“Mal, if you’re done with your rest …” Hank called from the bridge as Serenity’s captain set foot in the corridor above his bunk, putting an entirely unnecessary emphasis on the last word.

Instead of heading for the kitchen and a coffee, Mal glared towards his pilot. “No-one’s cleaned out the septic vat so far this stay.” He climbed the steps two at a time.

“I wasn't saying anything,” Hank semi-blustered. “Just asking.”

“As long as it was just asking.”

“And … ah … you might wanna …” Hank indicated the front of his crotch vaguely.

Mal looked down. “Thanks,” he said, doing up a button that had somehow been missed.

“No problem.”

“So what did you want?”

“Ah.” Hank nodded. “I've got some info that might come in handy for our legitimate, not-breaking-into-a-bank-at-all-thank-you-very-much business dealing.”

“Likely to get me shot?”

“Hope not.”

“Me too.” He hitched his thumbs under his suspenders. “Better tell me, afore I die of old age.”

“It’s amazing what you can find on the Cortex,” Hank said happily. “I’m always amazed. Did you know you can ask a question like ‘how do you rob a bank’, and it tells you?”

Mal fixed him with a serious gaze. “This ain’t gonna link back to us, is it?”

“No. At the moment I’m an eight year old girl on Bernadette.”

“I can see the resemblance.”

“I mean, I’m piggybacking off her signal. I’ve slipped my question in with hers, and redirected the answer through half a dozen nodes.” He grinned. “I knew the new relays the Alliance’ve been setting up would come in handy.”

“As long as they ain’t got any sniffer programmes running.”

“They haven’t. Ariel – that’s the girl, by the way.” Hank rolled his eyes. “I know. Her parents named her after the planet. Poor kid‘s gonna end up needing a lot of –”

“Hank.”

“Right. Well, she’s been asking too many odd questions for mine to tip the grid. Her last one was how to make her hair curly.” He ran his hand through his own untidy brown locks. “That one I’d be interested t