CHAPTER 5

“Wo de ma,” Wash murmured, all debate about the intruder muted.

“Secure the ship?” Book prompted as the three remained frozen.

Just out the fore window, the rain let up, revealing dozens of people circling the ship as though gathering for Sunday masse. A few of them cringed and shrank away as the sun put in a brief appearance. Their clothing was worn and tattered in the manner of the homeless, their eyes eerily reflecting the glow of Serenity’s tracking lights.

Simon’s mouth hung open, hand on his cheek in startled surprise.

“Secure the ship,” Book repeated, his face going tight, his eyes meeting Wash’s.

“Find Kaylee. We need power ASAP!” Wash ordered.

“Can’t you just broadwave?” Simon mentioned, pointing at the comm.

“Aft has lost power,” Wash said slowly, the reality hitting home. “We can’t even control the door locks.”

Book paused on the stair as the severity of the situation hit him as well. Running back to the bridge, he grabbed a flashlight. “I’ll do a manual check of the external doors!”

Wash grabbed the comm, shouting, “Jayne, secure the ship! Kaylee, we need power!”

“I thought you said…” Simon began.

“Just in case.” Quickly, Wash ran a diagnostic of the navigation system, testing the thrusters. As each one fired, the shadow people backed off a little more. Although he seemed to have control of the thrusters, Wash dared not try any fancy flying until he was sure the back half of the ship had power. Loss of air pressure, differential gravity, not to mention the myriad of navigational systems running through that section … any of those problems could send them crashing into the island, or worse, the sea.

The shadow people moved like zombies… or like very curious, cautious, and hungry vagrants. Finally, one of them broke rank and charged Serenity full speed. Others followed suit and within seconds, he could hear their feet pounding on the hull, yanking at the ship’s paneling.

“Now what?” he muttered.

Simon was still slowly processing the situation. Suddenly his wi