The planet was a dusty one, but that didn’t stop a deflector shield from flying off the front end when they descended towards Shadow’s surface.

“What is wrong with those gorram shield plates?!” Jayne shouted while they made a rocky landing.

“I’ll need to get a replacement soon, Mal,” said Kaylee as they got off the ship and breathed the dry, hot air that clung to their throats.

“Not here, you won’t. We’ll stop by someplace when we leave, but right now I have business with the old woman,”

“Is this going to get violent?” Simon asked. “Wasn’t planning on it,” the captain replied, holstering his gun in sharp contrast to his words.

“Should I stay here then?” Analith asked her hands on her hips. “Maybe you’d better stay this time, huh?” He took Zoë, Wash, and Jayne with him.

“That would be the adventure crew,” Simon said, rolling his eyes somewhat. Analith watched the four of them slowly fade into the landscape, what little there was to be had of it. Mal’s tall figure and broad shoulders was between Wash’s slightly shorter one and Zoë’s sturdy yet almost gaunt frame. Jayne was obscured by the guns strapped to his back.

“They’ll be alright. Just wait, by sundown they’ll be back and we’ll be outta here,” Kaylee said. The others went inside, but Ana still stood, watching the figure of the captain.

***

“Jesus! Do you have some kind of thing about my room or what?” Mal had entered his bedroom to find Ana sitting on his bed surrounded by crumpled bits of paper and doodling on a stack of more paper.

“No. I just like your room. It’s not girly like Kaylee’s, neat like Simon’s, or ferociously guarded like Zoë’s, Wash’s, and Jayne’s,”

“Right. Where did the paper come from?”

“Found it,” Her reply was somewhat hasty.

“You did, did you…” He tried to look at the picture she was drawing, but it was clutched tightly to her chest.

“Come on, lemme see it,”

“No!”

“Please?”

“No!”

“Come on, I wanna see it!”

“Mal! Stop it!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll stop.