Lilly Kane.
The name came to her, unbidden, as her shuttle floated through the black, pointed toward Sihnon.
Lilly Kane.
Once her childhood friend, they had grown apart as they had gotten older. Lilly had been Logan Echolls' girlfriend through school, but when she had turned eighteen, she had left him behind – a fact which he had denied to himself for months.
Lilly Kane.
A prodigy within the Companions' Guild. It was said that she took to the duties and responsibilities more naturally than any who had gone before her. To those who knew her, this did not come as a surprise – though they were always ambiguous on whether that was a good thing or bad.
Lilly Kane.
Found murdered in the backyard of her parents' home on Londinium, a place where she had not been in over a year, since she had left to become a Companion. But who had killed her?
Was it Logan Echolls, finally awoken to the fact that Lilly had left him? Had he struck out against her, jilted and jealous?
Was it Logan's father Aaron, the famous wave actor? Had he sought to exact vengeance on behalf of his son, lashing out in the abusive way for which he was infamous?
Was it Lilly's own father, Jacob Kane, president and CEO of the Kane Corporation? Was he sickened by the sight of his daughter as a Companion?
Was it Lilly's brother, Duncan, overtaken by a fit of epilepsy? Or was he perhaps being mentally controlled by Blue Sun, as had been rumored since he returned from the Academy at the age of sixteen?
Was it another Companion, jealous of Lilly's rapid rise to fame and success? Or was it perhaps a client who had felt cheated, even jilted by Lilly?
Or was it somebody else entirely?
Whoever it was that had done it, they were in serious trouble. The Alliance only punished three crimes by execution – high treason, the murder of an officer of the Alliance military, and the murder of a registered Companion.
The original investigation had been performed by the director of Alliance Federal Police Forces on Londinium, Major General Keith Mars. It had been his belief that Jacob Kane was somehow responsible for the death of his daughter. Mars had tried to keep the investigation quiet, but the Companions' Guild, upon learning of this development, had pounced on it and spread it throughout the media, anxious to visit vengeance upon the killer of one of their own.
A judge had thrown out the entire case. Jacob Kane had fled Londinium, choosing to relocate to Sihnon. A disgraced General Mars had been reassigned to oversee security on the Outer Rim planets.
But shortly thereafter, it all seemed to cease to matter anyway. A wave had come over the Cortex, telling of the horrors that the Alliance had visited upon a planet known as Miranda, horrors that had created those known simply as the Reavers.
And truly, what did the people of the Core planets care of the murder of one Companion, when it was stacked up against the story of the atrocities that caused the deaths of thirty million? What did one Companion matter compared to the growing legend of Serenity and her brave crew – the valiant Captain who sought to show the world truth, the warrior woman who stood by his side, the Hero of Canton, the mechanical prodigy, the doctor, the Reader, the Companion, and the brave Shepherd and the pilot who had laid down their lives that the world might know the truth?
Of course nobody cared about Lilly Kane when placed in that context. Why talk about the depressing murder of one Companion when you could discuss and exaggerate the exploits of Malcolm Reynolds and his band of merry men? Those valiant guardians of the truth?
The pilot of the shuttlecraft laughed bitterly. Valiant guardians of the truth, indeed, she thought. More like criminals. Their actions had resulted in the loss of nearly 20,000 Alliance troops, a few of whom had been her friends.
But regardless of what had happened out there on the Rim, here in the Core, there was still an obligation to be met, justice to be served. And so, the woman at the helm of the shuttlecraft was continuing on the trail, the path to bring the killer of Lilly Kane to justice.
As her shuttlecraft entered the atmosphere, the light cast on it by the friction of entry illuminated the craft's oddity, as always. Rather than the white or grey coloring ordinarily found on Alliance shuttles, it was instead a dark green. The craft had not been built by Blue Sun, and so lacked its logo on its nose, instead bearing a small pentagon with a five-pointed star inside.
The shuttle's destination was the city of New Taipei – the location of the Sihnon headquarters of the Kane Corporation. The pilot's objective was Jacob Victor "Jake" Kane, president and CEO of the Kane Corporation.
Jake Kane had done very well for himself. Born to a family that could trace its lineage back to a family of Spanish nobility that had settled in southern California on Earth-That-Was in the eighteenth century, he had founded the Kane Corporation as a twenty year-old. Initially just an upstart software company, Kane had been awarded an exclusive technology and service contract by Blue Sun after a mere two years of existence. Jake Kane had watched with no small amount of glee as the bloated, diseased remains of the old Earth-That-Was company Microsoft finally collapsed and went down in a blaze of glory after they lost the contract to Kane.
"Alliance shuttlecraft Neptune One to Kane Control, requesting clearance to land on pad four."
"Alliance shuttlecraft Neptune One, do you have an authorization code?"
"Affirmative, Kane Control. Authorization code is victor mike alpha romeo sierra, parliamentary override."
"Neptune One, please stand by."
She smiled grimly as the channel went silent. The words "parliamentary override" usually caused somewhat of an "oh shit" reaction within an air traffic control room as the various staff on duty tripped over themselves to make sure she was accommodated in every way possible.
A moment later, Kane Control came back on the air – but it was a different, more authoritative sounding voice this time. "Ah, Neptune One, you are cleared for immediate landing on pad four. Do you require escort?"
"Negative, Kane Control. Neptune One now on approach."
As the shuttlecraft locked onto the Kane Corporation's approach beacon, she looked over her shoulder at the two men sitting behind her. She knew from her old Earth-That-Was history classes that at one time they would have been labeled "Latino" and "African-American", but with those labels referring to cultures that no longer existed… well, to her, they were just Weevil and Wallace.
They had been her willing accomplices for years, but now, that entailed much, much more than it had at one time. Of course, they were now officially sanctioned by the Alliance to be her willing accomplices, but that didn't necessarily make what they did any less fun than it did when they were teenagers.
"You boys ready?"
"Are we ever not, V?" Weevil replied.
She smiled and nodded, turning back toward the windscreen. The shuttlecraft slowed as it approached the pad, coming to a hover over the large number "4" and slowly descending to touch down on the pad.
As the shuttle's engines powered down, the shuttle door was pulled open. A tall black man dressed in a dark maroon suit stood outside. He looked inside, saw who the shuttle contained, and his look immediately changed to one of disgust.
"Welcome to the Kane Corporation, MA'AM," he spat out.
She smiled. "Oh, Clarence, it's so wonderful to see you, too!"
Clarence Wiedman, the head of security for the Kane Corporation, practically growled as the three black-suited figures brushed past him. It was just unnatural to have to grovel to any of the three of them.
He had to admit, though – grudgingly – that the three did cut intimidating figures as they strode through the halls of the Kane Corporation, her in her black pseudo-military uniform, the two men in their severely cut black business suits. He almost expected to see blue gloves on their hands, but was relieved to see their hands bare.
They didn't stop for anybody, and that included the receptionist in Jake Kane's outer office. They went blasting directly past her, pushed open the doors to Kane's office, and stepped inside.
A haggard-looking Jake Kane looked up from his desk, saw who was invading his office, sighed, and rolled his eyes. "Veronica Mars," he said quietly. "To what do I owe the displeasure?"
"Great to see you, too, Jake," she replied sarcastically. "You remember my associates, Mr. Navarro and Mr. Fennel?"
"Oh, of course I remember Wallace and Eli," he shot back. "I seem to remember finding Eli on his back with my daughter on top of him next to my pool."
Veronica looked sideways at Weevil. "That would've been helpful to know beforehand, Weevil," she hissed.
He shrugged. "Sorry, V."
She turned her attention back to Jake Kane. "So, speaking of your daughter. I'm sure you're aware that despite all the furor over Miranda and the crew of that Firefly these last couple weeks, the investigation is still open, with no real progress."
Kane smiled. "And who was responsible for – oh, right, that would be your father who blew that one. How's he liking being stationed on Whitefall, by the way?"
Veronica didn't respond directly to the jab, but came back with one of her own. "Awfully glib for somebody who's still a suspect in the murder case, aren't we?"
Jake smiled cruelly. "But not the prime suspect, am I?"
She deflated visibly, her shoulders slumping. "No."
Jake Kane shook his head. "Veronica Mars, tell me something, what gives you the right to come barging in here, asking questions about my daughter?"
Behind her, Clarence Wiedman's eyes went wide, and he held up a hand in warning, but Jake ignored him. "I mean, who do you think you are? You think that because your father USED TO BE the federal police chief for Londinium, you can just come in here and start… asking… questions…"
His voice trailed off as Veronica's hand went into her pocket and emerged with a small leather wallet, which she laid on Jake Kane's desk. The winged starburst logo of the Union of Allied Planets was engraved on the cover.
Jake looked at Veronica suspiciously, then picked up the wallet and opened it. His eyes widened as he examined the badge and the ident card inside. He just stared at it for a moment.
"My apologies, Veronica," he finally breathed. "I was unaware that you had been commissioned as an Operative of the Parliament."
"There's plenty you don't know, Jake," she replied, a grim tone in her voice. "For example, I guarantee that you have no idea who my prime suspect is."
"Forgive me, Veronica – uh, Operative Mars," he said, "but why is a Parliamentary Operative investigating this?"
Veronica sighed, and finally sat down in the chair facing Jake Kane. "Both professional and personal reasons, Mr. Kane," she answered. "Professionally, despite the furor over Miranda the last few days, Lilly's death is still a huge black mark on the Alliance. The murder of a Companion has the entire Guild running scared, and it makes Alliance security forces look bad."
She bit her lip. "Personally, Lilly was one of my best friends when we were younger, and even though we grew apart the last few years, I somehow feel personally responsible for finding who did this."
Veronica looked back up at Jake. "That's why I need to find Logan Echolls. And I think your son knows where he is."
Jake Kane's mouth took on a grim set, and he shook his head. "Veronica, Duncan hasn't spoken a word in weeks. Even when Logan visited him right before he took off, Duncan didn't say anything then. So, even if Logan told him where he was going, Duncan probably wouldn't be able to tell you."
Veronica knew all that. She knew that Logan had been to visit Duncan a week beforehand. She knew that Duncan had not spoken a word since Lilly died, and she had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with whatever had happened to him at the Osiris Academy.
But that didn't matter. "I still have to try, Jake," she said quietly. "I owe that much to Lilly."
Author's Note: the Osiris Academy that I refer to Duncan as having been at refers to the same Academy where River Tam was experimented on. We can assume, within the context of this story, that Duncan experienced the same sort of treatment at the hands of the Alliance.