Serenity was docked at the Rutledge fuel station, the ship had taken a lot of damage in the attack and they were lucky that Rutledge was close by. It was cheap, small, and out of the way. That meant Mal could risk a week or two if necessary to make repairs without worrying about getting any serious Alliance attention or risking anyone else stumbling across his crew.

"You were hit by Reaver's?" asked the dock owner as he looked at the damage from the grappler.

"Yeah, we were lucky though. No fatalities and only a few serious injuries." said Mal.

"Damn Reaver's are all over the place now. Yours is the 10th ship I've heard of this month been hit. First with any survivors though."

"So how much to repair the hull?" asked Mal a bit impatiently.

"Not too big so I figure 40 plat."

"Done, how long ya reckon it'll take?"

"At least a week I've got 6 ships ahead of yours. We'll get ya done as fast as we can."

Mal nodded and walked off to find Kaylee. He knew the hull repairs would slow him down, but at least with Kaylee they'd be able to keep the engine repairs cheap and get them done quickly.

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"They've got everything we need here Captain." said Kaylee. " but it will still take me a few days or so to get our girl back in the sky."

"A few days? You must be slipping, or maybe your distracted." grinned Mal.

"Hey it ain't that… it's just they did a lot of damage to the engine… and unless you don't want it working right the next time we get in a pinch."

"Calm down Calm down." said Mal. "I was only kidding. The hull's gonna take at least that long so take your time. How's Jayne doing I ain't had time to check in since we docked?"

"Better Simon says he'll be back on his feet soon, but that he should still take it easy. Jayne's getting