Maruu was alone. The only friend he had now was Benton. He knew the truth and thus had not lost their respect for the captain. Loran, M'Terrn, and all the others following orders, but they did not respect him anymore. Some had even taken that dislike to a whole new level. Take K'Lara's attack for example. She was not an easy woman to deal with. The same day, when K'Lara had attempted to kill the captain, Dana had also displayed her hatred of the captain. All the others were hard enough to deal with. Dana had been too much. He loved her, and he felt lost without her. Maruu remembered what had happened three days before...
Nori got up off the floor and cleaned up the bay area, while thinking about all of the events that were happening. Nori looked at the door to sickbay as a tear rolled down her face. "K'Lara, my dear friend. My heart pains for you and your loss: a child on the way and your mate disintegrated into nothingness. I am so worried about your well being..."
Nori was bent down trying to pick something off the floor but she couldn't quite see what it was because of the tears now where flowing heavily. Nori stood up and headed for the sickbay doors. When she stepped out of sickbay their was an ensign that walked into her almost knocking both of them to the ground.
As the ensign looked into Nori's eyes, he said, "Ma'am, sorry ma'am, I didn't mea..."
But his voice froze as he looked into Nori's eyes, he could feel a very cold feeling race down his back as Nori wrinkled up her nose and her eyes turned to a very dark red making her look almost pasted. The ensign took a step to the right out of Nori's path and watched as she steamed passed him. Nori headed for the bridge; when she stepped out of the turbolift onto the bridge she saw Maruu and Jorail walking into the captain's ready room. Nori walked over to the science station and asked the ensign if K'Lara was there.
The ensign replied, "Yes, Ma'am". Then she started to tell Nori what had taken place. The ensign noticed that the deep redness in Nori's eyes started to bleed over onto Nori's cheeks.
Nori said, "Okay. Thank you, Ensign."
The ensign watched as Nori turned and walked over to the ready room and entered without even ringing the chimes. Once inside, Nori looked at the captain and said, "I need to speak with you now, alone, it is very important to me."
Maruu smiled at seeing her. However, he needed to maintain an open communication with the Vorta or endanger the alliance. "Nori, you can speak freely in front of Jorail."
Nori looked into Jorail's eyes with hers. Nori's eyes were so red with anger that the only thing missing was smoke. "I SAID ALONE!"
Never taking his eyes off Nori, Jorail said, "It's okay, Captain, I'll be on the bridge." Jorail left.
Maruu walked towards Nori, stopped in front of Nori, and started to bring his arms up to put his hands on her shoulders when all of a sudden Nori slapped the captain on his right cheek with her left hand as hard as she could.
Maruu flinched in pain. "What the hell?!"
But he was cut off with Nori remarking on her true feelings. "YOU SON OF A BITCH! HOW DARE YOU! HOW COULD YOU? WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THE PROPHETS COULD YOU HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT!" Maruu started walking towards Nori, but this time Nori closed her fists. When Maruu got close enough to her, she threw a punch straight for his face. The captain blocked it, then blocked the other one.
"Nori, please calm down. You don't underst..."
The captain was cut short again when his doctor lost control of her mouth once again. "NO...NO I WON'T CALM DOWN! HOW DARE YOU KILL YOUR OWN PEOPLE! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR SENSES!" The tears were falling off Nori's face like someone left a faucet trickle a little on the fast side. "NORI TO SECURITY, TO THE CAPTAIN'S READY ROOM, ON THE DOUBLE!]
Benton's voice came back to Nori. [Aye, Aye, Ma'am. On the way...]
Nori continued, "I TRUSTED YOU! WE ALL TRUSTED YOU! WE BELIEVED IN YOU! I CAN'T BELIEVE I LEFT MYSELF FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU! I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR YOU ANY MORE; NONE! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" Nori ripped off her pips and threw them at the captain just as a security team of 10 came through the ready room door. Two security members ran to each side of Nori and grabbed her arms taking her into custody. At first, Nori struggled. Then she stopped and looked into Maruu's eyes and in the coldest of cold voices growled through her teeth. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN THE JEM'HADAR! I NEVER WANT TO SEE OR SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN! Nori pulled herself away from security, but she lost her balance and fell smashing her head on the corner of the table knocking herself out cold.
Maruu reached down and grabbed her. Nori was out. He looked at Benton. "I wish we had never started this."
Benton sighed. "It is for the best, Captain. They will understand when the time comes."
That had been only three days ago. It had felt like an eternity. Now, the times he wasn't spending creating false alarms to aid in the construction of the transwarp drive, or speaking with Jorail about diplomatic issues, or running the ship while avoiding the Jem'Hadar, was spent in sickbay watching an unconscious Dana. He wanted to tell her the truth; it would clear everything up. If he had, though, the ship would be doomed. One Federation starship cannot very well battle 100 Dominion ships and live to tell of it. Until then, he would have to wait.