Disclaimer: anything recognizable is property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. The story and its original characters, however, are mine. Also, I had to take some creative liberties, but only on stuff not explained in the series. I also used my own translator for the Mandarin, so it may be off (although it's still comical). Feedback (good or bad) is of course welcome. On to the story:

“Okay, processor: check. Mainboard relays: check. E-mag relays: check. Signal transceiver: check.” I was staring at a skinny 3-foot tall cylinder in the bridge with a lot of electronics pouring out of it. “Let’s fire it up.”

When I flicked a switch, the cylinder lit up. The beeping indicated it was booting. Then, it spoke in a unisexual voice. “Ship’s power: 100%. Auxiliary power: 100%. Engine is operating at highest possible efficiency. Estimated time to Beylix: four hours and twenty-two minutes.”

“De-yu shi! It works!”

“Query unrecognized. Please input again.” Every time it said a word, the lights flickered.

I inputted again. “Huh… okay, upload all historical archives. Oh, and input targeting data for my new torpedo rack.”

“Please specify: historical archives from The Cortex, or historical archives from this ship?”

“Oh god, ship’s archives.” I left the bridge mumbling to myself. “It’s the only one with actual truth in it.”

I sat down to a datapad in the dining room. On it was the beginnings of a letter. I continued it.

-

Dear Serra Ng,

A lot has happened since we met on Ariel, and I’m sorry I haven’t kept in touch. I’ll start with the good news: I just kicked off the Liberty Avatar project. It’s working nicely. I pulled a nice job about a month ago to get the parts, and in my spare time, managed to complete a working prototype. It’s helping with my, well, condition.

-

I set it down. I couldn’t think of anything else to say at the moment. My mind started to drift back to nine months ago, when I was still on that cruiser.

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