Into the Blue Chapter 16

Disclaimer: Joss, Fox, Universal Own em’. I’m just playing. No money being made.

This fic takes place just over two years after Serenity (BDM) and has the established couples of Simon/Kaylee, Mal/Inara, Zoë/OC and Jayne/River.

A/N: To give my readers an idea what the new Mule/Hovertruck that I'm using in the story roughly looks like, Imagine a Chevrolet Avalanche with no wheels.

Thanks again Chris for the Beta.

Into the Blue

Chapter Sixteen – Departure

“Mornin Sheriff,” Called Kaylee from her perch on top of the new hover truck.

“Mornin Miss Kaylee. Alright if I go check in on Josh?”

“Jus head straight on back to the infirmary, Simon's in with him right now.”

“Thank you,” replied the Sheriff as he walked towards the infirmary.

“I think this will work Kaylee,” said Allan as he walked up the ramp into the bay, a long length of steel pipe in his hands.

“Think it will, Allan,” she replied.

After setting the pipe on the deck next to the pile of pipes already there, Allan began cutting the pipe into various lengths with a power saw. He and Kaylee were building a cradle to hang the new truck from the overhead winch in the cargo bay, similar to how they stored the old hover mule.

Allan had hashed out a rough design with Kaylee over breakfast. Now the pair set about fabricating the cradle.

After two hours of cutting pipe and welding, the cradle was complete. Allan wiped the sweat from his brow and smiled.

“Been a while since I did any work like this,” he remarked, “Seems kinda nice to actually build something from scratch again.”

“I know how's you feel Allan, tinkerin' is always fun,” replied Kaylee.

“Ready for a test?” asked Allan.

“Yep,” came the reply.

“Let's do it.”

Allan and Kaylee attached the new chain harness to the cradle and then attached the chains to the overhead winch. After double checking the connections, Allan signaled Kaylee to begin lifting the truck.

Slowly, Kaylee lifted the vehicle into th