have therefore marked it as complete (although I wish there's was an option to more accurately label it "on hiatus", "abandoned" or "dormant") as I believe that these first five few chapters can be read as a complete story in themselves, if it is to be assumed that this is indeed the end of the Firefly crew's involvement with this dangerous shipment. I'm sure it's obvious that that was never the original intent for the story, but unfortunately, if you want to read something that seems at least self-contained, if not completely satisfying, then this is the chapter you should end on.
If I am being honest, I terribly overcomplicated the plot I had planned for this story, making it almost unwriteable. Trying to close every plot hole and cover every base made for these very long and much too slowly paced five chapters that were only ever intended to be an opening, and left me struggling terribly with exposition on top of characterisations I already found quite tricky. I should have just played the story straight, instead of trying to add a hundred and one twists and turns that meant hiding so much from the reader I didn't know how to pitch what remained correctly, and being forced to replan and rethink it all a dozen times because it kept becoming too convoluted.
I wish I'd just jumped straight in with the action and gone with a good and interesting but straightforward plot, because the action was the part that I most wanted to write, yet I overreached and got bogged down with too many intricate plot twists that I'm sure would in the long run would prove less enjoyable than some well written action. For that reason, if I do decide to continue this story, I will most likely start completely from scratch. The plot of this up until now can be taken as a story in itself, as I do believe it's possible to end it here, but it may or may not have any bearing on the plot of a reworked version of this story I may possibly one day write.
If you do wish to read on past this point, then I believe the next chapter will certainly give you some clues as to where I originally intended to go, but at this point I have replanned this story so many times that I think anyone's interpretation of where it may lead would be just as good a guess as mine. For everyone who's reviewed, thank you immensely, and I am truly sorry to anyone who wanted further updates on this. I can't promise anything, but I am leaving open the possibility that I will take a fresh shot at this at some point in future, and make a much cleaner and sharper job of it.