An Interesting Night: Part II

[C.T. Caine 0]

The procession down to the main security offices was a rather interesting affair. Decatur was out in front in all his failed and wannabe assassin glory, looking disheveled and dejected. JoNs walking directly behind him with her shotgun jammed into his back, and she wore her black uniform trousers and sleeveless uniform tunic, obviously thrown on for some sake of modesty; the senior officer's knife wounds were hastily bandaged and still weeping through the cloth as well. Personal guards Petty Officer Darjhan and Lieutenant Mical, with both showing varying degrees of concern and contrite on their facial features, had been summoned by JoNs and brought up the rear guard position of the little parade.

 

Lieutenant Commander Sivarro had long since made tracks away from all the commotion and the still impending repercussions per direct orders from Kansas to "make himself scarce". It was bad enough a junior pup of an officer had gotten the drop on her, and the feline Cait had no desire to see her love life up for inspection on the front lines during this night that had gone straight to Hades.

 

The lot of them entered the main security office area, and Tyla "Bulldog" Mattingly was currently on duty at the receiving desk. The half-Bajoran female was surprised at the little commotion this late in the night, but hid the emotion well. She recognized Decatur, a fellow enlisted officer, and merely raised an eyebrow in silent question. Decatur narrowed his dark eyes at her in an expression almost daring her to say anything, but she didn't seem to have an inclination to do anything but let a slow grin slide across her face. Mattingly's alien blood had left her with little or no respect from Decatur; he was, after all, the hardass CSEC's pet. As a result, the two crewmen had clashed before and Mattingly wasn't at all disappointed -- though a little bemused -- to see him arriving covered in two flavors of blood and with a gun at his back. As for the XO, Mattingly knew nothing about her except that Caine hated her, but if Decatur had bloodied her up and was taking a fall for it...well, that gave the Caitian a few points in Mattingly's book.

 

Kansas interrupted the tense silence that had descended across the offices with a "Crewman! Get your Gods danged boss down here now!" order directed at Mattingly.

 

Mattingly casually slid her boot-heels down from the desk where she had been resting them and pushed herself to her feet. "You're bleeding on the carpet," she said dryly, and though the words were addressed at both of the bedraggled officers before her, it was Decatur who got the blunt end of her smirking grin. Stepping back out of the way as he lashed out with a punch at her, she let herself lean on the edge of the desk. "Mattingly to Caine."

 

There was the sound of a muffled thud from the other end of the line, then a low oath, and then Caine's harsh contralto, tinny through the small speakers and clearly very annoyed at the disturbance. "What is it?"

 

Mattingly's grin turned into a smirk. "Commander JoNs is in the office, Lieutenant, and wants to talk to you."

 

"You tell that--"

 

"You might want to come down, sir...she has Mr. Decatur with her and it looks like they've had an interesting night."

 

There was a short silence and then the line went dead. Mattingly chuckled humorlessly. "Never says goodbye...you'd almost think she didn't care." Looking up at the Commander, she offered a sloppy salute. "She'll be here in a minute." Turning, she moved to slide past the group out the door; better to leave by her own means than to have Caine throw her out when she arrived. "Hope you've got a good reason for waking the chief up," she muttered to Decatur as she went, "Or we'll all eat hearty when your head comes out to the mess on a platter."

 

The doors slid open and she walked out past Lieutenant Caine, who was standing framed in the doorway and walked in to stand behind the desk without saying a word. When she had come to a halt, she looked at the small group before her. Cait commander, covered in drying, sticky Cait blood and bandages. Two sheepish-looking alien guards. And Decatur, also battered up and looking as angry as his stupid face could look. She waited in silence for someone to offer her an explanation for this situation.

 

The feline XO hadn't said a word during the entire exchange as Mattingly contacted Caine and made her low key wise acre comments about the situation. She did pick up on the fact that perhaps she and Decatur might not be the best of friends. The enlisted Bajoran wasn't intimidated by the nighttime interruption, yet she had an easy manner about her that Kansas found interesting.

 

When Lieutenant 'Junior' Caine arrived on the scene, JoNs's ears went flatter, if that was possible, and her tail went into warp nine mode. The appendage was flapping about so much that Mical gently and discreetly attempted to bat it down into submission…the Andorian female guard was one of the few "allowed" to attempt to subdue the tail, of course, as anyone else would have ended up with rapped knuckles.

 

Conversely, the golden furred feline was starting to feel the effects of her injuries. Adrenaline, anger, and sheer stubborn cussedness was keeping her upright and her shotgun weapon steady as her wounds continued to ooze and clot and she was running down on energy. But the felinoid would be damned before she let on that she was hurting to the group at large -- she would crash later.

 

Her green eyed gaze landed unerringly on Lieutenant Caine, and she snarled slightly; her sawed off cannon still remained pointed at Decatur's back while JoNs directed her attention fully at the Vulcan Security chief. "Your boy here tried to knife me tonight. The charges currently stand at breaking and entering, assaulting a superior officer, and intent with a deadly weapon. This pup of yours should be dead right now and oozing out his life's blood on the carpet in my quarters, as I'd be well within my rights to blow a hole through him. But, you should know me well enough by now to realize we're not handling this whole cluster frag according to the regulations. I do however expect you to handle him and this situation accordingly Mister Caine."

 

One of Caine's eyebrows quirked up but her face otherwise remained completely still. Decatur had gone for JoNs? Why, you little boy...I knew you were stupid but I didn't know quite how badly. You should know better than to try to play the grownup's game.

 

The Cait was still talking. "Your young man needs to be taught some manners." The leonine XO's tone was unwavering, and her gaze still burned straight at Caine.

 

Caine couldn't resist a slight smile at JoNs's fury, and she let herself settle slowly into her desk. "Mr. Decatur...is this true? Did you decide to make like a Cait and scratch your way to the top?" Her tone was cool, dismissive of both her officer and the commander who had brought him. She showed no sign of annoyance, though it was bubbling in her gut. Decatur had brought all the attention from the XO that she did not need down her like an anvil.

You little child...she should have shot you there and saved me the trouble.

 

"You have no quarter to draw on here Lieutenant! One of your people screwed up. Which means that screw up extends to you, which means your ass is collectively mine right now."

 

Caine turned her grey eyes fully on the Cait and her smile didn't falter, though her gaze turned icy. "Unfortunately, Commander, I cannot take credit in this particular case for the boy's stupidity. I am as surprised as you are to find your blood staining my office...at this particular moment."

 

JoNs's tone came out quiet, but direct. "But this *is* your department. And you are out of line Lieutenant. Stand down."

 

There it was. The Command Tone. Full on, no mistakes, no quarter given. The purred-growl direct order sliced through the offices, and brooked no argument from the half-Vulcan chief.

 

JoNs still wasn't as good as Harper when it came to The Tone, considering the Colonel could melt titanium when she unleashed The Tone. But, the JoNs Tone was a pretty darn good imitation, and the younger feline was obviously well into the process of coming into her own as an Imperial command officer, rough and ready mercenary root blood ties aside.

 

Even though she wasn't gesticulating wildly in time with her angered tone, the anger still caused the felinoid to stiffen up even further, and her sliced up leg and collarbone areas began to un clot, open up, and gush again with a blood flow. Medical attention was needed, and if she didn't get it in short order, she'd straight out collapse.

 

Noticeably, her leg wounding began to dribble on the office carpeting once again. Petty Officer Darjhan's gaze flicked to the small drops as they impacted with the carpeted decking and then the big male Zaldan bodyguard moved quietly to stand closer to and behind his feline charge.

 

Caine's eyes dropped to JoNs leg as she watched the blood begin to seep out. "Of course, Commander," she said easily, even her acknowledgment of the point calculated to seem dismissive, mocking, to raise the ire of the fiery Caitian. "Shall I shoot him for you?" Her hand went to the pistol at her holster and she watched Kansas's reaction narrowly.

 

She wasn't sure Kansas would even accept the suggestion; if she did, Caine would do it without difficulty. Decatur was a pain, more often than not, and the difficulties which would arise out of this evening would make the punishment more than worth the effort expended in delivering it. She hoped she would not be asked to perform it publically, however; she would rather not appear to be on JoNs side even for a moment, no matter how unwillingly.

 

An emotion flickered across the Cait's green eyes then. It might have been a bit of compassion, it might not have. As it stood, the emotion was so fleeting it was gone in half a second. "If I wanted to take that course of action, I would have blown a hole through his gut back in my quarters. I want him to be punished, not dead Lieutenant."

 

An expression like victory appeared in Caine's face -- victory over a perceived weaker enemy. As she had expected...JoNs did not have the guts to carry the punishment through to its conclusion. Such reticence would eventually cost her dearly; for now Caine was content to accept the benefits to herself which it offered. She stood up, moving around the desk. She raised a hand and Decatur flinched back in terror, but she simply laid it against his shoulder, a gesture of acceptance of a prisoner transfer. "That is, of course, your prerogative..." she said coldly.

 

Decatur, feeling more confident as the danger he perceived in the situation seemed to lessen, moved slightly to stand next to Caine and spat in the direction of the three aliens who had been holding him. "Don't need your pity..." he muttered sulkily.

 

Without a word, Caine angled her body around and backhanded him sharply across the jaw. "Shut up, boy," she hissed. "You've caused me enough trouble for one night."

 

Kansas, who had hissed and been just shy of pouncing Decatur after the crewman had spat in her general direction, stopped mid-lunge when Caine suddenly slapped him across the face. Instead, the feline returned her plasma shotgun to the weapon's holster where it sat low slung on her one hip.

 

"I do suggest you keep better tabs on your people in the future Caine … "

 

Caine almost snarled as she spun away from Decatur back towards JoNs but immediately she collared the angry explosion and fell back into her usual stiff bearing. "Do not patronize me, and do not tell me how to run my department, Commander. I assure you...he will be taken care of. Now kindly get out before my decor becomes any redder than you are already making it."

 

The feline officer merely backed up out of the office, blood trail following in her wake, her almost feverish with anger green eyes going right at Caine full bore, her own personal bodyguards flanking her in time as JoNs exited the area.

 

"...Lieutenant, you'd do very well to remember your place on the command chain before I string you up in the hanger bay and beat you with said chain…."

 

The Ex Oh's parting words hung on the recycled ships air, cold and still and matching the cold as ice manner emanating from the Chief of Security.

 

Caine looked at the door for a long moment in silence, her eyes hard, then turned her eyes back towards Decatur. "So it appears, like a lost puppy, you have been dragged by the collar back to my door. What shall I do with you...?"