The silence was broken by the screaming from next door. Jumping up, Simon ran through to River’s room. She was screaming in her sleep. She was screaming that it was coming.

“It’s coming! It’s coming!!!”

“River! River! What’s coming? What’s coming?”

“Yeah, what is coming?” This voice came from behind. Simon turned, and saw Wash standing by the wall. The screaming had, by now, attracted most of the crew.

“It’s coming…” River muttered, quieter now. “The thing... from out there… from the black…”

Glances started shooting around the room. Nobody was saying anything, but they were all thinking the same thing. Reavers.

The noise of the door opening made them all jump. “We’re home!” Mal cried out. “With plenty o’ money!”

“And no bullets!” Jayne’s voice rang through the inter-com straight after Mal’s.

Wash backed away, and hurried to go see his wife. Grinning as he descended the stairs into the cargo bay, he looked carefully at Zoë. She almost never came back with any serious wounds, (well, nearly almost never) but he still worried. Who knew it could be so dangerous out there, and to have someone you care about to be in one of the most dangerous position in the entire crew. But he had come to recognise it.

He certainly wasn’t going to do her job. He had tried it, and it wasn’t his piece of cake.

“Kaylee!” Mal bellowed. “I gots a present for ya!” A head appeared at the top of the cargo bay over the hand rail. Mal grinned, and waved around, what looked to him, like a small piece of lead scrap.

“A burn isolator!” she cheered, and quickly ran down the stairs towards the away team.

“A what now?” Jayne asked, completely clueless. For all he knew, the two could have made this all up on the spot.

“A burn isolator,” Kaylee said, with the expression of one talking to a three year old. “It lets the ship full burn without so draining the secondary thrusters! Oh, Cap’ in, this is so shiny!”

“Well, I hope you like it,” Mal said. “Cause I got some bad news for you as well.”

“OK, now I’m worried…”

“Well, on the good side,