Subject: Grail: Last Look Back: Victory favors the Bold

Corvette Hunt was on the remains of the bridge of the USS Indiana. All

remaining corpses had been removed, equipment seized and the situation

was finally under control.

All Indiana's wounded personnel had been transferred to their's and the

Grail's own sickbay facilities. In fact, he was standing alone, on a

deserted bridge. Alongside with the charred panels and walls from both

phaser and disruptor fire. He turned around to watch every detail, of

the confrontation that had taken place here.

"AHHrrgghh!!!! VICTORY!!!!!! " he roared as he remembered the

adrenaline flowing from his body during the battle. He felt like a

ferocious beast, having defeated all it's prey. He had not felt this

good for a long, long time.

"This calls for a celebration!" he yelled as he turned to enter the

empty's captain's ready room.

"Indeed!" a voice came behind him.

He turned around to find Dr. Ramin.

"Oku! My lost partner! How are the horusians doing?"

The Thairian showed himself uneasy, unshaved, uncombed, and unminded. "Only

because I'm with an unslept night and I want to get drunk I won't curse

you." he replied, thinking "(F$%# Horusians!)"

"Hmm. I see." Corvette smuggles a smile. "Well doc, you're timing couldn't

be more perfect."

Oku stood still, but as if he were beaten by a hundred Horusians (in his

mind, he was).

"It's time for the Bliss of Glory!" Corvette says out loud.

Oku looked at Corvette with that look only Thairians can give to you when

they know what they want: PARTY TIME!

Oku smiled. - " Lucky you that I have my antidote shots for your sort of

'toast'." he replied sarcastically.

"Yes, I really mean that, exactly. I hope you have all your medical

equipment with you..." He said as they both entered the vacant captain's

ready room.

"I will have an office this big when I get the Federation's Secretary of

Health!" Oku told Hunt, with his fists in a gesture of " As if I was gonna

get one ". "And I will have a replicator that makes Romulan ale!"

"Please, allow me the honors..."

Corvette then approached the replicator. "Dear computer. On this holy day,

the unholy come before you for your blessing and nourishment. It is you in

who we depend, and doing this, we pledge our loyalty to you, and you only

over the heads of our friends and enemies. For your protection we fight, it

is your knowledge and speed that we crave. Indulge us with this simple

request that we come upon you, for without you, we would never be where we

are all now."

The computer replied with a single bip.

Corvette, in a roaring voice gave his final command to the computer.

"COMPUTER! REPLICATE ONE LITER OF DILUTED MEM-BRIL-LO AS OF Lt. Cmdr.

Corvette Hunt's data pad VICTORY ONE!"

Dr. Ramin then approached the replicator and held the vase in his hands.

Oku gazed at the one-liter glass, full of that sort of acid- er- drink. It

was like a call. Not even a Vulcan could resist the call Ramin felt every

time a strong (and I mean STRONG) beverage was in front of his red eyes.

He approached Corvette, and took the glass off his hands with a gesture of

reverence, like Klingons do when they pee their pants and drool for the

sight of Kahless.

Corvette took off his shirt and fell on his knees. Ramin then proceeded

to pour the contents down Corvette's throat.

Immediately after, the doctor took out a tricorder to monitor the

action of the compound going through Corvette's system. The substance

was making it's due. What it did was reduce the metabolic rate of the

person who drank it to a minimum. Also, all bodily functions began

shutting themselves down, one by one, until only the most basic ones

where left. At this state, the compound starts breaking down into it's

more simpler elements, shutting down even the most essential body

systems.

However, the person remains, subconsciously aware of the process, and

the pain slowly wears off until you are only left with an emptiness of

mind. Glory!

The doctor then proceeded to neutralize the effects of the compound, before

it becomes too late to do anything for the heavywolder.

Then he took his PADD and wrote to Corvette the following note: "Pal. When

you wake up it will be ten minutes after you drank the stuff. You will see

me lying at your side, with two empty glasses beside me. I want you to hold

the hypoinjector with the antidote, which I'll leave in your hand, and then

apply it to me in my left shoulder, for I got the right one injured. Just

press it and the antidote will go away. Do it as soon as you wake up, even

if I got more resistance to this substance than you.

P.D. think about those hepatic enzymes I've told you about, to avoid toxic

effects of any drink. Tell me later.

Oku Ramin, now in the arms of Morpheus."

The good doctor (or kinda nuts, if you like that) left the PADD in Hunt's

loose left hand, and the hypoinjector in his right hand. Then, he gazed at

the replicator, approached it, and pressed the "repeat" button of the

replicator once. The chirrs and whirls made another drink. Oku took the

glass, drunk it in a single movement, then he said "computer, gotta make

another, 200% concentration". The computer made another, and Oku did the

same with this one. A little drop from this latter glass fell and made a

hole in the room's carpet. Then, silence was the domain of the room, after a

slamming noise from Dr. Ramin's body falling inert onto the floor.

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Joint post by:

- Lt. Cmdr. Corvette Hunt