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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