"How is she?" "Touch and go." "I might pray over her a bit, if you don't mind." "Of course." "She's a special girl." "We kind of got to be friendly right away." "That's a talent I seem to lack." "If I can ask what made you pick this ship?" "It looked disreputable." "Well, you're not without critical judgment." "You didn't happen to look at the name, I suppose?" "What, Serenity, right?" " That's a joke." " I believe it's not." "You wanna get the lay of the land here." "Might be what you lack isn't psychological insight." "Might be its history." "Serenity." "Read." "In the war to unite the planets the battle of Serenity was among the most devastating and decisive." "Located on Hera, the valley was considered a key position by both sides and was bitterly fought over." "The Independent faction, with 16 brigades and 20 air tank squads held the valley against the Alliance forces for almost two months until superior numbers..." " What does it say under "bloodbath"?" "I was..." "Stop." " I was just trying..." " We're not in there." "The book, I mean." "We're not generals or diplomats." "We didn't turn the tide of glorious history or whatever that thing is supposed to spew." "Well, you know what they say, "History is programmed by the winners"." "Nearly half a million people lay dead on that field at day's end." "About a third of them winners." "Can you imagine that smell?" "Can you imagine piling up the bodies of soldiers, of friends to build a wall because you got no cover?" "Mal was there with you." "He was my sergeant." "Commanded 30-odd grunts." "Five days in there were so many officers dead, he commanded 2000." "Kept us together, kept us fighting, kept us sane." "By the time the fighting was over he had maybe 400 still intact." "Wow, that's a hell of a..." "I said the fighting was over." "But, you see, they left us there." "Wounded, and sick, and near to mad as can still walk and talk." "Both sides left us there while they negotiated the peace." "For a week." "And we kept dying." "When they finally sent in med ships, we had about 150 left." "And of our original platoon, just me." "Mercy, forgiveness, trust." "Those are things he left back there." "What he has now is this ship." "This ship and us on it." "You get Kaylee through this, I think he'll do right by you." "He won't kill unless he's got no other option." " What if he tells you to kill me?" " I kill you." "Just getting the lay of the land." "If that battle was so horrible why'd he name the ship after it?" "Once you've been in Serenity, you never leave." "You just learn to live there."