what was that? he's addressing the pilot, wash. flight gear and a hawaiian shirt, toy dinosaurs populating his station -- no old soldier, but just as startled.
was that the primary buffer panel?
did the primary buffer panel just fall off my gorramn ship for no apparent reason? another buck --
i thought kaylee checked our entry couplings! i have a very clear memory of it --
define "interesting".
this is the captain. there's a little problem with our entry sequence; we may experience slight turbulence and then explode. can you shave the vector --
just get us on the ground!
jayne, how many weapons you plan on bringing? you only got the two arms.
i don't plan on any shooting taking place during this job.
no grenades. no grenades. first mate zoe enters from the lower level. her mode of dress and military deference mark her as a war buddy of mal's.
talk to your husband. is the mule prepped?
kaylee! he enters:
kaylee, what in the sphincter of hell are you playing at? the hall leads to the rust-brown chaos that is the engine room. working around the engine in a forest of wires, sparks and smoke is the sweetly pretty mechanic, kaylee. she passes mal with a slightly impatient smile as he stands in the doorway, raising his voice above the din.
you told me --
my ship don't crash. if she crashes, you crashed her.
fear is nothing to be ashamed of, doc.
i'll look for that next time.
no no, that's not a thing i'm interested in talking over with --
i hear the words "that's final" come out of your mouth ever again, they truly will be. this is my boat. y'all are guests on it. he heads down a side corridor that has steps leading down to:
and it's time your little sister learned from your fine example.
some of our jobs are trickier than others --
didn't say 'want'. said 'will'. it's one job, doc. she'll be fine. the passenger dorm has a time-worn warmth that most of the ship shares. except, of course, for the sterile blue of:
she's a reader. sees into the truth of things; might see trouble before it's coming. which is of use to me.
i do, and it's a fact me and mine have been courteous enough to keep to our own selves.
i got one purpose here: keep this boat in the air. i take the jobs i get -- which is less and less, case you ain't been keeping track. he starts away, simon still keeping pace.
so here is us, on the raggedy edge. don't push me and i won't push you. simon starts up the stairs as mal calls to him:
if fanty and mingo are right about the payroll, this could look to be a sunny day for us.
doctor, i'm taking your sister under my protection here. if anything happens to her, anything at all, i swear to you i will get very choked up. honestly. there could be tears. he peels out, leaves simon fuming. kaylee sidles up to him.
alliance payroll. there's peace enforcing squads stationed all about this quadrant. can't use credits out here -- they got to pay their boys in cashy money. which once a month rests here.
you ready to go to work, darlin'?
right. great. let's go.
hands and knees and heads bowed down! everybody, now! two men who appear to be farm folk rush mal and the others. mal draws on the elder one and he stops dead in his tracks. mal's gun is long, not unlike civil war era issue, but very much new in design. the other tries to tackle jayne, which is not necessarily a great idea. jayne clotheslines him so hard he spins right upside-down -- and jayne grabs him by the legs and crack! -- bounces his head right off the floor, knocking him out cold.
you've probably guessed we mean to be thieving here, but what we are after is not yours. so let's have no undue fussing. as he is speaking, jayne is scrambling to the back office, finding the small vault locked.
is there a fed down there? be truthful.
war's long done. we're all just folk now. listen up! we are coming down to empty that vault! the voice of a young alliance guard comes up from below.
leg's good, it'll bleed plenty and we avoid any necessary organs.
well you don't want it to look like you just gave up.
every heist, he's gotta start yelling my name --
get on the mule. (to the guard, pointing to the
you get everyone upstairs in there and you seal it. long as you got air you don't open up, you understand?
zoe take the wheel --
get in the vault with the others --
it's too many. drive, zoe. a reaver craft roars over their heads. it's nearly the size of serenity. torn apart, belching smoke -- a welded conglomeration of ruined ships, painted for war. predator, pure. it disappears over the rooftops.
drive! zoe's face is set with unhappy determination as she floors it, shooting out and leaving the young man in the dust. as they move from him, four reavers jump out of the shadows and grab the young man. mal unhesitatingly draws his gun. he nudges a lever with his thumb and a cartridge pops back. mal fires twice. the young man takes both bullets in the chest, slumps down dead.
they wanna run us down. the up- close kill. river is squashed down on her back, being very small.
grab on! jayne grabs the mule, legs dangling, pulled out between the two vessels as mal slams a new cartridge into his pistol.
is he okay? a bloodied reaver pops into frame from under the skiff-top. he lunges for mal, baring sharpened teeth -- mal spins and draws, fires into his belly as jayne and zoe both fire at the same time. the freak takes too long to go down, but down he goes. dies sitting against the s i op. 4 everybody takes a moment to look at each other.
set course for beaumonde. first thing, i want these bod -- simon suddenly punches him in the face, causing mal to stumble back, and simon to shake his hand in pain.
i'm a hair's breadth from riddling you with holes, doctor --
she is fine! except for bein' still crazy, she's the picture of health!
seems i remember a talk about you giving orders on my boat.
no, shiny! i'm sick a' carrying tourists anyhow. we'll be on beaumonde in ten hours time, you can pick up your earnings and be on your merry. meantime you do your job. patch up my crew. a beat.
doc made his call. they's as babes in a basket when we took 'em in; we sheltered 'em plenty. man has to cut loose, learn to stand on his own.
i had to shoot him. what the reavers woulda done to him before they killed him.
we couldn't take the weight. woulda slowed us down.
mule won't run with five. i shoulda dumped the girl? or you? or jayne?
and go to fanty and mingo with air in our mitts, tell 'em "here's your share"? they'd set the dogs on us in the space of a twitch, and there we are back in mortal peril. we get a job, we gotta vo make good. washenters from the bridge.
maybe that's why we lost. she's not happy with the reply. mal climbs down to his room as wash reaches zoe, slides his arms around her.
it's not my fault the doc's got no stomach for rim living --
what? swept you into his cleanly arms? made tidy love to you? they have reached the guncheck, where jayne and wash have already checked their guns. it works like a lunch automat: mal sticks his gun in a drawer, pulls out a chit -- the q0 drawer closes and rotates, revealing another empty one. a large bouncer with a shockrod watches impassively.
oh god! i can't know that!
mingo. fanty.
he's fanty. you're mingo.
fanty's prettier. feel to do some business?
which means at least four of the guys already in here are yours. all's one. i'll just keep jayne with me.
go. go get yourselves a nice romantic meal.
it's business. we're fine. they leave and the four remaining men sit. fanty tosses a few coins to a saloon-girl, who does a little fan-dance.  angle: the corvue camera's pov of the men is conveniently blocked by her little dance. mal's foot nudges a duffel bag of money to mingo's foot.
yeah, they're a fine bunch of ruebens.
so i'm noticing. is there a problem i don't know of? you got 25% of a sweet take kissing your foot, how come we're not dispersing?
well here's a foul thought. i conjured you two were incompetent; sent us out not knowing there were v0 reavers about. now i'm thinking you picked us out because you did.
river.
i think maybe we ought to leave.
she's still napping just now. and i believe you've got some storytelling to do.
it's likely. i know she meant to ad kill me 'fore the doc put her to sleep, which how exactly does that work anyhow?
"in case something happened."
you feel to elaborate on what that something might be? i mean they taught you that fancy safeword, they must've figured she was gonna, what -- start uncontrollably crocheting?
and you never did ask. mal grabs him and throws him against the wall, in his face.
my ship. my crewi you had a gorramn timebomb living with us!
what if she went off in the middle woo of dinner, or in bunk with kaylee, did that give you a moment's pause? simon looks at kaylee, the truth of mal's words hitting him.
it's crossed my mind.
what about this? did this make the.  puppet theatre?
you can do that?
can you go back? see if anybody spoke with her 'fore she acted up, -40 made any kind of contact with her.  mr universe works the screen. the image rewinds and stops on river coming up to it, looking at it. she whispers the word, "miranda", and starts to move away.
um.  please? mr universe has a third screen showing the commercial as
subliminal. it's a subliminal message broadwaved to trigger her.
hope that ain't for me, shepherd.
then i really hope it ain't for me.
weren't river that did it, you know that. somebody decided her brain was just another piece of property to take, fenced it right vd up.
hiding ain't a plan?
but they'll be coming. alliance is after this girl with a powerful will. i look to hear the tromp of their boots any moment.
i coulda left her there.
i had an out -- hell, i had every reason in the 'verse to leave her lay and haul anchor.
you just think that 'cause my eyes is all sorrowful and pretty.
sermons make me sleepy, shepherd. i ain't looking for help from on high. that's a long wait for a train don't come.
it's of interest to me how much you seem to know about that world.
have to tell me about that some time.
whuh huh nuhwhat?
inara. reverse on: inara on mal's screen. we see her from about chest level up. she, presumably, sees the same.
good as any.
naked as the day i come cryin'. how's your world?
still at the training house?
i remember it as nice enough. picturesque.
you could use a gun hand?
payment is never not a factor. i could sound out the crew.  this pot like to boil over soon?
well, it would be, i mean i would like to.  kaylee's been missing you something fierce --
yeah, you left a.  got some of your stuff in a trunk, never did get a chance to drop it off.
i didn't look through the.  stuff.  just sundries i expect.
trap.
if that's the case, then inara's already caught in it. she wouldn't set us up willing. might be we got a shot at seeing who's turning these wheels. we go in.
y'all were watching, i take it. guilty glances.
140 you see us fight?
trap.
they're about. find us a home. i'll take the shuttle in closer. zoe, ship is yours. 4do he starts out, turns back to zoe.
dear buddha, please send me a pony, and a plastic rocket, and --
you invited me.
well that makes you kind of a tease, doesn't it?
which led me to the conclusion that you must be in some trouble.
for a woman schooled in telling men what they wanna hear, you ain't much of a liar.
what are you doing?
speak your piece.
she is a mite unpredictable. mood swings, of a sort.
it usually is.
way i remember it, albatross was a ship's good luck.  til some idiot killed it. yes, i've read a poem. try not to faint. the operative moves further into the room. whenever he moves, mal counters.
you really don't.
i got no need to beat you. i just wanna go my way.
all i gotta do is let you take one more thing away from me. i've had a lot of things taken in my time. and it may just be that this is one too many.
well i'm a whimsical soul.
i got no notion that i'm being heroical at all. any more than i think you're really just a harmless bureaucrat come to help me out. you move like a killer. the operative is stopped by this. unhappily, he continues:
you do that, best make peace with your dear and fluffy lord.
advice from an old tracker: you j wanna find someone, use your eyes.
oh, a jack-rabbit, me. 'sides, i never credited the alliance with an over-abundance of brains. and if you're the best they got.
why is it that the greater scheme always makes everything not that great?
great! he draws and shoots the operative in the chest. the operative goes down as mal grabs inara, moves for the-doorway. the operative is on him in a second, choke-hold from behind.
no back up? we're making an awful ruckus.
i'd start whistling.
i had him.
i think that i was winning!
4 you sure you remember how it -- he nearly falls over as:
i'm fine.
he didn't beat me up --
give the two of them up. go my way.
cutting them loose ain't the same as handing them over.
don't know who or what, but it's on river's mind. conjure it might be the reason he's after her.
look, we get back to haven in a 'r.  few hours time --
you wanna run this ship?
well you can't!
i didn't start this.
are you telling me that because you think i don't know --
i came looking for you.
i start fighting a war i guarantee you'll see something new.
but you fog things up. you always have -- you spin me about. i wish like hell you was elsewhere.
the other way! find her and-do not engage! everyone piles out the other way. simon remains, to look in the window.
check the shuttles. she coulda 40 snuck in. he pops the panel off and starts wriggling in among the wires.
the government's man, he says you're a danger to us. not worth helping. is he right? are you anything but a weapon? i've staked my crew's life on the a - person-,-- - actual and whole, and if i'm wrong you'd best shoot me now. or we could talk more.
because there isn't one. it's a blackrock. uninhabitable. terraforming didn't hold, or somesuch. few settlers died.
half of writing history is hiding the truth. there's something on this rock the alliance doesn't want known.
shouldn't've been you. i'm so sorry, it was.  they should've hit us. they should've hit me.
i seen.
you did what's right.
doc'll bring you round. i look to be bored by many more sermons 'fore you slip -- don't move --
yes you are. book coughs up blood, grabbing mal. urgent, almost angry.
come on, keep it up -- book grabs mal's face, talks as though replying to something:
don't talk at me like a righteous man. you are a killer of children.
so me and mine got to lie down and
why? do you know why?
you will never see river tam. i'm telling you this.
she ain't buckled yet. and the 40 only reason you're talking such a lot is you can't get a fix on us.
nobody -- ever -- calls me noble.
only- many-i-know-who still --bel i-eved- in sin just died by your hand.
not a solitary thing.
get these bodies together.
zoe, you and simon are gonna rope v0 'em together. five or six of 'em. i want them laid out on the nose of our ship.
kaylee, i need you to muck the reactor core, just enough to leave a trail and make it read like we're flying without containment, not enough to fry us.
kaylee, you got a day's work to do and two hours to do it.
i mean to live. i mean for us to live. the alliance won't have that, so we go where they won't follow.
this is how it works. anybody doesn't wanna fly with me anymore, this is your port of harbour. there's a lot of fine ways to die. i'm not waiting for the alliance to choose mine. he walks through the group, toward the smashed cockpit of the alliance fighter. struggling to get out is the badly wounded pilot. he sees mal coming and raises his hands in surrender. mal shoots him in the head, turns back.
didn't see you.
anything of use in there?
you don't have to stay in the shuttle, you know. there's empty rooms, if you wanna sleep awhile.
cheerful fellow. did you really miss this place?
why did you leave? site does lo9}e-at-- t -m-
i, uh, i'd better go check on the vw crew. see how the inevitable mutiny is coming along. they both want to say more. they don't. he goes.
nothing at all?
find it.
well something sure as hell ain't right.  wider angle: they're in a city. gleaming metal, spread out for miles in every direction. portions decimated by fires long since cold, others overgrown with weeds, but mostly intact. but silent, as if trapped in amber.
beacon's up ahead.
poison?
place must've gone hermetic when the power blew. sealed 'em.
there's gasses that kill painless, right?
anybody want to bet there's plenty of food around?
i seen so much death.  i been on fields carpeted with bodies, friends and enemies -- i seen men and women blown to messes no further from me than you.
but every single one of those people died on their feet. fighting.
this report is maybe twelve years old. parliament buried it, and it stayed buried til river dug it up. this is what they feared she knew. and they were right to fear, 'cause there's a universe of folk that are gonna know it too. they're gonna see it. somebody has to speak for these people. he pauses. everyone waits.
that the same grandma told you 4 there was an evil dwarf spirit living in your well?
mr universe. we haven't the equipment to broadwave this code, but he can put it on every screen for thirty worlds. he's pretty damn close, too.
no. he takes a long moment, his jaw tightening imperceptibly.
we won't be long.
you'll let us know if anyone else comes at you?
we're too close for them to arm --
chickens come home to roost.  they are suddenly jolted by a glancing blow from another ship -- wash struggles to control her --
what does that mean?
where's the back up? where's the back up? he and wash are frantically flipping buttons -- the ship whirs to a semblance of life - -
everybody to the upper decks! strap yourselves to something!
head inside!
come on. jayne, rearguard. zoe slows, looking around her.
we all stay together --
then shut 'em and hide til --
tell me you brought 'em this time.  jayne smiles grimly, tosses mal a grenade as he pops his own and fastballs it at the reavers.
zoe.  are you here? she looks up at him.
you hold. hold till i'm back. he takes off -- passes inara, the two of them holding a look for as long as they can. then he's in the elevator and gone. jayne moves over to zoe.
guy killed me, mal.
hard to get to. that's a fact.
shot me in the back. i haven't.  made you angry, have i? i s
you have no idea how true that is. there's no wise-ass attitude in him now. they stand, facing off at ten paces.
i do.
aw hell, i'm a fan of all seven. he headbutts the operative viciously, then punches him so hard he staggers back, losing his grip on the sword. the operative responds with a spin kick -- mal holds up the screwdriver and the operative swings his foot right into it, gasping as mal pulls the screwdriver -- and leg it's stuck in -- back as he rockets his fist into the operative's chin. the operative goes down hard, dazed, as mal grabs the sword still in his belly.
iwo well, i'm known for that. the operative drops the blade, mouth open, stumbling back, unable to make a sound. mal spins him, grabbing both his arms and working his own through them in a twisted full nelson -- then bringing his arms up suddenly, the operative's mouth going wider as we hear his arms crack. mal drops him sitting against the railing, picks up his sword, saying:
if you're here to tell me we ain't finished.  then we will be real quick. the operative stands just under the canopy of the nose of the ship, framed by the rain behind.
'verse wakes up a spell. won't be long 'fore she rolls right over and falls back asleep. taint my worry.
that don't bode especially well for you.  giving the order to let us go, patching up our hurt.
you still standing there when the engine starts, you never will figure it out. the operative watches the door shut. a moment, and he goes.
what a whiner.
think she'll hold together?
make sure everything's secure. could be bumpy.
we're taking her out. should be about a day's ride to get you back to your girls.
you ready to get off this heap and back to a civilized life?
good answer. he turns and heads into the bridge.
you gonna ride shotgun, help me fly? v0 river is in the copilot's seat, looking intently at the screens and buttons.
think you can work out how to get her in the -- she is flipping switches without even looking, as the ship hums to life.
okay, clearly some aptitude for the.  but it ain't all buttons a0 and charts, . you know what the first rule of flying is? well, i suppose you do, since you already know what i'm about to say.
love. you can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of worlds. love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. makes her a home. river also looks out at the sky.
we'll pass through it soon enough.
	118:
it's true that there are.  dangers on the outer planets. so let's follow up on borodin's question. with all the social and medical advancements we can bring to the independents, why would they fight so hard against us?
see, most of our best work is done when they're asleep. we can monitor and direct their subconscious, implant suggestions.  river starts convulsing, mewing in misery. the inspector starts forward, slowly.
it's a little startling to see, but the results are spectacular. especially in this case. river tam is our star pupil. the inspector steps into the light. he is rigid, cold, staring at the girl with no emotion at all. his name, as we will very soon learn, is simon.
am i making you nervous?
river. wake up. please, it's simon. river. it's your brother. wake up.  she begins to stir as a noise moves him to the door, looking out and removing his uniform to reveal an orderly's tunic beneath.
they know you've come.
find a -- but river has, impossibly, scampered up over some lab equipment to the dark top of the corridor, where she holds herself in a perfect split, feet against the walls and outstretched hand holding the sprinkler for support. the doors burst open and two doctors pass by, hardly noticing the lone orderly. passing right under river.
lovely. lovely. backtrack. the action reverses, taking us back to the moment of simon and river on the gurney just before it rises. f t o
stop. there is a motionless beat, river frozen in that crouch, and he steps through what we now see is a hologram of the event. the government's man. we'll just call him the operative. he is thoughtful, a little removed. wire-rimmed glasses, a suit too nondescript to be a uniform, too neat to be casual wear. he is in:
remarkable children. doctor mathias storms in, two security men and a nervous young female intern following. mathias looks greyer and more gaunt than when we saw him last.
it's love, in point of fact. he loved his sister and he knew she was in pain. so he took her somewhere safe.
it's pride. he touches the computer screen and the hologramic image jumps to the doctor and simon in the lab, mathias repeating:
young miss, i'll need all the logs- on behavioral modification triggers. we'll have to reach out to river tam, and help her to come back to us. no matter how far out simon has taken her, we can -- he's almost startled when the doctor's body drops into frame, slowed suddenly by the sword. it squeaks down the blade, the doctor unable to cry out, as the operative whispers to him:
this is a good death. there's no shame in this, in a man's death. a man who's done fine works. we're making a better world. all of them, better worlds. mathias is dead. the operative pulls the sword out as the body rolls over. as he wipes the sword down:
young miss, i need you to get to work now. i think i may have a long way to travel.
where are you hiding,,little girl? the noise is sucked suddenly out of the room as we black out.
we got the primary buffer
you told me the entry couplings would hold for another week!
that was six months ago, cap'n.
doctor. guess i need to get innocked 'fore we hit planetside. simon nods, the ship jolting again.
bit of a rockety ride. nothing to worry about.
honestly, doctor, i think we may really crash this time anyway. simon jabs the inoculation needle into mal's arm.
every year since the war the alliance pushes just a little further out towards the rim. makes it a chore for naughty men like us to slip about -- and keeping you two on board means working twice as hard to avoid the law. means turning down a score of honest jobs.
things get gritty i will keep her from the fray, but she's coming. best you get her ready. as mal walks on, we tilt up to see the mule, a four-man hovercraft hanging from chains near the ceiling. jayne and zoe are tossing duffle bags into it.
zoe, is wash gonna straighten this boat out before we get flattened?
captain, i'll ask you one last time.
y'all wanna be looking very intently at your own belly buttons. i see a head start to rise, violence is gonna ensue. the guy who rushed mal complies along with everyone else. jayne dumps his catch on the floor and rips open his dirty shirt to reveal the purple of an alliance uniform.
y'all are browncoats, hey? fought for independence?
okay.  mal looks at zoe and they head down into:
well don't shoot me first!
rutting pigs! where's -- and river is holding out his weapon before he can ask for it.
well, jayne.
for one sweet second, we was almost classy.
just like inara.
you've no hope for them? junk the lot, start anew?
it's the talk of the house. the girls all trade stories in the dorms at night.
this is unbearable. captain reynolds is no pirate; he's a petty thief. and he never laid a finger on me. all he ever did was rent me a shuttle and be very annoying.
i left because -- go away. we're no longer friends. you're a stranger to me now.
river.  do you want to stay with them?
you knew he was gonna leave. we never been but a way station to those two. and how do you know what he feels? he's got river to worry on but he still coulda shown you.  if i truly wanted someone bad enough, wouldn't be a thing in the 'verse could stop me from going to her.
you're unlikable, mal. you got no respect for us above you, you got enemies in every quadrant, and your ship's older than the starting point of time. you's charity cases to such as us.
gorrammit, girl, it's me! she grabs his crotch and squeezes -- his grip loosens and she spins, facing him, and flat-heels his nose with her palm, v0 twirling into a gut kick that doubles him over, dispatching of another while she cracks jayne's head with a small table -- somebody pulls a gun and she snaps his elbow, causing him to scream out even before he shoots himself in the gut -- mal frantically wrests a gun from the vending locker as river knocks the other guy's gun in the air, kicks someone else and then catches it, whips it around just as mal comes up with his, they are pointed right at each other --
hello again. yes, it's me. i'm glad you've finally asked for me. an ensign is revealed looking at a separate monitor:
we're out of atmo, plotted for haven. no one following as of yet.
we got to lay low. and i could fair use some spiritual guidance right about now. i am a lost lamb; what in hell happened back there?
the people who helped me break river out -- they had intel that river and the other subjects were being embedded with behavioral conditioning. they taught me a safeword, in case.  something happened.
eight months. eight months you had her on my boat knowing full well she might go monkeyshit at the wrong word and you never said a thing --
she's beating up all the burly men and i'm having a catharsis, it's happening right now, you guys always bring me the very best violence. you think you're in a hot place?
miranda? go back further.
well -- and it starts breaking down, bursts of code showing through. as he does so:
i been seeing this code pop up all over, last few weeks. and i cannot crack it. it's alliance and it's high military, so here then is the bad. someone has gone to enormous trouble to find your little friend. and found her they have. mal, zoe and wash look at each other.
do you all know what it is you're carrying?
am i.  talking to miranda now? nw¿½ she shoots him a look.
let me in, for my feet are sore, my clothes are ragged.
is that better than a plan?
sideways. mal watches him go, thinking.
river, you look tired. i think everybody's a little tired by now; why don't we all lie down. river looks up, scared. all the other children wordlessly get up from their seats and lie on the floor next to them.
a little peace and quiet will make everything better. she starts to lie down herself, right on the grass.
well, it's kind of late where i'm at. i'll send a wave as soon as i can.
remember: if anything happens to me, or you don't hear from me within the hour.  you take this ship and you come and rescue me.
i mean it. it's cold out there. i don't wanna get left.
i have to say, i'm impressed that you would come for her yourself. lw¿½ and that you would make it this far in that outfit.
i can be very graceful when i need to.
nothing here is what it seems.
i got no answers for you, inara. i got no rudder. wind blows 40 northerly, i go north. that's who i am. maybe that ain't a man to lead but they have to follow so you wanna tear me down do it inside your own mind.
no trouble now, little crazy person.  we're going for a nice
shepherd.  don't move.
i shot him down --
but then, maybe you're not that far from -- mal flicks a switch and every screen goes dark.
i mean to confound those killers, and take my shot at getting to miranda, maybe finding out what all i'm dying for. that's my theme now. so i hear a word out of any of you that ain't helping me out or taking your leave i will fucking shoot you. he grabs a body -- drops it at zoe's feet as he heads toward the ship.
get to work.
no entry wound, fractures.
she's starting to damage my calm.
i have to be quick. there was no one working the receptors when we landed, so we hit pretty hard. we can't leave. we can't take any of the local transports because.  the bang again.
there are people.  they're not people.  about a tenth of a percent of the population had the opposite reaction to the pax. their aggressor response increased.  beyond madness. they've become.
reavers.  they made them.
turn it off. wash does, nobody saying anything.
i'm all right.
you all got on this boat for different reasons, but you all v0 come to the same place. so now i'm asking more of you than i have before. maybe all. 'cause as sure as i know anything i know this: they will try again. maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground, swept clean. a year from now, ten, they'll swing back to the belief that they can make people.  better. and i do not hold to that. so no more running. i aim to misbehave. there is a beat as he eyes them all.
she was a fun grandma.
they're not gonna see this coming. close on: one of serenity's jet engines, as it fires up.
bastard's not even changing course.
sir?
hey look, we're upside down. v0 zoe and mal shoot a look at jayne.
the hell --
it's okay! i am a leaf on the wind!
wash baby baby no, come on, you gotta move you gotta move baby vw please -- mal rips her away and to the floor as another projectile slams through the window into the wall above them.
guy killed me, mal. he killed me with a sword. how weird is that? i got.  a short span here.  they destroyed my equipment but i have a back-up unit.  bottom of the complex, right over the generator. hard to get to. i know they missed it. they can't stop the signal, mal. they can never stop the signal.
okay this is painful. on many levels. i'm not --
my one true regret in all this is never being with you.
i mean to say. kaylee snaps her cartridge home with way more precision than we might expect from her, takes steady aim at the door.
zoe! get yer ass back in the line! vo¿½ she looks up, almost confused -- and one of jayne's targets comes back off the ground and slices at her back with a blade, she screams as he cuts deep -- and an arrow lodges in his neck. inara pulls up a fresh arrow, shaking only slightly.
i know the secret now. the truth that burned up river tam's brain and set you after her. and the rest of the 'verse is gonna know it too. 'cause they need to.
of course, that ain't exactly plan
jayne! grenade!
how much ammo do we have?
my bag. and shkoww!, the bullet takes him in the belly -- everything suddenly moving very slowly as he spins slightly, one foot lifted, a confused expression on his face -- then speeding right back up as he slams down on his back, gasping for air. river's mouth opens in a scream she doesn't make. blood spreads from simon's belly. inara rushes to him, grabs cloth and puts pressure on the wound, puts simon's hand on it.
river.  i'm sorry.
my turn. she's running so fast, nobody has time to react til she dives through the hole in the doors, then simon screams her name, the scream following us back into the black room where river lands in a perfect roll, comes up in a room full of reavers. without a moment's hesitation she makes it to the panel, gets the doors closing. she dodges a blade, but a blow to,the back of the head shakes her. she weaves around a couple of reavers to get to the closing doors, but at the last second her ankle is grabbed and pulled out from under her. the last thing we see is her being dragged back as they swarm over her. angle: the blast doors, as they shut with a shuddering rlung.
but right now.  he pulls the sword out, grimacing. holds it over the operative. the smile gone.
vao i'm gonna have to go with wrath. he stabs down at his foe's face -- but the operative rolls out of the way, kicks mal from the ground and is up in a second, grabbing mal's sword hand -- the sword drops -- and punching him repeatedly in his stomach wound.
you should know there's no shame in this. you've done remarkable things. but you're fighting a war you've already lost. he lunges -- and mal twists gracefully out of the way, grabbing the operative's swordhand and pulling it forward -- while driving his elbow into the operative's neck with staggering force.
piece a shrapnel tore up that nerve cluster my first tour. had it moved. he squats down, looks the operative in the face.
sorry 'bout the throat. expect you'd wanna say your famous last mw words now. just one trouble. he reaches over the railing, pulls the back of the operative's jacket through and shoves the sword through the fabric, pinning the operative in his sitting position.
i ain't gonna kill you. he moves to the console, starts prepping it.
hell, i'm gonna grant your greatest wish. he inserts the cylinder, turns it slightly. it hums to life.
i'm gonna show you a world without sin. he hits "send all". the cylinder lights up and the broadcast v0 begins. here it is projected as a two-dimensional image on the clear plastic partition, right in front of the operative. there are images first of the city -- of bodies, on the street, in homes and offices.  image after image, jus.t as we saw on the research vessel -- and in river's mind.
we've seen the broadwaves.
"serenity". you lost everything in that battle. everything you had, everything you were.  how did you go on? mal hits the button to close the inner doors, steps inside as they slide together. glances at the operative, unimpressed.