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All around the ship, the alarms were ringing. The engines whirred as the Firefly class transport ship started to pull closer to the planets atmo. With struggling hands the pilot tried his best to pull the boat up as it zoomed closer to the desert below. "ZOE! the captain yelled out knowing by now his second-in-command should have managed her way to the bridge. "Zoe, this ain't th' time t' be sleepin in exactly!"

Gritting his teeth the pilot reached a hand up for the mic for the comm systerm. "Kaylee! What th' hell is goin on down there! Get the engine started back now!" Static greeted him. Static that shouldn't have been there.

Under his breath Mal Reynolds cursed in Mandarin doing his best to guide his ship, Serenity, over the settlement that they just so happened to buzz below. The thrusters groaned, spitting smoke before completely dying. In his mind he was already cursing down a list of people and parts that were going to be havin' a little talkin' to once things were settled- if they made it. "Liú kŏushuĭ de biăozi hé hóuzi de bèn érzi," he growled under his breath as a moment of time passed where the ship just glided closer to the ground before the scraping sound of metal on earth rocked the boat back and forth.

Then silenced passed. Good quiet silence from the ship as smoke continued to raise from the now dead thrusters. It wasn't pretty to say the least, but the hull was still in tact. After a quick check and finding the ship empty the slightly wobbly-legged pilot exited from hatch on the rear loading dock, glancing back toward the settlement then back to his ship. "Āiyā!" he muttered before sinking to his backside on the ground.

Welcome to the not!verse, Mal.

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O mentioned a spaceship crashing to Earth. She really didn't have to mention it twice.

A short while after Serenity lands, the Aerie One touches down nearby, and a blonde woman wearing emerges from the hold, wearing a long black trenchcoat, but not really fully dressed beneath it.

That's a spaceship?

Serenity was a good ship. An oldie but a good one! She'd fly true... when Kaylee was there to help patch things up on the larger scale.

As the other craft lands, blue eyes follows its path for a bit before turning back to his own ship and problems. With his crew missing save the ones who weren't supposed to be there, not knowing where in the 'verse he was, and everything else that was seeming to go wrong, Mal was more than just a little distracted. Raising a hand he wiped blood from running into his right eye from where he had been rather forcefully re-introduced to the console.

Yep. Gonna be a long day.

"Hi there," she says, strolling up to him, casual as everything, hands by her sides.

"Rough landing?"

Turning his head to look up at the trenchcoated lady Mal squinted his eyes against the sun before chuckling a hoarse little laugh and looking back to his ship. "Nah. Meant t' do that. Gives a' whole new meanin' behind having a dramatic entrance." Which is to say yes that it was a rather rough landing and now he isn't to thrilled about it. Sarcasam can go along way with this man.

With a groan he climed to his feet again touching the gash on his brow before looking back to the woman. "It looked that bad huh?"

There's a hand available if he needs that to stand, but non-invasive.

"You look that bad," she says, offering a friendly smile and nodding towards the injury. "I like my landings to leave me blood-free.

"I'm Dinah."

"Just a scratch. Nothin I can't deal with." Wiping his hand off on his pants he managed to his feet and glanced back to Serenity, "I'd rather not have 'em either but I ain't as good a pilot as most. Well, at least not as good as.." His words died off slightly as a frown started across his face. All the red Reaver paint had been removed, the uglies put on his girl were gone as well. Just a hollow shell now that his remaining crew were gone. Why they hadn't woke him was beyond his space of thought for the moment.

When the blond woman gave her name his eyes flickered back to her, a wry little grin crossing his face. "Nice t' meet you, Dinah. I'm Mal."

Oh, she's no stranger to the thoughts that produce a frown like that. Her smile flashes slightly with concern but she doesn't let it up. Much.

"So, I guess you've got a whole lot of questions, starting with why this isn't the planet you were planning on crashing to today?"

Half a moments pause. Half a moment of quick calculations- they weren't due on Three Hills for another two days and the path they (he and River) had picked was rather out of the way. "Rightly reckon I do," the taller man says, scrubbing at the back of his neck. "And where my crew vanished off to." Ain't like Zoe t' leave like that, Mal thought, Jayne was questionable for my understandin' of him as come to a middle. Doc and his sister...

At the comment about crashing into a planet he gave another wry little smirk and shake of his head that got a well produced grunt and pinching at the bridge of his nose. "Let's start with what this place is called."

"The planet? Earth."

This is more Green Lantern territory than hers but she can handle greeting new aliens.

"Mexico, to be more precise. How are you with interdimensional phenomena?"

He's flying a spaceship, which has to count for something.

"Wait, wait, wait." Lowering his hand, Mal let his eyes lock on to Dinah with a sharp little intent look. "Earth-that-was ain't had noone on it for over five hundred years now. It got used not. Not able t' support any life." The first thought through Malcolm's head was where was Simon when he was having to deal with the crazy person. The second was where the ruttin hell was Mexico.

"Interdimensional phenome-what? Look, lady, you know if there has been a shuttle land here the last few hours or a good mechanic? I can get my boat back into the air an' find my crew.." Not understanding Mal is not that understanding right now."

Oh so not so good, then. Still with an easy smile, Dinah gives a small, helpless shrug.

"I'm sorry, I have no idea what year it is for you, but it's..." a year at the very beginning of the twenty first century "for me, and probably about that for this, and it is planet Earth, believe me."

She gives that a breath's time to sink in.

"And you're the first actual honest-to-god space ship I've seen. I can tell you that the best tech-types in the world are likely to be in Kansas, though."

"2517."

It was natural for Mal to say because that was when it was. Earth hadn't been populated in well over five hundred years. "So you're tellin' me that Earth is fine and we're just happenin' to be on a planet the goverment told us it weren't?" It was hard to compute to a degree.

Kansas? Mexico? He knew general areas of Earth from reading books and his schooling but not much about that. "So.. I'm probably fresh outta luck getting my bird back into the air."

"Probably, I'm afraid," she says. "It's worth a try, though. We have teleporters who might be able to get her somewhere with mechanics, but you're going to be the only person with the knowledge from your century."

Hang on, she's getting ahead of herself.

"Right, you've been transported through time, space and probably across universes. I don't know what happened to your crew: my friends came through with me in our plane."

"Zāogāo," Mal muttered under his breath, scrubbing drying blood from his forehead as he looked back to his ship. If Kaylee weren't here, and the parts he needed weren't, then how in the name of anything that was holy was he going to get off the rock and back to the job? Badger was going to kill him. Literally.

Leaning to the left and right confirmed that one of the transport ships was there. Inara still had one of them since their arrangements were still a little up in the air and he wasn't about to leave her without transportation. "Across time, space, an' probably across 'verses. Sure you just ain't pullin my leg a tad?" Yes that was a hopeful expression across the Browncoat's face.

Hearing an obviously American man swear in Chinese is interesting, and makes Dinah raise an amused eyebrow.

"Sorry, Mal," she says. "I wish I was. We all left people behind."

Well they say Shadow was as close to Earth-that-was than any of the other rocks out there. He fell silent then, a look of... something not quite close to contempt crossing his face. "Maybe 's why we lost the war," Mal murmered under his breath before taking a deeper one. "Well. Looks like I ain't goin nowhere for a while. At least until I get my boat patched back up and find my ruttin crew. Otherwise I'm humped."

Blue eyes flickered back to the woman beside of him. "Other than the obvious, you got any suggestions on what needs doin' next?"

"If you're anything like my pilot you won't want to leave your ship behind," Dinah tells him, then turns her face away, fingers touching her earlobe lightly; or rather, the bird shaped earrings on that earlobe.

"Oracle? Can you see if Shay can come down here? I have a job for him."

A short while later, Shay gets a message, and there's a rather bright flash of blue flame from a spot near Dinah and Mal, before Shay practically bounds over.

Mal gets a very speculative look. He seems new.

"Need me to take something somewhere?"

"This," Dinah says, taking in Serenity with a hand sweep, "belongs to Mal, here, and she needs repair. Think we could 'port her over to the Cooper Farm so the mechanics can have a look?"

It doesn't occur to her that Mal might be surprised by random teleporters.

Why yes he is very surprised. See how his eyebrows seem to climb up his brow enough for a pretty decent WTF?! face? He's good at them. Really. Raising both hands, Mal slightly points in Shay's general direction. "Either something more serious than I thought happened on my boat or I'm dead, cause, you know, people don' just... pop.. outta thin air."

Giving Dinah a quick sidelong glance he actually considered the idea of offering her an arm for pinching.

"Right, different universes."

At least now she gives him a sympathetic wince. "Shay's a teleporter. He can get your ship to the next country."

"It'll be waiting for you at the Cooper Farm. If," he pauses, mid-unlocking the shackles around his wrist, "that's not a problem? It's not a problem, right? You love the teleporting, it's - it's very exciting. With the blue. Right? Right?"

Mal just stands there looking between Shay and Dinah. "If it gets Serenity where I can work on her then right about now I don't mind it at all." Touching at his brow again where the blood was finally starting to dry he winced. "And an ice pack or somethin' would do nice 'bout now as well."

"Thanks," she says to Shay, and steps back, gesturing Mal to her own plane. "We have basic medical equipment on the Aerie One. It'll only be a couple of hours before we get to the farm."

Shay beams, wandering towards the ship. There's a brief murmur of 'shiny' before both the ship and Shay vanish.

Thankfully Mal didn't wince to much as Serenity vanished into nowhere. Well, not exactly nowhere, just where ever this farm place was at. Letting out a held breath he looked back toward Dinah and nodded his head following her toward her own plane.

"Where is this farm place at anyway?"

"About a thousand miles northeast," she says, allowing some sympathy at seeing his ship vanish. "but Lady Blackhawk's an amazing pilot, it'll fly by."

The plane is smartly equipped, and comfortable: a blonde pilot salutes them from the cockpit and Dinah opens a cupboard to produce a first aid kit. "Let's get that cleaned up."

The plane is nice. Different. Sort of like the ones that were used around the Core for planet-side travel. When the pilot salutes he gives a little one back half distracted glancing about the ship. It's not until Dinah speaks up again that his attention is finally grabbed.

"Oh. Yeah." Reaching a hand up he lightly touched the spot along his brow that was cut open. It wasn't a bad cut just that head wounds always seemed to bleed the most of anything.

She judges him capable of cleaning himself up, so simply produces the appropriate cotton swabs, antiseptic and a mirror.

"Do you want something to drink? Eat? We're fully stocked."

Finding a place to sit and prop the mirror up, he started to fiddle with the kit a little. Needless to say when Mal opened it up he couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "No I'm fine. We may not eat good out in the black, but can't complain to much about protein bars."

Simon would quite possibly be laughing at him as he carefully cleans and examines the cut. It would be sore for a couple of days, possibly bruise, but it wasn't the worse that Mal would ever have in his life. "So," he starts again as he works, "how long you been here?"

Protein bars sound like the kind of things Shiva would make her eat. Yuck. Dinah helps herself to an apple.

"Over a year," is the answer. "Still waiting for some superpower to turn up with the way home, but we've been keeping busy."

Mal's hands stop for a second, head turning away from the mirror to look back at Dinah. "Superpower?" A wry little smile crossed his face. "Serenity may not be a big ship, but she could carry her weight and all that want to board her. Anyone try to actually fly away from here?"

That's a cute smile, Dinah has to admit.

She shakes her head, trying to figure out how to explain this.

"I don't know what you'd find," she says, "but I doubt you'd find anything like the planets you know. The problem isn't spatial distance, it's dimensional."

For what it's worth, she doesn't understand the physics, and it's obvious. She just has a hang of the basics.

"It there is a way here, there has t' be a way out. Always a loophole somewhere that aloows the smallest of things to get by." As cute as the smile might be there is an air of mischief behind it. This man was willing to give anything a shot at least once.

Turning back toward the mirror he winced a little as he went back to work. "Tell you what. We patch Serenity up, find a crew, and we'll do a little experimentin' and see what we find."

"Works for me," Dinah says. "I hope our mechanics can help."

Mal chuckled softly, finishing up and taking one last look. Yep. That was gonna leave a mark. "Something most likely just came lose, or broke, or something. Don't think it will be that hard to find and fix." Or it could be considering how he knew very little about actually fixing his own ship. Kaylee was the genious when it came to fixing anything.

"Good," Dinah says. "I haven't been up there in a while. Honestly I kind of miss the view."

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