[The long lost two-hour season finale.]

Firefly – “Little Things” Episode #: 1AGE99 Written by: William Gillis Directed by: Writer’s Draft: June 5, 2004

TEASER

INT. CHENG HO STATION

Big ol' alliance/corporate station filled with all the worker-class and upper ranks you could imagine. Some soldiers, some officers, some people with jobs that don't get them all greasy, and then the other half. Station's been around awhile, but the people running it intend it to stay around. Been many things in its days, but never been without some semblance of law. Construction workers, contractors and all other sorts of blue-collar folk mill. People who work for the alliance but probably don't think the best of it. There is commercial presence, but this is not a market.

A BAR, looking rather hastily built and unplanned for, draws shadows under a promenade. CAMERA finds a man sitting uncomfortably, it's MAL REYNOLDS.

MAL (to passing tender)

A man sits down two seats down from MAL and orders some wussy drink in Chinese.

MAL (without turning) You Di?

DI (guardedly, this is obviously his first) That is my name.

MAL sighs and thumps a LUNCH BOX onto his lap, turning toward Di.

MAL I think I've found your lunch.

DI scoots over, takes the LUNCH BOX, turning aside and opens it at an angle. Inspects the out of sight contents. Looks a lot more in his element. There's a slight commotion O.S., JAYNE's voice rises. Mal looks over. Sounds of furniture being mistreated. MAL looks back.

MAL All your bacon still there?

DI (looks up, noticeable change in posture, gets out payment) Thank you captain - sir - Mr. ...

MAL (After a beat, warming a little to DI's obvious unprofessionalness) Reynolds.

Crashes, O.S.. A broken bit of furniture flies past them and into mirror across bar. MAL and DI look over and then back.

CUT TO

INT. CHENG HO STATION - FAIRWAY

Busy, lots of people moving. MAL and JAYNE move onto camera.

JAYNE (holding nose) Sonofabitch.

MAL You didn't need to hit him.

JAYNE He was cheating!

A CAMERA PAN UP reveals part of an ALLIANCE CRUISER and the station's outer riggings through huge plate windows.

MAL I don't quite know how you can cheat at tick-tack-toe.

JAYNE He punched me in the face.

They move under overhang and

EXT. CHENG HO STATION - DOCK

Infront of Serenity, docked besides PILES OF CRATES in a huge hanger that visibly extends far to left and right.

MAL Some'd consider that justified. After you took a table to him.

ZOE, WASH, SIMON and KAYLEE wait on the landing ramp. ZOE moves to meet MAL. WASH appraises JAYNE's injury from a distance.

ZOE Got it, sir?

MAL We're good. Not enough for me to enjoy straying this close to the Alliance, but we're good.

JAYNE Nuthin's worth getting this close to the Alliance.

SIMON Do you want me to see to that?

JAYNE glares, and moves by.

JAYNE (mutters) Ruttin' spacers.

WASH Aren't we spacers?

ZOE, WASH, and KAYLEE follow JAYNE. INARA descends besides MAL. She's carrying three fanciful BAGS. MAL helps her.

INARA Thank you.

MAL Cowardly. Not telling the others.

INARA looks up sharply, a little ashamed.

MAL At least Kaylee.

They move down the ramp and out of the bay. INARA is struggling for something to say, she's a little hurt by this and was already in pain.

INT. CHENG HO STATION - FAIRWAY

INARA I told them I needed some time off. Fill my accounts. Take a little vacation.

MAL, a tad choked yet very steely, begins to respond.

DAVIDS (O.S.) Ms. Serra?

INARA Oh, yes. Commander Davids, this is Captain Reynolds.

DAVIDS is a moderately handsome gentleman, not yet removed from his youthful vigor but well seasoned.

DAVIDS It's a pleasure.

The holocommercials, etc around the fairway flicker.

INARA The good Commander has offered me a place here until I can ship out.

A beat.

ZOE (OVER MAL'S COM) Captain, we've got to go. Alliance rats have us on schedule.

MAL smiles at DAVIDS

MAL (To com) I'm on my way.

MAL bows slightly.

EXT. CHENG HO STATION - DOCK

MAL moves quickly aboard Serenity and, once inside hits the controls to close up. Station lights flicker. After a faint shout, DI dashes aboard the closing ship. Mal is a little taken aback.

DI You get me out of here, captain!

A beat. The engines start. And then, through the closing doors a very noticeable, very warning, very disturbed, alarm sounds. The door closes.

MAL

BLACK OUT.

END OF TEASER

-------------------------------------------------

ACT ONE

EXT. CHENG HO STATION - DOCKING DOORS

The station has huge airlocks for docking, shot of the doors of one opening before Serenity

INT. SERENITY - CARGO BAY

Pretty much where we left. MAL is massaging his temples. DI looking anxious.

WASH (Over Com) Hey, captain, I'm picking up some heavy angst coming from the station. They've got some sort of an emergency and there's a security alert.

MAL Have they hailed us?

WASH (Over Com) Uh, no.

MAL (deciding) Then stick to course, for now. --And get Jayne down here.

WASH (Over Com) I had a feeling he had something to do with it.

A beat as MAL steps away from the com and turns to DI, who is carrying the LUNCHBOX. There are some sounds of talking off camera.

SIMON (O.C.) Who's this?

Camera swings to Simon and River, entering from the infirmary/lounge. Jayne is walking down the stairs. MAL's face contorts.

INT. SERENITY - INFIRMARY/LOUNGE

WASH swings down the stairs. JAYNE is sitting, eyeing DI something fierce; rather akin to a hungry hawk. SIMON is trying to sorta cover his sister from the newcomer. BOOK is coming out from the passenger rooms. MAL's in the middle of it.

WASH The station has a terrorist alert up, but nobody's questioned our exit. --Sir, why is there a stranger sitting on our couch?

MAL 's a question I mean to find out.

DI My name is Woh Di. I am head of physics department of Feynman University on Shinon --or was.

MAL --Before you decided to blow up space stations.

DI That is not my fault! ...If anything it is yours. I go to inspect the injector and I turn it on and my pad blows. You sold me faulty containment field! At first sign of activity it blows neutron all over station. And then you accuse me of terrorist.

MAL Wait, you tryin' to blame me for all that hullabaloo back there?

DI You're the one... Highly volatile... (Feeling he's got the world under control again) I believe, captain, you are not aware of product you sold me. Neutron injector is highly dangerous component. Unstable or cheap work-

KAYLEE (having appeared quietly) Would overload half the gravity lines on the station, and send feedback into the main circuit.

WASH One test of the hardware shocks the whole station...

KAYLEE Not just that. Older Alliance work routes system functions through the nets.

MAL (abstractly)

DI

MAL

DI

MAL glares.

WASH The Alliance hasn't fingered us yet. We're not the only ship that's left drydock since and we'll be out of sight soon enough anyhow.

DI I am not here to explode station. Just pick up part. It might work. But time losing soon.

Slight change in emotion, MAL looks back to DI.

DI I need get Injector to my assistants, for experiment. I have money. They are waiting in rabbit-turf near here.

MAL We headed near there?

WASH Sorta hard to miss. I was going to skim it.

MAL How much money?

DI (Hadn't considered it) How much you want?

MAL leaves towards bridge. WASH and ZOE follow.

WASH (aside, to DI) I'll think you'll be glad know the station is doin' fine now. Not even pulverized.

DI Oh... good.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

MAL Generally, when someone all frazzled-like asks you how much money they should give you, it's a good thing.

WASH slides into his pilot's chair with WASHified smoothness.

WASH Whee. Asteroids.

ZOE (pointing at utterly normal star field) There's one.

WASH That's a star honey.

WASH pulls up greenish screen viewer showing a few small bits moving on a fuzzy grid.

WASH Now if I was waiting for a buddy, where would I... Ah! Slow orbit. Anchoring mass...

WASH does some piloty stuff.

WASH There we go.

The ship approaches a large asteroid which tumbles slowly... revealing a sleekish little number with actual color, although chipped. The sedan of the starship world. Parked on the side of a large (in the same way McDonald's can be large) asteroid.

INT. OTHER SHIP

Two people, one a lithe and rather attractive young woman of Asian/Japanesish decent [GABRIELE WONG] and the other a smooth and sharp-faced middle-aged man of Indianish decent with a surprising air of ruggedness about him [JIM RATHORE], cease talking to look at screen.

MAL This is Captain Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly-class transport Serenity. You folks looking for somebody?

GABRIELE We're jus-

JIM As a matter of fact, yes, captain. We are. Waiting for someone.

INT. SERENITY BRIDGE

MAL appraises them. Such a badass, MAL is.

MAL Waitin' can be a horrible thing.

A beat.

JIM You have the professor?

The right words.

MAL Just doin' our part tah help out. ...Boy rolled up a hefty fare.

JIM I'm sure he had you sightseeing.

MAL smiles.

CUT TO

INT. SECOND SHUTTLE

MAL pulls into dock with Serenity harshly. JAYNE rides with him. Rattle, shake, etc.

INT. SERENITY - CARGO BAY

MAL pulls the door to the second shuttle close. ZOE, SIMON and KAYLEE wait. MAL is carrying a BAG OF MONEY.

ZOE Do you trust 'em?

MAL What do you think?

KAYLEE His story does make sense.

MAL And I imagine we'll have real fun telling that to the Feds when they drag us away an' liquidate our brains.

JAYNE Feds are awful tetchy on the subject of terrorism.

SIMON So why'd you let 'em go?

MAL Easier than dealing with him ourselves. Figure they've got a better chance of avoiding the feds --terrorists or not-- if they aint hangin' around for their man. And I've got less than no desire whatsoever to get messed up in this business, whatever it may be.

INT. OTHER SHIP

JIM, GABRIELE and DI stand together seriously. JIM and GABRIELE obviously defer to DI.

JIM Controls are washed. They fried with the station. New firewalls.

GABRIELE I can't.

DI comes to a decision.

INT. SERENITY - UPPER HALL

MAL does the whole kick opening of his quarters.

There's a bleet from the bridge.

WASH Sir!...

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

MAL is leaned over the communication thing.

DI How would you feel about hijacking particle accelerator, captain?

BLACK OUT.

END OF ACT ONE

-------------------------------------------------

ACT TWO

INT. CHENG HO STATION - COMMAND

INARA waits patiently in a small waiting area amid an administrative section of the station. Cubicles of the FUTURE, etc. A door swooshes open besides INARA to let DAVIDS in from chaotic crowds.

DAVIDS I'm dreadfully sorry to make you wait this long, Ms. Serra.

INARA It's all right, I understand. Are your people okay?

DAVIDS A couple of janitors in the inner levels were inhumed, but the population is, on the whole, unspoiled. The real damage, however, is unknowable.

INARA But if the habitat is fine...

DAVIDS Whatever we experienced wasn't out to claim lives. It used engineering lines to open up the commercial net and then blew out all every security node on board.

INARA Data mining.

DAVIDS Right. So they could have opened up every government encryption file or they could've broken a corporate black-net. We're treating this as a terrorist attack, but corporate espionage is more likely. I already have a dozen lawyers breathing down my neck. The Aggregator is staying local to re-secure our connections, but I'm afraid it'll be some time before a passenger cruiser is allowed to, or wants to, dock.

INARA I'll make do.

EXT. SERENITY AND SPACE SEDAN

Some footage of the two ships conjoined.

INT. SERENITY - DOCKING BAY

Both crews are gathered.

JIM The Sao Enlightened Federation Particle Accelerator. Built nearly 50 years ago and only entirely finished recently. It's been running experiments on and off for the last eight years. Small glitches have left it in almost permanent repair. Which is no small reason why the government has invested so much in keeping Cheng Ho Station operational.

JAYNE Wait, you're saying the... accelerator is here, in space?

JIM -Yeah. ?

ZOE Wouldn't it be easier to build it on land?

GABRIELE Well, I suppose you could, in theory, build an accelerator planetside. But you'd have to take all sorts of complications into consideration. The curve of the planet. Geoelectromagnetic fieldage. The effects of gravity would have to be remeasured for each different...

JIM The point is, Sao's unique personality is just what we need.

ZOE For what?

DI Our experiment.

JIM Particle accelerators are built to handle matter and energy on otherwise inconceivably small levels. The bigger the accelerator, the deeper it can probe. But, what we found a long time ago is, the more energy, the smaller we focus, the father we can see into our own past. How things formed the way they did. The idea is, if we can follow stuff back as far as it will go we'll understand why and how it all fits together.

GABRIELE Except that after all these years of trying we're still no closer to figuring it all out.

BOOK Maybe that's a lesson in itself.

GABRIELE (distaste for Book's statement apparent) It's not that we haven't gotten anywhere. There is an answer; it's just that nobody's been able to tie it all together. Yet.

DI's an anxious and proud little professor.

SIMON (to GABRIELE) But you think you've got it.

JIM There are... factions... between the academics. Politics guiding access to government facilities. In theory, everyone should eventually have time to conduct their tests. But things aren't always so smooth.

GABRIELE Some of the more contemporary views are held in a very unfavorable light.

DI (stone cold, and not very mockable) They shut down my lab.

JIM Some others were content to withdraw from the debate and go back to quiet lives. We didn't.

MAL So you went underground looking for a way to prove yourselves.

JIM It took some time. To set up and figure what we were going to have to do. Sao's operable, but it wasn't designed for quite what we had in mind.

GABRIELE I met some men on Osiris. They said they could get us the extra equipment we needed, send it over as they got it.

MAL (referring to the men) Pay handsomely.

SIMON Wait, on Osiris, you said?

MAL But that equipment wasn't quite as safe as you thought.

JIM The accelerator's security has been reinforced. We thought we could do it from a distance. Plant and project what we needed and scoot. Now we need to break in.

MAL It seems you fellas are a little at ends. What gives you the gall to ask an honest transport captain --like myself-- to partake in your mischievin'?

JIM Nothin' dishonest about takin' a few starry-eyed folks for a little stroll in the black, captain. Certainly not after you've already helped us out so much.

Getting the feeling that JIM is not your typical lab-coated physicist.

JIM And good money, of course. (beat) It's not like we all spent our savings to get out here.

A beat.

MAL I think we just might stand the presence of all you educated types.

SIMON looks a tad embarrassed by MAL's statement. JIM, MAL, ZOE move off, with DI watching, towards the connection between ships. People disperse. Talking over one another.

SIMON (to GABRIELE) These men, that you, ah, met. On Osiris.

Her pure and utterly focused attention swings from MAL and DI to coalesce on SIMON. A beat.

GABRIELE I didn't meet them on Osiris. More like above.

SIMON Were they at all... did they say... seem part of an underground?

GABRIELE Very little ground to be under, in orbit. (waits a sec while Simon deals with non-response) You have a history on Osiris?

SIMON Well, yeah, uh... I was a trauma surgeon.

GABRIELE Really? My brother interned at the main Delphi hospital...

Some mild flirting going on here. More on GABRIELE’s part than SIMON’s. In the background WASH and DI have joined MAL, ZOE and JIM. SIMON's conversation is lost as CAMERA SWINGS through to

KAYLEE (To JAYNE) How exiting! More crime!

JAYNE Remains to be seen. Sounds complicated. Complicated --I've found-- is another word for soon-to-be-all-hell. And you don't need psychic brain rays to figure that.

RIVER (casually, from right beside them) Yup.

They turn to look at her.

MAL Okay people! Look alive. We gots some good samariting to be done.

WASH pounds up the stairs.

BLACK OUT.

END OF ACT TWO

-------------------------------------------------

ACT THREE

EXT. SERENITY

Flying through space. SPACE SEDAN to be seen just a little ahead. One or two asteroids make subtle appearances.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

ZOE I love trusting strangers, don't you sir?

MAL Well, what use could terrorists have with a particle thingy? What are they gonna do, poke small bits of dust until they cry uncle?

ZOE If I remember correctly, some little things have a famous and greatly feared ability to go *boom* in an obnoxious fashion.

JAYNE Speaking of obnoxious fashions, where do yah figure those scientists got their rags? I nearly laughed my ass off. ...Course the younger one aint too bad lookin'.

WASH You just wish they were all wearing tops like that.

ZOE (still focused on the topic) Could be they want it as a weapon, sir.

MAL Could be. (a beat) Remind me to get old and fattish and never take chances again.

ZOE I'll tell the kids not to play on you.

WASH jerks a tad at the mention o' kids. But nevermind because

WASH There it is.

A long, stretched out tubing comes into view. We don't see the ends; it's just so thin that it eventually fades into view. They gaze.

JAYNE Looks like a big stick.

ZOE Only kind of weapon there is.

MAL stops, pauses, and jerks around toward ZOE.

MAL You tryin' to make some sorta gendered commentary there?

ZOE No sir. Happen to like 'em myself.

WASH Married me, didn't she?

INT. CHENG HO STATION - COMMANDER’S QUARTERS

Sex scene. INARA, DAVIDS. Gasp. Gasp. Moan. Etc. Repeat. Get the feeling that DAVIDS really is sorta enraptured.

INT. CHENG HO STATION - COMMANDER’S QUARTERS

It’s later. INARA is asleep. DAVIDS is thinking sharply.

INARA Mal…

DAVIDS’ head jerks. He stares off.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

CLOSE UP of MAL’s weathered face.

KAYLEE (Over Com) We're entering their targeting field.

INT. SERENITY - ENGINE ROOM

KAYLEE is in her corner, wires and data carrying stuff all around her.

SIMON (entering) What's happening?

KAYLEE Well, the particle accelerator was built in this ring because of the easy resources, but since it never stopped having problems, the Alliance never got around to moving it. And, to prevent all the rocks from hitting it, they built a laser turret system on it to keep it safe.

SIMON Rocks. You mean like large hunks of metal moving towards it?

KAYLEE Precisely. (smiles)

EXT. SERENITY AND ACCELERATOR

Two large and rather metallic ships move directly toward the particle accelerator.

INT. OTHER SHIP

GABRIELE Casting grav shadow... now.

INT. SERENITY - ENGINE ROOM

KAYLEE does important, fluid and deliberately timed stuff; using the stuff she's got around her.

EXT. SERENITY AND ACCELERATOR

Stuff detaches from all around Serenity's hull and then some of it blows. All sorts of random bits come flying out. A dented frying pan is clearly seen.

The Space Sedan swoops in and flings clumps of the stuff around it. All the spread out bits are gathering up below the ship as it swings this cloud to bear on the Accelerator.

Both ships are now riding behind a protective cloud of small, hard items.

Then the hidden lasers start. Very cool. Very rapid and very powerful. A couple of the laser turrets have different colored lasers and are slightly larger. These should be spaced rather evenly; they're the higher power lasers for bigger stuff.

Both ships fly in fast as their homemade shitstorm dissolves in Technicolor. The Space Sedan docks fast and not altogether smoothly with a little data port. Lasers fly around it. A big turret would hit it if Serenity wasn't confusing it by flying circles around it.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

WASH (Serenely calm, but slightly smirking) Ah-ah-ah. Can't catch this.

The laser flicker plays colors upon the faces of everybody. MAL's most noticeably, as he stares steely and focusedly ahead. JAYNE's got his mouth open.

EXT. SERENITY AND ACCELERATOR

The big laser is having trouble targeting this particularly ornery and troublesome rock... so it speeds up.

Big, nasty bolts hit the ship.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

The cabin shudders. Everyone's eyes grow at least a few microns. People brace themselves.

BOOK (entering bridge) What the hell was that?

EXT. SPACE SEDAN

Space Sedan pulls away from accelerator fast and swings about as a portion of the particle accelerator's covering swings open.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

JIM (over communications thing) Hack worked. We’re clear, captain.

WASH yanks controls and Serenity dashes into large opening behind the other ship. Covering slowly swings shut again. It barely makes it shut above the bridge.

EXT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR DOCK

Serenity comes to a nice clean landing besides the Space Sedan. Air rushes into the small chamber from pumps and as it does steam billows from Serenity's underside. No music. Just the increasing sound of hissing.

FADE TO BLACK.

END OF ACT THREE

-------------------------------------------------

ACT FOUR

EXT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR DOCK

Serenity's door falls open and MAL, ZOE, JAYNE rush out, guns drawn, but not really expecting anything. The belly of the ship is faintly steaming, as is the metal flooring it touches. BOOK comes up behind.

BOOK What happened?

JAYNE Got shot by some Alliance lasers.

BOOK If that was true we'd all be dead.

Enter SIMON and KAYLEE.

MAL Shepherd’s right. Military laser'd burn right through the ship.

BOOK Real lasers weren't used very often during the war. Cost too much energy.

KAYLEE Well those lasers wouldn't make much sense here. Doesn't help much to punch a bunch of holes in an asteroid. Gotta use the heat to push em away. Just gave Serenity some jolts, I'm afraid. Smaller ones woulda been worse.

MAL This gonna give us any trouble little Kaylee?

KAYLEE Shouldn't. Just scorched a bit. And most of that heat bled off into space.

MAL Good. (into com) Di, how your people doin'?

INT. OTHER SHIP

DI We are near done.

GABRIELE is enraptured by all sorts of electronic computer programmy stuff. JIM is busy shutting down the ship.

EXT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR DOCK

WASH (arriving) There's nothing over the internal lines. Should register as nothing more than a particularly bad rock shower.

MAL Okay, now we don't know if there's anybody on this thing. So Jayne, you and Zoe are gonna help me check this thing out. There--

DI (over com) Okay, we're shutting down gravity.

MAL What?

INT. OTHER SHIP

JIM Accelerator can't operate with such a close draw of mass, captain. It's triggered for repair right now, unless we want the control room lighting up like a Christmas tree we gotta power down this section now. I suggest you do the same on your ship.

EXT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR DOCK

WASH Already did.

What lighting there was from the little dry-dock cuts off. Serenity's lights stay on, keeping things lit enough. The crew stands exactly as they were, but they all felt the change. No dramatic hair rising or some such. WASH pulls up a big flashlight and pushes it, in a straight line across the air, to MAL. Ooo-oh. No gravity. SIMON gets a tinny bit frantic and accidentally sends himself flying. KAYLEE watches him fondly.

MAL Right. Jayne? Let's go.

INT. SERENITY - KITCHEN

RIVER's getting food. TEA CUP, PACKAGED FOOD, NAPKIN. She starts suddenly. Looks around. Pokes her TEA CUP off the counter. It behaves like a TEA CUP set in motion, without forces acting on it. RIVER is fascinated. She moves to turn around and is sent floating. The PACKAGED FOOD and NAPKIN float off. RIVER experiments briefly. Then she starts flying. Hair and pink dress billowing. She is the happiest girl in the verse.

INT. ACCELERATOR - INNER WORKINGS

Door bursts open. MAL and ZOE float through, guns ready, JAYNE behind. The core of the accelerator is infront of them, about 3.5 meters in diameter with all sorts of white tubing along side it. Whole place stinks of high tech Alliance workings left to sit a spell. MAL and ZOE float through the junky access way. JAYNE stays anchored, perhaps feeling a mite queasy. MAL comes up on a 2 meter wide tubing on the other side. There's a sleek doorway on the smaller tubing, blue LEDs and a computer terminal. MAL puts gun away.

MAL (into com) Okay, we found the access transit.

INT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR CONTROLS

JIM We have no idea if anyone was working in this thing. If there were there's a good chance they felt our arrival. If they were between the control end, and us then they've already made it back. But that leaves quite fourteen miles beyond us. You need to cut off the transit piping to stop anyone out there from getting back.

JIM has got papers before him, of the old and heavily fibered variety, detailing the schematics of the particle accelerator. GABRIELE is knee deep in wires. DI is nowhere to be seen.

INT. ACCELERATOR - INNER WORKINGS

MAL looks at the thing and its lots of computery stuff, blinking different things.

MAL Okay...

EXT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR DOCK

KAYLEE is lovingly working on Serenity's scorched bits. BOOK is up close to the Space Sedan, studying it. RIVER flies out of Serenity's cargo hold.

SIMON (from above) River!

BOOK Oh, River, that might not be the safest thing.

RIVER flies past him. KAYLEE turns to look and smiles at her. RIVER comes up against a large doorway to the rest of the accelerator, grabs on and smoothly stops.

RIVER It's all right. I absolve you of your sins.

She flies off again, out of the dock.

SIMON (O.C.) River!

BOOK launches himself after her. Not nearly so graceful.

SIMON River--

SIMON bounces into the ground and off in another direction. KAYLEE giggles loudly. SIMON is not happy.

INT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR CONTROLS

RIVER flies right past JIM and GABRIELE. BOOK comes in.

BOOK Did you see a girl...?

RIVER pokes her head up, suddenly underneath one of the control thingies.

JIM (to RIVER) Excuse me, but I need to get to that press-regulator. We need it to play hide and seek with something called a "bosum".

RIVER (serious) They don't exist.

JIM What?

RIVER Higgs, Balmer, up, down, red, blue. They're just possibilities in the wind.

JIM You're... wrong. See we know they exist... There have been-- there are shapes that all meet the requirements. There-- strings through the brane of time--

RIVER Yes. (nods, happier now) Strings through the brain.

RIVER studies JIM's face.

RIVER You don't get it.

She sulks back into a corner.

BOOK (re RIVER) I'm sorry; she doesn't always have the best manners.

JIM That's... okay.

He moves to work on thing where RIVER was.

BOOK So what is it you're doing? With this place?

JIM (working) Well, about half a millennia ago, a man said that the Universe was a fundamentally unknowable place. Oh, sure you could know how likely something was to happen, but you couldn't know just what was at root. It was all very neat and orderly, aside from a couple inconsistencies, and for a few hundred years his mathematics reigned.

BOOK But there were problems.

JIM Well, at first nobody noticed anything. But the results that fit so absolutely to their model were always ever-so-slightly-off. After a while people came to realize that it wasn't just human error. The universe came close to being numbers, but it wasn't exactly. ...Then, some of the numbers they had assumed were constant were shown to change. There were many theories proposed, but, in the end, most people came to agree that the minor fluxuations were caused by temporal vibrations; background noise from every black hole or star that ever was or will be.

BOOK You ...disagree.

JIM It's like making an ice planet. You start out with something that isn't too cohesive, so you just start adding layers until it looks the way you want. Pretty soon it gets too big to eat.

GABRIELE Yummy food metaphors aside, there's simply no way tachyon physics can work. They just added time-travel as a crutch.

SIMON (entering) So what exactly do you propose instead?

JIM A merging of classic string theory and brane theory. Where all matter is the consequence of intersecting--

RIVER (loud, despondently) Unwind the hurricane, they find nothing.

SIMON looks at her annoyed.

BOOK What's so big about that, that the government would seek to stop you from working on it?

JIM Well... Under classic theory the cosmos is a lot more impersonal. Yes, they make a big deal about consciousness, but it's all impersonal numbers. ...By questioning that --by trying to approach things in a much more fluid manner, we really upset a lot of Alliance dogma.

INT. CHENG HO STATION - COMMANDER’S QUARTERS

DAVIDS is in full uniform. An Alliance computer before him. INARA is gone.

COMPUTER Malcolm Reynolds. Captain. Firefly-class transport. Serenity. Three violations of –

CREWMAN (over com) Sir. There’s a situation. A technician who was working on the accelerator--

INT. ACCELERATOR - INNER WORKINGS

WASH has arrived, he's deep in some wiring, ZOE's giving him a back massage. MAL and JAYNE are off next to the access tubing.

WASH A net.

ZOE stops.

ZOE What?

WASH A net. Like an actual net. How's that square with your sexist treatise on weapons?

ZOE Not a weapon.

WASH Yeah it is. I mean... --Well you can get strangled in one!

ZOE That's the rope that does that.

WASH struggles to argue.

MAL There.

Torch gives one huge flickering blast and dies. MAL blinks his unprotected eyes a couple times. MAL and JAYNE have seriously dented the tube, broken the door and then welded chunks of sheet metal across the interior, cutting off what appears to be a couple of little railway rails.

MAL (into com) Okay, access tube is cut off.

INT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR CONTROLS

JIM Your timing is impeccable, captain.

Everyone in the room is looking down at a screen he has rigged.

EXT. ACCELERATOR

Besides the endless tubing of the particle accelerator rises an Alliance Cruiser, in all its huge splenditude.

FADE TO BLACK.

END OF ACT FOUR

-------------------------------------------------

ACT FIVE

EXT. ACCELERATOR PLUS BIG CRUISER

Where we left off. Alliance Cruiser. Big. Our heroes: not so much.

Screen reads: HMS AGGREGATOR

INT. AGGREGATOR - BRIDGE

CAPTAIN And you're sure of this Commander?

DAVIDS (through screen) Absolutely. I have confirmation from the Sao's control center. Two ships, unidentified. Breached the security net and docked, at least long enough to deposit an infiltration team. About one third of the way down the accelerator. Long-range records now confirm it.

CAPTAIN You realize your unspecific account exponentially increases the area we have to cover.

DAVIDS No one ever assumed that the Sao would be a viable target. We weren't given the material necessary to watch the whole length of it.

The CAPTAIN cuts DAVIDS off the screen. He turns to an inferior.

CAPTAIN Get the counter-terror squad prepped and launched at once.

INT. ACCELERATOR - INNER WORKINGS

MAL Well, shit.

CUT TO

INT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR CONTROLS

JIM There's a boarding ship docking a little ways up the accelerator. Looks like they're trying to flush us out.

BOOK Or they don't have a fix on our position and simply mean to cover the whole ground.

MAL (over com) We leave. Now. Two separate directions...

BOOK I don't advise it. Gunships would have us in seconds.

SIMON Then what do we do?

GABRIELE Continue the experiment.

BOOK --If you think these men'll just let us walk because you proved them wrong--

GABRIELE --Minus a few safeguards.

She starts ripping out some of the wiring she'd been doing.

A beat.

JIM (into com) Professor, are you done yet?

INT. ACCELERATOR - DEEP INNARDS

DI is painstakingly setting up a TECHNICAL THING on a clump on the particle accelerator's inner tubing. Bits of it extend into the big tubing. Besides DI is the LUNCHBOX, opened.

DI Almost.

INT. ACCELERATOR - INNER WORKINGS

MAL (into com) What's that going to do?

MAL is getting lost by the minute, beginning to lose what little hope he had and not liking it at all.

INT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR CONTROLS

JIM (into com) Do you know why this accelerator was built so thick, captain? Just speeding up tinny stuff shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? See, it turns out that if you push a whole lotta energy into a very little thing you get all sorts of energy comin' right back out. Some of this energy is electromagnetic.

BOOK Alliance Cruisers are shielded against electromagnetic weaponry.

GABRIELE Conventional, electromagnetic warfare. This is… slightly different magnitude.

INT. ACCELERATOR - INNER WORKINGS

MAL (into com) Kaylee. Get Serenity shut down and prepped for heavy EM. Shepard, you get down here. Doctor, take your sister and get back on the ship. (beat) Jayne, get the guns.

EXT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR DOCK

SIMON, RIVER and GABRIELE come to the entrance to the dock.

RIVER No. No, Simon, I don't want to --I don't want to get smashed.

SIMON Look, River, no one is... (looks at RIVER) Just get on, okay? RIVER, unhappily glides into Serenity. KAYLEE, meanwhile, is perched on the hull, grafting long cords between the hull and the dock. They shoot outward much like a preacher's untied hair. Gabriele departs back into the accelerator's workin's.

KAYLEE You comin' Simon?

SIMON gazes after River's artful flight.

SIMON Ah. No... actually I think I'm going to help Gabriele.

He departs.

INT. ACCELERATOR - INNER WORKINGS - LATER

MAL, WASH, ZOE, JAYNE, BOOK. Guns. Grenades.

MAL Entry way is crap, which is, unfortunately, why we're gonna have to target from here. Now, Jayne, I've laid some grenades along the access tunnel, but I need you to make sure they detonate on line of sight.

MAL passes a bit of string to JAYNE, it continues off behind some bits of tech they're using as cover.

MAL Now if we give 'em a moment to retreat, they'll gas us out. So we can't ever let them pass a moment without men on the topside, cause if they've got nothin' to lose, then we've got everything to. Got it? Is this going to be a problem? (looks at BOOK)

JAYNE Some how I think the preacher knows how to deal with the kick.

MAL Wash?

WASH I can deal with this, sir.

MAL These are Alliance Special Forces. Not common thugs.

Nobody says anything. Steely and all that. They wait.

WASH Bear trap. (makes hand motion) You can't tell me that's phallic. It's like the anti-phallic. What’s the word? The-

ZOE Not a weapon either.

WASH What? Of course it is. Bites your leg off.

ZOE It's passive.

WASH What's that?

ZOE Doesn't matter, sweetie. It's like a landmine. It just lies there. It's not targeted. You don't know if you're going to get anybody, or who it'll hurt.

WASH It hurts bears.

ZOE A weapon is something you use to against someone intentionally.

WASH I intend to hurt bears.

ZOE It would count if you got it on some sort of a line and swung it at people.

ALLIANCE (O.S.) (muffled) What the?

BOOM!! Huge ol' explosion. Troops start pouring out of access tunnel, which is hidden from sight behind the main tubing. JAYNE pulls the string and blows a bunch of grenades.

Firefight ensues. Actual inner tubing for accelerator's vacuum chamber is ominously hit.

WASH's toe gets shot.

WASH

MAL (shouting) Wash! Get out of here! Prep the ship.

WASH nods, evidently in universe shattering pain. He pushes himself up corridor, away from fight and to docking bay. Blood droplets. Unintelligible cursing. Something about shadow puppets.

WASH passes SIMON and GABRIELE working together on some arcane piece of vitally important electronicary.

GABRIELE So this pretty usual, huh?

SIMON Well, you know. Standard fare.

Whatever they were doing becomes finished with a click or bzzt or whatever. GABRIELE turns an appreciative face towards SIMON.

DI (over com) Gabriele !

GABRIELE shoots down another tinny corridor, SIMON follows. Shots continue to ring out.

FADE TO BLACK.

END OF ACT FIVE

-------------------------------------------------

ACT SIX

INT. ACCELERATOR - CORRIDOR

Explosions. Shots. Our heroes have been pressed back pretty far.

JAYNE's firing VERA and chunks in his last cartridge. Still firing he reaches aside and grabs a full-duty grenade launcher set down by the Dock's doors. His last bullet is fired. JAYNE calmly swings the launcher up and --clears the corridor.

MAL Let's go!

KAYLEE (arriving suddenly by his side) Where's --! Where's Simon?

MAL

JAYNE We're not riskin' our lives for that pansy!

KAYLEE looks at him. She heads into the corridor and the oncoming fire.

MAL (into com) Wash! Wash!

ZOE Com's down right now, remember, sir? Serenity's dead.

He looks down corridor after disappeared KAYLEE.

MAL Son of a whore.

INT. ACCELERATOR - DEEP INNARDS

SIMON, DI, JIM, GABRIELE. The whole TECHNICAL THING they're been grafting onto the accelerator. Far off gunfire. A blast causes bits of tech to shake.

GABRIELE We have to do it now.

DI Not. Ready.

SIMON Who cares about the specifics! We need that EMP now.

JIM (takes SIMON by shoulders roughly) This is not about your little lives. This is about the greater knowledge. This is for Humanity.

KAYLEE (rushing in) Simon!

Alliance soldier bursts into room, gun raised. BOOK shoots him dead.

BOOK Human sacrifice has very little to do with humanity. (Takes Simon softly) You ready, doctor?

JIM (pushes bag across room to BOOK) Give this to your captain.

EXT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR DOCK

ZOE Hey, where'd the shepherd go?

KAYLEE, SIMON and BOOK emerge from the smoke.

ZOE Thank god.

BOOK Got our pay, captain.

MAL Let's go!

INT. SERENITY - CARGO BAY

Little door is slammed shut manually.

INT. ACCELERATOR - DEEP INNARDS

DI

LEDs flash. Stuff hums.

EXT. ACCELERATOR AND AGGREGATOR

EMP blast.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

WASH They've done it. Powering up.

He hits a switch and gravity returns.

WASH Ahhh...

INT. SERENITY - ENGINE ROOM

KAYLEE pushes big thing to start engine. SIMON lies in her hammock.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

ZOE, MAL and JAYNE enter. ZOE moves to her injured husband.

WASH Now, hopefully, the accelerator will have done it’s job and withstood...

The covering to the repair bay opens.

WASH pilots Serenity away as fast as possible. Calm.

They pass the obviously decrepit Alliance Cruiser.

WASH Say hi to the feds, honey.

MAL looks out and allows himself a small smile.

EXT. SERENITY

Right by. Smooth as all-hell.

INT. ACCELERATOR - DEEP INNARDS

DI (utterly blissful) See how field collapse mimics--

GABRIELE Professor!

EXT. ACCELERATOR

The accelerator rips itself apart.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

They watch. Stunned.

WASH Captain, I'm getting a distress signal.

MAL Well get us out of here! If they cruiser’s already able to signal, they'll soon be able to ID us.

WASH No-- It's, uh, it's coming from the fed station.

Utter reversal of mood.

MAL What.

WASH The blast must have reached them.

BOOK There are thousands of civilians on board that station.

MAL is only thinking of INARA.

MAL Take us there.

ZOE Sir--

WASH Mal--

MAL Do it! Wash, park the ship in the rabbit field just outside. If the feds wake up fully, leave.

He spins around.

CUT TO

INT. SERENITY - INARA'S SHUTTLE

MAL bursts in, slamming the door locked behind him. Her shuttle still has her curtains, still has many of her touches, but she’s undoubtedly missing.

MAL swings into the piloting chair and begins punching buttons.

INT. CHENG HO STATION - PRIVATE DRY DOCK

DAVIDS pushes some heavy cargo bay doors open by himself. His flashlight shines through the gloom. There's a small Alliance fighter-ship inside, ramp down. He runs up it.

INT. ALLIANCE FIGHTER

DAVIDS turns on ship. Ship turns on. He is grateful. Screens and holograms pop up he looks at them. Shows his position in station and surrounding space. Accelerator also shown as well as AGGREGATOR. He finds Serenity.

DAVIDS Bastards.

He fires lasers and carves his way out of dry dock.

EXT. CHENG HO STATION

The shuttle glides up against small exterior dock.

INT. CHENG HO STATION - FAIRWAY

MAL pushes open airlock, typical male bravado style. Chaos of people. Crying. Shouting. A few lights shining haphazardly.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

WASH Oh shit. We got incoming.

He tries to move Serenity around, only succeeds in a ship wide shudder and suddenly there's an Alliance Fighter facing them across the black.

WASH freezes. Small electronic noise and his finger barely pushes a switch.

DAVIDS (voice over communications thing) Captain Reynolds. My, my. This is a surprise. Independents die, hard, or so I hear. You'll be paying for all those lives you took today.

A beat.

EXT. SERENITY

Two ships float, face to face, a ship's length between them. A small asteroid rolls by between.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

WASH yanks the controls and spins Serenity out of the way of the lasers that slice space where Serenity had been. He dives and starts to pull all sorts of "evasive action" while lasers streak past.

ZOE Baby. Baby. Baby.

INT. CHENG HO STATION - ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION

MAL busts in. He's covered in grime and some blood. INARA has been tending to the injured.

MAL Inara.

INARA (jumping up) Mal. My god!

MAL We're leaving.

EXT. SERENITY

Missiles stream by Serenity. Duck around a big rock. Explosions. Fighter shoots after them.

INT. INARA'S SHUTTLE

MAL kicks his way into the shuttle. Two men are trying to work the panels, they turn around and MAL drops them. INARA gets in and MAL throws the men back into the station, shutting the door and airlock. INARA pilots them away from the station.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

WASH, calm as a... calm thing, swings the ship past another rock. There's a clunk as a smaller rock hits the ship. WASH flinches. Ship careens wildly. Small rock goes shooting past bridge and

EXT. SERENITY

Into DAVID's fighter.

INT. SERENITY - BRIDGE

MAL (over communications thing) Permission to come aboard?

CUT TO

INT. SERENITY - CARGO BAY

Shuttle door opens and MAL enters throng of happy crew.

WASH We're clear, sir.

MAL Nobody ID'd us?

ZOE Nobody alive to tell the tale.

MAL lets out a long breath. Of the sort you don't realize you've been holding.

INT. SERENITY - INFIRMARY/LOUNGE

MAL, INARA and BOOK drink tea together. WASH, ZOE, JAYNE, SIMON, RIVER and KAYLEE set up Chinese checkers in the background.

INARA People died back there.

MAL They died doing their job.

INARA --And that makes it better?

BOOK It might have made it better for them.

MAL Sometimes you find something you just can't let go of...

A long moment.

INARA You were right. (beat) I need to tell the others.

She gets up and leaves. MAL and BOOK drink together. Alone.

WASH Throwing stars! Ninja throwing stars!

END OF SHOW

===================Stuff cut=================

INT. ACCELERATOR - INNER WORKINGS

ZOE Nobody uses large-scale EMPs anymore because they're a rutting pain in the ass to deploy.

JAYNE No point in giving your enemy a shock when it fries you and everything that could reach either one of you before you restart.

INT. ACCELERATOR - REPAIR CONTROLS

BOOK But if you're already shut down...

JIM Repair dock's built to sustain that sorta thing.