Chapter 1

Malcolm Reynolds walked up to his first and only true love and planted one hand firmly on her backside. ”Now, there are two ways we can do this. One is a lot more pleasant then the other. I leave this to you to decide.”

Responding to her silence Malcolm, Mal to his friends and more often to his enemies, shot her a look that would cause most men’s blood to run cold. She was used to him, however, so the look didn’t faze her at all. He had been hoping by getting a look at this angle, there might be some obvious reason for her hesitation.

“Won’t talk to me, eh? Lucky for you we got Kaylee working inside of you, so you’ll get off and flying soon enough.”

We are not, of course, speaking of any mortal woman. Hell, we aren’t speaking of a woman at all, but a ship. A midbulk transport ship, running with a standard radion accelerator core. Class code 03-K64. A Firefly, named Serenity. She was Malcolm Reynolds beating heart.

And right now, that heart was broken. Or at least a little bruised.

“Kaylee, report,”demanded Mal. While grumpy was not an unusual state of Mal’s being, being stuck on Bernadette made him doubly tetchy. He was too close to the core, and therefore the Alliance.

Kaylee grinned, hair glued to her forehead with grease and sweat,” Can I still blame that compression coil?”

“Sorry, Kaylee, that ship has sailed. Got the scar to prove it.” Mal put on his serious face and furrowed his brow. “Really, what’s wrong with her?”

“She’s okay, just gummed up is all. My guess she got some bad fuel cells last pit stop and she was letting us know she needs to be treated better.”

“How long?”

“45 minutes, Cap. We’ll be back on our merry way.”

“Thanks, Kaylee.”

That’s why I’m Chief Engineer, she thought to herself, smiling. No one else knew she thought of herself like that, and Kaylee liked it just that way. She knew she was appreciated without the big fancy title.

Mal walked into the cargo bay of Serenity looking for Zoë, his first m