Third episode, this one setting my boys and girls loose into the verse after one last bit of unpleasant business. Also, might be a bit on the NC-17 side if you're all hot and bothered by implications and such.

This also starts to set up some of the season arcs that will take place over this and the next 17 episodes, and brings in the first of the 'Familiar Faces' that'll show up from time to time. Here you go, and by all means, tell me what y'all think of it.

A Lesser Evil

Sylvia paced outside the open doors of the Firefly as the crowds milled around them. She was supposed to be drumming up business, passengers and whatnot, but she was having a rough go of it. She couldn't at first tell why, she was a decent enough form to look at, fine enough face. Still, thought, the people tended to give her wide berth. She looked out at Zane, who was relaxing not too far away, stretched out over a set of crates luxuriating in the late afternoon sun. The crowds would be thinning out soon, and the docks were already a lot quieter than when she'd opened up.

And not a single person came in. Not one. Maybe it was that the ship didn't have a name. Or registration. Or a pilot's license. She shook her head; she knew what was wrong. In some sort of dark, undefinable way, something Reaver had seeped into this. Something dark and sinister from out the Belt. Weren't nothing to look at and see, but they knew.

It was going to be a damned long flight to Ezra.

She walked down to where the sign stood, declaring a ship with rooms to let, and turned the thing off. Not worth spending more time whipping a horse that was already steak. The three-dimensional model of the Firefly warped slightly as the power went out. It distended and flickered, an unnatural thing. A thing alive and unhappy. The image vanished, and she attributed it to an overactive imagination.

There was a man behind her.

She jumped and let out a bit of a yelp, even as she chided herself for not noticing this rather large man coming out of the crowds. He was starin