Serenity

He was playing again, waiting for the others to finish.

They had put on their protective suits and were out in the black, their fragile shells protected from her airless ocean by mere inches of fabric, doing the job requested of them by parties unknown to her. She could pay attention to him and them at the same time and still more, which was how she saw the much larger vessel when no one else could.

As she could speak in only one language he could understand, she set off the alarms and lit one screen, covered by brown and green bits of plastic, with the image of the intruder on her piece of space. He jerked his head up, cleared off the plastic with a sweep of his hand and swore before lurching for the radio. He and the one who owned her exchanged alarm and he began flipping switches at a fast pace, shouting through the comm at the girl, the girl who could understand her better than anyone else, so she would know of the danger. As the girl mechanic shut her engines down the one who had sounded the alarm made sure she wasn't drifting so the others would have the best change of getting back inside her safely.

Once everything was set...they waited. Everyone kept breathing, not stupid enough to hold their breaths for a possible outcome, but they waited all the same, his eyes glued to the screens, the others listening intently to their comms. She told him quietly when her sensors felt the brush of the other vessel's scanners and he nodded, making a terse comment into the comm. He silenced the soft chime and again they waited. Her next alert wasn't as gentle; they needed to run! The large vessel was disgorging smaller fighters and they could catch her! He and the girl scrambled to get her engines started again as the others calmly hurried to reenter her open airlock. As soon as it was safe she felt his request on her controls and she gladly obliged, her engines sending up an aura of lights as she put as much distance between her and the crowded vessel as she could.

The Firefly class transport ship Serenity settled into the course Wash had provided for her as her crew breathed a collective sigh of relief. She sipped her nearly empty fuel cells, sailing quietly between the stars, letting time slip by unmarked. The setting Wash had programmed in told her where they were going and so she alerted her little mechanic Kaylee to the failing compression coil on her engine, hoping to get it replaced while they were on Percephanie. It was a bit part-- unless it blew and there wasn't a replacement. And thanks to her inventory sensors, she knew there wasn't a replacement to be had in her cargo bay. Kaylee would be sure to mention it to the Captain when they landed.

She eased into the dock, responding as smoothly as she could to Wash's hand on the controls. It was clear when he was upset about something; he flew like a perfectionist, controlling her every move instead of letting her find her own comfortable path. Once they had landed she settled into her spot, some of the armor plates giving soft groans as they once again took on the load gravity demanded.

As the others dispersed on various errands, Kaylee settled with a mixture of excitement and disappointment on her chair before Serenity's airlock, resting her shade on her shoulder. The fact that Mal hadn't let her go get a replacement for the failing part was warring with the opportunity to meet new people, which she loved. She had attracted three paying customers by the time Mal returned, looking distempered, which meant that something had gone wrong in his dealings. Wash, already having gotten some new power cells, was towing one of the passenger's personal belongings onto the ship with his usual casual ease. The passenger, who was Kaylee's obvious favorite, implored Wash to be careful with the cargo crate with more vehemence to his tone than most would for mere property, though he somehow stayed stoic even with his strength of tone. Kaylee gazed at Serenity sometimes with some of the same intensity that he was gazing at the cargo container, though never with as much fierce protectiveness.

In the same way she noticed space dust ping against her reflective shield Serenity noticed the cargo container was...cold. Nothing else in the cargo bay seemed to breathe slightly like the container did...soft, slow breathing, like when Kaylee slept in her hammock in the engine room. However, as she had never been programmed to tell Wash or Kaylee about boxes that breathed, she simply watched.

She watched when the breathing box was revealed to be a girl...a girl like Kaylee yet so unlike her. A girl, a sister, a fugitive, one who moved with such grace that one knew she only had to think to dance.

Everyone stared.

"Huh."