Somewhere, beyond Serenity’s shimmering form, lay Darcie’s body. Nestled amongst Sihnon’s capital city’s shining skyscrapers, buried in its seedy underbelly, Darcie lay broken. Her face was pale, skin stretched tightly across her bones, her eyes rolling in their sockets. Her fingers would twitch from time to time, as if performing some invisible task, her mouth uttering words and phrases inaudible to those figures that stood about her. Like dark clouds of grey they clustered around Darcie’s figure, tapping on nearby computer screens, monitoring fluid intakes, watching her intently.

Darcie knew that she was close to death, that there was little more sustaining her than the people and computers which surrounded her. From time to time she knew that she cried a little, feelings that manifested themselves somewhere on Sihnon, far away from Serenity. The burning pain that Darcie had felt when she had arrived on Serenity had persisted and grown worse gradually, accumulating in an attack that day in Jayne’s quarters. Her body had shaken and convulsed back on Sihnon, blood had cascaded from her nose and mouth as she had gasped for breath. The clouds of grey proceeded about their work however, unperturbed by how rapidly their subject was deteriorating. Her mind continued to function, her body was inconsequential. Right now all they had to do was perpetuate her life, something that required minimal effort. So they witnessed Darcie melt away in nothing but a shadow of her former self, a memory she maintained in the mental projection that now roamed about Serenity.

“Kaylee? You in here?”

Kaylee’s head popped out from inside her hammock, her body neatly disguised by the rolls of fabric.

“Hey Darcie! What’s up?” She said with a grin, swinging her legs out. “Oh, you weren’t caught up in all that arguin’, were you? I can’t understand what’s goin’ on with Jayne today!”

Darcie quirked a smile, drifting over to Serenity’s engine and examining it closely.

“You know, I heard something mighty odd when I was passing