“He bothers me.”

“You said that first time we met Wash.”

“I know that sir, but this guy REALLY bothers me.”

Captain Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds and his first officer Zoë Washburne sat facing each other in the small but surprisingly adequate main dining area aboard the Firefly class transport vessel Serenity, eating what looked, and, if Jayne Cobb was to be believed, tasted, like dirt.

“We’re not exactly Alliances most favourite people right about now and they’re still looking for the two most wanted downstairs, I really don’t think a new crew member is a good idea.”

“I don’t myself but we don’t ‘ave many options, he’s no Wash but he’s the best on the ship, excepting maybe that little genius we have and there aint no way I’m putting her in charge of Serenity. He‘ll have to do for now.”

“I like him” said Jayne, passing through on his way to the bridge.

The object of their discussion was sat up in that very same bridge, the control centre of the ship, carefully navigating their way to the moon of Talgos, still another 3 days out but requiring all his attention to avoid anyone elses. His name was Kenton and was quite possibly what Jayne would be had he learnt to fly instead of shoot. He was a thug and a merc and yet at the same time a getaway pilot and proud of it. He could complete a run from Persephone to Osiris in less than three days, or so he claimed, of course not in this ship when asked to prove it - ‘Fireflys ain‘t got the speed‘. He had now been on the ship almost 5 weeks and in that time very little had changed, life had become a little too routine. Mal and Zoë would debate the new recruit while Jayne talked with him, he had said barely 10 words to some other members of the crew and the divisions were starting to show.

After the retrofit Mal had flown the ship for a while but due to a narrow escape from the law 2 months ago the need for a pilot for fast getaways from deals became all too apparent. And that’s where Kenton came in. After weeks of looking round to no avail they were