Mal made his way through the ship, heading back to the cockpit as he passed the medical room, Simon poked his head out of the door. "Hey, Doc," the captain said as he passed. "Get the Shaphard and you sister over to Inara's shuttle, alright? If what I'm planning don't work, ya'll can still get out of here." Simon grabbed the captain's arm to stop him. Mal turned to the young doctor. "What aboput you, captain?" Simon asked, brow furrowed in concern. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you're not the type of man to go down in a blaze of glory." Mal rolled his eyes heavenwards as he gathered the words he needed to say. "Listen Doc," he replied eventually. "If those reavers board us, they'll kill us all in some fairly unpleasant ways. I don't mind going down in a blaze of glory if it means I go quick and I'm giving you and yours a chance to get away. Got it?" Simon nodded, and Mal clapped him on the shoulder, assuming a cheerful smile. "Besides, they probably won't even catch up with us. Kaylee and Wash know what they're doing. Take care, doc." He turned and headed up the stairwell leading towards the bridge. As he climbed, his smile vanished.
Wash gripped the manual steering wheel in a viselike grip. No matter what he did, he couldn't seem to relax his hands. He kept up a façade of cheerfulness, making casual jokes to Zoe, who was seated in the copilot's chair, but inside, he was terrified beyond belief. Forcing himself to release one of his hands, he reached over and flicked the intercom on. "You ready for this, Kaylee?" "Ready as I'll ever be," came the crackling reply. Wash nodded, though he knew the engineer couldn't see him, and gripped the wheel again. The reavers were closing in hard from behind. "When they get to three hundred meters, we try to pull it. Okay?" Wash said over the com. Kaylee replied positive. The leaf on the wind bit his lip. After two hundred and fifty meters, the reaver's electronic grappler would be able to reach them. If Mal's plan failed… "They're at five hundred meters," Wash said aloud. "Four fifty. Four." His voice got slightly higher in pitch. "Three fifty. Three twenty five." He gripped the steering column. "Three hundred!" Wash jerked the column towards him while Kaylee brought the engine up to full burn. The Serenity suddenly jerked from it's flight path and soared upwards, then returned to it's previous orientation, except that it was heading in the other direction…and upside down. The reaver piloting the bloody ship apparently had excellent reflexes, because the ship had rotated so that the Firefly class vessel was always in sight of the cockpit. The grapple shot out from it's slapdash holster on the reaver ship. "Hail Mary!" Wash yelled. Kaylee reduced engine power by twenty percent while Wash jammed the steering column to the side. Serenity rolled once, twice, three times, dodging the grapple. "Full burn, Kaylee! Full burn!" As Kaylee brought the engine back to full, Wash steered the serenity past the disoriented reaver ship, which was rapidly trying to retract it's missed grapple. It would take at least two minutes to fully retract, and at full burn, the Serenity would be out of sight and scanner range long before then. Wash breathed a sigh of relief and flicked the transmission so that his voice would be heard throughout the ship. "Attention, everyone. Unfortunately, the reavers couldn't make it, so they'll have to make other dinner plans." Zoe got up from her seat and walked to her husband, embracing him and pressing her lips to his. "That's my boy," she said proudly.
Mal smiled as the passengers disembarked from the shuttle. "You see? There was nothing to worry about," he said to Simon, who smiled nervously back. "Can they catch up to us again?" he asked. "Nope," Mal replied. "Gonna take 'em a few minutes to retract that grapple. By that time, we'll be long gone." The doctor nodded. "Of course, if Wash hadn't dodged that grapple, we'd all be chow for the reavers now," the captain added. Simon paled and hurried along. "That may have been the most ridiculously stupid thing I've ever seen in my life." Mal turned to see Inara standing in the shuttle entryway, arms crossed. "That made the Crazy Ivan you pulled back on Whitefall look sane." Mal smirked. "Well, when you put it that way…" Inara walked up to the captain gracefully, her eyes fixed on his. "Mal, how could you put your life on the line with such an insane idea? If I lost you-" she caught herself. "If the crew lost you, what would they do?" Mal looked down into her eyes, then let his gaze wander to her dark raven hair, her pale lips, the cleavage that all of the companion's dresses showed. "Keep flying," he said softly. The cargo bay was silent. They were all alone. Without relizing it, he lowered his head, his lips inches from hers… "Cap'n!" Mal jerked back, but not before he saw that Inara, too had had her eyes closed and her lips puckered. The captain rubbed the back of his neck and rocked on his heels as Kaylee entered the room. The engineer looked between them. "Is this a bad time?" she asked. "No!" Mal said, a bit too quickly. "No. What is it, Kaylee?" The girl shook her head, disgusted with herself. "Cap'n, we got a problem. The atmo feed blew, just like I said it would." Mal grew still. "So you're saying…" "There ain't no atmo no more, cap'n," Kayle finished for him. "We got enough air for maybe three days, 'less we land on a planet that can sell us a replacement." Mal swallowed. "Alright. Go up to Wash and tell him about our situation. Have him find some planet we can land on within three days of here." Kaylee nodded and ran out. As she left, Inara looked up at Mal. "What if there's no planet within three days of us?" she demanded. Malcolm pushed past her and out of the bay, not answering.