Decent kinda planet.

That's how Mal used to describe Beaumonde. As the capital of the Kalidasa system it was far enough away from the Core for him not to feel too trapped there, but modern enough to fit other people's definitions of 'decent' as well. Like on most border worlds the landmass consisted mostly of farmland and smaller industrial towns, but the big cities were populous and well developed, and even though the Alliance presence was heavy, it was easy enough to avoid if you stuck to the right places. The docks were always swarming with people looking for a boat to hire or for a boat to hire them, and like Persephone and Boros it was a great place to stock up on fuel and supplies and look for work and manpower.

The crew had already assembled in the cargo bay when Mal arrived from the bridge, looking alarmingly eager to get off the ship. Jayne was pacing the floor like a caged animal, but paused long enough to throw a look at his captain as he came down the stairs.

"Nice landin'," he declared. "You gettin' better. Hardly felt it this time."

"Yeah," Mal muttered. "It wasn't me."

He sidestepped and allowed River, who'd followed him from the bridge, to pass him. Jayne's face darkened as the realization hit him. "I can't believe you're lettin' her fly the boat," he snarled.

"You just said it was a nice landin'!" Kaylee protested, earning herself a glare from the mercenary.

"It's not unsupervised," Simon added and then threw a worried look in Mal's direction. "It's not, is it?"

"It's not," Mal assured him.

It wasn't that River wasn't able to pilot the ship. On the contrary, she was probably a better pilot than he was. But there were still times when he questioned her sanity. Miranda had changed her somewhat, made her psychotic moments less frequent and violent, but her puzzling comment