Fifth chapter in my series. Enjoy!

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The crew started making a mad dash to the bridge, with Mal and Zoe in the lead. Mal landed in the pilot’s seat while Zoe rushed over to the co-pilot position. Mal pulled up the Navset and started warming the engines, while Zoe looked at the proximity alert.

“Alliance ship,” she said. “Must of fired just before they came into range.”

“Well it’s a good thing they missed,” Mal said as he prepared to remotely disconnect Brian’s ship.

“They didn’t miss.”

Zoe and Mal turned to look at Brian, who was standing against the bulkhead, holding River. Both of them looked as if they’d seen a ghost, which worried Mal more than the missile blast had.

Glancing back at Zoe, Mal asked, “You care to explain that?”

Handing River off to Simon, Brian stepped up next to Mal’s chair. “It was a warning shot, Captain. If we try to run, they will shoot us down.”

As if to punctuate his point, a message came over the coms. “Firefly-class Serenity, you will shut your engines down immediately. I repeat. Firefly-class Serenity, you will shut your engines down immediately.”

“Yea, yea, I here you,” Mal said as he cut power. “Zoe?”

“It’s odd sir,” Zoe said as she stared at one of the screens. “They’re not moving any closer. And it looks like a standard patrol boat, but there’s something not right about it.”

Mal moved over to look at the screen. “What do you mean?”

She pointed at a section of the ship. “See this bulge. Standard Alliance patrol doesn’t have that. And the missile bays are retrofitted for long-range.”

Mal looked at the screen. “Could be they redesigned it to combat Reavers.”

“Then why aren’t they movin?”

“Because it’s not a redesign.” Brian said. He had moved into the pilot’s position, and was typing something into the system. “It’s specially crafted ship built for one man. And it’s not moving because it’s waiting.”

Fearing the answer, Mal ventured a guess. “It’s waiting on you isn’t it.”

With sad