Disclaimer: anything recognizable is property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. The story and its original characters, however, are 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: “This makes no sense,” I said, pacing around in Liberty’s open cargo bay. “I didn’t sabotage my own ship, I read Bill, Syd, Serra, and Tobias’s minds, and Libby was nowhere near the engine room at the time of the crime.” “Eddie, you’re going to make a rut in the floor.” Bill had just walked in from the outside. “I can fix the damage in a couple hours. It’s not that bad, just enough to stop us.” Ignoring him, I went on. “Physically impossible without someone pulling it…” “Yeah, I get our problem.” Bill wasn’t letting up. “Good news is, only replacement part we need is a new transference cycler. I’m going to need some credits for that.” “What?” I finally paid attention to him. “Oh, yeah, I’ll have Libby take care of that.” Serra walked in from the dorms with the other girls behind her. “Why are we here anyway? I mean, originally.” “Sabotage…” I turned my attention back to the situation at hand, then to Serra. “Layover. Hoping to find work for The Rim. And to go shopping.” “No, you’re not going anywhere,” Serra directed me. “You need to come to your senses. Libby and I can take care of the shopping.” “Among us…” I decided Serra was right. “Take Tobias with you.” “Done,” Serra said. “Come on you two.” When they were out of the cargo bay, Sydney came up to me. “Can I go with them? I’ve never been on a space station before.” “Sure just stay with them.” I looked at Bill, who was talking to someone outside the ship, and lowered my voice while handing Sydney a Peacemaker. “Take this with you. Don’t hesitate to use it if anything looks wrong. Something’s not right here. And keep it concealed unless you need it.” Sydney understood fully. As she walked out of the cargo bay, she pocketed the gun. I went out after she had left to talk to Bill. Another ship had come in, this one under its own power. It swooped almost directly over me before making a landing a few spots down. “I didn’t think Trans-Us still operated.” Apparently, Bill knew his ships (which didn’t surprise me in the least). “The Trans-Universal Delivery and Starship Company went broke after the war when The Alliance no longer needed their services for deliveries to The Rim, most likely catalyzed by the Great Triangle Scandal of aught-six, when three delivery points made a massive profit of billions cheating Alliance post.” I pointlessly rambled about my own knowledge. “Nobody even uses their ships anymore for fear of succumbing to unending Alliance patrols, even out on The Rim. Most were destroyed after the scandal to repay the Alliance.” “So what’s it doing here?” “Three choices,” I told Bill, “Blue Hands, Reavers, or someone with a death wish. Ten credits on the third one. Besides, those things are so rare, they’re practically collector’s items. Only pirates would even think about having one.” “I don’t know, boss,” Bill commented. “They don’t look too pirate-like.” He was right. In fact, they looked an awful lot like my motley crew, except they had a preacher onboard. That isn’t so much a rarity as it may seem. A lot of starship captains these days like having God on their side, and are willing to pay decent money. Of course, if there was a god, he (or she, to be fair) has a lot of explaining to do. So there’s my theology in a nutshell. Anyhow, they got off their ship and made their way to the lifts. Not seeing a Trans-U myself in a long while, I took a walk over to the ship. This one was one of the last models they built. I stared at it for a few moments before a voice came from behind me. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” “Yep, someone with a death wish. I should fulfill that.” I already knew whom I was talking too. “Yeah Eddie, you should. But you won’t.” I turned around to an all too familiar face. “You’ve been hunting me too long.” He was the captain of that Trans-U, a guy by the name of Jeremiah. “So, are we going to do this the usual way?” “You mean the ‘get into a fight to attempt to capture me only to have me escape, usually with one or more of your crew members wounded’ way?” I walked toward Liberty’s cargo bay. “Well, no,” he responded. “I was kinda hoping to win this one.” “Fair warning,” I said, walking into the cargo bay, “my crew is armed.” “Whatever happened to the honorable fight? That, and the ‘no guns above the hangar’ rule these guys set down.” Jeremiah was a bounty hunter, but always liked doing it the right way. “Wait, you have a crew?” “Yeah, about that:” I pulled a sonic rifle I had just inside the cargo bay and shot a burst Jeremiah’s way. It hit him, but not full on. He went down, but was still conscious. “Darwinism at its finest.” I fired another shot, rendering him unconscious. “Boss!” Bill was yelling from the side of the ship. He pointed to some people running toward the lifts that lead out of the hangar. “Shen di yu, those are Alliance Stormtroops.” I took off toward the lifts myself. “Bill, finish up. Get us at to least one pulse. We’re leaving quickly.” “But I can’t…” I didn’t hear the rest of what Bill said. I was too concerned with making it to the lifts. In the middle of my run to the nearest set of lifts, I could see the stormtroops shooting their automatic rifles in front of them. I didn’t see anybody hit, but I was moving pretty fast. Either way, I reached my lift before the stormtroops reached theirs. Pushing the button for the main floor, the lift went up. It arrived about half a minute later on the main floor. Once the doors opened, I bolted out, unexpectedly crashing into someone walking along the side of the main corridor (which was excessively large and unusually crowded today). I took a quick glance before caring less and continuing my way toward finding my crew. I found them in a less crowded portion of the main corridor. Libby was staring at dresses through a window, almost longingly, new engine part in hand. Tobias and Serra were having egg rolls at the next shop over. Sydney had just finished talking to the preacher from Jeremiah’s ship and was walking towards where Tobias and Serra were eating. It was quite obvious the preacher didn’t realize I had a crew other than Libby now either. He didn’t notice Libby; he noticed me. That’s when he went for his concealed holster; I saw that coming a mile away. What I didn’t see probably ended up averting a disaster. The preacher went for his gun. The gun wasn’t there. And standing there in the middle of a now cleared corridor was my pilot, nervously holding two guns in the direction of the preacher. Nearby people were watching the situation. The preacher, now noticing Sydney had picked his gun during their conversation, charged full speed her direction. I kept screaming for her to shoot, but all Sydney could do was aim the guns, still nervously. Right before the preacher crashed into her, she managed to fire both guns at the same time. The problem was that she missed both shots from point blank. Then the preacher crashed into her, and sent her flying into the restaurant, where Tobias was already charging the preacher. In one quick action, the preacher went from the dominant position to sprawled out on the other side of the corridor. Tobias wasn’t finished there. He walked across the hall and picked up the preacher with one hand. With the other, he threw multiple punches at the helpless man before finishing with a thrust against the wall. With the preacher now fully unconscious, Sydney walked over, gave him a hard kick to the stomach, and walked my direction with the two guns still in hand. I glared at her. “You missed! How could you miss from two feet away?!?” “Well, I gave him a nice kick.” She looked back at the preacher, and saw the same stormtroops that were randomly firing in the hangar. “Zhe-bu shi hao di.” “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” I watched them come closer. “Now how ‘bout we run?” “That qualifies as a good idea.” Sydney handed the two guns to me, and took off. All of us ran as fast as possible back to the lift I came from. It seems the stormtroops spotted us too. As we ran, they shot volleys of soft-lead our way. Nothing hit us. I say the word us, because some bystanders were hit. It seems these days The Alliance will stop at nothing to get what it wants. The others made it to the lift as I turned around to fire two shots back at the troops chasing us. I hit one square in the chest, and the other directly in a shoulder. But when I turned around to get in the lift myself, I got hit hard in the back of the knee. The elevator doors closed right after I flew head-over-heels into the lift.