The band of pirates was comprised of eight men of varying ages and backgrounds. Most were fighters, though the group also required an engineer and pilot. They were extremely pleased with themselves that day, having so quickly overtaken the old Firefly and blasted its airlock open.

Their leader, a man named Billings, grinned with happiness at the sight of the five-member crew of Serenity standing in the cargo bay with their hands up. His eyes then narrowed as he surveyed the small group. All of the crew members were men.

With a nod of his head, Billings commanded his men to frisk the surrendered Serenity crew. As they efficiently went about their task, finding no traces of any concealed weapons, the leaders of the two groups began to talk.

“Well, now. To what do we owe this unexpected visit?” the captain of Serenity asked, with a slight grin on his face. His expression betrayed no indignity at the situation.

“You must be the captain of this old ship,” Billings said. “What’s your name?’

“Malcolm Reynolds. This here’s my crew,” he said, cocking his head in the direction of the other four men.

“This is it?” the other captain asked, incredulously. “You don’t have one female on board your ship??”

The rest of Billings’ crew began to chime in. Their words were vicious and lewd, and they left nothing to the imagination in terms of what they would do with any women once they found them. The last sentence spoken by one of the men evoked particular chills when he said that they had “used up” all of the women they captured during their previous raid and thus were hungry for more.

“You see, that’s mainly what we’re here for,” Billings concluded. “I figure that your heap of lese ship here don’t got much cargo. We’ll search it top to bottom, but I don’t expect to find much. And the ship itself ain’t gonna fetch us much when we try to sell it. No one’s buying ships or ship parts these days anyway. So our biggest attraction here is your women. My boys, as you’ve heard, are eager to have some fun. So am I.”

“Well, I’m terrible sorry to disappoint, but I don’t got any women on my crew,” Mal stated.

“Right. What do each of your crew do then?” Billings asked. Starting with Simon, he pointed and asked, “What’s his function on the ship?”

“Medic,” Mal responded. The captain looked towards Wash and added, “And that’s my pilot. The big fellow’s my mercenary, and the preacher here is just a passenger. We had a lady mechanic – pretty young thing too; you woulda liked her – but she left us two months ago to get married.”

“And you have no mechanic now?” Billings asked, clearly indicating skepticism.

“We’re lookin’ for a new one. Hard to find a mechanic worth their salt who’ll work for what I can pay ‘em. Know any?”

Billings ignored the attempt at humor. “You don’t have a companion on board?”

“Nope. She left us ‘bout a year ago. I must not have a way with the ladies.”

“Or you’re lying through your teeth.” Billings turned towards his men. “Tie them up, and then scour every inch of the ruttin’ ship. I bet they don’t got cargo but they probably got one or two girls hidin’ here.” As Billings’ crew took out the rope and began to carry out their orders, he continued, “And remember, this is a Firefly. They’ve got more hidin’ spots than you can count.”

Mal and the other four men allowed themselves to be seated on crates and have their hands and feet bound.

*** “You all look awfully nervous,” one of the pirates said, menace in his voice. His fellow bandits were still searching Serenity as he guarded the prisoners. He noticed that the doctor was biting the nails of his fingers, despite the ropes that bound his wrists.

“Don’t most of the folk whose ships you invade get nervous?” Mal retorted.

“Maybe you’re nervous ‘cause your crew got wives and girlfriends hidden on this ship.”

Mal snorted. “I was married once but it didn’t turn out so well. Glad to be a bachelor again.”

“We’ve boarded lots of ships and I ain’t seen a one that don’t got no women on it. What do you all do for sex? Or are you all sly?”

“Nope, not sly,” Mal responded. “We get plenty of time with the ladies when we dock planetside. ‘Cept for our preacher here; that sorta thing’s against his orders.”

Mal then added, “So what’re you gonna do with us once you find we’re tellin’ the truth and we don’t got no cargo or women?”

The man shrugged. “It’s up to our captain. If there’s nothing worth takin’ then we either kill you all, kill a few of you, or let you all go. Depends on how he’s feeling.” He paused and added, “But I can tell you that he ain’t gonna be feeling good if he don’t get any women.”

*** The pirates ransacked both the crew bunks and the passenger rooms. As Billings walked through the front hall and listened to their reports, he wondered if perhaps Captain Reynolds was telling the truth. If the crew was hiding any female members, they had done an admirable job of cleaning out the personnel quarters. Not one feminine article of clothing or feminine toiletry could be found. Billings shook his head. He’d never been on board a Firefly before but had read all about them. They reportedly contained secret hiding places within secret hiding places and there were plenty of places for people – and their personal items – to be concealed. So far his crew had not uncovered one hidden passageway.

He had time. If they had to stay on board the ship and search it for days, then that’s what they would do. If they had to begin torturing the five men to get them to talk, then they would do that as well. He decided if it came to that, they would start with the doctor and the pilot as they looked the most likely to break soon.

In addition to providing amusement for his crew, female captives also fetched a handsome profit in the slave trade. That was one of the few industries that was still solvent, and Billings was not about to pass up that opportunity either.

Meanwhile, another of the pirates was searching the back hall. He made his way towards engineering. The room, which had been searched once before by a different man, was empty. He walked around it, occasionally touching a panel, trying to make the time pass and make it appear that he was doing his job thoroughly. Suddenly his blood froze. He strained his ear and heard the almost imperceptible sound again. It sounded like a tiny wail from a baby. The pirate remained motionless for several minutes. The sound did not repeat itself.

“That you, Michaels?” One of his crewmates called, walking towards the engine room. “You find anything in here?” he asked, as he ducked his head inside.

“No,” Michaels called, exiting the engine room and walking towards his crewmate. “Nothing in here.”

He followed his crewmate down the back hall, hoping that none of the others would discover what he found.

*** “How much longer you gonna keep us? I gotta take a shit and right now.”

The pirate who guarded the Serenity crew looked at Jayne. He squinted his eyes at the mercenary. “That’s your problem.”

“C’mon,” Jayne pleaded, though Mal gave him a dirty look. “I gotta do it but bad. You don’t want me to make a stinkin’ mess here. ‘Specially if we’re gonna be sittin’ here for much longer. You’re the one gotta guard us.” The crew had been sitting, bound, for nearly an hour. One guard stood near them.

“All you gotta do is take me to one of the bathrooms,” Jayne said. “There’s one thata way,” he said, tilting his head. “You can keep my hands and feet tied.”

“Please do it,” Wash added, a half-smile on his face. “Jayne’s got some pretty serious intestinal issues. We might all pass out if you don’t take him to the bathroom.”

“Shut yer trap, little man!” Jayne barked at him.

The guard glared at Jayne. “Yeah, speakin’ of traps, ain’t it just real lucky that the biggest and brawniest of you’s the one who’s gotta go? How stupid you think I am?”

He then contacted his peers, and soon two other pirates showed up. The two of them grabbed Jayne roughly and pushed him down the hall. The guard remained with Mal, Simon, Wash, and Book.

Jayne walked with the two pirates, lumbering at an awkward pace and occasionally stumbling. The pirates didn’t need to know that he’d been tied up many times before and knew how to move with speed and dexterity even with bound hands and feet.

“Hey,” Jayne began, in a low voice, as they approached the bathroom. The three men were now out of ear shot of everyone else. “Whadya say we make a deal?”

“What sorta deal?” one of the pirates began, his ears perking up.

“What if we maybe did have some girls on board?” Jayne asked as the guards halted their walking so they could better listen. “Maybe I know where to find ‘em and can let you have the first dibs. That is,” he added, his voice still ominous, “if you let me get my hands on ‘em too.”

The two pirates exchanged a look. Clearly this mercenary was a stupid man. Either that or he didn’t care much for any of the female crew members. “That sounds good,” one of them replied. “Take us to them and you get to join in the fun.”

Jayne led them down the back hallway and towards engineering. As they walked, Jayne heard one of the pirates reach for a communication device and press a few buttons. By the time they reached engineering, all of the other pirates except for one had joined them and were waiting in the hallway.

“What the hell’s this?” Jayne asked. “You said I’d get to get my hands on ‘em too!”

“And you will,” one of the pirates said. “You’ll get your turn.”

“But I thought you two wanted first dibs,” he addressed the two men with whom he’d bargained.

“I would, but he outranks us,” he responded, gesturing towards Billings.

“Where are the girls?” Billings demanded, stepping up to Jayne. “Show me.”

“They’re in there,” Jayne said, pointing to engineering but not entering the room. He then stepped aside as if to let the pirates enter. “Go on in.”

“Do you think I was born yesterday??” Billings roared, as he shoved Jayne inside the engineering room and shut the door. He was not about to let his men fall into an obvious trap and intended to keep Jayne bound in there, and then torture him if need be, until he revealed the women’s whereabouts.

Jayne would have grinned if he had the time. As soon as engineering’s door was closed, he dived into a hidden passageway inside the engine room and slammed shut its opening behind him. For a man whose hands and feet were tied, he moved with shocking agility. As the puzzled pirates watched Jayne’s lightening-fast escape and began to move as if to re-open the door, they were taken by surprise at the sounds of gunfire. Billings whirled his head around just in time to take a gunshot by Zoe. His shock at Zoe’s sudden appearance cost him his life.

The other pirates were equally stunned. Zoe had silently jumped out of a hidden panel in the back hall, and she managed to shoot two of the other men. Jayne then reappeared in a flash, popping out of another hidden passageway and holding one of the guns that the crew had hidden in strategic locations. He shot one of the pirates and the man went down quickly.

But Jayne was hampered by the ropes on his hands and feet, and one of the men reacted quickly enough to shoot his leg. Jayne collapsed.

That left Zoe with three pirates to deal with alone. Only a few seconds had passed but the element of surprise was evaporating with each passing instant. And now with Jayne down, the situation looked bleak.

River and Kaylee were huddled inside the passageway where the women had been hiding, with baby Tess strapped onto Kaylee. River had been given a handgun. Zoe had been hoping that River could repeat her shooting skills against Niska’s men or her cunning against Early, but given that this was River Tam they also knew that they could not count on her being stable enough for a repeat performance of anything. Zoe didn’t want to chance this, so River had remained inside the hideaway with Kaylee.

But River sensed the situation and knew that she needed to take action or all would be lost. A few nightmarish memories of her imprisonment at the hands of the Alliance were enough to compel her towards action.

“No power in the ‘verse….” she began, her voice a raspy whisper. Kaylee felt chills when she heard the words. River then darted into the hallway and shot the three remaining pirates. Not expecting another fighter, the three men didn’t even know what hit them. They fell to the ground. Within the space of a few seconds, the seven invaders – and Jayne – had been shot.

For the first time, Tess began to wail loudly, her young ears overwhelmed by the gunfire. Despite her weakened state, she cried out.

“There’s one more guardin’ the others!” Jayne bellowed. Blood rapidly oozed from his leg.

Meanwhile, the lone pirate guarding the rest of the crew could hear the bullets in the distance and began to panic. He debated between grabbing his weapon and running towards the noise or using one of his hostages as a shield and bargaining chip if need be. After he hesitated for several valuable moments, he finally lunged towards Simon, meaning to drag the doctor towards the commotion. As he reached for the doctor, Mal and Book leapt to their feet and, despite the bounds on their hands, delivered powerful blows to the back of the man’s head.

Their plan had succeeded and Serenity was free of its invaders.

*** As Simon tended to Jayne’s wound, Mal and Zoe boarded the Haakona, their eyes widening at what they found. There were enough food rations to last the Serenity crew for years, in addition to countless other valuables including medical supplies and weapons. There were even some stolen engine parts and other equipment that Serenity needed. Mal located a gun large and powerful enough to replace Vera, which would have to make their mercenary happy. He and Zoe knew they had taken a tremendous gamble. Mal liked high-stakes gambits and this one had been a success.

Zoe immediately began devouring some of the food – Tess’s critical situation was never away from her mind. As soon as she and Mal returned to Serenity, the others eagerly consumed nutrition bars as well.

Of course they also found a few horrors on board the Haakona as well, including evidence of torture that the pirates had committed and even some stomach-churning torture devices. The wall of one room was covered with pictures of raped and mutilated women, and occasionally the pirates themselves could be seen in the pictures, clearly enjoying performing the atrocities.

About half of the pirates had survived Zoe, Jayne, and River’s bullets but they all were – along with their dead comrades – unceremoniously tossed out of the airlock. Mal was not about to waste precious medical supplies on the would-be rapists and murderers of his crew. And what would they do with the pirates if they recovered anyway? It was not as if they could turn them over to the Alliance or another authority for justice. “If the preacher wants to argue that decision,” Mal told Zoe, rage in his voice, “I’ll show him the room full of pictures on the Haakona.”

Mal, Wash, and Kaylee later counted and took stock of the loot in the cargo bay, which was now crammed with provisions. “We oughtta get some of this to Markova’s crew,” the captain said. “Some of this has gotta belong to her. And we gotta get her ship back to her too.”

Wash nodded. “I’ll get the word out. See if anyone knows where they are.” He added, “Jayne’s not going to be thrilled with us parting with any of these goodies.”

“I know but it ain’t his decision. It’s the fair thing to do and, ‘sides, it wouldn’t hurt to have an ally in this ‘verse. Markova’s a decent woman and gratitude always helps make a friend.”

“Jayne’s so happy to have another Vera, he ain’t gonna complain a peep,” Kaylee added.

*** “Loster, we changed our minds. Not gonna be stoppin’ by after all,” Zoe said. She suppressed her smile.

“What?! What is it you want? More food. More ---“

“Shut up, Loster,” Zoe said, before pressing a button and terminating their conversation. The screen went blank.

Wash turned to look at his wife. His anger and fear had evaporated and he felt like himself again. The food he’d eaten helped clear his head. “That felt good.”

“Felt real good,” Zoe added, now allowing her lips to form a sincere smile.

Wash returned her grin. With their daughter already looking much healthier and with their own bellies now pleasantly filled, both members of the couple looked forward to soon doing something else that would feel real good.

*** “You’re right, Kaylee,” Simon said as he buttoned his shirt. Dinnertime was in five minutes and he didn’t want to be late – especially not for tonight’s party. “I have to open up more to you.”

Kaylee rummaged around the floor for her dress and put it back on. She rarely wore the short, breezy outfit but it fit with her exuberant mood and was appropriate for tonight’s celebration. “I’d sure appreciate it,” she replied to her lover.

“You know,” Simon said, tilting his head. “Maybe I should keep a journal. That would get me used to writing out my feelings, and I could share it with you.”

Kaylee made a face. Where in the ‘verse had he gotten this idea from?

“Well, whatever,” Kaylee smiled. “I love you. Journal or no journal.”

“Love you too, bao bei.”

As Simon and Kaylee walked hand in hand towards the dining room, the enticing aroma of cooking wafted through the air. The pirates had been subsisting on quite a bit of the standard bars and crackers, but they also had a stockpile of real, actual food. The Serenity crew would apportion it carefully and slowly. For tonight’s party, Book had made a simple pasta dish with a sauce derived from canned tomatoes and dried basil. Simon and Kaylee happily took their places at the table. Jayne ate with the group, his leg propped up on a chair.

River and Kaylee had worked on decorations, using various scraps from the engine room. They painted them brightly using water colors that Inara had once given to Kaylee. The dining room had a festive look to it tonight.

Earlier in the day, Kaylee had also brushed and adorned River’s hair. It was piled on top of the girl’s head and River’s dress was enhanced by a shawl of Kaylee’s. Everyone had dressed up a bit for tonight’s party – even Jayne’s outfit had been neatly pressed, though he eschewed the hat he’d worn to the Heart of Gold.

When the main course had been savored and enjoyed, Book brought Jayne’s guitar to him. He played, as the crew opened a sealed package of dried cherries and portioned them out for a delectable dessert.

Tess had already been fed and burped. She slept through most of the dinner but woke up sometime during the music. She gave a few robust cries before her parents soothed her. Shepherd Book started to sing along with Jayne’s song, Wash made some goofy faces at his daughter, and Tess began to laugh.

Not long after Jayne and Book’s song had begun, River leapt to her feet and danced happily. Her hair soon tumbled down her neck; the up-style that Kaylee had put together fell. When Jayne and Book began the next song, River extended one hand towards Simon, the other towards Kaylee, and compelled them to dance with her. Wash picked up Tess and danced around with his daughter as well.

Mal sat next to Zoe. “Maybe our next gorram job should be on Belleraphon at a dance hall. It sure looks like we got our own music act here, what with the singin’, playin’, and dancin’.”

Zoe took a bite of another dried cherry and smiled at her captain’s words. He was pretending to be somewhat disgusted but she knew he was about as happy as possible right now.

“We can call our act The Malcolm Reynolds Dancers,” Zoe quipped. Mal chuckled.

Minutes later, a sound went off, notifying the crew of an incoming message. Wash reluctantly handed Tess over to Zoe so that he could check on the situation.

Wash soon returned to the table. “Mal, we got a wave from Inara. It’s text only.” He handed the device to the captain.

Kaylee rushed up alongside Mal as Jayne ceased his guitar playing. “What’s it say?” she eagerly asked, straining to read over Mal’s shoulder.

“Well I’ll be,” Mal muttered. “Our ambassador says she’d like to rejoin us. Said she can meet up with us on Flint’s Moon.”

As Kaylee cheered happily, and the others looked pleased as well, Mal sighed to himself and shook his head, “Just when things were lookin’ up.”

THE END

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