Mal is just a little concerned at how hard Serenity’s engines are working as they take off, and how slowly they are accelerating, even keeping in mind they are running on the “near-light” setting.

Mal asks, “Gui! (Hell!) River, are we hauling the whole gorram planet with us? At this rate, it will take longer to get to Sentinel than it took us to travel all the way from the ‘Verse!”

River says, “Mal, the controls feel funny. Either one of the main drives is misaligned, or we have a huge off-centre load.”

Mal heads off to the engine room to find out if Kaylee has an explanation. As he enters, she cries in a singsong voice; “Oh, Cap’n, come and see the shiny new parts, and all the spares we have! We should be able to travel trouble free for the rest of our lives!”

Mal is less than impressed; “Trouble free for the rest of our lives? Kaylee, we have trouble right now. You need to get to work! River thinks maybe a Drive’s misaligned – put away your toys and check it out, would you?”

But Kaylee is star struck; “Drive misaligned? I don’t think so – I’ll check it when I get this stuff sorted out.”

After several tries to get Kaylee’s mind off her shiny new toys, Mal gives up and wanders off to check on the loading…

Finally, Mal calls a halt mid-trip. There’s just too much stuff on board that he can’t account for, and River reports that although the engines still “feel funny”, the biggest reason for their slow progress is the huge amount of weight in the cargo bay.

While Diana decides she needs to learn more about Sentinel, and settles in with UniWiki, the rest of the crew has a field day doing inventory, and trying to guess why the ‘Bots thought they would need some of the strange things they brought on board becomes a fascinating game in itself:

Simon peeks inside one huge box; “Any of you mention we were going farming? We have two complete sets of equipment for horse drawn ploughs.”

Zoë says, “I think somebody told them we were going to spy on Earth. I have a whole box of costumes here.”

Kaylee breaks out laughing; “No, it’s because I talked to one of them about Halloween! I‘ve got 100 Kilos of pumpkin seeds!”

Much of the silliest stuff is thrown overboard, but they’re still seriously overweight. River does some quick calculations and then announces; “We still have a couple of problems. The engines must be off alignment, and we’re still off balance, and need to shuffle things around. But if we fix the problems, we should be OK to land, and since we’ll be unloading all the Terraforming gear there, we should be fine from then on.”

Kaylee and Diana take off to fix the engines, leaving the rest to moan and groan as they shuffle their cargo. But finally, they’re ready to go, and River pronounces the ship handling “Much better.”

Mal is happier; “Well crew, let’s get a good night’s sleep. We’ll fly to Sentinel in the morning.”

After dinner, Diana is ready to tell anyone interested what she has discovered about Sentinel: “It gained that name in the Earth Empire days, as it was used as a monitoring and supply outpost for Earth troops. It’s been terraformed to a point, but not thoroughly, as it was only considered a rest and refueling stop for ships on their way to the ‘Verse, and as a military post. Consequently, the weather is horrible. A few soldiers stayed there after the exodus, and it has collected a collection of misfits scrabbling out a bare existence ever since. They call themselves ‘The Friends of the Sentinel’, or just ‘Friends’. And even the richest have little or nothing.”

The next morning, they’re on their way. Ship handling might be “much better”, but Mal finds the landing at Midway Terminal a little unnerving anyway, as it must be done with no contact with ground control – no one answers any channel! Also, it’s totally on instruments, as the cloud cover is incredibly dense. With River watching the radar and trying to sense any other ships in the area, Mal’s landing is almost perfect, if a little solid.

But there’s still nobody around. And all channels are silent.

After an hour or so of waiting and trying to peer through the gloom to see if there’s anyone at all around, Mal decides they’re going to have to step outside and see if there’s any signs of life at all. “Zoë, you and Jayne open up and do a quick scout around. If there’s nobody nearby, maybe we’ll need to try another spot.”

They’re about to open up and go exploring when suddenly they’re attacked by four very ancient looking flying machines – A few machine gun shells ricochet off the door frame and rattle around the cargo bay –

Jayne swats the close door button and cries; “Gwai-gwai long duh dong! (What the hell!) What was that? I ain’t never seen no spaceships like them before!”

After much peering out at the still circling machines, River finally identifies them; “They’re not spaceships. They’re very ancient atmo-only aircraft. They seem to be copies of Gloster Meteors from Old Earth’s World War Two!”

Zoë is incredulous: “Old Earth? World War Two? That’s hundreds of years ago, and light years from here! How would a squadron of ancient atmo-only warplanes end up on this ball of rock? And how have they kept them flying?”

However old and out of place they may be, they seem very intent on doing some damage, circling back repeatedly and firing on Serenity. Mal says, “Whatever they are, sooner or later they’re going to hit something important.”

Jayne, as usual, has the answer; “Gorram old atmos like that can’t be hard to knock down. Let me take the shuttle up, and I’ll finish ‘em off quick.”

Mal is not so sure; “We came here to help ‘em, not kill ‘em.” But the Meteors themselves settle the discussion at that point, firing at the bridge and cracking one of the smaller windows. “Wei! (Hey!) Those are hard to replace! Okay, Jayne, you win. But Zoë, you go with him. And try to fire over their heads, scare them away. Don’t want to shoot any more of the people we’re helping than we have to.”

Zoë and Jayne take the armoured shuttle up to scare them off, meeting the four aircraft as they round the first corner of the terminal building. Zoë turns to follow them and yells; “Jayne, fire a few shots across the bow of the lead aircraft, well in front. Let’s see if they’ve got any guts to fight.”

Jayne fires, and the lead aircraft instantly spins out of control, pieces flying in every direction! Jayne exclaims; “Gorram! These ruttin’ sights must be ’way off. I was aimin’ far in front!”

But if they thought one or two shots were going to frighten the Meteor pilots, they were badly mistaken. The now flight-of-three turns to face the dead-black shuttle, and shells rattle off the armour. Zoë tells Jayne; “They’re slow learners. Try blasting a rocket over their heads this time!”

Jayne fires, and the rocket hits the left aircraft dead on. It disappears in a ball of flame. “Tian sha! (God damn!)” This time the other pilots get the message, both panicking and banking wildly, heading for home. But one doesn’t make it, slamming into an airport hangar. Zoë turns to follow, but orders; “Jayne, no more firing until you figure out what’s happening with those weapons!”

Jayne rummages around and says; “Oh, now I see. These ruttin’ guns are on Auto Lock. They can’t miss!”

As he says that, the last Meteor disappears over the horizon, and Zoë turns for home. “I don’t think he’ll be back soon.”

Someone is floating down on a parachute, seemingly injured. Since there doesn’t seem to be anyone else around, Zoë lands near him, but stays in the shuttle in case the plane returns. “Jayne, go see if you can bring that man back. Maybe we can get some answers.”

A well-armed Jayne gets out pick up the pilot and bring him to the shuttle, but by the time he gets there, the badly burned man has died.

But suddenly Jayne is surrounded by dozens of shouting people.

“Down with Garth!” “Hallelujah to the stranger!” “The Friends are free at last!”

Finally the shouting dies down enough for a single voice to be heard, and someone cries; “What is your name, mighty Hero?”

Jayne, overwhelmed by the crowd, mutters, “Not again.” Then in defiance, yells out “My name is Jayne Cobb! But I’m not -”

He gets no further – the shouts begin again: “Hallelujah to Jayne!”

But the shouts die fast – something that looks like a Sherman tank rolls out from behind a building, and the crowd goes silent. The tank fires into the crowd, someone screams in pain, and Jayne instinctively fires back with Vera. The resulting explosion is spectacular! And the crowd reaction even more so!

It’s some time ‘til the celebrations die down, and Zoë and Jayne can fly back to Serenity.

The next time they open up, the Midway Terminal is filled with chanting Friends, all waiting for Jayne in spite of an incredible downpour.

Inara is impressed; “Jayne has done it again. A hero in spite of himself!”

As each crewmember comes down the ramp, they are greeted with a roar from the crowd, but when Jayne appears, the noise reaches a crescendo, and he is mobbed!

Finally the crowd settles, and one very nervous Friend comes forward. “Jayne Cobb, I am Philip, the Mayor of Midway. You have rescued us from the dictator Garth, and we can never thank you enough. We would like you to join us in a dinner in your honour – and your crew as well, of course.”

Mal mutters, “Plumb fine to be included with the heroic Jayne.”