A/N: Here is the next installment. I hope you like it.

Oh, since I haven’t mentioned this during the last couple of chapters, characters don’t belong to me, I’m just borrowing them. Joss is boss.

When they landed, Inara was quickly whisked outside and a multitude of men descended on her shuttle.

“Don’t worry, none of your things will be damaged in any way,” John assured her.

She didn’t say anything. Her heart was breaking in a million pieces. Her body felt so heavy that she could barely keep herself standing. John looked at her in concern. As if he anticipated what she needed, he motioned for one of the men to bring her a chair.

“Please, sit down, Miss Serra,” John suggested.

Inara sank into the chair. Her tears slid steadily and silently down her cheeks. Her make-up was running, but she didn’t care. She no longer held herself with the confidence of a companion. She was broken.

It didn’t take long for every scrap of Inara’s belongings to be removed from the shuttle. If the events of the day were different, she would have been quite impressed with their efficiency. John knelt down next to her once again.

“I need you to listen very carefully, Miss Serra,” he said softly. His face looked pained. “This is going to be very unpleasant.”

“More than my family dying?”

John didn’t reply to her question, but continued on with his instructions.

“We have told the Alliance that you have been in one of our medical facilities.”

“You said that already.”

“Well the facility you have been reported to be at is called Gardenwell,” John continued. Inara’s head shot up at the mention of the facility.

“That is a psychiatric facility!”

“We have to make sure our story matches with what we told the Alliance. We will be drugging you to make you appear as traumatized as we indicated,” John went on. He put her hand in his and squeezed it, trying to reassure her. She jerked her hand away and stood up abruptly, only to be restrained by two men standing behind her. “I’m sorry, Miss Serra, but it must be done.”

A man handed John a syringe filled with a blue liquid. Inara continued to struggle, but the two men behind her held her firmly. John injected her as gently as possible.

“Don’t worry, I will be with you the whole time,” John consoled her.

Inara kept fighting until she became more and more subdued. One of the men helping John picked her up.

“Save my family, please!” Inara pleaded softly as her eyes fluttered.

“I will see what I can do,” John whispered back. He reached inside the neckline of her dress and pulled out her beacon. Then, Inara was carried to another nearby ship for transport to Sihnon. John turned and gave the beacon to the man who piloted the shuttle earlier. “Leave this in the shuttle.”

“Yes, sir,” the man replied and he started toward the shuttle door. John thought for a moment and called out to the man again.

“When you fly the shuttle back to Serenity, make sure you fly over the main road in town. Maybe some of her crew will see you and it will alert them that something is wrong. It could give them a chance.”

“What ya' need, Doc?” Jayne asked.

Simon started to move a bunch of crates out of the way from the corner of the cargo bay closest to the infirmary. Jayne started to help him.

“I put it back here and had it ready to go in case I needed it again for River.”

“What we looking for?”

Simon moved the last box and revealed what he sought.

“That.”

Jayne looked at the blue box that River came on board in.

“Gonna put him in that?” Jayne asked. He looked at the size of the container. “It’s too small. Mal’s a bit bigger than Crazy.”

Simon shot him a withering look. He and Jayne pulled it as close to the infirmary as they could.

“It expands,” he explained. Simon pulled a tray out from the bottom of the box. It held a bunch of steel beams. Then he pushed in a series of codes. The box hissed and then expanded to accommodate a larger person. He handed Jayne the tray of steel bars. “These are expansion bars. Place them on any joints that were exposed when the box expanded. Everything must be sealed tight. I’m going to prep the Captain.”

“Gotcha,” Jayne nodded as he put the first one in place. Simon touched him on the shoulder.

“We gotta hurry. We don’t have much time.”

Simon went and double bandaged Mal’s wounds. He had to make sure that his work would not be damaged as they placed him in the cryo chamber. He put a special cocktail in Mal’s IV. Mal was already stripped from the waist up from the surgery, but Simon needed help to get the rest off him. He went to check on Jayne’s progress. He was surprised when Jayne met him at the infirmary door.

“All done,” Jayne reported. “What now?”

“I have him prepped. All I need is to have help getting him out of his clothes and into the chamber.”

Jayne nodded and went inside with the doc. He looked up at the monitor and noticed that Mal’s EKG had flat lined. He stopped short of the bed.

“Is he dead?” Jayne whispered.

“No. I slowed his functions down for the cryo chamber.”

Jayne let out an audible sigh of relief and helped Simon get Mal situated. Simon pushed some more codes and the box came to life.

“Everything is good,” Simon said. “Let’s get this strapped in. No matter what, I want to make sure this unit doesn’t move and is hidden as much as possible. Can’t finish out the Plan if it comes loose. Use the other crates to conceal it.”

They finished up their task just as Zoe announced that the Alliance had applied a tractor beam as was pulling them in.

“Let’s get to our spots,” Simon said to him. Jayne nodded then paused.

“We just gonna leave him there?”

“We’ll have to get through this before we can help him,” Simon answered. “If the cryo chamber is strapped in, we don’t have to worry about it getting bounced around and possibly damaged.”

“Let’s get goin’ then.”

They both ran off to perform their parts in the Plan.

Thanks for reading. Please comment.