“Don’t worry,” River said, drawing her knees up to her chin as she stared into the fire. “Daddy will come for us soon and take us home.” “I know.” Zoë glanced at the darkened shuttle a hundred paces away. It was fully functional, with plenty of fuel to break atmo and make orbit, but there was no one to meet it. Serenity was gone. “Don’t know how he’d take to bein called ‘Daddy,’ though.” “He is what he does.” The moonbrained child cocked her head like a dog. “But you’re no Mommy.” Zoë scoffed and looked up at the night sky. The little moon they were on turned fast enough to see the stars moving; that was something the terraformers had never found a way to fix. She wondered how many of the little points of light were really worlds, and whether one of them was the Alliance cruiser whose sudden appearance had chased their contraband-laden ship out of orbit and into the Black. River swept a hand up and pointed to a spot in the sky. “Earth-that-Was.” Her finger moved slightly, tracking the movement of the starfield. “Thought the home star was too faint to see.” River dropped her hand. “Just because you can’t see a thing, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” She returned her attention to the fire. “Quiet. No one around but us, yours the only voice.” Zoë felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck rise. She knew the girl wasn’t talking about her real voice. It was creepifying to know her every thought was knocking at the door to River’s conscious mind. Especially knowing hers were the only ones presently requesting entry. “Easy to filter,” the girl said. “Hardly have to think about it.” Only, how did she know what was on my mind if she wasn’t reading it? “You’re staring at me.” River’s eyes never strayed from the fire. “What else would you be thinking of?” Zoë decided to let it go. She shivered. Short the night might be, but the temperature was dropping fast in the thin dry air, and being left behind made her feel even colder. Getting separated from her squad in strange territory was a familiar experience, but never a good one. They’d come down in the afternoon, intending to stay long enough to pick up a few items at a town nearby and be gone before local sunset. Plans change. She cast a longing glance at the shuttle, but without giving any real thought to powering it up for heat. The little craft’s powerplant signature would stand out to searching sensors above, but their fire would be only one of a thousand dotting the night face of the tiny moon. It was quiet, she realized. The ship was grounded in a large open space bordered on one side by a wood. Experience taught her that such transitions in habitat teemed with wildlife. A place like this was bound to have critters that came out at night, she thought. But she couldn’t hear any birdcalls or other animal sounds. Maybe a larger predator was about, keeping them under cover? Zoë picked up a few more pieces of wood from the pile they’d gathered and set them on the fire, watching the flames rise. She was just about to go search the shuttle for a blanket when River, still staring into the firelight, stuck her hand into the freshened blaze. Flames licked her fingers. Zoë shoved her away, hard enough to put the girl on her back. “River!” Still on her back, the girl held her hand up, examining it with detached interest. The skin was red from wrist to fingertips and beginning to show tiny blisters. Zoë hurried to the shuttle for the small medkit and a blanket. When she returned, she saw that River hadn’t moved, was still staring up at her hand and turning it this way and that like it was something she’d picked up off the ground. Zoë applied burn salve to the injury and sprayed it with sealant, muttering nonstop in Chinese. “Why’d you do such a crazy thing?” “Experiment. Something else they cut out of me.” “Don’t touch anything till that dries. What are you talking about? They cut your nerves so you don’t feel pain?” “No.” River examined the repair. The redness was fading already, and the blistering had halted. Zoë figured she’d pushed the girl clear just in time. “It still hurts. I just don’t mind.” Impulsively, Zoë sat cross-legged beside the girl and drew the blanket across both their shoulders, sharing cover and body heat. She pulled her close. “Why would they do that? You were supposed to be valuable to them. Why make you a danger to yourself?” “No danger.” River stared into the fire again, her voice dreamy; the salve had an anesthetic that made plenty of folk relaxed and sleepy – and sometimes talkative. “Kept her far from hurt, a little white laboratory mouse with all its immunities bred out. Safe environment. Soft surfaces, rounded edges. Eat with a spoon instead of chopsticks. Nothing sharp in reach while she’s got a hand free, oh no. If she has to go somewhere else, strap her to a gurney or a wheelchair or even a hand truck and wheel her around like furniture. They’d spin in terror now to see what she’s done, what she’s touched.” “I swear, girl. I can’t decide whether you know too much, or whether you don’t know a damned thing. Or which would be more dangerous.” River’s eyes were still glued to the fire. “I know what your husband is like in bed.” She froze. “Say what?” “I know how he makes you feel when he touches you. The feel of his hands, and the places they linger on you. His favorite games and positions. What the strange noises are that Jayne hears through the wall.” She stared down into her lap. “I can’t help it, really can’t. When you’re together, you mindwave stronger than anyone aboard. You even drown out the engine. All I have is borrowed filters now, and before that, none at all. Leakage is inevitable. Sometimes it’s weak, just ghost fingers on my skin…” She touched a spot on her belly below her navel “… and a strange feeling here, that makes me want to tighten my pelvic floor and rock my hips. Other times, it’s like being in the bed between you.” She laid her head on Zoë’s shoulder. “I know about his freckles and how you make a game of counting them with your lips. I know how your hair feels in his fingers, and how it delights him that you don’t shave like Core girls do.” She turned her head, still on Zoë’s shoulder, to look up at her. “I can describe lovemaking well enough to make Inara blush, but I’ve never had a man of my own. I swear I can’t decide either.” Zoë swallowed. “Who else…” “No one.” “River smiled brightly. “Girlfriends keep secrets. I told you you’re no Mommy.” “I’m no girlfriend either. Leastways not since I was your age.” The girl’s arm circled her waist. “Not many chances now. You’ve got to be hard for the captain, even when he’s not around. Kaylee likes you, but she can’t find her way to you. All you share with her is war stories. And Inara big-sisters her girlfriends. That doesn’t fit you at all. There are some things you can’t protect him from, you know.” She blinked. “What?” “You just have to let him hurt himself on her. Healing hurts sometimes, too.” River snuggled into her, resting a knee over hers. “Tell me about your first husband, and I’ll tell you about my beau on Osiris.” “First… River, Wash is my first.” “Fibber. I’ve seen him. A boy no older than me. He put a ring on your finger.” “Ah.” She shifted. “Shiia, he put a ring on my finger, and a choker around my neck, too. He spoke words in front of a preacher, standing at my side. They gave him a piece of paper afterward said we were man and wife. But I never spoke a vow, and I didn’t stand there with him cause I wanted him. Far as I was concerned, that jewelry was a set of shackles, and that paper was a bill of sale.” River nodded. “I see it now. Arranged marriage. How?” She smiled. “Settle in. This’ll take a while.” After a few moments, she began. “I was ship-born, I think you know. Fair Chance, an ugly old Fairfield about three times the size of Serenity. Forty-odd people, one of them me. Still wasn’t big enough for a girl reaching woman-tall and brimming with hormones. Three boys near my age aboard. Two were related, and the last… well, he was swai enough, but we’d known each other since we were crawling. I just couldn’t think of him like that. It’s a common problem on family ships, and there’s a common solution. The only one, really.” “You shipped out.” “Shiia. I’d have preferred another ship, but Dad and Ma wanted to see me settled among relatives, even ones we didn’t know so well. She located a cousin on Sutter with a daughter about my age, and put out feelers. This cousin offered to take me in till I was legal age, about six years, but she wanted to make a trade. Sounded odd to me, and maybe to my folks too, but some of the older crewmen on Fair Chance were starting to look me over, and I was looking back, and they were running out of time, they thought. Ma asked her cousin about ‘single young men,’ and I reckon that’s where the misunderstandings started. “Sutter was all right, if you liked prairie. We passed through town on the way to ‘Aunt’ Bella and ‘Uncle’ Jim’s place, and the looks I got from strange folk made me tingle. Sutter’s one of those worlds that’s almost all white, and I guess the local boys thought I looked exotic. Seemed like the place had possibilities. Should have paid attention to how un-heartbroke my cousin Adele was to leave it.” “And how drably the women dressed. It was a Collins settlement. Wasn’t it?” She nodded. “Ayuh. A woman couldn’t even drive a wagon there. The only acceptable occupation for one was housewife. Widows lived with their sons or in a kind of barracks run by the church. Every female was the property of some man in all but name. A proper, decent woman was expected to keep quiet in public around men if she wasn’t spoken to, stay at home if she wasn’t sent out. And all marriages were arranged. Cousin Adele had got caught kissing a boy, and maybe a little more, so now no decent family would arrange for her. She was set to die an old maid or a whore till Dad and Ma waved ‘Aunt’ Bella with their little request. She boarded Fair Chance, settled into my bunk and my life, and never breathed a word about the fix I was in, the jien huo. And ‘Uncle’ Jim was getting offers for me before the ship broke orbit, likely. “Here’s how it was supposed to work: every decent girl was expected to get a husband, an engagement really, sometime between twelve and sixteen. The boy or his family would make an offer of a bride price, to be paid before the ceremony. The girl’s father would decide which offer to accept if there was more than one; she didn’t have to go to the highest bidder. She’d stay with her folks till she turned eighteen, then leave home and join her husband for a life of wedded bliss and manual labor. Stop gigglin. I’ll allow they were probably happy enough, most of em, cause that’s how they were raised. And I’ll bet most of the girls got some say in the offer their dads accepted. “I didn’t. ‘Uncle’ Jim sifted through half a dozen offers my first six months there – before I even knew there were any, mind you – and settled on a boy from a prosperous clan, folks who could be expected to spend plenty of coin in my uncle’s dry goods store once he was in the family, so to speak. Kinda the way you do it?” “No. The girl always has a choice. Father gave Winston permission to call because he was earnest and well-heeled and a member of the Twelve Families, but if he’d asked me first, I’d have told him not to bother.” “Ugly? Fat?” “No. Swai, really. But he was an imbecile. And, besides, he smelled funny.” “Smelled funny. What does Jayne smell like, pray?” The girl’s nostrils flared. “Sweat. Gun oil. Cigars. Whiskey. Wonderful.” The corners of her mouth turned up. “And just the faintest hint of the sea when he’s thinking lusty about me.” “Hm. It’s what I get for asking, I reckon.” “What did you do when they told you?” “Well, after six months dirtside, I knew how things worked, so I knew I didn’t have any say once the deal was done. I wrote home, plenty, but “Uncle’ Jim was the only one ever went to the post office. What happened to my letters and any replies, only he knew. Meanwhile, I don’t doubt ‘Aunt’ Bella was writing them glowing reports about how well I was fittin in.” She stopped. “Don’t get me wrong. They treated me all right, by everything they knew. They were trying to raise their cousin’s heathen kid up proper. If my new life chafed, well, that just proved how bad I needed it.” “The boy. Was he handsome?” “Aaron? You said you saw him.” “He didn’t look very appealing at your marriage ceremony. But emotions color perceptions. It was a bad time for you.” “He was all right, I suppose. Presentable. Four years older, and impatient, if you catch my meaning. I didn’t have anything against him. I just didn’t want to spend my life as his housekeeper and cook and broodmare. But sure as the turning of worlds, I was going to spend my eighteenth birthday and every night after in his bed if I didn’t get off that rock.” A small noise like claws scratching on rock caught her ear. Her hand went to the butt of her mare’s leg. She strained to hear, but no other sounds were forthcoming. “River? You hear anything?” “Not with my ears. I catch something, very vague and faint. Someone about to eat a meal, I think. Not close by.” First, I fretted at not hearing animals. Now I’m jumpy when I do. She relaxed somewhat. “You hear anything, either way, sing out.” The girl nodded, her eyes shadowed in the firelight when she raised her head. “What happened then?” “What happened?” Zoë took her hand off her weapon and drew the blanket tighter around them. “Nothing much. For six solid years. I went to school – a different one for girls, teaching important stuff like cooking and sewing clothes and such, no point filling our heads with useless truck like math or science or literature. I helped my aunt keep house and mind her brood of little ones, and watched a couple of them grow up and get married off too. I sat in the parlor with my folks when Aaron came to call, waiting for him to speak to me. He talked to ‘Uncle’ Jim mostly, but he snuck a lot of glances my way. I knew he was counting the days in his head. So was I, but not the same way. By the time I was a month shy of my eighteenth, I was feelin like a rat in a sack waiting to be tossed off a bridge. “My uncle sent me to his store one day to fetch some stuff home. He did that once in a while when he was busy, and I guess I was supposed to take it as a sign of trust. When I got there, I saw people in strange clothes walkin the aisles, and my heart near skipped a beat, because that meant a ship had landed. The homesickness just rose up and near shut off my air. “One of those spacers was a boy my own age, about. I never saw anything so beautiful in my life. Not that he was swai, though maybe he was; I can’t be sure now. But he was something I wanted bad. Getting caught talking to him would ruin my reputation, but getting disowned by Aaron’s family didn’t sound so bad, and I wasn’t sure of the difference between a Collins wife and a whore anyway. I caught his eye and drifted out the back door, and he followed a minute later. “We only talked. It was all I really wanted from him, and he knew better than to lay a finger on me. I told him who I was and how I’d got there, and we traded ship stories. His was Hollister, a bulk transport out of Alluquere. I told him about Fair Chance and her registry, and he got an idea. “Alluquere was building up its armed forces, and was taking anyone fit with citizenship. I’d never been there, but being born on an Alluquere-registered ship made me a citizen, and eligible to join up at eighteen. Once I was in the Armed Forces of Alluquere, I’d be beyond the reach of Sutter law. I just had to get there. He offered to get me aboard and hide me in his room till Hollister broke orbit and was well on its way.” River grinned at her, looking very Kaylee. “‘Hide you in his room.’ You fell for that?” “I jumped on it. I left that ring and choker in the dust at the base of Hollister’s ramp. And yes, I spent my eighteenth birthday in his bed.” “Did you ever hear from them again?” “Not my aunt and uncle; they were probably sorry they’d ever known me. They must’ve been years livin down for scandal, especially after Adele. Dad and Ma were mortified when they found out what they’d dropped me into, but I couldn’t blame them. They were just tryin to do right by me. So were my aunt and uncle, really. Aaron actually came to Alluquere to fetch me back, can you believe it? He must have liked me better than I ever guessed. They turned him away at the gate of the training camp, actually dragged him off. Could almost feel sorry for him. Must have been a bitter disappointment, after waiting for me so long.” “And now I know why you hate cooking.” A stone rattled somewhere on the far side of the campfire, accompanied by a scuffing sound. A gravelly voice said, “Well, now, what we got here?” Two men appeared out of the dark. Zoë let the blanket fall as she stood, with River half a second behind. She gripped the stock of her mare’s leg, ready to draw. River said, “Two more behind us,” just as a ham-sized hand wrapped around Zoë’s bicep, preventing her from drawing or running. She pulled a little, testing the man’s grip and heft: she guessed her captor must be nearly twice her size, maybe half a head taller and solid. “That would have been good to know ten seconds sooner.” “Sorry. Signal amplitude is directly proportional to the complexity of the sender’s thought. Their thoughts are very simple.” “Well, ain’t she got a fancy little mouth?” The man who’d spoken before, one of the two on the other side of the fire. They were grinning now, exposing a great many missing teeth. “What’s a pair of sweet young things like you doin out here so late at night? Lookin for something?” His tone suggested that what they’d been looking for had just found them. Frontier worlds, she thought. Don’t you just love em. “Waiting for someone. Several someones, actually. Be here anytime.” The leader glanced at the shuttle, a barely-visible gleam in the firelight. “Anytime, or not any time soon? Nice little ship.” He turned back to them, still smiling, though not so widely as before. “Pretty, and rich too, looks like. I think I’m in love.” The man next to him said, “What’s your favorite flavor, chocolate or vanilla?” The leader’s smile was gone now, his eyes flat. “Both.” The other man shrugged. “Fine by me. I get first crack at second choice.” River said, as if she and Zoë were still alone, “I don’t want my first to be a smelly rapist.” All four men laughed. The man behind River caressed the top of her shoulder, bunching up the material of her dress. “Baobei, I bet you’ll like me just fine, you relax a little and get used to it.” Still ignoring the others, the girl turned her head to Zoë. “I think we should hurt them until they go away.” “Good plan. I’m a little fuzzy on the details.” River nodded towards the two men across the fire, who were regarding them with arms folded, grinning again. “Those two are mine. I don’t like the way that one looks at you.” The girl suddenly leaped into the fire with one leg drawn back and kicked. Flaming branches and embers flew into the men’s faces, and they flung their arms up, bellowing. Zoë bent forward and brought her free elbow back and up into her captor’s face. He grunted in pain and fell back, and her gun was out. She put a slug into the man who’d been standing behind River, and then an arm was thrown across her torso, trapping her gun arm and pulling her roughly back against the other man. She raised a boot to stamp down on his ankle just as she felt cold metal against her throat. “Drop it!” “No, don’t.” River stepped around the scattered remains of the fire. Her two men were on the ground, one groaning, one quiet. Her hair was smoldering, and her dress burning outright. She patted out the glowing spots with one hand; the other held a smoking branch. “You love that gun. You don’t want to get it all dirty.” She carefully set the branch back in the ashes. Zoë felt the blade nick her skin. The man’s voice was ragged. “How’d you do that? What the hell are you?” River stopped her advance and regarded him with a thoughtful expression. “Hm. Puzzling question, objectively speaking. Zoology. Philosophy. Metaphysics.” Her face blanked for a second, then she blinked and came back into focus. “Clever diversion. You should have made use of it.” “You’re a witch. A gorram witch.” River smiled happily. “But I’m her witch. Do you know what a posthole digger is?” She dropped her chin and stared at him from under her brows. “Sheathe the knife. Walk away. Or I’ll be the last thing you ever see.” The man pulled Zoë tighter. She still had an arm free, but couldn’t find a use for it. She got her fingertips between the man’s wrist and her shoulder in case his grip loosened enough to safely push the blade away. The knife trembled against her throat, widening the cut. “You’re crazy.” “That doesn’t make me any less dangerous. I can kill you with my brain.” She took a step closer. “Make blood pump out your eyes and ears till there’s none left, or fill your chest and drown your heart. You’ll die screaming.” Softly, she repeated, “Walk away. Now.” The knife and arm dropped, and the pressure against Zoë’s back disappeared so suddenly she almost stumbled. Thudding footfalls faded into the dark. River looked at her with sudden alarm. “You’re hurt.” She touched her throat: a cut, a thumb wide and not deep. “I’m hurt?” River’s legs and hand were brick-red, with a frightening whitish sheen. If the girl didn’t get treatment quick, she’d be scarred for life at the very least. “Let’s get you to the shuttle and dress those proper.” River looked at the ground around. “What about them?” Zoë flicked an eye at the one she’d shot. “He ain’t going nowhere.” “My two might. What if they wake up?” Zoë settled the question with two rounds. Then she holstered the weapon and draped the girl’s arm over her shoulder to take some weight off her legs. “Does it hurt? I mean, would it?” River looked carefully at her feet as she walked. She seemed very tired. “I’d be howling like a monkey.” “Good. That means you’re not too bad off to fix.” A few minutes later, River sat at the edge of the pilot’s seat, the charred dress bunched around her waist and burn salve coating her legs from ankles to mid-thigh. Zoë sprayed the roasted limbs with sealant and set to work on the girl’s hand with the very last of the salve. “Your brother’s gonna throw a fit, he sees the condition I brought you back in.” “You’ll handle him.” River downed half a bottle of water. “Thirsty.” “That’s a good sign, too.” She sprayed sealant on the burned hand. “You’ll probly shed like a snake, but the skin under’ll be smooth and pretty as a baby’s behind, I’m guessin.” She set the sealant container down carefully, not looking at her patient. “River, what you said to that last man…” “No, I can’t. But he thought I could.” She took another big draft, emptying the liter bottle. “Not at first. But he was holding you, and he could feel you waiting for me to do it. You convinced him, and he ran.”

Serenity arrived with the dawn, putting down quickly a short distance from the silent shuttle. Its ramp dropped as swiftly as a landing craft’s, and four armed men spilled out: Mal, Jayne, Book – and Simon, who pelted across the scrubgrass between ships with a pistol in one hand and his red medical bag in the other. They passed the carnage at the campfire they’d spotted on the way down, and Jayne grabbed Simon’s shirt collar to stop him from rushing headlong to the little craft. The big merc put a finger to his lips and then a palm flat towards the ground. Be quiet. Settle down. He surveyed the ground. “Nobody walked back to the shuttle but the women. River’s limpin, got an arm over Zoë’s shoulder, looks like.” Simon lunged forward, only to be brought up short again by Jayne’s hand on his collar. “Doc,” Mal said, “Just cause they weren’t followed in don’t mean they’re alone. We go in smart so we don’t get em killed, dong ma?” The boy nodded jerkily. “What do we do?” “Well, for starters, you hang back and let Jayne and me go through the door. There’s only room for two, and we got the most practice at this sort of thing. We’ll call soon as it’s secure. Shepherd, I want you to stay back here with him. You’re our best distance shooter, I’m guessin, and you can cover the door better from here. Sides, you’re less likely to do somethin you’ll have to pray over later if you’re not in the thick of it.” “Your concern for my spiritual well-being is touching, Captain.” But Book’s eyes flicked towards the boy as a sign of understanding; his unofficial job would be to keep the doc out of harm’s way. “Too much talk,” Jayne growled. “Somebody’s in there, we’re givin em way too much time to get ready for us.” Mal nodded acknowledgement, and the two of them made a cautious approach to the shuttle, easing up to stand close against the hull on either side of the open hatch. Jayne produced a small mirror and used it to look around the shuttle’s interior. He nodded tensely at Mal, indicating a direction inside with his chin. The captain slid in cautiously, senses straining. The main compartment was empty, except for his missing crewfolk, who were occupying a portion of the deck – dead, unconscious, or just asleep, he couldn’t be sure. But Zoë was sitting with her back to the wall, with River lying against her, head on her shoulder and circled in her arms; it looked as though they’d been at ease when they went down. The odor of burnt things clung to them. Jayne poked his head and pistol in. Mal cocked his head towards the curtain closing off the pilot compartment, but the big merc was already moving that way. “Clear.” “Get Doc and the Shepherd in here.” He looked at Zoë and River, lying so still, and hoped they wouldn’t the services of either. He knelt close, and let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding as he saw his mate’s chest rise and fall, moving River’s head with it. “Zoë.” Her lids rose heavily. “Sir? You all right?” “Am I all right?” He smiled and laid a hand on her other shoulder. “You just rest easy. You had a busy night.” “Cold takes it out of you, I reckon.” Her eyelids dropped. He examined the little crazy girl and his brow creased in worry. Her dress ended at mid-thigh, the hem a ring of char, exposing a scarifying amount of burned skin. Both hands were burned as well, one worse than the other. It seemed likely poor River had been knocked into the campfire during Zoë’s scuffle with their attackers. But the raw-looking skin gleamed with a coating of bandage sealant, so he reckoned Zoë had seen to her before they’d passed out. Simon appeared at the doorway and took in the scene. Mal straightened. “They’re shiny, I think. River’s dress caught fire, but Zoë treated her from the medkit.” “Then I can’t do any more for them until they’re in the infirmary.” But he holstered his weapon and knelt beside them. He touched his fingers to wrists and necks and examined the sleeping pair carefully. “She didn’t dress her own wound.” “Huh?” The boy indicated a clotted nick at the woman’s throat. “It’ll keep until we’re back. Let them rest.” River stirred and settled closer into Zoë’s neck, and the sleeping mate snugged her grip. Jayne returned with the Shepherd. “Our mate’s a hellcat,” he said proudly. “Three deaders, three slugs. Tracks of a fourth hightailin into the woods. Two of em was already down when she plugged em, coup de gras.” “Koo de what? What kinda Chinese is that?” The big merc scoffed. “How old were ya when you dropped outta school?” “Got a feelin you didn’t learn that in school. Sides, the world’s my classroom, Jayne. Learn somethin new every day.” He looked down at the sleeping pair. “Don’t know how Wash is gonna take this.” Jayne looked at them as well, eyes widening. “You mean…” “Zoë’s been pesterin him about a child for a while now. Think if he stalls her much longer, she might adopt.” He headed for the pilot compartment. The engines whined softly as the shuttle lifted for the hop to Serenity. The three men in the back compartment stood in attendance around the sleeping females, a sort of honor guard. Without opening her eyes, Zoë murmured into River’s ear, “Set em straight?” “If you do, my brother will pad my room and lock me in it,” River whispered back. “Make something up. Just one more war story.” Zoë tilted her head slightly to rest her cheek on the girl’s head. “Just one more secret.”