Subject: Grail: Great Brightness: The Difference (Terrakian/ Brinn)

"Brinn to sickbay!" Athalya Anne shouted, "Medical transport." She

riped off her commbadge and thrust it into Thalissa's hand. "Lock on to

my signal and beam to the 'contamianted' wing on my mark." She paused

to let the orders sink in. "Mark." In a shimmering blue light,

Thalissa was gone. Athalya Anne stood from where she knelt and ran

after Terrakian, anger very nearly blinding her.

"Captain Terrakian." He turned and looked at her. Epic didn't need his

empathic powers to see her the anger.

"You..." Athalya Anne hissed at Epic as she strode towards him, "What

the fucking hell gave you the goddanmed right to DO that? Don't you be

giving me this bull shit about how she, or rather, her people, did that

to us and how that makes it okay." She was now standing toe to toe with

him, "You fucking sonofabitch!" Athalya Anne shouted, poking her finger

into his chest to punctuate every word, "She fucking cooperated with you

and you fucking shot her in the fucking leg! Fire, you load of crap!

She don't have no where else to go! Sooner or later, she woulda gotten

it to! That was totaly uncalled for! She fucking cooperated with you,

you sonofabitch!" Athalya Anne paused, to catch her breath and give

Terrakian a chance to explain himself. All she knew was that it better

be good, because if it wasn't she just might jump him.

Epic just looked at the woman who stood fuming and cursing and

poking his chest. If she would have allowed her emotions to escape her

impenetrable shields, he might have felt it too. But she didn't and he

didn't.

His voice was even and calm when he replyed. "Your anger is

unjustified, Major. And poorly placed. The only reason why she is in

Sickbay with a wounded leg and you are not a smear of molecules across

this star cluster is because her ship and crew were not as thorough and

accomplished as ours.

"By her own admission, her sole reason for being here was to murder

us for protecting our people on the Indiana from a ridiculous political

strike that would have caused more Federation deaths had they succeeded.

Is that fact escaping you, Major? She was going to AMBUSH and MURDER us

for protecting innocent Scientists."

Epic took a step back, away from her.

"So, what I did was unnecessary and spiteful. So what? Did every

body bag you've ever filled deserve what they got? Did Jeremy Dunston

deserve to die of a designer plague at the age of 10 because his parents

would rather have him by their side on a suicide mission, instead of

leaving him safe on Earth?

"You know Jeremy Dunston, don't you? He was the little boy you

waved like a flag under the Romulans nose only a few minutes ago. He

wanted to be a pilot. He started cutting his hair like DeMontigny

because he admired the mans swagger. He sat next to T'Nara, a young

Vulcan girl, in his daily classes. He wrote her name in a heart on the

sleeve of his imitation Starfleet uniform jacket. The same jacket he'll

be buried in space in tomorrow."

Epic turned his back on Brinn and looked up at the rumbling clouds.

Rain began to fall in his face and he welcomed it. It allowed his tears

to fall without shame.

"That Romulan murderess will live, Athayla. Dr. Ramius will fix her

good as new and she will live to continue to try to fulfill her revenge

against us.

"I could have killed her in cold blood. It would have been easy.

And the only one who would really have suffered for it in the end would

have been me. Because I am not a cold-blooded killer. I am not YOU,

Major.

"But for all your glorious battles and wars, for all those who have

died by your hands, for all those who have died in collateral incidence

of your Marine-bred battle-lusts, you will berate me, YET AGAIN, for

inflicting a superficial wound on an enemy that would have shot us in

the back if Fate had been kinder to her?

"Remember whose side you are on, Major. I know it is not my side.

You have not supported a single damned thing I've done since we met. You

have never offered me useful alternatives. You have never offered me

advice. You have offered me nothing but your hate and your ire since I

asked you to join me. And now, you want to call me impotent and childish

names because I shot a murderer in the leg?"

He straightened his shoulders but did not turn to face her. "So,

now Major, I order you to unclench your fists and see to the essential

functions of this ship. Let me worry about the disposition of our dead

and the survival of those that are left."

Then, he turned to face her, his hair matted with rain and his face

dripping. "I had really high hopes that your successes and experiences

could have helped me to be a better Captain to these people. That was

why I chose you. Instead, you chose to glut yourself on your personal

power, your battle prowess, and your selfish lusts. Of course, it means

nothing from a `mother-fucking, wet behind the ears, cock-sucking, piece

of shit son of a bitch' like me....

"But I am broken-hearted over the loss of the great team we might

have been.

"You are dismissed, Major."

And Epic turned away again, allowing the rain to wash away his

tears. A part of his mind that he rarely paid much attention to prayed

to the Four Deities that Brinn would just kill him.

Athalya Anne made no move to walk away. "No, Captain. I am not

dismissed." Athalya Anne said quietly. "You want my advice? Fine.

Take it. Stop being a meglomaniac. You do have a crew to think about.

How do they think they'll feel if they know that their captain shot an

unarmed woman who made no moves against him? Yes. She probaly is

responcible for the plague. But do we KNOW that? Beyond a shadow of a

doubt? No. We do not. I hate to remind you of this, but in the

Federation, you are innocent until proven guilty. We have only her word

and that is not enough to prosecute her. You took the law into your own

hands. You were the judge, the jury and the executioner. You had no

right. You do not know that she is responcible." She paused, "In

shooting her, you have taken the law into your own hands. You have lost

your position as captain and have become a dictator. You are making us

follow a set of rules that do not apply to you.

"Don't lecture me about not playing by team rules, young man. You

have no consept of 'team'. You destroyed whatever 'team' there might

be. I am not, by nature, a team player. Nor are you. You never wanted

us to be a 'team'. If you truly wanted us to be a 'team' you would have

knocked off that meglomanical b.s. and made yourself easisier to work

with. I'm not an orgess, contrary to what you believe. If you show me

some respect, oh, and while I'm on the subject, it would be nice to know

if you're going to tell the senior staff to send the PD to hell, I will

do likewise." She took a deep breath and, as is consistant with her

personality, Athalya Anne took off her lieutenant majors pips, walked

over to Epic and pressed them into his psalm. "Until you're ready to

accept me as your XO and as your teammate, until you're ready to respect

the laws of the Federation, until you're ready to give me more than this

cheezy little respect you keep insisting you have for me, I resign my

rank and comission." Athalya Anne then acted on her dismissal and

stumbled out of the holodeck without a look back.

Cpt Epic Terrakian and LMaj Athalya Anne Brinn