with apologies to Robert Heinlein for the bastardation of one of his titles...

This is the first in what I hope to be a long running fanfic, with several ideas inspired by other non completed fics on this site. I hope you enjoy it, and please leave feedback, as it will most assuredly be helpful.

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Good gorram, that girl could fly a spaceship.

Mal sat in the co-pilot seat on the bridge, while River had her hands on the main controls. It was only out of habit that Mal sat in the co-pilot seat, as River had been flying this boat by herself for a week solid. Mal thought she was ready for this job, and Simon hadn’t even protested, much. Truth is, Simon had been a lot happier since the battle with the reavers two weeks ago, and no one on the ship had any doubts as to why. More than once Mal had heard the sounds of their incessant humping.

“I have to hear it too, “ River said softly, not taking her eyes off of the approaching planet. “His bunk is right across from mine.”

Damn, but that was still more’n a little creepy. “Don’t go looking too deep, little albatross. There’s things there that no one needs to see.”

River smiled knowingly to herself, adjusting the thrusters to bring the ship gracefully into the planet’s atmosphere. She was very skilled, despite having just picked it up. Intuitive, that’s what Simon had called it.

“The city we are looking for is called…”

“Athenia,” River blurted out, not missing a beat. “It’s surrounded by lush green forests and 3 different natural hot springs.” It sounded almost as if she were reciting a travel brochure.

“Put her down in the clearing to the north of town, that’s where the lot is that we are going to get off.”

Mal watched for a moment, thinking that this girl was damn near as good as Wash, and with enough practice, she would surpass him someday. He then left the bridge before they got too close to the ground. One thing Wash had on her was a style of landing so as to not scare the ruttin’ piss out of anyone watching.

“S