Malcolm Reynolds sat in the cockpit of his ship waiting for news of events on New Shadow. New Shadow, just Shadow, people still debated what to call it. It was New Shadow to him however; the Shadow that he had grown up on was gone. It might as well be a new rock for him, there certainly was no point in letting himself think that there was a home there for him to go back to. Another thing he tried not to think on was the New Independent movement that had swept the planet in question. The Independents had been crushed in the first Unification War, thoroughly and truly. That was another chapter in his life that was now closed. He would not even have anything to do with this new batch of fools if not for the money. At least that’s what he told himself.

When he had been contacted by some of the former Independent high brass he had thought them joking when they asked him to break into a military facility on a Core planet. When they had convinced him they were serious, he had revised his opinion to insane. Things had been tight since Miranda, however, and his ship and crew where in dire need of coin if they were to stay flying. A firefly was not a small ship, and with seven grown people on board to feed, and Zoe now a mother, (Another thing that was still hard to believe even though the child was near two years old now) it was difficult to keep the larders stocked and fuel tanks filled.

Mal had known the name of the contact from the war, but not well. Anastasia had been in special operations and espionage. Her reputation for getting difficult and daring jobs done was solid; solid in the Adalia Niska sense. When he had met her to go over the job, he had brought Simon, as the young doctor had experience with infiltrating Alliance facilities. He had been sure the Doc would tell him the plan was insanity, but to his surprise he simply diagnosed it ‘dangerous, but doable.’

Zone and Jayne had been eager for some action and some coin respectively. When Anastasia had placed a bag in front of them wi