Pressing on to the bitter end, despite the fact that no one but Blue-Eyed Brigadier is even reading this thing. *sigh*.

Chapter 9

The windows along the east wall of the founder's hall shattered inward, breaking into a rain of safety glass pellets that cascaded like a wave into the room, or down to the street below. People screamed; they fell; they ran in all directions -- or they froze, transfixed, staring at the gaping hole that had been light-sensitive glass separating them from a three-story fall.

In that instant, only a few people in the room moved with deliberate intent. Some of the Alliance officers drew their weapons and began ordering the people around them onto the floor. Others of that group dropped to the floor, watchful.

Mal flipped his table up on its side, scattering Kaylee's strawberries, just before he grabbed her and pulled her down behind it. She stared at him, wide-eyed, as he pulled his pistol and glanced quickly around the edge of the upturned table.

Zoe also flipped up a table, the one she was closest to, and pulled Wash's mother and sister down behind it with her. She tried to draw her own weapon, but was prevented by Wash's mother clinging to her arm, wide-eyed with terror. Tim dropped down behind his wife. Wash's father stood unsteadily in his walker, staring at the shattered windows.

Wash had already been on his stomach when the windows exploded; after a split second's surprise, he started belly-crawling toward his father.

Before he could get there, two dozen black-clad commandos on ropes rappelled down to the open wall and swung themselves into the room. More commandos swarmed in from the hallway to the west of the founder's hall. Another group entered from the kitchen doors, behind the buffet tables at the south end.

The attendees found themselves surrounded on three sides by armed soldiers.

Mal, confronted directly by a commando with a semiautomatic rifle, dropped his pistol and put his hands in the air.

One of the Alliance officers st