Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, etc. belong not to me, but to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox, and no money is being made here. The story, however, is mine.

“Yea, as I walk alone through the valley of the shadow of darkness, I shall fear no evil.” Shakespeare said that. From Earth-That-Was. Ripped from the bible. It’s been repeated many a time, often with variation. Story of my life, really. No, I didn’t fight in the war. Hell, my Darkness came to a year after that ended. And to think, had the Darkness come earlier, I would’ve been fighting for the Alliance. Not that I would’ve had much say in the matter. And had the Darkness stayed any longer, I’d be everything Alliance. I am very smart. I was doing orbital calculations at the age of 5, knew all of calculus when I was 6. Finished just about all schooling on Londium physically possible before I hit 10. Unfortunately-

“Eddie!” I looked up. Walking toward me was this striking beauty about my age. For the record, I’m 21. “You dreaming about it again?” she asked. “Guilty.” I was indeed dreaming. I tend to do that sometimes. Think about times before the Darkness. “Yeah,” she interrupted, “well you ain’t got time. The wave came in.” Her name is Libby. She’s been with me, well, for a while now. Except she’s not a she. Er, let me rephrase that for all you feng kuang people out there. She’s not human. Well, she’s as close to human as, well, humanly possible. I’m not helping any, am I? She’s actually a robot I built after the Darkness. Except back then, she looked like one of those old C-3PO models you see in the documentaries from Earth-That-Was. And even then, that’s being nice. On the plus side, she’s come a long way in the past five years. She is very human looking. Hey, you get awful lonely out in the black by yourself. I needed someone, or something, at my side. And it’s not like I chose that body. Or her being female, for that matter. That was all her choice. Although I did have fun upgrading- “EDDIE!” “WHAT!” She lowered her voice. “The wave? Where do you want it?” I looked around. “Uh, here’s fine.” She stared up almost into nothingness, and in a second, the new wave appeared on my computer in my room. “Hey, Tobias.” It was a man named Tobias, a high op in a small underground movement on Osiris. He’s a double agent on the side of the movement. “How’s the overturning of the hated government going?” He looked angry. “You know gorram well that’s not why I’m waving.” “I’m actually surprised you got the wave to go out this far.” “Ugh.” Now he was looking impatient. “Look, everything’s in place.” “You used an Alliance tower uplinked to a government wave-sat.” I got a kick out of that. “I knew I hired you for something.” Except Tobias wasn’t very amused. “You know, I have better things I could be doing!” “Okay, okay.” I was beaten. “Make sure you get the final details from our benefactor. We’ll be orbiting Osiris in about 36 hours, thank god for close orbits this time of year. You do your part. We’ll be there.” “Good. Out.” “So?” Libby walked in at that moment. “Like you didn’t hear,” I told her. “Well, we’re ready to move out on your call.” Libby left my room and headed for the cargo bay. I followed. “Let’s do some anti-Alliance crime!”