“It’s Earth.”

Simon’s words hung in the air, the disbelief on all faces obvious, no one saying a word but just staring into space at the planet growing larger in the windows of the bridge, but still far off. Jayne was the first to break the silence.

“It can’t be,” he said in a tone of reference that none on the ship had ever heard come from the big merc before. And then there was a babble of voices that drown each other out as all sought to express what they felt.

“Huh,” from Mal and it was all he said for a long moment.

“That’s crazy,” came from Wash and he tried to give one of his sheepish grins, to make light of their situation, but no one was even looking at him so he turned back to his piloting.

Kaylee was looking at Simon and her words quickly followed Wash’s. “How do you know?”

“Ain’t no one ever seen Earth, not in…like 500 years!” Jayne added, before Simon could answer Kaylee.

“It’s…impossible!” from Inara right on the heels of Jayne’s words.

“Ah….,” started Simon but no one gave him a chance.

“Earth’s almost forty light years from our quadrant,” added Book. “We couldn’t have…no…Inara’s right. It’s impossible.”

“42.4 light years and no it’s not impossible,” River countered. “We’re here, aren’t we?”

Zoe was scanning and looking and she just turned to Simon. “It seems…familiar.”

Simon waited for them all to calm down and then they were all staring at him. He knew words would never do it so he reached on by Zoe’s control panel and logged onto the Cortex screen. But there was no Cortex, just static.

“Oh, right. No Cortex,” he said in a small voice.

“What? But that…” from Jayne and then understanding began to dawn.

Simon switched to the ship’s internal memory banks. “Let’s hope we have something on here.”

“Ain’t much, “said Zoe.

“Gorramn it, Doc, we can’t have gone clear cross the galaxy!” Jayne spewed out.

“Hey, give him a sec!” said Kaylee in defense of Simon. “Ain’t no Cortex, it’s gotta mean something’s screwy.” She looked to Simon to see if he noticed her defending him but he seemed too wrapped up in what he was doing to notice. As usual.

“Maybe we damaged our nav and comms antennas?” offered Wash.

“No,” said Zoe. “Still got them. Least the control panel says so.” Of all the crew only she seemed as unfazed as Simon. Well, not totally unfazed, but trying to keep calm. She looked at Mal and he was still staring out the window in stunned disbelief. He felt Zoe’s stare and then she gave him one of her looks and he knew he was not presenting a good image as a leader.

“Ok, folks, let Simon explain it all before we go off half cocked here,” Mal said in a commanding tone and then turned to Simon. “Doc?”

He hit buttons and pictures and images flashed by and finally he found want he wanted. “Here it is. Earth”

It was an image of Earth spread out in a flat manner like the old maps he’d seen in his father’s study. The continents, oceans, countries, and major cities were all labeled.

“My God,” said Zoe and they all tried to elbow in and get a look, all except Wash who was still flying.

“What? What is it?” he asked in a slightly whiny tone.

After a few seconds, Mal looked at him. “It’s Earth all right.”

One by one all sets of eyes traveled from the computer image Simon had brought up to the long range sensor scanner next to it and they could see that it was Earth. Kaylee elbowed Jayne aside till she was next to Simon and then he did notice her, could feel the warmth of her body next to his and turned and smiled and said “thank you’ in a whisper. Kaylee felt her face blush a little as he said those kind words and she smiled back at him. His lip quivered a bit and then he turned his attention back to the screens.

The Sahara desert was in plain view without a lick of cloud covering it and Simon pointed it out.

“The Sahara, the largest desert,” he told them. After many minutes of staring and asking questions Mal finally ended the show.

“Wash, Kaylee, power us down,” he ordered.

“But Capt’n…it’s Earth! Ain’t we gonna take a look!”

“Not yet. Not till we straighten out the boat and try to figure out what in the gorramn verse is going on. Simon, River, be much obliged if you put your two big brains together and try to find a way to explain all this for the rest of us.”

“Yes, Mal,” Simon replied and River didn’t say a word and didn’t need to cause Mal and Simon both knew she’d help her brother. “I’ll get my encyclopedia and see what we can find out.”

He left the bridge and River followed him, Simon not noticing Kaylee’s look in his direction as he left.

“Wash, Kaylee, now,” Mal next commanded and Kaylee snapped out of her trance and went off to the engine room without another word and after a few moments the engine was at its lowest setting and the ship drifted just outside 350,000 kilometers from Earth, a bit beyond the orbit of the moon which was actually on the far side of the Earth at the moment, the side in darkness.

“Guess we got some cleaning up to do,” said Mal to the rest and they all hesitated and still looked out the window but then one by one everyone went off to do their share about straightening out Serenity from the mess cause by the…whatever sent them here. Soon only Wash and Mal were left on the bridge. Mal sat in the co-pilot’s seat and just stared at the scanners.

“Can you believe this mess were in?” he finally said to Wash.

Wash looked at him in disbelief. “Mess! This is unbelievable…we actually get to see Earth, find out what happened to them, tell them what happened to our ancestors. Mal, there has been no contact with Earth in almost 500 years! This is fantastic!”

“Wash, you think on why there is so much radiation down there and why we ain’t picked up any nav sats or other signs of life, not even a spaceship about from the planet that sent our forefathers into space?

Wash was silent as this sunk in.

“And I got a feeling that sooner or later I’d like to go home. Despite Alliance and Reavers, and scum like Badger, it’s still home. How we gonna get there?”

**************************************************

Kaylee, Zoe and Inara got started on clearing up the mess in the kitchen and dining area while Jayne and Book went below.

“This is too much,” said Inara after a few minutes. “I’m…stunned.”

“Let’s have some tea,” offered Kaylee and Inara immediately grabbed the kettle from the floor and filled it with water and set it to boiling on the electric stove. The three picked up the chairs and straightened out the table and sat down. And then three women just stared at each other

Kaylee finally broke the silence. “What happened?” she asked in a small voice.

“Don’t know,” said Zoe and then she told them about the sudden appearance of the cloud and how they were sucked right into what Zoe could only describe as a long tunnel and how Wash had lost complete control of the helm.

“Simon and River will figure it out,” said Inara with hope in her voice as she went to the boiling kettle and began to prepare their tea.

“Yeah, they’re real bright,” said Kaylee and then a sudden sad look passed over her face. “If we’re near Earth then my daddy is….home! How are we…?”

And then the silence came over them again as Inara brought the tea to the table.

“No one will even know what happened to us,” said Kaylee in a forlorn tone. “I wanna go home.”

“Captain’ll figure it out,” Zoe offered in encouragement but her heart wasn’t in it and Inara reached across the table and squeezed Kaylee’s hand to reassure her.

“Capt’n’s been in lots of bad situations, right?” Kaylee said. But no one said a word and Kaylee knew they didn’t want to upset her anymore than she already was. She held herself together and sipped her tea. After a long while they got up and went back to putting things in the kitchen and dining room right.

***********************************************

“Earth,” said Book to Jayne as they straightened out the weapons crates and guns in the cargo bay. “It’s the one place I thought I’d never see in my lifetime.”

“Ain’t seen much of it yet,” Jayne grunted. “Glad we got these guns on board. Might come in handy.”

Book looked at him in surprise. “Come again?”

“Look Shepherd, we know who’s who in our section of the verse and who to shoot first and who to run from. But out here, were strangers. Till we get the lay of the land or the space, or whatever you call it, we best step carefully. Lord knows what we’re gonna find on these planets and moons.”

“As far as we know, Earth is the only habitable planet or moon in this section of the galaxy,” said Book.

“Yeah, maybe, but it’s been 500 years so who knows? And I read some of its military history. Got a way about inventing things that kill people in big numbers and then using them on each other.”

“And we haven’t? I seem to recalled a galaxy wide war that only ended about seven years ago,” Book said as they bent to pick up another crate and move it back to the neat pile they were making.

“Yeah, but were still here. We got billions on the Core planets and plenty of folks on the rim. Ain’t a sign of life so far from Earth. Where’re the Earthlings?”

*********************************************

Simon and River spent an hour in his room going through the encyclopedia and arguing over what caused their situation, with River going off into the mystical field of astral physics, drawing figures and writing equations at blinding speed in one of Simon’s notebooks until she grew frustration with its small pages and went off to her room and returned with a large sketch pad. She talked about Einstein-Rosen bridges, Schwarzschild wormholes, time travel, and space folding, until Simon’s head spun and he grew weary. They had been on the verge of sleep, the whole crew, when the klaxon had sounded and his brain was numb with exhaustion and the dilemma they were in.

“And that’s it?” he finally said after River at last stopped talking.

“Yes. It’s easy to understand,” she replied and seemed happy that she knew what had happened to them, forgetting that they were in deep trouble.

“For me, almost. For the crew, not so easy. I’ll explain it to them. But River, they’re going to ask one question: can we go back again?”

************************************************

The crew had gathered in the now clean and tidy dining area, even Wash, as Simon stood before them, with a piece of blank paper in his hand, and explained as best he could what had happened.

“We’ve struck a space phenomenon that is called a wormhole, as far as we know.”

“We have,” said River with certainty.

Everyone had puzzled expressions and Jayne was about to say something, which wasn’t always for the best, so Mal gave him a look and then turned to Simon.

“For all of us who didn’t get a proper education on the Core, Doc, could you explain that as simply as possible?”

“Yes, I’ll try,” began Simon and he took the piece of blank paper, lay it flat on his hand and then pointed to one side. “This is our section of the galaxy.” And then he pointed to another side. “And here is where Earth is 42 some light years away. Impossible to get here in less than 42 years for us or anyone in our corner of the verse since no one has faster than light drives. Alliance has been working on them for years but nothing substantial had developed yet.”

“This is all old news, Doc,” Mal said impatiently. Simon had a way of going the round about route to explain things that grated on people at times. Everyone knew that faster than light drives would get them here and there faster than ever before and maybe even back to Earth but it was just an idea, not a reality.

“Sorry,” Simon said and Kaylee gave him a little smile of encouragement which he noticed and then pressed on. “So how did we get here? We struck a wormhole, which I can’t explain much about since until today was just a theory and had never actually been seen or studied, at least not by anyone…”

He could sense them drifting again. “…anyway, we hit it, that’s what the cloud was, a hole in spacetime, least River is positive it was, and we traveled 42 some light years in less than four minutes. The space was folded on itself, like so.”

And Simon folded the paper until the two spots he had touched were pressed against each other. “And those 42 light years became just a small step in space travel and…here we are.”

“A ….wormhole?” asked Inara.

River fielded this one. “It’s a time compression of spacetime with intense gravitational pull, connecting two separate locations of spacetime and drawing matter with intense gravitational pull toward the mouth until the matter is propelled to the far end of the wormhole and comes out the other mouth.”

“Isn’t that a black hole?” said Simon and Jayne rolled his eyes as the two Tams seemed ready to argue over this point.

“No, it’s a wormhole,” River said shaking her head at her brother. “Like I said to you earlier. It’s spontaneous and not continuous like a blackhole and therefore has never been studied. Einstein’s theory of relativity postulated the existence of wormholes but future studies shown they would be unstable and collapse after a momentary existence. Most likely we have hit a Schwarzschild wormhole. Wormhole theory states this type is more stable and allows for the possibility of spacetime travel.”

No one said a word, just stared at River. “Wormholes featured heavily in late 20th century early 21st century science fiction literature and television displays,” she added as an afterthought.

“So this wormhole,” began Zoe. “It sucked us from our end of the galaxy to here?”

“Correct,” said Simon.

Wash seemed puzzled. “You said space and time. You mean we could be in a different ”time” and different place in space?

Simon shrugged. “Hard to tell. We don’t know what the count of time is here. We know in our galaxy what year it is, what month and day, but here, we’d have to talk to someone.”

Mal could sense the rising panic at this news so he quickly stopped it. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Doc and River explained it as best they can for now. We traveled across the galaxy to here so now we got some things to figure out.”

“Like why Earth,” said Book, the preacher searching for some deeper meaning as to why they ended up in this place of all the places in the galaxy.

Simon put down the paper. “Wormholes are unpredictable. No one knows why they are created and there is no way to know when it will appear or where it will take an object.”

Book wouldn’t be put of so easily from his train of thought. “But we have arrived at Earth of all places. There must be something more to this than an unpredictable space phenomenon.”

Jayne just stared at him. “You mean God wanted us to find Earth so sent us this worm…whatever it is?

“Yeah, why Earth?’ Kaylee added. “If these things are unpredictable, then maybe Shepherd has a point.”

“We’re here cause we’re here and there ain’t no higher power involved,” Mal spouted, all this religious talk bending him out of shape.

“The gravitational pull thing River said might explain why we couldn’t avoid it,” Wash said quietly from where he sat close to Zoe. “You know, sometimes whole ships and crews disappear, gone without so much as an emergency beacon or communication. No one ever knows what happened to them. I’ve heard of wormholes before. Pilots joke about them when someone disappears. ‘Down the wormhole.’ We joke, but it’s only half in jest and half in fear. Wormholes are just a theory cause no one ever came back from seeing one.”

“Which brings my next point, Doc,” Mal started, in his heart hoping for a good answer but expecting the worst. “Can we get back to our area of the verse?”

They all looked at Simon and River and he struggled to find a way to say it delicately but she answered before he could find the proper words.

“We can’t. No one knows when and where a wormhole will appear or where it will take you. We’re never getting home.”

“It would take a miracle,” said Simon, so silent they almost couldn’t hear him.

That news was like a bombshell and they all just stared at the table. Then came a sniffle and it was from Kaylee. “My daddy’s birthday’s next week and I ain’t even waved him yet to tell him happy birthday.”

No one said a word, all their thoughts on friends and family, all except Mal, whose only family in the verse was right here and he knew they were gonna have a rough road ahead. Mal put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re gonna get that chance little Kaylee. We’ll get home, you’ll see.”

“Don’t go makin’ promises you can’t keep,” said Jayne, his voice filled with sadness and despair.

Mal looked at him sharply and could see even Jayne’s toughness was falling away in this crisis. Time to be a captain.

He stood and walked to Simon’s side. “We ain’t dead yet and that’s the best news I got for you so far so let’s not kid ourselves. I can make all the promises in the verse but it don’t make them so. But we can’t give up hope. We’re here and we’re gonna make the best of this situation. We got exploring to do and questions that need answers and plans to make. Right now you’re all feeling mighty low and I am too, but now’s the time to step up and be our best. You’re all on this boat cause I only pick the best and only let the best stay. If ever was a time I needed to depend on all of you, every last one, it’s now. It’s late, we’re tired and been through a lot in the last two hours and I guess we’re all in shock. Time for some rest.”

“Don’t think I can sleep,’ said Kaylee in a sad little voice. “My mind’s spinning in a hundred directions at once.”

Mal just nodded. “Doc, I want you to fix everyone that needs it a sleeping dose. We’ll man the bridge 24 hours until we know more. I’ll take first watch on the bridge, Wash second after three hours, Zoe third. Keep all sensors wide open and search for comms traffic. Any questions?’

No one said anything, most too numb to think clearly. Jayne was the first to get up and head to his bunk, grabbing a bottle of Paquin scotch on the way, not even bothering to take a glass with him.

“No sleeping dose for me Doc,” he said as he left.

“Need you alert, Jayne,” said Mal.

“Just need a few shots to clear my head,” came the reply as Jayne exited to the fore hall.

“I’ll think I’ll say a prayer for all of us,” said Book. “You too, captain, if you don’t mind.”

“No, Shepherd, I don’t mind long as your God and my name aren’t in the same prayer.”

“I’ll make it a silent one in your case,” said Book as he headed off to below decks, followed by Simon, River, and Kaylee, Mal giving his mechanic a reassuring smile as she left.

“Zoe, Wash, get some rest,” Mal said as they lingered behind at the table.

“Got a million questions and no answers, sir,” said Zoe as she stood.

“Me, too. Need clear, rested heads for thinking. I’ll wake you in three hours Wash.”

“Ok, Mal. Make it sooner if anything happens,” said the pilot as he as his wife headed to their bunk.

Inara still sat at the table. ‘Guess we can put off telling the crew I’m leaving.”

“Guess so,” said Mal. He didn’t want to have this conversation, not now, not with so much going on and to think about. “You best see to your shuttle. I’ll take a look at number two.”

He turned to leave but she stopped him. “Mal. What if we can’t get back? What if we’re stuck here?”

He paused for a moment and smiled at her. “Well, least we have each other. That’s something to hold onto.”

And then he turned without waiting for a reply and went off to the down stairs to look over shuttle two. Inara didn’t know what he meant, if he meant he and she had each other to hold onto or he meant all of them and she took it that he meant all of them, that they had each other for support and comfort in this bizarre situation. Inara felt a little better and went off to her shuttle to find out if her belongings weren’t smashed into a million pieces. She wondered if she’d ever sleep again, her mind on fire with so many questions, fears, and hopes.

*************************************************

Kaylee, Simon, and River were in the infirmary, Kaylee sitting on the examining table, a bundle of nerves, a tear already falling from her left eye and then her right as Simon prepared a shot for her to help her sleep. River sat on the counter, her knees up, looking at her brother and Kaylee, feeling Kaylee's despair, overcoming even her feelings for Simon.

“Don’t cry,” she said to Kaylee and Simon turned sharply at these words and saw the tears streaking down Kaylee’s face.

“Can’t help it,” she said with a sniffle. “I just got such a shock, I’m losing control.”

Simon approached her with the hypo. “This will help,” he said calmly as he swabbed disinfectant on her left arm. The needle pinched and then Kaylee felt warmness flood through her as the drug was injected, hit her bloodstream, then her heart and brain. She started feeling better already.

“Thanks, Simon,” and she smiled at him and wiped her eyes. Simon smiled back.

“Kaylee, Mal’s right. We’ll find a way out of this.”

River was about to protest this but Simon gave her a sharp look and she held her tongue.

“But what if we can’t?” Kaylee said, her voice calmer now.

Simon looked from his sister to Kaylee. “Like Mal said, we’re alive and that’s something for now. We’re here and if we are here to stay, then we’ll make the best of this situation.”

Kaylee was feeling a little giddy now as waves of sleep started to wash over her. She looked at him with love in her eyes. “I know what would make the situation best for me.”

“I think it's time for bed, Kaylee,” Simon said with a worried voice as Kaylee started to topple off the examining bed.

“Exactly!” she said as she fell off. Simon grabbed her and River got up and helped him.

“We’ll never get her to her bunk,” Simon said in a worried tone.

“Take me to yours, Doc. Bet your bed is nice,” Kaylee replied in a groggy, giddy tone.

“How much did you give her?” River looked at her brother in admonishment.

“Too much it looks like,” he said. “Help me get her to a passenger room.”

They moved out of the infirmary, Kaylee supported by them, her head lolling from side to side.

“You always smell so nice, Simon,” Kaylee mumbled. “Just wanna eat you all up.”

Simon looked at his sister with wide eyes. “Did she just say…?”

“Yeah, numbskull. Need anymore hints?” River replied.

“I got another,” Kaylee mumbled. “Sweet Simon, make me yours. How’s that?”

“She’s out of it,” Simon said and River just shook her head as she slid open the passenger room. The bed was bare with no blankets.

Simon just sighed. “Put her in my bed. I’ll sleep here.”

They moved to Simon’s room and now Kaylee was silent, asleep and Simon was glad because he couldn’t take anymore embarrassment for now, his ears already burning red from Kaylee’s words. They lay her on the bed and River removed Kaylee’s work boots and placed them neatly by the bed as Simon covered Kaylee with his blankets. Here she was, finally in his bed, but not the way he wanted.

River was staring at him.

“What? OK, OK, I know she has a crush on me, have known for months. I’m not as stupid as you think.”

“It’s more than a crush.”

Simon was taken aback. “Really?”

“Yes, really. And I know you feel the same way. Time for bed.”

River left and Simon was still standing there. He glanced at Kaylee and thought even if they were stuck here and couldn’t get home, at least she was here with me. He would make the best of the situation and make her his as she had asked. Simon grabbed his blue robe and toothbrush and toothpaste and then went off to the empty passenger room.

************************************************

Mal awoke with a start as Zoe’s voice piped into his bunk.

“9am ship’s time, Captain. Rise and shine.”

Mal was up in an instance and hit the button for the bridge on his intercom panel.

“Zoe, report,” he growled in a sleep heavy voice. “Nothing to report, sir. All quiet, no ships about, no comms, or signals of any types. Still getting that electrical background from the moon but it disappeared for a while when the moon passed between us and Earth.”

“Ok. Get the crew up, time to have breakfast and make plans.”

As Mal got dressed Zoe’s voice boomed through the ship, waking the crew up for the day. After a long while people began to stir, and eventually made their way to the dining area. All except Kaylee.

“Where’s Kaylee?’ was the first thing Mal asked as Inara and Book set to work making breakfast.

“Still sleeping,” said Simon in a tired voice. “Guess the shot I gave her was too powerful.”

“You can say that again,” said River a bit cryptically and the other crew wondered what was going on.

“Jayne, get her up,” Mal ordered and Jayne grunted and put down his coffee cup and started heading toward the fore hall and Kaylee’s bunk.

“Ah,” Simon began. “She’s not there.”

“Well, where is she, Doc. Don’t tell me your bunk?” Mal said and more than a few crew grinned.

“Yeah, that’d be the day,” said Jayne sarcastically.

“Actually, she is,” said Simon and they all stopped and looked at him and then a groggy voice said “Morning,” and they turned and Kaylee was just coming in the dining area from the aft hall, still in the clothes she had on last night. “What?” she said as they all stared at her.

“Morning,” said Mal. “Sleep well.”

“Yeah, but I don’t seem to remember what happened.” She was looking at Simon as she said this.

“You passed out…and, well, and….” He stumbled over the words and his sister came to his rescue.

“You were falling asleep too fast and it was too hard to get you to your bunk and there were no blankets in the other passenger room so you slept in Simon’s bed.”

“Oh. Yeah, I know I slept in Simon’s bed, just wondered where he slept,” Kaylee replied, a bit of grin on as she looked at Simon.

“In another room,” he hastily said and everyone knew he was squirming and it might have been funny if their situation wasn’t so serious.

“Thank you. For your bunk,” said Kaylee as she sat down. “It was…comfortable.” Simon just smiled at her and guessed she hadn’t realized what she had said to him last night and so treated it like she had never said it. After all, she had been pretty doped up.

Then they all began to eat breakfast. There was oatmeal, fried eggs, toast and jam, coffee and tea, and some apple sauce. All dug in and ate well, and as Mal sat there he silently began to worry on their supply situation. If Earth truly was covered in radiation, he wondered how they would ever eat again once their supplies were gone. He kept all this to himself, with no need to worry anyone yet about things he had no control over.

The topic of discussion was of course what to do and Mal laid out the plan for the day. They would cautiously approach Earth with all sensors sweeping, pass by and get a look at the land, and then move on and examine what the electrical presence on the moon meant. They would not land anywhere till Mal was satisfied all was well. Finally as breakfast died down he looked at River.

“I got a job for you,” he said and all were a bit surprised and waited silently on what he would say next. “Need you to be my advisor on all scientific things. Up for it?”

“Aye, Captain,” was all she said and Mal broke into a big grin.

“Good. We’ll get big brother to interpret when my brain gets all fuzzy with science stuff I can’t fathom. Ok. Let’s get to work.”

Everyone set to doing something, Inara and Book cleaning up breakfast dishes, Simon to his room to get his encyclopedia and the notes River had made yesterday, River to the bridge with Mal, Zoe and Wash, Jayne to the cargo bay to make sure nothing was still loose.

Kaylee went to her bunk first, hastily used the bathroom and washed her face and brushed her teeth before quickly changing clothes, donning a new t-shirt and a different pair of coveralls. Her head was still groggy from the shot Simon had given her. Wonder if I said or did anything foolish? She sure was surprised when she had woken up in his bed and for an instant she thought something wonderful had happened. Then she remembered their predicament, her worries, and the shot he had given her. She could feel Simon’s presence in the room and she lay for a long moment, enjoying the feeling of his blankets and pillow.

As Kaylee made her way to the engine room, Wash took his seat and River sat in the co-pilot’s seat. Zoe was about to explain to her how the sensors worked but she was already flipping switches and scanning ahead so Zoe just smiled and stepped back and let River get to work.

“Main engine powering up,” came Kaylee’s voice over the intercom just as Simon reappeared on the bridge and took the chair behind River, placing his encyclopedia and the notepads on the panel in front of him.

“Give us fifty percent power, Kaylee,” Mal ordered.

“Roger that, Capt’n.”

“Powering up,” said Wash from his station. “And here we go.”

Serenity glided through space and headed for the not so distant planet. Book and Inara stepped onto the bridge after a moment.

“Let’s go take a look at Earth,’ Mal said and all were keyed to a fever pitch with anticipation of what lay ahead.