TITLE: “THE WORLD TO COME”

SERIES: THE DEVIL’S CRADLE

CHAPTER: 33. Sequel to “THINGS UNSEEN”

FANDOM: “FIREFLY”

AUTHOR: Alison M. DOBELL

PAIRING: Zoe/Wash Kaylee/Simon Mal/Inara

SUMMARY: “While Serenity and her crew play possum

Commandant Urquart is getting more and more desperate

To catch them. Suzie and Davie find things on Osiris far

Different than they had expected.”

“THE WORLD TO COME”

A “Firefly” Story

Written by Alison M. DOBELL

* * * * *

Blood. It was everywhere. With no care given to who else might be alerted to her actions Lucy swept out of the theatre, her feet automatically dancing over the fallen bodies of the medical technicians and the dead Operative. It was as if something more ancient than she was had awakened inside her and the Lucy Dengate who trembled with fear and trepidation was no more. In her place an older self took charge, memories morphed into consciousness and informed her mind in the same way her abilities were informing every cell of her body. For once the path was clear and she knew exactly what needed to be done.

Quickly Lucy made her way to the incubation room and swiftly went from tank to tank, her eyes widening and silently taking in the remains of her sisters. Only when she reached the end of the chilly room did she realise there had been no male subjects. Had the Operative saved them or had their bodies already been destroyed?

An alarm sounded, oddly distant, but she knew her time was up. To be caught now would be worse than any amount of torture or death

* * * * *

Kaylee was frustrated. It was bad enough being buried alive without Simon ignoring all her efforts to drag him away from the infirmary. She gave a huff of frustration.

“Simon, River’s fine. You don’t need to spend all your life constantly lookin’ for cures that don’t exist, *dong ma*?”

Simon did not look up from his high tech microscope. “That’s not what I’m doing.”

“It ain’t?”

He looked up at the note of surp