The Return Home - Part 23

Admiral Shin had just received two reports in his office in the main fleet headquarters on Londinium, one which made him smile and the other which made him frown. Both reports were from Admiral Byrd with the fleet at Haven, sent via the Ministry of the Interiors superior comms system, a system Shin had already ordered duplicated for his own headquarters. The first he received was the confirmation that Serenity had surrendered without a fight. Shin hadn’t liked that Byrd agreed to pay Reynolds an exorbitant sum for his ship, nor that the Tam siblings had stayed with the Fryes, but the reported taking of the ship without damage or loss of life made it seem a reasonable price to pay for the secrets Serenity had. Within the report was the news that Shepherd Book had died and had been buried at Haven, along with an interesting side note about the death of Captain Billingsworth on the Dortmunder and the alleged attack by a young female crew member on Shepherd Book. The Shepherd had overpowered her and she had swallowed a poison in order to avoid capture and questioning. Byrd reported that a special comm device had been found in her quarters and speculation was rising that she had been working for Cutter. Perhaps she was one his special cases from Athenian Island.

The second report was disturbing. It was the initial summary of the events that occurred on a Firefly class ship that led to the deaths of many soldiers, a lawyer, and ultimately High Chancellor Cutter. In addition, the Dortmunder’s chief engineer had been part of Cutter’s team and was now reported missing. The wounded soldiers that had been returned by Reynolds crew reported that they had been attacked by a massive Reaver who seemed to know who Cutter was and were also attacked by Reynolds’ crew and that at least two soldiers were dead from gunfire from Reynolds’ people. There was also some indication that one of the Dortmunder’s prison guards attacked his comrades with a non-lethal stun gun. In spite of these events, the survivors also praised the Firefly crew for their rescue efforts during the Reaver attack after they had crash landed on Miranda. All stated they would be dead if Zoe Washburne and the others had not fought like demons to save them. Shin grunted in disgust. It was Serenity’s crew which had put them in that position in the first place. Or to place the blame more correctly, the actions of Adam Cutter which had do so.

Shin decided that a full investigation was in order but was perhaps not worth the trouble now. Damn Blakely for giving them pardons before all reports had come in. He knew Cutter would never let that stop him from dealing justice to those who deserved it. But Cutter was dead now and his Ministry was still in turmoil from his sudden demise. Shin knew it was a perfect opportunity for the military to step into the power vacuum but he was not about to stage a palace coup without any planning and without knowing the mood of the other chiefs of staff and the people. In spite of his support of Blakely against Cutter, Shin did not like being shackled to a civilian administration. However, the time was not ripe for any move in that direction and maybe never would be.

The teams sent to investigate the shuttle crash site on Miranda to try to recover Cutter’s body found nothing but a bloody, tattered uniform near by the stream in the park. Several other such uniforms were found near the crash site, all the bodies missing. The engineer that had gone missing was nowhere to be found and he was presumed dead along with the others. Shin immediately sent orders for Byrd to dispatch more ships to Miranda and to sweep the area to search for any evidence of the missing personnel. He also ordered that any Reavers found to be killed. To hell with Blakely and her desire to “cure” the Reavers. They deserved nothing but death.

Coupled to Admiral Byrd’s report was an addendum concerning Professor Drummond and his people. Drummond was deathly ill and not expected to last long. Already his formula was being examined by the fleet scientists and a copy of it had been sent back to Londinium to try to recreate it. Hopes were high and the one example of the cure, Drummond’s daughter Angela, was still not reverting to Reaver form. Byrd had ordered her placed under guard in a detention cell, which had brought howls of protest from Drummond’s people. Already, Byrd said, they were exhibiting signs of hostility and Drummond demanded to speak to Prime Minister Blakely.

No, not all was settled or well yet, thought Shin, but at least I have Serenity now and the rest of these problems would blow over one way or another. Drummond would die soon and then he and his people would be a footnote to this matter. The soldiers involved in Cutter’s attempt to seize Serenity would be sent to separate corners of the galaxy, to remote postings, and if any tried to talk about what had happened he would find himself in a prison cell. In addition, the incidents aboard the Dortmunder would be swept under the rug.

As for Reynolds and the remainder of his crew, which included a former Companion to everyone’s surprise, they were of no trouble, for the moment. They were off the ship, stuck on Haven, with a pile of money but no where to go. Shin ordered that no Alliance vessel help Reynolds or his people in any way and at the moment Haven was closed to civilian traffic until the Reaver situation on the ground was cleared up. Shin was getting ready to leave his office for the day when his Cortex screen chimed. It was the Prime Minister. He immediately keyed the answer button and she came on screen. He instantly knew she was not in a good mood.

“What the hell have you done with Serenity?”

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

The hotel in Coppermine was small and rustic but Mal, Zoe, Inara, Wash, and Jayne managed to get three rooms and get their belongings stowed away by nightfall. All were tired and wore out by the latest events, their emotions running high from the separation from the Fryes and the Tams and Book’s funeral. Jayne was the only one in a somewhat good mood and as soon as he had a shower he came to Mal’s room, bugging him for his promised 20,000 credits.

“Here’s a thousand,” Mal said as he handed over the cash. “We gotta make this coin last till we get to somewhere more civilized.”

“A thousand? Guess that’s enough for a night of whoring,” Jayne said. That’s when Mal stood back and took notice of Jayne, wearing his best shirt and pants, his black cowboy hat on straight, his boots polished.

“Swear you was going courting,” Mal said.

“Not courting, just whoring. Cheaper that way,” Jayne replied and with a grin he was gone.

Mal closed the door just as Inara emerged from the bathroom, dressed in one of her finer robes, smelling lovely from her just finished bath.

“Your turn,” she said to him as she sat at a dressing table and started to brush her hair.

Mal said nothing, just stared at her. “Wish you hadn’t told Zoe our plans. I was hoping to do that myself.”

Inara stopped brushing and looked at him in the mirror above the dressing table. “I’m sorry, Mal, but she has to see that there is life after Serenity.”

“Me and Zoe been together for a long time, Inara.”

She turned to him. “I understand. I really do. But Mal…if the last few months have shown me something, it’s that life is fragile. I don’t want to be a widow before I even get married.”

He smiled slightly. “You pushing me to…”

“No, I wouldn’t push you to do anything you don’t want to do. But….this life…it’s not for me. And if you want me to be part of your life, then…I have to ask you to think about the future. Our future.”

He stepped up to her, took her hand and she stood and their lips met and they kissed for a long moment. He pulled back and looked deep into her eyes.

“I aim to be by your side on a horse on our own land on Shadow,” Mal said. “But I gotta do one thing first or I’ll never have any peace.”

“Kaylee,” she said softly.

“Kaylee,” he replied.

“So, what was this plan you and River cooked up?”

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

“Do you even care that Kaylee and Simon and River are prisoners of the Alliance?” Zoe shouted at Wash. They were in their room, next to Mal and Inara’s, the sound of the water running in the bathtub could be heard in the background as Zoe lay into Wash. He was seated at the dressing table, all abashed like a small boy, as Zoe stood over him berating him for his recent conduct, yelling at him for the last ten minutes. But with her last question he felt some anger rising in his belly and stood to confront his wife.

“Of course I care! How could you ask me such a thing? They’re my friends, too! And they’re not prisoners…not in the….strictest sense.”

“What do you think the Alliance is going to do to them? Feed them tea and crumpets and let them do whatever they please? No! They’ll squeeze them dry of everything they know and then, maybe then, throw them in a deep dark hole. If they’re lucky!”

“Babe! They need them! And…and….we got the word out to Simon’s father. Soon they’re will be questions asked, inquires made, stones over turned.”

“How could you be so naïve? Do you think the military is going to do what the PM says?” Zoe answered, fire in her eyes.

“But…River’s with them! And Mal has a plan! Doesn’t he?”

She just shook her head. “She’s not invincible. And how often have Mal’s plans turned out well?”

He paused, sighed. “Look, Zoe, I’m sorry. I guess I expressed too much…enthusiasm… for giving up. But we’ve been so close to death these last few months. I guess it just got to me, seeing Book dead there, people getting shot and killed all around us, eaten alive, all of us wounded in some way or another, inside and out, here and back on the moon, those millions dead in Melbourne, billions all over the Earth. We’ve got the stink of death in our noses and I’m afraid it’ll never go away.”

Zoe sat on the bed and let out a long sigh. She began to speak, slowly and quietly. “It does…eventually. But the nightmares…that takes more time.”

Wash knew what she was talking about and now felt he knew more of what she and Mal went through in the war than he ever would. He sat next to her, put an arm around her and she relaxed, letting him touch her. Wash felt some relief, having been afraid he would end up sleeping on the floor.

“Zoe, after this is over, after we get back together with Kaylee and the Tams, what do you want to do?”

Zoe was quiet for a long few seconds. “Don’t know. Maybe…maybe you’re right. If there’s no ship, no money for a new one, maybe it’s time to move on.”

“I’ll do whatever you want, will follow wherever you lead. You know that, don’t you?”

She leaned on his shoulder. “I do. Just…let’s leave any plan making till all this is over, okay?”

“Sounds good. Shall we…go to bed?”

“I need a bath first,” Zoe said. She stood and started taking off her clothes until she stood before him stark naked, her muscles rippling, skin bronzed and toned to perfection, marred only by the scars of battle and a life of hard living. She entered the bathroom and turned off the water and then he could hear her sigh as she entered the tub. After a few moments came a soft call.

“Join me?”

Wash’s face broke into its broadest grin and in seconds he was out of his clothes, and ran into the bathroom like an eager puppy, ready for some long overdo relaxation in the arms of his woman.

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

Serenity was not far away, just in orbit over Haven with the Alliance fleet. The Major was in charge for now, but Kaylee was determined to let him know that she and her family were not going to take any crap off these guys. She understood exactly what the Capt’n meant by making sure they knew who was in charge. If she caved now and let them run the show, they were sunk.

“No ruttin’ way,” she said, standing firm in front of the Major next to the hatch to Mal’s bunk in the fore hall. “None of you is getting in them bunk’s. You all take the passenger dorm rooms and we’ll take the bunks.”

“Miss Frye…or is it Mrs. Tam?”

“Mrs. Frye,” she corrected him. “Oh, hell, just called me Kaylee.”

“Kaylee,” he said. “I cannot allow you or your companions access to the bridge or any of the shuttles. If you are sleeping here and we are back there then this will allow you easy access to both.”

“Listen, Major…..”

“Grace.”

“Oh, that’s…that’s a nice name…OK, listen Major Grace, you got the whole Alliance fleet out there so no way were gonna escape. I can’t fly the shuttles or the ship, neither can River or Simon or my father, and he’s hurt anyways.” That wasn’t exactly true. Kaylee had flown a shuttle once and she was pretty sure River could fly both.

“Which raises another point. How is your father going to get in or out of the bunks with his injured legs?”

“He…well…he can’t. So he’ll sleep in the passenger room.”

“What’s the real reason you don’t want my men in those bunks?”

“I got my reasons. Just stay out of them.”

“We’ve already inspected them and there are no weapons, no secret controls.”

“They’re for crew and you guys ain’t crew!”

“What’s this really about?”

“I’m in charge and you ain’t.”

He just stared at her, not believing this wisp of a girl was claiming to be charge. “Do you really think you can be in charge?”

“Capt’n said ‘Kaylee, you got the boat’ so I got her. You don’t like it, I think I’ll start my first strike right now.”

Now he was getting pissed off and Kaylee grew a little nervous but kept her resolve. “Mrs. Frye, your value to us has limits.”

“We’ll see about that,” she said with more steel in her voice than she’d ever thought she’d have. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta get my husband and drag him to bed.”

“Okay, okay, let’s compromise. What do you want if my men take these bunks?”

Kaylee didn’t know what she wanted. She really didn’t want to sleep in the bunks. She and Simon and River were already living in the passenger dorms and her father was hurt. It was just….she knew the Capt’n and Zoe be mad as hell if the Alliance people slept in their beds. Then she remembered they weren’t here anymore, she and her family were all alone, in the hands of the Alliance. And that wasn’t a good place to be. She had to think like they did, how they operated, all fancy and legal and stuff. Legal? Maybe she did want something after all. “I want a contract.”

“A contract?” he said in some disbelief.

“For me and my father. We want wages, and a bonus when it’s done and we want credit for our work!” Kaylee’s didn’t realize it but she started speaking louder and faster as a jumble of thoughts poured from her mouth. “And…and…Simon, too! He gets paid for being…being expedition doctor!”

Major Grace nodded slowly. “I’ll see what we can do. But for now, can we agree on the sleeping arrangements? My men the bunks, your people the passenger dorms?”

“I guess so. But I don’t get what I want, I’ll make trouble.”

“I’m sure it won’t come to that. Rest well. In the morning we begin inspection of the engine and you can explain it to our engineers. Maybe this can all be over before it has begun.”

She just stared at him. “Do you guys know what you’re getting into here? Major, it took more than a month to build it and I had lots of help and didn’t even come up with the theory or design.’

He seemed quite surprised at this news. “Then your father will have to…”

She shook her head and looked at him with a puzzled expression. “How much have they told you? How much do you guys know?”

He said nothing and Kaylee knew she had an edge. They knew very little except for the fact that Serenity could travel faster than light speed. How the engine was made, its design, the theories behind it, they knew nothing at all. “This is gonna take more than one morning of chitchat with your engineers. Get ready for a long stay. If I was you, I’d get some more food for us, and make it some good stuff. My Daddy is partial to beef steak and cold beer. Me, I sure could use a scoop or two of ice cream, vanilla, and Simon loves fruit, apples and oranges, and River is partial to chocolate.”

“I’ll...see…what I can do.”

“Thanks. Good night,” Kaylee said with a sunny smile and then she walked past him and headed down stairs and almost fainted from the feelings that overcame her. God it was going to be so hard to be in charge! How does the Capt’n do it?

As she hurried down the stairs she passed a guard on the catwalk near the shuttle entrances and two more were in the cargo bay. She also knew one was in the engine room, one on the bridge with the two pilots, and more than likely one in each shuttle. And one was sitting outside the infirmary when she arrived there. What she did notice also was that they all had those non-lethal high tech Alliance piece of crap stun guns as their main weapon and pistols as side arms.

She found Simon, her father, and River in the infirmary, where Simon was changing the bandages on her father’s legs. He was just finishing when Kaylee arrived.

“There you go,” Simon said to Jonathan. “About a week and you should be your old self.”

“Except for the scars,” he replied and then he saw Kaylee in the doorway. “Hey, little Kaylee. You give him a piece of your mind?”

She smiled. “Yeah. Just a small piece. We made some agreements.” She looked over her shoulder at the guard who was sitting on the sofa and then stepped into the room until all four were very near and Kaylee spoke in low tones. She explained her conversation and the fact that they seemed not know very little about the engine and its origins.

“He must be on a need to know basis,” said Jonathan, referring to the Major. “Guess we’ll meet the big shots in the morning.”

River nodded in agreement. “He doesn’t know, none of them do. They’re our babysitters. How many did you count?”

“Guess about seven, maybe eight, plus the Major and the two pilots.”

“That’s good. Not too many,” River said.

Simon gave her a nervous look. “Sis, what are you planning?”

“To get the plans off this ship.”

They got instantly worried. “River, that’s a bad idea,” Kaylee said. “I mean…maybe they’ll do what I asked. Maybe it won’t be so bad.”

“And maybe it will be,” River said.

Simon looked sternly at his sister. “River, I understand that we need to get these plans to the rest of the galaxy. But not if means any harm comes to you or us. It’s not that important.”

“Simon, do you think they will let us live after they know everything?”

No one said a word, River voicing all their fears.

“If the whole verse knows, they have no reason to keep us or harm us,” River said.

Jonathan frowned. “But River…they might get mighty pissed at the one who tricks them.”

“That’s it, plan’s off,” said Simon with firmness.

“No,” said River with equal firmness. “This is our only chance.”

“River…,” Simon started to speak and then he looked at her and she could pick up his thoughts.

“Don’t sacrifice yourself.”

“I won’t,” she said aloud and Kaylee and Jonathan looked at each other in puzzlement.

“Just…be careful,” Simon said.

They helped Jonathan to his room and after Kaylee said goodnight to him, River reentered her room and Simon and Kaylee stood outside River’s door. Kaylee kissed Simon on the cheek and said, a little aloud so the guard could hear, “I’m just gonna visit your sister for a while. Don’t wait up.”

“OK, honey. Have a nice chat.” Simon said and then leaned in close and whispered. “She can’t leave the ship. They’ll kill her.”

“I promise she won’t,” Kaylee said with a nervous smile and then gave him a hug and they parted for the different rooms.

River was already sitting on her bed and after closing the door, Kaylee joined her, sitting opposite. That’s when she noticed Simon’s small electronic encyclopedia next to River.

“What’s that for? It can’t connect to the Cortex.”

“No, it can’t. But it has a keypad, an electronic pen, and a writing software program which can also do drawings. It’s an all round tool. Except for the Cortex. I’ll put all the data on here and then we’ll put it on the memory stick and then we get it to the Cortex.”

“Oh. That should work. So..you're not leaving the ship?”

"No need. Now, concentrate, everything Kovalev said and everything you remember and know,” River said as she stared deep into Kaylee’s eyes. “Start at the beginning.”

Kaylee closed her eyes and then went back in time, to Earth and the city of Melbourne, and as she ran through everything she knew, River’s mind filled with Kaylee’s memories and knowledge.

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

“Serenity has been taken over by the Alliance fleet at Haven,” Admiral Shin said in response to Prime Minister Blakely’s demand for answers. “The crew has not been harmed, Captain Reynolds has been compensated for his ship and we have achieved a great victory.”

Blakely was steaming mad. “I left specific orders that any inquires into Serenity be stopped! Not ten minutes ago Gabriel Tam contacted me to ask why his daughter was sending him a message about us taking over Serenity. And I couldn’t even give him an answer! Now what the hell is going on?”

“Serenity has a faster than light speed drive,” Shin answered with a slight grin and Blakely was so stunned she just stared at him for a few seconds before she found her voice.

“What did you say?”

“Serenity can fly faster than the speed of light. How they built it or how it works, we plan to find out shortly. But there is a pile of evidence that points to this and to the possibility that that ship and crew have been to Earth and back.”

“That’s…that’s…incredible. Is this what Cutter was after all this time?”

“Not at first it seems. But he apparently drew the same conclusions I did. I’m preparing a report for you on this matter right now.” That was a lie but she didn’t know it yet.

“Admiral, I made a promise to Reynolds.”

“I understand, Madam Prime Minister, but a find of such significance for the Alliance cannot be allowed out of our grasp.”

She was silent as she let all this sudden surprising information be absorbed. A ship that could fly faster than the speed of light! It would revolutionize the galaxy! And if Serenity has been to Earth and back, perhaps the trip can be repeated, contact made again with their forefathers. Yet she suspected Shin was never going to tell her this and that he wanted all this for his precious military.

“Admiral Shin, where is Serenity’s crew now?”

“Reynolds and four others, Cobb, the Washburnes, and a former Companion, Inara Serra, were left on Haven, with a tidy sum of one million credits for the purchase of his vessel.”

“Who authorized that payment?” she said with a touch of anger.

“Admiral Byrd had to make a quick decision in the field and I support his judgment. The value of that vessel is far greater than one million credits.”

‘If it has what you say it has.”

“Of course.”

“And the Fryes? What of them?”

“They are with Serenity.”

“I see. They are mechanics, engineers, correct? Did Cutter believe the Fryes created this drive? Is that why he imprisoned Jonathan Frye?”

"It seems a likely conclusion."

"And where are the Tam siblings? Their father is very concerned."

“Doctor Tam and Kaylee Frye are husband and wife and Byrd thought it best if they weren’t separated. Dr. Tam’s sister River is also with them.”

Shin knew some of what had happened on Athenian Island. Blakely wasn’t sure if he knew River Tam was a psychic. He knew she was an assassin at least.

“So now what’s the plan?”

“We examine the drive, get all information as we can from the Fryes, and we attempt to recreated it, first on a small scale, and then on a much larger scale for our cruisers.”

“Admiral, is this going to be exclusively for the military or are you planning to allow civilian access to this technology, if it works?”

“Not at first. We must maintain an edge if this new rebellion grows larger.”

“I concur. For the moment at least. Now, what about the Fryes? What do you plan to do with them once they have given you all the information you need?”

“That hasn’t been decided yet. However, in light of our desires to keep information of the drive from civilian and rebel hands, it would be prudent to detain them. Or…a more drastic measure. For the good of the Alliance.”

“I’m not sure if can agree to that. Admiral, I don’t care to have the blood of innocent people on my hands. Reynolds may be just one man, but I suspect he is not one to forgive and forget if anything happens to his friends. I would not like such a man as a leader of the new rebellion.”

“Than perhaps I should deal with him in a likewise manner.”

“Stop right there. I will have no more unnecessary deaths. This is what you are going to do. You are to command Admiral Byrd to conduct all testing of Serenity in the Burnham quadrant. He is to treat the Fryes and Tams with the utmost courtesy and respect. Captain Reynolds and his remaining crew will be allowed to go in peace.”

“And after we are done with the Fryes? What then?”

“They are to be given credit for their work and made to sign exclusive contracts not to divulge the secrets to anyone outside of the Alliance. Any divergence from such agreements will be considered treason and result in their imprisonment and possible deaths. Make that clear to them. We shall hail them as heroes, announce to all the success of their invention. If it works.”

“And if it doesn’t? If we can’t duplicate it?” Shin asked, for the first time wondering if it was really possible.

“Then Admiral, you’ve just paid one million credits for a worthless piece of junk.”

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

River keyed in the information and drew at a furious pace in the small encyclopedia, as Kaylee stood by, looking over her shoulder. Kaylee could easily see that River was better at organizing the information and following the theories of Gregori Kovalev than she ever could be. Kaylee thought River reading her mind was a waste of time at first but now saw that the genius teen had certain abilities she couldn’t master. Show Kaylee an engine and she knew what was wrong or right in an instant. Try to explain it to other folks in ways they could grasp, well, that was another story. She hadn’t understood half of what the Russian scientist and his daughter Tanya had explained to her but she sure knew what to do to make the thing work. Kaylee didn’t disturb River as she wrote and the teen seemed to be in a kind of a trance, her concentration was so intense. After an hour and half of writing and drawing she was done.

Kaylee snapped out of a doze she was in when River told her she was finished. Kay sat up on the bed, looked it over and she was amazed. She scrolled through the document and all the drawings were correct, every bolt and tube and intake port in the right place, all neatly labeled, with explanations of what each part was for. Kaylee even understood the theory better with River’s simpler explanations. As the final step River saved the file on the memory stick and then removed the stick from the device.

“So,” Kaylee said with a grin. “Time for bed?”

“No,” River said. “Time to find a Cortex screen.”

“Oh, River. It’s just too dangerous! There’re too many soldiers about. Let’s wait till…till another time.”

“What am I supposed to do with this?” River said as she held up the memory stick.

“What did the Capt’n say?”

“Get it to Badger and Badger would get it to everyone else.”

“That’s the plan?”

“Part of it.”

“What’s the other part?”

“Get everyone off Serenity.”

“Where would we go? There’s a whole Alliance fleet out there.”

“We take a shuttle and wait to be picked up by the Alliance.”

“But…but I don’t understand. What’s the point in taking a shuttle just to get picked up by the Alliance? I mean, they already got us, don’t they?”

“Yes, but then they won’t have Serenity.”

Kaylee looked at her and some understanding began to dawn but no, it couldn’t be, not that. “What did the Capt’n tell you to do?” Kaylee asked in dread.

River was calm and looked Kaylee straight in the eye. “He told me to destroy Serenity.”

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

“You did what!?!?!” Inara half screamed in disbelief as Mal told her the last part of the plan. “Mal, that’s madness!”

“I got no choice here Inara. Kaylee wouldn’t destroy the engine so the ship needs to be destroyed.”

“What…but Kaylee…the others…they’re on board!”

“River will get them off. Oh, hell, it probably won’t work anyway! There’s’ bunch of guards on board, Jonathan’s hurt, and Kaylee sure as hell won’t help River hurt the ship. Might even try to stop her.”

“So why did you tell her to do that?”

“Cause without Serenity it’ll take them a whole lot longer to make that drive and then maybe not even at all. But if they can, I want them on the same level as the rest. If River gets those plans to Badger, then we are all the same if Serenity is gone.”

“Badger? You think he won’t just keep those plans for himself?”

“He might but I told River to add a note saying the Alliance will more than likely trace the wave and will be all over him if he doesn’t spread the knowledge around. He’ll get the drift. One man knowing something can be stopped, but not thousands, nor millions, He sends it to ten people, they send it to ten, and so on until soon it’s common knowledge on the Cortex. I give it a week to be everywhere.”

“But Mal…destroy Serenity?”

“What do you think they’ll do to her after they get what they want? Put her in a museum as the first FTL ship? Maybe, but I doubt it. We ain’t never getting her back, that’s for sure.”

“They’ll know you’re behind this. They’ll come after you…after us!”

“Not if they make it look like an accident.”

“River can’t do that, can she?”

“Maybe not. But Kaylee sure can.”

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

“River, I’d never thought I’d say this to you but you’re out of your gorramn mind!” Kaylee whispered fiercely as she blocked the door to River’s room, with River standing before her.

“It’s a common notion around here.”

“I ain’t helping you harm my baby.”

River held up the plans of the engine she had just spent the last ninety minutes examining. “I don’t need your help.”

Kaylee knew that River knew enough about the ship now to do some serious damage. She had to think of another way to persuade River to give up this madness. “There’s too many guards.”

“No, there isn’t. And most of them are asleep now.”

“Ah…ah…my father’s hurt. He can’t get off the ship.”

“We’ll make time for everyone to get off.”

Kaylee was getting frustrated and wished Simon was here to give his sister a shot to put her out like a light.

“He’s asleep,’ River said and Kaylee glared at her.

“Stay outta my head!”

“Can’t help it.”

“Well…try! Look, River, I understand about getting the plans out but...do we have to destroy Serenity?”

River said nothing and then looked up that ceiling where the engine room was. “It’s a radon accelerator engine.”

“Ah, yeah.”

“We can flood the ship with radiation. Make it look like an accident. You can do that, yes?”

“Did it by accident few weeks ago, remember?”

“That will slow things considerably. Give time for the outside to catch up. We won't need to destroy the ship.”

Kaylee put steel in her words but kept her voice at a whisper. “River, I don’t want to. I didn’t when we were on Haven and I sure as hell don’t want to now in space where it’s a gorramn hell of a lot more dangerous! I got my father and the man I love here and I love you to pieces too! Don’t make me do this! Don’t make me harm my baby!”

River knew Kaylee was worried to death, could feel the fear coming off her. “It was the Captain’s order. Destroy Serenity. At least a radon flood won't destroy it but just contaminate it. Maybe permanently.”

“And what if we all get a lethal dose? And you don't think Alliance got radiation suits? It'll slow them, but not for long. Capt'n ain’t here. He said I got the boat so….I’m the Capt’n. Let’s do one thing at a time ok? Maybe…maybe by tomorrow things will look better? Let’s just wait, ok? If things look really bad…we do what you want.”

Kaylee was loathed to hurt her ship or take a chance on harming Simon or her father or even those Alliance guys on board. River felt this and just nodded. “One thing at a time. The plans first.”

Kaylee heaved a sigh of relief. “Oh, good, good.”

“I need to get to Inara’s shuttle. It has a Cortex screen. Can you shut off the lights to the cargo bay and fore stairway?”

"Best to do it from the control panel in the fore corridor,” Kaylee said. “But there’s still guards everywhere, even just outside our door here.”

River closed her eyes and her mind searched out for the guards. One pilot and one guard were on the bridge, one was in the cargo bay, one in the engine room, asleep on Kaylee’s hammock, and one was on the catwalk between the shuttles. The rest of the guards, the Major, and the second pilot were in the bunks, some asleep, some not yet. Most importantly, the guard outside in the passenger lounge was in the bathroom.

“Time to go. Now.” River said. Kaylee hesitated for a second and then stepped aside as River opened the door. Kaylee followed and they were across to the stairs and going up in a flash and were soon by the aft corridor entrance.

River moved out first, looked to the engine room and felt the guard still asleep there. They slowly made their way down the hall and through the dining room. They hesitated on the far side, looked and waited, and after a minute when there was no one about they entered the fore corridor. Kaylee quickly accessed the control panel and in a few seconds the lights for the cargo bay and fore stairway were out.

River went like a cat, down the stairs and was by Inara’s shuttle door in seconds.

“What the hell’s going on?” she heard a voice in the darkness shout.

“Don’t know,” said another. River felt the voices coming from the guard on the shuttle catwalk, not more than a few feet from her, and the one below in the cargo bay. River slowly slid open Inara’s shuttle door and felt immense relief that it was unlocked. In a moment she was inside.

Kaylee waited for twenty seconds and then she heard footsteps coming up the stairs, loud, too heavy to be River’s and she knew it was a soldier. Kaylee instantly keyed in the commands to turn on the lights again and then slowly slipped into the kitchen as the lights came on.

“What the hell?” she heard a voice from the corridor. “Damn lights.”

As she pressed against the wall Kaylee heard him walking toward the bridge. She moved back toward the aft corridor and then was down the stairs. As she got to the bottom a guard was standing there.

“Hey! What the hell you doing walking about?”

For a second Kaylee had a fright but then remembered that she was in charge. “I was checking out my boat, if you don’t mind. I am the mecha…engineer, after all. Now unless you want the engine to spring a rad leak or the airlock to suddenly blow I’d let me do my job!”

He was clearly taken aback. “Ah, no, ah, sorry. Just we had a problem with the lights in the cargo bay.”

Kaylee turned her head toward the cargo bay and saw the lights on. “Seem fine to me.”

“They went off for about…half a minute. Might need checking.”

“All right. I’ll take a look.”

Kaylee went into the cargo bay and then up the fore stairs and back up the fore stairway to check the panel. She met the shuttle catwalk guard and one of the pilot’s there and they looked confused.

“Problem with the lights?” Kaylee asked in a mocking tone.

“Yes,” said the pilot. “So he said.”

“They went out I tell you! And then back on again.”

“Alright, let me look,” Kaylee said and then went to the panel. “Well, might have a short inside or a popped circuit breaker. If they come on and off that’s most likely explanation. I need to get my tools. Might need to shut down power to some parts of the ship while I try to find the problem.”

“Can it wait?” asked the pilot. ‘It’s not that serious.”

“No it can’t,’ said Major Grace as he appeared climbing out of Jayne’s old bunk. He looked sleepy and had just hastily thrown on his uniform. “We have important guests tomorrow and everything must work perfectly. Mrs. Frye, please continue.”

“Just let me shut down the non-essential electrical systems for now.”

Kaylee hit buttons and slowly through the ship, lights went out, in the cargo bay again, and in the passenger dorm and lounge. Kaylee then went to get her tools in the engineer room. She crossed her fingers and hoped she could give River enough time to complete her task.

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

While Kaylee pretended to be solving the electrical problem, River was at Inara’s Cortex screen. When she first turned it on, she willed it to come to life, hoping the soldiers hadn’t disconnected it. It blinked on and hummed to life, River guessing the hasty arrival of the Alliance just a short time again not giving them enough time to check everything on the ship. The screen was behind one of Inara’s curtains so they must have missed it. Now one of two things would happen. When River tried to connect to the Cortex it either would allow her or not if the Alliance fleet was still blocking transmissions. To her relief they were not.

She hunched over Inara’s Cortex screen in the dark, and typed as fast as she could, making the introductory note for the Cortex message to Badger and his cousin on Hera. Mal hadn’t exactly “told” River the plan. As they sat in the café on Haven waiting for Inara’s bank to report on the money, Mal had looked at River and she had read his mind. All his thoughts of a plan were there and she picked them out and after five minutes she nodded and he nodded back and that was that. One thing Mal’s thoughts had told her was to send the plans to Badger’s cousin’s shop on Hera. Badger might still be there and if he was on Persephone he might not have set up shop again after his recent brushes with the Alliance.

From a Cortex director she got the wave address of the metal works shop on Hera. After she uploaded the file from the memory stick she got ready to hit the transmit button. She knew the Alliance fleet around them would pick up her Cortex signal as soon as she sent it but once it was gone it would be too late. Then the heat would come down on her and hopefully not the others. Kaylee hadn’t thought that far ahead but River had. They didn’t need her and her loss would not influence the mission of the Alliance. If Kaylee refused to help them they would threaten Simon and her father. Even if word got to Blakely and even if she intervened, River felt that the military would ensure some kind of “accident” happened to ensure the plans never got out. In the end, this was the only real way to have any chance for them to survive.

River hit “transmit” and in a few seconds the screen flashed “Message Sent”. She knew she might have just signed her death warrant. River turned off the Cortex screen and replaced the curtain. Inara’s bed was still here and River went and sat on it in a lotus position, slowly turning to a state of meditation she had learned at the academy. She wanted her mind and body rested for when they would come for her.

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

After thirty minutes of work, Kaylee was sure River had completed her tasks and hopefully had returned to her bed and so she gave up the sham of pretending to repair the electronics.

“Just a minor circuit breaker popped,” Kaylee said. “I’ll just dim the lights in the cargo bay a bit and it should be fine.”

“Good,” said the Major. “Everyone to bed or to your posts.”

Kaylee smiled and collected her tools, returned them to the engine room, where the guard was still sleeping, and then went downstairs. She was bone tired and felt like she could sleep for ages. As she entered the dorm she could see River’s door was closed but with the guard back at his post she felt it wasn’t wise to check to see if River was there.

She took off her boots and overalls and put on her nightdress and crawled into bed with Simon, who was dead to the world, and in seconds Kaylee’s eyes were closed, the emotions of the day, the events on Haven, Book’s funeral, separating from her friends, all of it, had left her drained of energy to the point where nothing could keep her awake any longer.

But something tugged at her brain, something that she couldn’t shake, a feeling that something wasn’t quite right, that her tiredness had led her to overlook. She was the Capt’n now, she had to think like the Capt’n, always think ahead.

Then it hit her. The Cortex. As soon as the signal was sent the Alliance fleet would know it. She sat up in panic.

“River!”

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

River didn’t have to wait long. Only ten minutes passed before the shuttle door was slammed opened and Major Grace and two guards entered, all with pistols drawn and pointing at her as she stood from the bed.

“What have you done?” Grace said in a threatening voice.

“Given hope to the galaxy.”

“What was in that Cortex message?” Grace demanded to know. River knew they would find out soon enough.

“The plans and theories of a faster than light drive, developed by Gregori Kovalev and Tanya Kovalev of the country of Russia on Earth, built with the engineering expertise of Kaywinnet Lee Frye, with it’s current state of ability perfected by Jonathan Frye. Now you know. And so does the rest of the verse.”

Major Grace’s face turned red and he breathed deeply. His fingers gripped his pistol and River could sense him struggling to decide whether to shoot her or not. Then he slowly relaxed his grip.

“River Tam, you are under arrest for treason against the Alliance. If found guilty, the penalty is death.”