Serenity cleared the debris field of shattered satellites and Wash set a course for Earth’s single moon. No one had protested when Mal made the decision to head for the moon because it became clear that the only possible chance they had of returning to their home quadrant of the verse was on that moon. There were few signs of life on Earth and the ones they saw showed that the survivors of the nuclear holocaust were living a meager existence in the most remote areas. The scientific skills and know how to help them would not be found there. The moon, however, offered some hope as an electrical presence had been picked up by Serenity’s sensors. As Wash plotted the course River turned all sensors toward the moon.

“How long till we arrive?” Mal asked Wash.

“At top speed, about one hour,” Wash replied after a quick calculation.

“Make it slower,” Mal said. “I want a chance to examine things and think about them and give everyone a chance to have a rest before we set down and explore whatever it is that’s on that moon. Kaylee, back to 25% power.”

“On the way,” Kaylee said as she left the bridge and made her way to the engine room. She didn’t totally agree with the Capt’n’s decision to leave the Earth so soon. Maybe someone down there could tell them want had happened. But she knew that getting home had to be their top priority and the moon seemed the only place that might offer any chance of that.

River stayed on the bridge with Wash while the rest of the crew returned to the tasks Mal had assigned them. More than one took a last look at the moon before they departed the bridge. Questions lay heavy on every mind. What was happening on the Earth? How long ago was the war? Why was the radiation still lethal? Could they get food and water from the Earth if necessary? What or who was on the moon? And above all, could they get home?

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

Zoe and Mal stood on the catwalk overlooking the cargo bay, talking over their future plans as Jayne continued to examine the guns below.

“Wash pissed at you?” Mal started off. Zoe just chuckled.

“Oh, I’m sure he is. But he’ll get over it, as usual. He just needs to talk to let off his worries, but he understands what you said. Don’t know about the rest. I’m worried about Kaylee and Inara.”

“Yeah. Crew has plenty of experience in tough spots, but none like this. Kaylee will do her job, but she’s already thinking we ain’t gonna get home and that’s bad. Inara seems shell shocked more than the rest of us about what happened on Earth. First time seeing such devastation for her and many of the others I’m guessing. Book and Jayne, they been in lots of tough spots, and we both know that’s true for the Shepherd as much as Jayne. River, well, who knows what goes on in her mind. Seems fine for now. Simon, he’s tougher now than when he first came on board. He’ll stand it. In fact, think he’s enjoying himself a bit, intellectual fellow like him being one of the first to see Earth in 500 years.”

“Be a hell of story if…when we get back.”

“Hell of a story. If anyone believes us.”

“Can’t seem to recall you and me in anything so…crazy …ourselves, sir.”

“This one has its uniqueness for sure but it’s same as any other. Keep flying, keep safe. That’s all that we gotta keep remembering and we’ll pull through.”

“They’re going to look to you for a lot, sir.”

“When haven’t they? Maybe this time they’ll all listen.”

They were silent as they watched Jayne examining a box of hand grenades.

“Glad we got this stuff now. You never know,” Mal said, breaking the silence.

“We got a plan, sir?”

“Fly by real slow, let the sensors sweep, then find a nice place to land, me and Jayne and Simon do an EVA.”

“Simon?”

“Need you to stay on board case of trouble. Simon goes cause he’s got the smarts for something like this and won’t go woolly like his sis.”

“He ain’t too fond of space walks, if you recall, sir.”

“I ain’t asking him, I’m telling him. He’ll do the job.”

“Sounds like a plan, sir.”

Just then Kaylee approached from the upper stairs.

“Hey, Capt’n, Zoe. Got those water figures for you,” she said as she handed Mal a clipboard and Mal looked it over for a few seconds.

“Two thousand liters. That’s a lot. Twenty to forty liters a day. Tell you what Kaylee. Let’s leave things as normal for 24 hours and we’ll see how much has gone down after that. But still no showers or washing clothes and cleaning anything except dishes for now. Anyone wants a bath make it a sponge bath with no more than half a liter.”

“Sounds good to me, Capt’n. I’ll tell the crew,” Kaylee said and then took back her clipboard and went off to the upper level again.

“She seemed fine,” Zoe said as Kaylee left.

“Long as they’re busy they’ll be fine.”

Then Wash’s voice came out of the intercom. “Mal, Zoe, need you on the bridge.”

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

“It’s a base,” said River as Zoe and Mal peered over her shoulder at the long range visual scanners. They could clearly see in one of the moon’s craters in its northern hemisphere several boxy structures and what looked like a landing area for some kind of craft. They were still too far to tell for sure, but it was definitely man made.

“Now we know where the electrical background is coming from,” Zoe said.

“Question is, is anybody home,” Wash said as they all peered at the moon growing larger in the windows of Serenity.

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

Simon was in the infirmary, looking through his encyclopedia and a few of the medical textbooks he managed to pick up over the months, checking for information on radiation sickness. Not having the Cortex was becoming a real inconvenience and Simon never realized how much he depended on it till it was gone. He knew the Cortex was the grandchild of the Earth’s original wired computer systems called the Internet that went totally wireless in the early 21st century and was then carried into space by Simon’s forefathers. They took it a step further, bringing all the knowledge of the Earth with them and refining the wireless system over a few hundred years so the Cortex could be accessed from almost any place, in space or planet side. Wave technology was part of the Cortex but still had some kinks to work out. Calls could be simultaneous if within a certain distance but after that they took time to send and receive until at extreme distances one received them like email of old.

Simon was taking notes on radiation sickness and thinking on how long they could be exposed on Earth and was just wondering how they could measure the radiation levels accurately from space when Kaylee entered the infirmary, holding her clipboard.

“Hey, Simon,” she said and he gave a start, a bit from not expecting to be interrupted and a lot cause of who was interrupting him. They hadn’t had a chance to talk since Kaylee’s drug induced remarks of the previous evening.

“Oh, Kaylee. Hi.”

“Hi, back at you. Ah, Capt’n wants me to tell everyone to use water like you normally would but no showers or cleaning stuff for now. OK?”

“Oh, that’s a bit of good news. Except for the shower part. I’ll tell River.”

“Already saw her on the bridge. Saw everyone already. You’re the last one.”

Then came an awkward moment and they both just looked at each other and then began speaking at almost the same time.

“About last night….” Kaylee started and Simon jumped in right away to deflect any questions about what she had said to him.

“How are you feeling?”

“What? Oh, the sleeping dose. Yeah, guess it was a bit too much.”

“Sorry about that. Guess I misjudged your weight.”

Kaylee’s sunny smile was gone in an instant and Simon knew he had stepped into it again.

“Misjudged my weight? You mean you think I’m…fat?” she said in an indignant tone.

God, not again, Simon thought as he rushed to explain himself. “No, no. It’s, I mean, I have everyone’s weight and height in my logs and, and so I gave you the dose based on your weight and I gave you too much.”

He could still see she was puzzled and a bit angry.

“A real gentleman doesn’t say anything about a woman’s weight,’ she said in a huff as her face turned red. She was about to leave and Simon leaped to her side and took her right arm. Kaylee’s face was hot and she was burning with embarrassment cause the man she wanted more than any other was saying she was…fat!

His touch on her bare arm felt like fire as she turned to face him. They were so close, inches apart, Simon’s face full of sorry and regret and Kaylee knew he was trying to apologize and she let her anger cool a bit.

“No, Kaylee, it means you lost weight,” Simon final got out in a pleading tone. “I gave you the dose based on your recorded weight, not actual. It was a bit too much. The dose I mean.”

“Oh,” Kaylee said in a small voice. “I thought you meant... OH!” and she broke into a grin. “I lost some weight!”

“Yes. I’d say about two or three kilos,” Simon commented as he stepped back a bit and scanned her up and down and then he looked embarrassed. “Sorry.” He let go of her arm and they could both feel the heat from the others body and the air crackled with sexual tension

“So you don’t think I’m fat?” she asked, teasing a bit.

“No, not at all. In fact, you’re very…beautiful.” Kaylee’s face lit up with joy and her heart pounded so loud she thought the whole verse heard it.

“Simon, did I just hear you right?” she managed to gasp. “Did you say I’m…beautiful?”

“Well, you are,” he said quietly as he gazed into her eyes and Kaylee could see the affection he held for her in his deep blue eyes. “Kaylee, I’m no good with words. I don’t know how to say it…I…want to, well, want I mean, is, I feel, its…time that we did something….about, about our feelings…its been eight months since I came here, and…I know how you feel…last night you made it quite obvious….and I feel the same…so we should…I mean…..not that…” he stumbled for the right words and Kaylee just put a finger to his lips.

“Shsssh. Don’t say anything. I know what to do,” she said and then she did what she had longed to do and knew she had to do cause the handsome doctor would never cross those final few steps to happiness. She took away her finger, put her arms on his shoulders and kissed Simon.

His lips were warm and soft and all she had imagined them to be and more. At first he was too shocked to respond but then he did and then he touched her face and their lips parted and joined again and the kiss was long and deep and full of the passion that was ready to explode from both their bodies.

“Oh, Kaylee, how I longed to kiss you,’ he managed to whisper as his arms engulfed her lithe form.

“Don’t stop,’ she said as they embraced and held each other for an eternity, lips entwined and bodies feeling the heat and lust building in the other. Finally, Kaylee broke the kiss and took his hand.

“It’s time,” she said, her eyes glistening with adoration and desire for this man, and he didn’t say a word and allowed her to lead him to his room, Kaylee closing the door behind them.

She turned to him and he held her and looked into her eyes.

“Are you sure?” he said, a gentleman to the end and she said nothing but kissed him and put her arms around his waist and started caressing his back and her hands went down to his buttocks. He flinched and then smiled.

“I guess so,” he gasped and then she looked down at the front of his pants.

“Seems your ready,” she said with a grin and she pushed him back onto the bed and they started to remove their clothes, Kaylee taking of her boots, Simon his shoes, then helping each other get their tops off, kissing, giggling, and being a little shy and a little bit awkward but still enjoying this moment they had both long wanted.

Of course, Mal ruined it for them.

“Simon,” came the captain’s voice through the intercom system. “Need you and your encyclopedia on the bridge.”

If Kaylee’s thoughts could have killed someone Malcolm Reynolds would have dropped dead in an instant. Her brain screamed in frustration and the madness of living with no privacy.

“No, no, no,’ said Kaylee said in a rising tone as Simon froze.” She kissed him again. “Not now, not this time, I have you, it’s our time.” And she continued to kiss him but he didn’t respond, his mind already on the bridge.

“Kaylee, please stop,” and his words hurt her more than he could ever know. “Sorry, it’s just…”

The look on her face stopped him, sadness and hurt that he never wanted to see on Kaylee’s face again. And then he kissed her again, hating that look, willing it to go away, saying to hell with Malcolm Reynolds. They lay entwined in each others arms, half undressed, enjoying the few seconds they knew they would have before the voice came again.

“Doc, drop whatever your doing and get to the bridge. NOW!”

This time Kaylee stopped. She pouted, her bottom lip sticking out. “It’s not fair.”

“I know. Wait for me?” he asked and Kaylee smiled.

“Forever,” she said as they kissed once more and then Simon got up and fixed his clothes. Kaylee looked at the front of his pants and nothing had changed.

“Ah, don’t think you should go to the bridge with ah, ..”

Simon looked at her in puzzlement and then realized what she was talking about and he was clearly embarrassed.

“Oh. That’s your fault.”

She smiled at him. “Gee, guess I am to blame.”

She ran her hand over the bulge in his pants, licked her lips.

“Oh my, Doctor,” she sighed, imagining what he looked like with nothing between her and his body. Simon sighed also and flinched at the same time.

“God, you’re driving me crazy. I have…”

“SIMON!” came Mal’s voice booming through the intercom. That snapped Simon out of his trance of pleasure that Kaylee had induced. He leaped for the intercom next to his bed.

“Sorry, Mal, ah, call of nature, be right there.”

“Step on it,” came Mal’s voice a little less harshly.

Kaylee lay on the bed, her boots on the floor, her overalls zipped down, her t-shirt off, her bra barely containing her lovely form, her golden brown locks framing her lovely face, her green eyes dazzling him with desire.

“Please, wait,” he gasped as he kissed her again.

“Naked as the day I came into the world,’ she teased, and Simon thought he would die as he quickly ran from the room and toward the bridge.

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

Mal gave him one of his evil looks as Simon finally got there, thankfully with less noticeable arousal than a few minutes earlier. River was looking at him and grinning and Simon knew she knew something was up.

“What’s going on?” he managed to get out in a strangled voice.

Wash and Zoe looked at each other a bit surprised and then to Simon.

“You OK, Doc?” Zoe said as she grinned at him. He was flushed and a bead of sweat was on his forehead. Zoe had seen that look before and knew something was up with Simon and someone, a someone who could only be Kaylee.

“Ah, yeah, just was, you know, in the bathroom,” Simon lied, quickly wiping his forehead. “What’s up?”

“We think we see a base on the moon,” Mal said, oblivious to what the other crew noticed about Simon. “What does our history of Earth tell us about this?”

Simon was immediately at River’s scanners. She could feel the heat from his mind and body and the smell of Kaylee was all over him. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and whispered.

“About time, brother.”

Simon managed a little grin and tried to concentrate on the task at hand.

“I was about to send out a search party,” Mal said, overhearing River’s comment and misunderstanding.

“Sorry,” Simon said again, turning his attention back to the scanner. “Yes, definitely human. Looks like four, maybe five buildings on the surface. I’ve been reading about the moon in my encyclopedia and there is no mention of any base prior to the departure of our ancestors.”

“It’s there alright,” said Mal. “And we’re going to have a look at it up close and personal.”

“Moon gravity is one-sixth Earth’s so we need to maintain on board artificial gravity when we land,” Simon began. “As for weapons we have, don’t know what will work or not.”

“Weapons we have pretty useless in space,” Mal commented, thinking on who they’d meet once on the moon.

“Gunpowder weapons operate on a chemical explosion which produces gas which expels the projectile, needing oxygen to operate, and will not work in the vacuum of space,” River said from her station. “If they did fire the kinetic energy of the explosion of the cartridge would propel the user backwards with equal force, possibly causing the user to be ejected from the surface and into space, since gravity is much less.”

They were all a little surprised at this little speech from the normally quiet, monosyllabic River.

“OK,” Wash finally said, looking at his wife. “Leave the guns behind, baby.”

“No, we take them.” Mal stated. “We get inside those buildings might have a need for them.”

“What about grenades?” asked Zoe, looking to River for an answer.

“Grenades will explode and send out any fragments but the concussive effect will be minimal in a vacuum,” River commented. “I don’t know why I know this.”

“Ah, so,” Simon began. “Arms are to be taken, but used with care.”

“What about the suits, Doc?” Mal asked. “We mostly use them for salvage on derelicts. Never been this close to a sun before.”

“The spacesuits are quite suitable for such an excursion,” Simon said. “Of course, that’s what they’re made for. They should offer adequate protection from the ultraviolet rays and radiation for many hours.”

“Good,” said Mal with a grin. “Cause you’re coming with us.”

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

“Appears we’ve been appointed culinary masters,’ Book said to Inara as they sat at the dinning room table, going over the list of food they had and thinking on what kind of meals they could prepare.

Inara enjoyed the older man’s company, not least because she never had to think about him thinking about having her in his bed. Jayne was always giving her looks, and she knew what thoughts accompanied those looks. Wash and Simon couldn’t help themselves despite their feelings for other women on the ship, and Inara felt a little flattered that her beauty could attract attention from two men would were clearly in love with other women, despite Simon’s inability to profess that love to Kaylee. With Mal, it was the opposite, a struggle for Inara to keep her mind from thinking about seeing him in her bed.

“Not much else for me to do,” Inara replied. ‘Wonder if I’ll ever have another customer.”

“I’m sure the captain wouldn’t mind if you never did,” Book said and the shock on Inara’s face was clear to see.

“Shepherd Book! Now what makes you think Malcolm Reynolds cares what I do for a living?”

“Oh, I don’t know. He seems smitten with you in an…how shall I put this delicately…an odd manner.”

Inara felt herself get a little flush. “I, ah, what do you mean?”

“The first time I came on board Serenity he seemed to go out of his way to insult your profession and you, yet at the same time he has been reluctant to have you on the job, so to speak. And then there was his duel with Atherton Wing.”

“But that was because Mal struck him.”

“Which was because of you, the way Kaylee tells the story.”

“She’s not wrong,” Inara said with a sigh. “Shepherd, I’m going to tell you something but you must keep it a secret.”

“Confession is always kept in confidence.”

“This is not a confession, well, not really, but…anyway, I was planning to leave Serenity before this, all this, happened.”

Book gave her a long look, not unkind, but Inara felt he was judging her. “It’s not my place to tell you how to run your life, Inara, but if you are leaving because you have feelings for the captain, than you are running away from something that will never be over.”

“Oh, I think I will get over Malcolm Reynolds in a hurry,” she replied with as much sarcasm as she could muster.

Book smiled. “There it is again. Your attempts to deflect your true feelings for the man.”

Inara felt a little put off. “He’s a scoundrel, a petty thief, a killer, a rebel, he’s everything I despise in the verse.”

“If you say so,” Book answered, unbelieving. “Then why are you leaving?”

Inara didn’t have an answer, just stared at the table. “I…I…” and she looked at Shepherd and she knew he knew.

“It’s OK to be in love,” he said and Inara thought she would cry but held control of herself.

“He hates me,” she finally said.

“No, he doesn’t. He hates your job. The captain is all you said he is but he is also a noble man whose life and beliefs have been tossed and turned on their head. You think on it for a bit and you’ll see I’m right.”

“I have thought on it and I know you’re right. What can I do?”

“Well, we are far from home and in a dangerous place but we have each other for comfort and support. Except Mal. He’s in command and that is a lonely place indeed. If ever he needed some one to comfort him, now would be the time.”

“I don’t know what to do.”

Book almost laughed. “And I thought you were trained in how to make a man feel comfortable.”

And Inara smiled also. “Well trained. And experienced.”

Book was now feeling a bit uncomfortable. “Ah, yes. So now about dinner tonight?”

Inara laid a hand on his arm. “Thank you, Shepherd. Sometimes I just need to talk to someone.”

“As do I, as do all of us. Now, what about dinner?”

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

Kaylee lay in Simon’s bed, her mind reeling with want had happened in such a short time. Her body was alive with sensations she hadn’t felt in too long a time. God, it had been so nice to kiss him and hold him and touch him. She wanted him inside her and his mouth and lips all over her and she couldn’t wait for him to come back from whatever the Capt’n wanted.

She stood and removed the rest of her clothes and stretched like a cat, a smile on her face. Simon’s robe lay across a chair and she picked it up and smelled it, smelling him and it was so nice and soft she decided to put in on. It was big for her and she felt engulfed by its softness. Kaylee looked around his room and decided to be nosy.

His clothes were neatly folded in his open suitcase and his toiletries were on a small shelf. Books and note pads lay in a pile in one corner and Kaylee could see most were medical texts. On top was the copy of The History of the Earth That Was Travelers that Kaylee had given him many weeks ago. She had bought it on Phoenix Moon where the Shepherd had been visiting the Bathgate Abbey while they pulled off the Ariel job. Simon and River had so few chances to get off ship, Kaylee decided to buy them some gifts, the book for him and a sketch pad and pencils for River.

And that was it, all he owned in the verse, and then Kaylee looked around at the room’s walls and her mind stretched out to the rest of her beloved ship and realized that for all of them, this was all they had in the verse now. A tug of sadness started to creep into her happiness and just when she began to feel despair again Zoe’s voice boomed out of the intercom calling everyone to the dining area.

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

As Kaylee entered the dining area, she could smell something wonderful cooking and spotted Book by the stove, stirring a pot of something, adding a bit of spice to it. Everyone was there except Wash, Kaylee being the last since she had to get dressed again. Suddenly she felt self-conscious, as she spotted Simon sitting next to his sister. He smiled at her and she smiled back, almost turning red and she noticed Zoe looking at her and River looking, too. She was glad the seat next to Simon was empty and just grabbed it as Jayne was about to sit down with a cup of coffee.

“Hey,” he said as she almost bumped his coffee cup and then he sat in another chair.

“Sorry,” Kaylee replied and then she was next to Simon and she couldn’t help but beam.

“Ok, we’re all here now,” Mal began. “Need your reports on everything and then we’ll talk about the next move. Kaylee?”

She was looking at Simon and hadn’t heard the captain.

“Kaylee!” Mal said a little louder and she snapped out of it.

“Oh, yes, Capt’n?”

“The water situation? Did you talk to everyone?”

“Ah, yeah, everyone knows.”

“Good. Jayne?”

The big merc smiled. “We got plenty of firepower on board, rifles, machine guns, semi-autos, and on and on, so no worries there, enough for a small army. Box of grenades, too, plus all the usual weapons we have on Serenity. Only problem is no lasers so space fighting is out of the question.”

“Lets hope there’s no fighting at all,” Mal said as he next turned to Book.

“How’s the food situation, Shepherd?”

Book walked over from the kitchen. “There’s plenty of packaged and canned food, all locked away. Mostly vegetables, soups, noodles, some tins of fish and meat, but not many, dehydrated potatoes, dehydrated fruit, canned fruit, canned beans and lentils, and powdered eggs. We have about three kilos of oatmeal. Some powdered milk. Also about twenty kilos of rice. Some jams and crackers. Plenty of spices, some flour, sugar, plenty of tea, some coffee. As for fresh food there’s still some frozen chicken and pork in the freezer, about a dozen fish, and some bacon. Two dozen eggs, four kilos of potatoes, two kilos of carrots, kilo of celery, some heads of lettuce, two kilos of tomatoes, some peppers. About two liters of fresh milk. Enough preserved food for about three weeks, three meals a day. The fresh should last another week, so that gives us a month. It won’t be very appetizing at the end but we’ll have something.”

“Sounds like a lot but with nine people it’ll go fast,” Mal said. “But now we know Earth has some survivors and there’s bound to be some source of food there so we can breath a little easier. None the less, no snacking or self cooking till we know more. Okay, your turn Simon?”

Simon nodded, glad to have something to do to take his mind off Kaylee being so close to him.

“If we get to Earth we need to do some accurate measurements of the radiation levels. At less than 100 rads we’ll be safe but anything higher and we risk cancers in the long run at the lower levels and death within days at the highest levels. The war couldn’t have been too long ago or the radiation would have dispersed by now. However, there is no historically precedent for such large scale destruction and the fallout could be trapped in the upper atmosphere, circulating around the Earth. The places where the bombs dropped will be hot for many years. The northern hemisphere is obviously still too dangerous as we’ve already observed. Our spacesuits would protect anyone from radiation for short intervals, say, no more than an hour. Anyone coming back on board would have to be decontaminated though and I don’t know how we could do that safely.”

“We’ll think on that more when and if we have to land on Earth,” Mal said and then he turned to Zoe. “Time to tell them.”

Zoe looked at them all. “We found a base on the moon.”

A moment of stunned silence was followed by a flurry of questions.

“A base? What kinda base?” Jayne asked but before Zoe could answer more comments came flying.

“People are on the moon?” said Kaylee with hope.

“They must know something,” Inara continued.

“Then why haven’t they contacted us?” Book said putting a damper on their short lived joy.

“We don’t know,” Mal offered. “No signs of life yet except for some buildings and that electrical presence.”

“And what looks like a landing area, perhaps for spacecraft. It could be abandoned,” Simon said. “But we’ll know more when we check it out.”

“Don’t say “we” Doc,” Jayne quipped. “Since you ain’t included in the “we” that’ll be going off ship.”

“He’s going,” said Zoe and they all looked at her and then Simon. Jayne almost laughed

“What in rutting hell for?”

“Cause he’s got the brains you and I ain’t got together, Jayne,” Mal said and then he noticed a worried look on Kaylee’s face as she was looking at Simon.

“It’ll be fine,” Simon said to her.

“You ain’t all that good with space walking,” she said, concern in her voice.

“It’s more like moon walking,” Simon said, trying to ease her and his own fears.

“It’s safe,” said River. “It’s fun. I’ll go.”

“No gorramn way,” Jayne said looking in fear at River. “If she goes…”

“River’s not going,” Zoe said in exasperation.

“Doc should stay on board, too” Jayne stated strongly. “He ain’t no good in a fight and he gets the willies just putting on a space suit.”

Mal gave Jayne his “I’m in charge look”. “He’s going and that’s that. And so are you and me, Jayne.”

“What else is new?” Jayne shot back.

Mal gave him a stone cold look. “Jayne, ain’t got time or inclination to argue any points with you or any others. You’re either with this crew or not.”

Jayne got a cold feeling remembering the last time Mal had something along those lines, the time after the Ariel heist when he had woken up inside the airlock. “I’m with this crew Mal, you know that. Just…he’s goes woolly out there…”

“He won’t,” said Kaylee fiercely and Jayne was taken aback by this comment. “You think he’s weak but he ain’t.”

“Kaylee…” Simon started but she cut him off.

“No, I want him to hear this, all of you to hear this. Simon’s taken on the whole Alliance to protect River, gave up all he has. Got more guts than you’ll ever have Jayne Cobb.”

“That’s enough,” Mal said fiercely. “Kaylee, Jayne, don’t need no fights among crew. Not now, not in this place and situation we’re in.”

“Sorry,” Kaylee said in a small voice and realized she might have gone too far. Simon was clearly embarrassed by all this and she felt bad.

Mal looked at the mercenary. “Jayne?”

He looked down at his coffee cup and mumbled ‘sorry”.

“Alright. I need Zoe on board in case of trouble and I need Simon to know what is what. End of discussion,” Mal said and he stood and went toward the bridge. “Call me when dinner’s ready.”

After a moment River got up and followed Mal to the bridge.

“Best check the engine,” Kaylee said quietly and stood and went toward the aft hall, Simon’s eyes following her and then he stood to go after her.

Jayne looked at Simon. “Need a woman to fight your battles, Doc?”

Simon smiled. “I seem to recall a discussion you and I had on Bellerophon…”

Jayne quickly cut him off, a worried look to his face. “Ain’t no need to bring that up.”

Zoe, Inara and Book glanced at the two men. “What’s this about?” Zoe asked.

“Ain’t nothing,” Jayne quickly said as he stood. “I got things to do.” He went forward to his bunk as Simon went aft to the engine room.

Zoe and Inara began to set the table for dinner as Book continued cooking. “I think something happened between Simon and Kaylee,” Zoe said.

Inara gasped. “No! When?”

“This afternoon. Captain had to call him three times to get him to the bridge and when he arrived he was all flustered and sweaty.”

“That could mean anything…or not,” Inara said with a grin. “She was awful fierce in defending him just now, too.”

“God, I hope something happened,” Zoe answered. “They make such a cute couple.”

“Yes, they do," said Book. "And we could certainly all do with a little more happiness on this ship.”

*********************************************** Kaylee really had nothing to do in the engine room and just needed to get away from them all for a few moments. She felt bad about the way she defended Simon, clearly embarrassing him. That wasn’t good, not after what they had started earlier. She smiled as she remembered that and then he was there.

“Hi,” Simon said and she turned and jumped into his arms without any hesitation, almost knocking him off his feet.

“Oh, Simon, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you in front of the others.”

“Its all right. Nothing bad happened, so there’s no need to apologize.”

She looked at him. “You’re not mad?”

“No, why would I be? Jayne had to be put in his place and I’m glad you did so.”

“Just worried about you, going outside, don’t want nothing bad to happen,” she said, her voice choking a bit. “Just got to…to where I want us to be.”

“Nothing bad will happen,” he reassured her and gave her a little kiss, which soon turned into another and then they were engulfed once more by desire.

“Dinner’s ready,” came Zoe’s shout down the hall and Kaylee and Simon stopped kissing and turned but she was gone.

“Do you think she saw us?” Kaylee asked. “Maybe. I think she already suspects something. I know River knows about us.”

“There’s an ‘us’ now?” Kaylee asked with hope.

He looked into her eyes searching for an answer and knew she wanted there to be an ‘us’. “I can’t stop thinking about you. You’re in my dreams and my waking moments. If there is any other clue as to an ‘us’ I don’t know what it is.”

“I want us to be ‘us’,” Kaylee said as they kissed again. “And a whole lot more.”

Simon hugged her and wanted to tell her he loved her but thought it was too soon and would when the time was right.

Kaylee wanted to say the same but thought she would scare him away so kept those words for a special time she knew would come soon.

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

After dinner it was time to get their first look at the moon up close. The images of the base were clearer now and they could see equipment and even what looked like a spacecraft outside, but nothing as familiar to them. Wash flew Serenity in a circular pattern over the base but they were too high up to get a clear picture. There were five buildings in a circular pattern surrounding a central platform which looked like a place to land a spaceship. The buildings were flat white in color and almost blended into the moon’s grayish background colors. They were connected by enclosed passageways by the looks of things. All the buildings were of the same size and design, approximately like a two story house.

Outside the perimeter of the base was the spaceship, about half the size of Serenity and it looked damaged, near the back area of what looked like engines was all blackened and twisted metal.

“Where you want me to put her down?” Wash asked Mal.

“Inside the crater but outside the perimeter, near that ship. Find a nice flat place and get ready to take off at a moment’s notice.”

“Landing sequence started, VTOLs coming on.”

Serenity came in over the base and then hovered as they slowly descended to the surface of the moon, a cloud of dust being raised as the VTOLs took them into a slow stop about fifty meters from the silent spaceship.

“Serenity has landed,” Wash said and Mal patted him on the shoulder.

“Good work.”

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

In the cargo bay Mal, Simon and Jayne got suited up with Kaylee, Zoe, and Inara’s help. Jayne carried his big knife in his belt and Vera strapped across his chest. Mal had his pistol as usually and Simon carried his medical bag and the atmo scanner. Kaylee could sense him tensing up as she got set to put his helmet on.

“You’ll be fine,” she said, trying to reassure him.

“I know, just, OK, I’ll be fine.”

Jayne was looking toward them and just shook his head. Zoe stepped over and put on his helmet and snapped it closed as Inara helped Mal with his helmet.

“You call if you need help. Don’t be a hero,” she said to him.

“When have I ever been a hero?” he responded with a smirk.

“Too often,” Inara said and to Mal it almost sounded like a compliment. She put his helmet over his head and stepped back as Zoe checked the fittings and snapped it closed. Mal took a few breaths and he was good to go.

Kaylee made sure no one was looking and she gave Simon a quick peck on the cheek before she put on his helmet and locked it tight, too. Simon took a few breaths and then Zoe checked the helmet and all was set.

“Let’s go for a walk,” said Mal and all three waddled to the airlock.

The landscape was barren and grey and not a breath of wind stirred on the airless moon. Simon kept telling himself to look down, it was land, solid, and not look up at the starry black expanse of the verse above them. He concentrated on his instruments, checking the readings on the atmo, and that made him more nervous for the oxygen readings read zero. He already knew that but now it was confirmed. He shook his head, being silly, and told himself to straighten up.

They moved slowly toward the spaceship, trying to get use to the lesser gravity off ship. It was awkward and they shuffled more than walked. The spaceship’s back half was destroyed by an explosion of some sort and it looked like it had crash landed. Many footsteps led away from it toward the nearest building.

“Footsteps,” Mal said over their intercoms.

“It crashed, survivors,” Simon replied. “Let’s check that building.”

“Jayne, take the lead,” Mal said and the big man moved to the front as they slowly made their way toward the nearest building.

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

On board Serenity, Zoe had gone to the bridge while Kaylee and Inara waited by the airlock in case they had to come back in a hurry.

“I saw you kiss Simon,” Inara said a few moments after Zoe left.

“What?” Kaylee said, feeling flush again.

“You kissed him before you put on his helmet.”

“Ah, yeah. Something…has happened.”

“Zoe was right!”

“Zoe? How many people know?”

“Zoe and I so far. I’m sure River knows something, too.”

“Yeah, Simon said something about her.” And Kaylee told Inara the whole story up to the point where Mal called Simon to the bridge.

“God, it was so nice!”

“He didn’t hesitate?”

“Just a bit, but wants it too, he’s ready to explode. Should have seen his, ah, his, you know.”

“Yes, I know.” Inara said with a smile and the two friends had a laugh and talked on and on about Simon and what was sure to come next.

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

“There’re no lights,” said Simon, as they made it to the building. It had windows and an external doorway that looked like it led to an airlock, but the airlock panel was dim and no light came from any window. Now that they looked at all the buildings they realized there was no lighting of any sort.

“He’s right,” said Jayne. “No one home.”

“Look at this,” Mal said and the other two approached the door of the airlock. Clearly visible was the symbol of the Alliance.

Simon got a shock on seeing this before remembering that the Sino-American Alliance had existed prior to the departure of the Earth That Was Travelers.

“What’s Alliance doing here?” Jayne said with a touch nervousness in his voice as he looked around all paranoid.

“Alliance existed long before we were born,” Mal said. “Right, Doc?”

“Yes. Sometime in the mid-21st century China and the United States entered into a military commercial alliance.”

“Gorramn Alliance even on other side of wormholes,” Jayne said with disgust.

“No power. We can’t get inside,” said Mal said as he looked for a way to pry it open but nothing was there to grab onto or wedge a crowbar into.

“Kaylee might be able to rig it open,” Jayne said.

“Could be, could be,” Mal said. “Let’s keep exploring and make sure all is safe till we risk more people out here.”

They set off toward the next building but it was the same, no power and no way to open the air locks. The connecting passage ways also had one airlock but again no way to open them. Gradually the three men made their way to the central landing platform, or what they thought was a landing platform. It was wide enough to land a ship twice the size of Serenity and was solidly built. Simon and Jayne started walking around examining it as Mal called the ship.

“Bridge, this is the captain. We have no signs of life out here, there’s no power to any of the buildings. All have airlocks but we can’t open them. Looks like whoever was here is gone or is dead. Don’t know where that electrical reading is coming from. Certainly not here.”

“Roger that, sir” said Zoe, the disappointment obvious in her tone. “Wait a second, River’s saying something…what?”

And then the whole platform began to vibrate, throwing the three men off balance and then to their shock and consternation it began to sink into the surface of the moon. All three shouted and tried to get off but by the time they were able to reach the edge they were too far down to get out. As they descended a pair of metallic doors slid over and shut off all light from above.

“Gorramn it, it’s a trap!” Jayne yelled into the darkness.

“What’s happening?” Simon shouted and then felt a strange sensation and knew it was gravity, a lot more gravity and he suddenly felt very heavy. And then the movement stopped.

“Mal?” Simon said his voice rising in panic.

“Look for the helmet lights,” Mal said and then Simon could see Jayne and Mal and made his way toward them. As he walked he felt air rushing into the place they were. After a long moment, the lights came on.

“Oh, boy,’ said Mal.

The platform had descended into a large cavern. Directly in front of the men were about a dozen people, with no spacesuits on, in some kind of blue uniform with the symbol of the Alliance on the right breast pocket, all armed and pointing their guns at the three men. Mal slowly raised his hands as Jayne and Simon did the same.

“Looks like ‘we’ found the survivors,” Mal said with heavy irony in his voice.

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

On the bridge Zoe, River, Book, and Wash kept track of the progress of the EVA team. They could just see them in the distance standing on the platform when Mal called. Zoe was replying to him when suddenly River shouted.

“It’s underground! The electrical presence, it’s underground! And it’s getting bigger!”

“Look!” shouted Wash and they all could see the platform disappearing and their three crewmates going with it, their last shouts coming over the intercom before the top closed with a sense of finality.

“Captain! Sir!” Zoe yelled into the mic. “Mal! Come in!”

Nothing came from the comms system but static.

“They’re just gone,” said Book in awe.

“What do we do now?” Wash said, looking to his wife for guidance.

Zoe grimly steeled herself for what was to come.

“We get our people back.”