By now they’re hungry, and Jan offers to take them to one of the finest restaurants in that area. “A wonderful place. Their desserts in particular are the talk of the planet – what they can do with Strawberry Shortcake is nothing short of miraculous!”

Kaylee is intrigued; “Oooh, Shiny! But what do you use for money here?”

Again they have reminded Jan of their ignorance: “Money? For what? No-one has paid for food on Earth for centuries.”

When Inara asks who pays the wait staff, Jan says “Everyone has a specialty when working on UniWiki – and those writing about restaurants and food have to learn the subject somewhere, so they volunteer.”

The dinner becomes a joyous time, and Jan seems to fit right in. They end up discussing what they should do now, both on Earth and after, and even if they should go on…

Little is decided except they should do some exploring before they decide. Jan explains how to navigate the city, and they split up. Simon and River head off to explore the medical facilities (for Inara’s condition, but that’s not said). Diana and Zoë are off to see where the full details of the “Book” records are kept. When Jan says that’s at the museum, which also has a technology sector, Kaylee wants to see the spaceship machinery, and joins them… Mal, Inara, Jan and Jayne are off to the Planetarium to see other worlds.

Kaylee is soon lost in happy investigations – she finds “Museum Piece” machinery two centuries beyond anything she ever saw in her ‘Verse – she’s soon convinced that she can teach Serenity some new tricks!

Simon’s trip to the closest hospital shakes him – he cannot even understand the textbooks! He’s also somewhat taken aback to find all the ‘Doctors’ are actually bed-machines that do the operations, shots, etc. all while the patient just lies there! The humans in the place are only there for handholding and spiritual comfort.

Diana is absolutely fascinated at the number of “Books” there have been in the galaxy – many Millions – the total number of stories collected is in the Billions – all faithfully catalogued by the trio of central UniWiki computers, and made available (minus real names for anyone still alive) to anyone in the galaxy with a UniWiki terminal. “Jayne should have come. He’d be fascinated – there are millions of variations of sexual adventures!”

The group at the Planetarium sit transfixed at the thousands of worlds and lifestyles displayed, all the way from near-stone age to so futuristic they’re not sure what’s going on. Mal is convinced – he wants to travel to as many places as possible.

But Simon makes the most important immediate discovery. With help from River’s ESP, Simon finds the information he needs to stabilize Inara’s condition – she will not die soon, but she will age slightly faster than normal. Her life expectancy will be about 100 standard years, but she will look 75.

Simon returns to the hospital to gather the drugs and equipment he needs, but runs into another Alice in Wonderland type discussion with the hospital ‘Doctors’; “Why do you need those things? You’re human.”

“Where I come from, human doctors treat the patients. We use machines for monitoring and routine drug management.”

“But you are on Earth now. We do the treating here. Once the patient is cured, and we have observed her recovery for some time, then she will be free to return home.”

”I am quite capable of handling her treatment and monitoring her progress. Keeping her here would delay our departure.”

“But we have a more complete understanding of the procedure, and can monitor her 24 hours a day, something you as a human cannot do. Much more efficient.”

Simon is almost ready to give up. “If I let you do the treatment, will you let me know what you’ve done, and keep me apprised of her progress?”

But River tugs on his sleeve; “Simon, don’t do it! I can tell it will be years before they would let Inara go. Her therapy is not standard even here on Earth, and they have never seen an actual case like hers. They want to discover more about the drugs and her reaction to them over a long time period.”

Simon is amazed; “I would not have thought machines capable of outright lying!”

But River isn’t; “Remember, Earth is centuries ahead of us in almost everything. Apparently that includes lying.”

The group finally meets at the hotel that Jan picked, tired and overwhelmed with information. The discussion of what to do will have to wait ‘till morning.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In the morning, they agree that they do not want to stay on Earth much longer. It’s just not their type of world. But there are details to handle…

Inara has agreed that now that there’s a solution, Simon can tell the rest of her condition. He does so, assuring everyone that with what he has learned she will be fine, but he needs a day on Earth to prepare for Inara’s initial treatment.

Kaylee says she needs some time to modify Serenity for the new efficient drive.

Mal and Zoë still have one big question they must have answered. Just what is Blue Sun doing on Earth? They round up River and Diana to check it out, and Jayne decides he wants to come along.

The Blue Sun office seems empty as they enter, but finally a very officious secretary appears, “Just who are you ragamuffins, and what are you doing in this office? I’m sure you have no business here. If you do, call ahead for an appointment. We have no time for people who drop in unannounced.”

Mal has about had it with “appointments”, and takes the direct approach; “We came from the ‘Verse, a long journey. And we want to know why Blue Sun made that same journey.”

The secretary looks at them like they’re a nasty batch of particularly dangerous insects; “You can’t be from there. Nobody in the ‘Verse knows about Earth, and certainly not about this office!”

But Diana knows how to convince her; “Well, they will soon. My name is Diana Book, and here is my ID card.”

As secretary looks at the card incredulously, then at Diana with suspicion, then at the rest, her expression changing until it’s obvious she’s accepted who they are. And considers them all lower than slime beetles. “And now that you’re here, what do you expect will happen?”

Mal says firmly; “I expect you’ll give us answers. And depending upon what you tell us, we just may give those answers to the people back in the ‘Verse.”

BAD IDEA! The woman screams something incoherent and slams her hand down on a button on her desk, and within seconds, they are faced with three armed guards! There seems to be little the four of them can do, and they are led quietly down a hallway at the back of the office.

But one of the guards makes the mistake of underestimating who these backward savages are, and pushes Jayne just a little too hard. That’s just too much for Jayne, who spins around and punches him, dropping the man to the floor. A second guard shoots, nicking Jayne’s arm, and suddenly River attacks! In seconds, there’s one dead guard, the other two are unconscious, and the exploration party is on the run!

As they pass through the outer office, Mal points at the secretary now cowering in a corner and says; “That wan nao (troublemaker) has a lot of information we need. And she might make a mighty good hostage.”

Jayne needs no more prompting. He grabs the now screaming woman and follows the rest out the door. They run about three blocks with the woman screaming all the way before Mal realizes that no-one is chasing them.

Jayne is not impressed: “This ruttin’ planet has a lot to learn about security!”

Now that they have a second to consider their options, Mal says, “Zoë, we’re clear for the moment, but there’s no doubt we’ll have some unfriendly visitors droppin’ in on us real soon. Any ideas?”

Zoë looks around and says, “Well, we’re in their territory here. Always bad to fight when the enemy knows the terrain better than you do. Best we get back to the hotel, and maybe we can get some info from our noisy little friend here.” She turns to the woman with a threatening look; “And if you’re quiet, we may let you live to tell us what we want to know.”

They’re on their way again, Jayne dragging the shaken secretary (who is convinced even more that they’re incorrigible barbarians) through back routes to their hotel.

Zoë takes the secretary into one of their hotel rooms and locks the door. “Now, my oh so superior lady, start talking. We want to know everything that Blue Sun is up to.” Zoë is prepared to do more, but it’s unnecessary. All she has to do is look threatening and pull out her gun, and the terrified little clerk crumbles. She’s eager to give them the password to access Blue Sun records, or anything else they might want, just to avoid the terrible tortures her mind has invented.

When the crew finally does access the Blue Sun records, they find a horrifying story:

The entire of the ‘Verse is being used by Blue Sun as a test laboratory! Not just the Border Planets, but the Alliance as well!

Diana discovers that Miranda was a Blue Sun experiment, a drug that had failed earlier on a different planet, but there had been arguments within Blue Sun that it should be repeated - the dosage might have been too small, so Miranda got the whole shot.

Inara is particularly disturbed at her discovery; “Tian sha de e mo! (God damn monsters!) They are still using the drug! It’s being added in low doses to the ornamental fountains on the central planets!”

The findings are endless; the advanced weapons used to defeat the Brownshirts had been developed and shipped for testing by Blue Sun, as were many bioweapons that appeared as the strange diseases found on the outer planets.

Simon also makes a discovery. He announces: “Inara, those Perma pills that almost killed you were also a Blue Sun experiment!”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

But the most revealing moment is not from the Blue Sun records at all. It’s when the secretary sees Diana’s “Box of Tricks”. The woman is terrified – “The ’Verse must never have a Replicator!”

Diana looks at her in surprise. “You mean you know about this box? What do you know?”

“Of course I know about it. Everybody does. But I’m not discussing it with any of you.”

But her determination is short lived. A little more prompting and a threatening glare from Zoë, and the woman dissolves in tears. When she finally recovers enough to speak, she blurts out the truth; “The Replicators are the most common technology in the Galaxy, the foundation of civilization on nearly all advanced planets.”

Simon asks; “Of all the people we have met, why did no one ever mention them?”

It’s a few seconds until she can stop quivering long enough to say; “I don’t know – probably because they’re so common that no-one ever even considered them worth mentioning.”

Simon pushes further – “We know they can make machine parts – what else can they do?”

The woman looks up, incredulously; “You mean you have one and you still don’t know? They can make almost anything described in UniWiki that will fit in the box. Anything except living things. like food and wood products.”

“And what do they use for fuel?”

“Anything you put inside, of course!”

Then she becomes even more agitated; “But don’t let the ‘Verse know about them, Please! The entire ‘Verse economy would be turned upside down. No control of the outer planets would be possible!”

A bit more questioning, and Mal is convinced the woman has told them everything she knows that they might find useful, and it’s time to let her go. “But don’t go runnin’ off and tellin’ your bosses what we’re up to. River here is a reader, and we’ll know what you did and where you are.” The woman looks wide eyed at River…

And River confirms Mal’s words, along with the woman’s worst fears; “She thinks she knows who I am! And what they did to me!”

The woman screams “Nooo!” and runs out the door!

River settles back. “She knows what I can do to her. She won’t tell – ever.”

By this time the crew has gone through a third of the Blue Sun information, and every member of Serenity’s crew knows what a danger that corporation really is.

Mal calls a dinner meeting, but there is little discussion. In fact, before Mal gets wound up to deliver an inspirational talk, Simon stands up and says simply, “I feel we must go back, taking all that we now know. Anyone have any objections?”

Not a hand goes up, and it’s over.

The refugees are about to become BIG DAMN HEROES once again.