The Return Home – Part 14

Serenity was in a prison courtyard on Miranda, with Reavers about to attack it from the sky and the ground. Kaylee had just declared the ship spaceworthy after making repairs but now they might not even have a chance to make it to the black where their FTL drive, which it now seemed the Alliance knew all about, could send them across the galaxy in a blink of an eye and away from all this danger. Mal knew they had waited a moment too long on this cursed planet and should have ordered them at least away from the prison before now. But Maston Forbes had been stalking them and they saw an opportunity to take him out and now he was a prisoner in the infirmary. And strangest of all was that the leader of the Reavers was calling them on their radio.

Mal picked up the mic. “This is Captain Reynolds. What are your terms?”

Wash, Kaylee, and Inara were also on the bridge and just stared at him, wondering what mad scheme he had up his sleeve this time.

“Captain Reynolds, your ship and any who wish to may leave Miranda if you give me the two I want,” growled the Colonel through the radio.

“Sure thing,” said Mal into the mic and at the same time shook his head “no” in the direction of Kaylee, who had turned a might paler when he had said that, cause she was one of the two the Colonel wanted, to repair his own Firefly. “Let’s make a deal.”

“You are in no position to deal, Captain. I have eight ships and hundreds of attackers from my clan and others who have joined us.”

“Well, we already knocked over quite a few of them ships and your clan. Seems we can trade blows and each of us gets bloody or we can come to an understanding.”

There was a long silence. Then a question none expected. “Does the Professor have the cure?”

“What?” was all Wash could say, and the others were too surprised to say anything, not ready to believe the Reavers knew about the cure, especially Kaylee who had seen the eagerness on many Reaver faces to be what they were, to consume her, to fight and destroy.