Cat's Cradle

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine. And the most expensive thing I own might be Firefly on DVD. What would the lawyer's fee for a boxed set be?

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“It’s like a tangerine giving birth to a baby tangerine,” Kaylee sighed, resting her forehead against the window.

Simon cocked his chin a little, as if picturing a tangerine reproducing like a bright orange amoeba, the smaller of the ovals breaking free of the surface, then the radiation layer and jettisoning into the black. “Yeah. That’s pretty much it.” Simon turned from Aehoon’s flares to face Wash. “I believe a certain primate requires restitching.”

Wash laughed, rocked back in the pilot’s chair and put his feet on the console. “If he tears it just a little more you can hem the flaps and he’ll have a little pocket in his side.” He outlined a weld in the bridge’s ceiling with his left toe. Simon laughed and stepped through the doorway. Kaylee stood and slowly followed Simon at a slight distance. Wash watched her timid progress. “Don’t take too long there Kaylee, we’ll be landing any minute now.”

“I know!” Kaylee hopped. “Home!” Before leaving planet-side she’d never been away from her parents more than a night. Now it’s been years without her mom’s fresh buttermilk biscuits in the morning.

Jayne poked a dirty digit into a laceration on his left side. Squeezed out a little pus. “That’s better,” he said when the yellow gave way to red fluids. Simon entered the infirmary to see Jayne draining his wound over his clean scalpels.

“Hey Doc, just getting started for ya.”

“Why did they tear out this time?” Simon removed a needle from its case.

“Movin’ cargo.” Jayne said gruffly. He flinched at an extra hard jerk of Simon’s hand. “Easy!”

Simon continued his stitching. “Easy would be you letting this heal properly, so I didn’t have to restitch it every few days.”

“If my job was to sit in this gorram white room all day and twiddle my thumbs—” another sharp pull jerked the left of Jayne’s face upward in a wince. A quick inh