Normally, the journey time to Arcadia would have been an hour. Thanks to Wash, that time was shaved to a precious forty minutes. Mal suspected that even if the commandos had any ideas of chasing them, they would have been eating a fine mix of dust and exhaust by now.

Arcadia had all the earmarks of being a distant cousin to Haven. Three Rivers was made up of dry land but Arcadia was nearest its equator which made the land and air dry with considerable humidity. It was something when even Three River’s government ignored you. As with Haven, Arcadia relied on mining ore and water as their income. Also like Haven, it was a place where new names were forgotten and old names were never remembered.

Once Wash found a clearing to land nearby the settlement, they hurried the still unconscious Zoe on her stretcher to find the nearest doctor. A young boy passerby led them to a small shack of an office and introduced them to an older gentleman. Very tall, white-gray hair, and a face that was hardened by weather but softened by life. Even his voice was soothing.

“What do we have here?”

Mal explained what had happened, just not how it happened. Mal found it was far easier and safer not letting unknowns to have an inkling to their criminal tendencies. The tall doctor calmly delegated duties to the new crew so to help Zoe switched to the doctor’s medical room behind him. Once Zoe was at the mercy of the new doctor, the old man started examining her wound and checked her vitals. He then hooked her up to an I.V. and then looked over at the young boy who was watching along with the crew of Serenity.

“Go fetch your sister, Caleb. I think she may be needed.”

Young Caleb flew off like a bullet. The old doctor addressed Mal who he had already established as the leader of this group. “She’s lost a lot of blood. We have to get that stopped before we can get into the wound and take the bullet out. She’s gonna need surgery. You administered the gauze?”

Mal answered, “Yes. It was all we had.”

“Well, it may have saved