On the way to Miranda.

[badinlatin]

"Just...tell me when we get there."

No one on the boat understands, and Mal is fine with that. He just...can't believe he did it. Told Kaylee to muck up the engine, Wash and Jayne to strip hull, Zoe and Simon -- Mal can't really think of a reason why they should forgive him for ordering him to do that.

Above anything else, Mal wants to hide. Hide, gather himself, and face whatever's coming.

"No hiding allowed, Malcolm," the cold voice - inhuman voice - calls to him, perched on a crate in the spare shuttle. Mal leans his head gently against the bulkhead just outside of the shuttle hatch, and holds his face in his hands.

"You know what's coming, Malcolm? The end. You see it?"

Mal lifts his head as resolutely he can manage. "The end." Inexplicably, he chuckles. "Been seein' it for awhile."

David pushes off his crate and stands within a foot's distance of Mal, eye-to-eye. "Probably won't be the end you expect."

Malcolm pulls off staring at the specter, this...vision of his mind. Waking dream. This dosn't mean he can smile at it.

"At least I'll be expectin' somethin'. That counts, right?"

David shrugs and disappears.