“Yes!” Kaylee’s cry of triumph echoed through the ship just as lights flickered across the board and stayed on.

Mal ignored the comm, instead standing in the bridge doorway and yelling, “We good to go?”

The young woman leaned out of the engine room, and shouted back. “We are, Cap’n.”

“Can we burn?”

“Everything’s A-OK!”

“Shiny. Tell River to get to Katya and –”

“She’s already gone, Cap’n.”

Indeed, there was a clang, a groan, then a few seconds later Katya appeared in the bridge windows.

“We got comms?” Mal asked his wife, sitting at the controls.

“No need,” Freya said, already setting new co-ordinates and getting under power. “She’ll follow.”

---

“In here.” Dottie went to knock but paused.

Jayne had no compunction about barging into a bedroom, and tried the handle. “Gorramit. You got a key?”

“There’s probably a spare on the … oh.”

Jayne hadn’t waited, but planted a foot by the lock. The door was old, the wood solid, but little could stand against a determined Cobb boot with his full weight behind it. It burst open.

For a moment he thought the room was empty, then saw a dark leg just beyond the bed. Crossing the floor in just a few strides, he went down onto his knees next to Zoe’s naked form. Gently, far more so than anyone who knew him would ever believe, he turned her over and moved her hair from her neck, pressing lightly. There, a pulse, good and strong.

He lifted her up, ignoring her nudity, and placed her carefully on the bed.

Dottie clasped her hands to her mouth. “Is she …”

“She’s alive. Check the bathroom, see if Hank’s passed out in there.”

She did as she was told. “No. No-one.”

“Then how …” Jayne picked up the lock from where it had flown across the room. “’Cause the key’s still in it.”

Dottie cleared her throat. “There’s …” She pointed towards a small door in the corner.

“Where’s that go?”

“Secret corridors.” She pressed part of the moulding and the door swung silently open.

A cold breeze filled the room.

“W