Author's Note: I have to admit that I hesitated to post this chapter. Reader discretion is advised as there's some rather mature content. I tried my best not to word any part of it too graphically, while still reflecting the development in the characters. I sincerely hope it works for you. If not, please come back for the subsequent chapters - I promise I won't do this sort of thing too often. :)

The bottle of Andorian ale was just about empty. Tw'eak had equally exhausted most avenues of polite conversation with Leo, but at the same time, she was enjoying the companionship too much to think beyond the confines of the room. The warm, fuzzy feeling she always got from Andorian ale was starting to take up residence throughout her midsection, and she felt like someone had lit a fire in the frosted caverns of her Andorian heart. She chuckled to herself at the thought of the metaphor she had concocted, and in so doing, nearly dropped her glass.

"Careful now," Leo said as he noticed her hands. "That's pretty much the last full glass I can get."

"I thought you said there were other bottles."

"Yeah, but you know this stuff... once you open one, there's no real point in closing it unfinished."

Tw'eak wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist. "Yeah, it's never as good the next day, is it."

"It's the bubbles, I think." Leo shrugged. "I don't know. I'm no scientist."

Pondering for a moment, Tw'eak then asked. "That ever bother you at all?"

"What?"

"Not being a scientist. I've had this creeping feeling for months now, like we're not really doing what Starfleet is supposed to be doing."

Leo's expression hardened somewhat. "Tell me about it."

"I mean, we have unlimited resources, right? Potentially. We could replicate whatever we needed in order to continue that original mission, the one we used to have, remember it? Seek out new life and new civilizations... but no. Instead, they send people like us into the galaxy's dirty little corners to fight it out with the vermin. Nobody's exploring anything there, just meeting new people, and killing them." Tw'eak nodded her head. "Always, before they kill you."

"I'm -I was a Marine, Tw'eak. What you're describing... that was my 'original mission'. That was all I ever trained to do."

"Killing?"

"Yeah -but we never called it that. There was always another word in the way. Euphemisms. Defensive tactical formations. Liberation exercises. Strategic encounters. Winning hearts and minds. My family, we've... we've been active military for over thirty generations now - going all the way back from New France to old France, as my grandfather used to tell it. It's always been like this for us."

"Military history an interest of yours?"

"Family history. And it never changes. Territory squabbles, eugenics wars, vendettas, reprisals - even no reason at all, just fight for fighting's sakes. Nobody ever wins those fights. Somebody's stronger than someone else, and the other guy loses. That's all there ever is."

"But the Federation never fights wars of conquest. It's the one thing we don't do - I don't think we'd know how."

"Oh, we know how, all right. I was at the sharp end of that spear for ten years. Laurentian, Otha, Nukara, various little planets across the Pi Canis block I'd never even heard of... it's always the same. We conquer the territory, by force, and then try to... to what?" Leo leaned against his elbows. "Whatever it is, it doesn't matter - KDF, Borg, Tholians... they want it, and we negotiate. They fight, and we send diplomats first and ask questions later."

"I've been to Nukara, a couple of those other places, too. It's no place for a diplomat. Unless they're armed."

"Exactly. The only diplomat those people understand is a loaded phaser rifle. You know it. I know it. Even the admiralty know it. But we've got to put on the right kind of show for the Federation News Service." Leo shook his head and looked down. "It's part of the reason I left."

"You said before you had no one left."

"That's right. Two brothers, my mother... My father, like yours -ah, you know what I mean."

"Yeah."

"He was a Marine. He didn't last, though. Got his on some planet, defending against a Breen assault. Seems insulting to be killed by someone whose face you can't even see."

"Not much different fighting Borg. Even if you do see their face, the face doesn't matter." Tw'eak downed the remainder of her drink. "Or Undine - at least... I've fought Undine. You fought Undine?"

"Just the once - at range."

"I fought one hand-to-ha... hand." Tw'eak giggled and swayed slightly, then brushed hair from her eyes. "It was trying to replace me. I couldn't get its face - becoming my face - out of my head for months. The sight of this ugly one-eyed thing becoming me... I'll never forget that."

"I get you." Leo reached for the bottle, and as he did, Tw'eak could see a tattoo across the inside of his wrist.

"Hey, what's that?"

"What's what?"

Tw'eak snatched his wrist and, after a brief struggle that led to the bottle and one of the drinking glasses hitting the floor beside them, both shattering with a loud noise, she peeled back the cuff to reveal a girl's name. "Talitha Kerrigan - hey, I thought you said you hadn't left anyone behind!"

Leo recoiled, finally removing his wrist from Tw'eak's grasp. "Didn't think that could be easily read upside-down."

"Just one of many skills I have... so who is she?"

"She's nobody."

"Nah, c'mon, tell me. She must be important if she's on your wrist like that."

Leo nodded vigourously. "Yeah, I'm the only one she mattered to. Nobody else cared - not my CO, not the Marines, and certainly not the friggin' Federation of Planets."

It seemed clear to Tw'eak that Leo was having a hard time keeping his emotions contained. She waited a moment and then asked, "I'd like to know who she is."

Leo looked down at the floor, then back up at Tw'eak. "I usually only tell this story with a drink in my hand."

"That a common thing for you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"The drink, I mean. It's just a question - not like I'm going to write you up."

Leo visibly snarled at Tw'eak. "I can do this without it, if that's what you're hinting at."

"No hinting. I'm just trying to get to know you. Trying to get to know... Talitha. That's a very pretty name."

Leo's eyes narrowed. "Bolair III. You ever been to Bolair III?"

"Never even heard of Bolair III."

"That's good. Don't go there. It's a graveyard now. But at the start of the war, some doormat on the Federation Council authorized a colony there. It's about five light-years from the Klingon border. I guess they figured our claim would look better if we had a colony there. And every now and then they'd send out a news crew. Bolair III! Model colony! No tensions here!"

"Were you still serving with my thavan at that point?"

"No, I'd been moved to another unit by then." Leo sat back, his eyes taking on a thousand-yard stare. Tw'eak had seen that stare in her thavan's eyes so many times, a sign that while Leo's present was going on all around him, in his mind, his reality was a planet light-years away, years ago. "We came in on... the Peleilu, that was it. Full regiment in runabout drops. My company, our landing point was on the outskirts. There was a school, and a big arboretum, and little farm houses... all destroyed. The Klingons had moved in, with the Orions and the Nausicaans right behind them. Once the colony surrendered, the KDF looked the other way while everyone in that colony was rounded up for slaves." Leo swallowed hard, the anger in his voice as sharp as a nanopulse-edged blade. "Once the starships above us had neutralized the slave ships or put them to flight. We dropped from the Peleilu in runabouts, came down into the colony... they had transport inhibitors in place, guess they figured these slaves were only coming with them."

"That's their usual mode of operation." Tw'eak had seen a slaver operation, albeit from the relative distance of the Repulse's bridge, during her service in a colony rescue operation. She wondered if that colony might have been Bolair III, and hoped she remembered to check her logs when she got back to Warspite.

"Well, we came down, and we came down hard. We worked our way from farm house to farm house - the Nausicaans had fortified what was left of each, you see, making us work for it. There were defense batteries taking down the runabouts, or trying to, as we came down... we lost a lot of good people. Our pilot was amazing, I swear he was dodging disruptor bolts at will, but when we got down, we formed up and we were pissed. Company by company, leap-frogging, working our way through, engineer sections - deploy mortars, specialist sections - fire at will..." Leo's eyes had taken on a glazed, empty expression, but they hardened for a moment. "And that was when we found her. They had left her -she must have been hiding, because they had stripped her down and I don't know what they were doing to her, but she had burns all over her, some from weapons fire, others... I don't know from what." His eyes narrowed, and he broke out of it, looking up at Tw'eak. "I only found out her name afterward. The doc on the Peleilu told me, they had her records on file from among the colony's children."

"Uzaveh's name," Tw'eak muttered. "She was a child?"

"Six." Leo's head shook, his eyes welling with tears. "Six years old. I ordered a medevac right away, they got her back to the ship. She'd still be a slave now if we hadn't shown up. As it was we only succeeded in delaying them. A whole swarm of Orions came into the system six hours after we landed, and we had to clear out. There were seven hundred people on that colony. She was the only one we rescued alive."

"They took the rest?"

"No." Leo swallowed hard, audibly registering. "Oh, no, they left plenty of dead - here a body, there... it was horrible." Leo looked down. "I was company lead. I stayed with her. She never regained consciousness. Whatever had happened to her, it was psychological." He furrowed his brow. "They brought one of our Vulcan officers, a lieutenant, to try to mind meld with her, bring her out of it. All it did was made her start screaming, and screaming, this howl... like nothing I'd ever heard. They got to the point where she was only being kept alive to secure her transit to another facility, then another. She got shuffled around. I don't know what happened to her - she's probably still in a facility somewhere..." Leo swallowed again, and gritted his teeth. "I'd probably know more if I'd stayed."

"She's the reason you left?"

Leo nodded. "Mainly. It just... she was only six. And they were going to take her. The hell for?" His arms opened wide, taking in the expanse of the stars about them. "Why in the hell are we out here if we can't even keep little girls safe? Who the hell would put them... would put HER that close to harm, just to rack up some points with the comfortable masses all snug in their beds on Earth, or Tellar, or Betazed? My faith in the Federation, in all it stands for... died that day. Died and was buried, on Bolair III."

Tw'eak reached out a hand and slid it into Leo's. "You're a good man, Leo. And a good soldier."

"The hell I am."

"No, it's true. Look at me." Leo reluctantly raised his eyes. "We expect that sort of conduct from our enemies. The Borg don't care - look at what they did to Seven of Nine, at the age she was when she was assimilated. The Klingons didn't care - they know full well what their allies do to people and they look away. They trumpet their glorious battles and strength through honour to the heavens and then they behave like that. The Tal Shiar, the Elachi, the Tholians... they all follow the same process. But not you. And not me."

"Not you?"

"He didn't tell you who we're going to rescue, did he."

"Yeah, your sister."

"Did he tell you that this mission isn't authorized by Starfleet?"

"...no." Leo looked up, astonished. "You mean you're rogue?"

"Well, not entirely. I called in some favours with the Romulans. They might come in handy. Probably not. No sense relying on Romulans. And I didn't have enough latinum to move any other forces my way. I'm it. You and I, our teams... we're all that she's got."

"I gotta admit, that changes things a bit." Leo let out a huge sigh, and a laugh. "Here I was... damn. Wasted a perfectly good bottle of Andorian ale."

"Yeah? What was your angle?"

"I was going to try to talk you into joining us. I've heard all about you from Selkirk, he'd give his tail for the chance to get someone like you to join us."

Tw'eak grinned. "Do you think it was working?"

"I was certain it wasn't, actually." He glanced up at her. "Is it?"

"No. Sorry. My career will probably be destroyed when I get back, but I owe it to people like you, and Selkirk, to try to make the best of it."

"But why?"

"You know that big, faceless admiralty you hate so much? It's my intention to infiltrate those ranks, maybe drive that force in the direction of good for once."

Leo laughed. "You're serious."

"Yeah."

"I think you'd rather they kept throwing Undine infiltrators across your path every now and then for you to wrestle with, rather than be the infiltrator."

"You may be right." Tw'eak smiled. "You just may be right."

Leo looked around. The mess hall was in good order, but more and more people were drifting off to either take up their next shift or get some sleep. Tw'eak noted that both Zed and K'Vor had departed, perhaps willing to give their commander an opportunity to unwind. "It must be late. We should probably get to moving on."

"Not so fast," Tw'eak said with a smile. "Your bartender... he said there was another bottle?"

"Two more, actually."

"Call him over." Tw'eak placed her drinking glass, the only one left unbroken, between the two of them. "I owe you another drink."

"But what you said- earlier, about the bottle."

"Yeah, I know exactly what I said." Tw'eak smiled. "I haven't had an evening like this since I was a junior-grade lieutenant." She looked down. "Back then, I seem to recall these sorts of evenings being... rather reckless affairs, actually."

"Really? Why's that?"

"The risk of the next day's operation, usually. Used to drive me crazy with anxiety. Made it easier to get through the away mission if I had a good hangover."

Leo chuckled. "I don't know if that's regulation."

"Maybe it should be." Tw'eak smiled, lowering her chin. "Come closer, let me tell you something else."

"What's that?" Leo leaned towards Tw'eak, who extended her hand and took Leo's face in hers, giving him a quick kiss across the cheek.

"When I said, 'rather reckless'..." She looked straight into Leo's wide open, deep brown eyes. "Believe me, I meant it."

Leo let out a nervous, garbled laugh. "Do you really want that second bottle, then?" he asked.

The interior of Leo's quarters were spartan, tailored with a few family photos from across multiple generations, and not much besides. The rather small sitting area had a table for two, a replicator, and a desk with a console. Beyond that rested a slim, to-the-purpose bedroom. It wasn't much, but it was more than sufficient.

Tw'eak and Leo burst into the room from the door, both frantically undressing each other. It had been so long - so long! - since Tw'eak had done something this spontaneous, and she felt her adrenal response running down her spine as she coursed her fingers along the length of his back. He pulled her closer, shirtless now, the both of them nearly ready. Tw'eak leaned against the desk, unbuckled her boots, and kicked them off.

"Computer, lock door," she said aloud. There was no response.

Leo unbuttoned his pants and boots, and stepped out of them. "It's manual." He reached past her on the desk, and the door made a metallic whirring noise. "There." Tw'eak took the opportunity afforded by his closeness to turn him over, nearly pinning him onto the desk in the process, scissoring her legs over him. "Wow, you're feisty."

"Ever been with an Andorian girl before?" she said as she unhooked her bra.

"No. Does it all- I mean?"

"Enh, close enough." She tugged down his underpants, running her hand beneath. "And don't worry, I can handle this."

"Oh, yeah?" Leo smiled, that same wolfish smile she had first seen in the briefing room.

"Let's just say I was a lonely girl at the Academy. And blue was every guy's favourite colour."

"Oh, wow," Leo said, picking Tw'eak up and carrying her, still entwined about him, into the bedroom beyond.

Whether it was the effect of the Andorian ale, or the general sense of self-satisfaction she was experiencing at the moment, Tw'eak could no longer tell. She was intoxicated, that much was certain. Her desires and her impulses had come back to her so naturally it was hard to believe how long it had been since the last time she had been like this with someone. At least this time, the anxiety and shame that led to regrets were nowhere to be found. Still undressed between the sheets, still partly entwined around Leo's half-sleeping body, she rested her head against his shoulder. Noticing a scar on that shoulder, just underneath where his cheek lay against it, she adjusted her head and ran a fingernail across its length.

"What are you doing?" Leo groggily inquired.

"Where's that from?

"Tholian. Jabbed me good, the son-of-a- son? daughter? spawn? I have no idea with Tholians."

"Ooh, I got one like that on my leg. Right through my suit. Kind of wondered - an odd angle."

"Yeah, the dermal regenerator didn't get it all. Too many tendons." Leo looked up at Tw'eak's shoulder. "You've got a scar on yours, too."

"It's a bit different." She held her right arm over him. "This is bio-synthetic."

"Really?" Leo blinked, astonished. "I couldn't tell."

"I know. I was very lucky. The doctor who did the work... she's still my chief medical officer. I keep her around for just that reason. Damned good at what she does. Damned good friend, too." Tw'eak laughed. "She calls me her most frequent customer."

"That's cute. You have a lot of officers you're close with?"

"Mostly my command staff. And my sister, of course. We're the last ones, her and I. Lost three brothers and a sister, plus my thavan. My zhavey, too, actually, but that was before the war. Big family."

"Oh, damn." Leo struck himself on the head. "All this family talk- Did you take your supplement? I haven't been taking mine. Whenever I do, they give me this reac - you know what, never mind."

"I don't need them. It's a bit embarrassing to talk about, but I have Sh'landas syndrome - basically, I can't have any kids."

Leo's shoulders relaxed again. "Okay, good. I mean, not that you're... sick? Are you sick?"

"Like I said, it's a bit embarrassing to talk about."

"Sorry, I just... I don't... this isn't something I really get a chance to do very often, so-"

"Neither do I. It's all right." She rubbed his chest. "Now that we're here, though, I kind of wish I could more often."

"Yeah, I know, me too." Leo smiled. "I ...I don't do too well, getting close to people."

Tw'eak nodded, fully understanding his point. "Everyone I'm friends with, we've been in combat together so many times I have to love 'em. Can't stand to lose any of them."

"I know the feeling. I worry about this crew now, my crew. I don't like getting too close to them, but I can't really help it sometimes." Leo played with a strand of Tw'eak's hair. "Can I ask - isn't this supposed to be white?"

"Yeah. I keep it coloured a few shades darker. Doesn't stand out so clearly when I'm trying to ambush someone this way."

"I can understand that. Kind of glad to have a dark hair colour. Skin colour, on the other hand... I stand out everywhere but a snowstorm, y'know?"

"You'd fit right in on Andoria, then," Tw'eak quipped.

"You know, I meant what I said earlier, about your father. He was the best soldier I ever served with. Could sense an ambush before we even beamed down. Guy was a legend."

Tw'eak rolled over onto her back, looking up, remembering her thavan. "Yeah, that was him all right. He's been gone so long now... family's very important to us."

"I still can't believe he's gone. He used to talk about you - not you in particular, like, but all of you - so much. Used to treat the whole formation like a family - we weren't just fellow marines, we were brothers and sisters. I tried similar talk with my unit once I'd been promoted to Sergeant, but they just looked at me and went back to their rifles. It didn't have the same effect."

"All that time he spent away... he'd come back and you just knew. I don't know how, but you just knew that he hadn't relaxed a minute until he was home again."

"No, that was true. That was absolutely true. He was never really at ease, any time we'd have orders, until the mission was either cancelled or completed. Most of the time he'd already thought three moves ahead - made a huge difference on the mission."

Tw'eak chuckled. "Ever play him at three-dimensional chess?"

"Yes. God, he kicked my ass. He even beat Vulcans. That shouldn't be possible."

"I know..." Tw'eak smiled, and looked over at Leo with fond admiration. "He must have really liked you."

"Isn't this a little weird for you? I don't know, talking about your father after... well..."

"No, not at all. Should it be?"

Leo shook his head, laughing. "Let's just say I wouldn't want to be thinking about my mother while I'm in bed with you." He shrugged slightly. "Must be a human thing."

"I've noticed that, humans tend to think a lot more about this big meaning behind it." Tw'eak didn't want to admit it, but she'd picked up the habit of doing so herself. She pulled Leo a bit closer, tucking her legs around his. "I meant what I said, though. He would've liked you. I can tell."

"Yeah, we got on really well. Why?"

Tw'eak closed her eyes. "People used to say we had a lot in common, that I take after him. So if I like you as much as I do... he must've too."

"That's..." The dawning realization of the meaning of Tw'eak's words came to Leo slowly. "Oh, wow..."

Tw'eak felt herself becoming giddy, and looked upward. "I don't want to say anything for certain. I mean, it could be the ale talking." Tw'eak brought his face over to look him directly in the eye. "But when this is all over, and my sister's back... I would really like to try this again some time." She left her words hanging in the air for a moment, before she added, "sober."

Leo laughed. "Why wait?"

"Oh, I see, you think I'm that easy, to do this twice on the first date?"

"Maybe." He drew her close. " Maybe three times. Who knows."

It was Tw'eak's turn to say, "oh, wow."

"Although... maybe this time we could try me on top."

Tw'eak offered an alluring smile. "All right... just watch the antennae, okay? Don't bump me against anything."

"Oh, there'll be a little bumping." Leo enfolded Tw'eak into his arms, kissed her softly, and pulled her closer. "But good."

For the first time in what felt like a thousand years, Tw'eak felt herself fully responsive to the touch, the caress, the closeness of another. It was an intimacy that brought tears to her eyes, an emotional release she had not permitted herself for far too long. And now that she had found it again, she also re-discovered a fear she had not known in as long - the anxiety of wondering for how long it would last. She pushed that thought aside and looked up into the eyes of this incredible man she had found, and pressed her legs to him, drawing him as close as she could.