Inara was very, very pale. She could feel it in her carefully maintained skin. It was a relief, however small, that she and the person on the other end of the commline were too far separated by space for visual contact. “Yes, yes of course, I understand. I’ll come as soon as I can.” “You will come immediately, Inara,” the other voice said. Hurriedly, Inara reassured her. “Of course, that’s what I meant. It is simply that I shall have to find passage somewhere—the captain of the ship I am sailing on will not go this far off his course for me, and my shuttle doesn’t have the range.” A hiss of static filled the silence as Inara waited for the other’s response. “There is an Alliance cruiser heading Coreward from a patrol near Three Hills,” Inara was told finally. “You will have to make your way to the outermost moon of Vaughan’s ring within the next twenty hours. Can your shuttle manage that?” “Yes, yes it can.” “Good. We will arrange for the cruiser to pick you up and deliver you here. Do not tarry. New Canaan Chapterhouse out.” Inara blanched even further, if that was possible. Arranging passage for a short-range shuttle on an Alliance cruiser was one thing—pricey, but not extraordinary for an organization as esteemed as the Guild. But to have that cruiser add in an extra stop on its way… The Guild was in a hurry to hold her in its arms again after the years of freedom she’d enjoyed on the outer planets, and Inara couldn’t imagine it meaning anything good. On the other hand, there was something decidedly bad that she now could not stop imagining. She swallowed hard. Well, there was nothing to do but to obey. She’d better go tell the captain. He would make a stink about her taking his precious shuttle so far away, but he would accede to her needs. He always did, in the end. No, what Inara most dreaded was saying goodbye to the crew, her family. She might not see them for some time. And if worst came to worst… Well, no point dwelling on that. “Wash?” Inara asked as she entered the bridge and found only the pilot there. “Hey, ‘Nara,” he greeted her. “Coming to see how the big ships are flown?” “Actually, I was looking for Mal.” Wash sighed dramatically. “Again my talents go unappreciated. I guess I can help you with that too. He’s in the engine room with Kaylee. Serenity’s still having some frostbite problems.” Thanking Wash, Inara made her way downstairs to the engine room. She could hear Kaylee lecturing Mal on the proper maintenance for a ship like Serenity—and the lack of time and cash that Mal actually put into it—from quite a distance away. “… should have had a major overhaul months ago! I’ve told you so a dozen times!” “Kaylee…” “A ship like this—*any* ship, cap’n—it needs to go into dry-dock every once in a while, get her pipes cleaned in a way that’s just not possible when we’re on the move, or hiding out on some low-tech, *mei yong-duh* moon!” “Kaylee!” The mechanic’s face became softer, and more sympathetic, but no less determined. “Serenity needs this, captain. I know you don’t like the idea of being stuck under one sky while Serenity’s guts are taken out, but we don’t let it be done, then we’ll soon be stuck somewhere forever—and we’ll be lucky if it’s in a place with a sky.” A deep sigh, obviously Mal’s. “Kaylee… we’re laying low, staying under the radar. Any place big enough to have a dry-dock fits Serenity, that’s Alliance, that’s records and names…” “We both know that that’s a pile of *tzao-gao lan dong shi*!” Kaylee’s voice was getting uncharacteristically heated. The times that she and Mal had exchanged genuinely angry words since Inara had been flying with them could easily be counted on the fingers of one hand, but they had been all the nastier for it. Neither of them stood to come out of it any happier than the other. “Would this be a good time to interrupt?” Inara asked, stepping into the engine room. “Does it *look* like a good time to interfere!?” Mal roared at her. Inara sniffed indignantly. Well. She had meant to divert the captain’s temper away from Kaylee and from further escalation, of course, but this outburst stung. Mal certainly had no right to speak to her in a tone like that. Mal looked to be at bit nonplussed himself, when he realized how and to whom he’d just opened his mouth, but that didn’t help Inara feel any better. She turned the full force of her glare on the captain. “Well, Captain Reynolds,” she said, “some of us have more to do in a day than saunter around and chastise our subordinates. There is something we need to discuss, *now*.” “Note how she’s suddenly addressing me all respectful-like,” Mal said casually, pretending to intend it for Kaylee. “Never trust it when she does that.” He turned back to Inara. “How may I be of service, then, your whoreliness?” If what Inara feared was about to happen actually happened—if she was, at the very least, thrown out of the Guild… then she would be that. Just a whore. And she didn’t know if she could be that, she really didn’t. “At least,” she muttered under her breath, “I won’t have to listen to *this* anymore.” “Say what?” said the captain, sounding honestly outraged. “I have been called to the Companions’ Guild chapterhouse on New Canaan,” she said determinedly. “Transportation has been arranged—I’ll fly my shuttle to the rendezvous point and be picked up there. I don’t know exactly when I’ll be able to return.” If she could at all. “Whoa, whoa!” Mal said with what might have been a nervous laugh. “That’s my shuttle you’re talking about. You’re not taking it all the way to New Canaan—that’s practically Core! No way, no how.” “It’s not your shuttle. I’m paid up for another two weeks. I’ll front the rent for the next month. Try not to spend it all in one place. If I still haven’t returned to Serenity at the end of that month,” she added like an afterthought, “you’re more than welcome to come pick up the shuttle yourself.” She realized suddenly why Mal was getting so wound up—she’d already told him she was leaving Serenity weeks earlier, but she’d promised him time, and to break it to the crew well in advance. Truthfully, she didn’t know if she could have gone through with her plans, or if they would just have remained plans—but it had all been taken out of her hands now. “Well maybe I’ll do that then!” the captain told her. “Well maybe you should!” Inara was fairly stunned to find herself shouting, but no less so than the captain was. For two eternal seconds, he just looked at her, and then he stormed past her, out of the engine room and out of her sight. Inara squeezed her eyes shut. She felt like she was about to cry. What was that all about? That was just idiocy. She regulated her breathing, and opened her eyes again. Kaylee was standing in front of her—she’d almost forgotten the girl was there. “Whoa,” Kaylee said. “You guys really went at it, didn’t you?” Inara faked a smile. “Mal’ll survive, I’m sure.” “You… you really leaving?” “I have to, Kaylee. Companions are mostly free agents, but if we’re called in… people’s licenses have been revoked for simply not showing up.” Kaylee nodded confidently. “Must be important then. You go. The ship’ll still be here when you get back.” She made a grimace. “Still flying, too, if I can convince that idiot of a captain of ours to get her some proper care.” Inara’s smile was genuine this time. She missed Kaylee’s joyful energy already. Impulsively, she enveloped the girl in a hug. “I’ll hurry back, just for you,” she whispered in her ear. The smile Kaylee gave her in return said more than she could have in words. Reluctantly, she let go of her. “Can you pass on my goodbyes to the others?” she asked. Some of the crew were sleeping, since the shipping lane they were in was crowded enough to merit a 24-hour watch. But really, Inara just wanted to leave as quickly as possible because… “I really don’t want to run into the captain again before I leave.” “You’re just going to leave things like that between you?” Kaylee asked. “But…” Inara shook her head. “Trust me, it’s better this way.” It was so much easier to say goodbye in anger. It gave you something to focus on. “Tell the others?” “Of course.” They stood there, the two of them. Waiting for the other to move. “Well,” Inara said finally, “I’d better get going.” And she did. “Bye!” Kaylee called after her. She went straight to her shuttle. While the preflight was running, she made sure that Mal would get his money, as promised. “Inara?” Wash’s voice came over the comm. “You powering up? We’re still pretty far out from anything. Heck, even atmo on the latest rock we’re headed towards is pretty far out from anything by your standards.” “I know, Wash. There’s still somewhere I have to go, though. I’ve told the captain—he’ll fill you in.” She regretted saying that immediately. The first person to ask the captain about her was going to get an earful. But she couldn’t take it back without giving an explanation, and she wasn’t up to that. “All right then,” Wash responded. “You’re cleared for take-off. Good flying!” he wished her. “Thanks, Wash.” The moment the preflights checked green, she pushed her shuttle out and away from the larger ship. She had more than enough time to make it to the rendezvous, but the tight, nervous feeling in her gut urged her to hurry there anyway. With the autopilot set, though, there was very little for her to do. Out in the black, all flying pretty much went in straight lines, with only the rarest deviation. She decided to get some sleep. She wasn’t really tired yet, but she’d always been able to fall asleep when she wanted to. It was a useful trait in her profession, for when her clients were spent, and she was expected to lay with them for the rest of the night. Now, it would spare her from feeling the slow passage of time like a clock counting down. Inara woke hours later, tangled in her sheets from her disconcerting dreams. She woke gradually—so gradually, that it took a while for her to realize that it hadn’t been the autopilot alert that had woken her on the shuttle’s arrival in Vaughan’s Ring. Not enough time had passed for that, or so her internal clock told her. She was still ninety percent asleep when she felt fingers gently combing through her hair. Instinctively, before she even remembered where she was, she knew that they did not belong to a client—she had not been sleeping next to one. “Kaylee…? Is that you…?” And that was finally the moment that Inara came fully awake. Her eyes snapped open wide as everything came into focus and she knew that she was supposed to be very much alone. She jumped to her feet, forgetting any semblance of composure. Her hair fell against her shoulder like a single, wide sheet, and she blinked when she realized that it had been plaited into an intricate, flat braid with an almost mathematical precision. Her intruder was sitting by her bedside, smiling up at her with childlike glee. “I think your hair looks really pretty like that,” River said.

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