“What’s going on?” Smith said, stepping down into the cargo bay from the common area. Then he saw his man on the floor. “Lee?”

“Yeah.” Mal looked apologetic. “My fault.”

Smith’s eyes widened. “You shot him?”

“No. But it’s still my fault he’s dead.” He pushed Smith out of the way. “Best be moving yourself, got a man needs help here.”

Simon was leaning on the doorway to the infirmary. “I heard a gunshot,” he said, holding onto the wall.

“Lee’s dead,” Zoe said quickly, carrying Hank past him.

“He’s …” Simon couldn’t focus on the words.

“It’s up to you,” Mal said.

“Mal, I …”

“We don’t have a choice. Hank needs a doc, fast, and you’re it.”

Simon looked down at his hands, the weaves on the cuts from his nails in his palms, the slight tremor in his muscles. “I’ll need help.”

“You got it.”

“Dope him.”

Mal nodded and loaded a hypo. As he passed it to Zoe, Freya ran into the infirmary.

“How is he?” she asked, glancing at Hank as he slipped into unconsciousness.

“Simon’s going to …” Mal glanced across at the young man, pulling on a pair of gloves. “I don’t know, Frey.”

“What happened to Lee?” She glanced over her shoulder. “I saw …”

“My fault,” Mal admitted. “I should have made sure the man I hit was down.”

“Mal …”

The captain of Serenity shook his head. Nothing she could say was going to help, not right now. “Frey, Hank didn’t have time to figure out where the shuttle went. Can you see what you can do?”

Freya nodded. “I’ll get right onto it.” She put her hand on his arm and squeezed gently. “Be right back,” she said, then strode back towards the Artemis.

---

Simon picked up the extractor, leaning forward to start probing the wound, then paused, trying to breathe deeply, to control the turmoil inside him.

Zoe looked at him, his face paler than usual, the tremble in his hand. “Simon,” she said quietly. “You are going to do this right. If you let him die, I will kill you myself. Dong mah ?”

Simon stared into her dark eyes.