Subject: Re: Grail: "The Council of Despair"
After arriving with Jheri Ryes a few minutes before the rest of the
crew began to arrive, Jarel was determined to take the Bajoran's parting
words to heart. She had stressed the fact that to the majority of the crew
he was still just a would-be saboteur who got off lucky due to the fact
that the Capt. had a weak spot for hard luck cases. With that being the
case, the less he drew attention to himself the better. It had felt odd to
redon the uniform he had worn with so much pride just a few years ago, but
it was a necessary evil and if it was the biggest on that he had to
overcome than Jarel would even relearn the art oft spit shining his boots
like he had been forced to do in the Academy.
Looking around at the slowly filling room, Jarel was surrounded by a
group of men and women that he had no idea as to who they were. The only
people that Jarel had any prolonged contact with outside of the periodic
chats that he and Norden had shared during the isolation of the GQ was Eve
Mallory. They had spoken briefly as Eve outlined her ideas for the
reviving of Angeline, but much to her disappointment, in his mind at
least, he had not vocalized his opinions much during that outing. It
wasn't that he was uninterested in her plans, but as desperate as he was
to get to her side, he would have agreed to try to send smoke signals if
it would have had a snowball's shot in Hell in working in her revival. He
felt that he had probably had stepped off on the wrong foot with her
already, but he hoped that after the meeting was over they could speak
more.
Soon the room was filled with the crew of the ship and as the meeting
was about to begin a cook's assistant came stumbling into the room. Jarel
could not repress the grin that managed to break free and was relieved
that the tense atmosphere had been momentarily lifted. The relief was
short lived though.
Within moments, the ambassador from the Torillion Empire began his
tale on the shattered world of Kerestia. As he spoke of the wide spread of
the virus on the ship, Jarel released a mental sigh of relief that he had
managed to avoid getting the virus. It was probably the one bright spot of
being inside of the brig. Turning his attention back to the speaker he
could not believe the condition of the planet, but at the same time he was
already thinking of the ways to help the crew and the people on Kerestia.
In the back of his mind a stray memory about a terrafarmer who had revived
a dead sun as his crowning achievement came to thought, but he pushed
those thoughts back until he could research them more later.
"Kerestia needs you, good people. And you need Kerestia. What say
you."
Without realizing he had spoken it aloud, Jarel's words escaped his
lips.. "Forgive me Angel, but before I can save you, I have to aid in
saving those who would aid me."