Author's Notes (as usual):

Um. This surprised *me*, so don't even ask.

This started out as part of the "Your Song" series which I haven't updated in seventy billion years, and evolved into this on it's own. I felt kind of weird making up my own characters, but they're not Mary Sues (Marty Stus?) or anything like that, just necessary evils. Title is loosely derived from Ender's Game, because that's what inspired me.

Italics denote the alliance guys talking. (or, later, flashbacks)

'...' denotes thought, which is only necessary for our psychics.

Feed me! kaylee@kikiroxxorz.com

Pairings are: (Simon/Kaylee, Mal/Inara, Jayne/OC and River/OC) but they're not truly important to the plot. Except maybe the River/Adam dynamic. That's kind of important.

~*~

“The girl is dying, sir.”

“Let’s not be melodramatic.”

“She is comatose, seizing every few minutes. If she does make it--”

“There is still mostly normal brain activity.”

“You’re not implying that you would continue treatment, are you, sir?”

“It’s not an implication.”

“I’m not sure I can handle being here much longer witnessing this, sir.”

“Nobody is forcing you to stay.”

“That’s ironic, sir, considering the children.”

“The children are under different circumstances, don’t you think?”

“Tell that to my dying seven-year-old niece, sir.”

“Your what?”

“Is that another thing that you ‘declined to observe’, sir? Didn’t put two and two together? Kaylee Tam is my baby sister.”

~*~

Simon managed to climb up from the darkness. He struggled to keep his eyes open as he looked around the tiny room. A monitor camera blinked at him from one corner of the wall. Simon tried to remember where he was. He had been dreaming of a ship, of a boy with wide eyes and a girl who knew what he was thinking.

The man’s voice frightened him.

“Simon,” it said softly. “Hey, Simon. Hey, buddy. Remember me? It’s your uncle Kyle.”

Simon shook his head no. The man took his hand. “Well, that’s okay. It’s been a long time.” He smiled, and Si