* * * Simultaneous: Serenity: Feds searching the crew quarters (search part five) Now the five soldiers split up. One to each of the crew bunks, including the empty that no one used. Inner Simultaneous sequence: Serenity. Fed searches Kaylee’s bunk While looking through Kaylee’s bunk, the soldier assigned to search the bunk managed to damage the frippery that was her layer-cake hoop-skirt sheep-on-its-hind-legs dress. Other adornments, those of a less expensive but of equal-or-higher sentimental value to her found themselves damaged as well, and the room was in a higher state of disarray than it usually was: by the time the soldier left the room, it was in turmoil. Inner Simultaneous sequence: Serenity: Fed searches Mal’s bunk In Mal’s bunk, the leader of the soldiers slowed down: he knew the bunk he’s searching is Mal’s because of the motif in the room. This particular soldier had been briefed on the crew members to the exclusion of the others because of two simple facts: a) he was the leader of this little group, and b) he’d fought in the battle of Serenity Valley. In a convoluted sort of way, he and Mal were kindred souls, he realized. They’d both survived the fighting, and they’d both survived the time of negotiation before they were pulled out. Though Mal had lost his faith in Serenity, he’d found his. In respect for a man who’d gone through the same things he had, the leader of these otherwise rash soldiers didn’t trash Mal’s bunk; indeed, he was very careful in his searching, only moving things that he would put back as closely as he reasonably could. He looked through the stuff in the bunk, all while evolving respect for this man. When he saw Mal’s Independent-hued and aptly named browncoat, he fingered it with a strange respect. As he pondered this seemingly insignificant item of clothing, he found himself regarding it not only as a career-army Alliance soldier would, but as a person would. A person who had their own individual thoughts. He found in it a summation of Mal’s character: a man who stood up for what he believed; not just joining in the army because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyone who’d survived Serenity deserved respect in his eyes, whatever the side they’d served for. Of course, this was just his opinion, as if the Alliance got a whiff of it, he’d be taken to the most grueling jobs they could find and be forgotten about. As he was getting ready to leave the room, he needed to pause for a second to resume the mask of non-emotion required for a job like his, and climbed back up the laddoor into the hall. Inner Simultaneous sequence: Serenity. Fed searches Jayne’s bunk The soldier assigned to Jayne’s bunk is astounded at the amount of weaponry the man has, and makes a note to include that in the report he’ll give to his leader later. He leaves all the weaponry in place, once he finds it, but counts at least 10 guns and probably more than 6 or 8 knives by the time he’s done. Jayne’s room is left relatively intact, and even his mother’s ‘cunning’ knitting is left in its place: the soldier knows that this is not a man to piss off, so he observes and nothing more. Inner Simultaneous sequence: Serenity. Fed searches the empty bunk There isn’t much in this bunk, but what there is finds a way to end up in the middle of the sparse room in an unorganized pile. Mattress and sheets and other easily detachable objects end up in a heap in the middle of the room, and what the soldier was looking for isn't there. He leaves the room mildly calmed by his destruction. Inner Simultaneous sequence: Serenity: Fed searches Wash/Zoe’s bunk In Wash and Zoe’s bunk, the accustomed chaos that comes with an unsympathetic Alliance search comes to the front: the wardrobe is scattered, and many of Wash’s Hawaiian shirts are trampled or otherwise damaged. Zoe’s vest, too, is thrown out of the wardrobe, but this is one article of clothing lucky enough to survive the carnage that is taking place in their room. As there isn’t much that they decorate their room with, what with Wash all but living on the bridge, and Zoe’s Spartan sensibilities, there isn’t much that they hold a high value on that gets damaged. When the soldier leaves the room, he has learned nothing more than that the occupant has an odd dress sense; he doesn’t even figure that, despite the double bed, there are two people living in here. End inner simultaneous sequence. * * * Simultaneous: Alliance ship: Cell two: Perspective: Mal and Zoe “So they finally caught us on our false registrations, huh Zoe?” Mal was a mite more than uncomfortable in this setting; the Alliance never was friendly to the Independents, even after the war, when they supposedly had power over the entire system and didn’t hold a grudge. But that’s not the way large scale conflicts work:; even wearing the color brown could get one odd looks, and possible accusations of being Independents. Of course, Mal was one, so their guesses weren’t that far off, but it was still tedious to get people to recognize that he was a person, not just the color of his coat. Even though he was still much of the color of his coat. “Yes, sir, it appears so. I guess maybe the fact that they were added to the list as expired last time we had to use them. And it might have something to do with painting a different name on the ship than we have on the papers. Either way, sir.” Zoe’s dry wit was the only thing they had to run with right now, and they still had no idea whether or not these cells were bugged. Common sense said to assume that they were. It was of mutual consent to talk of less important things than they would otherwise. “Yeah,” Mal said sarcastically, “Today’s going well.” He sighed. “What’d I do so wrong? First, a couple of weirdoes show up on my boat ‘n the middle of the black. I didn’t look for this to happen to me, an’ I ain’t got an explanation why they’re here. Then, a freak Alliance patrol in the middle of nowhere, and one that we didn’t know about. Of course, once we had found the patrol, we had to check in, which we can thank the all-mighty Alliance for. This is not the best day ever.” “No, sir, it doesn’t look to be going too well so far,” Zoe replied, with her infuriatingly calm voice. “But there ain’t no Reavers to save the wayward Alliance from this time so we can get away. What’re we gonna do, sir?” “We’re gonna find a way out, Zoe. Don’t have the specifics worked out just yet. But I’m working.” Mal leaned back from the edge of the bunk to put his back against the wall to think, and repeated quietly, as if to convince himself, “I’m working…” * * * Simultaneously: Serenity: Feds searching the bridge (Search part six) The feds reassemble after their searches of the crew’s bunks, and with a nod in the direction of the bridge by the man who’d been in Mal’s bunk to search, they moved up the stairs to the bridge. It was crowded with five people in it, and as such, they weren’t given much range of motion. Two men went down the steps to the fore of the deck, and searched down there, and the leader and the other two men stayed on the main bridge. While his two underlings searched the two consoles, knocking Wash’s plastic dinosaurs all manner of odd places, the leader ponders what he saw in Mal’s bunk: evidence of a (mostly) intelligent man, just trying to get by on his principles in a ‘verse where his kind were reviled for scum. While continuing to think, he realized that he wasn’t searching like the others, and while that was his right, as leader, he needed to do something to keep up the front that he believed in the Alliance. He opened the couple of cabinets, looking inside. To tell the truth, he wasn’t sure why they were searching the old Firefly, because there wasn’t really anything in the warrants about searching, other than a past history of cargo smuggling. If it was a smuggling ship, as the high and mighty Alliance claimed it was, he knew they wouldn’t find anything. Smuggling ships have an odd tendency to hide their hidden cargo well. He wasn’t informed of anything specific to look for, but he knew he would be required to demand reports from the other soldiers, and compile a comprehensive master report to turn into his superiors, the higher-ups on the patrol boat. * * * Simultaneously: Alliance ship: Cell six: Perspective: Book and Wash Shepherd Book sits reading the Bible; something he was allowed to keep because he’s a man of faith. As he sits there taking consolation from his holy book, he considers his situation in more detail. By traveling with this crew, he was putting himself in danger from the Alliance, and it hit him like a ton of bricks right between the eyes: it didn’t bother him that he might end up on the wrong side of the Alliance. Wash is playacting again, but instead of the scale of dinosaurs that he’s accustomed to playing with when he’s at the flight console, these are only about 1.5-2 inches tall, and these are the velociraptor and the triceratops, not his stegosaurus and his tyrannosaurus. He’s mumbling their lines under his breath, so as not to disturb Book’s reading, but the gesticulation of the dinosaurs is only increased to compromise. Raptor: “This land is fallow and useless.” Trike: “That’s because it’s Alliance.” Raptor: “Right. I’d managed to forget.” Trike: “So long as you remember in the end.” Raptor: “AAAAH! IT’S THE END OF AN ERA!” Trike: “What?” Raptor: “It’s a great big mete---!” At the end of this exchange, Wash is making explosion and squishing noises, to signify the end of the dinosaur era, and he puts the dinosaurs back in his Hawaiian shirt’s front pocket. He sighs, and knows that those lines weren’t up to par with his usual, but it … yeah. He was currently being held in a cell, and it wasn’t the first, and who knew when the last would be? Why shouldn’t he have an excuse to be less funny? Book looks up at Wash when he’s done, almost as if he was taking comfort in Wash’s antics, even when they were less amusing as usual, and significantly more telling of the situation than his general playacting scenes. So it’s getting to him, too, Book thinks, pensive, and re-immerses himself into his reading. End of simultaneous sequence