Well now. The rescue actually isn't over by a long shot, but given the tragic deletion (and ensuing delay) of my first draft of this chapter I wanted to get at least a part of the re-write posted. Hope you enjoy it; there will be more to come! Comments very much appreciated/begged for.

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"Simon!" barked Zoe, completing her scan of the arena and satisfying herself that there weren't any more threats lurking in the shadows created by the dancing colored spotlights. "Get in here, ma shong. Kaylee, you up there?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Lower it, now," Zoe ordered, breaking into a jog as she covered the ground to her husband's limp form, trying to quell the dread in her heart. River followed her, scanning the chaos, trying to locate the image she had seen as she entered the stadium, longing to comfort Mal and erase the sadness from his eyes.

Simon dropped into the arena, and after taking a cautious look around for things that might consider him edible, made his way to the pile of rubble that marked the opening in the ceiling where Kaylee should be lowering his medical supplies. He stepped around the bodies of the guards who had been crushed beneath the falling debris, looking upward at the makeshift rescue platform being lowered on a cable from Serenity's belly.

It wasn't much to write home about, a large metal plate for a floor, held within a huge cargo net, but with any luck it would lift them all to safety. The plate came to rest on the ground, and Simon tugged at the release cord on the net. "That's good, Kaylee, hold steady."

"Okay," came her cheerful reply, followed by a more uncertain "They down there?"

"They are," responded Simon, thankful she hadn't asked any more specific questions. "We'll be all loaded up in a few minutes."

He grabbed his med kit and the pile of stretchers and headed into the fray, stopping short when he found Jayne hanging from his wrists against a wooden wall painted as a ta