Do Not Pass Go

Posted on 18 May 2018 @ 3:01am by Lieutenant Commander Rafe Cassidy (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Eira Cortez

Mission: Ne Me'e Laua Na Paio - Heroes & Villains
Location: Brig
Timeline: 0900, 3 Jan 2389

It still hadn't been his shift, so Cassidy had surrendered the helm as soon as was reasonable and professional. The brig wasn't his first destination. No, first had been a restroom to splash cold water on his face. And throw up.

It wasn't his first time at the helm in combat. But it was the first time he'd seen a ship of the Wyoming's size go down, a whole crew with no chance of escape pods, no chance of rescue. Two hundred souls. And they'd left them.

But it wasn't the craziest thing that had happened that day, and Cassidy had no idea who to trust or where to even start. So he headed for the one place he might be able to even ask questions.

A young officer on brig duty gave him a dubious look, but pips and senior staff status had their perks, and that included getting inside to make his way down the long corridor of empty cells to one which was, at last, occupied.

"So, Cortez, did you decide the spook had to be the least popular person on board?" he drawled, jocular before he could stop himself, even if he looked a bit too much of a pale wreck for jokes.

"I wouldn't say that I'm the least popular person on this ship, to be honest." Eira was sitting against the far wall with her legs crossed. As soon as she saw Cassidy she immediately stood up and went over to look at him. "You look terrible. What's happened?" There was concern in her voice and on her face - Eira genuinely liked Cassidy and didn't want anything to happen to him. She had felt the rocking of the ship, but no one had told her what had happened.

"Oh, I'm..." His voice trailed off, and he hesitated. "I don't know how much I'm at liberty to discuss with you, you know? This isn't exactly an official visit. The ship's battered from our run in, but alright. I don't want to say much more. I don't want to make this worse for either of us, right?" He winced apologetically, knowing it was rough to be the one to come down here and then say he couldn't talk.

Maybe it was time to let someone in on what was going on. Eira weighed up the potential risks of telling him everything, "Yeah, I understand that." She looked down at the ground and then back up again. "Rafe, I need you to do me a massive favour." She looked at him a somewhat pleading look in her eyes. "Then I can explain everything to you." Her voice was quieter and more apologetic now.

"I mean... I came here to ask. You jumped on board with Carson weirdly fast," he pointed out slowly, but nodded. "What's the favour?" There was still a guarded hint to his voice.

"Can you go to my quarters, get the PADD out of my bedside table and and bring it here? It explains everything: why I sided with Carson, why I've been so.. mysterious.. everything. Please, it's the only favour I'll ever ask of you."

He pursed his lips. "I'll bring it down here. But I'm not going to let you get your hands on it; we can talk it over through a forcefield, alright?" Cassidy sighed. "I want to help, Eira. I just have no clue what's going on right now, so trust is going to be a little rough, right?"

"Yes, I understand that." Eira nodded and leaned against the wall. "Trust is something I don't though."

"You don't say," he drawled, but gave a lopsided smile. "I'll get it. Then we take this one step at a time, right?" Cassidy backed off, giving her a small thumbs up. "I'll be quick as I can."

"Clearly I'm not going anywhere." She rolled her eyes in response and crossed her arms.

It took him a good ten minutes. By the time Cassidy returned, brandishing the PADD, he looked, if possible, even more pale. "Okay," was all he said once he was back before the forcefield, then drew a deep breath and said, "Okay," again. "I'm not going to hide this from the Skipper, right? If you don't tell him about this, I have to, right? So we can damned help you."

"Rafe, you need to sit down and have some water." The brig ensign who'd been watching them caught the look Eira had given him and disappeared, reappearing a few seconds later with a glass of water. "Now take a couple of deep breaths and steady yourself; you have no colour in your face at all. Are you sure you want to know everything?

"Someone has to." He slugged back the water. "But I came here because tensions are so high I'm not sure anyone's going to give you a fair shake. I'm here for the fair shake. Not to get implicated. Still. Let's do this."

"The code is A-D-5-6-E-5-7." Eira said it loud enough so that only he heard it. "I hope that once you know everything, you won't think bad of me. Differently, I completely understand." She hung heard head down and slumped to a sitting position again.

Cassidy input the code. And read. And watched. He did not lose more colour; his face went hard, jaw set as the PADD played its video. When it was done, he lowered the PADD and looked at her. "Thanks for trusting me with this," he said gently. "And I still mean what I said about helping. Okay? I'm not going to let you swing for this."

She smiled an appreciative smile that came from the bottom of her heart,"You don't understand how that makes me feel.. Now do you understand the secrecy? They're all I've got." Eira stood up and walked over to the edge of the force field separating them both, "I've had to wait out my time, go through the actions and play the part before I could go and speak to the Captain. If I don't, my brothers die. I know I've made a massive mess of everything, never thought I'd end up here either, but I can only make it right at the right time."

"I get your hands were tied," Cassidy agreed, offering another small, lopsided smile, albeit a more reassuring one. "Do you even know who these guys are? It sounds like they expected some of what went down with Carson. But this can't have worked out the way they hoped."

"No clue," She shook her head in response. "Whoever it is, or they, have been careful not to let any sort of loophole be found. I do have to give them credit though: trying to break in through the computer systems is like trying to break into the most heavily guarded bank in the universe with a spoon as your weapon." Eira then laughed in a defeated yet sarcastic tone, "Reckon I'm going to be put on trial, or even worse? Because I can see it now: Miss Cortez, you're here to stand trial for crimes against the Federation. How do you plead?"

"I mean, so far all you've done is side with a superior officer who had his head shoved up his ass, or was being manipulated just like you were," Cassidy pointed out with a certain hint of desperation. "Your lies don't go that deep."

"On a side note completely unrelated to everything that's going on, pending doom included, I'm not a natural white blonde either. Deep, almost black natural brunette. Bleaching it is a bitch!" Now it was her turn to offer the small smile and hopefully lighten the mood slightly.

"Okay, maybe your lies do go real deep." He returned the smile, though it faded with a frown. "Is there anything else you've done? Aside from withhold this knowledge and throw your lot in with Carson back there? Because this we can work with."

"I've done a lot more than I'd like to admit, Rafe. A lot more. I think I'm going to need some more help than just you though." She appreciated everything about Cassidy, right down to the fact he was still there talking to her.

He gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Which is why this is going to the Skipper, no argument. If not only to cover my ass, but this affects the whole ship. You've been under duress; any JAG worth their salt can fight this one. And someone's got it in for the crew. You're crew. We're in this together." But he sighed, gaze softening. "I'm sorry about your brothers. There are people out there I'd probably do the same for."

"As long as I get to see them alive, everything will be worth it." Eira said quietly with a forced half smile. "Then I'd be happy to accept any consequences. But for now, how do you propose on getting me out of here?"

"Nothing against the rules," said Cassidy. "My plan's no more complicated than this: I got talk to the Skipper, I tell him as much as it takes to get him to have a conversation with you with an open mind. Probably get yelled at for compromising some investigation, as if this ship isn't tied up in a thousand untrusting knots. And then you tell him the truth, because if you want to get through this and help your family, your best bet's by leaning on the people around you." He tried to sound solid and firm, like this wasn't its own form of rolling the dice and praying everything would come out okay.

"Ok." A single word response and a nod of her head meant that Eira understood everything that was going to happen. Now the task at hand was to mentally prepare herself for what was the come.

"Right. I'll go see him. I'd tell you to sit tight, but it's not like you're going anywhere." It was a terrible joke and his attempt at a smile was, if possible, even worse, but Cassidy still gave her a would-be encouraging thumbs up and headed off.

At least he'd taken some of the pressure off her. And then dumped a large amount of her fate in his hands. It was just as well he'd run the gauntlet on stress that day. A little more didn't do much.

Much.



Rafe Cassidy, LT, SF
CONN

Eira Cortez, LTJG, SF
INT