Wednesday, 21 Dec 2518
Durance class, Trinity
Georgia (Huang Long) system
1150 hrs, ship’s time
They’d just sat down to table when the alarm blared on the PA. Kat yanked her earpiece with a yelp and a curse, then fisted it and sprinted for the bridge. Paul beat her there.
The traffic alert system was lit up like Christmas.
“Incoming vessels … Yep, Alliance Patrol Boat and two ASREVs based on their signatures,” Paul said, pointing to targets on the scope. “Standard intercept formation. That’s the eyeball, that’s the shooter, and that’s the Boat back here. They mean to board us. I’ll try to buy some time. Kat, get Ai J—.”
Kat was already gone. The crew was still struggling up from the table when she skidded into the lounge and snapped out her orders, pointing to each person in turn.
“Cassie, sanitize Ai Jing’s and Renzi’s quarters and get him up here. Phoenix, delete Ai Jing and Mark’s med records. Ai Jing, with me. Everyone key to my private channel. We got Feds incoming. Move it!”
Ai Jing was confused but quickened her pace to keep up with Kat. “Who’s Mark?”
Lieutenant Snarr looked at the woman seated in front of him. What was it about this ship and tiny women? In other circumstances, he would love it, as a small woman made him feel tall, but he had a feeling that this ship was very possibly full of criminals. No sense thinking about how attractive he found the curly hair and what color were her eyes anyway? NO. He was here to conduct business.
“I am Lieutenant Snarr, and I will be conducting this interrogation. First of all, full name, ident card, position on the ship, and length you have held the position.”
Cassie sat up straight in her chair and folded her hands together. She looked at the dark haired Lieutenant with a calm expression, drawing out the silence until she saw his eye start to twitch. Let’s see if I can rile him up a bit. She drawled each word out slowly and deliberately.
“Cassiopeia. Eilidgh. McCarty. I’m the cook. Run and monitor the comms as needed. I’ve only been here for about two weeks so far. Anything else? Sir.” Done speaking, she sat back slightly and crossed her legs. It made her skirt ride up behind her knee but she made no move to fix it. She’d seen him looking and seized the opportunity to keep him off balance.
“And what planet are you from, Cassiopeia?” Snarr tried to keep his eyes off her legs, but failed.
She had to keep from laughing out loud when his eyes moved away from hers and exactly where she wanted them. Time to play a little. She bounced her leg as she spoke and watched his eyes do the same.
“Well for me that’s a complicated question. Sir. Ya see, I was born on Shadow but….well you know how it is now.” It was a good thing he wasn’t looking at her eyes anymore. They blazed with Alliance hatred for a brief second. She crossed her arms across her chest to pull her shirt collar down and display a bit more cleavage to keep him from looking up any farther. So far she had nothing but contempt for the man. He seemed like the usual pompous Alliance pig. All the more reason to play this for all it was worth.
Cassie put a pitiful look on her face and stuck out her bottom lip a little bit. “I guess I don’t really have a home.”
“How did you come to be aboard The Trinity?” He carefully kept his eyes off her cleavage, giving her as much respect as possible. Unfortunately, that left them nowhere to go but up to her eyes. What color were those eyes, anyway? He shook it off, trying to distance himself from the situation.
Dammit, pushed it a little far. Maybe he’s as bad as I thought. Gotta tread carefully on this. Cassie put her arms back on the table and lowered her eyes, changing to a slightly more demure attitude. “I had a…..well, a disagreement with another ship captain. He didn’t like that a little woman talked back to him, and I’m quoting him there, so he got physical about it. I defended myself so he threw me off the ship, didn’t even pay me so I had very little money on hand. A friend of mine helped me arrange passage and work on Trinity so I took the opportunity rather than starve on a strange planet.” She considered that enough truth for this situation.
All the while she kept her eyes down; he had started looking too closely and she didn’t like that. There might still be a few Alliance out there who remembered her role in the war, might even be able to recognize her even now. Her face, hair and body had changed a fair amount since then through both natural and artificial means. But her bright blue-green eyes were still the same color and could get her in trouble if the right person saw them. Best to play it safe.
“And, does Captain…,” he checked his paperwork for the name, “Armitage know about your insubordination, or did you come aboard under false pretenses?” His tone was chilly and the question was not, strictly speaking, necessary, but he was disappointed that this lovely young woman was turning out to be the type who would talk back to her captain and then blame him for her dismissal.
Cassie bristled at the implication that she was at fault for the incident but played it cool. It appeared she’d need to tread carefully or she might bring down the whole group. It was time for some creative truth. This could be difficult, though. She had to protect her own secrets as well. She set her body into the proper defensive posture to match her upcoming words and prayed he’d buy it.
“Well, I wouldn’t call it insubordination myself. I’d call Captain Raines a bad-tempered, woman-beating, contract-breaking jackass who’s bound to be brought down by a mutiny at some point in the future. I don’t know why he did it but he punched me when I pointed out that not letting me off-ship at Three Hills violated my terms of employment. Make of that what you will. Sir.” Hopefully that was enough to make him back off that bit. She did know why, she just didn’t want to point out that the captain’s planned activities were illegal. Her own plans had been above board. Mostly. It was the little bit that wasn’t that she didn’t want him to find out about.
“Oh, and yes, Captain Armitage does know what happened and knows all the gory details too. He saw the bruises. I’m not the kind to just let a man hit me for no reason.” Cassie pointed her chin in pride but forgot she had been hiding her eyes for just a second before she lowered her chin again quickly. Pride cometh before the fall.
Snarr was no proponent of violence toward women but neither did he feel like he had the whole story. The girl couldn’t even meet his eyes any more. That, however, was beside the point and Three Hills was a long way away. Back to the business at hand.
“You’ve been on the ship long enough, then, to see if they might be carrying any contraband or perhaps even a stowaway or two. It would be best if you told us about these things, because when we find them the consequences will be much more dire. Have you seen anything I should be aware of?”
Contraband? Oh good, something I can tell the truth about. She squared her shoulders and looked him at him briefly. He hadn’t recognized her before. She should be safe but no point being too bold. With a firm air of impatience she said, “Nope, haven’t seen a bit of contraband on board. Nor any stowaways. Only thing you should be aware of is that you’re makin’ me marinate the ship’s dinner for too long. The acid in the lemons will eat away the meat if you keep me here much longer.”
“You’ll be here as long as it takes. Dinner is the least of my concerns.” He left the room, resisting the urge to slam the door behind him. What an annoying crew this was. And liars, every one, he’d wager. He’d get the truth out of one of them, see if he didn’t!
“Good, at least I’ll get some peace and quiet!” Cassie knew he couldn’t hear her but it felt good to get in the last word. She fixed her skirt so it covered her legs again, leaned back in the chair, closed her eyes, and settled in for a quick nap. No telling exactly how long they’d leave her alone. Might as well get some rest while she could.
“Kessie,” Cassie heard in her ear as Kat keyed her private channel. “Send Mark to the ready room, would you?” Cassie stepped off the pax deck stairs and turned right, double clicking her comm to confirm the order. She knocked once on Mark Renzi’s door and walked right on in, catching him in the middle of rising from his chair, spilling the book in his lap to the floor. Cassie jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “You’re needed in the ready room. Do you know the way?”
“Yes,” Mark said. “What’s going on?”
“They’ll explain when you get there,” Cassie said, striding past him to yank the covers off the bed and moving to the dresser drawers to look for anything incriminating. “Get going. Don’t have much time.”
There really wasn’t. Cassie rucked up the sheets, scattered the books and mags Kat had given to Renzi across the bed, and removed anything that specifically pointed to him. There wasn’t much. A toothbrush, a comb, but there were no id or papers that would reveal that this room was used for anything but reading and maybe humping in.
Cassie shut the door on the mess and went up one deck for Ai Jing’s quarters. Here she would take the time to make the room neat, as if it was used as an office for bookkeeping. Which is was. Ai Jing had left her little to adjust. Her space was neat as a pin. Cassie made a quick check of the tablet on the desk—and sighed with relief. Ai Jing had not put her name on any of the few records she’d managed since becoming their purser. Nothing on the device would point to her. Cassie returned the tablet to the same position she’d found it and quit the room.
For once she was glad of her secrets and the necessary precautions already taken to hide them. And she knew she hadn’t written down anything specifying Mark or Ai Jing. One less thing to worry about. She ran to check the common areas before the Feds could.
Go to: Inter/sections, Part 1 | Timeline | Processing —OR— Inter/sections, Part 3
Go to: Season One: Finding A Crew
Starship Trinity 