Disclaimer – Everything either does belong to Joss or it should. I’m just borrowing his shiny ‘verse for a while.

The 21st Lancers belong to the British Army so I’m borrowing them too. I hope they don’t mind.

Thanks to my regular readers for making it worthwhile to continue the story and special thanks to my Proof-Reader Landry.

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Serenity/Granite Gorge – Underway – 2520AD

The Captain stopped working for a moment. ‘Blood?’ he asked.

‘Yes.’

‘It was actually congealed blood?’

‘For the most part yes.’

‘Fried up for breakfast?’

Steve grinned. ‘Yes but in my house usually only on Saturdays as a treat with fried eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, baked beans…’

‘And that’s considered a food where you come from? Greasy congealed blood?’

‘My people’s traditional cuisine for centuries. You know Black Pudding is really very tasty.’

Mal grimaced. ‘Sounds revolting.’

‘If you think that’s bad you should hear what they eat on Edinburgh.’

‘And you bunch of high cholesterol vampires really had the largest Empire in the History of Earth-That-Was?’

Steve laughed. ‘Yes, but we put that down to the weather not the diet.’

‘What?’

‘The British Isles were cold and damp so we conquered all the nice warm countries to make sure they all ended up just as miserable as we were.’ He caught the expression on the Captain’s face. ‘Hey check an encyclopaedia. America, India, South Africa, Egypt, Australia, the Caribbean… Canada was cold but we only got that because we took it off the damn French.’

Mal grinned for a second, then his expression changed to a serious one. ‘What was it like fighting against your own world? There were an awful lot of Wessex boys and girls wearing purple.’

Steve nodded. ‘And one of my brothers and my little sister were amongst them.’ He paused. ‘Don’t think I ever told you but one was at Du Khang. You might have shot at each other.’

‘He come through alright?’

Steve smiled. ‘She,’ he said, ‘and yes they both made it through un