He'd forgotten what day it was until he turned on the Cortex link in the middle of what passed for Serenity's night. Then he remembered.

There was extensive coverage of the parades on all of the Core planets. Ariel, Osiris and all the planets and moons with a local Alliance garrison had parades with the garrison marching at full force. Children lined the parade routes and threw flowers at the soldiers in a friendly barrage and then scrambled for the candy thrown their way.

The coverage from Londinium was stiff and formal. Parliament convened for a short while to formally pass their annual “Resolution of Appreciation to our Veterans” followed by wreath laying ceremonies that honored all veterans of Alliance service.

On Hera, the ceremonies drew tears from the participants. Living veterans, on the Alliance side of course, honored their dead by putting flowers on the graves of the brave Alliance departed. The Independent graves were on the most part barren of decoration.

Mal clicked off the Cortex link. His thoughts drifted to Bendis, Parker, Johnson, Linn, Baker, Chang and others too numerous to mention. He also thought of Book, Mr. Universe and especially Wash and the rest of the crew. They were all veterans now and had the scars, visible and other wise, to prove it.

He roused himself from the melancholy mood, They'd be landing soon. He was sure that there would be an Alliance friendly bar there and he needed to work off some of the pain.