Niska was not tending to his 'guests' as he took a paper towel and dried his hands off. He was a cleanly man, and frequently washed the blood of his guests off of his skin as his sessions were known for being particularly brutal. He walked, from the galley to the helm, and weathered eyes landed upon the snow blanketed western hemisphere of Shadow, the planet's atmosphere glowing.

"We'll be down soon sir."

"Good." He smiled, the old head nodding slightly. "Very good. Put our guests in the cargo bay, all of them." Behind the glasses, eyes narrowed. "I want everyone there, so we can have big party for Malcolm Reynolds and his crew."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Simon was up first.

The day was to be different than the norm since most people were to be in the infirmary getting their annual first of the year physical. So he did not dress in his usual cowboy fare, yet had decided to dress professionally. Dark slacks, a pressed dress shirt and silk vest was what adorned Dr. Tam's well fit frame, though he did dress warm with wool socks. Being the first up, he immediately reached to turn on the coffee maker, however it was already on and dripping the pungent, dark umber liquid into the pot.

Zoe was up.

He took the kettle, and went to the sink to fill it with water. Waiting for it to fill, he admired the view of the prairie in thaw, and went through his list of patients for the day. Jayne would be first, because he was the least complaisant. Zoe would be next, since Mal favored her so much for work. She needed her usual physical plus an advanced scan of her chest cavity to monitor her lungs post Lilac Syndrome. Simon also wanted to give her an immune booster and oxygen treatment since he was privy to her still slightly labored breathing with the cold. He hoped to finish up Zoe right around lunchtime, and then move to Kaylee, a physical as well as checking her ankle she had twisted some a week back. Meilin would be up from her nap after that, and would be the next patient. It was then he planned on giving h