The shuttle responds quickly to my commands. The extra time I scheduled in the simulator has served me well.

My training was to include actual flight time, but I noticed the subtle shifts in my schedule after the news of Miranda leaked, I knew that flight training, all training, would be suspended.

I also knew who my target would be.

River Tam

She’s my best friend. She’s my only friend.

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“Mal, Rivers down! “ Jayne screamed.

The voice jerked Mal from his thoughts.

“ what now?”

Setting the auto pilot he followed the voice to the dining room. There he found Jayne kneeling over River. She was curled in the fetal position, trembling all over. The similarity to their first meeting wasn’t lost on Mal.

“What’d ya do Jayne?”

“Nothing. I was down below, working out, came up for a bite and found her like this.”

“Blackness, Blackness” River muttered.

“Girl done gone all moon brained again.”

“Shut it Jayne. Go get Zoe and the Doc.”

“I’m here sir.” Zoe replied from behind him.

“Good, take the helm, we’ll be in the infirmary.”

“Yes sir.”

The traffic jam occurred in the stairwell down to the Med bay. Simon, Kaylee and Jayne came stumbling up as Mal was carrying River down.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well Doc, your sister speaking gibberish again, you’re rutting around with my mechanic, and you’re blocking my way.”

“Captain!” Kaylee exclaimed as everyone backed out of the way.

Mal gently placed River on the examination table.

“Seriously Doc, I got no idea what going on. She just kept repeating herself.”

“What did she say?”

River interrupted “Blackness! It’s coming. It’s coming.”

“That sounds about right” Mal replied.

Mal breath fogged the med bay glass as he watched Simon tend to his sister. He had put the others to various chores to keep them busy. All but one, she stood beside him.

“What do you think happened?”

“Well in the past thes