Serenity’s End

The *Firefly* had limped back to New Canada system and was now heading back for the surface of Serenity, where their journey had begun. They weren’t heading for the spaceport at Lake Town, but a large clearing in planet’s southern continent, known as Enigma. Within an hour they were back on the surface and unloading their passengers and cargo.

There to greet them was the man who had employed them, who Stryker only knew as Klaas. He’d obviously been expecting the *Firefly* as there were cargo loaders and shuttles.

Within thirty minutes, all the cargo and the passengers were gone, leaving just the crew of the *Firefly* to survey the damage to their vessel. The ship had taken quite a beating and there were area of the ship where the sun they had used as a shield has scorched and melted the hull plating. Other areas of the ship, mainly the aft hull also had hull plating missing. It was going to cost almost the entire ten bars of latinum they had been paid to fix the ship. That of course didn’t include all the damage to the insides of the ship, but they at least had the spare parts.

“Let’s get back to Lake Town and sort this mess out tomorrow.” Jack suggested.

The crew headed back into the ship that was both their livelihood and their home and set off back to the space port.

Next morning, the crew rose to the sound of rain on the hull. After breakfast, the crew started to get to work fixing the ship. Two hours passed when there was a message for the Captain from Klaas to meet him in Serenity city.

Jack arrived in the same bar he’d been in weeks earlier to meet Klaas. He ordered a drink and sat at the same, empty table. Klaas arrived a few minutes later, accompanied by Quinn.

“Captain, I cannot thank you enough for your efforts.” Klaas remarked. “I just wish I could have paid you the full thirty bars you were offered.”

“The spare parts we picked up will come in handy, so I think it was a fair trade.” Jack replied. “So I guess our work here is done, as soon as we’ve completed repairs of the ship, we’ll be leaving Serenity.”

“That’s one of the reasons I asked you to come here today.” Klaas stated. “I have a proposition for you, one I hope you’ll consider if not accept.”

”I’m listening.” Jack said curiously.

“Quinn has told me how well you handled the situation and adapted to everything that happened.” Klaas praised.” You have a fine crew, who appear to work well together.”

“What my friend Klass is trying to say is that we’d like to retain your services for a while.” Quinn interrupted. “We can’t pay you a retainer fee, but you will be compensated for your time if we use you. Klaas has managed to secure you docking rights to the space port at Lake Town for the next six months, which should help.”

Jack took a long gulp of his drink and considered the offer. Having a safe place to land for six months was good, it would allow them to repair the *Firefly* properly.

“So what do you say Captain ?” Klass enquired.

“We’re going to need time to fix the *Firefly*.” Jack remarked. “And I guess Serenity is as good a place as any to make those repairs.”

“Excellent. We already have another job for you.” Klaas remarked. “How long will you need to make repairs ?”

“We’ll need about a week to make most of the repairs, but installing the cloaking device is going to take Harper sometime.” Stryker answered.

“You won’t need the cloak.” Quinn added. “All we need you to do is transport some of the people we brought back with us to another place, lots of other places to be precise. We also need to you go to Ferenginar to sell off some items we can’t sell here. We can hide them until you’re ready, just let us know. We’ll pay you five bars minimum for each job.”

“Agreed.” Jack replied.

Klaas and Quinn started to rise from the table, but Jack stopped them.

“There’s one more thing before you leave.” Jack announced, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a half-size data pad. “You might want to keep a hold of this.”

“What is it ?” Klaas enquired.

“It’s a copy of a signal beacon from the so called *Einstein*.” Jack stated. “I’m sure you’ve heard the tragic news about the vessel by now. How it was discovered adrift after suffering what appeared to be a pirate attack in the Gamma quadrant.”

“We’ve heard the news.” Quinn stated. “ Terrible isn’t it, the Gamma quadrant is awash with these lawless pirates.” He said aside sarcastically

“Yes, they really should start clamping down on it over there” Klaas added “Anyone would think we’ve gone soft”

“Oh and by the way, my names John, John Quinn.” Quinn said offering his hand.

“And Klaas Carmichael” Klaas added offering his

“Nice to hear your full names, for a minute I though they were Alias’” Jack said shaking hands.

“I’d suggest you view the pad.” Jack said, rising from the table. “But don’t let Sam Hoffman see it. I’ll be in touch when we’re ready to leave.”

With that, Jack walked out of the bar and headed back to the ship.

As Jack left, the viewscreen on the wall of the bar came to life and reported yet another pirate attack in the Gamma quadrant, this time against a Starbase which had been destroyed. The images of the Starbase being attacked by several smaller vessels continued, until the base exploded. The images were false, but no-one cared, all they saw were ruthless pirates attacking a Federation ‘science’ station.

As the images of the Starbase exploding faded off the viewscreen, a newscaster appeared.

[The Federation President today announced measures to curb the attacks on Federation territory in the Gamma quadrant.] The female newscaster reported. [In a statement released earlier today, he appointed sixteen ‘governors’ to oversee all Federation and Starfleet activities in the Gamma quadrant. Each governor will be assigned an area of responsibility covering several sectors.]

“About time someone dealt with those pirates.” Someone in the bar shouted, followed by several cheers of agreement.

[The most controversial part of the statement set’s out a further appointment of Marcus Devore as senior governor in the Gamma quadrant. He will be assigned to the Dominion government world, an important and controversial move by the Federation government. Former Admiral Devore is seen in many quarters as something of a maverick and there are reports from the Federation parliament that many delegates opposed his appointment. It is believed that Devore’s appointment was achieved through Presidential decree, an act which has not been used for over a century.]

Images appeared on the screen with various Federation delegates shouting at each other and leaving the Federation building to speak to the waves of reporters.

[Admiral Devore is a veteran of the Dominion war and more recently the head of the Deep Range agency, which was dramatically shutdown just over a year ago after allegations of unauthorised contact with hostile races surfaced. Little is known about these allegations, nor of what happened to the *USS Leviathan-B*, a highly experimental vessel believed to be powered by a new form of interstellar propulsion, the quantum slipstream drive.] The newscaster continued. [Devore was heavily involved in the quantum slipstream project and was once Captain of both the original *USS Leviathan* and its successor the *Leviathan-A*, both of which were destroyed under mysterious circumstances.]