The Return Home – Part 19

The first two things that went though Malcolm Reynolds' mind as he opened the airlock to the Reaver Firefly, that they were now calling the Constellation, and he saw about twenty fed troopers armed to the teeth was “Why so many?” and ‘Did our camouflage fool them or do they know this ain’t Serenity?” It was a rush job and in the light of day Cutter could have seen this ship was not Serenity, especially not after he had views of it on his sensors over Haven not six hours ago. But the Constellation was in the deep pitch blackness of night 30,000 feet over the capital city of Miranda and Mal had ordered Wash not to show them anything but the front of the ship.

Mal’s whole reasoning behind using the Constellation was so that there was no way the Alliance could get their hands on Serenity’s Kovalev Drive if things went south. Serenity was still at the stadium in the capital city below them, ready to come to their rescue or take off at a moments notice, with Inara at the controls. Mal would have liked to have her in orbit or at least off the ground but he couldn’t take the chance of that Alliance battle cruiser’s high-tech sensors picking up two Fireflys.

The Alliance troopers were armed but they weren’t pointing their weapons so that was the first good sign that they had fooled them.

“Howdy fellas,” Mal said after his initial surprise quickly passed. Of course, he knew Cutter would bring troops on board, but Mal hadn’t expected this many.

“Name?” asked the first trooper. Looked like sergeant’s rank badges on his arms if Mal remembered his Alliance markings correctly.

“Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of this here ship, Sergeant,” Mal said, blocking the doorway.

The sergeant hesitated and then looked Mal in the eye. “Permission to come aboard, Captain.”

“Granted,” Mal said with a smirk as he stepped aside. The sergeant and his men entered the ship and began spreading out and poking around, ignoring Kaylee and Zoe who were standing there.

As Mal turned towards them Zoe gave