His stay with the Brothers of Heavenly Silence had been good for him. Not pleasurable, perhaps, but certainly good. The Brothers had quite different ideas about the details of the dogma of their faith than he did, but it was amazing how much a vow of silence could do to stave off arguments. He supposed there was a lesson in that.

Shepherd Book had been glad of the opportunity to spend an extended period of time among his more spiritually inclined brethren. The crew and his fellow passengers on board Serenity were all fine people—or rather, most of them were fine people most of the time—but spiritual, they were not.

The truth was that Book was coming to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh a bit too much for his liking. Not the literal sexual act, of course—he hadn’t fallen that far from his oaths. But as for other worldly experiences… He had taken great pleasure in freeing a ship full of poor souls that were being bartered as slaves, but more than that, he had taken pleasure in the *act* of freeing them. In the violence of it.

And there *was* a reason he had turned to God and to a less worldly path. Even if he had let himself be convinced to give up his quiet life at the abbey, he would not give up the redemption and the peace of mind he had found there.

He could never let things become as bad as they had been before that again. Sometimes he still wondered if had not gotten on the wrong ship that fateful day. He had felt it in his soul, looking upon Serenity for the first time on the Eavesdown Docks on Persephone—that had been his last chance to turn back, to return to the abbey and live out his life in the peace he’d found. But knowing the evil being done in the ‘Verse, what kind of Christian would he have been if he’d turned his back on it? Not his kind of Christian, he could make sure of that.

16 MONTHS AGO

The strawberries. They were coming along particularly nicely this year. He’d pick the first ones in a few days time, and treat his brethren to a feast. A smile spread across Book’s face as a memory s