The hallways echoed with the seemingly never ending pitter patter of excited feet rushing through the ship's catwalks and making their way down to the cargo hold. In the lead was Kaylee, an exuberant and anxious smile on her face that refused to leave at the thought of the Captain finding more valuables for the crew.
Behind her was River, a smile on her face as well as she followed her friend. Simon trailed behind them with Inara, Wash and Book.
"So what was it the Captain said he found?" Book asked curiously to Wash, who only shrugged in reply.
"He didn't say. No one did," Wash admitted. "The coms went dark after a little bit while they were out there. But I saw them floating back to the ship with a mighty fine . . . uh, thing."
Simon's eyes went wide, his interest having peaked. "A thing," he repeated in a sarcastic drone. "That will surely make up for our severe lack of money."
"You never know, son," Book said calmly, his hands folded behind his back as he kept pace with the pilot and Inara. "It could be worth more than a shiny penny."
"More than a penny I would hope," Inara added quickly.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry," Kaylee said optimistically. "The Cap'n wouldn't have brought anything back if he didn't think it could help us."
With another giggle of excitement, River grabbed Kaylee's hand and pulled the mechanic with her down the hallway and away from the oncoming adults.
"Maybe she's right," Wash said. "Maybe Mal thought it was something we couldn't live without and he thought he should share it with us . . . what a nice guy."
The rest of the trip down to the cargo hold was held in silence. They reached the end of the hallway and stepped on the catwalk overlooking the large space. Down below them, Kaylee and River were waiting expectedly a few yards away from the large doors.
Walking along the metal path, Wash, Inara, Book and Simon made their way down the stairs and came up alongside the two young girls.
There, the crew waited for a few more minutes, waiting to hear the voices of either Mal, Zoe or Jayne. Preferably Mal's or Zoe's.
When nothing came to Wash's headpiece, he began to grow paranoid for his wife.
Before he could voice his concern, static came over his headpiece.
"'Kay Wash," Mal started. "We're comin' in."
Moments later, they could hear the sound of ramp lowering on the other side of the large doors. Kaylee and River's grins were almost immovable. "I hope he picked up a new compression coil!" Kaylee couldn't help but spurt out. "Serenity's takeoffs have gotten awful bumpy for a few weeks."
After another few moments, they could hear the ramp beginning to close back up, letting the crew know that they had all returned.
With Kaylee's and River's hands clasped over their chests excitedly and the rest of the adults arms crossed nonchalantly, the alarm began to wail and the doors began to slide open, revealing Mal, Zoe and Jayne standing in their space suits and alongside Mal was . . .
"Hm," Simon said, legitimately interested as he scratched his chin. "You were right," he said to Wash. "It is a thing."
Without another word, Mal and Zoe stepped into the cargo hold, leaving Jayne to tip over the large canister and have the top of it fall into his arms. He grunted in protest and began dragging it backwards. "I always hated this part," he grumbled. "They're so much lighter outside."
"That's kinda because it was in space, Jayne. That's the point." Mal pointed out.
With another grunt, Jayne continued dragging the large capsule along the floor, the metal upon metal sending an aggravating grinding noise throughout the room, forcing the entire crew to cover their ears. Once Jayne was fully inside the cargo hold, he gently lowered his end to the floor, rubbing his gloved hands together to numb the pain that came from the large metal tube.
Once they were certain they could uncover their ears, River and Kaylee's faces immediately lit back up at the sight.
"Shiny," Kaylee complimented. "Whatcha got inside their, Cap'n?"
"So," Inara said skeptically, "this . . . thing was worth your time, was it?"
Mal, now in the center of the room, rotated his helmet off of his space suit and positioned it under his arm. "Don't be so quick to judge, Inara," he said. "If I brought it back, then it must be important." After that, he motioned to Jayne. Nodding in understanding, he took out his crowbar once again and jammed it into the door of the capsule, careful as to not damage the glass or the content.
Kaylee approached with her hands clasped excitedly. But before she could ask what was inside again, Jayne successfully pried the door open. With a loud hiss, a plume of white slithered out and crawled across the floor, engulfing Jayne's ankles in a cold fog.
Simon let go of his chin and let his arms fall to his sides, his mouth agape in momentary disbelief as he finally recognized what the object was.
"Mal . . . Is that a-"
Before he could finish the question, Jayne flung the door open, allowing the rest of the fog to fly about.
River, her face blank with a hint of awe, stepped cautiously forward until the fog covered her beneath her waist. Once she was close enough, she leaned forward and observed the contents of the capsule.
"River? Honey what is . . ." Book trailed off.
The fog was finally beginning to dissipate, revealing what was inside.
"Whoa," Wash breathed. "Déjà vu." He suddenly became aware of the presence of his wife behind him, her helmet off and her hand on his shoulder, looking deep, almost apologetically into his eyes.
A collective gasp made its way across the unsuspecting crew as the fog finally vanished, revealing the boy inside.
He was young looking, at least in his early twenties, he had bright red hair and was dressed simply in a white tank top and black shorts.
"Oh yeah," Mal spoke up, "I kinda forgot to mention somethin', it's a person."
A long, very uncomfortable silence fell upon the crew as they all looked upon the young man currently dead to the entire world.
" . . . Wow," was all Book had to say, looking down at the man. "This was, well, unexpected."
"My God," Simon breathed. "Captain, you brought an occupied cryogenic freezer onboard?"
"I told him not to," Jayne suddenly said, pulling off his helmet. "'Cuz the last time we brought in a frozen person, she turned out to be a ruttin' crazy psychopath who runs around reading minds and such."
Simon shot him an unappreciative sideways glance.
"Well maybe this time it'll be different," Wash said optimistically. "Maybe this one is a time traveler from a faraway kingdom will pay us in candy."
Everyone ignored the pilot.
"Um, Mal," Inara started apprehensively, "not that I'm impressed by the fact that you went out of your way to save an unconscious . . . wait, he is . . . alive, right?"
"Inara," Mal started, only slightly offended, "I would never bring a dead man on board. Look at that chest steadily risin' and fallin'. I'd say that that's the most healthy dead man I've ever seen."
"What I'm saying is," Inara continued, "why did you bring him aboard?"
"Well, there doesn't have to be a reason, does there?" Kaylee asked. "The Cap'n simply saw a man in need and he helped him, just like any good captain would."
With a wide smile, she threw her arms around Mal's shoulders and gave him a peck on the cheek.
The now uncomfortable captain cleared his throat. "Um, it was nothin', really. I just, um, saw a man in need and . . . saved him. 'Cuz every man deserves a, uh, fair life filled with . . ." he trailed off, running out of things to say under the skeptical glares from the rest of the crew besides River, who was still observing the sleeping man.
Mal finally sighed. "Fine," he admitted, shooing away his mechanic. "I saw him and thought I could sell him for a good amount of cash, ya happy?"
The skeptical glares were instantly replaced with ones of surprise and outrage.
"What?!" They all cried out at the same time.
Wash rubbed his forehead exasperatedly. "Wuh duh ma huh tah duh fong kwong duh wai shung."
"Hey!" Mal shouted. "Need I remind you that we are considerably low on cash at the moment? I'm sure that there's elderly folk out there in need of a strong young man's help such as this one, for a good price that is."
"Um," Wash tapped his chin, "isn't that called slavery? I'm pretty sure that was outlawed a few hundred years ago."
"For the love of God, Mal!" Inara started again. "It's a human being! People aren't cargo. I'm surprised at you."
"I don't need a lecture from you, Inara. Next thing you know, the Shepard's going to give me a talking to about some bible story."
"Actually, this certain scenario greatly reflects Joseph and his brothers. Jealous of the attention he was getting from their father, Joseph's brothers sold him to a-"
"Yeah, sorry, you lost me," Mal waved him off. "Listen, I know this isn't like me," he started, "but we're in a position right now that doesn't involve being picky about what we do or how we do it. I don't need your attitude, I need you to do your jobs so we can keep flyin'. So Doc," he said, motioning to Simon, "I need you to take this new specimen back to your office and get him into tip top shape to go out on his own."
"Tip top shape? Mal, he's in comatose right now. He's not sick, he's just sleeping. I can't force him to wake up, the shock would be way too much for him. It's identical as to what I did with River. I can't just-"
"He's dreaming."
River's soft voice suddenly interrupted as she guided all eyes to her. Her body was at a near perfect ninety degree angle as she looked over the young man, her face hovering over his, her long hair barely brushing over his nose.
"He's dreaming about his friends. His family. He wants to go back to them. But he can't. He's been sleeping for too long."
Mal waited until he was sure River was finished. "Right, okay Doc. Can you at least take care of our new guest?"
Simon nodded.
"Right. Jayne, help the doctor get him into the infirmary."
Later,
Simon walked over to the counter, his gloved hands reaching into the drawers and taking out syringes and a small black vile. Filling one syringe with the blue liquid, he turned around and made his way to the young man, who was now resting almost lifelessly atop the operating table. On the other side of the room, Kaylee sat in a chair, watching the doctor as he pushed the needle into the man's neck.
"This is to help him ease out of the coma," he elaborated. "It's dangerous to do it all at once. He'd . . . he'd probably panic and run around the ship and . . . well, you remember what happened with River."
The mechanic nodded.
Kaylee turned her head to the right to see the now vacant capsule that the young man was previously in now leaning against the wall in the corner, the green light on the inside now off.
"How long do you think he was sleepin' for?" Kaylee wondered out loud.
"It's impossible to tell at the moment," Simon admitted as he pulled the needle out. "That stasis pod looks ages old and . . . and . . ." he trailed off, turning back to the young woman with a curious glint in his eye.
"Do you think that this is right?"
"That what's right?"
"What the captain is doing?" He cleared up. "He's-he's deliberately taking advantage of this kid's life! And, well, honestly, I don't put it past the captain to do something like this," he admitted, "but it all just seems so sick."
"Well," Kaylee started, "since I've been on Serenity, the Cap'n has always made decisions that he thought was best for us. Sure this one seems a little . . ." she gazed at the unconscious man, "sick, but I'm sure everything will turn out fine."
"I hope you're right," Simon said solemnly.
He walked back over to the drawer and pulled out another vile and syringe. Filling it up, he walked back over to the table. "Alright, this one will reduce his heart rate so that when he-"
But before he could even finish his sentence, the eyes burst wide open, followed up quickly by a bloodcurdling scream.