“It never ceases to amaze me the way men are put together.” Freya leaned on the fence and watched the fight in front of her.

“What do you mean?” Kaylee asked, wincing as one of the protagonists went face first into the dirt.

“Well, physically. I mean, all the important bits are on the outside.”

Mal kicked the man on the ground, ensuring he stayed down.

“You mean –”

“Yeah. Take this lot, for instance.” Freya pointed to Jayne who had just kneed a man in the groin. “Action like that, a man isn’t likely to get up again any time soon.”

“Isn’t that the point?”

“Well, yes, but not to the man getting damaged. It just seems to be something of a vulnerable design, is all.”

“Doesn’t it say in the Bible that God made man in his own image?”

“So he couldn’t have improved it a little? I mean, the way a man’s made – physically put together. I mean, there’s his most vulnerable bits, on the outside like I said, just aching to be hit, kicked, kneed – just doesn’t seem to be a good design at all.”

“Aren’t you going to join in?” Kaylee asked as Hank got grabbed from behind.

“No. No, they seem to be doing fine as they are.”

“You think?”

Hank kicked back and hit his assailant on the shin.

“See?”

“It still looks like someone’s gonna get hurt,” Kaylee insisted.

“Then you go on in. I'm sure you’d be able to help out. I’ll hold your coat.”

“Um, well, maybe they do seem to have it covered.”

They watched in companionable silence while Mal punched his man deep in the belly, then slammed a double fist onto the back of his neck as he doubled over in pain. Jayne, meanwhile, had taken out one of his two, and now grabbed the other’s head over his shoulder, heaving mightily to pull him over. His opponent sprawled in the dirt, winded and dazed. Hank threw all of his strength into a right hook, and his assailant dropped like a stone. None of them were going to get up again any time soon.

“You enjoy that?” Mal asked, rubbing his jaw as he looked at Freya.

“Well, some bits went