The Return – Part 3

Serenity glided through the black of space toward its destination: Earth. The Firefly’s main engine propelled them, Mal telling Wash to leave the VTOL’s off cause they’d need the fuel for landings and take offs and there was no knowing if and when they’d ever find fuel again. The situation they found themselves in lay heavy on Mal’s mind as he stood on the bridge and stared out at the blue-green-white globe approaching. Serenity and its crew had been sucked through a wormhole in the fabric of spacetime, if what River and Simon had said was true and Mal had no reason to doubt the teenage genius or her brother, and now they lay more than forty light years from their home quadrant of space. Earth was the only inhabited planet or moon out here as far as they knew, and from the scans they had made so far, it didn’t look like Earth was very habitable anymore.

“No nav sats, telecom sats, or radio, microwave, infrared comms,” River said matter-of-factly from the co-pilot’s seat where she was scanning the planet. Zoe stood behind her with Mal standing between Zoe and Wash’s seat. Simon was seated in the third seat, behind River and Zoe, going through his encyclopedia, trying to find information on Earth and its main cities. Book was peering over his shoulder ready to offer any help he could while Inara just stood on the deck and stared out into the black, watching the globe approaching them through the vastness of space.

“Simon, where do you think we should head for?” Mal asked as he turned to look at the doctor.

“I think the northern most hemisphere would be the best location to look for anything or anybody,” offered Simon. “It held the largest cities and the most people.”

“And appears to have the most radiation,” said River.

That news was certainly not welcome. “What could have caused it?” Inara asked.

“I’m afraid our fellow humans most likely,” said Book.

Mal looked at the preacher. “War?”

“Yes,” Book began in a somber tone. “A nuclear war is the only reasonable explanation for such radiation. No accident could be responsible for such large amounts.”

“They just killed each other and destroyed their own world?” Inara said in shock.

Simon joined the discussion. “Earth’s history is full of such conflicts. In our corner of the verse we have planet against planet or Alliance against the Independents. Here there was only one planet. And the numbers grew and grew. Which is why our ancestors left for the stars.”

“Too many people,” Zoe said quietly. “All fighting for the same resources.”

“Almost ten billion when the first ships left so long ago for our galaxy on their decades long trip,” Simon added.

“Ten billion. Maybe more,” Mal said in kind of reverence. “Are they all dead?”

“We’ll know soon enough,” said Wash.

“But why nuclear weapons?” Inara asked. “We don’t even have them.”

“Yes, we do,” said Book and they just looked at him like he was mad, this news a surprise to all. Everyone knew that the ancestors who first settled in their quadrant had forsaken nuclear weapons and banned any and all research into it. Nuclear power they had, nuclear engines, but weapons were not part of the legacy of Earth brought to the stars. It was written into the constitution of the Alliance that nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons were banned and their manufacture was outlawed.

Mal was the first to speak. ‘Shepherd, I went through that war and saw all kinds of manner of ways for killing folk but weren’t no nuclear weapons of any kind. We sure as hell didn’t have them. Tell truth I think our side was even trying to make one but nothing came of it. Now if the Alliance had them they sure would have used them on us.”

“He’s right,” added Zoe. “Serenity Valley would have been the place, too. But they beat us the old fashioned way. Killed more of us than we did of them.”

“Having them is one thing, but using them another,” Book said and explained like a teacher to a classroom. “Alliance has them, or so rumor that I heard pointed in that direction, but lacked the will to use them. They always hoped to bring the Independent planets back into the Alliance fold. Using nuclear weapons would have been going too far.”

“They wanted us ‘back in the fold”, Mal said with a touch of venom in his voice. “They shoulda let us go our own way.”

“I’m not unsympathetic to your cause, Captain,” Book offered. ‘But war never did anything but create more problems.”

“Can’t disagree with you there, Shepherd,” Mal returned. He didn’t want to fight with Book but his blood always got up when anyone mentioned the Alliance or their plans for the Independent planets.

Inara had stood back through all this, just looking at the planet of their distant ancestors, the home of her beloved Buddha, and couldn’t imagine what would possess them to kill each other.

“How could they do it? It’s the only place they have,” she said in a subdued tone.

Simon spoke up next. “It’s in our nature. Killing and finding ways to kill each other. Our history of Earth tells us that nuclear weapons were invented in the 1940s and by the 21st century almost a dozen nations had them and the information on how to build them was easily obtained. They were only used once, to our knowledge, on the Japanese by the United States at the end of the Second World War. I guess that is no longer true.”

Only Wash and River stayed silent, concentrating on their jobs, but not unaware of the dread that was now spreading among their crewmates, dread that they could be looking at a planet of ghosts. River sensed it most keenly of all, the shot Simon had given her before breakfast the only thing helping her concentrate on what she was doing, the only thing keeping the overwhelming emotions of the crew from engulfing her. She could also sense Kaylee in the engine room, her mind still thinking on her father, and Simon, and full of intense curiosity about what those on the bridge were seeing on Earth.

Jayne’s feelings were more distant, in the cargo bay, his emotions the same as always, how to use their new situation to his advantage for profit or pleasure. And River even despaired a touch from Jayne’s thoughts, because the big man had no clue what to do next. Maybe that was good and maybe Jayne would be with Serenity’s crew one hundred percent this time. Not like on Ariel.

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

River’s psychic skills had not failed her for Kaylee and Jayne were thinking exactly how River sensed. Kaylee hated being stuck in the engine room at times like this, not because she didn’t love her job or her beloved Serenity, but she sometimes felt cut off and no one even remembered her back here until they needed more power or something went wrong. She wanted to see Earth as badly as the others and not knowing what was happening up front was frustrating. One of these days she was going to rig up a vid system that would feed the front bridge images back to a vid display screen in the engine room. Now if she could just get Capt’n Cheap Pockets to pay for that….but she knew that was wishful thinking and there were more important things that the engine and ship needed, if they ever got back to where they belonged.

Kaylee also brooded on what had happened with Simon last night. Her memory was clearer now after breakfast and a cup of tea and she remembered saying something to him that made it very obvious her interest in him. It was either “kiss you all over” or “eat you all up” or something along those lines. Perhaps she should ask River. Anyway, Simon’s embarrassed reaction at the breakfast table when they were discussing where he slept made her still feel he wasn’t ready to go to the next level of…whatever it was they had. But now, being here, maybe never get home again, maybe no one else in this part of the ‘verse, Kaylee began to feel she had nothing to lose. All she needed was the nerve to jump into his arms and kiss him all over before he could protest the next time they were alone. Cause she felt certain he’d never take that first step.

“Kaylee, power down to 25%,” Mal’s voice came through from the bridge.

“Roger that,” she said, as she pulled back on the power levers and then just sat and wondered what was going on now.

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

As the others were getting their first long distant views of Earth and as Kaylee brooded in the engine room, Jayne was in the cargo bay looking at the Springfield sniper rifle and wondering how much it was worth now. Nothin’ out here, he thought. Now if had some ammo for it, and managed to sight it in, it could do what it was made for, but he had better sniper rifles, ones with ammo. He set the rifle back in its crate and closed it.

What a fix, Jayne thought. Gorramn wormhole gonna ruin my whole life. Jayne had never expected to die peacefully, had known men like him met their end in violent ways, but getting killed by space itself gave him the creeps. That time Mal had put him in the airlock Jayne had been truly terrified. Sucked out through an airlock ain’t a proper way for a man to die. Guns blazing, killing your enemies, or least killing someone trying to kill you or stopped you from getting what you wanted, that was the way for a real man to die.

Jayne was glad Mal was in charge now, glad Simon and River and their big brains were on board, glad Wash was piloting and Zoe and her guns were here, glad Kaylee and her tools were by the engine, glad Inara’s smile and smell and good cooking made him feel alive, and was glad the Shepherd’s words were there to comfort him. For the first time in his life Jayne Cobb had no idea what was going to happen and what to do next. But he was sure glad these folks were here with him cause if anyone could get out of this mess, they were the ones to do. He’d provide the muscles and the firepower and do any killing called for, cause that’s what he did. For the first time since he came on board Serenity, Jayne realized what it really meant to be part of a crew.

“Jayne, we’re getting close,” came Mal’s voice over the loud speaker and Jayne snapped out of his brooding and dashed up the stairs.

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

They were now very close to Earth, the whole planet almost filling the windows. As they had approached they could see the moon on the far side of the Earth, reflecting the sunlight that was coming from behind them. Now it was gone from view. The Earth was slowly turning, almost imperceptibly, rotating to the east.

“I think it best to do a high orbit scan of the entire planet,” said Mal. “Starting in the north and then moving south. Don’t want to get too close just yet. Wash?”

“Not a problem, Mal. High orbit it is.”

Serenity was coming in on the high side now, Wash moving them into a path toward the North Pole. Clouds covered many areas, with patches of green and blue peeking through.

“Something ahead,” River said suddenly as they approached their orbit. “Many objects. Thousands of objects.”

“What is it?” Mal asked as everyone tensed.

“There’s no asteroid field around Earth,” said Simon as he quickly scanned his encyclopedia for all astronomical information on Earth and its moon.

“Not asteroids. Not rock. Metallic,” replied River. And then they could see them, glinting in the sunlight coming from behind.

Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of pieces of…something ….were floating in high Earth orbit. Mal immediately grabbed the mic.

“Kaylee, power down to 25%.”

”Roger that,” came her reply. Mal next called Jayne and told him they were getting close.

“Satellites?” Book suggested.

Before anyone could answer they saw a large chuck of metallic debris float by Serenity’s windows. On the side was visible the letters “NASA”. The object was blackened and twisted.

Far off they could now see flashes and flares in Earth’s atmosphere.

“Objects are burning up,” River stated.

“Decaying orbits, entering atmo,” added Wash pointing out more of them.

“I think your right, Shepherd”, Mal said. “Burnt out satellites.”

“More likely destroyed,” said Wash. “Now we know why there is no nav or comms traffic. I think there might be even a few spaceship parts in this debris.”

“What about ground stations?” Inara asked. “Surely, someone down there is alive. They must be.”

“If there was a nuclear war, there would have massive electromagnetic pulse,” Simon told them. “All electronics would have been fried if not properly shield.”

“I think they targeted these satellites,” Wash added. “Look at them, all mangled. They were destroyed on purpose.”

“Military strategy,’ said Book.

“Wash, River, anyway around?” Mal asked as Jayne appeared on the bridge.

“Looks clear over the most northern part,” said River. Wash agreed and moved the ship at a high angle to climb over the debris field and come in toward the North Pole. Jayne arrived and Book filled him in on what was happening.

“Bridge,” came a small, worried voice from the intercom. “How we doing?” Mal silently cursed himself for forgetting about Kaylee. He grabbed the mic.

“Coming through a field full of destroyed satellites approaching the northern part,” said Mal and then paused for a second. “Sorry, Kaylee. I know you want to take a look, but I need you at your station.”

“I’m fine Capt’n, I know my job. Just…keep me up to date, OK?” she replied.

“Roger that. Back to fifty percent power please Kaylee. We’re in the clear”, Mal ordered and Kaylee confirmed his order, applied more power from the main engine, and then went silent. Mal looked to Inara and she understood.

“I’ll go keep her company,” she said and Mal nodded.

‘Thanks,” he said as she left.

“You let us know if anything happens,” she told him.

“You’ll be the first,” Mal replied.

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

Serenity glided over the North Pole and Wash gently established an orbit, slowly widening their path, as the ship did 360 degree turns around the planet. On their first pass they saw the sunset and the moon rise and again the electrical presence on the moon was picked up by River’s sensor boards. But still too weak to understand what it was. All they knew for sure was that some kind of manmade power was on the moon.

They couldn’t say the same for Earth. Nothing electrical existed so far. Nothing stirred, nothing lived as far as they knew. Gradually the ship slipped around the planet getting further south, the ice fields of the north gradually turning to tundra and forests of the North American and Eurasian landmasses. “Massive radiation, lethal,” said River and everyone was silent. Then the first long range images of villages, towns, and the cities of the north came to the crew and they were sobered by what they saw. Simon called out the countries and names of cities as they passed as best the old map in the computer memory banks could tell him

Lifeless streets, vehicles sitting everywhere, some places burnt out, no electricity, no sign of life at all. And then the first large city came into view, St. Petersburg, Russia, Simon said it was called, and they all held their breathe in shocked silence as the once beautiful Venice of the North lay destroyed before their eyes, the blast radius of a nuclear detonation clear to see from such high orbit. Past Moscow, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Warsaw and on it went, all through the north, no signs of life, human or animal, with massive destruction of the major cities and high levels of radiation. And the trail of the ship around the cradle of humanity was sad indeed.

********************************************** “What did you see?” Kaylee asked her friend as Inara sat on Kaylee’s hammock.

“There was a lot of space junk, destroyed satellites mostly. Maybe rockets or ships in there. Hard to tell.”

“And still no signs of life?” Kaylee asked with hope in her heart. But she was disappointed.

“No, nothing so far. It’s like the whole world is dead. All those people, I still can’t believe it.”

“Ain’t gonna be much of a home coming if no one is there to greet us.”

“Why did they do it? Were they so blind to not realize they had no where else to go?” Inara said again, still not comprehending the reasoning behind war, any war.

“Don’t know,” replied Kaylee. “I was just a kid when our war came, just a teen when it ended. Didn’t know much about it. Guess my folks tried to protect me from all that badness. Not much happened on our moon anyways. Most folks were for the Independents. Some boys left and never came back. Those that did were all hollowed out inside, like all the spirit was sucked out them. Kinda like the Capt’n….”

Kaylee stopped, thinking she shouldn’t say anything bad about her Capt’n. “It’s okay Kaylee. You’re not the only one who noticed that about him.”

“Yeah, guess so. Anyways, my daddy’s factory was supposed to make uniforms for the Independents but then the Alliance occupied us and we had to scrape by doing odd jobs. That’s when I got my start as mechanic. Daddy taught me everything he knew, and we managed to make enough till the war was over and his factory got busy again.”

“What does he make?”

“Oh, just about anything. Mostly machinery parts. Lots for spaceships and the like. You name it, he can make it.”

“It’s good to have a skill,” Inara said. “My war experience was a little different. I was in training.”

“Really? You ain’t that much older than me, are you?”

“Kaylee! A Companion’s age is a closely guarded secret. I was old enough to be finished training near the end of the war and let’s leave it at that. Of course, on Sihon, most supported the Alliance. In my heart I did, too.”

“Don’t ever let the Capt’n or Zoe hear that.”

“Oh, Mal knows. In fact, I told him the first time we met, when I negotiated for my shuttle.”

“No way! And he let you stay?!”

“Here I am.”

“Yeah, here we are,” said Kaylee forlornly and the two women went silent as they contemplated their situation.

Suddenly Inara remembered something. “What happened with Simon last night?”

“Don’t rightly know. I slept in his bed for sure. Too bad he didn’t also,” Kaylee said with a glint in her eye. Inara grinned.

“He’ll come around, you’ll see.”

“Yeah. I hope. He’s running out of excuses. I know he doesn’t want to drag me into his problems with the Alliance. Ain’t no Alliance out here to bother him or River. That’s the only good I seen so far in this situation.” And Inara couldn’t think of anything to add that was good about what was going on.

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

By mid-day ship’s time they had seen most of North America, Europe, Russia, China, Korea, Japan and all were sobered by what they had witnessed on the long range scanners. Mal had Wash put Serenity in a geo-synchronous orbit over the eastern United States, the shattered megalopolis that stretch from New York to Miami a lifeless wasteland of broken concrete and steel.

They took a break and had some lunch that Inara had fixed. There was a chicken broth and vegetable soup and a salad and everyone ate but their hearts weren’t into it. Kaylee went to the bridge for a quick view before eating and came back after ten minutes and the shock on her face was obvious to all. Zoe spelled Wash on the bridge while he ate and then Mal decided it was time to examine what they knew so far and time to make his crew realize what they had to do next. He was going to wait till they explored some more but the more he thought on it the more he knew it was best to let them really know how serious their situation was, not only because they had no idea how to get home, but also cause they were on a slim thread of existence in this barren corner of the verse.

“It’s clear that Earth has destroyed itself. Nuclear war most likely and that’s bad news for us cause with those high levels of radiation ain’t much alive down there. No humans or animals, not a crop planted or a place with water safe enough to drink. Now we might find someplace that is shielded, protected from the radiation, which may have supplies, but that’s a long shot in the dark and may come later than sooner.”

Simon was looking at him with puzzlement. “You’re taking about food and water…for us?”

“He is,” said Book. “And rationing is the next step.”

“You got that right, Shepherd,” Mal said as he eyed them all. “We got food and water on board but we don’t know when we’ll re-supply. That means its time we tighten out belts. Unfortunately, that means no showers till we get a clean supply of water. Our life support can only make a little a day and if worse comes to worse we’ll use it for drinking. But for now we store it and use what we have in the storage tanks for cooking and drinking only. Kaylee, check our storage tanks and see how much we got. Then we’ll decide how much we can have per day.”

“Yes, Capt’n,” Kaylee replied. ‘Lucky we topped up the tanks on that last moon. Should be mostly full.”

“That’s good news,” Mal said. “Book, like you to inventory our food supply. Fresh food can’t be rationed but the canned and packaged stuff can, so for now we eat the fresh since it’ll go bad fastest. Put all the canned and packaged stuff in the food storage locker. I’m going change the combination on it and only you and I will know it Shepherd.”

“Of course,” Book said. “I’ll get on it right after lunch.”

“And don’t let anyone bribe you or convince you otherwise to give out that combination,” said Mal looking at the always hungry Jayne out of the corner of his eye.

“Don’t worry Shepherd, I ain’t going bribe you for the combination,” said Jayne, wondering why Mal always picked him out to be the dishonest one in the crew. Well, maybe cause he usually was. “Ain’t no point anyway. Money we got worthless out here.”

“Is this really necessary, Mal? “began Simon. “I mean we haven’t even explored the whole planet yet or the moon. There could be someone or something still alive.”

“I hope there is,” said Inara from where she sat sipping a cup of tea.

“If there is, then they won’t have much to share with us by the state of things here abouts and I ain’t looking to start stealing food till we have to,” said Mal and that ended that subject.”

“Wash, need a fuel count and an estimation on how many take offs and landings we got left in the boat.”

“It’d be a rough guess Mal seeing as no one has ever landed on Earth before. I mean, from our end of the verse anyways,” Wash began. “Every planet and world has its own characteristics, gravity and atmo being the two most variable factors.”

“Give me your best guess.”

“Will do,” said Wash as he finished his coffee and headed toward the bridge.

“Jayne,” Mal looked at the merc. “Want you to take stock of all weapons, even the stuff in the cargo bay.”

Jayne looked at Book. “Told you them guns come in handy.”

“Indeed. Expecting a war, Captain?’ Book asked, the cargo in the hold still touching a raw nerve.

“Don’t know. But sooner or later we want to take a look at what’s on the moon and I got a notion if anyone survived this mess down on Earth that’s where they are and they’ll be armed to the teeth, too and more than a little paranoid about visitors, especially from somewhere that ain’t here.”

“We don’t know how long ago this war was,” Inara said. “Even if they got to the moon, they could be all dead hundreds of years ago.”

“No food or water up there either,” Kaylee said.

“There’s something there, and I aim to find out. If there are survivors and they’re on the moon, then they have the know how to survive there. Maybe they have the know how to send us home.”

“Maybe they won’t let us,” said Book in a serious voice.

“What do mean “won’t let us”?” asked Kaylee in surprise.

“We could represent resources to them that may be valuable,” Book explained.

“Yeah, one beat up old spaceship sure worth a lot,” said Jayne with sarcasm.

“She ain’t beat up,” Kaylee said under her breath and no one but Simon heard her but she didn’t notice him looking at her so downcast was her mindset.

“It would be to them. If they have none,” Mal said to Jayne. “We step careful around here and we’ll come through this. Let’s get on those jobs I asked you to do and then we’ll finish exploring.”

“Ah, what should we do, Mal?” Simon asked, referring to himself and River.

“I guess you should get some info on radiation sickness, see what we can do to protect ourselves if we have to leave ship and go foraging. River can help you with that. Check out our spacesuits and see what kind of protection they have. Also, might need some way to measure the radiation off ship, inside buildings and such. We got some atmo detectors. Maybe you can modify them to check for radiation levels. Could sure come in handy. Kaylee, give River a hand after you checked out the water supply.”

“Course, Capt’n.”

The lunch conversation broke up as Mal went to the bridge to fill Zoe and Wash in on his plans. The others sat for a long moment, each alone in his or her thoughts, the enormity of rationing sinking in. Food hadn’t always been good or plentiful on Serenity, but there had always been something and somewhere to get more. But now, who knew where they’d find a way to re-supply.

“What about the oceans?” Inara asked suddenly. “They must have life!”

“Possible,” said River. “The radiation wouldn’t penetrate to the depths.”

They all brightened at this news. Then Jayne put a damper on it. “Anyone got fishing experience?”

“With a rod and reel,” said Book. “But never in an ocean.”

“We’ll find a way,” Simon said with hope. “We’ve got to.”

“I hate fish,” said River and that gave everyone a small smile and they felt a little better. Book got up first and moved to the cupboards and started pulling out cans and packages and moving them to the main food storage locker. Inara started to help without Book needing to ask, her being the only one Mal didn’t assign a job to, and the rest moved off to do their tasks.

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

Kaylee went to the engine room and got a ratchet for opening the panel at the top of the stairs where the two shuttles were situated. This panel led under the fore hall and allowed her to examine the two large water tanks that were situation just forward of the shuttles, one on each side of the ship. There was a gauge on the bridge that could tell how much water was there but Kaylee wanted to double check the level gauges on each tank and make sure there were no internal leaks. She also engaged the life support water condenser to siphon off its product to the left tank. It could make about three or four liters a day, mostly moisture from their breath and from the ship when they entered and left atmo, due to temperature changes and internal condensation. Four liters was barely enough for drinking and a little bit of cooking but definitely not for showering or waste removal. The Capt’n hadn’t thought on waste removal but Kaylee did and knew they’d have to impose some rules on that, too, since each toilet flush drew water from the main tanks, sending it to the septic tank, which was vented into space about once a week..

Each tank held about one thousand liters, two thousand total. As it drained out air under pressure was pumped in to make sure the water didn’t slosh around when the water came out. Sloshing water could throw the ship’s center of gravity off and make Serenity unstable in atmo flight. The air came from two pressure tanks which could also act as an auxiliary life support in an emergency. Unfortunately when they had that explosion, the auxiliary had also been knocked out and there was no way Kaylee could access the air tanks. She had been thinking many weeks now on how she could get to the tanks in case of such an accident in the future. The air on the old Firefly was recycled, scrubbed clean of carbon dioxide and then pumped back into the ship through vents located everywhere. The scrubbers used a filter that lasted about a week and then had to be changed. Kaylee had a supply of carbon dioxide scrubber filters that could last a month but then they would be in serious trouble unless they found a way to recycle them or get a steady supply of fresh air.

She thought back on the water situation. If they used twenty liters a day, which was going to be difficult with nine people on board to use any less and maybe that was even impossible, then it would last one hundred days, little more than three months. Maybe forty liters was more likely, unless they took to stop flushing the toilets, maybe using buckets and expelling the waste directly into space through the airlock. Disgusting, but maybe necessary. That would be fifty days. That wasn’t too bad, but in one month they’d be dead anyway from carbon dioxide poisoning if they couldn’t leave the ship. And they’d be awful smelly too, Kaylee thought as she went to the bridge to report to the Capt’n.

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

Simon and River went below to the spacesuit container to examine the suits and Jayne gave them a hand and told them everything he knew about the suits that he had used many times. Simon had his one experience in them when they had found that derelict ship the Reavers had attacked and didn’t care to repeat his experience, not in space anyway.

“Lots of protection from radiation,” said Jayne as he held up his orange suit.

“Made for space walks,” said River. “Less direct radiation in space unless you are close to a sun.”

“You mean they’re no good for walking around Earth?” Jayne asked.

“We need more accurate measurements of the Earth’s radiation content,” River replied.

“Seems like it would suffice for an external exploration,” Simon said, looking at the suit carefully as Jayne held it “You wouldn’t be in danger of radiation poison for short off ship trips.”

Jayne grunted. “Fine saying that here on board our nice safe ship, Doc, but I figure I’m gonna be one of the ones wearing this thing outside so I’d like you to be a might more sure.”

He thrust the suit into Simon’s hands and walked toward the gun piles and the clipboard with the list he had made earlier of what they had. He looked back at Simon and River talking about the suits and examining them. These two eggheads got on his nerves, especially the crazy one, but he guessed he had to depend on them now, so held back any biting remarks he had. Besides, they knew he ratted them out on Ariel, so he didn’t want to antagonize them and have them tell the rest of the crew.

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

On the bridge Mal surprised Zoe and Wash by ordering him to immediately start exploring again.

“What about River, sir?” Zoe asked.

“You take her station. Was a bit too crowded up here earlier. I got them all doing something, keep their minds busy so they don’t go dwelling too much on what’s ahead of us.”

“Good idea,’ said Wash. ‘Cause I sure hate dwelling on my own death.”

“Wash, talk like that around the others and I’ll shoot you myself and you’ll never have to worry about your death again,” Mal said and Wash wasn’t sure if he was kidding or serious.

“Husband, don’t get like that on me or I’ll shoot you first before the Captain has a chance,” Zoe added and Wash knew they weren’t kidding now.

“Alright, alright, flying the ship, Wash is flying the ship. Sheesh.!”

“Ain’t about you Wash, you know I like you fine and Zoe must love you cause she married you. But we gotta keep the doomsday talk to a minimum. Case you forgot we got Kaylee who is already thinking on home and her father’s birthday and River who ain’t all there when she doesn’t have her shots. Even Jayne seemed to crack a little at the seams when he learned about this wormhole. Shepherd’s talking about his God sending us here and Inara is talking about hope. Simon’s holding together so far cause he’s got his sister to think on and Kaylee too I’m sure. They’re all spooked and so are we but we gotta hold it together. I’m depending on you two for a lot.”

“You can count us, sir,” Zoe said.

“Sorry, Mal, just thinking…”

Mal interrupted him. “Don’t think on it. You know which guys got killed in the war? The ones that thought they were gonna die. Me and Zoe and Monty and the other survivors just thought about killing purple bellies and finding a place to sleep and something to fill our guts. That’s why we survived.”

Zoe felt a little bad about what she had said to her man. “Sorry, baby. But we can’t become a mob of individuals. We gotta pull as one.”

“I got it. Teamwork. As one. Keep my mouth shut,” he said without looking at her and Zoe knew she’d hear more from him later. This was another case of Wash and his civilian background clashing with Zoe and her military background

Wash was silent as they flew around, still at high orbit, getting a wide view. After a long while of silence, suddenly Zoe looked up from the scanners.

“Got something on the infrared,” she said, a bit of excitement in her voice. They were over sub-Sahara Africa, and it was nighttime. Through a wide area the scanners were picking up pinpoints of infrared heat signatures. Thousands of them.

“Looks like some heat source,” said Mal. “Maybe fires.”

“They aren’t together. It’s not a big fire but many separate ones.”

“Campfires,” Wash said absently and Mal knew he was right.

“Survivors,” said Zoe.

Wash looked at them. “But how could they survive? The radiation.”

“Radiation levels?” Mal asked.

“Weaker, perhaps not lethal.” Zoe said. “Hard to know since we don’t know the meteorological patterns, but maybe the southern hemispheres wasn’t as badly affected.”

“There’s definitely something there,” Mal said as they flew by and continued over the Indian Ocean. On islands they saw more infrared heat signatures and even a few on Sri Lanka and the extreme south of India. On over Southeast Asia they saw more and then on the scattered islands of the south Pacific more still. Australia was just over the horizon, out of view for the time. They were soon back into daylight as the sun rose before them.

“And I’m sure there’s more survivors in other places,” Mal said.

“Survivors?” said Kaylee as she stood at the top of the bridge stairs. ‘You found someone!”

‘Hold on a sec little Kaylee. We ain’t found much yet, just some fires,” Mal said quickly so she wouldn’t scream the news through the ship.

“Campfires,” Wash said with a grin and Mal just sighed as Kaylee broke into a big smile.

“Campfires! That’s so…shiny! That means people, and cooking and food!”

Mal couldn’t feel as excited but he was happy to see his little mechanic smiling and he hadn’t heard a “shiny” from her in a while. What the hell, he thought. They all need a little hope right now. He grabbed the mic.

“This is the captain. Appears we have spotted something that could be a sign of survivors,” and that’s all he said but within minutes the bridge was jammed with the whole crew. Mal explained it all and they were just coming back into the night side of Earth. Simon told them it was Africa, then on through the night till they were over Australia and they saw more infrared heat signatures lights.

“Campfires,” said River with certainty and Wash grinned and looked at Zoe and he felt better and she smiled back at him. She wouldn’t have shot him, but he needed to know this weren’t no game they were playing here.

“Survivors,” Inara said and she reached out and held Kaylee’s hand and squeezed it and they both bubbled with excitement.

Mal looked to Simon.

“How could they survive?”

“It must be the weather patterns. The radiation, the lethal doses, must be confined to the north. Look at South America. Only a few cities were leveled. Surely many people died down here also. But some managed to survive. Mostly those in isolated areas. And most likely those already living a primitive existence, living off the land, knowing how to survive without modern technology.”

“Ok,” Mal said. “Sounds logical."

“What’s’ the plan, Captain,” Book asked the question they all wanted to ask.

Mal thought for a moment before speaking. "I know you all want to take a look see. But we ain’t in dire straights yet for food and water. And we gotta think on getting home above all. So we’re going somewhere else first.”

They all looked at him with puzzled expressions, all except River who knew where they were going first.

“The moon,” she said and the crew looked out the windows as Serenity once more went into darkness and the moon rose into view.