The Inner Circle by Jason C. Clement.

Based AFTER the events of SERENITY (2005). SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN.

Read at your own risk.

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Chapter I

"Remarkable!" He only grinned. Before him, strapped to something that resembled a chair, sat a half naked man. The room was illuminated faintly, and readings of unknown and unimaginable proportions were being read on every monitor around the room. "He's a super weapon." The Alliance inspector grinned with great enjoyment. Somehow, the thought of a super human at his control made him giddy with joy. It wasn't right, he knew that much. But nothing about this job every was exactly right. "When will he be ready for deployment?" he asked. "Oh, he's ready. Physically. Mentally, he's as unstable as our last project..." "But he will find her?" "Yes, of course...that's what he's programmed for." He nodded, and stared at the man with a blank look on his face. "Good...good. Just the way I like it." The doctor, if you could really call him that, nodded. "I knew the Parliment would be happy with this..." "Yes, of course. Our last man for the job was...a failure. Half our fleet is gone, and our name has been disgraced across the galaxy. But...now we will have our revenge. We will have her back."

****

Another explosion went off. And he ran further into the dark. Around him was only fire and misty clouds of smoke. What a horrible heist gone wrong. He saw his ship in the distance, coming towards him. And then, he saw it burst into flames. Alliance ships were all over the place. What in hell had his job been, he wondered? What was hidden in that complex that the Alliance wanted hidden so badly? His crew was dead -- and somehow, he didn't seem to care at the moment. There was only one goal now; keep running. Keep alive. Into the black he ran further, and further, until he couldn't see fire anymore. Even then, he continued to run. He heard a noise behind him, coming up fast. He looked behind. Some kind of floating platform was coming at him full speed. He drew his gun, and aimed for the first visible body, and pulled the trigger. The platform swerved, and came to a stop. He looked around, and carefully made his way to the shadowed machine. He looked at the body. It was an Alliance soldier, he was sure of that. Throwing the corpse off the floating machine, he took a minute to regain his bearings. His crew had recieved a wave, and given a large paycheck toll if they would do one simple thing. Break into the Alliance complex on Cyraena and download the library. Didn't seem so hard. What would the Alliance be hiding on a drift world in the middle of nowhere? Obviously, something bigger than he had expected. The Alliance had instantly responded to the alarms; and within minutes half his crew had been gunned down. The other half had made a mad run for their ship. He however, stuck with the plan. He got maybe half the library, at best, downloaded into a little chip, hidden in his jacket pockets. His ship was now gone, and his grew was, without a doubt, dead. He didn't like the way things were turning out for him at the moment. He looked behind him. The Alliance fighters seemed to be thinning out, and the noise and panic level had died down. Taking a glance at the controls, he picked his guess, and hoped for the best. The craft shot forward at a high speed. Learning to control it rather quickly -- he was, after all, a pilot -- he began towards the first location he could think of. Hoito, 'the drifter' town. Maybe if he was lucky he could seek refuge there, and a ship off this world before the Alliance found him and what he had.

****

"Sit down." Mal did what he was told for once, and sat down on the medical bed. Simon was going through his medical supplies to find something. The wounds done on Mal by the sword still weren't fully healed, and daily checkups had been ordered. "What'll it be, doc?" Simon was silent, running a few scans on the captain, before turning on a viewer. The readings flashed before him, and after a quick observation, he shrugged and turned to Mal. "You're fine, as far as I can tell," Simon said with a satisfied smile. "As far as you can tell?" "Well, there's only so much I can do on Serenity. But it shouldn't be anything too serious if there is something still wrong." "What's your idea of 'not too serious', exactly?" Mal asked, a bit worried. Simon shrugged with a smile, "Nothing I can't take care of." "Somehow that doesn't reassure me," Mal finished off the conversation. Mal got up, and made his way through the ship to the cockpit. Once there, he sat himself at Wash's old chair. It felt empty in the room, and he still felt saddened at the loss. He could only imagine what was going through Zoe's mind lately. He moved the dinosaurs around for awhile, before River gave him one of her looks from the other pilots chair. He was immediatly in an all business, no bullshit demeanor. "Status?" he asked in the most authoritative tone of voice he could muster. "Ten minutes out from Cyraena," River responded. It sounded intriguingly weird to hear her answer a sentence like a military officer, or a man under his command. But Mal thought it was for the best, if she really wanted to prove she was part of this crew, and not the stowaway she had been for so long. "Good, good. Send a wave to Hoito, and try and get a hold of Mina Elvaro," Mal said. River took this information in, and began her new task. Mal got out of his chair, and then walked to the very back of the ship. He entered the engine room just as Simon was leaving, and threw Kaylee off with his question. "How's she running?" Kaylee stared at him, before making a few futile attempts at saying anything. She then scrambled around the engine room for about thirty seconds, before waving at the captain, "Everythin's shiny, cap'n." "Keep it shiny, Kaylee. We're on a low budget still." Kaylee nodded, and Mal then walked back to the cockpit. Jayne was there now, seemingly interested in the viewers. "Who's River talkin' to on wave, Mal?" "Mina," Mal said. Then blinked. "You're talking to Mina, right?" River shook her head, "We're on hold," she said calmly, obviously mocking whomever had put them on standby. Just then the viewers flashed on, showing a picture of a beautiful young, what looked to be, mexican woman. "You contacted me?" "Yes we did," Mal said. "I am Malcom Reynolds, you said you may have a job for us to do?" "I do," she responded in a calm manner. "We will discuss this when you land at Hoito." Mal nodded, "I look forward to it." The transmission ended, and the cockpit went eerily silent. "I don't like trustin' folks we haven't ever met, Mal," Jayne said, and went to get ready. Which, in Jayne's terms, basically meant arming himself for a war. Kaylee looked at Mal. "I...I'll start the ship's check up." "Good," Mal said. Kalyee left, and the captain turned his attention to River. She was silent, as usual, but her outlook was unusually disturbing. "I want to come," River stated. Mal didn't question this comment, instead, he just nodded. Her help would be well used. "Good."

****

It had been a long week. He hadn't found refuge easy, but when he did, he was thankful. Avoiding Mina was not an easy task either. If found, he would be killed instantly. "Archalyas!" He spun his head around to see the woman who had given him refuge. "Yes?" Archalyas answered. "They're coming..." Damnit! He looked around the room, and then to the back exit. Mina's men had found him at last. He drew his gun, and nodded. "Stall them, if you can." He then quickly exited out the back, running into the streets. By the time they found out he wasn't there, he was deep within the city of Hoito. He could hear a riot behind him. They were coming for him; and fast. He quickly squeezed his way through a very narrow back alley, and into the nearest bar. He quickly blended in. And then he noticed Mina in a corner, talking to three clients. A rather big man, a rather young girl, and a man with the worst fashion statement he had ever seen. His day seemed to just get worse.

****

"It's like this. The Alliance is withholding information from the public, and we simply want you to go into the complex, retrieve the information, and get out," Mina stated. "When does the 'simple' part come in? I ain't thinkin' this'll be exactly simple," Jayne said, wishing he had his weapons right now. "And when is the Alliance not withholding information from the public?" Mal put in. "This information is bigger than before." "Says who?" Jayne asked. "A client," Mina responded. Mal pondered for a second, then asked, "So you want us to risk our lives stealing from the Alliance on the fact that a random, probably drunk, client said that this complex was hiding something?" "That is what she's gettin' at, Mal." Mina was silent. "If you don't want the job, that is perfectly well with me. I got others willing to do it." "Hey now, don't be rushin'. We haven't said no yet," Mal said, then turned to Jayne and the extremely silent River. "Can we have a second to discuss this?" Mina got up, and walked away from their table to give them a chance to discuss the proposition. "She can't be trusted," River said softly. "I think we got that one, little missy. Thanks f'r tryin'," Jayne said, then turned to Mal, waiting for him to say something. "Well?" Mal was silent, then glanced at River. She could read minds. Her insight would probably prove the most important. "I say we let River choose." "What?" Jayne asked, somewhat startled. "I said we let River choose," Mal said. "River?" She was completely silent, and a bit zoned out, like she was reading something. Which, she probably was. She shrugged, "She doesn't know what it is. She gets the information, and she'll sell it for money." Mal nodded, "Well..." A loud crack resounded in the room. Gunfire. They turned to see Mina collapse to the ground. Suddenly the bar was a riot. And through the backdoor a group of atleast a dozen or more armed men broke into the bar. And they were hunting for something. Or someone. "This is gonna get messy!" Jayne said, stating the obvious. Jayne, at an amazing speed, retrieved his weapons, and a gun for Mal, and River. River looked at the gun quite oddly, but kept it. The bar was in a riot. They moved through the gunfire -- both armed men and civilians falling to the ground. Alliance police detachments were already on the scene, without much effect. And suddenly, it seemed the whole bar was interested in killing the three of them. Jayne took out two men on either side, and then an Alliance guard to boot. River was content knocking them out, quite rapidly, in a dance of fury. Mal didn't even notice a gun at his head until it was too late. He looked around and a barrel was aimed right at his face. "Stupid lil hick," the man at the other end said, as he loaded the gun. But before he could press the trigger, he fell to the ground, a bullet in the back of his head. And odd man came running at them, dressed in a black leather trench coat. "You got a ship?" "Yeah," Mal said. "I suggest we get to it," the man said. "We?" "Do you want to live?" Without another word, the group of now four quickly found their way out of the bar, and then found themselves running very quickly through the town of Hoito. The entire town seemed to be in a riot now. When did people start shooting other people over a woman they didn't know? Mal didn't care to know that answer, or why. Finding the complex, the four slipped inside the building. Running through the security checkouts, they boarded Serenity. "Jayne, find a nice room for our guest." "Why?" Jayne asked smugly. "He did save my life," Mal pointed out. Jayne sighed, and complied. River and Mal made their ways to the cockpit, and quickly started Serenity up, with a quick complaint from Kaylee. "Cap'n, I haven't checked her out yet!" "Of course you haven't," Mal said. Too busy with Simon, no doubt. But that wasn't his place to be prodding around in, nor his business. "Make sure the engine runs, that's all." "That you can count on, cap'n." Mal nodded with a slight grin. "Know any good hiding places?" River stared at him. "Space." He didn't comment on that, and instead concentrated on getting Serenity off the ground. Once in the air, he quickly got them off the planet, and on a rapid course away from the planet. Leaving River to attend to the flying, he quickly found Jayne, and his new passenger. "I believe you've got some explaining to do."