River’s Run – Part 10

Simon and River had just met for the first time since River’s arrest which seemed so long ago, but wasn’t really. Kaylee and Jayne were with them, everyone catching each other up on what had been happening in their little corner of the verse the last few days. They were in the cargo bay of the Rose, a freighter Mal had hired to take him, Jayne, Zoe, and Wash to Sihnon, to meet up with Inara and, as they later learned, to deal with the Paulo Chase problem. But all of that was put aside for the moment as the assassination of Alliance Prime Minister Susan Blakely in a brutal attack on Londinium changed the whole situation. In addition, Admiral Shin had ordered an attack on Justin Powers, Blakely’s pick for the position of Chancellor. The attack failed and now Powers believed Shin had killed Blakely and was trying to take over the government.

“What’s gonna happen now?” Kaylee asked forlornly.

“Mal thinks Shin’s gonna come looking for him,” Jayne said. “That there disk with that scientist talking about what they did to Miranda ain’t no good for blackmail anymore. Mal thinks Shin be happy if we play it, make Cutter and Blakely and those before her look real bad. Make people think putting the military in charge is a good idea.”

“Shin won’t use it, will destroy it if he gets a chance,” River said with confidence. “The Reavers don’t exist as far as the government is concerned. The military went to Haven and Miranda to battle the Reavers, not rebels. Too many soldiers know this.”

“Yeah, and anyone of them opens their mouth they’ll get a pistol in it,” Jayne said

Charlie the engineer came down to the cargo bay and interrupted them. He was in a steady stride down the stairs and then he saw them and he stopped and his eyes went wide.

“Are you…yes, it’s you…its Kaylee Frye!’ Charlie said in awe as he came down the rest of stairs of the cargo bay of the Rose.

“Ah, yeah. I’m me,” Kaylee said in confusion and then Charlie came up to her and just wrapped his arms around her, to Kaylee