(Jayne):

"Well, now, that's a thing you don't see every day." Suppose I was speakin' to cover my own worry as Kaylee drifted close to the forward viewport, her face all peaceful with her eyes closed like that. "Seen a guy who got the leg of his suit blown out by a meteor, or the side, or even the helmet. Had meteors bounce off the padded part of my suit and shook 'em off, in the arm or the chest."

"Meteoroids, or micro-planetoids," River corrected me absently. "They're not meteors until they get into a world's air and start to burn up."

"Well, whatever," I muttered. Getting the word right was never a big priority for me. "But still - to have a rock bounce off the helmet of somebody's suit, not even crack it..."

"And knock her out, from the concussion, or the whiplash," Simon said, his face still darkening. "Okay, this is enough gandering time. How do we get her back?" He turned, to look to Mal. "You can't possibly be thinking that we should just stay here and wait for her to wake up by herself. That could be hours, and her air won't last that long..."

"No, I don't think so," Mal muttered. "Just trying to weigh the options..."

"I'm ready to launch, at a few seconds' notice," Inara reminded Mal over the comm circuit.

"Well..." Mal drawled.

"No, I don't think so, thanks," Zoe replied crisply. "She's drifting way too close to the ship, at the moment, and as fancy as that shuttle of yours is, it doesn't have a rescue grapple or anything. Last thing we need is you cracking the window in here."

"Okay, then... then somebody HAS to go out in a suit and bring her in," Simon said, and then uttered the words that he knew would force the issue. "If no-one else will take that risk for Kaylee, then I'm going."

I'd been thinking of what to say since he started. "Alright, I'll go fetch you a suit."

"I, I... much as I might like to..." Having got this far, Mal took time out to sigh. "Not sure that it's worth the risk of sending our surgeon out there, Mister Tam, instead of someone who's actually ex