The stop at Persephone had been brief, a few hours to unload the post, and then get paid for the mail job. Being anxious to get to Newhall, Jason had not bothered to continue with the mail route, which would not have taken him there for some time and had not paid well besides. Despite this, Badger had approached them regarding another job. The pretentious runt had offered to actually pay them this time, and as Londinium had been on the way, Jason had accepted the job of delivering the load of counterfeit designer wallets, watches, and wobbly headed geisha dolls; hence, their current stop over in New Whales Spaceport.

As he stood in the cargo bay, and the large door lowered to the ground with a thud, Jason was greeted by the usual Alliance Feds he had come to expect on the core planet. The lieutenant stepped forward to address him.

"Captain Libby, we meet again," said the young officer.

"Lieutenant Reed, it's always a pleasure." False sincerity, Jason was learning, seemed to go with the territory.

"New coat, I see," questioned Reed, regarding Jason who now wore a very old and word black leather jacket.

"Felt the need for a change of wardrobe."

"The color suits you better, I think."

Jason smiled at this comment. "Perhaps," he replied. Even if it had been exactly the same shade of brown as his old coat, Jason knew to a good portion of the 'Verse, it would still be a completely different color. He stepped discreetly toward the officer, a wad of cash barley concealed in his hand and out of sight from the other feds. The man looked down at the 'tip.'

"Afraid not today, Mister Libby. I'm going to have to search your ship and cargo."

Jason's mouth opened in surprise as the dog handler moved past him, the eager animal in tow, to disappear into his ship. This man was a mite unpredictable, fist time they met, he wants to pinch Jason, second time when they left, he was happy to take a bribe, and now he was back to the pinching again. The other two lackeys, who Jason also recognized from his previous stop over, quickly began prying open the crates that filled the small cargo bay.

Soon they were rifling through the piles of counterfeit goods. A good porting of them were strewn about the floor by the time the dog handler returned.

"Ship's clean, sir."

"Good, check this stuff out," the Lieutenant indicated the goods strewn about the floor, picking up one of the more extravagant looking ladies purses. The handler quickly began moving the dog over the merchandise. Jason was a bit perplexed by this, there was already more than enough evidence to heavily fine him, possibly even impound the ship if he felt like being a real wang bao hu dahn.

"You know what a real one of these costs," Reed remarked off handedly to Jason, still holding the purse. "Wife's been bugging me for one of these for months…"

"Sir, this is clean as well," the dog handler interrupted the Lieutenant's musings.

"Seems this is your lucky day," Lieutenant Reed said to Jason, tossing the purse back to him. "Don't have time today to waste enforcing Blue Sun copyrights."

"Move it you slackers!" the Lieutenant then barked at his men. "We've got twenty more ships to search before lunch." He began striding from the ship.

"Lieutenant," Jason called after him.

The man turned, about to impress on him the value of an Alliance Officers time.

"For you wife," Jason tossed back the purse.

"What the ruttin' hell was that all about?" asked Rick coming to stand next to Jason as the officer disappeared from view.

"Beats the hell outa me," muttered Jason. "Get Linda and Matt down here. Best get this stuff packed back up before the contact arrives.

-------------------------------------

Once the contact arrived to collect the goods, Jason had decided to divvy out everyone’s cut and allow his crew a few hours to take in the core world city before leaving for Newhall.

As Linda had taken her son and quickly disappeared into the dockside crowds, and Rick had volunteered to stay with the ship, Jason was left on his own. As he walked the streets he was surprised to see a much larger law enforcement and military presence than on his last visit. He wondered what had happened in that short time. Despite this, the difference between the core city and the rim worlds they had so far visited could not have been starker. The streets where clean, businesses had glittering storefront displays and restaurants advertised the wildest variety of exotic fare. Granted, his home world of Persephone had had a few streets in the shopping district that where similar, but they did not really approach the scale of what now surrounded him in the Core World City. His sister’s expectations would have been fulfilled.

Before Jason’s family had lost their home and fallen into debt, his sister had always talked about seeing the Core when she came of age. She even made a point to put aside money for the trip whenever she could spare it. Jason had always thought her fanciful descriptions of the cities on Sihnon, Ariel and the other Core Planets to be lavish exaggerations. But now that he was here in New Whales on Londinium, he realized they were not that far off. For the first time Jason began to understand why Emma had wanted to come here. Hell, if nothing else, they actually had real restaurants and cafes as opposed to grubby swill serving bars that littered the rim towns. On impulse, Jason stopped into one of these and ordered lunch.

As he waited for his meal, Jason watched the news feed being displayed on a cortex display mounted on one of the walls. There was a blurb on the blockade of New Shadow and Hera, which was nothing new. The military commander was assuring the reporter that he saw no need for all out war again, and that he was certain the two worlds would come to their senses soon enough. That dovetailed into a story on the parliament representatives of several other Rim Worlds that were threatening seceding as well. Jason knew it was just empty words however. None of the fat politicians had the genuine resolve to start another war like the one almost ten years ago. They really just wanted equal protection from the Alliance military, as was enjoyed by the core planets, against the increasingly bold advances of the Reavers.

Interesting, thought Jason, it seemed even on the core worlds, the reality of the Reaver’s existence was finally being accepted, as was the fact that the government had created them as the result of what was now being labeled an ‘unfortunate industrial accident’ on Miranda.

The waitress brought Jason’s order and he was pleased to see a plate of food that contained real meat as well as actual fresh vegetables placed before him. Yes, thought Jason, he would have to bring his sister here, and show her the things that she had always wanted to show him.

-------------------------------------

Rick pulled the brim of his weathered Stetson hat low over his eyes as he plunked down in the plastic lawn chair he had placed on the back ramp of the cargo bay. It was a beautiful day and the sun felt warm and soothing on his skin. Pulling a can of cheap beer from the cooler he had placed next to his seat, he popped the top and took a long swallow of the beverage.

“Ah, that’s good,” Rick said to no one in particular as he rocked back on the rear two legs of his chair and took in the sights, sounds, and smells of the dockyard. For Rick, who liked to observe things, it was a show in itself. There were two large cargo freighters being loaded and unloaded with the goods of commerce. Between them sat several smaller ships waiting to take special shipments to and from their destination, the Shire happening to be one of these. A street vendor pushed past the waiting ships and Rick could smell the enticing aroma that wafted from the cart. He was considering an order of dumplings when he noticed the cute girl similarly seated in front of the next ship over. The woman was looked back at him.

“Howdy, spacer,” she greeted him.

“Hello there yer’self darlin,” replied Rick. “Mighty fine day. You get stuck watchin yer ship while the rest the crews out on the town too?” He ignored the fact that he volunteered.

“Somethin like that. Names Kaylee Tam,”

“Well, pleasure to meet you. That by chance a firefly?” Rick looked up at the much larger ship and whistled. “Jay, that’s my Captain, always said he wanted one of them. Says they’re a solid ship.”

“Yup,” replied the young woman, “This here’s Serenity, and she’s the smoothest ride. And if I’m not mistaken, you’re on one of them new Moquito Micro transports.”

“Seems you know your ships.”

Just then a group of Alliance feds ran by, led by the agitated Lieutenant Reed who was yelling something unintelligible. The commotion caused both Rick and Kaylee to sit forward apprehensively, but the feds continued on their way, paying no attention to either the Shire or Serenity.

“Damn they make me nervous when they do that,” muttered Rick.

“Yeah, tell me bout it,” agreed Kaylee. “We don’t usually set down on the core worlds, mostly for that reason. Course, of late so long as you ain’t smuggling explosives, they don’t seem to much care.”

“Come again?”

“The dog,” she indicated the handler running by with his animal, “It’s for finding explosives, or their components. The New Independents’ve been active in the core of late. Weapons depot got hit here in New Whales just last week, on Unification Day no less. Took out a few smaller installations as well.”

“Ain’t been in the news.”

“Not everything is,” Rick was skeptical at this. Girl was probably just pulling his leg.

Just then, a com unit crackled to life next to the woman. “Mei mei, I need that ship ready to leave the world yesterday.”

“Ai ai, cap’n,” she replied into the device.

“Well, looks like I gotta go. Nice talkin to ya.” She then disappeared into the cargo hold of Serenity.

A few moments later a tall brown haired man and an even taller dark skinned woman, both in long brown coats like the one Jason used to wear, rushed into the nearby ship. They were not quite running, but walking very quickly, clearly in a hurry but not wanting to draw attention. They where soon followed by an imposing looking man in a Blue Sun T-shirt.

Not a moment later the cargo bay door closed and Serenity flew off as another, larger, band of Alliance soldiers came into view. They came to stop at the now empty pad, and stood looking as if they could will the ship to return.

Rick silently wished the departing ship and its crew the luck of the devil, as he was sure they would need it. Yup, here was where the action was, he thought to himself. Finishing his beer, Rick pulled out a few sheets of paper and finally started a letter to his family. He sure had plenty to tell them.

He had been writing for some time when a shadow fell over him. He looked up from his letter to see a young woman standing over him. Her tangled hair was a light red brown, and the uncut bangs obscured her freckled face. Dressed in baggy cargo pants and a denim jacket that looked much too warm for the weather, she was carrying a duffel bag over one shoulder.

“Help you, miss?”

“Where you headed?” she asked.

-------------------------------------

The sun was beginning to set as Jason walked up to his ship. Rick greeted him in the cargo hold.

“Jay, got a passenger. Willin’ ta pay.”

“To Newhall?”

“She didn’t seem ta care. She’s up in the kitchen now.”

“Shiny,” replied Jason as he climbed the stairs.

Linda and Matt where already in the kitchen, unpacking some food that they had purchased. Jason noted that Linda now carried an odd looking weapon in a holster under her arm, a mares leg, if he was correct. Where in seven hells had she found a weapon like that on the Core World, he wondered? There was also another person helping them store the food. Her back was to him at the moment.

“Hello miss. I’m Jason Libby, captain of this boat.”

The woman turned to address him. As she turned to face him, her eyes widened in recognition.

“Atherton?” was the only thing Sarah Cobb said; at least before she hit him.

TO BE CONTINUED

Authors Notes: Please endure the slow pace a bit longer. Action is coming, I promise. I just like to introduce my characters and get to know them a bit first. There's a few details hidden in here that may become important later.