<div dir="auto"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Mission: The Flames of Purity</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Day: 16  </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Stardate: 2445.09.16</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(USS Exeter  – CSO office – CSO Lt Jg Erin  Cortez – 1302)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">After the shuttle had docked and Ensign More had been taken to medical, Erin had not spoken a word. Simply walked from the shuttle without so much as a backwards glance and headed straight for the science labs. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">She knew that she wasn’t looking her best, covered in dirt and dust from the planet. Her jaw had been clenched since the confrontation with Doctor Vespers and it hadn’t eased up. She knew that she had a look of hardness about her and she didn’t care. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">As she entered the lab that held her office, she was thankful to see that her staff had had the foresight to disappear to the satellite labs that were on this deck. As the door to the lab closed behind her, she felt her shoulders relax slightly. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Taking a second to just close her eyes, she could feel the weight and the enormity of what had happened begin to bubble and boil within her. Her breath caught in her throat as she opened her eyes and realised that a tear was forming. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Wiping her eyes, she walked the short distance to her office, closed the door and locked it behind her. As she leant against the closed door, she closed her eyes and just took a deep breath.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The strange thing for her was that she knew that the adrenaline of the mission and the shock of seeing her crew mates, her two best friends and the others injured, close to death, was something that she would probably never get used to.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">She wasn’t sure when, but as she opened her eyes, she found herself sitting on the floor with her knees up to her chest. It was in that one moment she realised what had been bothering her about the confrontation in the shuttle. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">As she closed her eyes again, she saw the flashes of memories, images of a time that had been the worst moment of her life. She saw him. Both of the two men that had brought so much darkness to her life and her mind and knew why she was shaking.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The two people that she counted on, depended on for her support, the two that she could be totally open and honest with, they were beaten down, injured. The almost loss of her two rocks had hit her hard, harder than she had realised.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Shaking, she pulled off her uniform top and threw it to one side, wiping her eyes and resting her head in her hands for a moment. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">~You need to get up off this floor, wipe off the dust and dirt and take a breath. </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";color:rgb(34,34,34);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> I know that I can survive, I would walk through fire to save them. And I need them, I want them in my life so bad and I'm doing everything I can. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";color:rgb(34,34,34);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I need to do something. I can’t break like this every time something like this happens. It’s not right. I think i did okay on the surface. But now, here i am, hiding away. Get up off the floor, go take a shower, change your uniform, put your game face on and do what you do best.~</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";color:rgb(34,34,34);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Reply none)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"times new roman";color:rgb(34,34,34);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Posted by Jackie)</span></p></div>