The Alliance craft hovers in orbit around the tiny moon. It’s evening on the ship, despite the constant stars outside, and the captain is entertaining at the dinner table. His guests sit opposite him: his female second‑in‑command, and the man they thought was quite dead — Jubal Early, bounty hunter.

“You’ve crossed paths before?” the female officer asks, a slight smirk on her face.

“I spent a night on their ship.”

Now she looks less snide. More upset. “An opportunity to bring the girl in, no?”

Early looks down and then, recovering from the comment, meets the officer’s eyes. “I misunderstood the nature of my opponent.” His remark barely hides his annoyance at having his skills questioned.

“And now they’ve vanished. How do you propose to find them, Mr. Early?”

“Find them? I’m a bounty hunter. I’m going to hunt them.” He takes his chopsticks in his hands and digs into the food. “I’ll let someone else find them.”

Out in the black, on a fancy shiny ship, Jayne Cobb looks unimpressed. Sure, it’s cleaner and more spacious than Serenity, but there’s no character in silver highlights, he reckons. Too boring. He takes another bite of one of the apples his ma packed for him and chews loud enough for Bea to notice.

“Nothing,” she says, slamming her boot between Jayne’s feet. “That’s Oh for Seven, Cobb.”

“We’ll find him,” Jayne retorts, a bit of apple falling from his still‑open mouth.

Bea sighs at him. “There’s an awful lot of black out there.”

Jayne doesn’t look at her now, turning his chair to swivel away. “He’s got a few favourite hiding spots.”

Ten minutes later, Jayne is in the larder, pouring himself something alcoholic. Bea follows him, curiosity tugging her along. If this guy was one of Mal’s crew, then ain’t he a hero too?

“Why’d you stop riding with Reynolds?” she asks when the moment feels right.

Jayne grunts, knocking back one glass and pouring another. “’Cus he wanted to go hide in some dark biddy hole like a weasel.”

He looks like he regrets saying it as soon as it comes out of his mouth, which Bea finds interesting. He sits down, and she watches him pour yet another glass.

“See,” he continues, leaning back, “I don’t mind danger. Jayne Cobb’s a man of adventure. Reynolds on the other hand…” he hesitates… “Bit of a woman, frankly. No offence.”

Bea rolls her eyes at him. “You’re pretty impressive Jayne. It’s enough to sweep a girl right off her feet.”

He smiles and gets up, closing the space between them as he stands over her. “There’s some worlds where I’m revered as a hero.”

She scoffs playfully. “Same world where siblings marry, I’m guessing.”

“You’re salty. I like that.”

“Don’t like it too much,” Bea warns him.

He asks why not.

It’s then she pulls her pistol out and aims it square between his eyes. “I need you to get me to Malcolm Reynolds and I need you to talk less. Can you do that?”

Jayne doesn’t take his eyes off his own nose, the barrel almost touching him. “Reynolds, yeah… the talking bit.” Then he perks up. “Is that a Strickland Forty‑Four Twelve?”

She pulls the pistol away and puts it back in its holster.

“That’s a helluva nice weapon,” Jayne says, suddenly more interested.

As Bea walks out of the larder, she shouts back at him over her shoulder, “Reynolds, Jayne. Make it happen or you’re just a drain on my whiskey.”

In orbit of the orange planet Paquin, a space station sits amongst the mining operations in the asteroid field that forms the world’s ring. An ambulance ship is docked alongside it.

In Serenity’s infirmary, Zoë doesn’t feel too good. Kaylee tries to reassure her. On the bridge, looking out at the mostly Alliance ships around them, Inara asks Mal what his plan is, but he insists he doesn’t have one specifically.

“Get Zoë well. Don’t go much further than that. Don’t need to.”

In the infirmary, Kaylee takes little Emma off her mother, but Zoë weakly protests. Simon insists she needs help and rest.

On the bridge, Inara warns of patrols. Mal plans to go with Simon and take Zoë onboard. Any sign of trouble, River is to take the ship and let them know.

Shortly afterward, Mal stops listening to Simon as he describes Zoë’s condition to another doctor. He just pushes Zoë along on the stretcher, being directed where to go.

“There’s an obstetrical haemorrhage, but we don’t have the tomography equipment on our ship to determine the severity.”

Within ten minutes, Zoë is being scanned in a chamber. The doctor looks grimly at the results on his monitors.

“Good news is we’re going to be able to save her, but we need to operate right away.”

Mal asks how long that’ll take.

“Not too long. Maybe five days? We do need to act fast though. A trauma team is on their way up now.”

Mal looks at Zoe and then at Simon. It’s going to be close, his look says.

On Serenity’s bridge, baby in arms, Inara watches the space in front of them until one of the monitors lights up. It’s a wanted poster for Malcolm Reynolds.

“The Alliance has been notified,” River confirms.

Inara is straight onto the comms, telling Mal to get out of there.

On the station, Simon reiterates to Mal that Zoë needs this operation if she’s going to live. They’re talking away from Zoë, but she overhears the panic in the doctor’s voice.

“Go,” she whispers quietly. “Mal, you need to go.”

On Serenity, watching their shuttle docked at the station like a hawk, Inara asks Kaylee to take off as soon as they’re onboard. The mechanic rolls her eyes. She was already on her way.

On the station, Mal reaches Zoë’s side and cradles her hand in his own. He listens as she speaks, slightly stronger now than before.

“They’re not just after River this time. They’re after all of us, and I don’t think they much care if we’re alive or dead.”

“Zoë, I ain’t leaving you, no way.”

“I can take care of myself. If you stay, they’ll get Emma. Please.”

She looks him in the eyes, and there’s a look there he’s never seen before — tears flowing from her normally stalwart face, her bravery gone. Another comm from Inara: they’re getting closer.

Simon is at the door, telling Mal to move, but he’s still holding Zoë’s hand.

“We’ll come get you once you’re well. You’ve got my word.”

“Mal, get back on the ship now!” Inara is panicking too now.

“Go,” Zoë tells him defiantly.

Seconds later, armed Alliance security come into Zoë’s room, surround the bed, and aim their weapons at her. There is no sign of Reynolds.

Across the void of the next system, in a vehicle junkyard known as the Goodrow Baron Dumping Grounds, Serenity lurks, hidden amongst the wreckage of ships from failed adventures. As she watches them go past, River can feel the emotions that once lay out there, imagines the ordeals and successes of their crews.

In the common area, Mal is on his fourth drink. As he pours his fifth, Inara puts her hand on his shoulder.

“You had no choice.”

“I been in ugly spots before, pinned down behind enemy lines, no food for days, hardly any ammo. But I always had Zoë by my side.” He looks shaken, like he’s missing a body part.

“We’ll get her back,” she tells him calmly, but he’s had slightly too much brandy.

“We got no way to get her back. We have nothing.”

A familiar voice comes from the corridor. “You have me.”

Inara and Mal both look up, straight into River’s face. Simon and Kaylee, in the seating area with the baby, stop what they’re doing as River walks down the steps into the kitchen.

“You said we have nothing, but you have me.”

Kaylee looks at her, stunned at the suggestion. “River, we’re not going to trade you for Zoë.” When nobody else says anything, she looks at them and questions, “Are we?”

“We could trade my brain,” River tells them. “Bad people got into my head. Put things there. Secrets. I could feel them hidden away, dug in like parasites. Miranda was in there and I didn’t know it. There’s more. They’re just locked away.”

Simon suddenly stands from his seat. “Wait,” he starts, but his sister shuts him down.

“If we could get to them we’d have information. They don’t want us telling their secrets. They would give us Zoë back to make us stop.”

Mal looks up at her now, for the first time. “How you go about unlocking something you ain’t even sure is there?”

She opens her hands. Several pill bottles are thrown onto the dining table. River looks at her brother as he picks them up.

“Propofol, sodium thiopental… You want me to put you in a coma.”

River nods. “I need to go away. I need to explore.”

Mal looks at her and reminds her that the last time she found something in her head, she woke up a tiny bit ‘cranky’.

Simon looks at her and shakes his head. “I won’t do it River. You just got back to normal.”

She looks at him, a stupid lopsided look on her face. She picks a long knife off the table and simply throws it in the air. As it falls, she raises her legs effortlessly and kicks the blade, leaving it embedded sharply into the far wall.

She looks at her brother. “I’m not normal, Simon. I’m never going to be normal. We have to get Zoë.”

After Simon puts River into the coma, he promises to be there when she wakes up. Inara, however, bursts into the infirmary — there’s a ship right in front of them, come from nowhere. And it’s blocking their path.

On the bridge, Simon asks if they’re Alliance, but Kaylee doesn’t think so. She opens the transmission waves but doesn’t say anything. A message comes through.

“Peek‑A‑Boo. I see you!”

It’s followed by a maniacal laugh.

“Jayne?” Kaylee asks.

Not five minutes later, the airlock links with the other ship, and Jayne is back onboard. He opens his arms as if to hug them, but nobody moves.

“Long time, no see. You miss me?”

Mal spots the woman next to him and asks who she is. No greeting, no warmth. Jayne looks disappointed.

“My name’s Bea,” she offers.

Mal asks how many she has on board, and she answers twelve. With that, Mal tells Kaylee to close the bay door and unmoor Serenity. As she follows his orders, Mal stands in front of Jayne and Bea, hands on his belt.

“Tell me your purpose and state it plainly. I’m short on patience just now.”

Bea doesn’t mince her words. “I’ve been looking for you. I’m part of a group called the New Resistance and we’d like you to join our cause.”

“Answer’s no,” Mal states, no preambling. “There’s plenty people pay something handsome to know our whereabouts right now. Twelve crew plus Jayne tells me chances are someone on that boat ran their mouth and you ended up getting followed.”

“I didn’t say nothing!” Jayne protests straight away, as if accused.

Bea insists they weren’t followed. Mal walks up to her and looks down at the shorter woman, into her eyes.

“Which means you put me and mine in danger when we got plenty of that without your help.”

“We weren’t followed,” Bea insists.

Mal doesn’t care. He’s planning to be gone in thirty seconds, and they had better be off his ship when he does.

Jayne is angry, yelling after him. “Well, Hell. It’s nice to see you too!”

Bea sighs and looks like she wants to hit something, hard. She gets her comms device from her pocket and radios over.

There’s no response.

And then the ship explodes, a bomb having been planted onboard. Bea and Jayne are the only survivors.

Mal rushes to the bridge and asks Inara about the baby before jumping onto the helm and soaring Serenity away as quickly as possible.

In her hospital bed, Zoë looks out at the stars. She hears a voice she doesn’t recognise and looks into the shadows where, above her, an Alliance commander is peering down.

“Good. You’re awake.”

“Who are you?” Zoë asks him, defiantly.

“Name’s Rodgers. And I want you to tell me where your friends are. I want you to be telling me the truth. But that’s not going to happen, is it? You’re too stubborn. Too principled. I can tell that right now.”

“That’s right.”

Rodgers bends down so he’s closer to Zoë’s face.

“So, I am going to wait until you are healthy enough to travel, and then I am going to put you in a prison on some desolate rock at the edge of Lord knows where, and I’m going to loose track of you. And no one, not Malcolm Reynolds or anybody else, will ever find you. And you will never see your baby again, because you are stubborn.”

On Serenity, sitting on the catwalk above the cargo bay, Mal finds Jayne.

“How much they paying you?”

“A lot,” Jayne grunts. “Kaylee told me about Zoë. You want my help?”

Mal shakes his head. “I can’t trust you Jayne. Was a fool to think I could.”

Jayne begins to protest, listing the things they’ve been through, but Mal’s cold stance doesn’t change.

“I would’ve thought that all that would have given you some sense of loyalty to this ship and those on it. But someone waves enough gold at you Jayne, and all that hits the wind.”

He walks away then, without looking at Jayne.

“First chance we get, we’ll drop you someplace safe.”