<<OOC: I have yet to find a satisfactory example of how stardates work. So, until I can dope it out, I will continue as I have.>>

<<Stardate: 73716.4// July 16, 2373. 10:01 am>>

=^= Captains Ready Room =^=

Commander Epic Terrakian promptly rose when the Captain entered the meeting room. All others present rose in response to Terrakian. However, with a dismissive wave, Captain Cochran seated everyone.

Cochran was tall. Not exactly staring Corvette Hunt straight in the eye, but still, well over six feet. He was lean and he made the new uniforms look good, even though most would agree, the new uniforms made everyone look like mechanics. His eyes were a piercing blue, but they seemed hooded. Cochran didn't make too much eye contact. It didn't give an impression that he was oblivious to you. Rather, it left you with the impression that he was deliberately ignoring you.

He stood before the head of the table and looked over his right shoulder. A cheerfully smiling blond Admiral stood arrow-straight, her hands clasped behind her back. Cochran smiled mechanically in response, then disregarded her as he did the furniture and the walls.

Cochran finally spoke after unconsciously smoothing his steel gray hair in preparation. It was considered his `characteristic' gesture.

"I am Zebediah Cochran. For the next ten years we are all committed to a mission that will take us away from anything familiar we have ever known. In a few weeks, we will have gone beyond the boundaries of everything our Federation knows."

He stood a little taller.

"This is, despite the doom that has been attached to it, the most ambitious deep space exploration and recovery mission in the history of all of us. Am I angry that I have been `sentenced' to this mission?"

He finally made eye contact with each of them in turn. Some seemed moved by the intensity of his gaze, but Cochran looked at most of them and saw the same thing he saw in the eyes of his First Officer, Terrakian, only three days ago.

Nothing. These were not wide-eyed cadets with a promising future. No. These were mostly hard cases. `Fringe Dwellers', Cochran liked to call them in his head. Residents of the Lunatic Fringe. And the best thing about these hard cases:

They were the best at what they did.

"So...", Cochran broke the silence he imposed with his significant stare. "..Am I angry to be sentenced to this mission?

"Hell, no!

"I am honored to be chosen. There is a bizarre sort of grudging compliment in it for me." And Zeb Cochran let his command presence drop and showed them all his humanity.

"We may have been chosen because we may have less than squeaky clean dossiers. But, of all the people that they could have thrown away, they think we have the best chance of succeeding."

He turned toward the unobtrusive Admiral and looked past her.

"Of course, there is the side of me that resents them for the most basic reasons. They are getting rid of me. But, I am sure that all the Starfleet shrinks have calculated that my indignation will provoke me to even greater efforts at success just to thumb my teeth at them."

Then, he stopped to look at them as individuals again, a malicious smile thinly appearing.

"And they are RIGHT!

"We are going out there and we are going to bring them back

everything they were afraid we'd find. If I have to drag this ship by a

chain, we are coming back here someday."

There was no room for doubt of Cochran's convictions at that moment. And most had to admit... At that moment, they could almost see their triumphant return in his eyes.

"And when we return...", Cochran added with a growing smile. "I am going to thumb my teeth at them."

Epic Terrakian listened to the mans words, but his attention was largely consumed by the blend of ambient emotion in the room.

A sense of proud indignation filled Epics mind. The room was so full of the emotion that he felt himself feeling it, too.

`Damn right.', he thought suddenly. `We'll be back. My promise to you R'Laurent. I may be old and gray, but you have not seen the last of Epic Terrakian.'

Realizing, suddenly, his growing response to the emotions, he quieted them in his mind and purged them from himself. In seconds, he had once again achieved calm, a beneficial consequence of the Vulcan that haunted his mind.

And in the quiet of that moment, he still intended to keep his promise to himself.

He will return to the Alpha Quadrant.

And he looked into the eyes of the Captain he was learning to respect, and agreed.

"`Even if we have to drag this ship by a chain.'", Epic echoed the Captains own words and the two men nodded in silent agreement. In that look and in that nod, they had both pledged their souls to seeing this thing through to the end.

And as Epic looked into the eyes of Zebediah Cochran, he realized that their eyes colors were virtually identical. And Epic had always considered his icy blue eyes to be somewhat unique.

`Why didn't you notice that before?', Epic asked himself. And answered honestly. `Because you never looked at him before.'

And with the suddenness of a heart attack, one of the fundamental truths of Epic Terrakians life became fully realized in his mind. Cochran's eyes had set off a chain reaction of intuitions. And on a basic level of telepathic and telempathic awareness, Epic Terrakian knew, after all these years, the truth.

Zebediah Cochran was his father.

<<Part 2 will follow shortly. At this moment, if there were any others who would like to make a statement in support of Cochran, or simply wish to express your feelings about anything Cochran said, please do so.>>