“He bothers me.”

“You said that first time we met Wash.”

“I know that sir, but this guy REALLY bothers me.”

Captain Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds and his first officer Zoë Washburne sat facing each other in the small but surprisingly adequate main dining area aboard the Firefly class transport vessel Serenity, eating what looked, and, if Jayne Cobb was to be believed, tasted, like dirt.

“We’re not exactly Alliances most favourite people right about now and they’re still looking for the two most wanted downstairs, I really don’t think a new crew member is a good idea.”

“I don’t myself but we don’t ‘ave many options, he’s no Wash but he’s the best on the ship, excepting maybe that little genius we have and there aint no way I’m putting her in charge of Serenity. He‘ll have to do for now.”

“I like him” said Jayne, passing through on his way to the bridge.

The object of their discussion was sat up in that very same bridge, the control centre of the ship, carefully navigating their way to the moon of Talgos, still another 3 days out but requiring all his attention to avoid anyone elses. His name was Kenton and was quite possibly what Jayne would be had he learnt to fly instead of shoot. He was a thug and a merc and yet at the same time a getaway pilot and proud of it. He could complete a run from Persephone to Osiris in less than three days, or so he claimed, of course not in this ship when asked to prove it - ‘Fireflys ain‘t got the speed‘. He had now been on the ship almost 5 weeks and in that time very little had changed, life had become a little too routine. Mal and Zoë would debate the new recruit while Jayne talked with him, he had said barely 10 words to some other members of the crew and the divisions were starting to show.

After the retrofit Mal had flown the ship for a while but due to a narrow escape from the law 2 months ago the need for a pilot for fast getaways from deals became all too apparent. And that’s where Kenton came in. After weeks of looking round to no avail they were contacted by an old friend regarding an ace pilot who had just been released and was looking to get straight back into the game. While the premise was none too reassuring the recommendations stood up so they went for the meet. The first impression anyone got of Kenton was his size. To describe him as a giant would be an overstatement, but to deny it would be wrong. He was well built and had fair height to go with it, not quite tipping 2 metres, dark hair cut so short he was almost bald and a long black coat which was practically welded to his skin. Were anyone to see him flying a ship they would laugh out loud (unless, of course, they were within ear shot of him), he was not the type you would expect to see in a pilots couch and yet there he was, knees up in the control panel, doing what he did best.

“About gorram time” said Kenton to Jayne as he entered the bridge, not even looking back “you got her?”

“Yep“ Jayne replied, “here she is, best gun in the ‘verse my Vera, when we due in anyhow? Vera’s getting twitchy, wants to shoot me something.”

“Still 3 days out yet, you know what it is we’re going in for?”

“Mal said something about fencing something off a posh tart but he’s keeping very hush, some’ins up, I know it, he’s never this secretive about stuff.”

“He don’t trust me, I know it, worried I’ll sell him out afore we get there.”

“Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if you did, don’t mean I don’t trust you far as I can throw you.”

“What?”

“Hell if I know you flyboy freak.”

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“Simon?” called River, glancing all around as she moved from the lower living area to the main hold “SIMON?” She had been seeing slowly less and less of him since he and Kaylee got together, she knew he didn’t mean any harm by it but when her best friend was the other half of said couple she was often left feeling quite alone. It was by no means as bad as it used to be, she was feeling a lot better since Miranda and she and Zoë had started talking more, two ‘leftovers’ grouping together but Zoë still had Mal and the differences were significant. She turned to climb the steps towards the shuttles when she saw him. He wasn’t in the hold, he wasn’t even in an adjacent room with a gap between, he was over in Kaylees room with Kaylee and strawberries, there was an image of her brother she wished she could loose fast. Her mental abilities seemed to be stabilising a bit, she couldn’t directly control them yet but they were more channelled, almost controlled subconsciously, like now she was wanted to find her brother and they helped, although the timing could have been far better.

Heading back down to her room River thought about recent events and how they had upset the balance aboard the ship. Shepard Book and hers relationship, although sometimes rocky was one she had often felt comforted by, they had been building a relationship, she knew she was by far not the easiest person to get along with and did appreciate all the effort people had put in for her, even if she couldn’t show it. She wished all these thoughts and actions could just be gone, would just go away and leave her to live as a normal girl. She thought about Inara, she had seen Rivers recent loneliness, it probably screamed out to a body language expert, and had stepped in even more than before as a friend to her, but she had been off accompanying men for the last few weeks about the core. It wasn’t she begrudged Simon having a life of his own for once, she owed him everything and loved him dearly and Kaylee, her best friend, had the man she had wanted since she first met him, how could she be unhappy for either of them, but where did it leave her?

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“River?” queried Simon, sitting bolt upright on Kaylees bunk.

“Simon?” asked Kaylee, wondering what on Earth that was had caused his sudden action “what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, I thought I heard River calling me, but not heard, more felt, as if she was in my head, I better go check on her.”

“You’re probably right, I’ll, err, clear up these bits then come down.”

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Serenity flew through the pitch black of space, what most people would call an inanimate object but still somehow solemn and gloomy. The laughter and warmth which had once rung throughout was scare now, the crew seemed to exist in their own little worlds, their own little groups and not get on as they once did. She still ran, Kaylee still took care of her and Mal still loved her as his own but the new pilot didn’t, to him she was a ship, a horrible, sluggish, outdated ship at that. He knew the crew loved her but when they were asleep he would push her, see what she could take, barrel rolls, harsh banking turns and other extreme manoeuvres a ship like that was not designed to take, what did he care, he was the hired help, if this ship broke, he’d move on, simple.

Serenity hated Kenton Cobb.