The ship’s sensors picked the cylinder up from quite a distance away. “Mal, want to come on up here?’ Wash’s voice buzzed into the captain’s quarters. Mal, who had just found a spot on his bunk that he thought as comfortable, cursed his pilot in Chinese and pulled himself to his feet.

“I heard that, Mal” Wash’s voice buzzed back.

Here is where I’m going wrong, Mal thought. I’m getting out of bed. And I’m not going right back to bed. Whatever else happens today will follow from these two mistakes.

He climbed the ladder out of his quarters and sauntered up to the bridge. “Is it an Alliance cruiser, Wash? A passel of hungry Reavers? Pirates? What did you find up here that was so astonishing you just had to share with me?”

Wash looked up at his captain, a little hurt by this tirade. “Gee, Mal, I just thought you should see this.”

Mal closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Wash, I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that,” he said. “I’ve got a headache.”

“So go see the doc.”

“No, I’m not going to go see the doc, it’s just a little headache, it’ll pass, they always do.” Wash wanted to argue the point, if for no other reason than he found it fun to argue, but Mal’s mood was clearly not right for an argument. “Now, what did you find?”

“A box!” Wash said with a smile.

“You dragged me out of bed for a box?”

“Ah, but not just a box, but a very old box……as in and Earth-that-Was type old box.”

Now he had Mal’s attention. This meant old box had just turned into old and valuable box. This also meant that Mal had forgotten all about being mad at Wash.

“What would something that old be doing way out here, though?” Mal asked, mostly to himself.

“See the painting on the side? That’s an old American flag. The box shows to be early to mid 21st century. But you’re right, that thing’s a very long way from home.”

Mal walked through the commons area to the ship’s hold, where Jayne was doing bench presses with the Shepherd. “Jayne, get a suit on, we’re going for a walk.”

“For what?”

“For the ex