Here’s the second part of Chapter 8. The first part was a little short, but it seemed to work best as a little cliffy!

8.2

Simon had offered to man the ‘com, partly because he wanted something to do, but mostly because he was fretting about River and Kaylee. Sitting in the pilot’s chair, he toyed nervously with his lower lip and stared distantly out the windshield at the unchanging view of the Decamerone ’s hull.

In truth, it wasn’t so much River he was concerned about - Simon knew enough now about his sister’s talents to admit that she could probably handle anything that came her way – but Kaylee: he had seen the naked terror in her eyes when she looked back at him before entering the airlock. It had taken fahn dahn like he had never seen in her before to volunteer for such a run, and for that he both respected her and feared for her.

I guess we’re all finding out new things about ourselves today , he thought sombrely.

He still couldn’t quite believe what he’d done. He had space-walked solo, and then bombarded his way into a full-burning space freighter. The more he looked back, the more it all seemed to have happened to someone else, someone far less rational and mild-mannered than he.

Voices drifted to his ears from elsewhere within the ship. Mal and Jayne were in the dining area, and he heard their conversation clearest of all: they were debating the best way to proceed after they had stopped the Decamerone and extricated themselves from its clutches. This seemed a little previous to Simon, with River and Kaylee both not yet returned, but he supposed they needed to have a Plan A worked out as well as the more consistently utilized Plan B.

Jayne’s voice was raised: he sounded particularly adamant that he be allowed to pay a visit to Trinity Station. Simon heard a snatch of something about a Round Hill, whatever that meant. To his surprise, and probably Jayne’s too, Mal was nodding his head in agreement. It wasn’t often that Mal and Jayne concurred about a