Author’s Note: This is the eighth entry in my thus far endless series about the crew of Serenity three years after we last saw them in “Objects in Space”. The previous seven entries are “The Tall”, “Serenity Waits”, “Just a Few Small Gorram Details”, “Fertile Ground”, “All So Sudden”, “To Whitefall”, and “Time for a Good Ole Riddlin’ Full-a-Holes”. I’ll give people who have not read them a rundown. Serenity has fled from Persephone to Whitefall, because a convoy of well-armed ships is chasing them. Since they were desperate to get away, they had to leave Inara and Book behind on Persephone. Now, in desperation, they are trying a daring maneuver to escape by getting dangerously close to a tornado. River has now recovered to the point where she routinely uses her abilities to help her shipmates escape from dicey situations. This seemingly suicidal plan was her idea. I think that is enough to get you by. Here we go . . .

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“That Pesky Little Boat”

LeRoi Early figured he no longer cared about the atrocious things his older brother Jubal did to their dog. He felt some small comfort in the fact that his mother was no longer alive when Jubal was murdered. His killer was now a mile ahead of him. With the bad weather, LeRoi couldn’t see Serenity yet, but he knew she was there. Does that seem right to you? Oh, how he longed for vengeance, to experience that one moment after the murderers have been slain, where it would seem as if his brother was alive yet again. LeRoi saw no way he could fail Jubal. Serenity was a sitting duck.

Of course, River Tam had other plans, “Keep going. Go straight.” Wash did exactly that.

“We’re heading right into it!” Jayne yelled staring at the cyclone. “We’re coming too close; it’ll kill us. We gotta break away!”

“They’ll see us,” said Simon to Jayne. “If we break away now, we’ll never escape. They’ll chase us down.”

Mal was only beginning to regain his composure. This plan was finally starting to make sense.