The band of pirates was comprised of eight men of varying ages and backgrounds. Most were fighters, though the group also required an engineer and pilot. They were extremely pleased with themselves that day, having so quickly overtaken the old Firefly and blasted its airlock open.

Their leader, a man named Billings, grinned with happiness at the sight of the five-member crew of Serenity standing in the cargo bay with their hands up. His eyes then narrowed as he surveyed the small group. All of the crew members were men.

With a nod of his head, Billings commanded his men to frisk the surrendered Serenity crew. As they efficiently went about their task, finding no traces of any concealed weapons, the leaders of the two groups began to talk.

“Well, now. To what do we owe this unexpected visit?” the captain of Serenity asked, with a slight grin on his face. His expression betrayed no indignity at the situation.

“You must be the captain of this old ship,” Billings said. “What’s your name?’

“Malcolm Reynolds. This here’s my crew,” he said, cocking his head in the direction of the other four men.

“This is it?” the other captain asked, incredulously. “You don’t have one female on board your ship??”

The rest of Billings’ crew began to chime in. Their words were vicious and lewd, and they left nothing to the imagination in terms of what they would do with any women once they found them. The last sentence spoken by one of the men evoked particular chills when he said that they had “used up” all of the women they captured during their previous raid and thus were hungry for more.

“You see, that’s mainly what we’re here for,” Billings concluded. “I figure that your heap of lese ship here don’t got much cargo. We’ll search it top to bottom, but I don’t expect to find much. And the ship itself ain’t gonna fetch us much when we try to sell it. No one’s buying ships or ship parts these days anyway. So our biggest attraction here is your women. My boys, as you’ve heard, are eager to have some fun. So am I