“What are you talking about?” Mal stared at his pilot.

“Road Runner’s gone.” Hank was white as a sheet.

“You’re not making sense,” Mal insisted, although he had a terrible feeling he understood only too well.

“Gone, Mal. Not there anymore.”

“Turn us back.”

“No, look, if we –“

“Turn us back!” He hardly ever used his Sergeant’s voice anymore, so using it now had Hank adjusting Serenity’s attitude before the man had a chance to even think about it.

“What’s going on, sir?” Zoe asked, coming up the bridge steps, Freya at her back.

The Firefly swung around, facing where Road Runner should be.

“ Wuh duh muh …” Mal murmured, licking dry lips.

“Dear God …” Zoe echoed, although Freya couldn’t speak at first.

Hank had been nearly right. Road Runner wasn’t quite gone, but she was unrecognisable. A spreading debris field fanned out from her midsection, the only part even a little bit whole. Everything else was mangled, blown out by an explosion that had ripped through her.

“No,” Freya said, holding onto the wall to stop herself falling.

“Cap, what was that?” Kaylee asked, hurrying along the corridor. “We hit something?”

Mal didn’t answer her, instead putting his hand on Hank’s shoulder. “Survivors?” he asked, but his voice was bleak.

“I’ve been … no, Captain.”

His face hardened. “Zoe. Prep the suits.”

*

“I don’t think I can do this, Cap’n,” Kaylee said as Zoe fastened her into the space suit. “They were my friends.” Tears were running down her face, soaking the thin t-shirt she was wearing beneath.

“Mine too, Kaylee. All of us.” Mal pulled on his gloves. “I figure we owe it to them to find out what happened, so that’s what we’re gonna do, dong mah ?” He stopped, closed his eyes a moment. Then when he looked at her again they were softer, more gentle. “I know this is bad, mei-mei . But you might be the only one can figure out what blew.”

“It won’t bring ‘em back,” Jayne pointed out, shrugging his own suit a little more comfortably