Chapter Text
The crew of Serenity stood gathered on her bridge, staring at the planetary data displayed on the captain’s console. “How can it be that there’s a whole planet called Miranda, and none of us knowed that?” asked Kaylee.
“Because there isn’t one,” said Mal. “It’s a blackrock. Uninhabitable. Terraforming didn’t hold or some such. Few settlers died.”
“Was it right before the war?” asked Zoë, thinking she might vaguely recall a story like that.
“I believe so,” said Mal.
Standing next to her injured brother, River whispered to him, “I had to show them. I hit you because I didn’t know if you were going to make me sleep.”
“You could have asked,” he croaked back, still rubbing his throat where she'd punched him to keep him from speaking.
“Wait a tick! Yeah!” cried Kaylee. “Some years back, there was call for workers to settle on Miranda. Daddy talked about it.”
“But there’s nothing about it on the Cortex,” Wash objected, reading over the panels of his pilot’s station. “History. Astronomy. It’s not in there.”
“Half of history is hiding the truth,” Mal pointed out. “There’s something on that rock the Alliance doesn’t want known.”
Inara stepped toward the panel, studying the figures. “That’s right at the edge of the Burnham Quadrant, right?” she asked. “Furthest planet out? It’s not that far from here.”
“Whoa! No no!” Wash cried.
“That’s a bad notion,” said Zoë.
“Honey! Show them the bad!” Wash pled.
“I got it, baby.” Zoë hurried over to the captain’s console and adjusted the panel showing Miranda. “This is us, at Haven,” she said, pointing to the moon on the right side of the screen. “And here’s Miranda.” She pointed to another planet at the upper left. She then pointed to a lot of black between. “All along here, that empty space between? That’s Reaver territory.”
“They just float out there, sending out raiding parties,” said Wash.
“Nobody ventures there,” said Zoë. “Not even the Alliance. You go through that, you’re signin’ up to be a banquet.”
“I’m on board with our standard run-and-hide scenario,” said Wash. “And we are just about…” Wash scowled at his instruments. “Wait.”
He turned to face the window, as did the others. As Serenity broke through the cloud layer and approached the mining town of Shepherd’s Pass, they could see a spot of char on the rocky, arid landscape. The visuals did not improve as they neared. Buildings had been burned. Mining equipment was wrecked. And worse… The bodies of men, women, and children were strewn everywhere.
Wash landed them as quickly as possible and Mal, Zoë, and Jayne hurried out of the airlock with guns drawn. “Don’t look like Reavers!” Jayne reported.
“Wasn’t,” said Mal.
Kaylee and Simon hurried out after them. “Shepherd!” cried Kaylee, running up toward the mission. “Shepherd! Shepherd Book!” She stopped when she happened upon the body of a child, unable to believe her eyes. Who… Who could do this? Even the worst of the Alliance, surely they wouldn’t…
She looked around and saw River standing next to a burning swing. “It’s okay,” said River, walking toward the swing. “It’s not real.”
“River, no!” Kaylee cried, running toward her to try to stop her. But River walked right into that swing anyway.
And through it.
Kaylee stopped in her tracks. “Wh－ What?”
Suddenly, the entire devastation blinked out of existence, leaving the crew standing in the same version of Shepherd’s Pass that they’d left only a week earlier, except this one featured Jake Berenson standing not ten feet from Mal and next to a chrome and ivory canine robot. “I think we have something to discuss,” said Berenson.
“I…” said Mal. “I…”
“Marco?!” cried Inara, and she ran up to the other Companion, revealed to be standing by the mission. He smiled and hugged her, whispering something comforting in her ear.
“I…” said Mal.
“What the hell happened here?” Jayne demanded angrily.
“Remember, Mal,” said Shepherd Book as he stepped out of the mission with a small, deathly pale girl, “when I said they would send a believer?”
“I... “ said Mal.
“This was the Alliance?” Zoë demanded. “They wanted to trick us into believing you were dead?”
“No,” the canine robot started to say, making Kaylee scream and scramble away from it, back toward Simon. “I’m actually surprised more people haven’t done that.”
“What?!” demanded Mal.
“It speaks!” the robot teased.
Jake glowered at it. “Less attitude, Erek?”
“Sorry,” it said, and suddenly the robot was replaced by the man that had run into the Maidenhead bar with Jake to fetch Tom. “Being screamed at is a little upsetting.”
“It－ It－ It’s－!” Kaylee stuttered, pointing.
“It’s a fancy yapping robot!” Jayne growled. “Calm your ass down!”
“He,” Erek patiently corrected. “At least in this lifetime. You may call me Erek. And I’m not a robot; I’m an android. I’m sentient. That means, Mr. Cobb, that I have a concept of self. That is, I have what you might poetically call a soul.”
“Berenson, this ain’t funny,” Zoë growled.
But Jake just stuck out his chin. “No, ma’am, it isn’t,” he agreed.
“Please let me explain,” said Book. “They arrived less than a day after you left, looking for help for this girl here. It seems that Mr. King’s kin, the Chee, have a background with this church that I didn’t know of. A few days later, Ms. Chapman here accessed the Cortex and was able to predict the arrival of an Alliance operative. Mr. King then used his holographic ability to trick the Alliance forces and used his shields to protect us. They believed us destroyed while we actually sustained little damage. At a great cost to himself, as I understand it.”
Erek just shrugged at that, but Mal was shaking his head. “Since when did we have robots could do that?” he demanded, to which Erek repeated that he was not a robot. “And how’s this little girl know where an operative’s going to be?”
“I’m not little!” Melissa objected. “I’m a whole inch taller than Marco!” She grinned broadly and put her hands on her hips. “Besides, no Alliance system is safe from me. Their walls weren’t designed with my interface in mind.”
“God, she’s like a tiny Rachel,” Marco grumbled, and Jake snickered.
“My god,” Simon breathed, stepping toward her. “You’re with Humanity, aren’t you?”
Melissa laughed. “Oh, man, I love this part!” She turned and lifted up the back of her shirt to show the series of huge metal ports. “I am Humanity.” She dropped her shirt and turned back to him. “I, personally, entered the Cortex, and I, personally, saw the Operative’s communications, and so I was able to warn them just in the nick of time.”
“Preacher?” asked Zoë.
Book smiled pleasantly. “I can swear by my Lord and Savior that these things are true,” he said.
“I also saw your files,” said Melissa, and Book’s expression fell.
“I mean this in the kindest way possible,” Book said to her, “but I am becoming very tired of you all-knowing, superpowered young women.” Melissa laughed at that.
“Speaking of which,” said Jayne, turning to Simon, “where’s that batty sister?”
They looked around and saw that River had disappeared. “I’ll go search for her while the rest of you talk,” said Book.
Jake nodded. “Check with Tom first,” he said. “Those two are like magnets.”
“Okay,” said Mal, “but where did… he come from?” He pointed accusingly toward Erek. “Because if that’s Alliance－”
“I was produced before humans could write,” said Erek. “So, no, I am not Alliance technology or property. They are not aware of our existence. We Chee were created by a race called the Pemalites on a world very far from this system, in another branch of this galaxy. They were pacifists, and we are programmed only to protect, but do not be mistaken, we are living and sentient.”
Mal’s eyes narrowed. “I notice you say ‘were pacifists,’” he said.
Erek nodded. “Yes,” he said. “They died.”
“Shocking, that,” said Jayne, ignoring the looks everyone but Mal shot him.
“How long ago?” Kaylee asked more sympathetically.
“Six thousand years,” said Erek.
“Oh,” said Kaylee.
“Psychics and human experiments are one thing, but you really expect us to believe that you saved everyone here with an ancient space robot?” asked Zoë.
“Oh not just that,” said Jake, hopping down the small hill he and Erek had been standing on and walking forward to meet her. “You see, the Alliance isn’t really the Alliance anymore. We don’t know for how long, but we know how much. Sixty-five percent of Alliance operation is controlled by the Yeerk Empire and thirteen percent of Alliance personnel are Yeerk hosts. That’s what the experiments were for. My brother?” He turned to Simon. “Your sister? They were designing the perfect hosts.”
“Hosts?” repeated Wash, speaking up for the first time as his wife and their captain found themselves confused and speechless.
Marco nodded. “They’re body-snatchers,” he said, and Inara shot him a look of reprimand. “And yes, they’re from outside of the ’Verse.”
“You really expect us to believe this?” Simon demanded.
<No, we did not,> said a new voice, causing Serenity’s crew to react with surprise and turn about, trying to find the source of the voice. One by one, their gazes fell upon the four-eyed, mouthless, blue centaur standing a short distance behind them. <But we expected that you might believe me.>