Week Three

"There's got to be something else to do on this little circus of a planet," Melany complained, shaking out her dark red hair impatiently. "What do you think, Kaylee?"

I just sort of grunted in response. Melany's relentless pursuit of 'fun' in all of its forms could get a bit - well, relentless. But more than that, I was eager to get back to Serenity and my new crew, to join in whatever thrilling heroics that we were sharing. Zoe, however, had made it pretty clear that my services and presence were not ready until the ship was ready to leave Paquin again, and she would make a point of calling me back to duty.

Nobody but me realized how caught in the middle of this caper I was. Mal, Zoe, and Wash had been hired to steal a tiny grain of Dubnium away from Paquin's largest circus corporation, bankrolled by one of the core worlds. Melany's sugar daddy, (was that unfair? He was a rich boyfriend who was bankrolling her own attempts to get rich quick,) was co-ordinating a special security team hired to catch any burglars making a try for the Dubnium. Neither my new crew nor my old friend's good friend realized that the other was involved in the same thing.

At least I didn't feel any indecision in my loyalties. If Melany herself had been more involved in the security deal it might have been different, but... I liked Barret, the boyfriend, fine, but couldn't care less whether he failed on any particular job he took on. And the 'Serenity' gang - I was one of them, no matter that I wasn't with them at the moment. So I'd been warned of a danger to the mission, and had to find some way to thwart it by myself... without knowing anything about the plans for their theft, and being told precious little about the security detail. Aiyah Tyen-ah.

"Kaylee, are you even listening to me?" Melany put in. "I've asked you twice now just how insufferably boring you think this hover-bus countryside tour would be."

"Probably pretty bad," I said. "They don't seem to have much scenery around here different from what