Kaylee sat at the front desk with her arms crossed and resting on the desk staring blankly at the screen in front of her. She was bored out of her mind. She hadn’t had anyone check into the motel in over three hours. It’s not like she would know what to do if someone did want to check in. She had only been hired three hours ago on the spot. She wasn’t asked a thing about her work history, which was a good thing considering she normally worked as an engineer on a ship that wasn’t so reputable.

Kaylee looked around her and sighed. There wasn’t a single electronical thing for her to tinker with besides the computer and if she screwed that up Mal would kill her. She wasn’t sure what was on the computer that Mal needed but it was important to the job and if it was for the job then that meant there was money at the end of the line.

She shuffled in her seat and spun a few times in the revolving chair until it stopped and left her staring at the computer yet again. She scowled and picked up a pen determined to keep herself busy. She looked for paper to sketch the engine of her baby, her ship that is.

There were stackable file units on either side of the computer jammed with papers and print outs of different subjects. As she scrounged through them looking for blank paper and couldn’t decipher any semblance of organization until she came upon a folder marked ‘Warrants and Rewards’. Kaylee’s brow rose in curiosity. She opened the file and sifted through the papers.

“Know him. Know him. Oh he’s not very nice! Know him. He’s dead. Oh and she is too. Know –” Kaylee stopped on a warrant with two familiar faces. As she read, the two pictures moved from profile to face front view with their status under each electronic photo. She pulled the warrant out and stuffed it into her olive green jumper. She looked from side to side to see if anyone had happened to be watching. She casually went back to reading through the warrants and came upon Captain Mal’s warrant.

“When did this happen?” she wondered as she scanned what Mal had been accused of.

“Hmm … Robbery, illegal transport, suspicion of harboring known fugitives, smuggling, and piracy.

“Piracy! Mal ain’t no pirate! He wouldn’t never use Serenity for something so low.” She stopped ranting and thought a moment. “Well ‘cept for that one time on Ariel. Oh and that job for Niska, but we returned that.” She quickly scanned through the rest of the file to make sure no one else from the crew was in it. She closed the warrant file and stuffed Mal’s warrant in her jumper and started to put the file back and saw the blank paper she had been looking for.

She pulled the paper and put the ‘Warrant and Reward’ file back and made herself comfortable in her chair and started to draw the engine of a ‘Firefly’ only the pen she had picked up didn’t work and there were no other pens in sight.

“Oh Golly.”

Kaylee began to go through the few drawers around her and after opening a few she quickly decided that the motel owner was insane. There were all manner of things that you wouldn’t normally find in a drawer; live potted plants, loose coffee grounds, a teddy bear head and all the poor teddies stuffing, and a drawer full of glass eyes with irises ranging in colour from the blackest of black to lighting blue. But the drawer that upset Kaylee the most was the bottom drawer to the left of her feet full of all manner of wax fruit.

“Who would do such a thing!” she asked no one in particular. Kaylee loved fruit more than she loved Simon Tam, the ship’s doctor.

She loved fruit so much that she took on a passenger who only had fresh produce and three whole crates of fresh fruit to pay with. Needless to say Mal wasn’t too happy when it came time to refuel Serenity at a space station outpost and all they had to pay with was a few bags of seeds and pits left over from the crates of fruit.

She closed the drawer angrily and reached for the other drawer at her feet and low and behold it was crammed with office supplies. She snagged a pen quickly and snapped the drawer closed just as she heard the recording of an old mercantile bell ring. She stood quickly at attention to try and help the poor soul who wanted to check in. Instead she came face to face with the captain of Serenity, Malcolm Reynolds, his second Zoë Washburn, and the hired mercenary, Jayne.

“Hey there mei mei. Got anything for us.” Mal asked, coming around the desk.

“Not sure.” She answered. “This system is so old I’m not sure how it even works.” Jayne stopped smelling the wax fruit that was in a decorative bowl and walked to the front desk.

“Are you telling us Little Kaylee, that we done all that planning to get you in here with that goram machine and you can’t work it?”

Kaylee looked at her ship mates who were all looking at her expectantly.

“Yeah.”

“Goramit Mal!” Jayne yelled. “What are we suppose to do know?”

“What about River?” Zoë asked.

“That crazy? What’s a reader gonna know ‘bout machines?” Jayne pulled out a large knife similar to a Bowie knife and started to carve into the front desk with a pout on his face.

"Zoë’s right Mal. River could probably get what you needed from the computer and then I could program it into Serenity ‘til you need it.” Kaylee offered.

“Well good ‘cause we ain’t getting’ off this moon without refuelin’. We need this job. Now where do they keep the machine?” Mal asked and started for a drawer.

“Not that one Captain. It’s filled with toy ships. They even got one like Serenity, see.” She said holding up a small ship modeled after a Firefly. “I figure it’s that locked cabinet behind you. It’s the only thing here that’s got modern technology attached to it.”

“Zoë,” Mal said, talking charge of the situation. “You go keep a watch on things.”

“Yes sir.” She said, pulled her gun from her hip holster and cocked it before going to keep watch out the window.

“Jayne.” He looked up sullenly but never stopped carving. “You keep doing...whatever it is you’re doing. Little Kaylee, lets crack this thing open.” Mal said as he turned toward the locked cabinet behind him.

“Already done it.” She said. Mal turned to look at his engineer.

“You unlocked it already?”

“Yeah. It was the first thing I did when I was left alone. Case we had to leave real quick.”

Mal smiled at Kaylee and ruffled the back of her hair in gentle affection. “That’s my girl. Jayne, get over here and help me with this thing.”

“Aw, come on Mal. It’s a waste of time.” Zoë looked back to her captain. She was often breaking up fights between the captain and the unruly mercenary.

“Jayne, you wanna get paid?” Mal asked.

“Yeah, but –”

“Then get over here and help me with this thing.”

“Fine.” Jayne said disgruntled and put away his knife. Mal opened the cabinet and began pulling plugs from the computer not really caring if they belonged to the machine or not. When it was free of hindrances’ Mal and Jayne hefted the large machine and started from the motel.

“Okay gang, lets get out of here.” Mal said and started to lead Jayne to the door.

“But Mal,” Kaylee said despairingly, “I can’t leave the desk unattended. What if someone wants to check in?”

“Kaylee, honey.” Zoë said, coming around the counter. “Do you even know how to check people in?”

“Well no. But –”

“Okay then. Let’s go.” Zoë grabbed Kaylee’s arm and dragged the young woman behind her gun drawn and close on the heels of Mal and Jayne.