“Dock 7E” said Mal, addressing the rest of the crew, “meet back here in 2, Me, Jayne and Zoë are gonna meet up with our contact, Kenton, stay with the ship.”

As they, turned and walked away Zoë leaned across to Mal and whispered “Do you really trust him alone with the ship?”

“No, that’s why you’re going to stay behind and watch him discretely, I’ll take Jayne, can’t have him watching his cousin.”

“Understood sir” she replied, peeling off just out of sight of the ship to take up a tactical position on the outside of the docking bay area.

Back in the ship Simon and Kaylee walked down the ramp, unknowingly being watched from the gantry above. “So Mr Tam, what do you want to do with this time?” asked Kaylee, hanging on his left arm, looking up with a huge grin.

“I suppose we could wander about town a bit, try find somewhere remotely nice to eat.”

“Simon! Not everywhere on these worlds is that bad, besides it’ll be better than the protein mix we’ve been eating recently.”

“I suppose, but don’t forget the last time I ate in an establishment on a border world I felt ill and then got beat up and dragged about by one of Jaynes insane ex-comrades.”

Kaylee giggled, “quit yer whining and come on” she said, half dragging him out the hatch.

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“What we doin in this ruttin FAY-FAY duh PEE-yen of a backwater town anyway,” asked Jayne to Mal “there aint enough money here for a gorram popsicle, let alone the sort of cash we’re after.”

Mal mumbled something under his breath then said “it’s way outta Alliance interest, no-one but us and locals about n they no better an t meddle in affairs that aint theirs to meddle in, leave it to me, I got a plan.”

“Why does that not fill me with hope and joy for the near future, or the future at all? Was it part of the plan to leave Zoë to guard Kenton and leave us a hand short for the meet? Either I guard and you go in alone or we both go in and ant got no backup”

“Look, we go in, we get the job, we leave, whyd they be troubling us before we even got the job done? It’ll be fine.”

Jayne thought a while, though not too hard, he didn’t want to overwork it, he’d already done a load of thinking today about something his cousin said and his brain hurt a bit now. Rounding a corner they entered a deep patch of cool shade, very unusual for a world with as direct sunlight and much Carbon Dioxide as this one, the terraforming was still working on that but was far from complete. They passed through a small tunnel and were met at the other side by a pair of guards who escorted them into another small side passage and down some stairs to what could only be described as a lair.

It was not large, maybe 5 metres square with alcoves, doors or the stairs they had come down on each wall, the passages they could see down faded into obscurity within meters of the room, which itself was less than amazingly lit. The walls were a murky dark brown with highlights of black, dark green and brown, as was the floor and ceiling. The brightest piece of colour in room was a lighter than the rest patch of green just off to their right, it may well have been alive, it was difficult to tell. The only light came from a single ageing light panel off in a far corner which, with the furniture, guards and other assorted items Mal didn’t care to get to know the use of, cast eerie, dancing (due to the fluctuating power) shadows across everywhere. It was also oppressively humid in there, to go from the scorching dry heat above to the warm humidity in here had been a welcome change at first but now it was becoming just as bad if not worse. Mal also couldn’t understand how it could be so different down here but figured there must be some serious kit somewhere doing it. It was a den of thieves and no mistake.

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“This is gos se” thought Kenton in his guest room “why do I have to get stuck with the ship, screw that hwoon dahn I’m going out.” He left his bunk and walked through into the lower seating area where River was staring vacantly at the backs of her hands held out in front of her face. He went past and up the small steps to the main hold.

“You can’t leave the ship” River suddenly piped up.

“And you can’t tell me what to do” snapped Kenton “I‘ve heard stories about you but you don‘t scare me.”

“You should do, I stabbed Jayne, slash, right across the chest.”

“Yeah well, who said I’m going out anyway, I may just be going to the hold.”

“You did, you called the captain a hwoon dahn and decided to go out.”

“Don’t you DARE read my mind you little bun hoe-tze biao-tze!” shouted Kenton.

“OK”, said River, very clamly, “I’ll just do this.”

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They could see their counterpart, but not his face, he was sat across from them in front of the only light source in the room, at least he was in front of not behind the light so they stood a chance should something happen, although there was no way to even guess how deep the tunnels around ran or how many people were stationed down there. As it happened they were abut to find out. Their counterpart stood up and walked towards a corridor, the guards who had led them in motioning them to follow.

“Now wait a sec” started Mal, “we didn’t come here for the tour, word has it you got work and I’m here to take it off your hands, nice and simple, no need for the dramatics.”

Their counterpart continued walking, completely ignoring them. The guard behind Mal shoved the barrel of his gun into his back to get him moving, he moved but not as the guard expected.

“If that touches me again” warned Mal as he span to face the guard, grabbing the gun out his hands as he did so “I will shove it somewhere with even less natural light than there is in this go tsao de guay-yen”.

That caught the counterparts attention.

He stopped and slowly began to turn towards Mal, he was apparently very fond of this pit. While Mal was focused on watching this his guard made the very foolish mistake of attempting to grab his gun back, these were obviously new recruits, they hadn’t even bothered to search either Jayne or Mal on entry and now they would have to pay for this and that mistake.

Mal slammed the butt of the gun square in the guards face, knocking him clean out as Jayne effortlessly drew his knife and span round, slitting the throat of his guard before he could even react. He completed the turn to see the other guards raising their weapons and their counterpart disappearing down a tunnel. Very quickly they decided they didn’t want to hang around to find out just how many guards were here and both dove back down the passage to the stairs. Jayne drew two grenades and threw them back into the room, judging by the distinct lack of a reaction from anyone the gloom mast have paid off as cover for something. By this point Mal was already running up the stairs backwards, firing randomly over Jaynes head. Jayne screamed at Mal to stop so he could get up with his head then himself started firing into the room, just as the grenades went off.

Caught as they were in a small passage off a small room with 2 grenades going off a stream of fire burst down the passage briefly, reaching Jayne as he threw himself over and covered his head, at least it should give them a few moments to get away. He was burnt, though not badly and with a hand from Mal he stood up and ran.

They ran out the passage and into the bright sunlight, blinded by the light they were slowed for a moment dazzled by the sun. The scorching heat to Jayne litteraly felt like going from the fire to the frying pan and his burns were not enjoying it. Running headlong blindly forwards Mal pulled out his comm unit and shouted down it.

“Kaylee? Simon? You there?”

“Hey, cap’n everything shiny?” came back the cheerful reply of Kayleee.

“No everything is NOT shiny, I need you to get back to the ship right now and prep for an immediate take off. Zoë? You too, and tell Kenton to get up in his chair.”

“Understood sir” came the reply “can I assume we wont be working this weekend.”

“You can, did anyone else leave the ship”

“No sir, no-one moved.”

“Good, were on our way back, should be there in a minute.”

“Cap’n, they’re on to us” warned Jayne as bullets started whizzing past, Mal dove down a random side alley and Jayne followed suit.

“Sir”, Zoë suddenly, “I just got in and found Kenton.”

“How dya mean ‘found’ him?”

“He’s slumped outside the infirmary unconscious.”

“Gorram it! Alright, get the doc to take a look at him when he’s back and get upstairs and start the ship.”

They ran on for a few more minutes, occasionally throwing shots back over their shoulders an almost constant supply of shots heading their way miraculously hitting neither or them, the heat of the sun draining their energy constantly. They weaved their way round the town, trying to loose their pursuers, unsure of exactly where they were headed. Just as they felt they couldn’t run any further, they saw the spaceport and managed to pick up the pace, seeming to have lost the men chasing them but not wanting to take any chances. They ran through to the ship and up the ramp, Mal slapping the door shut and shouting “GO!” at the same time down the intercom. They both slumped to the floor exhausted as the doctor came through from the infirmary to check on them.

“We’re fine doc’” Mal informed him, “just a little over exercised, how’s our pilot?”

“He seems fine, according to the readings he’s just asleep, although his REM level is raised.”

“Doc, dumb talk please.”

“He’s dreaming a lot, and I can’t wake him.”

“Keep trying, I’ll be in the bridge.”

Mal pulled himself up on the door controls, waving off a hand from Simon, Jayne just lay on the floor breathing heavily. Choosing to go via the lower living area to sneak a glance at Kenton the captain made his way up to the bridge, relieving Zoë, he may not be brilliant but he was the best pilot he wanted flying at the moment.

“Zoë, go check on Kenton and the doc.”

“’Aye sir”, the disapproval thinly disguised in her voice.”

After about an hour of flight, Mal still unsure of where exactly to go but confidently flying as if he had a clue, the doctor entered.

“How’s our patient?”

“He’s the same as before, Jaynes with him now.”

“Don’t sound too Jayne like, caring, for a person.”

“No, well he’s there, anyway, that’s not what I came here for, I’ve looked and asked all over, have you seen River?”

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Chinese used (I don’t speak Chinese so these are hacked together from existing series phrases as best as I could, they may not make complete grammatical sense and I apologise now):

FAY-FAY duh PEE-yen = baboons ass crack gos se = crap hwoon dahn = bastard bun hoe-tze biao-tze = stupid monkey whore go tsao de guay-yen = dog-humping Hell hole