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."