<<Stardate: 47307.17- 08:54>>

<<USS Grail: Battle Bridge>>

Commander Epic Terrakian turned at the sound of the turbolift as the returning Commander Janice Hargen practically staggered onto the Bridge. She looked exhausted and... Epics expression became concerned. She looked... sad. There was inquisition in his gaze, but she was either too tired or too self-absorbed to notice.

"The Marines have transported back, Commander.", Cara Hatcher reported. "Mission accomplished!" The jubilation in her voice became stilled as she looked up at the viewer.

"Look!", Alison Donucci gasped as she, too, looked at the main viewer. All eyes stared straight ahead.

The Romulan Warbird was destroying itself. Its engines were powered by an artificially generated quantum singularity. A quantum singularity was, in essence, a black hole. Somehow, the Marines, or Kestra Prynne, had managed to destroy the Warbirds engine containment. The resultant implosion destroyed the Romulan ship completely, consuming it in its own awesome power. In seconds, there was not a shred of visible evidence that the Warbird had been there at all.

Epic felt the resultant wave of elation that started from his Bridge, then rippled outward as personnel on all decks were made aware by remote report. Epic grinned savagely as he tapped his commbadge. "To all Starfleet personnel. Victory is ours!" He let that settle in for only a second, before he ordered. "Away teams report."

=^= Indiana Bridge secured. =^=, Corvette Hunt reported.

=^=Indiana Engineering secured, Commander.", Eve Mallory responded. "There are still Romulans on the ship. We will deal with them imminently." Epic thought that there was something... missing.. from Eve Mallory's voice, but he shook his premonitions away.

=^=Runabouts returning to Main Shuttlebay. The Thames will require a tow. =^=, Epic smiled at Kaje's report. In his mind, he had begun thinking of her as Kaje. She had never officially granted him permission to do so, but, waiting for permission was never Epic Terrakians strong suit. Thoughts of R'Laurent momentarily intruded, but he shut them out. The same way she had shut him out.

"The saucer is not responding, Commander.", Prexis, the Vulcan atSciences reported. "I am reading a small number of Romulans still activeon the Bridge."

"Brinn report!", Epic commanded. "Brinn report!"

Then, he tuned to Janice Hargen. "Commander, can you take control

of the saucer remotely and link us up?"

Janice sagged, but nodded. "I'll get on it." Epic offered her a sympathetic grimace. He hadn't realize how badly he had taxed her in this conflict. He had taken her inexhaustible nature for granted. Only to discover, she was not inexhaustible. He would have to make that up to her. Somehow.

"Hatcher. Lower shields.", Epic ordered. He tapped his comm-badge. "And hail the Indiana. I want to talk to her captain."

<<USS Indiana- Bridge>>

"Captain. We are being hailed by the Grail.", Terrence Germaine at the Comm called out.

Captain Hillary Singh sat in her command chair, almost unable to respond. It had all been too much. Marouk still lay dead only a few meters away, the Federation flag draped over him. Ensign Depardue lay next to him, her clawed hand jutting from beneath another Federation banner.

And the Grails Operations Chief, Commander Corvette Hunt, dragging Romulan bodies and dumping them onto her turbolift. It was him. It was that man that she feared the most. She never once looked at him, even after he had saved her life.

"Open the channel.", she barely whispered.

Suddenly, an image of a dark Bridge filled her viewer. The darkness from the screen seemed to sap away the bright light of her own Bridge. And standing in the center of the image was a tall and strong looking man, not even resembling the adolescent musician that she had cried for on Risa so long ago.

He took a step closer to her on the viewer. His cold eyes, like blue ice, held her riveted. She could not speak.

"Captain Singh.", he declared. "It is with relieved pleasure that I am seeing you again."

She just stared at him. `Again'? Of course, she remembered him. He had been incidentally instrumental [the pun in her mind almost made her burst into hysterical laughter] in helping her recover from a failed relationship. But, how would he remember her? An old woman who barely resembled the maturing beauty she had been so.....

"Perhaps you do not remember me.", Terrakian spoke to break her slow silence. "I played my violin for you once on Risa. It was long ago. I am sure it couldn't have had the same affect on you as it did on...."

"I remember you, Epic Terrakian.", she said with soft awe.

Epic smiled briefly. Then said, "The threat to your ship is almost neutralized. However, in the interests of security and your preservation, I would like permission to transport you to this ship until the last of the Romulans have been dealt with."

Hillary Singh stood slowly. She didn't think it appropriate for a captain to leave her ship in the midst of conflict, but the Betazoid who looked at her seemed impossible to deny. She didn't want to deny him. She wanted to look into those cold eyes, face to face.

"Permission granted.", she said, but in her mind, she recalled the written words of Brahm Stoker speaking to her across five centuries.

`Enter freely, and of your own will.'

"Velaj. Execute that order.", Terrakian commanded, and Captain Hillary Singh disintegrated.