Bad News Travels Fast

[C.T. Caine 0]

Caine looked up as the door of her office pinged. "Come in."

 

The door slid open to reveal a tall, broad-shouldered crewman in security gold whom Caine did not recognize. He had short black hair and dark eyes and was painfully, gut-clenchingly young; Caine would have pegged him at high school rather than the soldier's rank he apparently carried. He was clutching a PADD as if his life depended on it and caught Caine's eye with a nervous grin before steping forward through the door, snapping to an abrupt stiff-backed attention, and saluting.

 

Caine eyed this performance with some amusement and then glanced down at her own bearing, which was relaxed back in her seat with her feet up on the desk. "Ah...at ease, crewman," she said, swinging her legs down and straightening.

 

"Yessir. Thank you, sir," the crewman said, relaxing his bearing and proffering the PADD towards the half-Vulcan CSEC. "Report on the supply inventory now that everything's stored from the Avaros mission, sir."

 

Caine took the PADD with a nod at him. "Thank you, Crewman...?"

 

"Decatur, sir. David Decatur. Combat and Patrol, Coyote Squad, sir."

 

"Don't think I've seen you around, Mr. Decatur. Pleasure to meet you." God, he was young. Just her looking at him seemed to have him worried.

 

"Ah, thank you, sir. You too, sir," he said, straightening his bearing unconsciously again.

 

Caine raised an eyebrow at him, and then grinned. "Crewman, when I feel the need for you to break your back for me, you'll know about it. No need to do it in advance."

 

"Sorry, sir."

 

"No need to apologize either. Was there something you needed or just dropping this off?"

 

"No, sir. I don't need anything." Decatur shifted his weight from left to right and back again, and his dark eyes dropped to the floor for a moment, then arced back up towards Caine's grey ones. "Well, there was one thing...sir..."

 

"Let's hear it, Crewman." Caine would need to start doing some work at getting her face out there and known among the great unwashed of the Security department, and quick. Wouldn't do to have her men afraid to talk to her. There were days when she had a feeling her Vulcan appearance worked against her in an unfortunate intimidation factor.

 

Decatur still seemed to be debating whether to pose his question or not but finally he spoke. "Is it true what they're sayin', sir? That the Soltans were responsible for that...ground-shaking business on Avaros?"

 

It's true what they say about little pitchers, huh? Caine sighed. She wasn't usually one for participating in the department grapevine but in this particular case, allowing rumors to go haywire might potentially be detrimental or dangerous. Better to give them the word straight if she could. "Bad news travels fast, I guess, Mr. Decatur."

 

Decatur looked crestfallen. Caine eyed him and gave a faint grin. "Disappointed?"

 

The young crewman rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, sir, Spence told me it was the case, sir and I told him he was full of--well, I told him he was wrong, sir, 'cos I figured we woulda been blown up by now if it were true. I guess it was wishful thinking. Sir."

 

Caine shrugged slightly. "In a way you're both right. We didn't see them, we didn't engage them. All we had was a bunch of rabble-rousers who claimed they preferred Soltan rule."

 

She caught Decatur's eye and saw him searching her expression, seemingly astonished at the amount of calm with which she delivered this news. "Collaborators?" he asked, and his youthful voice took on a slightly higher pitch. "After what happened on Earth? That's complete bu--"

 

"Yes, I know," Caine said quietly, and he snapped back to attention at the sudden slight change in her tone. The fact was, Caine was mad as hell, though she knew better than to sound off in front of her subordinates, and the Vulcan self-control in her collared the emotion down to a growl in the lower resonance of her voice. "But it's what we've got, and we'll deal with it when things come to a head."

 

Decatur shifted again. "You think that's gonna be soon, sir?"

 

Caine chuckled. "Not going to give you rumor fodder, Mr. Decatur. The fact is I don't know. But our new Avaros friends have been turned over to Command for questioning; whatever they know, I guarantee you we'll know." She leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers, looking up at the young crewman with an expression of calm determination. "And we will be ready. Any further questions, Mr. Decatur?"

 

Decatur's uncertain expression deepened for a moment as he looked back at her, and then he grinned a little. "No, sir. Thank you, sir."

 

"As you were, then, Crewman."