Serenity had been circling Aeetes for three days. Aeetes was the large uninhabitable planet that Medea and its twin moon Absyrtis orbited. Mal had decided that staying on the far side of Aeetes was best for now. He hadn’t been too sure how connected these folks were to the Alliance, or what kind of ships they might have of their own, but either way he wanted to stay out of sight. More then anything he knew he had to make Dennly believe Serenity had left for good.

The original plan had been for Mal and Jayne to take the shuttle to Medea, land near enough to Eden Station, and case the place for a few days. They needed to learn the routines surrounding the place and most importantly they needed to be certain Wash was alive. They had to set eyes on him.

Abruptly the plan had changed.

Zoë had been livid. While she didn’t voice her opinion in front of the rest of the crew the very moment she had Mal alone she let him have it. There was no way a landing party was forming without her on it. Period.

Mal had tried to get her to see reason; he couldn’t very well leave Jayne in charge of the ship. Doing that was an open invitation to trouble. She really had no counter to that, as it was true enough. Times before when they’d left the ship together Wash had been there to ensure they’d have a ship to return too. Now he wasn’t. She just said they’d have to trust Jayne. That and Kaylee could always kill the engines if he tried anything funny.

Mal still hadn’t been convinced. He was beginning to fathom that her feelings for Wash must run a bit deeper then he’d hoped, especially if she was causing such a ruckus to be apart of the survey team. And it was largely because of that he had pushed back harder for her not go. He didn’t want her there if they did find out he’d been wrong and Wash was dead. He was trying to spare her, but she wasn’t having it.

Finally, after an hours worth of arguing she’d grown silent and turned away from him. He thought it was over then he just managed to hear her