The warm water washed over River, finally relaxing her. Showers were something of a luxury on Serenity. While the waste reclamation system did a good job recycling much of the water which went down the drains there was still loss and the ship’s water tanks were not that large. Right now River didn’t care if the captain got mad at her for using too much water. For one they were planet side and it could be replaced. Second, it was his fault she needed a shower. She bet he knew the vac-line was going to blowout.

“He couldn’t have,” she huffed to herself. She was angry, but knew the captain had good reasons for doing things the way he did. As smelly of a job as septic-vac was, it was necessary. At some point they might have to get off planet quick, the septic tanks would still need to be emptied. It was not like they could just dump it into space. The septic system was not a closed system. Opening it in the vacuum of space would be the same as a hull breach.

Given this, she was still upset. She simply did not want to do the septic-vac again. She knew that wouldn’t be fair to the others who did have to do it, but so be it.

As the young women shut off the shower and stepped out into the small wash room she wondered why she spent so much time dwelling on this. It was not like her. She had better things, more important things to think about. Maybe this was what being a normal teenager was like. She didn’t really know. She was only fourteen when she went to the Academy. Her time there was anything but normal.

As she slipped on the scrubs she had grabbed from the infirmary she could not help but wonder what her life would have been like had she not gone to the Academy, had she been normal. School, friends, summer jobs, boys…boys like the one she met today. The one that saw her covered in sewage. The one she had a feeling was going with them on this job.

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As the young man walked up Serenity’s ramp he quickly gained the attention of the large mercenary sorting ammunition near the wei