Serenity - Keith R. A. DeCandido

Captain Malcolm Reynolds is a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family: squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal. But when Mal takes on a young doctor and his unstable telepathic sister as passengers, he gets rather more than he bargained for. The pair are fugitives from the coalition which dominates the universe, whose forces will stop at nothing to reclaim the girl. The crew that were once used to skimming the outskirts of the galaxy unnoticed find themselves caught between the military might of the Universal Alliance and the cannibalistic fury of the Reavers, savages who roam the very edge of space. Hunted by different enemies, they begin to discover that their greatest danger may lie on board Serenity herself