The Return – Part 7

Serenity sat on the surface of Earth’s single moon, over an underground base where its crew had hoped to find help in the quest to return to their quadrant of the galaxy. Instead, they found deceit and danger of a magnitude that was revealing itself in bits and pieces. First, Mal, Jayne, and Simon had been taken below the surface when a lunar spaceship landing pad descended while they were standing on it. It was clear to Zoe now, as she sat on Serenity’s bridge, that this was done on purpose. Kaylee then EVA’d in an attempt to find a way under the surface to find their missing crewmen. Just as she reached an elevator in the abandoned surface base, she was taken by force and was now under the surface also. Three and a half hours had passed since Kaylee’s capture and with no more spacesuits and no way to get below the surface, Zoe felt helpless. Then came the voice from the comms.

“Serenity, this is Commander Samuel Jackson of Moon Base Armstrong. I would like to speak to Zoe Washburne, please. It’s time we had a chat.”

Wash had been dozing but instantly opened his eyes and turned to his wife. River looked at both of them and had a wild look in her eyes.

“It’s him, the leader.”

Not now River, keep it together for a few more minutes, Zoe wanted to scream but didn’t. Zoe waited a second before answering, exhaustion clouding her judgment and she needed to be fresh to talk to this man and rescue her people. She heeded the Shepherd’s words to be careful, not knowing what has happened or would happen to their crewmates and friends if the other side perceived hostile intent. Slowly she reached for the comms button.

“This is Zoe Washburne. Go ahead, Commander.”

“Captain Reynolds, Doctor Tam, Mr. Cobb, and Miss Frye are safe. Doctor Tam has been most helpful in treating some of our injured people. Our intentions are not to harm anyone. We simply need your spaceship.”

“You can understand from my point of view Commander that keeping four of my crewmates by force in no way eases the