Summery – Shore leave comes a might earlier than Mal would like. Mal just wants to relax and maybe find a nice little transport job, he doesn’t realize he might be getting in a bit over his head. And there’s the mention of some shiny yellow metal.

Disclaimer – They all belong to Joss, I just enjoy hanging out in their midst.

Pairings - all the traditional M/I; K/S; Z/W; Jayne/Anyone in a skirt; River’s in everyone’s minds and Book is trying to keep them all straight, plus throw in a few OC’s for good measure. In other words its all fairly cannon.

Setting – During the series, in between Trash and Heart of Gold

This story is a hundred times better because of all the wonderful betatype advice given to me by Mal4prez. I throw many thankyous in her direction.

My story line indicates nine segments, prologue, chapters 1-7 and an epilogue. I have included more about the storyline and my motivation for writing in my blog.

Here's a link to the

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Underground Chapter 1

“Wash! We’ve gotta land and evac the ship now,” Kaylee’s voice screamed through the com. This was not the type of thing Mal liked hearing from his mechanic. Laying the gun he was cleaning down on the table, he stood and headed for the engine room, but came face to face with Kaylee as she closed the engine room hatch.

“Kaylee, what’s the gorram problem?” Mal felt the ship lurch, and he leaned on the wall to keep from falling. Kaylee grabbed onto a conduit tube, almost loosing her balance as well.

“Not sure Cap. Things were hummin’ along just fine when the starboard main exhaust blew. That stuff’d kill us before we knew it if we breathed it. I turned off the atmo, and closed off the engine room, but we gotta land and air out the ship. We’re pumping that stuff into the ship as long as we’re flying.”

Mal nodded and ran towards the bridge. He felt the ship set down on the ground as he stepped over the threshold of the bridge.