Exitus Acta Probat

Posted on Mon May 15th, 2023 @ 7:12am by Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea

Mission: Wrath of the People
Location: Lounge
Timeline: MD5, 2030 hours :: After 'You Go Left, I'll Go... Also Left'
2438 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

The analysis would take a while. Nayisa watched it for a few minutes before she had transitioned to writing her debrief. Even though she had told Zade not to share details of their adventure, Nayisa was well within her rights to write down her experiences, at least in encrypted format. As long as the trial was happening, she couldn't risk data leaks. She typed the debrief on a PADD, not trusting the computer to keep this safe, and once she was done, she had opened one of the secret hatches in P'Rel's office and stashed it there, securing it to the top of the compartment so it was out of sight. It was unlikely to be found, but if it was then whoever was snooping would have a hard time breaking her encryption. That was a while ago. Not wanting to wear a circle into P'Rel's carpet with her pacing, Nayisa configured the office's computer to send an alert to her comm badge to indicate when the analysis was complete before she left the office. 

After the doors shut behind her, she entered in her new passcode, hearing the doors seal with a short hiss. Nayisa had told Zade the code she was using to keep the office secured, and the first thing she did when she got back to the intelligence suite was change the code. There was still a nonzero chance that Zade could still try to arrest her and confiscate the samples. If that happened, Nayisa had a contingency plan to store the results on P'Rel's computer in a way that the Vulcan would understand. She knew better than to store important information in a convenient way.

It had been about an hour since Nayisa had roped Zade into her little infiltration stunt. The Trill was sitting at the end of the bar in the Lounge, slowly sipping on a glass of Draylaxian whiskey, hoping it would burn away the irritation she felt. The whole day was just one mess after another. First, it was dealing with people asking her nonstop questions about Kane, then the fight with Zora in the security chief's office, then trying to gauge how much she could trust Lance, and now... dealing with Nayisa. It was bad enough that Nayisa had told her what she was doing, but to threaten Zade just to get her to come along? She was so overwhelmed by the experience that she needed time alone to clear her mind.

Entering the Lounge, Nayisa spotted her friend at the bar and took a breath. Flagging down the bartender, she ordered herself a glass of whatever Zade was having, and when told what she was drinking Nayisa said to only do about two shots and dilute with two shots of water, enough to still taste the alcohol but hopefully nowhere near as strong. She still had work to do, after all. Not saying a word, she took the seat next to the woman.

Zade saw Nayisa come in and talk to the bartender, then focused her glare at the glass in her hand, even as the silver-haired woman slipped into the seat next to her. She didn't really want to talk to Nayisa right now. She didn't want to talk to anyone, really. The only company she wanted was the cup in her hand. "What do you want?" She asked dryly, taking a sip of her whiskey.

There was no immediate answer from the intelligence officer, nor was there any rush to. The benefit to Zade never knowing about what Nayisa really did was that these awkward conversations never happened. Not until now, at least. She technically could have revealed some of her work to the Trill, but then Zade would have learned that Nayisa's job wasn't pretty or like the holomovies made it out to be. There was a reason why she had so many demotions on her record. "To apologize?" She offered, hoping to extend an olive branch to the Trill. Zade's anger over this knowledge was as justified as it was inevitable. Her whole job involved dealing with rule-breakers. Glancing at the counter, she sighed, "look, I know I put you in an uncomfortable position..."

"Uncomfortable..." Zade shook her head with a sarcastic huff of air through her nose, "that's a hell of an understatement. You could have done that yourself, and you know it."

"That's true, but without you, it would have taken twice as long, not to mention it was a lot riskier to do alone," Nayisa continued, taking care to not explicitly talk about the assignment, especially in public. She nodded her thanks to the bartender when she got her cup and took a sip of the whiskey, grimacing as she choked it down. "Ugh, I forgot you go for hard stuff when you drink," she coughed. Once she got past the feeling of her throat being assaulted by alcohol, she continued. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this. I needed someone I could trust, and you were the first one I thought of."

Zade took a long sip as Nayisa spoke, seeing how long she could keep the whiskey on her tongue before the burn became too much. "You are so lucky to even be here right now," she said, finally looking over at Nayisa. While her friend could pull it off much better, the Trill kept her expression neutral to bury just how... disappointed she was in her friend. "Nine regulations... you should be in the brig for break-" she paused when Nayisa brought a finger to her lips, then looked around before finishing her sentence in a hushed tone. "-for what you pulled off. Involving the chief of security was probably the stupidest thing you could have done, Nayisa."

Glad to see that Zade would still keep it a secret, the silver-haired woman relaxed slightly. But not by much; the threat of arrest was still quite possible. "When this is all over, I'm happy to spend a few nights in the brig," she said, unsure if it would happen. Even if Zade followed through, she wondered if P'Rel would reduce her time, since it was the Vulcan who gave the assignment to her.

Zade carefully studied Nayisa's expression, looking for any sign of deception. She knew that Nayisa could easily mask her true intentions, and so Zade had to rely on what was literally at face-value: a caring friend who looked genuinely apologetic. Releasing her breath with a sigh, Zade turned her attention back to the drink in her hand. Zora's presence, mere meters from them and blissfully unaware of Kane's quarters having occupants, had honestly scared her. She was already on rocky ground with the commander, she didn't need the disappointment of two department heads breaking rules adding to her stress.

Seeing that she wasn't going to easily sway her friend, Nayisa turned her attention to her own cup. She could tell that the Trill was having an internal conflict over this, and she felt another small pang of guilt over involving her. P'Rel may have been right to prefer keeping her out of it, but Nayisa thought the risk of doing it alone was too great. Constantly tricking the failsafe, keeping watch with the outside cameras, and reading the tricorder scans while simultaneously trying to collect samples would have kept her in Kane's quarters for well over an hour, but the two of them were out in barely 25 minutes. She was thankful for that, because the timer on that PADD was so annoying. "So..." she began, hoping to try and turn the experience into a slightly more positive one. "... what did you think of the tech? Pretty great, right?"

"Are you serious?!" The outburst was a little loud, drawing the attention of a couple nearby crewmembers, and Zade took a breath to calm herself and let the attention die down. In a quieter voice, she said, "I don't care about your stupid tech. I-" Zade looked around again before leaning in, "I watched you abuse your access to that equipment to... what, steal a toothbrush??"

Yikes, that backfired. If it were any other context, Nayisa would have laughed at that remark. But she knew that if she laughed at Zade now, things would not go well for her. "Didrea, seriously, stop overthinking it. I did it for a reason. You need to trust me on this."

The Trill scoffed. "Trust you?? You can't even tell me why you did... what you did! 'For a reason,'" she made finger quotes, "is an awful excuse."

"I know!" Pausing to mask her own emotions, Nayisa choked down another sip of the whiskey, partially closing an eye as she struggled to avoid grimacing before giving her head a slight shake. "Alright? I know. You don't realize the complexity of all this. Do you think I enjoy keeping things from you?"

"Sometimes, I think you do." Realizing that that was a bit harsh, Zade let the tense silence sit between them as she took another long sip of her drink.

Nayisa fell silent as well, giving the whiskey in her cup a gentle swirl. She knew Zade didn't mean it, she was just frustrated from the stress of an infiltration assignment. It was about the same reaction Nayisa had back when she was in Strat Ops and she got roped into an intelligence mission. But it worked out. The intended goals were achieved, and that's what mattered.

Zade slightly tilted the cup in her hand towards her, seeing her warped reflection staring back at her in the alcohol. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't escort you down to the brig, right now."

The question pulled Nayisa out of her thoughts. A quiet 'hm' came from her as she stopped swirling the contents of her cup to think of an answer to the security chief's question. Any reason she gave might not be good enough for Didrea, but again, the Trill was just frustrated. "Detaining a department head while en route for a mission is a bad idea," she decided. "Not only does finding a replacement delay our completion of the mission, but changing department heads mid-mission could impact how well the department performs."

"We can make do."

"Maybe. But I don't think the Commanders would see it the same way," Nayisa pointed out. Her comm badge chirped, indicating that the analysis was complete, and she tapped it twice to dismiss it. She downed the last of her whiskey, suppressing a couple coughs as she felt it ignite her throat all the way down to her stomach before she leaned in slightly. "I mean it when I say that I'm thankful you were with me, Didrea. It seriously helped, and once it pays off I'll tell you why." Standing from her chair, Nayisa then headed for the exit to return to P'Rel's office.

Zade sat at the bar for a moment, her brain trying to process the conversation. In a way, she was right: it was a logistical nightmare to replace a department head mid-mission, and the confusion of figuring out who was in charge would affect how the department worked together. She hated that Nayisa had a fair point. An annoyed sigh came from the Trill as she finished her drink and stood from the chair to follow Nayisa out. Letting her get away with this was not an option, but this was an awful time to leave a department without a chief. Shortly after the pair exited the Lounge, Zade closed the distance enough to grab Nayisa's arm.

For a split second, Nayisa's training wanted to kick in. If it were anyone else, she would have spun, grabbing the hand that held her wrist and twisted it into a lock while shoving the owner of the hand into the wall. But she heard a chair from directly behind her move shortly after she started leaving and learned to memorize Zade's footsteps, so she knew it was Trill who had followed her out. Instead of allowing instinct to start a fistfight with the chief of security, her body tensed as she allowed herself to come to a stop from the slight tug of her arm. She turned slightly toward Zade, meeting her stare.

There it was, the unreadable expression Zade recognized on Nayisa's face. Zade matched her gaze, daring her to look away or try to be funny. "Tell me everything," she demanded, maintaining her hushed tone. "If you don't want to see the inside of a brig cell, tell me what you're doing and why."

Nayisa could tell that Zade was angry. It was one of very few times she had seen her friend like this, so she knew the expression well. It wasn't complete anger, however, rather it was an emotion that was simmering beneath the surface. It was collected, ready to strike. Nayisa knew that Zade was serious. "I'm trying to prove his innocence," she quietly admitted, deciding that she could tell Zade at least part of the truth. "I found out that something in his quarters was overlooked, and I'm simply investigating."

"That's not everything," Zade said, narrowing her eyes.

"That's all you're going to get," Nayisa countered, her tone calm. "Take it, or leave it."

The Trill paused, considering her options. As much as Zade tried to keep herself objective, she too wanted Kane to be innocent. Her desire for that outcome just barely won over her own morals. She couldn't believe she was about to allow this, because she vehemently condemned the silver-haired woman's actions. "The second you are relieved of your acting chief duties," she said in a low tone, "you will have ten minutes to report directly to my office. That is not a request, it's an order. If I see any sign of dawdling, I will consider it resisting arrest." Tightening her grip slightly, Zade leaned in. "Furthermore, if I find out that you're lying to me about your intentions, I will find you and arrest you on the spot. Is that understood?"

There was a long pause as Nayisa's eyes analyzed her friend's expression, ignoring the light pain in her wrist from the Trill's grasp. She had gotten better at being unreadable since the last time they shared a video call. It was obvious what was going to happen in the office, though, and she didn't need to be told twice. "I understand, Lieutenant," she answered gently. Another brief moment passed before Nayisa moved her arm just enough to free herself from Zade's grasp before she turned to head back to the intel suite.