Explain Yourself

Posted on Sat Oct 28th, 2023 @ 11:02am by Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Ensign Rimal Iska & Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea & Ensign Ziahli Lorel

Mission: Character Development
Location: USS Athena :: Brig
Timeline: After "Liar Liar, Part 2" and concurrent with "Professional Overthinking"
2399 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure

The silence of the brig was disturbed by the hissing of the doors opening. The first to cross the threshold was Nayisa, closely followed by a rather annoyed Zade and a somewhat confused Iska, who stood awkwardly near the door. The Trill led the intelligence officer to the first available cell and "guided" her in. The "guidance" took the form of a light press on the back, enough to convey what she wanted without smacking sense into her friend.

The benefit of Nayisa leading the way was that Zade couldn't see her roll her eyes as she stepped over the threshold. There was no proof that the traced message log was connected to her, only that it would have made its way to the intelligence suite. Didrea was going off of a hunch, even if it happened to be a correct one. She turned to see her friend typing on the panel to enable the forcefield. "Didrea, seriously, let me explain-"

"I told you, I don't want to hear it." Zade glanced back to the threshold of the cell when the familiar buzz of the forcefield sounded, seeing a faint blue hue at the edges to confirm that it had indeed activated.

"Whoa."

The brig's original occupant had not found any opening for her own interjection amidst the Security Chief's officious and, frankly, intimidating entrance. As it was, when she finally did speak, Zia hadn't exactly meant it to carry any distance, certainly not enough to be overheard, and so there was a faint pause as she felt the pendulum of attention swing in her direction. Two things stood out almost immediately; Zade was glaring at her and Nayisa was absolutely doing her best to pretend the Betazoid wasn't there.

Zia settled for self-preservation first.

Setting to work, her fingers tapping at the brig's processing terminal, the telepath mustered her professional composure and waited for the Trill to approach. "Is there a detention order, Lieutenant?" It wasn't even in the top ten of the questions she wanted to ask, chief being why her superior officer was scrutinising her with just the faintest glimmer of irritated suspicion. Zia had never sensed this amount of frustration and bitterness from Zade before, had always found the woman to be pretty approachable compared to some in her field. In an attempt to remain on the safe side of her ire, Zia arrived at a point where the appropriate file could be transferred and pulled upright to wait for further instruction.

At first, Zade's annoyance remained as she turned her attention away from Nayisa and toward Zia, following the outburst. Then, the movement of her chest expanding with air signified the attempt to keep her emotions in check, and perhaps even a mental effort to count down from five. "Yes," she replied, her tone... contained. Zade attempted to maintain her professionalism as best as possible, despite the aura of irritation she was surely putting off. "I want her here for three nights, please." One night for each regulation she was accused of seemed reasonable, even if it felt too generous. "Then she's free to go after the shift change at 1600."

The slight purse of her lips betrayed Zia's inward wince, a measure of sympathy for her new friend, though it was buried beneath a pile of intrigue and curiosity. The notion that Nayisa was a criminal didn't seem to bother the Betazoid, either out of unfounded belief that it wasn't actually the case, or a decent measure of confidence that it wasn't going to impact her opinion of the Intel officer regardless. An odd stance for an officer intent on law enforcement as a career but Zia had been raised by a culture who very much separated behaviour from personality and wasn't in a hurry to crucify someone for their actions, at least not without knowing the reason for them first.

And for that, she needed to know what the actual charges were.

"Aye, sir," was what she said, slipping into extreme formality, succinct and compliant, in the hope that it would coax the Trill into leaving faster.

"'Three days?!" It wasn't the worst thing Nayisa would have to deal with, but it certainly wasn't a pleasant time. Three days of sitting in the same space, left to think about the events that put her there and nothing else. She couldn't read or do, well, anything to pass the time. All of that made an inconvenient "uuugghh" slip from Nayisa's lips as she leaned back into the wall, her arms dangling at her sides.

The sound of disapproval made Zade start to grind her teeth, and she closed her eyes for a few seconds to avoid turning around and snapping at her friend in front of Zia and Iska. "Would you rather stay here longer?" she asked, tensely.

Ok, Zade wasn't happy. While Zade's back was to her, Nayisa could almost imagine what the Trill's expression was, using Zia's tense body language as a gauge. A brief glance to Iska revealed that he looked like he would pass out if the slightest ounce of the Trill's fury went his way. "Nope, three days is alright," she quickly responded.

Looking to Zia again, Zade gave her a quiet "thank you" before finally turning around to face Nayisa. Despite the clear irritation in her expression, Zade had a handful of emotions tumbling inside her now. Anger, guilt, perhaps a little fear, questioning her own competence... Before the emotions could convince her to change the sentence, the Trill headed for the door, then remembered that Iska had accompanied her and turned to face him. "Thank you, Ensign, you're dismissed."

Oh Prophets, the attention was on him now. Seeing Zade's glaring eyes drilling into Iska made him quickly straighten into a stiff board, awaiting her orders. He was trying to not get on her bad side, much like Zia. "Y-yes, ma'am," he responded, then waited until she left the brig and the doors shut behind her before he actually relaxed. He leaned back against the wall for support, a hand gripping his chest as if he had been shot, and focused on breathing normally after feeling like he had been strangled by the tension in the room.

From across the room, a pair of very dark eyes, prone to perpetual coy amusement, stared at him until he noticed. Zia smiled. "We do have bathroom facilities if you need them." Though she didn't risk a sideways glance, the Betazoid was aware enough of Nayisa's state of mind to add, "Do you need some help getting there?"

A blush crept onto Iska's cheeks as her statement made him involuntarily sniff the air to sanity check that he didn't need to fix a Bajoran malfunction. Realizing that he just sniffed the air in front of his peers helped the blush spread to his entire face. Seeing her black eyes staring into his soul reminded him that she was telepathic, and he mentally chastised himself for being embarrassed, followed by telling himself to shut up because she could probably hear him. "No... but I'm just going to... uh..." He awkwardly gestured in the direction of said facilities. "... splash water on my face." With that, he quickly left the area for the bathroom, trying and failing to be casual about it.

"Yeah, he's not going anywhere near waters."

Distracted for a split second by her amusement, Zia stared at the closed door before very slowly, with dramatic purpose, turning her head towards the now-incarcerated Intel officer. Meticulously patient, a fabrication that did not match her internal insistence, Zia made a point of closing off the transfer file before clasping her hands in front of her, approaching the occupied cell and standing upright as she considered her friend. The silent blink of overly docile eyes permitted the silence to stretch just a little further before the Betazoid, careful to lower her tone, leaned forward to finally indulge her curiosity.

"What the actual hell, Nayisa."

Nayisa watched the encounter, standing straight again after Zade left, then paid attention to Zia as she finished her work at the console before stopping in front of the threshold. "Hey, bestie," she offered with a sheepish smile and a shrug. Subtle parts of the Betazoid's expression carried her curiosity, so Nayisa appealed to it by adding, "don't mind Didrea. I was vague, and she's mad about it."

The immediate deadpan on Zia's face was an instant reminder that it wouldn't take very many legitimate keystrokes to bring up exactly why the other woman was on the wrong side of a forcefield currently. "That would be oddly against standard practise." Lips twitching with subtle guile, the telepath gestured back towards the console with a pointed finger. "You want me to make sure she followed protocol?"

"Nah, she did." Nayisa turned away from the forcefield to take in her new living space for the next few days. Not that it was much to look at. The space allowed her to pace and it had a bed, both of which were hardly notable features. "Ugh, I'd almost rather be on medical leave..." she mumbled to herself. The worst part of this was that the sheer boredom would probably kill her long before she had any kind of regret over her actions. Speaking of... how would she explain to Zia why she's currently in the brig? "To save you the whole ten seconds it takes to look it up, I may have... done some sleuthing and Didrea didn't like what I did with the information I got."

Unperturbed, the Betazoid stared for a moment as if expecting more, and then asked, "Well, what did you do with it?" As far as subtle interviewing techniques went, it wasn't going to rate very highly but Zia didn't feel the need to curb her natural candour with someone who technically wasn't her suspect to interrogate.

There was a pause as the question ran face-first into what Nayisa would consider a conundrum. The assignment from P'Rel was classified information... but was it really classified anymore, given the trial was over and P'Rel wasn't at risk of being arrested? "I sent it to Earth," she simply responded, knowing that it was probably not the satisfactory answer Zia was looking for.

"My practical experience with the judicial system is still very much in its formative stage but even I can tell you, that's not going to fly as a defense opening." The arch of Zia's eyebrow let the other woman know she wasn't in the least bit fooled, nor even particularly impressed, by the evasiveness. "Last I checked, sending messages to Earth didn't provoke a mandatory warrant."

"Your line of questioning isn't even passing Starfleet security standards," was the reply. Nayisa gave Zia a little teasing smirk before making a show of inspecting the bed that she had the pleasure of calling hers for the next few days. "I'd expect better from someone who reads mystery novels for fun."

"The protagonist isn't supposed to need to interrogate their partner, the free and liberal exchange of relevant information is integral to the plot." Zia folded her arms across her chest, not at all apologetic for the imposition of designated roles without prior consultation. "I think you just enjoy being enigmatic far too much."

Nayisa's little smirk widened. "Eh, you got me there." Whether she was 'playing enigmatic' was certainly in the eye of the beholder. Deciding that the bed was indeed up to her low standards, she turned back around to face Zia, resting her hands on her hips. Her cavalier expression was mostly true, conveying an unspoken message that the intelligence officer might be unbothered by the circumstances of her presence in the cell. "Fine. Unauthorized entry, tampering with security protocols, and unprofessional conduct. Those were the charges cited to me." She held up a fist and stuck her thumb out sideways. "Captain's quarters." An index finger went up, too. "A little bit of lock picking." And finally, the middle finger joined the party. "An argument with your boss."

A pair of raised eyebrows became the first line of response, though very swiftly Zia realised that there was something not entirely surprising by her friend's confession. "This entire situation with the Commodore seems to have based on the premise that rules were meant to be broken. I don't know everything, yet," she added quickly, "but from what I have heard, that doesn't even sound like the worst of it." There was a degree of titillation to the Betazoid's tone, a suggestion at least that she had no qualms whatsoever of serving amongst a heap of line-walkers. "I wonder if she intends to arrest anyone else."

Nayisa watched Zia's reaction, a little surprised that she was as chill as she was about the news. "Probably not. It sounds like the trial resolved itself, and last I checked, there wasn't anything else worth snooping for." The intelligence officer glanced at the edge of the threshold, inspecting the faint blue hue. "So, what now? I'd suggest a game of cards, but I don't want to get you on Didrea's bad side."

A non-committal hum was followed by an equally unperturbed shrug. Either Zia didn't think it likely that Zade would even notice, or she was decently confident that she could talk herself out of it if the need arose. There were rules, of course, about interacting with prisoners, and certainly regulations about showing preferential treatment, but it wasn't as if there was any other prisoner present to draw a comparison to. "Charades might be a better option, I'm not sure I'm allowed to trust you with something as potentially dangerous as a deck of cards."

"Probably for the best." Nayisa had no intentions of breaking more rules by abusing her access to cards, but she knew Zade wouldn't stand for it. A goofy grin appearing on her expression, Nayisa stepped toward the center of the cell. "Alright, charades then! You want to go first, or me?"

Looking around, Zia crossed to the door and grabbed one of the stools set aside for those occasionally relegated to sentry duty. Placing it directly in front of the cell facing her friend, the Betazoid took a seat and extended a hand of offering. "By all means, show me your performance skills."