Mr Universe stared out of the screen at Mal, Wash and Zoe, ‘it’s Alliance and it’s high military. They have gone to enormous trouble to find your little friend – and found her they have. Do you all know what it is you’re carrying?’

‘No,’ Mal admitted, ‘but I guess we’re gonna have to find out - somehow.’

‘There’s a shadow on this, gotta backtrack my memory, yeah that’s it the brother, there was a message for him. Contact home. Can you get that to him?’ Mr Universe asked.

...Kaylee walked in to the infirmary looking for Simon. He was sat on the ledge at the side, his shoulders hunched, depression in his face.

‘Simon, tsai boo shr, you ain’t goin’ home,’ Kaylee insisted, standing in front of him.

‘What else am I going to do Kaylee? Since I’ve been on Serenity, I’ve been kidnapped, arrested, beaten up, shot. River told me things are going to get much, much worse. What if I’ve brought her out here to be killed?’ He rubbed his forehead, trying hard to think.

‘But Simon - ,’ Kaylee started to say.

‘And River,’ Simon interrupted, ‘she’s shot at least three people dead, then maybe more in the Maidenhead. She was ready to shoot the captain if I hadn’t found her, and she might have killed Jayne – every day has its good side,’ he finished, forgetting to laugh at his own joke.

‘But you know it ain’t safe to go back,’ Kaylee argued.

‘They’re my parents Kaylee, if I can’t trust them at all where do River and I stand anyway? Maybe they regret what they did, everyone’s fallible,’ he said.

‘If I knew what it meant I’d agree with you,’ Kaylee teased, but she couldn’t cheer him up.

Mal walked into the room. ‘So you’re going,’ he commented.

Simon nodded.

‘Capt’n they can’t do anything can they? Kaylee pleaded, ‘Simon hasn’t done anything wrong, ‘cept rescue his sister.’

‘Hmmm, he’s got coin from the payroll heist on Lilac,’ reminded Mal, ‘and he set up the St Lucy's job - and he was on board for the Lassiter job. Not bad for a fugitive,’ he pushed the point home.

‘All right, bee-jway,’ said Kaylee covering he