Do let me know if you like/dislike the chapter/me/my ancestors/fresh bao/whatever.

23. Well, There Goes Plan A

Kaylee screamed when she saw them – a wail of genuine terror.

“Kaylee,” Mal said. Her name was one of the few things he could say clearly, with his face so mutilated.

Recognizing his voice, Kaylee said quiveringly, “Captain?”

“Ready?” Mal asked.

Kaylee nodded. “Everything just like you said, Cap’n. Fifteen minute timer. But, why -- ?” Whatever she had been meaning to ask, she didn’t, as Serenity’s reaver assault team advanced on her. She retreated, whimpering, with both hands almost covering her face.

Mal, Zoe, Jayne and River, armed with the knives, hatchets, and clubs River had gathered, plus some clandestine firearms, and wearing clothes deliberately torn and liberally decorated with blood that Simon had been carefully storing up against their frequent medical needs, climbed aboard the shuttle and waited for Inara’s word.

Her voice came over the speaker. “Mal. It’s not too late to rethink this.”

“Just count,” Mal said. He was having to choose his words more carefully than usual; any phoneme that required his lips to move was impossible right now.

“Closest approach in five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one,” Inara said, and as the shuttle disengaged, she added “Come back. All of you.”

“Ain’t that sweet?” Jayne grunted.

**

“Are we close enough for a firing solution?” Coles asked.

“Not yet,” came the answer.

“Fire a warning shot when we are,” he said, watching the little transport draw slowly closer.

Assuming the ship he was about to board was the decoy, where was Serenity? Close by, or long gone? And why weren’t the two ships traveling together? If Reynolds had had some warning of Coles’s approach, surely he would not have left behind the man – Washburne? – who was flying this ship. Reynolds wasn’t the sort to leave a man behind, as he had so often proved. If Reynolds was gone, then where? And why?