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