“See, this is why I don’t like it when the captain takes Zoe one these things” Wash raged. He, Jayne, Kaylee, Book, Simon and river were all in the lounge by the infirmary.

“I can’t think of many jobs which he hasn’t taken Zoe on” Kaylee said unhelpfully.

“I know!” said Wash “Why couldn’t he have taken Jayne?”

“Hey!” Jayne said. “What use would that have done? Wouldn’t be any less not here, we’d still have to go lookin’ for ‘em”

“Yeah” said Wash “But that would be one less crewmember who would be in favor of leavin’ them, and one more useful brain. Oh no, I forgot, they have still have the payment, don’t they? And I would venture a guess that you’ll be wanting that”

“Well hey, you would too if you’d had to lead them gorram llamas all ‘round that country side. Didn’t we have a deal where we wasn’t gonna deal in live stock no more?” Behind Jayne’s back, Simon mouthed “I can put him out” and mimed a poking Jayne with a syringe. Kaylee giggled, but Wash looked no happier.

“Where is that Kuh-oo duh lao bao-jun of a captain?” Inara’s voice wafted down the stairwell.

“He was supposed to be back an hour ago, wasn’t he? Or did the plan change?” she asked, her voice filled with sarcasm. Wash looked like he was about to answer angrily, but Book interjected

“The captain and Zoe are over two hours late, we have been discussing the best course of action”. Fear and worry flickered across Inara’s face for the briefest of moments, before she answered

“No doubt there was a squabble over half a credit, and he killed someone” she said, distaste in her voice. She turned to go back to her shuttle, then turned and added

“If- if I can be helpful in, ah, retrieving the captain, please, let me know…” Kaylee nodded, looking as cheerful as ever.

“We’ll let you pull him out, so then he’ll owe ya a favor” she beamed.

“So, this is quite a little movement you’ve got going here” Mal said when Fade had finished laughing. It was becoming apparent that this was no little misunderstanding which he could explain his way out of.

“If you don’t mind my asking, how is it that you know of me? I don’t think I remember ever serving with a Fade”. Fade chuckled, looking positively thrilled with himself.

“You run in the right circles, and names slip out, names of browncoats what didn’t much like loosing. Names of browncoats what still got a deal of fight in ‘em. You were quite something in the war from what I hear, and didn’t exactly lay down and die once we’d lost, either. Now that- that is the kind of man I need for this little operation. As you can see we’ve got more here then folks know of. Enough, im thinking, that once we take ‘em by surprise, we’ll have a chance. That’s where you come in- you’ll be my main tactician.

“Uh… yeah, I’m flattered…” mal said, unsure what to do. Zoe was wearing a look of vague amusement.

“I expect your tiered, and this will take proper planning, anyway” fade Said

“So I’ll have Py here find you an’ miss Zoe a tent, and update you on the situation, and we’ll intro you to the troops tomorrow morning. Ah, and tomorrow night, there shall be a grand council…” Fade’s eyes were shining and he looked for a moment like he had completely forgotten Mal’s existence.

“This way, sir” Mal looked around and saw the man Fade had called Pyrites motioning for them to follow. He lad them through the maze of tents to a good-sized tent close to the wall and relatively far from any of the others. Inside there was a lantern, two bedrolls, and a small stool and table. Pyrites lay a stack of documents on the table, bowed, and left.

“Well. That’s… somthin” Mal said.

“Do you have a plan, sir?” Zoe asked.

“I surly do! You’ll go in through the air vent and disable the alarms, the rest of us will propel down ropes, we’ll be in and out in five minutes and then vanish into the night.”

“Oh! Did you mean a relevant plan?” Mal asked in mock surprise, seeing Zoe’s look

“Nope, not a one, I’m lost”

“Seems to be happening more and more, sir”

“Hey!” Mal stretched out on his bed, and pulled the stack of papers towards him. It was a list of happenings since the initiation of this “rebellion” over a year ago. He remembered that nothing of the kind had come up on the cortex until a few months ago.

“Tzao gao!” Mal exclaimed.

“This whole thing is luh-suh! Maddness! Only reason they’ve lasted this long is no one cared enough to do anything about them!” he shook his head in shock.

“What in hell do they expect us to do?”

“Is it really that bad?” Zoe asked.

“Come see for yourself! Their ‘big victory’ was blowing up one food shipment. One. ‘an they’d have been the ones eating most of that too!” Zoe grabbed a hunk of the paper and rifled through it, glancing at reports of food, ammunition and troop numbers and placement.

“They’ve got supporters aplenty, it seems” she commented.

“May be we could make somthin’ out of this, if they listen. I assume we’ll play along, at least for now, sir?”

“Well, I don’t see as getting us shot down is gonna help, so yeah, we’ll play along.” Mal picked up a blank sheet of paper and a pen, and began laying out new troop deployment plans and battle tactics. This whole crazy scheme might just have a shot.

“Sleep well Mei-Mei” Simon whispered to River as he pulled a blanket over her.

“Underground, can’t tell night from day” River muttered. Simon slid the door to her room shut gently, and almost bumped into Kaylee as he turned around.

“Oh! S-sorry, Kaylee, didn’t mean to run into you” he said hastily.

“Not even a little?” Kaylee asked without thinking, and then mentally gasped and cursed herself.

“No!” Simon said, misinterpreting.

“I just- didn’t see you is all. Sorry…”

“All right, well, throw me a bone here…” Kaylee said quietly to herself as Simon walked off. For a doctor, he ain’t too bright, she thought. Deciding to go keep Wash company, she mounted the stairs and made her way up to the nose of Serenity. She found Wash slouching in his chair staring off into space.

“Any word from Inara and Book?” She asked. Wash looked around, shaken out of his musings.

“Yeah, a few minutes ago, no luck with the authorities. Apparently they were shown a list of about 500 drifters who’ve been snatched in the last month. Anyway, they’re gonna look around a bit, and head back if nothing comes up.” He louched in the chair looking dejected.

“It’ll be ok” Kaylee said, trying to sound more sure then she felt.

“They always come back, right? Zoe’s tough, she’ll make it. Ten to one she comes back without a scratch, draggin’ the captain’s unconscious body” She said with a grin.