Mal hadn’t seen this much snow since the Winter Campaign. Brought back all sorts of painful memories of lost friends. Which made Tracey’s death all the more poignant. Suddenly he felt the overwhelming desire to be far away from here and into the solitude of space. Besides, finding a decent job on St. Albans was unlikely.

“Wash, get the ship prepped soon as you can. Feel the need to be off this rock.”

“Sure thing. Got a destination in mind or should I throw a dart at a map?”

“Doesn’t matter. Rim-wards seems best. Had my fill of civilization for the moment.”

Kaylee was walking up to him as Wash made his way up the deck.

“Cap’n, if you need to talk about it, just let me know. I know you have feelings, even if you’re not so good at showing them.”

Believe me, little Kaylee, if I need cheering up you’ll be the first I ask. Right now I just need you in the engine room getting us ready to take off.”

“I was just heading there now.” _______________________________

“Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules and speaking with me, Mr. and Mrs. Tam. I know you’ve been through this all before.”

“It is no problem at all.”

“I assure you this is really just a routine check-in on the situation involving your children. Have they still not tried to contact you?”

“Not once. And we’re glad. I warned Simon that if he did anything criminal he was on his own. But murdering Government scientists and medical researchers, then coercing River to help him steal data from Alliance facilities, we’d never imagined he could do such things…”

“He had such a bright future, our boy. Could’ve been Medical Elect had he not got involved in such nonsense.”

“It seems he still feels strong ties to medicine. Have you been informed that he broke into a hospital on Ariel and stole nearly 100,000 credits worth of medicine before butchering several Federal Police officers with a band of ex-Independence mercenaries?”

“Merciful Buddha…”

“Rest assured, ma’am, the Police will catch him. And return River to her studies at the Academy. We believe once she is out from under his influence she will stabilize and return to being a normal, happy teenage girl. According to reports, she has been experiencing some psychosis since this whole terrible ordeal began.”

“In what way?”

“She has been living on a derelict spaceship. Firefly class. The constant travel, exposure to low-grade food and multitudes of infectious substances with poor medical facilities… Possibly any or all of this has caused her mind terrible stress. We at the Academy are working very closely with the government to locate your children. However, our main concern is River. Their focus is on bringing Simon to justice for his crimes.”

“You have our complete support. Any information we receive will be immediately passed to the authorities.”

“Thank you, Mr. Tam. I’m glad we could provide you with information on the current status on your fugitive son and daughter. We’ll keep in closer contact from now on, I promise.” He gave them his best lop-sided smile. They responded by relaxing noticeably. “Of course. We look forward to your next visit.” They shook hands. He departed, walking confidently while his mind processing the mostly old information and plotting the next course of action at overclocked speed.