Semi-Interrogation

Posted on Tue Apr 8th, 2025 @ 9:32am by Lieutenant Kevan Dash & Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea

Mission: Character Development
Location: USS Athena :: Mess Hall
Timeline: MD6 - early morning
1063 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Nayisa didn't sleep well. Between the massive backlog of sensor data she was combing through and worrying about Didrea, she was unable to silence her brain. In front of her was an iced coffee, a PADD, and some standard breakfast combination with eggs and potatoes, but the only appealing thing right now was the caffeine. She managed to deconstruct the attack that the raiders somehow pulled off and handed it up the food chain pretty fast, but the development of explosions across the wreckage had the Spruance and Athena intel departments working overtime to catch up.

Slowly, she took another long sip of coffee, letting the bitterness sting her tongue before swallowing. There were still questions about the last 24 hours, and she suspected that the away teams would have the answers. Who was behind the attack? How did this mystery actor manage to coordinate over a dozen pirate ships? She reread the teams' debriefs, picking them apart until the words blurred together at around 0200. Closing her eyes to keep the impending threat of a migraine at bay, Nayisa gently pressed the edge of her cup against her forehead, letting the cool exterior soothe her brain.

Walking casually through the mess hall ready to finally catch up on a long-overdue breakfast, Kevan caught sight of the intelligence officer almost before he passed her table. Doing his best to not look too conspicuous, he sharply turned and tried to retreat in the other direction, only for him to cringe when he heard his name called.

"Lieutenant Wreeeaaaaa..." he responded, extending the vowels of her surname far too long. "Hey...I was just...uh...you know..." he shrugged, not coming up with an explanation.

The infiltration specialist had lingered around the security offices enough to know what Kevan's footsteps sounded like, and the pause in his step prompted her to mumble his name before she looked up at him. "Trying to find your way around an empty room?" she asked, pushing her exhaustion away to make room for a charismatic smile. "Eat with me." Included in her invitation was a gentle nudge with her foot to push the chair opposite her away from the table a little. Nayisa hadn't interacted directly with him before, only through passing conversation in the security offices, so she understood the mild awkwardness that she picked up from him.

With the most forced-and-definitely-not-nervous pained smile on his face, Kevan sat in the indicated chair. He put down the tray of food, glancing first at it, then at her, then at the food again. Perhaps he could bury himself in the mashed potatoes. "So..." he mumbled, uncertain as to the sort of mood the intelligence officer would be in. "How's the, uh, steak?"

The acting security chief was nervous, or maybe tense. Strained smile aside, the watercooler-style conversation starter gave it away. "Respectfully, Lieutenant, chill. It's not an interrogation, just shared breakfast," Nayisa assured, a hint of amusement in her tone. As much as she reveled in watching others squirm as they tried to guess her intentions, she wasn't feeling it today. Not while she was neck-deep in data processing to figure out how a bunch of raiders, with the collective patience of a beetle, managed to pull off a highly coordinated attack that injured a good handful of officers across four vessels.

Still, his question was an attempt at conversation, so she'd oblige. "Replicated food is replicated food. I'm honestly not that hungry," she admitted, glancing at her barely touched food. "Not when y'all dumped a bunch of work on my desk." The banter thrown at him was accompanied by a little smirk. She knew the effect intel grey had on people, it made them cautious, so it was her goal to try and get him to loosen up a little. If not to help him be more receptive to the many questions she had, then to simply help him just enjoy his meal.

Kevan raised his hands in a sort of surrender. "Look, it's not my fault a bunch of pirates showed-up and started blasting. And don't ask me where they went, either. I just shoot back and try not to get killed." He glanced down at his food, wondering whether decorum would allow him to eat any of it while being grilled by the woman in front of him.

That warranted a faint eyebrow raise from Nayisa. The developing investigation report being shared between ships had similar statements by some of the security officers, confirming suspicions that some of the raiders were unaccounted for. No other transports had happened since the raid yesterday, which meant they had to be on the surface still. "Hey, I get it," she said with a shrug. "Self preservation, blah blah. No judgement from me there. But do you know how annoyed I was to be stuck here instead of poking around down there??" The first of many questions inched forward in her mind, and she took a sip of her coffee. "I was honestly a bit surprised at how coordinated the ships were, according to the sensor playback. I never thought I'd see the day pirates worked together. Was it like that on the surface, too?"

"Coordinated?" He stopped to think about that for a minute. "I don't remember all that well. Nothing noticeable, I suppose. They were pretty easy to bait out, if that helps?"

Nayisa wasn't sure if the answer made things easier or harder. Coordination prior to the perimeter breach likely meant that there was feasible reason to play long, even if 'Big Starfleet Ship will blow you up' was all the incentive needed. "Kind of? The coordination seemed to stop when they transported to the surface, as if the coordination didn't matter anymore."

"Ehh..." Kevan's face screwed-up a little as he pondered that. "Probably not very much. Like I said, they were easily baited, which suggests they weren't well-led. Or just plain stupid. Hard to tell sometimes." He paused. "So...can I go eat my lunch now?"

"Yeah." The response doubled as feedback to his cooperation, as well as an acknowledgement that she was intruding on his meal time. There was a hint of impatience, perhaps not helped by her more investigative presence, that wasn't hard to pick up on. "Yeah, sorry for the intrusion. I appreciate your time," Nayisa confirmed, giving him a smile.