<<Stardate 73714.6>>

<<Captains Ready Room>>

Epic Terrakian sat reviewing the Interview Summaries that he had already submitted to Captain Cochran. He was not certain if the man had read them yet. He had not been summoned, as he was sure he would be. After acknowledging his own efforts with a satisfied nod, he gathered up his PADD and prepared to tour the ship. Before he could leave, Lt. Comm. R'Laurent entered.

She was out of uniform, Epic noticed immediately. Instead, she was wearing the clothing customary to her Klingon heritage. She was beautiful in her regalia, but her eyes were hard yet elusive. Epic stood silently while she girded herself to speak.

"I made sure to tender my resignation to Starfleet and the Captain before coming to see you.", she said, finally looking at him. His heart froze.

"My uncle, on Quo'nos, has offered me a command aboard a Bird of Prey for the Empire. I have accepted."

Epic could say nothing. He was suffocating. He wanted to scream, but he sensed her turmoil and anguish and could say nothing. His shocked silence was the best he could do to keep from howling.

R'Laurent shifted from foot to foot in discomfort of his silence. Epic always had something to say. Something painfully accurate. But, not this time. This time he felt her conviction. This time, he knew she spoke from her heart.

"Epic, I need to confess something to you before I go."

Epic shook his head to clear it of his growing rage. Tears threatened, but he forced them down into the pit of his chest. He turned away from her.

"Epic. When we were together aboard the Nova, I fell in love with you. You were all the things I had hoped for in a mate. Strength. Honor. Control. Passion."

She sounded as if she might be crying, but Epic refused to turn. "But, something happened. Something happened when I took a part of your soul."

Epic stiffened, with perhaps an inkling of what was to come next.

"When I accomplished the mind meld, I took from you some of the hate and rage and spite that you felt toward yourself. I did it to lessen your burden. To help you live with yourself after you sacrificed your new-found salvation for the sake of Arda Kaje's child."

She was crying, but her voice remained steady and strong.

"But, Epic.... When I took these things from you and made them a part of myself, something changed within my heart. Suddenly, all the self-loathing you possessed, all your guilt about your past deeds, suddenly, I felt them, too. Suddenly, I hated you. I loathed you. I condemned you, in my heart, for all your heinous acts."

Epic turned to face her and he knew she spoke true. He looked into her tear-sparkled eyes and realized that she saw him through his own self-hate. "In a few moments, I went from loving you with all my heart, to hating you with all YOUR heart."

She looked as if she might move closer to him, but he put up a strong hand in negation. He choked back all his grief and swallowed it. Hard. She wept silently.

"I loved you, Epic.", she sobbed brokenly as she turned away. "But, now, I can't stand the sight of you. And it's breaking my heart."

She stopped just before the doors.

"I loved you.", she stated with plain and simple truth. "But, I have to go."

And, so, she did.

Epic watched her leave and said nothing. There was nothing he could say. He felt her love and her hate as she confessed it. His heart begged to break, but he refused it. The tears that struggled to flow, he quelled. The desire to pound his chest and scream in primal rage and pain, he subdued beneath a facade of cold dispassion.

Two decks away, Kaede Kaje screamed and cried with all the miserable agony an infant could express in sympathetic pain for the soul of her father.

And Arda Kaje patted and rocked and hugged the little girl, sobbing, also sympathetically, for the sudden torture the until-then placid baby released in a heart-breaking squall.

<<I regret to announce that, due to overwhelming pressures, Shannon/R'Laurent will be unable to continue with the SIM for a considerable length of time. I hope that she will someday return, but she has requested the removal of her character for the duration. I will consider how this affects the Science Department, and the command structure, and

report my decisions as they are made.>>

<<And, also, I encourage you all to explore your characters in a more deeply personal way, touching on your pasts and all the hopes and fears you might possess. As I have said before, I want to know all your characters more intimately. How else will I be able to adequately screw with your minds. I am not a `hands off' GM. I am going to do my best to bring out the best in all of you.

<<After all of you submit, at least, one other post detailing your characters personalities, I will launch the Grail, and the second chapter, which will be titled `Thank Q'. [And if that doesn't give you a clue as to what sort of craziness is coming, nothing will.]

<< I look forward to reading more. I will certainly be writing more. Look out for prompts for your individual characters, and I encourage you to interact beyond my control. - Thank you.