Well, lookie here. My beta was nice to me and sent back the corrections for this chapter earlier than I expected. So - guess who benefits. . .

The last chapter will probably be posted next week. But - don't expect a satisfying ending. . .

Thanks to Tamsibling and Mal4Prez for the beta.

Chapter 10 can be found Here

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Chapter 11 -----------

Mal glanced around the large bay, his eyes scanning the area as he waited to deliver the plans. The place was big enough to hold a dozen Fireflys, and Mal felt a very unwelcome tug at his insides upon returning to a ship like this – even for a few moments.

He watched, Zoe on one side, Jayne on the other, as the commander with whom he’d exchanged communications over the last week approached, armed guards at his side.

“Thank you for this.” The commander extended his hand and Mal dropped the cylinder into it. “Your sacrifice will be worthwhile. I promise you.”

“It better be,” Mal said. Enough time had been wasted in getting the plans to the right people. He needed to get his crew back and he couldn’t do it standing in this cargo bay.

Jayne, ever concerned with being paid, asked suddenly, “We get any coin for riskin’ so much?”

Zoe growled low at Jayne and Mal was moments away from a biting retort when the commander smiled. “Some form of payment can be arranged.”

“Really?” Mal and Jayne asked at once.

“We owe you a great debt. I will make sure you are fully compensated.” He waved back toward a guard, who immediately disappeared through a nearby hatch.

“Unmarked platinum,” the commander said to Jayne when his guard returned with a large case. “It should total ten thousand, give or take.” He extended his hand to Mal, “Thank you.”

Jayne raised an eyebrow and the commander chuckled. “We may be losing the war, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t well funded.”

“Yeah,” Mal said, already distracted with thoughts about how he was going to get his people back.

They moved toward Serenity’s ramp without so much as a look back. Once reaching the top, Mal punched the controls to raise the bay doors and turned to Aaron. “Send that message.”

“Right away.” The man moved back toward the bridge, Zoe at his heels.

“Stow this,” Mal said to Jayne, pushing the case toward the greedy mercenary.

Simon and River, who had hidden so no one would know they were aboard, emerged from the passenger dorms.

“We’re going to get them, right?” Simon asked, his jaw set. He was perfectly willing to throw a punch if Mal so much delayed answering in the affirmative.

“Damn straight we are.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Maris leaned back in her chair and spared a smug smile at her husband’s clearly nervous and irritated delivery of the message. After replaying the wave several times, she finally composed a short, curt reply intended to elicit a thoroughly enjoyable angry response.

Though it had taken days for him to contact her, she was fairly certain he’d answer as soon as he got the message. As usual, she had been proven right.

Flipping a switch, her husband’s image blinked off and the bridge came into view. “I want to be informed as soon as the Firefly appears on the sensors.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Have the women fed and bathed.” Maris ordered and stood, transmitting her console connection from her office to the bridge. “We wouldn’t want Aaron or the crew of that dusty old freighter to think that we mistreat prisoners of war.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“Message delivered.” Aaron swiveled in the co-pilot’s chair and regarded Mal with a hopeful look.

“Let’s hope this works,” Jayne said with a sigh, clearly an disbeliever.

“It will work,” River insisted, staring out the cockpit window and into the black

Zoe’s eyes followed River’s into the black nothingness of space and confirmed, “It will work.”

Mal nodded curtly, his jaw set, and turned to River. “ETA on rendezvous?”

“Two days, eighteen hours, Captain.”

Mal groaned, hoping that it would be far closer.

“You know you’re gonna have to do some fancy flyin’ soon as we get ‘em back, right?”

“The probability of our survival is two-hundred –“

Mal waved her silent and turned to walk off the bridge. “I don’t want to know.”

“I wanna know,” Jayne directed at River.

“No you don’t,” Zoe, Mal and River chorused at once.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“They’re comin’ for us, ‘Nara.” Kaylee hurried into the cell as Inara sat drying her hair.

Inara spared a weak smile for her excited friend. “I heard.”

Kaylee sank down into the uncomfortable mattress and touched Inara’s arm, eyes sad as she watched her friend’s slow movements.

“I’ll heal, mei mei.”

Normally bright, cheerful eyes narrowed in disgusted anger. “Ain’t right what they did to you.”

“They could have done a lot worse.” Inara turned and forced a bigger smile. “It was a small price to pay. And they didn’t touch you.”

Kaylee’s hands flew to her belly as the baby kicked. “I think he wants out.”

The smile that graced Inara’s face this time was wide and genuine. “He?”

Kaylee smiled sheepishly, glancing down at her hands as they cradled her belly. “Yeah, I think it’s a boy. Simon thinks it’s a girl, with all the dancin’ around in my belly she been doin’. He don’t care, though. He just wants a healthy baby.”

Inara tensed and stared at Kaylee for a long moment. The girl returned a blank look until she caught the hint. Her mouth snapped shut and Kaylee winced at her mistake. They’d carefully avoided any discussion of Simon and River, and Kaylee trembled at the thought of what the Alliance would do if they discovered that their most wanted fugitives were on Serenity.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“I don’t like this,” Jayne said for probably the tenth time in as many minutes. He clutched Vera to his chest, his face scrunched into a seemingly permanent frown. The mercenary glanced back at Mal, Aaron and Zoe.

“Ain’t nothin’ about this to like,” Zoe said, her own eyes fixed on the closed door.

“This’ the best way we can make sure they don’t renege on the deal.” Mal fingered the snap holding his pistol in place, resisting the urge to slide it out of its holster and clench his hand tightly around the grip.

“This really is the best way.” Aaron clutched the plans as they all heard the familiar sound of a ship locking onto Serenity’s hull. “They don’t intend to honor their bargain, they die right along with us, and their precious plans implode right along with our bodies when the seal breaks.”

“Lovely image.” Mal rolled his eyes and groaned. “Thank you.”

Aaron shrugged and all four tensed as River’s voice came over the comm., informing them that the connection between the two ships was stable and they could open the bay door.

Mal nodded to Zoe and Jayne, who took up positions to the side of the small door, out of sight of the cylindrical connection between the two ships. He unlatched the door, pulled it open, and stood aside so Aaron could step through.

Maris stood at the other end of the temporary walkway, clutching Madeline in front of her. Though the light was dim, the skin of her pale, bony hand looked glaringly bright against the girl’s shoulder. Inara and Kaylee stood beside Maris with two guards behind them, weapons pointed at their backs. At Maris’ signal, the guards prodded the two women forward with the butt of their pulse rifles.

They moved forward at a walk, watching Aaron as each of their steps brought them closer to the relative safety of their home. Aaron, for his part, moved slowly toward them and stopped in the very center, not looking back toward Serenity when the two women finally reached their destination and disappeared inside.

Maris moved forward with her daughter, a triumphant smile on her face.

“You don’t know what –“

“Save it, Aaron,” Maris snapped, her tone leaving no room for delay, and held out her hand. “The plans. Now.”

Madeline looked fearfully up at her mother and Aaron could see the dried tears that had left paths down her cheeks.

With only a moment’s further hesitation, he settled the plans into the palm of his wife’s hand and pulled his daughter against him with the other. Without so much as a glance back, Aaron turned and led Madeline out of the tunnel and back into Serenity, only pulling her into his arms and holding her tight when Jayne had shut and bolted the door behind him.

Zoe moved to the comm. and instructed River to break the seal connecting the two ships if they didn’t do it themselves in the next ten seconds.

Inside, Simon’s hands wrapped gently around Kaylee’s cheeks as he pressed short, relieved kisses to her face. Kaylee embraced him as she could, with her very pregnant belly the only obstacle to burying herself completely against him.

Mal and Inara embraced wordlessly, both ignoring the tension and giving into a moment where they could simply be relieved to be alive and together again.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“You’re not really going to let them go, are you?”

“Of course not,” Maris strode toward her office, her aide following. “Track them and follow just out of scanner range. I want my daughter back but we’re going to wait until they make contact with an Independent ship first.”

The aide nodded and turned to carry out her order as the office door slid shut.

As Maris slid the data disk into the terminal; she smiled triumphantly at the console as it displayed the beginning of her report. But, after a moment, the picture flickered and an odd string of characters began to swim across the screen.

Her eyes widened and she watched helplessly as the data from the stick was instantly corrupted. She tried several ways to save it but nothing worked and she slammed her fist onto the desk as she flipped on the comm to the bridge.

“Yes?” came the unusually cheerful voice of her aid.

“Find that ship and blow it out of the sky,” she seethed as the terminal winked off and she sat, heaving with fury, in her high-backed chair.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

When the ship lurched suddenly to one side, everyone drew apart. With only momentary looks of fear exchanged between them, Mal threw himself toward the comm. and demanded, “River? What in the seven hells is goin’ on up there?”

“Ain’t one hell enough?” Jayne lamented mostly to himself as he looked for the closest bolted object with which to hold. “Why’s there gotta be seven?”

Everyone ignored him.

River’s voice floated down around their ears, calm even in the face of their imminent destruction. “They didn’t like the idea of letting us go, Captain.”

“That was quick.” Aaron clutched his daughter, and the nearest railing, to keep from being thrown off his feet. “I didn’t suspect she’d look at them so soon.”

“Ni ta ma de tian xia suo you de ren dou gai si!” Mal whirled on his crew. “Everyone go strap yourselves in. Zoe with me.”

“Oh God,” Kaylee whimpered as the baby kicked. Simon glanced down at her stomach, his eyes wide.

“Kaylee?”

“I think the baby’s not likin’ the bumpy ride,” Kaylee lamented as the color drained out of her face. She clutched Simon to keep from being thrown to the deck, but he was having difficulty keeping his own balance and wasn’t a lot of help.

A deep frown creasing his handsome features, Simon exhaled deeply and wrapped his arms around her as they hurried out of the cargo bay to follow Mal’s orders.

Aaron, Madeline and Inara followed Kaylee and Simon, hoping to get settled before things, including them, began flying around the ship.

Jayne took up the rear, as he so often did, to make sure they were all strapped in safely. He’d just made it to the entrance to the common room when the ship shook violently, throwing him against the bulkhead. He grunted in pain and pushed himself to his feet with a string of curses that even the most pure of heart would have voiced in this situation.

Zoe and Mal clutched various portions of the metal catwalk, making their way quickly to the bridge as the ship continued to shake.

Mal knew the signs. He’d seen them far too often as of late, and even during the first Alliance/Independent war. The Alliance wasn’t going to give up until they’d blown Serenity out of the sky.

TBC

Chinese Translations:

Ni ta ma de tian xia suo you de ren dou gai si - fuck everyone in the 'verse to death

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