What happened in the editing cut between the stand down order and the funeral? Josh and Mutant Enemy et al own the sand box, they just let us play here. Enjoy. And thanks to Soot Sprite for playing Beta. Finally the end for those brave enough to bear with my first attempt.

Interludes VI

Zoe started "I suppose what happened to River could be kindly described as battle stress," She looked the question at Simon.

"Well, I just dealt with the trauma. Psychiatrists, other professionals dealt with the resulting psychological effects. But, as a relevant side bar, seems by bratty genius of a sister has been learning to hack into highly restricted data bases, among other things." he pointed to a stack of data cubes in his desk. "This is all the information I need. What they did to her and others, how they did it. several possible ways to mitigate both what they did, and the 'undesirable' effects on her. There are a few drugs I'd need, only available on core planets, however. And that role-playing with Wash's dinosaurs is the best long term therapy for her, despite its effect on Jayne."

" So with the drugs, she'd be safe," Mal asked. "Safe? Assuming I found some treatment that worked to undo the conditioning, a drug protocol that would work when she relapsed? No,I could not guarantee she would ever be 100% safe, Very much improved especially with another year of relative safety. You chide me for being "top 3%" its actually top1%. River is top .03% only because that is as close as mathematics can place her; AND she's a reader, again probably in the top 1% of readers, AND they destroyed the part of her brain that controls her emotions. I don't think any of us have any idea what 'normal' would have been for my sister before they went hacking on her brain.

"But what do you always say, Captain? Deal with the threat that's in front of you worry about the one around the corner wh