Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, etc. belong not to me, but to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox, and no money is being made here. The story, however, is mine.

“Those poor mudders,” I said looking back from the cargo bay ramp.

“Come on, Eddie.” Libby was right there with me. “You say that about every border or edgeworld we come to.”

I pushed the button to close the ramp and airlock. “It’s just that, their only break was some Robin Hood-esk person stealing from the Magistrate and giving it to the indentured mudders a few years back.” I started to go the rear of the cargo bay. “And I got that gorram song stuck in my head!”

“Kuang qi de, Eddie.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get us off this rock, will you?” Which reminds me, I never introduced you to my ship. I named it Liberty , for helping me escape the Darkness. She was the best thing I could find planetside on Londium after I got off that cruiser. Well, best thing they’d never realize I was in, anyway. It’s a Firefly class. Old, outdated, and obsolete. They don’t make them anymore. Although it does put me in the class of those smugglers everyone hates, the Alliance has yet to find me. I’ve found them on a few occasions, but they never found me. And I don’t think people on the higher up want the navy finding out about me anyway. Long story.

I’ve retrofitted the ship immensely since. The port shuttle is gone. All that is now is a façade of a shuttle. Inside it opens out this rather large cannon. We’re talking Earth-That-Was battleship cannon large. I found it in a junkyard on Persephone really cheap. Which is why a good deal of that side of the cargo bay is gone. It’s now a chamber for the gun and its ammo.

I walked through the cargo bay to the other side and through the door. Down there, some Fireflies keep an infirmary. Mine never came with one. Instead, it makes a great bedroom, although I had to get rid of the windows in there for obvious reasons. Looking back further, I saw Libby coming out of the first passenger dorm