Chapter 11

Kaylee held the yoke, wishing she’d taken more effort to fix the fly assist, because all those back-to-back catnaps hadn’t helped a lick. The ship tottered and swayed with the weight of the stunner, still blowing in the wind. As near as she could tell, they were still lined up properly, and there was no reason not to set the thing down. She wished Sky would hurry.

Adjusting the angle of the outside viewer, she could see the flatbed with the device, swaying in and out of vid. This was where the hatch was supposed to be, but she couldn’t make it out for the camouflage. Sky said it was there, though, and Kaylee trusted her eyes. She lost all cause for doubt when the hatch opened up, blasting clean air through the smoke, revealing the shiny nose of a ship inside.

“Here it comes,” Kaylee murmured to herself. She tapped the comm. “Sky, what’s the status?”

No response. The people inside the hatch could certainly see Serenity… unless the ship was on some kind of auto sequence and it would take off at zero time regardless. Serenity needed to get out of the way.

“Sky?” Kaylee tried again.

Kaylee sighed, wishing the day had been going well enough that she didn’t immediately assume that Sky had fallen out the hatch and gotten mangled by the branches of the burning trees. She hated calling on one of the kids again, but the ship wasn’t fixed enough for her to leave the bridge. She hit the comm.

“Genny, honey. I need you to run to the cargo bay and check on Sky.”

Genny was at that age where she’d figured out that her parents were not invincible, although she hadn’t quite figured it about herself yet. Kaylee blamed the Captain because he’d been at that age … well, as long as Kaylee had known him. Genny could stay calm and take action, no matter what she found in the cargo bay – which hopefully wasn’t more than a jam in the mechanism.

Kaylee looked at the silent speaker. Genny hadn’t said okay, but then she was just a kid and didn’t always think in terms of protocol .

“Please, God, let the