Mal had had enough. Enough of people telling him what to do on his boat, and it was time that it was going to stop. He darted to the side like lightning bracing himself for the gun shot. It tore threw the tip of his shoulder as he rolled to the right, swinging his left arm out and knocking a surprised Lt. Guliv square on the jaw. Mal’s anger and desperation fulled an adrenaline kick he hadn’t felt in years. As Lt. Guliv went down Mal pulled out his own side arm, cocked it and quickly put his foot on the downed man’s chest. Mal was breathing hard as the pain began to radiate down threw his body. “This here is my gorram boat, and not nobody or nothin’ is a gonna take it from me or bloody tell me what ta do!” Mal roared. “You’re gonna get on this here fine intercom system and do some mighty fine negotiatin’ or you and yer buddy are gonna learn how ta swim in space.” Mal looked up with fire in his eyes. “Zoe,” he snapped. “Gorram go down ta engineering and take care of Kaylee.” His eyes fell on Lt. Guliv again. “If anythin’ a happens ta her, you ain’t gonna get the pleasure of swimmin’ in space.” Zoe curtly nodded her head and quickly made her way to engineering. “Um, cap’n?” Wash tentatively. “We still got us…” “Shut it. This man is gonna do all the talkin’.” Mal had run out of any patience or feeling. Blood had soaked through his shirt sleeve and was beginning to run down his arm and to his hand. He knew that he needed to go see Simon or else there would be even more complications, but right now he had to make sure that this man got them out of the situation with the Alliance. “That’s right, stand up nice and easy like,” Mal purred dangerously. Lt. Guliv stayed at his with venom, he was embarrassed at being taken down so easily. There was a time when that would have not worked. He also knew that the angry man standing in front of him, probably wasn’t making light on his threats, and if he wanted to do as he had sworn in protecting Ashlina, then their best bet would be to try and do some fancy talking with the Alliance vessel. “Move over,” Lt. Guliv said bluntly to Wash. Wash glanced at Mal and quickly did so, giving the man full control of the controls. Lt. Guliv sat down gingerly and took a deep breath. Plans, speeches, excuses began to swirl around in his mind, and he wasn’t sure any of them would do a damn thing but he knew had to come up with something good. “Alliance cruiser Demetry, this is transport ship Serenity requesting official notice.” He tensed as he clicked his line shut, waiting for their response. A sharp crackle and then a deep male voice came through the com line. “This is Alliance cruiser Demetry. No authorization for posting of official notice. You must shut engines down and be prepared for boarding. Any resistance and we can take your ship by force.” Lt. Guliv swallowed hard, he had been out of the military for a couple of years now, and had gotten soft and outdated. But he had worked his way up from the ground troops to the Intelligence, and this shouldn’t be so complicated. “This is Lt. Guliv speaking, of the Osiris Intelligence Office, requesting official notice.” He clicked a few buttons. “Sending authorization clearance.” The seconds ticked by before the sharp crackle came through followed once again by the deep male voice. “Authorization not valid. Your code is not current, Lt. Guliv.” There was no room for pussy footing around this. Lt. Guliv clicked on his com, “Then let me speak with your superiors, or else I will inform my division and make sure that you will not be space bound for the rest of your career.” This time there was a longer pause, and this made him feel slightly easier. He could imagine the scrambling that was taking place as a superior was being found. “This had better work,” Mal growled. Lt. Guliv had almost forgotten about the gun pointed at his head, and the tension just washed over him again. A sharp crackle. “This is Captain Detil. How is it that you found your way on such a vessel Lt. Guliv so far from your home? Record shows that you are retired and not in active duty.” “That would not all be about your business would it? The Intelligence has their own priorities that a simple cruiser wouldn’t be privileged to, now would you? My codes have not been updated since the last cycle, I have been out of range. If you board this ship or impede its progress in any capacity, I will make sure that you and your whole division will not have the pleasure of the intimacy of space again.” Lt. Guliv’s voice was ice cold and he tried to throw his full weight into his words hoping that the mere threat of Intelligence punishment would send the cruiser on its way. “Clearance granted, but Lt. Guliv I would advise that you get your codes updated.” With that the come went dead. “Bit easy ain’t it?” Mal asked dead pan. Lt. Guliv swiveled around and stared at Mal. “Yes.” “Well, do we think they bought it?” Wash nervously asked eyeing the cruiser out the window. Lt. Guliv shrugged his shoulders. “Hard to say, time will tell. It won’t take them long to check in with headquarters and figure out that I am lying. But hopefully by then we can be long gone.” Mal stared hard at him, knowing that their odds weren’t good at all, but that this was the only way out. He pulled his gun back, and holstered it. “It ain’t good, but it’ll have ta work fer now.” He turned towards Wash. “Get this boat up and runnin’ we gots a long ways to put between us and that gorram ship. And you,” his back on Lt. Guliv, “had still better make sure that my Kaylee ain’t hurt.” Lt. Guliv nodded and pressed the ship’s intercom. “Mac, stand down. Situation been taken care of.” Mac’s voice quickly came threw. “You sure Phil?” “Yes, Mac. We’ve got more important matters to attend to. Head down to the infirmary.” He glanced over at Mal, gave a slight shake of his head and quickly headed out of the room. Wash took his seat back and fired up Serenity. He turned to ask Mal a question but discovered that he was suddenly alone. Shrugging his shoulders he focused his attention to his job and Serenity quickly moved on.