- Commander Harken: I notice your ship's called "Serenity". You were stationed on Hera at the end of the war. Battle of Serenity Valley took place there, if I recall.
- Captain Reynolds: [slightly sarcastic] You know, I believe you might be right.
- Commander Harken: Independents suffered a pretty crushing defeat there. Some say that after Serenity, the Browncoats were through. That the war ended in that valley.
- Captain Reynolds: Hmm.
- Commander Harken: Seems odd you'd name your ship after a battle you were on the wrong side of.
- Captain Reynolds: May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.
- [the crew is being interrogated individually]
- Commander Harken: You fought with Captain Reynolds in the war?
- Zoë: [terse; slightly irritated tone] Fought with a lot of people in the war.
- Commander Harken: And your husband.
- Zoë: Fight with him sometimes, too.
- Commander Harken: Is there any particular reason you don't wish to discuss your marriage?
- Zoë: Don't see that it's any of your business, is all. We're very private people.
- [in Wash's interrogation]
- Wash: [enthusiastic; animated] The legs!
- [chuckles]
- Wash: Oh, yeah! I definitely have to say it was her legs. You can put that down! Her legs, and right where her legs meet her back. That - actually that whole area. That and - and above it.
- [in Kaylee's interrogation]
- Kaylee: [angry; slightly defensive] Six gerslters crammed right under every cooling drive so that you strain your primary artery function and you end up having to recycle secondary exaust through a bypass system...just so's you don't end up pumping it through the main atmofeed and asphyxiating the entire crew. Now *that's* junk!
- [back to Wash]
- Wash: [very enthusiastically] Have you seen what she wears? Forget about it. Have you ever been with a warrior woman?
- Jayne: We're sittin' put for a funeral?
- Mal: Yes, Jayne. That's exactly what we're gonna do. Not gonna have these people lookin' over my shoulder once we're gone. I ain't sayin' there's any peace to be had, but on the off chance there is, those folks deserve a little of it.
- Inara Serra: Just when I think I've got you figured out.
- Commander Harken: [has ordered the crew to be taken into custody] I want every inch of this junker tossed.
- Kaylee: [offended] "Junker"?
- Mal: Settle down, Kaylee.
- Kaylee: But Captain, did you hear what that purple-belly called Serenity?
- Mal: Shut up!
- [upon seeing the Survivor, who attacked Jayne earlier]
- Dr. Simon Tam: [sarcastically] Oh, yes. He's a real beast! It's a wonder you're still alive.
- Jayne: Looked bigger when I couldn't see 'im.
- Zoë Washburne: Proximity alert. Must be coming up on something.
- Hoban 'Wash' Washburne: [alarmed] Oh, my God. What can it be? We're all doomed!
- [shouts]
- Hoban 'Wash' Washburne: Who's flying this thing!?
- Zoë Washburne: [straight faced]
- Hoban 'Wash' Washburne: Oh right, that would be me. Uh, back to work.
- Kaylee: So I guess that makes us one man short.
- Jayne: Little Kaylee's always one man short.
- [laughs; Kaylee punches his arm lightly]
- Jayne: Ow! Hey!
- The Survivor: [in the infirmiry; grunting, panting] Cattle, cattle for the slaughter.
- [Mal follows his line of sight - towards Kaylee and Inara]
- Mal: Dope him.
- Dr. Simon Tam: [having missed what Mal saw] I don't think that...
- Mal: Just do it!
- The Survivor: No mercy. No resistance.
- The Survivor: Open up. See... what's inside.
- Inara Serra: [watching the rest of the crew playing a ball-game] Who's winning?
- Dr. Simon Tam: I can't tell. They don't seem to be playing by any civilized rules that I know.
- Inara Serra: Well, we're pretty far from civilization.
- [glances at River, who's her usual uncertain self]
- Inara Serra: How's your sister?
- Dr. Simon Tam: She's good. Better. She has her days. And she still won't talk about what it was that they did to her at the Academy.
- Inara Serra: I think she's not sure herself.
- Dr. Simon Tam: [as boisterous ball-playing rages on down below] She dreams about it. I know that much. Nightmares.
- Commander Harken: [During Book's interrogation] Pirates. Pirates with their own chaplain. There's an oddity.
- Book: Not the only oddity this end of space, Commander. Way of things not always so plain as on the central planets. Rules can be a mite fuzzier.
- Captain Reynolds: So we attacked that ship, then brought the only living survivor to our infirmiry. Is that what we did?
- Commander Harken: I'd ask him.....only I'm not sure he'll be able to speak with his tounge split down the middle.
- Captain Reynolds: [Mal's eyes widen slightly with shock; mutters to himself in Chinese]
- Commander Harken: I haven't seen that kind of torture since...well since the war.
- Captain Reynolds: [sighs, almost a whisper] I should have known.
- Commander Harken: You and you crew are bound by law. Formal charges will be transmitted to the central authority.
- Captain Reynolds: Commander, I'm not what you need to be concerned about right now. Things go the way they are, there's gonna be blood.
- Jayne: How about you just say a prayer when we slide on by?
- Book: Shall I remind you of the story of the Good Samaritan?
- Mal: I'd rather you didn't, but we'll check it out - see if there are survivors. If not, then, well no one's going to mind if we take a look around, see if there's not something of value they might have left behind.
- Jayne: Yeah, no, uh, someone could be hurt.
- Dr. Simon Tam: [River's sitting up in bed, face hidden in her hair & hands; panting & sobbing softly]
- Dr. Simon Tam: Bad dreams again?
- River Tam: No I - I can't sleep. There's too much screaming.
- Dr. Simon Tam: [pause, River still sobbing; sounds slightly worried] River, there is - there is no screaming
- River Tam: [looking straight at him; whispers] There was.
- Book: Whatever horror he witnessed, whatever acts of barberism it was done by men, nothing more.
- Jayne: Reaver's ain't men.
- Book: Of course they are. Too long removed from civilization perhaps, but men. And, I believe there's a power greater than men. A power that heals.
- Mal: Reavers might take issue with that philosophy...if they *had* a philosophy...and they weren't too busy gnawing on your insides. Jayne's right. Reavers ain't men. Or they forgot how to be. Come to just nothin'. They got out to the edge of the galaxy, to that place of nothin', and that's what they became.
- Captain Reynolds: I'm gonna...make a leap here and figure this is your first tour out here on the border.
- Commander Harken: [audibly drops the file he was sifting through on the table; sniffs] It's a very loyal crew you have there.
- Commander Harken: [Mal smiles briefly with pride] But then, I can tell by your record you have a-a tendency to inspire that quality in people...Sergeant.
- Captain Reynolds: It's not Sergeant. Not anymore. War's over.
- Commander Harken: For some the war'll never be over.
- Mal: [about a ship they found drifting] Anybody home?
- Hoban 'Wash' Washburne: Been hailing her, but if whoever's there is as healthy as the guy we just ran over, can't imagine anyone's going to be picking up.
- Mal: Stack everything here, in plain sight. Wouldn't want it to seem like we got anything to hide. It might give them Alliance boys the wrong impression.
- Hoban 'Wash' Washburne: Or the right one.
- Mal: All right, no one goes in here. Nothing more we can do for him now, not after what he's seen.
- Dr. Simon Tam: What do you mean?
- Mal: That ship was hit by Reavers.
- Commander Harken: [Alliance message to Serenity] Firefly class transport, you are ordered to release control of your helm.
- Mal: Looks like civilization finally caught up with us.
- Commander Harken: Reavers?
- Mal: That is what I said.
- Commander Harken: You can't imagine how many times men in my position hear that excuse. "Reavers did it."
- Mal: It's the truth.
- Commander Harken: You saw them, did you?
- Mal: Wouldn't be sitting here talking to you if I had.
- Dr. Simon Tam: [When River enters the abandoned ship] River! What are you...?
- River Tam: I followed the voices.
- Dr. Simon Tam: [as Simon watches Mal and Zoe put on space suits]
- Jayne: Somethin' wrong?
- Dr. Simon Tam: [distractedly] Hmm. Oh. No. No, I... Well I suppose it's just the thought of a little Mylar and glass being the only thing seperating a person from... nothing.
- Jayne: It's impressive what "nothing" can do to a man. Like that feller we bumped into. He's likely stuck up under our belly about now.
- Jayne: If there's folks on board in need of help, why ain't they beaming no distress call?
- Zoë Washburne: It's true, there's no beacon.
- Mal: Which means it's likely no one's looking to find her.
- Book: All the more reason for us to do the right thing.
- Jayne: How about you just say a prayer when we slide on by.
- Dr. Simon Tam: [talking about River] I don't know if I'll be able to help her here; and I need to help her.
- Inara Serra: Simon, you are. Leaving your whole world behind? That's incredibly selfless.
- Dr. Simon Tam: Yeah. I *selflessly* turned us both into wanted fugitives.
- Mal: [on the bridge; all looking at the ship that set off the proximity alarm]
- Mal: Bring us in a little closer.
- Wash: Get you close enough to ring the doorbell.
- Dr. Simon Tam: What is it?
- [standing in the doorway, completely out of sight; softly, as if talking to herself]
- River Tam: It's a ghost.
- [half smiles briefly]
- Mal: I ain't sayin' there's any peace to be had, but on the off chance there is, those folks deserve a little of it.
- Inara Serra: Just when I think I've got you figured out.
- Mal: Commander, I'm not what you need to be concerned about right now. Things go the way they are, there's gonna be blood.
- Jayne: Ohhh, I ain't going over with them bodies--no ruttin' way. Not if Reavers messed with them.
- Zoë Washburne: Jayne, you'll scare the women.