Disclaimer: These characters don't belong to me. I'm just messing with them a bit.

Action! Adventure! Sex! Guns! Humour! Gou-shi.

Dr. Simon Tam’s hatred of the Alliance is complete. For all the comforting rewards available to those such as himself, the fortunate of birth, talented and well connected, there were, he supposed, a myriad of evils to accept on sufferance. Mostly, one ignored those evils, or rationalized them, as, for instance, one accepted necessity of allied governments working to establish some vaguely defined “greater good”. Which, in retrospect, seemed to mean creating more wealth for himself and the others of his social order. Then a shining star such as his own sister is seduced into attending a “scholastic” government institution that literally carves her mind into something... gross. It is the event, Simon now knew, that made him fully accept the unbreakable bond of his familial love for River. Love for which one gave up everything else one once held as meaningful, foremost the respect of his parents, a bond which, he now saw clearly, was held by obligation, not love. All given over to a truly loving obligation for his sister’s welfare. For which one abandoned a stellar career. Maybe, thought Simon, such love and loss was building him up to be a more complete person, a stronger man. But why here? – because he is, for the most part, away from the Alliance. Why this way? – because, well, he hadn’t many options, had he?

Ai ya! but he hates the Alliance. Thus he understands his bond with Captain Reynolds, though they repel each other in almost all other ways that Simon can think of at the moment. A hatred that strengthens loyalty to one’s own. And, let’s face facts, Simon’s own are now Serentiy: the crew, and, by some odd math, in the sense that the ship is materials and the sum of its crew, includes the ship itself.

Yeah, but. Yeah, but at any given time, Serenity is also partially defined by her cargo. And it is such a magnificent