Disclaimers : Everything belongs to Joss, except for one character of my creation.

**Mousing over the Chinese should reveal the English translations on most browsers. If not, translations follow the story.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mal grimaced and slapped a mosquito off his arm as he crouched in the brush outside the station. Ruttin’ bugs anyway. He had never developed a fondness for insects, that was for sure. How he’d ended up owning a ship named after one...

Pearl was right; the tree cover and underbrush were very dense, and Mal was having a hard time even seeing the building from where he was hidden. He was glad to have Wash and Book high in Serenity ’s cockpit, where they were able to observe what he could not.

He could hear Jayne and Zoë moving about as Jayne boosted Zoë to the roof. Mal shifted position on cramped legs, and readjusted his holster. He carried a rifle and had his service pistol on his hip. According to Pearl, there shouldn’t be anyone about, but one could never be sure in such a place as this, and Mal felt it best to be well armed.

There had been no sign of life as they landed and disembarked Serenity . As Pearl had said, the station sat by itself quite a piece from the tiny town it serviced, with nothing but a small dirt road and a lot of wooded land in between. Getting in and out without being noticed seemed like it should be a cake job, and Mal had said as much to the crew.

He rose to his feet and stretched, certain there was no one about to observe him. All was quiet by the station now; from a standing position he could see the roof, and see that there was no sign of Zoë up there. She was most likely already inside, probably heading for the door to let Jayne in.

Suddenly Mal heard a loud rustle behind the station, followed by a thud, as if something had hit the ground. He craned his neck, instinctively readying his gun. A couple softer rustles followed the first one, the