Simon yawned, his eyes beginning to blur the words written on the yellowed pages of his father’s journal. He’d been reading its contents for days, hoping to figure out just what the cold-blooded hundan had planned---both for himself and River, and now for Kaylee. So far, he’d learned that Gabriel Tam had made a deal long ago with both the Alliance party and the Blue Sun Corporation: in order for him to receive both kickbacks and preferential standing with the government, he had to help them “create” a child that could be molded for government service.

Being a geneticist, Gabriel had been more than willing to uphold his end of the bargain. What Simon had found particularly disturbing was that his father had planned to use his own children as part of his research.

Looking back on things now, it made better sense. His mother had been a proper Core wife, beautiful and personable, but not exactly strong-willed. She’d been willing to let his father make many of the decisions that concerned the family, and it led Simon to wonder about her intelligence. Gabriel Tam, on the other hand, had been very bright, but not anything like Simon and certainly nowhere remotely close to River’s level. And, he wondered, if the man had “tweaked” his children’s intelligence levels, was it possible that he had planted a code in their DNA to create Readers?

This certainly explained a few things, like why his father was so eager to dismiss Simon’s concerns about the Academy and his reaction after his son’s initial arrest—he was more concerned with pleasing his benefactors than caring for his own children. Simon actually wondered if the man had cared about anything at all other than his position, his social appearance, and his rising stock in a powerful government entity.

He’d spent nearly a week researching the journal, stealing moments between performing minor surgery on Jayne and Mal as they tried to tackle engine maintenance. This last round had been particularly nasty, with Mal suffering a second-de