After much searching, Mal and his group come to realize that the only places within reasonable flying distance of Oasis are the ‘Verse, where they will be harassed at best, and more likely jailed, or - - Earth! They are startled to realize that may be their best option!

Simon and Diana have been reading of human history since the exodus in UniWiki, and although it’s very difficult to know what Earth’s situation is today, as the encyclopedia is very fuzzy on that topic, it seems there is still some degree of human presence there.

Mal is not surprised. “I always thought there were holes in the story of Earth-that-was that we learned in school. It was just too tidy. Even if Earth couldn’t support all of humanity, it must have been possible for a few people to survive.”

Simon muses, “Even if there’s only a handful of people on Earth, they would have a very different perspective on history. With all those centuries of information, maybe we can learn where else to go in the Deep, find other planets to visit…”

When River joins in; “We should be able to discover what other lies we were taught by the Alliance.” Mal and Zoë finally agree with ill grace – that might be worth learning, and besides, there’s just no other alternative.

The eight weeks in the Deep cement the family relationships even further, and provide a lot of time to learn about the entire human – populated Galaxy. There’s great deal of material to be absorbed, all unknown during their time in the ‘Verse.

The story they all learned of the ‘Verse’s colonization has a root of truth – outward colonization was started when Earth became heavily populated, but in fact it was only because of many peoples’ dislike of city life, not because Earth and its planets couldn’t support them.

Mal comments; “Somethin’ very ironic about the first colonists escaping Earth only to build the same kinda thing all over again.”

It turns out there are many colonized planets. Many people wanted a different life than what was envisioned for the ‘Verse, and they found ideal worlds all over the Galaxy. Earth tried to control most of human-occupied space for a couple of hundred years, but the effort became too much as distances grew, and the Empire collapsed, and most of the last people drifted away.

There are still many unknowns, but they’ll just have to wait ‘till they get there.

It’s a week into their voyage and most of the crew is playing their usual version of one-basket basketball, with the rest watching in idle curiosity. Suddenly, Inara collapses!

River calls, “Simon – Inara’s in trouble!” and Simon is only too happy to abandon the game for something more useful. One look and he knows he must get the very wobbly woman to the Infirmary.

A few tests and Simon is sure he knows what’s wrong. He injects something to revive her, and as Inara recovers, he asks directly, “How old are you? Have you run out of Perma pills?”

Inara looks at him wide-eyed, sitting stone still until she realizes there’s no way to hide it any longer. “I’m 62. I’ve been on the pills for 34 years. But I ran out of my original pills just after we visited Miranda, and we haven’t been able to get to a Central Planet pharmacy since. I didn’t think it was a problem, as I was able to buy some off-brand copies on a Rim planet.”

“Could you show me those? I’d like to see what you’ve been taking.”

“No, they’re all gone. They seemed to work OK, just not as strong as the original ones. I’ve been taking some others from a batch I found in Derrial’s old ship. But the formulation must be different. I can get those -”

But she doesn’t have to – River walks in with the pills. After some tests, Simon pronounces, “You are addicted to the old formulation, which has a few different minerals. The replacements you’ve been taking will work for a while, but the weak episodes will gradually worsen. I’m not sure how long you have to live if we can’t find more of the original type.”

Inara takes the news with surprising composure – it seems she has had a pretty good idea of the truth for some time. “Simon, can we keep it from the rest until it gets really bad? I’d like everything to just go on as it has.”

“Well, I’ll tell them I’m studying it. In the meantime, I’ll check UniWiki for a cure.”

But Kaylee seems to be on a different track, running back and forth from the UniWiki terminal to the engine room, getting more and more excited about something. Finally, she calls in Diana and River to share her discovery.

Just as they get within a week or so of Earth, Kaylee’s little group gathers everyone else, and Kaylee announces; “We have been through all the records, and it’s possible that we can modify Serenity to travel much further on a single fuel load! We can go anywhere in the Galaxy!”

This ignites a whole new discussion – should they just bypass Earth? It really seems there’s little left on the old world, and Diana has found a couple of worlds in UniWiki that seem to be ideal, maintaining a reasonable level of technology without getting overwhelmed by it. But the general view prevails – if they’re this close to Earth, they should at least SEE it. And just as they come to that decision, deceleration begins. In a couple of days, there it is! Green and Blue, lush with life, and apparently not a trace of human civilization at all!

As they approach, Mal becomes more and more curious. He cannot detect any signal of any kind from the planet – River’s sensor sweeps show that there does seem to be a very low level of radiation at many wavelengths, but it’s so low it may be residual energy from centuries ago.

Diana isn’t ready to give up; “Maybe all the transmitters are off right now for some reason. We could leave the auto scanners running for a bit as we sit in orbit. We might pick up something eventually.”

Mal thinks that over; “Good idea. Let’s relax here for the night, and if we haven’t picked up anything by morning, we’ll just pick a likely spot and set down.”

In the morning, the scanners show no signals of any kind, and one more try at contacting any kind of human presence produces nothing.

Mal decides to set down in an open area. The landing is uneventful, and when River finishes checking sensors, Mal announces; “Atmo checks as almost Earth Normal, let’s go, folks!”

Jayne has a question; “Why is the Earth atmo only ‘almost’ Earth Normal?”

No one has an answer. Zoë lowers the ramp anyway.