24. The Highlight of This Little Adventure

You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?

Zoe had never lacked for cause against the Alliance. All her life, they had murdered and destroyed everyone and everything that was dear to her – her family, her home, her comrades-in-arms, her friends – in the name of imposing their vision of civilization on every living being in the ‘verse.

The police post grew larger in the shuttle’s front window, coming up fast. The hails from the station became increasingly frantic. No one in the shuttle spoke.

No, I –

She’d been shot plenty of times. Knifed, more than a few. Patched up, put back together, made almost as good as new; all the wounds in her body just a temporary thing – a lingering stiffness, a persistent ache, but those faded, over time.

Kaylee had rigged an explosive charge on the end of a strut, and bolted it to the nose of the shuttle. It put about two meters of clearance between them and the blast. Which was better than nothing.

Yes, you.

All Zoe’s life, it seemed sometimes, had been a matter of contenting herself with the fact that what she had was better than nothing.

Everyone in the shuttle moved to the back. They were about to hit.

I don’t like having this between us.

She and Wash had built something, out of nothing, out here in the black. Something worth having; something that really was better than nothing. It must have just galled the Alliance, just stuck in their craw, that somebody would dare to have something they hadn’t put their stamp of approval on; somebody would dare to be happy in a way not approved by parliament.

They had braced for impact; their weapons carefully stowed so that no one was injured as they were thrown together. Kaylee’s explosive blasted a hole in the station’s hull, and the shuttle rammed through and plugged it. Still, they had to move quickly. Mal activated the bomb Kaylee had built. It would destroy the shuttle and a chunk of the police post