Disclaimer: All references are copyright of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, of course. Thanks for giving us such amazing characters to play with - it's like having a shiny new toolbox!

I've been writing for some time but this is my first attempt at a fanfic, so any comments are mighty appreciated. Here goes...

NEW PROSPECTS

A Firefly Story by Jayro

1

The black…

Mal had seen it countless times through the battered windshield of his ship, but never more had it lived up to its billing than now. Even the stars seemed to have been frightened away from this region, and they had every reason to be fearful, for this was Reaver country.

That name was almost taboo aboard Serenity now. The cannibalistic demons had visited too great a hurt upon her crew, and though River Tam had done her best that day to exact all kinds of vengeance with her blades, the loss of Wash still pained each and everyone. The toy dinosaurs remained, dotted about the pilot’s console, but there was an empty space on the bridge that could never be completely filled.

Mal glanced back from the window, at the willowy teenaged girl seated at the control yoke. She was flying Serenity solo for the first time but he was not unduly anxious. Beyond her tumbling curtains of dark hair, the look on her face was one of implacable calm.

“Talk to me, little one,” he said thoughtfully. “Tell me shiny things.”

The girl turned her big eyes in his direction; he could almost feel her reading him. After a moment a slight, knowing smile flickered across her face. “Everything’s fine," she said. "You shouldn’t worry so much.”

Mal had no doubt that River could pilot his ship as perfectly and precisely as Wash. He recalled the words of the doctor, her brother, when he told the assembled crew that there was nothing that did not come as easily to her as breathing did to everyone else. But she did not have Wash’s creativity and sleight of hand at the helm. That was something she would have to learn, and quickly.

Stil