<Stardate: 47307.16- 17:45- 10-Forward Lounge>

Logan Castle breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the Lounge. It had been a hell of a day and he needed a drink more than he needed a woman. He wouldn't have even thought that possible yesterday. Well, drink now, woman later. He didn't have to meet Eve until 19:00. Just enough time to tie a little one on with the Sarge and still have time for a sonic. Perfect.

Someone was already sitting at `his' table, but he decided not to make an issue of it this time. Besides, it was a pair of Marines, and he always cut the jarheads slack out of respect. Also, they probably wouldn't give it up without a fight. And Castle was just too damned tired to wrestle with the mooks right now.

He saw `Jeb' Kirby already sitting at the bar. Castle walked up behind him and slapped the mans back in a gesture of camaraderie and called to the bartender. "Give me a Pangalactic Gargleblaster and another Sloe Gin Fizz for my girlfriend, here." Kirby laughed. Castle bumped the mans shoulder good naturedly. "Hey, Sarge."

"I told you, I'm not a Sergeant anymore. I'm.."

"Yeah, yeah. You're a Chief Warrant Officer.", Castle said with his nose in the air. "But, you'll always be `Sarge' to me."

"And you'll always be `Maggot' to me, you puke.", Kirby laughed. They clinked glasses and drank. Kirby spit out the sweet drink and called to the bartender. "He was only kidding about the Sloe Gin, funny guy!"

After a few drinks went down:

"So, what are you doing in that Girl Scout uniform?", Kirby asked with a sharks grin.

"I can't tell you.", Castle said, then whispered like a comic spy. "It's `classified'."

Kirby pushed him away with his shoulders. "The Corp classifies everything. This way they have twenty years to come up with a good lie for Starfleet. C'mon. It's me."

Castle settled back into his chair, nodding. Of course he would tell Kirby. A few more drinks and he'd tell the replicator.

"I was sent to Deneb IV to upset the local government and set up a puppet for the Feds. The whole Op went down as slick as goose shit. I got an `inside-her' to vouch for me." Kirby laughed at the reference. It sounded like Castle said `insider' to the casual listener, but Kirby knew the talk. Castle got some floozy to spill her guts for a `tickle'. "But, things got messy. The Denebians were expecting autonomy at the end of it. They had been under an Iron Thumb for two hundred years. After spending two years with them, fighting their fight and seeing what they went through, it became my fight. But, we won it." Castle raised his glass in tribute to the final battle. Kirby raised his and drank with him.

"Still doesn't tell me what got you here."

Castle took a deep breath, held it, let it out, and shook his head. "After it was over, the Feds knew the rebel leaders wouldn't accept a Federation Ambassador as sovereign, so a hit was put out on them. All they needed to know were the rebel leaders names." Kirby nodded, understanding, finally, why Castle was dishonorably discharged. "You never learned, Maggot. If you gave up those rebels, you'd still be wearing green. And if you gave up all those losers in your platoon, I wouldn't have had to kick your ass so many times."

"I ain't a snitch, Sarge.", Castle explained tiredly.

"I know, kid. I know."

Logan and Kirby both drank deeply, then Logan turned to his old DI. "What have you been doing while I've been off making a name for myself?"

Kirby chuckled and ran a hand over his balding head. "Not enough, if you ask me. I did some instructing, I've done a couple of shipboard tours. Really boring shit. The only good thing came several years ago."

"And what was that?"

"After I made Warrant Officer, I got shipped off with an ambassadorial detail."

"Where? Or is it a secret?" said Castle, pitching his voice to a whisper for the last part.

"The Klingon Homeworld."

"Did you have fun?"

Kirby started laughing. "You might say that, Maggot. It's where I earned my fourth Purple Heart!"

Castle started laughing, which made Kirby laugh harder, and pretty soon both men were gasping for breath. "Yeah!", continued Kirby. "This Klingon woman gets her feathers ruffled because of something that one of my little babies said, so she comes up to me, since I'm the senior non-com, right? She comes up to me and says 'Your troops have no honor, and I wish to challenge this corporal to a duel for honor.' I told her, 'Listen, anything that MY men do, I am also responsible for.' She says, 'fine'. Then she decks me!"

"No way," said Castle, the alcohol heavy on his voice.

"So I turned my head back to her. She glared at me and said 'You human males do not strike females, do you?' I looked at her and said 'I've been divorced three times. I might be convinced to kill you just because you ARE a woman.'"

At this point, the bartender came up and brought fresh drinks to the both of them. Logan took a drink of his and looked back to Kirby. "Then what?"

"Well, the Major that was head of our detail came back just as we were about to tangle. He nodded to me once, and then me and that woman proceeded to tear the hell out of the mess hall we were in. Before too long, she pulled out that knife and stuck me twice in the gut before I could get it away from her. But I won the fight."

"Of course you did, Sarge. Of course you did." Logan and Jeb sat in silence for a while. "How did you get this duty, Sarge?"

Jeb looked at Logan with his cold, gray eyes. They had lost their spark that they had when he had been telling his story. "An accident."

"Accident? You told us once that there wasn't such a thing as accidents. Just a case of the stupids."

"I know. 'Accident' is the official term that the Corp put on it."

"C'mon Sarge, it's me. It's Maggot. What went on?"

"After I made Chief, two years ago, I got put in charge of the range at Annapolis."

"That's great! You always bitched about how that place was run."

"One day, during the simulated battlefield exercise, one of the new assault rifles blew up in a cadet's face. He was the son of a Vice Admiral in 'Fleet Operations. Since I was the range monitor that day, the blame fell on my shoulders."

"What was the cause of the explosion?"

"Each recruit was given a rifle, but it was disassembled. The exercise tested coolness under fire, technical knowledge, weapons handling, and marksmanship. This hotshot private put his damn rifle together wrong. He popped up over the embankment, fired off a triple

pulse, and the thing exploded. From what we recovered, he had inserted the transfer coil wrong. It overheated." Kirby took another drink, and ran his hand over his head again. "They were going to make me retire. At least the Corp sheltered me from a general court-martial for negligence. Later I found out that the damned Girl Scouts had put the charge on my record, even though no trial ever took place. That, combined with the dismissed insubordination charge a few years back, sank my career. I was offered two choices. Retire, or go to what might be a one-way ticket to Hell." Kirby looked at Logan. "It's pretty obvious which option I chose."

All Castle could do was nod. Both men sat for a while and finished the drink they were on. Kirby scooted off the stool and stood to leave. Castle stood up with him.

"One more thing, Maggot," said Jeb, leaning close to Castle. "My buddy in the Quartermaster's office got me four bottles of very fine tequila. You pick a night, and bring a bag of lemons. We'll do Snakebites until one of us passes out." With that, Kirby saluted.

Logan returned the salute with a grin on his face. "A damn fine idea," said Castle as he lowered the salute. "Chief," he finished.

Kirby flashed a quick grin and left the room, glancing sideways at the two Marines who were at Castle's table. As Kirby reached the doors, both men got up and followed him out of 10-Forward.

Lt. Logan Castle

Chief Security Officer, USS Grail

--AND. . .

CWO2 Jeb Kirby

Just Another Leatherneck, USS Grail