Jade studied Wash for a minute, trying to decipher which would be the best approach. She hated "getting" in someone's mind without their pemission, but this was a special situation. Wash's life was at stake, to say nothing of theirs. She has to uncover what mysteries lay within, for no telling what they were going to walk into.

Smiling gently at Wash, she said, "Wash, I need to study you for a moment. It won't hurt, but the truth of the matter is that there is something locked in your mind that we need to discover. Our very lives depend on it". Despite the fact that they could hand Wash over at any time and be on their merry way, Wash was part of the crew and what happened to him happened to them.

And that was exactly what they were trying to avoid.

----------

Jade closed her eyes and started reading Wash's mind. Instantly, she was barraded by images that flashed in and out. It was a confusing, jumbled mess of long-forgotten memories along with new ones that attacked her senses. She backed off a bit, allowing only a thin stream of memories to get through. Slowly, one memory became more pronounced. She knew this was one of Wash's memories that had been blocked. Jade breathed deep and sumbitted to the memory, allowing it to sweep over her.

Laughter and music. A ballroom was filled with dancing people. An orchestra played softly while couples danced. In the center, she could see Wash dancing with a young, dark-skinned woman. She was laughing at his clumsy attempts to dance. Finally, they gave up and started over to one of the tables. Suddenly, the double doors to the ballroom burst open, and Alliance troops came in, firing into the crowd with their guns. Screams. Guests scattering. Bullets richocheting off the walls and embedding into people. The young woman that Wash was with fell, shot to death. The gunshots stopped, and some of the troops gathered up some people, Wash included, and took them out of the room.

The scene fades, and another presented itself.

"You're going to fly fo