Mal’s day began as his day often did: badly. First the new port compression coil - which he’d had to have installed, been given no choice as Kaylee had managed to shock him by actually threatening to quit if he didn’t (“I ain’t rewirin’ the gorram grav thrust again, Cap’n!”) - started hiccupping; after all Kaylee’s complainin’ about the original one, this really was just too much. Luckily, Kaylee quickly found the problem: some bunger at Eavesdown had connected a two-phase DC electrical lead to a three-phase AC terminal and the poor much-maligned catalyser didn’t know whether it was comin’ or goin’. Her language on discovering this was quite educational to Mal, i.e. he learned just how extensive Kaylee’s cursing vocabulary was - once she’d finished sheepishly apologising for not discovering the mistake before they’d even lifted off from Persephone. To be fair, though, the lead in question was inside the catalyser proper, and the cumulative effects had had to build up before they became noticeable to Kaylee, and therefore the error was not immediately apparent. Then the proximity alarm sounded, which was impossible as there weren’t any ships in this sector. Except now there was one. An Alliance cruiser had apparently appeared out of nowhere. Mal’s bad day had just taken a severe downturn. “What the gorram hell - where in the tyen shiao duh did that spring from?” “Transport ship Serenity, this is the I.A.V. Dortmunder, Captain Lindayne deVries commanding. Heave to and open com channel. Serenity, do you read?” “There was nothing on scan, sir. Weird. Just sneaked up on us,” Zoe breathed, incredulous and not a little worried. “How the gorram hell does anythin’ that size just sneak up on us?! And what -” “Repeat: I.A.V. Dortmunder calling Serenity. Respond, please.” “Well, better find out what these bungers are about, I s’pose,” Mal grumped. He opened a broadwave channel. “I.A.V. Dortmunder, this is private transport Serenity, receiving you. What d’you want?” Then something struck him. “Did they just say please?” “They did, sir,” Zoe frowned. “Weirder still.” The screen showed a petite thirtyish woman in severe Alliance grey and blue, standing on the bridge of the Alliance cruiser now taking up far too much space off their port bow. She stood ramrod straight, her hands clasped behind her back. She was attractive, surprisingly pretty, and for some reason Mal actually found himself liking her on sight. A bit. “It’s very simple, Captain. We’d like to offer you a job.”