"Don't mind living on a spaceship about this size but I don't like having just a small room to be in."

"Oceangoing boat all right?"

"Should be."

"Okay. I'm going to have you placed on Weatherstation Logon, which is sometimes crewed and has food and facilities but doesn't have anyone on it today. The teleporter who brings you will show you how to use everything, including a communicator to get in touch with my office again if you need anything. Is that all right?"

"I can't really see or interact with things consistently if I don't have someone around to check the senses of. My senses are usually wrong."

"...the teleporter can bring someone who can stay with you."

"Thanks. That's okay, then."

"This'll take a few minutes."

Her image disappears.

To the orcs with her: "Thanks for helping me so much."

"You're welcome!" says Plumub.

She nods. "Sorry about - problems."

"It was interesting," says Kunol earnestly.

And someone - two someones - appear and nod at the other orcs and teleport River to the boat. It's on a calm sea.

She startles.

"Are you okay?" asks one of the orcs. "I'm Hluth, I'm going to stay here with you -" (The other orc vanishes.)

"That was - sudden."

"I'm sorry. You can file a complaint with the office if you want. There aren't that many people vetted for teleportation so they try to keep everything short..."

"That makes sense."

She sits down and curls up a bit.

"Probably people should not startle me." Especially since she's actually not sure when the killing thing turns on or how much she was joking about being able to kill people with her brain, and that sounds like it'd be awkward if it came up accidentally.

Though if something's actually dangerous she usually knows ahead of time. Maybe she can convince her brain of that.

"Okay. I'll just sit here and you can tell me if you need something."

"Okay."

"Probably I'll need food and water soon but right now I'd like to just sit." And try to get her brain in order some.

"Sure."

Meanwhile a team of thop teleport to Serenity.

The Firefly class ship Serenity is a small spaceship, heavily metal on the inside, fairly dingy with a number of signs of wear and tear. They seem to be hauling something. From the look of the bay, it seems like they shot at something, hit it a few times, then got the exterior doors open and let everything not tied down fly out - there's certainly no portal snake in evidence. There's three people - two men, one woman, all human - wielding guns standing in the bay. All are wearing harnesses designed for tethers. Two other people, a man and a woman, don't have guns and aren't wearing harnesses. They seem to be the five identified in River's memories.

They're presently arguing about where River could've gone, but the two unarmed crew members fall back when the thop teleport in, and two of the three armed ones point their guns at the intruders.

"What the gorram hell is going on now?" the armed man not presently pointing a gun asks.

"Hello," says the one in the lead. "River's safe. We came to see if the portalsnake was still endangering anyone. Are you all okay?"

"Not injured. Where's River?"

"Someone's sitting with her on a weatherstation boat; we can bring her back here now that the snake's gone." She nods at another thop, who disappears.

And appears by River. "There are five people all okay on your ship," he says. "Ready to go back?"

She tenses but doesn't really startle. "Yeah."