Author’s Note: This is the fourth story in my seemingly endless series that follows the crew of Serenity three years after we last saw them on that short-lived cult show called Firefly . “The Tall”, “Serenity Waits”, and “Just a Few Small Gorram Details” are the first three installments. I chose to write each one as a stand-alone story with just a few small gorram pointers about what has happened before. For “Fertile Ground”, I’m afraid that is not an option. So, at different points in “Fertile Ground”, this author will step on in and reveal excerpts from earlier installments. That way, people who have not read them won’t feel left out.

Here we go . . .

“Fertile Ground”

Simon, River, and Kaylee are the subjects of this first segment. For what’s going on with River, let’s begin with this excerpt from “Serenity Waits”.

“What have you got there?” Mal asked. He walked closer and saw a portrait she had made of herself. She was sitting alone on her bed holding her sculpture of a swan in her lap. River in the painting was admiring the swan almost as if it were alive in her eyes. Though Mal did not acknowledge it, the outfit she was wearing in the portrait was the same one River wore when she and Simon were kidnapped in the hills at Jiangyin. Her red sweater caught Mal’s eye, but only for an instant.

“Ran out of things to paint?”

River looked at him as if she were surprised at what he had asked, but Mal knew better. “No,” she said. “I always have lived experiences that I can paint from my memories. This is about grounding myself.”

Mal could only recall how foolish he felt talking with Book. “I’m not so sure I understand.”

River closed her eyes and took a breath. It was not a sigh of impatience with Mal’s questions; it was a moment of reflection. Afterward, she said, “I needed to step back from lived experience and focus on where I am today; who I am today.”

“So, you don’t want to live in the past,” said Mal with little confidence.

River stared thoug