Disclaimer: Joss, Fox, Universal Own em’. I’m just playing. No money being made. The situations come from my own twisted mind as do my original characters.

-

-

AN: Next chapter. The start of the trip to Earth that was.

-

Quest-Chapter Eight

-

It took just six weeks. Six weeks of testimony behind closed doors, deals laid and finally the public trial of the twelve conspirators tried for high treason against the Alliance.

The evidence was damning. The four highest ranked flag officers from both branches of the service, the minister of defense and several lower ranking officers all plead guilty.

They knew what would happen if they didn't capitulate. Despite the reforms over the years, the Alliance was still the Alliance and sometimes, families were not above being arrested for something a husband or wife did.

The two lowest ranking officers were sentenced to life without parole. The Minister of Defense was sentenced to death along with his senior collaborators. The military officers were offered the option of a firring squad or hanging. The sole civilian being the coward he was, when offered the same instead requested lethal injection.

The ringleader had mysteriously disappeared. Admiral Rosales was nowhere to be found. Rumors abounded that he had cut a deal to escape prosecution for the planned coup. Giving up his compatriots.

He had given them up but in a way not admissible even in the rather kangaroo court proceedings held. And the crew of Serenity/Tranquility and Quest knew that Admiral Rosales would never bother anyone again.

A week after the trials the Admiral's hover car was found washed up on the shoreline near New London.

It appeared to the public that the late Admiral had committed suicide by crashing into the sea.

In fact, after reentering Londinium's atmosphere, it was theoretically possible that a few atoms of the Admiral's body might have made it into the ocean.

But that was a stretch.

During the second week of the trial, Mal, Inara, Kaylee, Simon, R