River’s Run – Part 12

“That’s incredible,” Gabriel Tam said after Mal and the others had finished telling the story about Earth, and Miranda, and the Reavers. Everyone except Wash sat around the dining area table, it now covered in empty plates and glasses and cups from the big breakfast everyone had eaten while Mal and the crew talked and told the tale. Many questions were asked, exclamations of doubt voiced, and looks of wonder and surprise expressed not only from Gabriel and Regan but from Colonel Powers and Derek Bowen. Not all the news was a surprise, but a lot of it was truly shocking.

“I hardly believed it myself first time I heard it,” Jonathan said. “Course, second part I was right in the middle of.”

“Earth,” said Powers as if the word had a religious reverence. “Destroyed in a nuclear holocaust.”

“It was pretty awful,’ Inara said. “I…we…” she couldn’t go on, the horror of her memories too much.

“It’s a gorramn mess,” Jayne finished for her. “But there’s folks still alive and we helped get them back on their feet again.”

“Time travel?” said Regan as she looked at her daughter, sitting close by her. “You time traveled?”

“Not exactly,” River said. “We were in the wormhole for a only a few minutes as years went by outside of it.”

“Gives me a headache, too,” said Mal as he saw the puzzled looks on the Tams and Powers’ faces. “Simple to say we lost four years.”

“People chasing you, Alliance, bounty hunters, Reavers, nuclear explosions…. How did you survive, all of this?” Regan asked, looking in wonder at her daughter and son and the other crew members.

“We didn’t all survive,” Jayne said in a sad tone. “We lost the Shepherd.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Gabriel Tam said.

“He’s supposed to marry us,” Kaylee said in an even more forlorn tone.

“We’ll find another preacher,” Simon reassured her. “Make things proper.”

“You aren’t married?” Gabriel asked in wonder.

“We are, legally,” Simon said. “We just wanted to wait…for a ceremony.”

“Wait for you,” Kaylee finished. “And