(no subject)

Fuel stops like this, out in the middle of nowhere, don't tend to get the big Alliance cruisers. They have to stop on-planet. The nice thing about the ones on a station is that comings and goings aren't quite so regulated.

Giant hangars open and close. Pressure is almost constantly in flux -- you have to keep popping your ears -- thanks to airlocks. There's a smell of chemical overriding everything. And movement -- when it's busy, it's very, very busy, with people scrambling around ships like Lilliputians on Mr. Gulliver; but when nobody's around, it's a giant mausoleum.

It's a fairly busy day. People coming and going. Sleek ships in and out. It takes two hours to fill a Hawker KJ -- just a small fact.

And when a shuttle comes in and lands...well, shuttles need fuel, too. Nobody takes notice.

At this particular fuel station, the situation is always...fluid.

(no subject)

There's not much meeting space aboard the Kelowna; this means that Simon and River get to go on a field trip.

Their cells are at the opposite end of the corridor, and it's not Ed Chao who gets Simon. It's Stover and another guard.

Chao is dealing with River, and he doesn't look at Simon as they walk to the airlock, and across into the station, where the air is subtly different -- it's a different kind of structure. Not as closed in. Not quite as institutional. Governmental, yes. Not institutional. The angles of the corridors are a little sharper. The corridors themselves are lit a little better.

Chao steps forward, opens a door.

Inside there is a man with his back to the door. Across from him, across the table: two chairs.

"Cuffs," says Stover, and removes them. To the man inside: "We'll be out here."

"I'm sure you will," the man says, without turning around. "Now. If you'll excuse us?"

Simon and River are shown in.

The door slides shut.

And the man stands, and turns, and he's smiling as he raises his hand, and presses a thumb to the side of the silver signet ring he wears on his first finger. It activates a device, which means he can speak the following:

"Hile, Simon and River Tam, son and daughter of Gabriel."

Reuben Finnegan, of the Tet Consortium, is dressed a little more nicely than he was the last time Simon saw him.

"Have a seat. I believe the word is 'palaver'. We need to hold it."