Book One – Chapter Three

Mal knew that he was going crazy. For a second, he swore that the stegosaurus was shaking its head in disappointment.

It had been almost nine years since he had bought the Firefly he was sitting in. Back then, it had never occurred to him how far this bulky ship would take him. It never occurred to him that he would one day be risking everything he had, not to mention everything his friends had, just to keep a mode of transportation. It really never occurred to him that he’d be risking everything just to save a collection of plastic dinosaurs.

Mal preferred to keep the specifics of that particular incident as vague as possible even to himself. The memories were pretty embarrassing, but in the end he was rewarded with the dinosaurs and a week lying down in the infirmary. It was a story the rest of the crew was polite enough not to repeat, but they all were glad of what he did. They all would have done it.

But despite his daring rescue of the dinosaurs, bringing himself to look at the stegosaurus was more than Mal could manage right now. He broke the plastic dinosaur’s gaze and lowered his head into his hands.

“Sir?”

Only maître d's and Zoe ever called him “sir” anymore, so Mal went to the latter option. She had snuck up on him on the bridge. Mal was losing his reflexes.

“Sir, is everything all right?”

“Soon will be. The boys back yet?”

“Not yet. They’ve still got a couple minutes left.”

“Yeah. Kaylee’s got the ship prepped?”

“She does.”

“Ship fueled yet?”

“Fuller says it’s another twenty minutes. What’s the hurry? We leavin’ Jayne and Simon behind again?”

“No, not this time. Jus’ want it so that when they get here, we’re just a couple button-presses from leavin’ atmo.”

Zoe looked at Mal deeply. People usually credited her for knowing the Captain best, since she had known him the longest, but it worried her to admit that there were several times that he wouldn’t show even her what he was thinking. Those times were getting