There were so many ships, forty two in all, landing on Pegasus that day, that they had drawn straws for the landing pattern. There were a few crew members from the planet guiding ships to and fro, but no kind of air traffic control to speak of. This was both a help, and a hindrance to Wash, who did his best flying instinctively. A few of the pilots he had argued with earlier had taken to cutting off his flight path just to annoy him. A few, more than a few, were hotdogging for some reason, and Wash saw no reason to do that. Very few of them actually impressed him. The one that impressed him the most was the pilot of Raydor's ship, the Contessa. The green hued Firefly had pulled a complete loop before landing gently and solidly in front of the crew member waving them down. Serenity's number came up somewhere in the middle, and the crew had cautiously stepped out to watch the rest of the ships land. Mal was glad that Wash had stayed levelheaded enough not to try some of the stunts that some of the other pilots were doing. A Death's Head was landing right now, and the look of it took al up short. Not long ago, the crew had come up against a very dangerous and skilled bounty hunter named Jubal Early who had piloted a ship much like this one, only so heavily modified that it was unrecgnizable. He breathed a little easier when a very attractive woman got out of the ship. It could have been a sasquatch, Mal reckoned, just so long as it wasn't Early. Monty stopped by to say hello, and to inquire after his wife, Bridget. Mal said that he had left her on the moon Monty had abandoned her on, and left it at that. The less Monty knew about the job they had pulled afterwards, the better. Actually, the less everyone knew about that job, in which Mal had stolen, with a little assistance, the prototype of all handheld laser technology, The Lassiter, the happier Mal would be. It was still on board, seeing how as no one Mal knew would touch the thing. Very valuable and completely unsellable. Wash wandered over to the Contessa with Kaylee. Kaylee was pointing and cooing in awe at all the Fireflys. No two looked alike, with the exception of their basic forms. There was one, which had been painted a fast red color, which had extended the extenders so that the engines looked as though they were sitting on two huge bat's wings. Painted down the side of this monstrosity was the word: Everlasting. There was even an unmodified one without the extenders at all. This one could probably go nowhere near as fast as the others without shaking. Its name was apparently, The Axe. The crew of the Contessa was filtering out of the cargo hold. The inside of the ship that Wash and Kaylee could see looked nothing like Serenity's. For one thing, it was very, very clean. And the cargo bay was well lit and compartmentalized. Captain Raydor was standing on the lip of the cargo door, accompanied by a lovely woman in a powder blue flight suit. "Fiona? My God, its been an eon since we were in flight school!" The woman standing next to the rugged Captain Raydor was beautiful, and tiny. A full head shorter than Wash, she ran to him immediately and swung him into a terrific hug. Kaylee was a little taken aback by this. She had never seen Wash with anyone but Zoe, and the hug was offputting to her. Raydor steeped forward and offered his hand to Kaylee. Why he would do this was lost on her, but he was kinda gorgeous, so she stepped forward and introduced herself. Zoe turned the corner in front of the rest of the crew and paused when she saw what Wash was doing. Simon too was a little taken aback. He was sweet on Kaylee, but could never find a way to tell her. She was sweet on him too, but he had stuck his foot in his own mouth so many times, that he could never be sure what the last straw would be. Mal saw everything going on as well, and prodded the two in gently in the back, urging them forward. Zoe straightened her back arched her eyebrow, and walked to stand beside Wash, who was jabbering excitedly in pilot speak to the little pilot woman. For almost a full minute, Wash didn't notice that Zoe was even standing there. When he gestured to show Serenity to Fiona, he almost poked Zoe in the eye. He apologized sheepishly when he saw the whole crew looking at him disapprovingly. Foremost amongst these were Inara, Book, and of course, Zoe. River was also looking at him in a strange way that Wash didn't like. He clammed up and introduced Fiona. "Guys, this is Fiona Harpschull. We were in flight school together. She was the top of the class." "Really," said Zoe who knew the answer before she asked it. "And where in the class did you graduate?" Wash frowned, sensing that he was already in trouble, though he didn't think he had done anything wrong. "I graduated." "Right. Miss Harpschull, I'm Zoe Warren, Wash's wife." She stepped forward and offered her hand to Fiona, who she towered over. Fiona gaped at Wash. "You got married! I can't believe it! You were such the ladies man in flight school." Zoe slowly turned her head to look at Wash, who immediately looked at his own feet. Shaking hands with Zoe, Fiona intoned "Actually, I did too. Its Fiona Raydor now. Meet my husband, Zilan Raydor." His ploy to make his wife as jealous as she had made him with Kaylee thwarted, Raydor stepped forward. Mal stepped forward,too. "Zoe and I have already made your husband's acquaintance. Isn't that right, Captain Raydor." Mal was referring to a time when the two of them had gone into a business venture that had ultimately led to Raydor stealing a few parts off of Serenity for The Contessa. Before Zoe could stop her, Fiona grasped her by the arm and led her off, talking rapidly. Zoe looked for Wash, who shrugged and followed after them. Kaylee, suddenly finding herself ignored, ambled over to Simon,River and Book. Jayne was standing behind them all. He had more enemies in this group than he cared to admit, and he was carrying no less than four pistols on him. Plus, he never was one for this kind of meet and greet. Inara was looking around for her client. He had told her that he would be here today to meet her, so that they might speak at length to see if she would take him as a client. Mal and Raydor stared each other down for a few minutes. Mal made a big show of looking to see that his gun was still on him. "You understand, Raydor. Things just acquire the habit of turning up missin' when you're around." Raydor ground his teeth, but said nothing. His wife was talking to Zoe, and between the two of them, Raydor knew that Mal and Zoe were plenty dangerous. Before long, a loud, booming voice came over all the ships, asking them to meet in the middle, where a wooden platform was built. There was a huge buffet laid out with meat and cheeses. A few fresh vegetables and some fruit. Kaylee's eye lit up like a schoolgirl's. There was even shimmerwine. Mal was immediately at unease. Who would go to all this trouble for this particular group of people. Some of the people collected here would roll over on their own mothers for ten credits. So, why feed them? Standing in the center of the platform was a handsome asian man, mid thrities, wearing all black, with a black half cloak, and an ornate sword in a scabbard. He was obviously who had called them all here. Behind him, was a red silk screen. And behind that, someone sat, just out of view. This must be Red Veil, the person responsible for them all being there. Only the man on the platform spoke. "Come everyone. No need to be shy" his voice definitely had a power to it. "We have laid out the best we can offer, meagerly, as it is hard to obtain some things here on Pegasus. Red Veil, as your host, would like to ask that you all be very careful, as there are unpredictable earthquakes here. The weather seems to be holding for now, but that can change in an instant. After everyone has had a chance to eat something, we will get down to business, so to speak. So, please help yourselves." Inara recognized him immediately as the man who had called her. Book did too, and even Simon had an idea who he was. Book was suddenly very afraid for the crew of Serenity. He decided that instead of eating, he would go back to the ship, and pray.