Chapter 11: Safety

Chinese Glossary

Fei hua – crap talk

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they dropped the unconscious bodies gently onto the deck of the Expeditor. The other two shuttles had left safely under the fighter craft's watchful protection. The lack of additional targets had caused the boarding of the last party to be a bit more eventful. "Zoe, Monty, go see if Wash needs help getting this boat in the air," Mal ordered.

Cecil was already attending to his sister while Simon worked over Jayne's body. The kids stood eerily still wherever they'd stopped. Zoe and Monty had to push most of them through the facility's corridors during their hasty retreat. Hopefully all were accounted for because Mal had no intention of returning to look for secret passages.

"Any clues as to what in the hell happened back there?" Mal asked Simon quietly. Simon glanced up from his work briefly, shaking his head. "What about them? What's wrong with them?" Cecil looked up as he started to register the conversation around him.

"I won't know for sure until I can get them to the infirmary. Whatever it is, it's unlike what happened to the other men," Simon explained. "No evidence of aneurysm or hemorrhage in either. I'm starting to think he was just hurting them."

Cecil's face wrinkled in a puzzled expression. "But why would he want to hurt 'em? He wouldn't know them from Adam."

Mal was equally puzzled as he stared at the unconscious forms. He looked up when Simon spoke again. "Jayne went first. Sug went down only after she went forward to stop him."

Mal's eyes widened as he considered the implications.

--

In the cockpit, Zoe relieved Rusk of his position of co-pilot. "Having fun sweet cakes?"

Wash shot her a saucy grin. "Think we can get Mal to buy one of these babies?" he asked.

--

After landing on the asteroid that had been designated for the final rendezvous, Jayn