CHAPTER 5

It had been awhile since Zoë had treated any wound more serious than a snake-bite. She only hoped that she’d been able to shield Jackson’s eyes in time. Zoë had to cut the charred jumpsuit off of Kaylee, and flushed her burnt leg with water, not caring how much of it spilled onto the floor. Mal tended to Cappy, who seemed to have avoided catching fire, but still had a blistering wound on the forehead. Cappy’s eyes were open, but glazed and unseeing. Still, the merc managed to hold a wet towel to his own injury, and Mal gave him little more than a pain killer before moving on. Zoë kept her attention to Kaylee and cooling down her skin before her blood boiled out.

“Wake up, Kaylee,” Zoë begged, running to refill her bowl with water, wishing she had a hose.

Mal opened one of the overhead cabinets and pulled a sheet of plastic.

“Is it cool?” he cried.

“Not yet,” Zoë answered, running another bowl of water over the wound. Kaylee seized, sending the bowl flying across the room, dousing the machines with water. Zoë held Kaylee’s head and shoulders still while Mal doped her, but it was nearly a minute before Kaylee’s body settled. Mal grabbed a fresh plastic sheet and sealed the burn on Kaylee’s leg, then wrapped the wound again with a reflective material. The mechanic’s shirt rolled up revealing a large bruise across her midsection from naval to ribs, but the water had shorted out the diagnostic equipment. Desperately trying to remember field-medicine from her war days, Zoë checked for broken ribs and more burns.

“We headed for a hospital?” Zoë asked.

“River’s taking us to Angel.”

“Angel!” Zoë exclaimed. “That’s right in the middle of You Qian territory!”

“River knows what she’s doing.”

Zoë looked squarely at Mal, saw the doubt in his eyes, and realized he didn’t have the answers she was looking for. But where confidence in their course was lacking, she saw trust in River. At this point, there wasn’t much more for her to do.

*~*

Rather than landing on Angel, River docked them at