The Return – Part 12

Jayne had kicked open the doors to the left of where Shepherd Book was giving his sermon behind his makeshift altar. As Jackson had said his last words and Jayne gave his quip in reply he realized he had made a serious mistake. Ten more armed men were here near the far door, to the right of Book and behind Jackson, their weapons already coming up as Jayne spoke. He should have run but he had Commander Samuel Jackson in the sights of his machine pistol and he wasn’t going to miss this opportunity. Jackson had captured Jayne, took Vera away, drugged him, made him say things he didn’t want to say and kept him locked in a room for almost two days with nothing but critter food for sustenance. But worse of all he had done the same or worse to some of his crewmates and despite his disagreeable nature and his me first everyone else second or even better last or not at all attitude, Jayne Cobb was kinda growing attached to these eight people, even moon brain and her stuck up brother. Time for some payback.

The stunned audience had no time to scream or shout and Jackson stood absolutely still as Jayne emptied a full clip into him. Or he thought he did. The shouts and screams came as Jayne pressed the trigger, the dining facility turned into a place of worship for the funeral of the six moon base people filled with a horrendous din of gunfire and people’s shouts as they dove for cover, Gregori grabbing his son-in-law and toppling both of them backwards out of their chairs where they had been directly behind Jackson.

Jayne was an expert shot and knew that Jackson was as good as dead at this range. But Jackson wasn’t hit and nobody around him or the walls or tables or chairs were hit by anything. Jackson smiled.

“Oh shit,” said Zoe in Chinese and she and Jayne both realized the same thing at the same time.

“Blanks!’ said Jayne in disgust and looked at the Alliance weapon in his hands. “Thought it felt a little light!”

“Yes, Mr. Cobb, blanks,” Jackson said. “None of the guards near your rooms had real bullets in their guns. But these men do.”

And the ten men who were in the room and had arms now surrounded their commander and pointed their weapons at Jayne, Inara, Zoe, and River, with one covering Book for good measure. The audience waited with batted breathe for what was to come next.

“Stop this madness!” Book shouted in a commanding tone and for a second Zoe thought they would but knew in her heart they wouldn’t, and was already moving before Jackson gave the order that was sure had to come next. She dropped her useless weapon and grabbed both Inara and River and dragged them to the floor with all her steely strenght.

“Kill them,” Jackson ordered, without a trace of emotion.

Jayne also knew what was coming and saw the table in front of them as their only chance. He dropped his weapon even as Jackson was speaking and he grabbed the short end of the table with one of the bodies on it. With all his strength he heaved, muscles straining, brow furrowed, and just got the table up as the bullets started flying.

“Move it!” Jayne yelled through clenched teeth and Zoe was already moving herself and Inara and River back out the door as Jayne got the table higher and in front of him. It was metal, thin, but heavy enough and maybe strong enough to stop the bullets.

The fusillade from the guards came and bullets plunked into the body as it slide and then roll down the table to the floor and shouts of anguish torn through the crowd at this violation. As Jayne moved back the bullets began to strike the table, denting it but not penetrating, the sound ominous and loud as the table was hit by dozens of rounds. Inara was first out the door and a bullet just whizzed past her head as she turned a corner and lost her balance as she flung herself against the far wall, and out of the line of fire, falling in heap on the floor, heart pounding, head feeling like it was being squeezed to nothing. River landed beside the Companion with the grace of a ballerina and helped Inara up just as Zoe was at their side, more bullets flying down the corridor they had just come from. Jayne dropped the table, turned and yelled. “Run gorramnit!” and they were up and going in a flash, fear being a powerful motivator.

“After them,” Jackson yelled to his men and eight of the ten took up the pursuit.

Book hadn’t dropped with the rest to the floor, had stood and saw the whole thing and would have killed Jackson himself if one of his men hadn’t kept a weapon on him the whole time. Now the room was silent, the pursuing shouts coming from the corridor punctuated by blasts of machine pistol fire. All began to rise. Gregori Kovalev helped up Captain Papusha who looked like he was in some distress.

“Stop them,” Book pleaded as more gunfire came, followed by a scream, from a man, and Book knew that wasn’t Jayne. And so did Jackson by his sudden reaction toward the noise.

“Shepherd Book, there are three indispensable people on Serenity,” Jackson stated, more composed now as the sound of the battle receded. “Kaylee Frye because of her mechanical skills, Simon Tam for his medical knowledge, and River Tam because of what we believe she is. However, Miss Tam may constitute a bigger threat than I had anticipated. And Miss Frye is only useful for her knowledge of Serenity since we do have some excellent engineers on this base. The rest of you are either without necessary skills or pose a viable threat to me and my people. We have a few pilots here so Hoban Washburne is not indispensable and Reynolds, Zoe Washburne, and Cobb are a definite threat. It appears Inara Serra is now a threat also. At the moment I have not made my mind about you.”

No one said a word, all looking at Jackson with a mixture of fear and hatred, and Book knew that this crowd was one step away from insurrection but something held them back. Book was about to reply, hoping to sway the crowd, when Jackson suddenly put a hand to his ear and Book noticed a small earwig comm device there.

“Yes? Good. Keep them there. I’m coming.” Jackson said and then he took the two guards aside, spoke to them and one went out the opposite door and the other stood where he was, pointing his gun at Book. He was the young soldier who had asked for the service in the first place and Book could see he was struggling with pointing a weapon at a preacher.

“Shepherd Book, you may finish the service,” Jackson said. “I have matters to attend to.” And then Jackson left the room the way Book’s four friends had scant moments before and a few moments after the commander left the room erupted into a bedlam of voices.

************************************************ Bullets flew past Jayne’s left arm and struck a wall as he turned once more, following Zoe and Inara who were following River, all running as fast as they could.

“Where the hell you leading us?!?” he shouted but River was too busy to answer, looking for familiar marks, searching for a certain place. Jayne hadn’t seen much of the base and was lost, confused, and running for his life in the heat of battle. If only he had a gun with real bullets it might be fun. He had the pistol in his belt and all that was good for was slugging someone over the head. Might do good at that, he thought. More bullets and running footsteps followed Jayne and he glanced back and saw one Alliance soldier braver than the rest, ahead of them all and Jayne knew he had his chance.

Once more River rounded a corner and as the rest did Jayne stopped and waited while the others ran on. In a second the running footsteps of the lead soldier approached and Jayne reached out and stuck a meaty arm in the way and clothes lined the soldier, the man landing hard on his back. He screamed as Jayne kicked him in crotch and then in the face, with a finally smash in the mouth with the pistol, blood spurting from his nose and mouth, teeth smashed in, all Jayne’s anger in those kicks and smashes. The big merc grabbed the soldier’s machine pistol and clips and would have killed him except his friends were gaining ground.

Jayne whirled and fired and only six bullets came out before he hit an empty chamber but those six bullets did the job. One grazed a soldier’s leg and down he went screaming and another had his hair parted as the bullet went through his blue cap and sent it flying. He was unscathed except for the heart palpitating fear that comes with such a close call. The rest stopped, dragged their wounded friend back and someone shouted for everyone to take cover, the fear of return fire now slowing them enough for Jayne to catch up with his companions as he changed clips in the weapon.

The corridor ended abruptly and he was in a huge cavern, three times the size of the spaceship hanger and it was hot, humid and full of trees and plants and dazzling lights overhead. Inara, River and Zoe were standing panting for breath

“Where the hell…?” Zoe started to say to Jayne and then saw the machine pistol and said, “Good work.”

“Just evening the odds a little,” Jayne said. “Think I hit one of them. What the hell’s this place?”

“Ambush terrain,” River said and Jayne and Zoe exchanged looks.

“She in charge?” Jayne asked.

“She ain’t wrong. Everyone look for a weapon,” Zoe commanded.

“Wait!” Inara said as she caught her breath.” What about Book?”

They all looked to each other and no one wanted to say it. “Shepherd’s on his own,” Jayne finally said and their hearts were heavy as the reality that their friend could already be dead hit them.

************************************************** Book wasn’t dead but he had a king sized headache. As soon as Jackson left the room the people exploded into debate, some questioning Jackson’s moves, others cautioning them to be quiet, others asking Gregori to say something. The elderly scientist was too busy helping his son-in-law with his leg bandages and Doris the nurse came to aid them. The young soldier didn’t know what to do and he looked around wild eyed and was on the verge of panic. Finally Book spoke and his commanding tone got everyone to settle down and listen.

“Jackson intends to kill my friends. What are we going to do about this?”

No one spoke, said a word, and Book realized they were looking at the young soldier. Book walked up to him and he stepped back.

“Don’t, Shepherd.”

“What’s your name, son?” Book asked gently, not getting closer.

“Corporal David Hopkins. From Texas, U.S. of A., the original Alliance.”

“Texas? Land of longhorn steers, oil, and the…let’s see…the Dallas Cowboys.”

“Sure know a lot about place you never been to.”

“Oh, I’m a bit of a student of Earth’s history.”

“Ain’t no more longhorns or oil but the Cowboys still there. Won the last Super Bowl in 2518.”

“Good for them,” Book said and then abruptly changed the subject. “David, you don’t want to harm anyone, do you?”

“I’m a soldier.”

“Son, how many have to die? Until there are none left?”

He didn’t say anything, but the uncertainty was clearly in his eyes. Suddenly a woman shouted from the back of the room. “They killed some of us!”

And then the anger exploded, directed at the young soldier and Jackson. Hopkins cringed in fear, pointed his weapon at the crowd and Shepherd knew the people were on edge.

“Stop!” he shouted and once again they were silent. “Who killed who?” and he looked to Gregori Kovalev.

“Ach, it was terrible. Two of our people tried to kill Jackson. Shortly after the war, a few months after, when we discovered no order was given from Earth to fire the missiles. Jackson did it, on his own, when the Russian assault team landed.”

“They were the first missiles fired,” Captain Papusha added solemnly.

“You mean from the Alliance side?” Book asked, having picked up most of what happed on Earth from his conversations with Jayne while locked up.

“No,” Gregori said and the shame on all their faces was now obvious. “The first either side fired. Boshey moi. We shall all burn in hell for what we have done.”

And the full implications of what Jackson and what the people of the moonbase had done by association were now clear. They had started the nuclear war.

“When they saw the missiles coming, Russia launched its missiles,” said Captain Papusha. “Earth Alliance HQ was frantically calling us to hit the self destruct on our missiles. Jackson claimed no such order came. Two communications officers, Smathers and Wilkins, they traced the orders in the computer systems after a few months working in secret. They realized what he had done, had lost family on Earth, we all had, and decided to kill him in his sleep. But they were not soldiers, were caught, and he put them in the airlock with no suits and left them die of suffocation while we were ordered to watch. They shouted what they knew as they were dragged to the airlock but Jackson just stood there and did not even deny it. No one has challenged him or his soldiers since.”

“You mean until now,” Book said and in a swift move, he grabbed the distracted Hopkins’ gun, jerked it toward him and slugged the surprised young man who collapsed as Book wretched the gun from him and then took his pistol from his belt. Everyone was stunned and then began to converge on the young man as he lay on the floor, blood coming from his nose, gasping in pain. Book stood over him and waved the gun at them and they stopped, taken aback at this man of the cloth with a gun.

“Enough killing!” Book shouted. “There will be no revenge, it will only lead to more killing.”

“Shepherd, step out of the way,” one large man shouted.

“No,” said many other voices and they shouted the man down. “He’s right” many said and more than a few sat and cried and held each other. Doris helped Corporal Hopkins to a chair and looked at his nose.

They were all looking to Book now. “What do we do?’ someone asked.

“Gregori, get to communications and warn Serenity,” Book ordered.

“Absolutely,” he said in his thick Russian accent.

“And stay safe. We still need you to send us home.”

“What’s next?” someone asked from the crowd, looking for a leader now that they seemed to have decided at last to do something about Jackson.

“Save my people, then ourselves.”

************************************************* “I ain’t letting you go into a fight and leave me behind, you fuckin’….fuckin’…. BLOKE!” shouted Dora, the little blond with the big shotgun, at the huge Will Jones, her man and mate. They were in the cargo bay of Serenity and the other Australians stood back and watched as their leader got a royal tongue lashing from his woman. Mal, Simon and Kaylee were nearby getting gear ready for the moon assault, Mal thinking this might be a bit amusing if the situation weren’t so darn serious.

“This kinda fight ain’t no place for sheilas!’ Will shouted back. “Tell her Mal!”

“Sheilas! Fuckin’ hell!” Dora said before Mal could say anything and she rolled her eyes.

“What’s a sheila and a bloke?” Kaylee whispered to Simon as they stood to one side prepping the spacesuits.

“Not a clue,” he replied, thinking Mal made a mistake letting these…people…on the ship.

One of the other Aussie men overheard them and spoke up. “Sheila’s a lass, a lady and bloke’s a fella.”

“Oh, a slang term,” Simon said and the man nodded.

“And who was that by your side fighting all them months ya big ox!’ Dora shouted louder and Mal was getting a headache.

“No sheilas!’ Will shouted again and then turned to Mal. “You’re leading. You tell her!”

Mal wondered whether he should get in the middle of what was obviously some kind of domestic dispute. After reaching his agreement with Will, Mal had explained how Chin and Miller had tried to kill him and take over the ship and that Jackson was behind it. Will said he was glad the British bastard and Chin got what they had coming to them.

"Traitors don't deserve any better."

Mal then explained how Jackson was keeping half his people hostage on the moon base and now it was quite clear Jackson wanted his ship and to kill him and his crew. It was mostly true, as far as Mal believed, but he left out the hard to explain parts at first, like them being from another part of the galaxy. How much of it Will bought Mal wasn’t sure but the big Aussie ex-pro-wrestler said he and his gang be happy to help for the payment agreed on and a chance to go into space. Mal warned him that some may die and Will just shrugged and said they were all living on borrowed time anyway and they wanted a chance to get some payback at the Alliance for their part in the war. He left and put it to his gang and after ten minutes came back and told Mal his gang was with Serenity.

They had left Earth an hour ago, full speed for the moon on a round about path that hopefully would take them outside the visual range of the base’s telescopes. All the Aussies were on board, Will not trusting the local gangs not to harm anyone left behind, so even the two pregnant ladies were on Serenity. Take off had been both thrilling and nerve racking for the Aussies, none of them having ever left Earth before, and Mal let Will sit on the bridge as they blasted off, the VTOLs burning at full power to break free of the Earth’s gravitational field. Will was like a little boy asking a million questions which Wash had answered gladly. After they were in space and they got used to the artificial gravity, one by one the Aussies came to the bridge and looked in awe at their world below as Wash navigate to the North Pole, out and over the debris field and plotted their course to the Moon.

The debate in the cargo bay broke out as Mal divulged his plan to everyone. It was centered on who would be in the assault team and would have to stay on board.

Mal’s plan was to fly shuttle two from the dark side of the moon and then come down on the moon base by surprise, land and enter the surface airlock with nine people in the nine spacesuits they had on board. Right now Tanya and Wash were setting the shuttle’s nav computer for the journey while Fred and Christine moved out some junk to make room for nine people. The Alliance people had drawn a map of the base and Mal used it as he explained his plan, saying the first objective was the hanger so Serenity could land.

Mal and Will would lead the assault, Kaylee was needed to show the way and to open the airlock, and Simon was needed in case of casualties. Wash and Fred would stay on Serenity and fly the ship in when they had captured the underground hanger. Tanya and Christine would stay behind cause they had no experience and Mal didn’t trust them this much yet, especially not since they might have to kill someone on the base they knew. Mal had no trouble with women fighting and Zoe was one of the best he had ever seen but Will had taken him aside and said he didn’t want any of his women to go in the main assault. He wanted the rest of the nine to be the other five men in his group. But the women, led by Dora, were now protesting.

“The five men,” said Mal with the “this or nothing” tone he had. Most definitely the pregnant ladies were not going, even in the second wave from the ship. That much all had agreed on.

“She’s a woman,” Dora said pointing to Kaylee, not intimidated by Mal and Mal could see why she wasn’t with the way she was shouting at her man. “Why can she go and I can’t?”

“Can you open that airlock?” Mal asked and she was silent. “That’s why,” he added.

But that wasn’t stopping Dora. She pointed to one of her fellow Aussies, the one who had the injured arm Simon had looked at. “Paulie’s got a hurt arm. And he’s a lousy bloody shot to boot.”

“True enough,” said Will.

Mal looked at the man with the hurt arm and then to his doctor. “Simon?”

“Ah, it’s infected, but still useful,” was all he said.

“I can fight,” said Paulie, a thin young black man about twenty with a goatee and a bandaged left arm. “It’s just a scratch. And I ain’t a lousy shot.”

“Too right you are,” another Aussie man said and that decided it for Mal.

“Second wave,” Mal said to Paulie, not taking any chances with an injured man, especially if he was a bad shot.

“Bugger!” said Paulie in anger and Mal didn’t know if was a curse directed at him or not so let it slide.

“Will, pick one of the women,” Mal told the Aussie leader. “Someone who can shoot.”

“Guess that’s you love,” he said to Dora with a sigh, clearly not liking it, but he couldn't help but smile as she dance around and up and down.

“I get to go for a space walk!” she shouted and jumped into Will’s big arms.

“You fuckin’ bitch!” one of the other woman said angrily. “All this moaning just so you can go out there in the black nothing? I hope you freeze your tits off!”

Dora turned on this woman and a knife flashed out of a pocket and was open in a blink of an eye.

“Take them words back or you’ll never see the moon, you whore,” she growled as she got in a fighting stance as the second woman pulled her own knife.

Kaylee, Mal, and Simon were surprised at this behavior, the woman on Serenity tough but never at each others throats. Jayne would have loved it, two women in a knife fight, Mal thought, as he stepped forward to stop it.

But Will stepped between them first. “Now ladies, we are guests here and got Alliance pigs a plenty to gut. You been moaning about payback since the war and now’s your chance. You all wait till we’re back home and can settle scores then.”

“Count on it,” said Dora and the woman just glared at her and then put her knife away and turned back to cleaning her weapons.

“Always like this?” Mal asked Will, who just sighed.

“Yeah. I won’t let them kill each other. Just need to let off steam once in a while. Strong willed bunch. Had to be to survive. And I don’t just mean physically, mate, know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I sure as hell do,” Mal said and then he thought what the hell, might as well tell them the truth. They were going to find out eventually, if we survive this mad assault.

“You know how I said we were the last ship to supply the moon?”

“That was a lie,” said Will without blinking an eye and he smiled at the surprised Mal. “No disrespect, Mal. But weren’t no civilian spaceships on Earth. All own by companies and the military and governments.”

“Is that so?” Mal said slowly, wondering just how much Will had figured out.

“Yeah. So I reckon you stole this one from somewhere after the war. But I’ve been dreaming of and reading about spaceships since I was a little boy and I never heard of a Firefly. And you all take to space like you was born in it and that pilot Wash knows what’s what like he’s been doing it all his life and Kaylee, you all place lots of value on her plenty of experience with spaceships. So what’s the real truth, mate?”

Mal looked to Simon and Kaylee and then back to Will Jones and the other Aussies, all of who had been eavesdropping.

“It’s a long story,” Mal said and he began to speak as the Aussies listened and sat in stunned silence. After he was finished Dora said what the Aussies were all thinking.

“Fuckin’ hell.”

“You ain’t pulling our leg, are you, Mal?’ Will added after a moment of disbelief.

“It’s true,” said Kaylee. “All of it. We’re…the travelers, least their children’s, children’s children.”

“And you come all the way clear cross the galaxy?” asked another.

“Yes,” Simon said. “And we hope to go back.”

“So this Russian bloke, he got the know how to send you home?” Will asked next.

“Right. So above all he mustn’t be hurt in any way,” Mal told them.

“How do we know what he looks like and what about the others up there?” Will asked. “How do we know who’s a good guy and a bad guy?’

Mal called Tanya to the cargo bay through the intercom and told Simon to get the medical records from the infirmary. He came back a moment later with his files. Mal took them and showed the pictures of the crew that were attached to each file.

“Zoe Washburne, Wash’s wife and second in command and deadly with guns and knives. Inara Serra, ah, passenger. River Tam, passenger and Simon’s sister. Jayne Cobb, mercenary and a hell of a fighter, too. Shepherd Book, a preacher and passenger, also with some skills with weapons.”

“Nice bunch you got here,” Will said. “Get a look at her, mates.” And the Aussie men started staring at Inara’s photo.

“She taken?” said one of them and then he yelled “owww” as a woman kicked him in the ass.

“You are, so don’t forget it, dung head!” she said to him.

“Alright, love, take it easy, eh!”

Tanya arrived a moment later and Mal asked her if she had a photo of her father. She did, in a small case along with one of her husband. She handed out the photos and everyone had a close look.

“Listen up,” Mal said in his commanding tone after the photos were returned. “Don’t know what kind of fighting you’re used to but this gonna be a fluid situation. There are only two rules. You do what I or Will says and you don’t question anything. This ain’t a town meeting were going to. You shoot to kill but you watch who you shoot. Shoot soldiers only, in them blue uniforms. Don’t want any of my people or any innocents up there taking a bullet.”

“Mal,” came Wash’s voice from the intercom. “Approaching the dark side of the moon in thirty minutes.”

“That’s our cue. Assault team, time to suit up.”

Everyone started feeling the tension now as what they were about to do became real. Christine and Fred came down to help with the suiting up. Mal explained how the weapons wouldn’t work in space and they’d have to wait till they were inside to use them. Kaylee gave everyone a crash course in spacesuit operations, told them where the oxygen monitor was, and told them above all not to panic, and she looked at Simon as she said this. He gave a weak grin and said he’d be okay.

“Not too fond of space, are you mate?” Will asked Simon, after noticing his face getting paler as Kaylee helped him with his suit.

“No, no, just…worried…about my sister,” he replied, and it wasn’t really a lie even though he did hate taking space walks

Will nodded, understanding. “No worries, mate. We’ll get her back safe and sound.”

************************************************ At the moment, River was safe, but just for the moment. She and Inara had retreated to the back of the large cavern, River remembering Jason Philips telling her there was a storage shed there where they kept the chemical fertilizers and farm equipment and the lighting controls. Zoe had found a large machete stuck in a tree near some recently cut corn stalks and Jayne had the machine pistol. They took up ambush positions at the mouth of the cave and waited.

After five minutes no one came. Then suddenly three round objects were tossed in the cave and started emitting a white smoke.

“Gas,” Jayne yelled and almost ran, but Zoe kept her head.

“No, its smoke! Back away!”

They moved backwards, deeper into the cavern, moving from tree to tree, plant to plant, back where the effects of the smoke would be lessened. It was hot and humid and both of them started sweating.

River and Inara were at the shed now and could see it was a two story building. Inside on the ground floor were the bags and barrels of chemicals and tools. They raced to the second floor where they found the controls for the lighting system.

“Zoe loves fighting in the dark,” River said and found the switches for the lights and turned them off one by one until only the artificial moon was glowing.

The sudden semi-darkness took Zoe and Jayne by surprise and Jayne cursed but Zoe suddenly felt at home. She felt the edge of the machete and its sharpness and knew someone’s blood would soon be on it. She waited while her eyes adjusted to the dark and knew she would have the element of surprise as any soldiers would need time to adjust also. She drifted sideways until she was next to Jayne and he almost shot her before he realized who it was.

“Gorramn it” he whispered fiercely. “Almost shot you.”

“Get back to that shed with the others,” Zoe quietly ordered him. “Protect them.”

“Where you going?”

“I’m going hunting,” Zoe said and she stalked off into the semi-darkness, spying the first Alliance soldier entering the cave through the smoke ahead.

********************************************************************** Book’s plan had fallen to pieces almost as soon as it began. Gregori and several others had tried to reach the communications room but some of the guards that had been laid low by River and Jayne were up now and had armed themselves with weapons with real bullets. Book had given Captain Papusha the pistol he had taken off Hopkins and was helping someone tie the soldier to a chair when the door burst open and Kovalev and his group came back with gunfire at their heels.

“Block the doors!” Book shouted and many people moved to do so as Gregori explained what happened.

“We got there but three of them were there first. They asked what I wanted and I told them I needed to speak to Serenity to get an update on the situation. But he was suspicious, this one guard, seeing me with the others, and I think now Sam told them what happened. So he called Sam and…well, here we are.”

Pounding and shouting came to the doors but they didn’t budge, blocked by some heavy tables and chairs. Almost everyone cringed in fear now that things had seemed to reverse themselves, The resolve of ten minutes ago was disappearing fast.

“Why did they fire at you?” Book asked Gregori after the noise subsided.

“One of us shouted ‘run’ and we just broke and came back. The guards shouted for us to stop and then fired but the aim was poor, into the ceiling, not directed at us. Just to frighten us. Now we are in the shit, da?

Then came a crackling noise and all looked to the ceiling, toward a speaker that was built into the ceiling. “Attention Moonbase Armstrong personnel. This is Commander Jackson.” And all knew that voice without him having to declare who it was.

“It seems there is some dissent among you. I can understand your worries. But soon this situation will be resolved. Serenity will be in our hands and we will return to Earth. The early reports show that southern Australia is radiation free and can sustain life. A new beginning awaits us, with blue skies and sunsets my friends. Be patient a little longer and all our troubles will be over. Take Shepherd Book into custody and release Corporal Hopkins at once.”

All now looked to Book and he could sense the shift of momentum once again toward Jackson. The advantage he and his crewmates enjoyed scant moments ago was slipping away.

“And what about the crimes Jackson has committed?” he said to the murmuring crowd of almost sixty people.

“We need a leader!” someone yelled. “How will we survive?”

“Jackson should be killed!” someone else yelled and then a fist fight broke out and suddenly chaos reigned, with people shouting for them to stop, as others got involved and as long simmering tensions and resentments boiled over. Several men broke off from the group and approached Shepherd Book. He held the machine pistol in front of him and they stopped.

Suddenly three pistol shots range out, the noise deafening in the closed room, and the fighting stopped and everyone went quiet. Captain Papusha sat in his chair and held the smoking pistol Book had given him toward the ceiling, having hit the public address speaker dead on, leaving it destroyed.

“Now the pig can no longer warp your minds,” he said in disgust “Anyone wants to disagree with me, I’ll kill you like a dog.”

No one moved or said a word.

“Good,” said Captain Papusha. “Now stop acting like cowards and idiots. We will survive but not with that pig in command. Let’s make a plan.”

******************************************************************** Zoe slipped among the plants and trees in the agricultural cavern, circling around toward the left, moving like a cat, all her instincts hyper aware of all around her. She had done this many times in the war, stalking the enemy, sneaking into his trenches, his tents, and barracks, slitting throats while they slept, gutting men on guard duty. One of her specialties was to find two men asleep in a foxhole or tent and kill one of them and let the other wake up and find a dead body next to him. She would drift back to the Browncoat lines and wait for the scream as the body was discovered. Mal said she should have killed them all but psychologically it work wonders damaging Alliance morale. Too bad that couldn’t win the war for them.

There was one of them now. He was in a couch, machine pistol forward, and it look like he wore some kind of night vision system on his head and held a breathing apparatus in his mouth. The smoke was still present but was dissipating. Zoe crept forward and was on him in a flash. The machete slid through his back and cut his heart in two as she clamped her free hand over his mouth. He struggled briefly as the life ebbed from his body and then he was limp. Zoe laid him down and took his machine pistol, 9 mm pistol and his night vision gear. She also found an ear wig communicator and placed it in her left ear.

“Johnson, report,” came a whisper as soon as she had it in her ear. “Johnson!”

“He’s dead,” Zoe replied fiercely as she put on the night vision goggles. “And you’re next.”

Suddenly a long burst of machine pistol fire broke out to the far right and soon a second and then a third joined it. Zoe lay flat and bullets whizzed by clipping branches and trees. After a long twenty seconds or so, the fire died down.

“You missed,” she whispered and then she saw them in the night vision goggles and she let loose a stream of bullets at one of them.

A scream came and he grabbed his leg yelling he was hit. The other two ran to him and starting firing to where Zoe was. Again they missed and she let them waste bullets. After a moment the firing stopped and she could see no more figures in the semi-darkness. They had retreated. Zoe made her way back to the shed.

“Coming in,” she said as she removed the goggles.

“Clear,” Jayne said back, his voice coming from the second floor.

Zoe found her three companions on the floor on the second floor, Jayne with his gun trained on the door. The windows in front of them had a few bullet holes.

“Anyone hurt?” she demanded and Jayne just looked at her as he got up.

“Nope,” he said as he helped River and a shaken Inara up. “Having fun?”

Zoe grinned. “Just like in the war.”

“I don’t think this is fun at all!” said Inara, on the verge of crying or screaming or both.

“Sorry,'Nara,” said Jayne. “But we gotta find a way outta here and killing them is the fastest.”

“They won’t make the same mistake twice,” Zoe said. “They’re inexperienced. Now they got their first lesson.”

“What are we going to do?” Inara asked in exasperation.

“We wait for the Captain,” Zoe said and explained her warning to Mal and Wash. “We got plenty of atmo in here, got food around us, water supply in the sprinklers. We can wait. It’s why you picked this room, right River?”

“Yes. We can wait,” she replied. “But Jackson won’t. He can’t have fire from two sides.”

“What do you mean?” Inara asked with worry.

“Serenity is coming. And they mean to fight.” River said as she looked to the ceiling of the room and all followed her gaze, thinking on their crewmates and hoping like hell they would get here and help them.

“Then we can’t wait,” Zoe ordered. “We have to attack now to give Serenity a chance to land. How we fixed for weapons?”

The ones River had taken from the guards were on the floor. "All blanks," she said.

"All we got is these two machine pistols, a 9mm, and the machete," Jayne said.

"It'll do," Zoe replied.

Zoe and Jayne checked the magazines on their machine pistols and then Zoe gave Inara the 9mm pistol, and handed River the machete.

River held it and smiled. “I know how to use this.”

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

The nine members of the assault team were crowded into shuttle two as it flew from the dark side of the moon to the sun lit side. Mal and Simon were in the cockpit, Kaylee in the back, helping everyone put on and lock their helmets, and checking their air flow. Kaylee, Mal and Simon were in the green Serenity suits, while big Will was in Jayne’s yellow suit. Dora and the other four Aussie men were in the silver and white Alliance suits that had been placed on Serenity when they had gone to the Earth from the moon just over a day ago.

“All set, Capt’n,” Kaylee said after the last suit had been checked, hers and Simon’s included. Mal’s had been check before leaving Serenity and his helmet was locked. Only he and Wash could pilot the shuttles and he had to concentrate on his piloting up to the moment they landed and there would be no time for spacesuit checks once on the moon. He was flying by the nav input Wash and Tanya had uploaded into the shuttle’s small nav computer, Tanya having all the moon bases’ nav coordinates in a laptop.

“There it is,” Mal said and everyone crowded for a look through the cockpit windows.

“Bloody hell,” said Will through the helmet intercoms. “Never thought I see this place.”

“Me, neither,’ said Kaylee and then Mal was all business.

“Soon as we land, Kaylee de-pressurize the shuttle, then we open the door and head right for that building with the freight elevator. Will and his team in front with Kaylee, Doc you hang back. Everyone on their toes once we are inside. If it looks hostile, shoot it.”

“Except our guys,’ Kaylee said, getting a sense of deja vu from their assault on the Skyplex. Suddenly she felt a cold fear creep over her.

“Simon?” she said through the helmet comms and she knew everyone could hear her.

“I’m here,” he said and then he was looking at her through the helmet. They hadn’t even had time for a kiss.

“I….” she started but was too shy with everyone listening.

“Go on,’ said Dora in a reassuring tone. “Tell him. It’s easy. Hey, you big ox, I love ya.”

“Ah, Dora, me love,” said Will with affection. “I love you, too.”

“I love you, Simon Tam,” Kaylee said suddenly and thought it might be the last time she even said those words.

Simon was embarrassed but knew he had to say it. “I love you too, Kaylee Frye.” And he thought he saw a tear fall from her eye in her helmet.

“Okay, okay, we all love each other. Now let’s go kill some Alliance scum,” said Mal as he landed the shuttle next to the building with the elevator. An instant later Kaylee hit the button to de-pressurize the shuttle, the air escaped the shuttle, and Mal slid open the door.

“Welcome to the moon,” he said as he stepped off the shuttle toward the uncertainty of battle to come.