Archangel – Chapter Thirty-Eight

Author owns no rights to Firefly, and no copyright infringement is intended. Fanfic only.

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Mal watched from the bridge as the star field in front of him changed. Faster than normal, but still too slow to suit.

“We’re at max power, sir,” the pilot said quietly, as if reading his thoughts. “All we can do, and still be sure of reaching the planet.”

“I know,” Mal replied just as softly. “Just thinkin’.”

“It was the right thing, sir,” the pilot offered. “We belong in battle.”

“No one belongs in battle,” Mal said at once, thinking on his own past.

“We do,” the pilot objected. “It’s all we’re good for, Captain. I know it’s hard to accept, for someone like you. But it’s true, nonetheless. None of us are capable of functioning well in open society. It’s just a fact.”

“Jayne does okay,” Mal pointed out.

“He is stronger than most of us,” the pilot told him. “And he was fortunate enough to find people who cared for him.” Mal flushed at that a bit, recalling his own ill treatment of the big merc, even after he’d done so much to change himself.

“Well, I ‘spect he’s different, sure enough.”

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“How we doin’, Kaylee?” Zoe called.

“We’re fine, Zoe,” Kaylee replied. In the engine room, she patted her girl fondly.

“Hear me, Girl?” she whispered. “We’re fine.”

“We’re still a day or so out, even at this speed,” Zoe warned. “We make it?”

“Yep,” Kaylee assured her. “Could go a bit faster, but I know you want us to be able to get out again. Need to make sure we don’t hurt nothin’.”

“That’s fine,” Zoe assured her.

She did want to be able to get out again. If things fell apart, she wanted to be able to get Jayne and River, and as many others as they could, off the planet.

And they would.

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Night had fallen on Osiris. Everyone was inside the barricade. The reavers killed in the day action had been pushed away from the fortifications with earth movers, creating a rather bloody and foul smelling revetment some tw