Read: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8

-----

Inara stirred. Emergency lights cast flickering shadows across the small cabin. She ran her hand over the empty mat that lay next to her. It was cold; the shepherd had left some time ago.

Inara turned to see River sitting up, her head tilted sideways as if straining to catch words from a distant conversation, or a fleeting dream.

"River?"

"Daddy's home," River whispered.

The ship lurched suddenly; confused voices of waking passengers mingled with the unsettling sound of metal groaning under a terrible weight.

The door slid open and Book stepped through. "It's the Alliance. We've been ordered to dock by a passing cruiser." He glanced at River, huddled in the corner. "Hide her -- I'll try to buy you some time."

Turning from the departing shepherd, Inara surveyed their spartan accommodations. This was no Firefly. Even in the main passenger dorm, there would be nowhere to hide.

River wrapped her arms around herself, slender fingers digging relentlessly into her bare shoulders. "Don't let them take me!"

Inara knelt to comfort her but River recoiled from Inara's touch, pressing her slight frame against the wall. "I don't want to go back! They'll make me see things, hear things --” She lifted her head, her intense gaze penetrating the wild tangle of her hair.

Inara had comforted broken men before. Men who had experienced the terrors of war, who had faced their own capacity for brutality. None of them had held the kind of haunted look in their eyes that River did.

The distant shouting was growing steadily closer.

"I don't want to go back." River's gaze was at once fierce and subtly hypnotic. Inara could scarcely break eye contact as footsteps approached, loud and precise. Military.

Inara came to a decision. She would not give River over to that torture. Not when it was within her power to prevent it. She reached into her bag and withdrew a small box.

The footsteps came to a halt outside their door. Book's muffled protestations were met with the sound of several guns being cocked.

Inara opened the case, revealing a syringe. And a vial of black liquid.

River cocked her head, the fear in her eyes replaced by curiosity.

"I won't let them take you," whispered Inara, blinking away tears as she filled the syringe and injected River's arm.

-----

Continue to Part 10