A Serious Difference of Opinion

Max Vasser turned away from the monitor screen that showed the recorded images of the Snark's death. She didn't need an instant replay. She'd had a front-row seat for the live performance.

"Looked like self-defense to me," commented West from his seat in front of the computer. He switched off the screen. "The Snark was going to shoot the Boojum. Or maybe even the kid."

"Then why did he say he was doing it for his own good?" countered Max. "He was going to shoot the Boojum for the Boojum's own good? Or shoot Danno Chimeron? That doesn't make sense." Max thought furiously for a few long moments, remembering the Snark's whispered plea moments before he died for Max to 'help him'. She could come to only one conclusion. "We're still not getting the whole picture. There's got to be something else we can do!"

West got up from the library computer and faced Max. His face was lined with worry. "Listen to me, Maxine. You're getting too involved in this." He took her hands in his. "You're letting it become personal. Danno Chimeron isn't your concern. He's the legal ward of a man suspected of being one of Serenity Sector's biggest crime bosses -- which probably isn't the best way for a kid to grow up -- but there's nothing you can do about it! Just let it go. You're letting your obsession blind you to just how dangerous these people are!"

Max angrily snatched her hands away from West. "How can you be so cold?" she stormed. "This is a little kid's life we're talking about here, and you want me to just turn my back and forget about it?!? I can't believe you! Whatever happened to applying the bootprint of justice to the buttocks of evil? Or poking a thumb in the eye of evildoers?" Her scathing look cut into West like a thousand Klingon daggers. "Apparently you're not the man I thought you were..."

West turned his face away from Max to hide the pain he felt at her stinging rebukes and clenched his teeth to keep himself from lashing out in verbal retaliation. She didn't understand...

West turned back towards Max and looked into her eyes. When he answered, his voice was subdued and grave, betraying none of his inner grief. "I just have this terrible feeling, call it a premonition..."

Max glowered and began to turn away in angry dismissal, but West surprised her by grabbing her shoulders hard and dragging her back. She struggled against his grip but he held her fast, forcing her to listen to his words.

"If you see this through to the end, nothing will ever be the same again," he said with uncharacteristic forcefulness. "You'll get chewed up and spit out on the other side a different person. The Maxine Vasser who's standing in front of me right now will be dead and gone forever. Or maybe you won't come out the other side at all... and I don't want that to happen to you." That was as close as West could come to admitting his true feelings for Max.

Max stopped struggling against West. There was something in his voice she'd never heard before, and it made her pause. She looked into his eyes and saw only concern for her there, but for some reason that just made her more furious. *How dare he worry about me like I'm unable to decide for myself what's right and wrong!* she fumed.

She yanked herself away from West, stepped to the bed and picked up her leather jacket. "I'm going," she said simply.

West's eyes remained focused on an invisible spot on the opposite wall of the cabin as Max shrugged into her jacket and checked the charge in her phaser before jamming it into her shoulder holster.

"If you do, I won't back you up," he said gravely, still without looking at her. "You're on your own."

Max closed her eyes for a second, but when she opened them again the stubborn determination was still there. "That's your call," she replied.

"And don't bother coming back."

Max picked up the Snark's strange radiation-absorbing marble, and left the cabin without looking back.