Disclaimer: anything recognizable is property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. The story, however, is mine. Also, I had to take some creative liberties, but only on stuff not explained in the series. I also used my own translator for the Mandarin, so it may be off (although it's still comical). Feedback (good or bad) is of course welcome. On to the story:

“Figures. No one saves me any dinner.” It was the middle of the night. We were in space, and I was in the dining room, the only human awake like usual. My eating times can sometimes get erratic, so I don’t usually eat with the crew. Actually, I don’t think the crew eats together either. From what I’ve seen, they pop in to eat whenever an opportune time presents itself. Anyhow, I grabbed myself a small can of sugar-preserved fruit (not fresh, but sweet enough to make it bearable). A few minutes later, it was eaten. Throwing the can into the recycler, I walked out the fore door. The bridge door was closed, so I decided I’d spend my time up there. Turns out I wasn’t the only one up. When I opened up the bridge door, I saw Sydney curled up in the pilot’s seat, studying the displays. “You know, I’d kinda like my pilot well rested.” Sydney didn’t budge. “I don’t sleep much. Never have. Apparently you don’t either.” “Alliance made me that way.” I took the seat in front of the port console. “Parents musta hated your sleeping habits.” “Wouldn’t know.” She pressed a few buttons. “Never had them, Mister Mind-Probe.” “Oh, sorry.” I turned to look out the big window. “For the record, I haven’t read your mind at all. Other than in the club when I found out your age. Which sickened Tobias when I told him.” “It was enough to live off of.” Sydney wanted to change the topic. So she turned to the rather conspicuous red button on top of her console. “It helps if you tell me what this does. Especially if you don’t want me to touch it.” “Activates my warp drive.” I went back to our original conversation. “I know the feeling of doing odd jobs to live. When I left Londinum, I made my way out to The Rim with nothing but this ship.” “Does it ever get lonely?” Sydney asked, her attention now turned to me. “Why do you think I built Libby?” I typed in a query on the keyboard. “And I never had parents either. Well, at least that I can remember. My memories from before I joined the psychic program are all a blur. Wa hui Blue Hands…” “I’ve taken care of nav if that’s what you’re worried about.” She must’ve seen me key into the computer. “We arrive at Nova Planetia in five hours.” “Ah, the border of civilization.” I leaned back in my chair. “Lots of people, and no Alliance presence. The only place inside The Belt that contains the true definition of independence.” “How can they-” A rather large spark from the pilot’s console interrupted Sydney. That was followed by a deafening boom coming from the back. I instinctively turned toward the direction of the loud sound to see fire roaring my way. I jumped up and closed the door before it reached us. Power was now down, and the lights were out. Auxiliary power kicked in a few seconds later, giving us no real visibility, but the consoles were working. “Syd, you okay?” I waited a few seconds for an answer. “Syd?” “Up here,” came the voice. I could faintly see her. Sydney was on the ceiling. Literally. “Ai ya, grav must be down. That means the engine is completely off.” I heard the fire roar, and decided to get that taken care of first. Luckily, it was the middle of the night, and I had kept the doors to the downstairs closed before I had my dinner. So getting rid of the fire was as easy as opening the airlock by the engine room. Once I did so, I watched the fire whirlwind away from me, and through the dining room. When I was sure it was all gone, I pressed the button to close the airlock. “Eddie, I can’t get down.” Sydney was still floating by the ceiling. I checked a console. “Okay, auxiliary kicked in. We have life support and enough power for our basic electronics.” I turned my attention to Sydney. “You must’ve never been in zero-g before.” “I wonder what gave you that idea. Just get me down!” Sydney was waving her extremities around wildly trying to move. I decided I’d help her. I grabbed her arm and pulled her down to my level. “Let’s check the damage.” “How do I move?” “Just push against something.” I myself pushed against the back of a chair to go out the bridge door. Sydney followed suit. We were able to fly at a decent speed to the engine room, where indeed, the engine was not turning. The engine room was a mess. There was also a gaping hole on the right wall where something was ripped out. “The gorram transference cycler is gone!” I exclaimed at the wreckage. “Once it was supposed to cycle, no cycler, engine goes boom. God knows what else is damaged.” “So what do we do?” Sydney knelt down by the damage. “Engine ain’t our only problem.” I took the part in my hand. “A cycler doesn’t come out on its own; it’s physically impossible. Only way this coulda happened is if someone pulled it out.” “How could someone do that without getting fried themselves?” “A cycler only activates when we get a correlative course correction. Every so often, we have to adjust heading to compensate for orbital differentials,” I explained. “The cycler is the first part of the system that lets us do it without firing another Radion Pulse.” “Okay, spare me the technical mumble-jumble.” Sydney got up and started floating around. “You saying someone sabotaged this?” “Had to… Be right back.” I did the flying thing from the engine room to the bridge so I could check the computer, and then flew back. “Okay, a solar wind caused the cycle about twenty minutes after the one before it. So someone was in and out of here right before I came up for dinner. That’s when they pulled it. Forgive me.” Sydney turned to me. “Forgive you for what?” I stared into her, initiating the mind reading process. “You didn’t do this. Nice to know.” She looked almost angry at me for suggesting she would do such a thing. But that wore off after a second. “Should I get Bill?” “No, you get to the cockpit. You’ll have to maneuver just on the CO2. There’s a small amount of reaction mass in the wings if you need the engines, but use it lightly. With the cycler system out, you’ll also need to keep your eye on any differentials we may suffer.” I took a look around. “This can’t be fixed from the inside, so we can’t do much else until we hit Planetia. I’ll join you after I lock the ship down. Don’t want anyone panicking or whoever did this to get any ideas. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”