All the usual disclaimers. No harm, no foul, no cashy money changing hands.

***

“Wash, come on out into the hall. Zoe’ll be all right for a minute. Simon’ll stay with her. Book, I need you, too.” Mal called the men to him in the hall just outside the infirmary.

“We got two real sick folks here, and a boat that’s gonna make us all sick, and kill our very expensive passengers if we don’t get out of her quicklike. We need to land, we need to land someplace where we can’t be found easy. Somebody did this to us and we don’t want ‘em to know where we laid up to deal with it. And we need someplace with a reliable water source – we’ve got to drain Serenity and scrub everything and we’re gonna have to keep those horses in water at the same time. Any thoughts? I’d like it to be real close – not more’n half a day at the farthest.” Mal looked at the two men standing with him, his eyebrows raised inquiringly.

Wash shook his head.

“This is farthest this way I’ve ever been. We can scout around all these little moons and try to find one that looks good, but the water – the water’s gonna be a problem.”

“Book?”

“Captain, I do know of a possibility. Behind Agamemnon there’s a terraformed moon with an abandoned Alliance base. It’s mined on the perimeter but inside is clean. And there’s plenty of water. There’s probably even a shelter we could slide Serenity into and keep her out of sight. A few settlers on the other side, but not much of anyone living there.”

“An abandoned Alliance base. Huh. How abandoned?”

“It’s from before the war. There is no predicting what kind of shape it will be in, but it does have water. And, if I remember correctly, there is not only a deep well but there is also a surface seep that would provide water for the animals.”

Mal looked long and hard at the shepherd. The silence stretched out into uncomfortable territory before Mal spoke.

“I won’t ask today – but I’m going to ask one day soon.”

“And one day I might tell you, son – but not soon,” Book responded.

“How f