Chapter 1 and 2: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14567

Chapter 3: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14577

Chapter 4: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14593

Chapter 5: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14621

Chapter 6: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14721

Chapter 7: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14810

Chapter 8: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14820

*****

Chapter 9

Mal thought it was a great party, just his idea of having a good time. They toasted the fall of the Alliance and the rise of a New Verse. Xing called it a “phoenix from the ashes.” Mal called it “a long time coming.” Inara wasn’t too enamored with the people, but they were Mal’s kind of people, she didn’t know what she had expected, but it was something different. Realistically, she had expected them to all be drunk and brawling, but she had hoped that they would all be gentleman. They were neither. They were the most pleasant men that she would never companion for, and there were a handful of them that made her uncomfortable with their manner. Xing was only one of these, but probably the worst. Mal told Xing that they would be leaving early. They walked into another room and talked for a moment, then Mal came back and told Inara that it was time to go. “This is all that we needed to be here for.”

*****

When Malcolm and his lady friend left, Xing let the festivities begin. They started first with asking most of the ladies to leave and then he had the traitors brought out. Some were young, some were older. All of them were tied up. Xing took down a large knife from the shelf and made quick work of the first few men, slicing them cleanly from end to end. This is what Xing lived for. He smiled the whole time.

*****

Mal didn’t know what he was going to say, but he needed to say something. “Damn it,” he thought to himself, “this is no time to be at a loss for words.” “Are you okay, Mal.” Inara said, “you haven’t said anything rude or obnoxious all night. Are you feeling sick?” Mal turned to Inara with a completely lost look in his eyes. What was he doing? “Can I be honest?” “I never thought you needed to ask.” Mal looked straight again, clearly uncomfortable. “I’m sorry I took you to that party. Those folk ain’t your kind of folk, and they ain’t the kind of folk you should be around.” “Are you worried they might be a bad influence?” Inara joked. “No, they just ain’t the kind of people you should be with, y’know.” The moment of sentiment lingered, they both knew that Mal was trying to be nice, maybe even trying to show some of his feeling for Inara, but they brushed it off.

*****

River Tam stood on the bridge of Serenity and stared out of the glass window at Osiris. It was beautiful. The lives of so many people were here, all mixed together like a mosaic. All so separate, but all part of something so big and elaborate. It was the kind of thing that she liked to see. All of the lights and all of the people walking about with their own thoughts and their own feelings. So many of them didn’t know how small they were, but how could they. It’s so easy to get lost when you aren’t looking at it from high up, from the bridge of a spacecraft. It was like being in the clouds, being big and looking down. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was what being God felt like. She didn’t really ask questions very often, anymore. But she wished the Shepherd was there so that she could ask him. Every once in a while, she missed the shepherd, and she wondered what had happened to him. She wondered if he was just drifting in the black, or if he had some new purpose somewhere. Everybody always called her a genius, and physics and technology and chemistry all came easy to her, but it left her a little bit uneasy knowing that she didn’t know everything, knowing that she didn’t know something important, that she didn’t know what had become of her friend.