Subject: Grail: "Last Look Back"-`Straight on Until Morning'

<<Stardate: 47307.18- 00:05>>

<<Battle Bridge>>

Epic Terrakian stepped onto the Bridge and nodded his

acknowledgement of Chief Tactical Officer Fionn. Fionn rose from the

Command Chair and extended a Padd to Epic, which he took and immediately

read. Relieved, Fionn exited the Bridge.

All had proceeded as well as could be hoped under the

administration of Commander Corvette Hunt. The Juperterian had

orchestrated the Indianas repairs, as well as rearranged the command

structure to accomodate the loss of their First Officer Marouk and their

Captain, Hillary Singh. Lt. Cara Hatcher would be seeing that ship back

to Bajor for repairs.

On the Main Viewer, the stars streaked by like comets. But, it

wasn't the stars that were streaking by, it was the Grail. But, the

stars were still beautiful.

And the stars made him think of Hillary Singh. Epic would insist

that she retain her title as Captain, although Starfleet would

undoubtedly reduce her rank in retaliation of her decision to leave her

command. In fact, they might reject her commission entirely. But, what

did she care? Hillary Singh would never see the Alpha Quadrant again.

Epic had given her command of Stellar Cartography. That was the

area in which she was most proficient. And, beyond that, it was what she

loved. He hoped it would make her happy. She had thrown away her life

and career for it.

As Epic continued to read reports, he came upon the account of

Captain Jall `Doc' Trellors rescue from a self-destructing Klingon Bird

of Prey. They had been pursued by Romulans and ultimately destroyed.

What they were doing here was a classified matter, but Epic was certain

Trellor would reveal the details once he spoke to him.

Epic entered into the ships log a commendation to be submitted for

Lt. Alison Donucci and Lt. Velaj for their quick thinking and expertise

in the saving of `Doc' Trellors life.

The attached file for Captain Trellor was very interesting reading.

However, Epic was irritated by all the `classified' information. He

supposed it didn't really matter, but too many on this crew had `hidden'

pasts. Still, they were in need of a Counselor now that Lorelei had

resigned her commission to return to Deep Space 9 with the Indiana.

Perhaps Trellor would agree to assume the office. If not, the man had a

long walk back to the Alpha Quad.

After he had caught up on the activities of the entire ship, Epics

eyes wandered to the Bridge crew. Francois DeMontigny was at the Helm,

but for the most part, he ran diagnostics and flirted with Esmerelda

Andrews at Tactical or making every effort to irritate Kahtor at Ops.

Sulak maintained an automatic series of scans at Sciences.

The Gamma Shift was always the most quiet. The ships activity level

was always minimal. And with a sustained warp flight carrying them

through the perpetual night of space, they travelled onward as they

were, straight on until morning.

<<Stardate: 47307.18- 08:15>>

Epic went over the previous ships reports with Commander Corvette

Hunt before the Jupiterian relieved Epic of the Bridge. At 11:00,

command functions would be returned to the Saucer Sections Main Bridge.

Epic would be `off-duty' until 16:00, but the Captain was never really

`off-duty'. Still, a bite to eat, maybe a drink, then some sleep.

Sounded great right about....

"Captain.", Lt. Fionn newly arrived to relieve the Tactical post

called out. "Unauthorised access to the Main Computer. Several low-level

subroutines have been rerouted.....", Fionn fell silent for a second. "A

transmission has been sent. It is encrypted."

Epic looked at Hunt, the big mans eyes squinting in suspicion.

"From where is this unauthorised access being performed?", Epic

asked.

Fionn shook his head. "I don't know. Whoever it is is a genius. I

can't lock onto it. Damn...!", he expostulated. "Transmission has

ended."

Epic tapped his comm-badge. "Terrakian to Lirzinji'kav."

=^=Yes, sir?=^=, the mans reply came with a hint of uncertainty.

"Ensign. Tactical is going to transmit some information to Science

Lab 3. I want you to track the source of the included transmission. If

you could decrypt it, that would be great."

=^=Yes, sir!=^=, came his enthusiastic reply. The man seemed

excited by the challenge.

<<08:54>>

=^=Lirzinji'kav to Captain Terrakian.=^=

"Go ahead, Ensign.", Epic replied.

=^=Sir. The transmission source was our own array, but the commands

came from Deck 5, Room 517. It took a lot of digging and doubling back.

If you hadn't alerted me to it, I would never have looked for it. There

is no record of the transmission in the system. Decoding it could take a

while. It is a fractal encryption code.=^=

"Well done, Ensign.", Epic responded. "Thank you."

=^=Anytime, sir.=^=

"Room 517?", Epic asked Hunt.

"Captain Trellor.", Hunt responded. "Shall I...."

"No, thank you, Commander.", Epic replied with a pinched