Wash surveyed the damage to the console and flexed his fingers. He hissed in pain. There were still metal slivers in his forearm.
"Well, let's get going on this," he said, his voice calm. "If we can just move this panel-" he tugged at the top of the console. Zoe moved to help him lift a section of panel. He took a look at the insides. Smoke was rising from several different wirings and fuses on the exposed boards.
"What do you think?" said Zoe.
"Two hours," said Wash. "You know, we wouldn't even have to go back to our bunk for a proper goodbye..."
"Don't even go there, husband."
"Sorry, sorry," said Wash. He stepped forward to survey the damage.
"Ah!" He dropped to his knees beside one of the chairs. Zoe darted forward to help him, only to find him on his hand and knees peering into a small hatch he'd opened under the main controls.
"The Doctor put in a backup for the flight controls, or at least that's what he called it," said Wash. He pushed some buttons, then paused. "Let's see," he said. He turned a knob a couple of notches, then flipped a switch. There was a rising hum from the flight control panel.
"Let's just see what we've got," said Wash. He stood back up and took a look at the readouts. "More green, green is good... oh."
"What is it?" said Zoe, joining him. She looked at the panel herself. "Oh."
Both stared at the console as one after the other, all of the readouts and instruments came back on.
Wash closed his mouth when he realized it had been hanging open. He turned to Zoe, trying to act casual.
"Sooo, how about that bunk, hmm?"
"We should probably land first."
"Well, darn."
He slid easily into the main pilot's chair and started testing the the controls.
Mal shoved the door to the engine room open. "Kaylee? What's the damage here? Is the engine-"
"Engine's shiny, Cap'n," said Kaylee in a faint, slurred voice. She sat slumped in front of a burned out panel in the far wall."Jus' checked it, then went to the fuse box. Big flash."
She turned toward Mal, and his breath caught at the sight of her face.
It was almost a solid mass of red, burned flesh. Her gaze stared off somewhere over his right shoulder. "Cap'n, everything's so dark, did the emergency thin's not go on?"
"The lights are on. Come on, li'l girl, up we go," he said, putting her arm over his shoulders. "We need you fixed up quick, we got a real problem on our hands."
"Okay," said Kaylee.
They caught Simon just as he was leaving the med bay.
"Have you seen Riv-" he said, then caught sight of Kaylee's face. He turned and launched himself back into the room, the others following.
"Sit her down there," he said. Mal sat her down on the indicated bed, while Simon went through the drawers, pulling out burn ointment, bandages, and other equipment. He went back over and started applying the ointment to her face.
Halfway through, he stopped. "Kaylee, can you look up toward the light for me?" He pulled a penlight out and played it into her eyes.
He put it away with a "Hm," then turned back to the medicine cabinet, searching through the bottles.
"What- what else is wrong?" said Mal, one hand on Kaylee's shoulder.
"Flash burn on her corneas," said Simon, selecting a bottle and getting an eyedropper from another drawer. "I'm pretty sure we can prevent any lasting damage - Kaylee, lie down please - but she's not going to be doing anything for the time being." As he spoke, he positioned Kaylee's head and dripped some of the liquid from the bottle into her eyes. She whimpered.
"Now, I'm going to need you to keep still for at least another hour," said Simon. He reached for the ointment, but Mal grabbed his wrist.
"That ain't an option, Doc," he said. "I need her patched up an' back in the engine room right now."
Simon grabbed him by the shoulder and elbow and, with surprising firmness, pushed him out of the room. He shut the door behind them. "We are not talking about this in front of my patient," he said.
"Listen, boy," said Mal, "we don't have this ship runnin' in a very short time, all that's left of us won't fit into a grease spot. So you get my mechanic out-"
"Have you ever met her father, Mal?"
"That's neither-"
"I asked you a question!"
"No, but-"
"Then how would you like to be the one to walk up to him, look him in the eye, and tell him you're the reason his little girl is now permanently blind? All because you denied her the proper treatment."
Mal stared at him for a moment, jaw open, then raised his finger to point at him. "You're endangering my crew. That engine, the main systems- they ain't gonna fix themselves. Everybody could die. You thinkin' of them too?"
"I know what's happening," said Simon. "I'm aware of the risks. As for the repairs, maybe you should get one of the others to help, because she can't see anything!" He slammed a fist into the wall nearest him; inside the med bay, Kaylee flinched.
Mal looked startled. He turned his head to look through the window at his mechanic, his expression changing for a moment to one of concern.
He turned back to Simon. "You'd better be-"
"I'd 'better' be doing my job, Mal, and I am. I may not be as good at 'captaining' as you, but as far as medical actions are concerned?" He brought his face in close with a steely glare. "You just stay the hell out of my way."
Before another word could be said, he turned and went back into the room, shutting the door behind him.
Mal wiped the soot off his hands after setting down the last of the blown fuses from the box in the engine room.
"Okay," he said to the empty room, "this ain't hard. You must've changed fuses thousands o' times." He took another look at the box of replacements. "Only need to replace twenty fuses for a full fix-"
He reached in, and pulled out the contents. He sighed.
"-an' I got five. Now, why didn't my mechanic... ah, I'll deal with that later." He stood back up and looked into the fuse box.
He jumped as the 'com crackled to life.
"Mal, you there?" It was Wash.
Mal shook his head and pressed the button. "Yeah, here. What's-"
"The controls are back on-line. Just thought you might want to know."
"How's that? More to the point, how the 月亮饼 are you even talkin' to me right now? I got just about every fuse burned out, and we've not only got the flight yoke back, but the 'com?"
"Yeah," said Wash,"I've been checking it over, and looks like that 'backup' the Doctor put in was a little more than just the usual pipe-cleaners and duct tape."
The Doctor's voice cut in, sounding impatient and a tad pompous. "Well of course it is! I wouldn't want unreliability from my own ship when everything else had 'gone to pot', as it were. I thought you deserved the same."
Mal shook his head. "So you replaced my boat's systems with your 'backup'?"
"Well, not exactly," said the Doctor in a hesitant voice. "It is efficient, yes, but there's a definite reason I put it there only as a fail-safe device. It would be best to have it active as short a time as possible."
Right, though Mal. Or its power source might blow my boat to bits.
"That's the case, we might want ta be on the ground sooner rather than later. Wash?"
"Way ahead a' you," said Wash. "We've been accelerating since I got my bridge back."
"Uh, wouldn't that make things a little more-"
A jolt went through the ship as it hit atmo hard. Mal's feet flew out from under him, and he landed in a rather uncomfortable heap against the far wall.
"-risky?"
The landing was about as light as it usually was.
Wash pushed the yoke back into place, then set about the power-down checklist. He grinned over at the Doctor.
"Looks like that extra bit you put in came in handy," he said.
The Doctor's attention seemed to be elsewhere. "Hm?"
"The backup thing. Came in handy," said Wash.
"Hm. Yes. Of course, it wouldn't have been necessary if you had been keeping your bridge in order."
The Doctor then turned and left, either ignoring or missing Wash's look of stunned disbelief.