by Tim Lebbon
Kaylee knew Wash’s concentration face. She left him alone, backing away from his chair and the console and the terrible view beyond, and she shouted back through the ship to where Jayne was helping Zoë and River out of the airlock.
“Jayne, we got maybe seconds to—”
“We don’t even got that,” Wash said. “Hang on to something. Hang on to anything!”
Mal and Simon, Kaylee thought, but there was no more time to think. The ship lurched, sending her tripping down the stairs and sprawling on the gangway, and then she felt the old girl thundering beneath her.
* * *
They had no time to get inside. Mal saw that knowledge in Simon’s face as well, and they grasped on to handholds with both hands. Mal secured his magnetic boots to the ship’s hull. He was a long, long way from being a praying man, but he sent a thought out to someone or something.
Just this one last bit of luck, he thought, and then Serenity turned and powered away from the Sun Tzu.
Wash took them fast but smooth, weaving through a debris field that was spreading from the Alliance destroyer, and Mal had a chance to look back and down at the massive old ship as its boosters kicked in and sent it out away from the planet.
It must have been those blue-handed spooks taking Silas away. A rush of anger filled him, fury at their stupidity, thinking that they could contain someone and something so strong. What fools they’d been making him in the first place. What fools, doing what they’d done to River. They didn’t understand the implications of their actions. They had created something unstoppable.
Then his anger changed to something else as he realized what was happening.
Serenity continued up and away from the ship, at a safe distance now and still moving away, because perhaps Wash saw too.
The crippled Alliance destroyer was caught in the Sun Tzu blast, and it burst apart in a blooming ball of flame. Ordnance exploded and sent countless spears of light and fire out from the conflagration, an expanding globe of superheated gases and wreckage that would continue moving out through space for miles, and days, and perhaps forever, given velocity by violence and set on random courses into and out of the ’verse.
They were at a safe distance from that ruin, but perhaps not from what came next.
The Alliance twins were not taking Silas anywhere safe. Perhaps they’d seen their mistake, or perhaps their programming and mission had allowed for this. If he cannot be contained, then he must be destroyed.
The Sun Tzu accelerated across the face of the planet and powered into the strange rings. Already compromised, its hull could not withstand the impacts of thousands of rocks and chunks of ice for more than a few seconds. The massive old ship came apart. There were no explosions, other than countless geysers of atmosphere being released when holes were punched through its hull. Its hulk continued moving into the rings, disintegrating, growing smaller as pieces fell away, and soon the remains of the ship were indistinguishable from the clouds of debris surrounding it. All that was left was a wave of movement through the rings, some parts thrown out from the settled orbit, others joining in, and soon this wave would settle and become nothing but memory.
The Sun Tzu and everything in it would soon be nothing but dust.
“Mal, you okay out there?”
“Just dandy,” Mal said. “We’re both fine. That was some flying, Wash.”
“What else do you pay me for?”
“Your repartee.”
“Your…” Zoë began, but then she chuckled. “Let’s keep that between you and me.”
Close to Mal and Simon the airlock’s outer door slid open, inviting them into the warmth and safety of Serenity.
“Silas has joined the stars,” River said over their open comm, and Mal was not comforted by her comment. It felt not like the end of something, but the beginning.
* * *
The crew sat around the dining table, drinks in hands, food on plates. Wash and Zoë were on the bridge, spending some time together while Wash flew them away from the vicinity of the planet. They were keeping an eye out for any incoming Alliance ships. It seemed unlikely that no distress signals had been sent, but as yet there were no signs of any other ships close by.
The Doc hovered around Jayne. He wanted to take him down to the infirmary to tend to his wounded arm, but Jayne had been too eager to eat, drink, and share their stories. He looked pale from time to time, and Mal thought the gunshot wound was hurting him more than he let on. He’d go soon enough.
Mal kept glancing at River, then away again. After all that had occurred, he couldn’t help himself. She was quiet, subdued, curled up on her chair with a drink on the table in front of her. As ever, Simon sat beside her. He was there to protect her, but Mal couldn’t help thinking there was no protection against River. Not as she was now, and not if she decided to turn against them. He was only pleased that she hadn’t. Faced with a stark choice, he’d seen no doubt in her when she had chosen them—her brother, the ship, her crewmates—over Silas.
She and her brother were established members of Serenity’s crew now, and Mal was pretty comfortable with that. But he was also a mite scared. It had become more clear what the Alliance had been tryin’ to make of her—a soldier. He’d seen what she might be capable of, both in her own actions and in those of Silas. He figured he’d never cease worryin’ about having her on board his boat, but he also understood that she might prove more handy than he’d ever imagined. And he figured it’d likely change the type of jobs he’d consider takin’ on in the future.
River caught his eye, and this time he did not look away. He smiled, and she smiled back.
While Mal finished his meal, Jayne reached for the two backpacks he’d managed to bring on board with him and sat them in his lap.
“So let’s see what we got in this little haul,” he said. “After spending a treacherous and most non-shiny time on board probably the oldest and most priceless ship in the ’verse—which is now, coincidentally, dust—we managed to finish this trip with…” He dipped his hand into one backpack and brought out the first object.
“A bowl,” Kaylee said.
“From Earth-That-Was,” Jayne said.
“It looks like any other bowl I’ve ever seen.”
Jayne shrugged and took out the next couple of objects.
“A watch and a shoe,” he said. “Just one shoe. I’m sure I picked up the other one.” He opened the second backpack and looked inside, rooting around but obviously not finding the shoe’s partner.
“I do happen to know a one-legged collector of Earth-That-Was memorabilia,” Mal said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Mal said. “But as I recall he has a left foot, and that one is a right.” Everyone laughed. Everyone but Jayne. He upended the second backpack across the table, spilling drinks and smashing a plate on the floor. A water bottle, a few books, one with a scary clown on the front, a mug with a weird smiley mouse’s face on the side, an empty photo frame, a leather case with nothing inside, a roll of sticking tape.
“Great,” Jayne said. “Such valuables.”
“Hang on,” Simon said. He picked up one of the books and let the cover fall closed so that he could read it. His eyes went wide.
“What?” Jayne asked.
“You know what this is?”
“No. What? Don’t forget I found it.”
“This is an Earth-That-Was medical book, Diseases of the Inner Ear. Amazing!”
“Worth a lot?” Jayne asked.
“I have no idea,” Simon said, flicking through the pages. “I suspect priceless if you’re stuck on a spaceship in deep space and you develop earache.”
“I do have booze,” Jayne said. “A few bottles made it out without smashing.” He picked one up and examined it.
“Maybe it’s worth something,” Kaylee said.
“Maybe,” Jayne said. “I reckon we’ll just keep it for the ship’s drinks cabinet. For… you know… special occasions.” He twisted the top off an
d took a deep swig, before passing it around the table. “And today’s special occasion is surviving.”
When Wash and Zoë came to join them, Mal enjoyed the sense of the whole crew being together again.
“The ship’s flying fine,” Wash said.
“Good, considering what you did to her,” Kaylee said. “I’ll spend a few hours checking her over after we’re finished here.”
“Hey, what’s that?” Wash said. He picked up the watch Jayne had dropped on the table beside the single shoe and held it up, dangling from his fingers by its strap. His eyes went wide.
“What?” Jayne said.
“This is a Taurus.”
“A what?”
Wash glanced around at them all, his gaze settling on Jayne.
“That’s ship’s loot,” Mal said quietly. He’d seen Wash like this a couple of times before.
“Hey—” Jayne said, reaching for the watch. Wash took a step back, and handed the watch to Zoë. She closed the strap around her wrist and admired it. The face was scratched, the hands still, the metal strap pale and stained.
“Wash,” Jayne said, and when he half-stood he had to press his hand against the table to keep himself from fainting.
“Sit. Down,” the Doc said, and for once Jayne did as he was told.
“Legend has it they only made a thousand of these, back on Earth-That-Was,” Wash said, sitting beside Zoë and holding up her arm wearing the watch. “I’ve heard of three of them in circulation, which means there’s probably more.”
“What’s it worth?” Jayne asked, and Mal sensed the interest all around the table.
“Enough,” Wash said.
“Enough for what?” Mal asked.
“A full fuel charge, stocking up the pantry, and maybe even some spare parts for Kaylee.”
“For Serenity!” Kaylee said. “Be glad to get those lateral stabilizer foils.”
Jayne sighed, tipped the bottle to his lips, and took several deep glugs. He smacked his lips, and already his eyes were glazed. He held up the bottle. “You’re welcome,” he said.
“Thank you, Jayne,” Mal said, not altogether sarcastically. “Zoë, Wash, nothing on the scopes?”
“Nothing but the hopeless, soul-crushing silence of the Black.”
“Sometimes that’s how I like it.” Mal smiled. “Book get back to us?”
“While we were having our Sun Tzu adventures, we received a message sayin’ he’s sold some of those old tomes for a good sum,” Wash said. “He and Inara will be rejoining us once we’re closing on the Outer Rim.”
Mal nodded and smiled. It was almost as if a plan had come together.
“So what did we learn from our latest jaunt?” he asked.
“Never, ever follow mysterious maps that ain’t meant to be followed,” Jayne said. He picked up the old shoe, sniffed it, and dropped it on the floor.
“I learned I like being warm,” said Kaylee, huddled in a blanket. “And we learned where we came from. It was kinda hauntin’ in there, seeing all those dead folk. But it was sorta shiny too.”
“How so?” Zoë asked.
“The empty pods,” Kaylee said. “They were used by generations long gone. My ancestors might’ve been asleep in them.” She pointed around the table. “Or yours. Or yours. Or…” When she reached River she paused and fell quiet.
Mal glanced around the table, and the whole crew was waiting for River to speak. Even Simon.
“I saw what I could become,” River said. “And I learned that if I allow that to happen, there’s nothing in the ’verse that can stop me.”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Joss Whedon for the ’verse, and to everyone at Titan for helping me fly the ship.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Lebbon is the New York Times bestselling author of Eden, Coldbrook, The Silence, and the Relics trilogy. He has also written many successful movie novelizations and tie-ins for Alien and Firefly. Tim has won four British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award, a Shocker, a Tombstone and been a finalist for the International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards.
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