See Ch1 for Disclaimers.

Thanks to my beta reader, Neroli.

Chapter 3: Concealed Mutiny

"So Mal hasn't started planning a rescue yet?" Inara asked Zoe as they stood on the catwalk outside her shuttle.

Zoe closed her eyes and mentally asked her Captain to forgive her. Normally she'd let the man take his own time, but they couldn't be sure they had any left to spare in this instance. "So far as I know, no. He's still stuck on what to do with all of them if we managed the impossible."

"So if we can answer that, then he won't have any reason to refuse," Inara suggested.

"Less a one anyway. We'd still have a lot of planning to do and would probably need to find more manpower as well." Zoe sighed. She knew that Mal was hesitant to even broach the topic with any of their old friends. One bad apple and Serenity would be running for the Rim in order to keep River safe. Or even worse, more dead and wounded on the Captain's conscience. This entire fiasco was quickly developing into a nice little nightmare. She wondered if Simon even comprehended how much his sister's predicament weighed on the Captain. Mal had certainly taken more than his share of shifts watching the girl these past few days. "Even if everything magically falls into place in the next week, it would probably be 6 months or a year before we could dare to pull of the job."

Inara pursed her lips as she considered the first mate's words. "Well then, we'd better get everything squared away immediately, right?"

Zoe smiled. Leave it to the Companion to take charge immediately. The Captain would definitely throw a fit when this came out in the open. "You have some ideas, I take it."

Inara nodded and began to explain what she and the Preacher had begun to set in motion.

***

"Zoe, Simon will never tell me that!" Wash protested.

"Which is why Jayne has so selflessly volunteered to help you question h