By the time I get back to base, the whole damn ‘Verse is asking the same question: where is Mal Reynolds and his crew of heroes?

The base is arguing again.

“I heard they’re on Three Hills, hiding out at a grain depot.”

“No, it’s Haven — they used that as a hideout all the time.”

“I heard Shadow. That’s where Mal Reynolds is from. Did you know that? That that’s where he’s from. He’s from there.”

I decide against climbing on the box again — last time didn’t go well. So I raise my voice the way my daddy taught me.

“EVERYONE, SHUT UP! WE DON’T KNOW WHERE MALCOLM REYNOLDS IS!”

Gary yells “Shadow!” one more time. I give him a look.

“Gary, he’s not on Shadow. He’s the greatest military mind alive. He’s not hiding at his house. Wherever he is, he don’t want to be found.”

They’re all staring at me now. When did I, Bea Quaing, become the leader of this mess?

“But unfortunately,” I say, quieter now, “we need him. This movement has a lot going for it. People are fired up, they’re angry, and we’ve gotten organised. We actually have some money behind us for once. One thing we are sorely lacking though is a leader. And Malcolm Reynolds is it… even if he don’t know it yet.”

Later, I sit alone on the sand, watching snow drift down, steaming cup of mud warming my hands. The damn broadcast plays again.

“You have to consider the source though, Audrey. This so-called Mr. Universe. Here’s a man living on the absolute fringes of society, an outcast and from what I understand a pervert as well. A sexual deviant.”

“You’re sinking lower.”

“I get this from a reliable source!”

A voice comes from the dark — tall man, skinny, looks half-starved, hair thinning.

“Howdy,” he says, removing his hat. “Heard you looking for Malcolm Reynolds.”

I don’t move. Don’t trust him.

“That’s right.”

He says he can help — for a price. I tell him to shove off.

“Naw, I got a cousin used to ride with him. They got up to all sorts a capers together. Bet he’d know how to track that man down, too. I’ll take you to my cousin, but like I said, it’s gonna cost ya.”

I nod, warning him my pistol is aimed at his left knee and I don’t shoot to miss. He nods — not as dumb as he looks.

“I’ll thank ya to not pull the trigger then.”

I stand, ask his cousin’s name. Behind us, the broadcast drones on:

“If these people are heroes, where are they?”

“Where are we, Mal?”

The question comes from Inara, standing on the bridge of Serenity. Mal looks at her with a grin, pleased to see her. He also notices she’s dressed differently — more like one of the crew, with a jacket and pants. It suits her.

“We’re not anywhere,” River says from her place at the helm, plastic dinosaurs scattered around her.

Mal smiles. “Someplace no one ever thought to name, which is as good a spot as any for now.”

“How long do you plan on staying nowhere?” Inara asks, a slight hint of sarcasm in her tone.

“Long as we need.”

“We can’t run forever.”

“We’re not running.”

“Well then this is the worst vacation I’ve ever been on.”

River interrupts them, seamlessly. “You guys fight a lot.”

Mal and Inara both stop the verbal jousting. He heads for his bunk.

“Mal,” Inara calls after him.

“Case you don’t remember, we dealt a pretty ugly blow to a giant wasn’t too fond of us in the first place,” he tells her.

“I remember, Mal. I was decommissioned.”

He grins at her, but regrets it. “Well forgive me for tearing you away from your life of…”

“Don’t say that word, Mal. Don’t you say it.” She raises her finger and points in his face, anger clear. He retreats, simply from her look.

“We’re laying low until we know the lay of the land,” he says, opening the cabin entrance and moving down the ladder. It doesn’t stop Inara. She follows.

“We need money. We’re low on food. You have to take a job, Mal.”

Landing in his bunk, Mal sighs as she follows him down. “We can’t risk sticking our necks out when we don’t know much.” He unbuttons his shirt. “And Zoë’s out, obviously.”

Inara watches him closely. “What about River?” She doesn’t frame it as a question.

Mal sits on the bed, takes his boots off. “That girl’s head is a minefield. We’re going on eight months now she hasn’t spoken in a gorram riddle and I aim to keep that streak alive, especially when she’s got her hands on my boat.”

Now it’s Inara’s turn to sigh. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually miss Jayne.”

As he pulls his pants off, Mal tells her Jayne did what was right for him. “We’d be smart to do the same. And what’s right for us is laying low until we know the lay of the land.”

Inara slips her jacket off, undoes her hair, and leans toward him.

“We need money. We need food.”

Mal looks up at her from where he’s now lying on the bed and watches as she removes own clothing..

“I don’t much care for having a conversation twice.”

“Then shut up,” Inara tells him, and kisses him until he leans her down.

River is lying on Zoë’s bed, nestled on her belly. “Ship’s so quiet these days.”

Zoë is absent‑mindedly stroking both River’s hair and her baby bump at the same time. “Where’s your brother and Kaylee?”

“Where do you think?” River says, with a touch of anger.

Zoë nods. “Ah. Couple of rabbits, those two.”

“I can hear everything,” River says. “All at once. I can hear the whole ’Verse.”

Zoë looks away. “I’m just hungry.”

River moves, sits up on the side of the bed, and stares at the ladder leading up to the deck. “You think Jayne will ever come back?”

Zoë is surprised by the question. “Maybe. You miss him?”

“I miss everyone,” River says, not even looking at her.

Zoë quietly agrees. “Me too.”

As River climbs the ladder, she bids Zoë good night. Zoë returns the affection, but as soon as River is out of sight, tears begin to fall.

“Hoban Washburne,” she whispers into the dark. “I will never forgive you for making me do this alone.”

And then she hears it. His voice.

“I’m here.”

She opens her eyes and he’s there in front of her. A hologram, or a vision — whatever it is, she smiles through the tears.

“Oh thank God. I need your help,” she tells her husband.

“You’ve never needed help with anything.”

“I need help with this. Will you stay?”

“You know what I’m gonna say.”

“Don’t say it, please.”

“I am a leaf on the wind…” the image of Wash begins, and Zoë reaches out to him, horrified.

“No!” she screams. The image of Wash looks straight at her.

“Watch how I s—”

And then it happens again. The pike comes out of nowhere, impaling Wash to his chair, and he just stops. Zoë reaches out to him and then—

Zoë wakes up. She screams, partly in annoyance and frustration at the dream, but mostly because of the pain.

Her waters have broken. She’s in labour.

Not long after, Mal is holding onto her shoulder as Inara tries to calm her down. Simon and Kaylee rush into the infirmary, where Zoë is on the bed, legs open, ready to proceed.

“Sorry,” he says, doing a shirt button up. “I’m here.”

Kaylee looks panicky and excited all at the same time. “Oh boy, oh boy, oh golly, it’s happening.”

“This is very exciting,” River proclaims, peering a little too close for Zoë’s liking. With a strong look, Zoë turns to them, sweat dripping from her forehead.

“Everyone. Out.”

They wait in the common area. Kaylee is restless — sitting on the table, on the counter, on the floor — in a permanent state of biting her nails. Mal paces back and forth for what seems like days. River doesn’t move.

Eventually, Simon walks into the room, a towel in his hands. The three turn to him, staring, too scared to say anything.

“You guys want to meet her?”

In the infirmary, the crew gathers around Zoë and her baby daughter.

It’s a calm, blissful moment.

“She’s so beautiful,” Kaylee offers. “What’s her name?”

“Hoban. Like her dad.”

Kaylee looks stunned. “That’s… um… that’s a beautiful name.”

“It’s a joke, Kaylee. Her name’s Emma,” says Zoë, smiling and not taking her eyes off her precious bundle.

As Inara starts to clean up around them, Simon asks Mal for a word. He takes him outside of the infirmary, quietly.

“There were some complications.”

“Baby looks healthy to me.”

“The baby’s fine. It’s Zoë. She’s bleeding internally. I’ve done everything I can with what we have here, but we need imaging hardware to know the extent of the problem.” Mal doesn’t look happy as Simon tells him, with no tip‑toeing around: “We need a hospital.”

Mal doesn’t answer him. He ignores Simon’s reasoning, walks straight into the infirmary and tells Kaylee to fire up the engines and orders River to the helm.

When she gets there, she doesn’t question him. It’s as if she already knows what he’s going to say.

“We need to set a course for the nearest hospital.”

River has clearly already pinpointed the info she needs. “There’s an independent contractor mining out Paquin. It’s not far. They have a private medical ship in orbit.”

“Get us there,” is all Mal needs to say.

“You might want to tell everyone to hold onto something,” River warns. She’s going full burn.

Mal gets on the comms channel and makes his announcement. River looks at the dinosaur in front of her and then at the controls.

“I am a leaf on the wind,” she whispers to herself. “Watch how I soar.”

And with a rumble of its engines, Serenity soars back toward civilisation.

In the captain’s office, the officer and his female counterpart are interrupted by a visitor who should not be there. He injures every officer on the station before he reaches the captain’s office and swings the doors open with both gloved hands.

“Who are you?” the captain asks.

“You’ve put a bounty on the head of Malcolm Reynolds,” the figure says, clothed in an armoured suit. “I’m gonna help you find him. The girl too. River.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the captain says.

The figure doesn’t get angry. “Come all this way and I get lied to… that seem right to you?”

The female officer doesn’t need any more. “You’re Jubal Early.”

The captain is stunned. “Jubal Early is dead.”

The newcomer removes his space helmet with a hiss. “And yet,” says Jubal Early, “here I am.”

The barrens of Sycorax are usually quiet at night, but not recently. The tranquility of the desert is broken by shouting, screaming — and laughing. Three men on hover bikes are chasing another man. They’re determined to kill him, but the man being chased is having the time of his life. He knows these canyons like the back of his hand and easily glides through all the nooks and crevices he grew up with. He zigs, and one of the bikers ends up crashing into the wall by zigging the wrong way.

By the time he comes through to the other side of the rock formation, he’s not being chased anymore. Figured they must be crushed against rocks somewhere.

The house he’s aiming for is a single home, surrounded by a little patch of green. Smoke rises from the chimney. The man gets off his bike and yells to his family inside.

“Hey, Ma! I got a nice haul off that raiding party’s been hitting the route to Prospect Springs.”

As he walks through the door, haul on his back, he enters the living area of the old rickety house — the house he was born in.

And then Jayne Cobb stops.

I’m standing in the centre of the room, staring at the slack-jawed dolt and ask the slacker in the stupid hat. his name.

“Jayne Cobb?” He asks me who I am, so I tell him.

“My name’s Bea. We need your help.”

Jayne notices the people now, in the shadows of the house. Ordinary folk like him. They’re surrounding his ma, who is knitting him a sweater to go with his hat.

“We need to find Malcolm Reynolds,” I tell him.

He looks at me and takes his goggles off. His face is stained with mud, but his eyes are clean. Man looks like a panda.

“And why would I help you do that?” he says, not particularly nicely.

I get down from where I was standing and walk in front of his momma. I open the case, show him the cash.

He smiles at the case and then at me.

“Well what are we waitin’ for?”