Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in side-sim Still in the Lounge

Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in side-sim Still in the Lounge

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in side-sim Still in the Lounge
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Casela got up from her chair and got right in Cobb’s face. “Don’t. You. DARE Zachariah Cobb! I made this choice and I knew even before the offer was made what the price might be. I knew, and so did Roebuck, what could happen when he sent me out here. I was under orders to report back to him, before we got to our first mission location, to tell him if I thought the crew would survive and what it needed to do so.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but was hard as steel. Her use of telepathy is an indication of how drunk she was. “I don’t pick my loyalties on a whim, Zachariah. You should know that and it’s insulting that you would think I did this for a ‘favor.’ Despite what some members of this crew might think of me, I did this to ensure we succeed and I’d do it again.”

Cobb’s mouth opened and closed, in the manner of a fish reeled in on gleaming hook and being slowly deprived of air.

She sat back down staring Zachariah and then Ryder in the eye. “A report to the admiral was not an unusual request of the CNS on board. It happens more than you think. Problem is, the shadow didn’t like what I said. In not so many words I told Roebuck the problem with these damn ARU/RTF ships is too many people can legally refuse to report to CO/XO of a ship. How they expect you to guide a mission when you don’t have clearance for it, when over half your crew can LEGALLY mutiny is beyond me, and I told Roebuck that.”

The alcohol was making her hot. She got up and shrugged the uniform jacket off, and remembering Doc Fey’s advice is got a very large glass of water from the replicator. “There’s also a message for you from Admiral Roebuck on there. He sends his regards.” She leaned against the wall where the light was the brightest and stared at Ryder. She nodded, “Oh RTF is plenty talented. But how do you fight something that’s a shadow, within your own ranks? Or not? I’m not sure” She sounded drunk as she looked at both of them. “I’m making more sense than you realize.” She paced back to her chair and sat down again, to fend of the dizziness. “Among the section there is rumor of a man. More than rumor I’d bet my reputation. He’s known as only a shadow. I’ve never been on the receiving end of one of his visits, though I have seen those who have and have seen the evidence of his passing. And tonight, he was there with Roebuck. I’m not sure what I did, but I’m in a lot of trouble now.” Her voice got very quiet as she contemplated her predicament. She waited for the yelling to start.

Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

“A shadow?” the Captain echoed, his own voice a sunken whisper. One single glance at Raauhl telegraphed every atom of the old man’s fear and horror at these words. “Aye, Roebuck mentioned…something. I don’t know…thought he was selling me a bogeyman, trying to keep me in line.”

He snorted out a humourless laugh and immediately began searching the area for something worthwhile to drink. And suddenly every nanosecond of his past cried out like a beacon, leading him towards this final, inevitable end. The Federation. Starfleet. Roebuck. All no more than a mirage, a perverted cavern of illusions. Prestidigitation from Mephistopheles himself. For in that moment it became nauseatingly clear. There was no honour to be found in this mission, no accomplishments to be sung of once the deed was done. Only betrayal and deceit so deep it could fill a thousand oceans yet save drops enough for her tears.

“I am so sorry, Cas,” was all he could whisper.

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Casela raised a single brow, “I wish he was only trying to scare you. And don’t apologize. I made my choice, you didn’t make, you didn’t force this choice on me.” Very sternly she looked at him, “You are going to take that, whatever is on that isochip and use it. You, YOU Zachariah, are going to make this ship a thing of legend. YOU are going to make sure they sing songs about us.” She looked at Ryder, “And you are going to help him do it. Both of you. Command put this crew together as a joke. Roebuck knew it and he didn what he could to help. I did my part, now do yours. Whenever this shadow comes, with any luck I’ll have a nasty surprise for him, and if not your success might be enough for Roebuck to get rid of him.”

Her belief in him was touching. But Casela had been lucky. These explorations she dared into Zachariah’s soul had so far revealed only the admirable and the good. How long until she stumbled one single, misplaced step and revealed a side of Cobb that would terrify her to her core?

She was going to have a long talk with Zachariah. She knew all about his ‘darkside’ it was all she could get from him those first few days, and had been too far in his drink to know that was all he thought about. She knew monsters, she’d been one, or had felt like she had been. Zachariah was NOTHING like the monsters that were really out there.

Casela looked at Ryder, he hadn’t said much, and she wasn’t sure if she’d just ruined it all. And suddenly she understood what T’Jal and Jake had told her all those years.
It really did sneak up on you, and it, he was worth whatever price she had to pay. She was scared and he alone could tell it was all bluster because only he knew that she was reaching for the necklace tucked under her shirt. She had no idea what she would do about her own situation, but that was minor compared to making sure Leviathan succeeded. She needed Ryder, and Cobb needed both of them.

Ryder obviously found himself in something a lot deeper than he initially realized, and the captain seemed to know at least on some level what was going on. “Can someone explain to me whats going on, please. Is this ship in danger? What does the Admiral want and what is this nonsense about a shadow.” He well and truly had his executive officers cap on now as he looked between both he drunk Casela, who he knew would regret this whole evening tomorrow and Cobb.

• Commander Raauhl, XO

She would probably regret it, but at least Ryder had the clearance and so did Cobb, so whatever she said, she was in the clear that way. She would have told them both anyway. She was so tired of shadows and secrets and power games. Casela’s frustration and anger at Cobb’s temporary loss of spine burned off some of the haze and she looked directly at Ryder, her gaze locked on his. She wanted to ask him if they were strong enough for this, if he felt like she was still worth it. But the question seemed too intimate to ask in front of the captain, but her eyes asked anyway. She took a breath and started over, making sure to speak slowly and clearly, for her sake because of the alcohol. “The most important answer, No the ship is not in danger, not from what I’ve done. I am, but not anyone else. This ‘shadow’ is a misnomer I guess. He is a man, humanoid by all accounts. Who specifically he is, I don’t know and most people don’t. Hence the name ‘shadow.’ He…well…I don’t know his rank or how he seems to appear or disappear. Probably technology that is reserved only for the most elite.” She waved her hand indicating Leviathan and the specialized equipment they had on board, and the similarity. “Accounts claim a flash of light, much like a transporter, and he tends to stay in the shadows of the room to ensure his features are hard to recognize, so again the name. For years I thought it was a story to scare new operatives. Until I started questioning my orders and forcing the issue. Till I went “off track” and made decisions for myself. His passing usually is followed by either good operatives turning meek and sitting behind a desk, or disappearing.” She shrugs, she’d never sit behind a desk. “As for Admiral Roebuck, he called me into his office before I shipped for the station. Told me to report to him, anything Zachariah needed to make this ship a success. He knew I was gutsy enough to ask for whatever it was, no matter the cost. He’s a good man, a good officer. He’s concerned with the number of RTF ships that, well, end up like the Einstein. He believes in the purpose and objective of RTF. Much as you’ve said yourself, Ryder, the crew is divided. Roebuck knew it would be, but he gave Zachariah, and you, the best of each department.” She stops, downs the glass of water, and stares at the wall not seeing it. This time her voice is quiet, almost to herself, “And what should have been a simple crew readiness evaluation brought me right back to the notice of the section, and I was only a year from getting out.”

Lt. Synthi-er, CNS/RTF/S31

The captain frowned. He too had heard of the ‘shadow’, although only in passing. And yet he doubted her claim on its almost mystical powers. In Cobb’s experience most monsters had decidedly human origins. And they were all the more terrifying for that fact. And whoever this ‘shadow’ might be, he had his job and he had his orders, the same as everyone else. The real question was, did his orders seek to glorify or to destroy the Leviathan and the ARU?

“I can’t offer much else about the shadow,” Cobb shrugged at Ryder. “But what I can say is that I would trust Roebuck with my life. For whatever that’s worth.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

“He’s flesh and blood, and that means you can hurt him. It’s tracking him down and identifing him…” she trailed off. Her brain was not going to function on that level at the moment. She HATED drinking. Why had she done it?

OOC: Sorry, pasting Jake back in…

Ryder was about to say something when =^= Commander Raauhl, you’re requested on the bridge sir to hand over to Gamma shift.=^= He looked to Casela and let out a soft sigh, “I’ve got to go but when I’m done we’re having a talk.” He gave her a small sympathetic smile before turning to Cobb. “And I think we’re going to need to think of a way to deal with this issue before it becomes a problem.” He nodded to them both before finally saying “Goodnight Lieutenant, Captain” And left, a number of plans formulating in his mind one of them being using Casela as bait.

Casela nodded, she wasn’t sure what he wanted to talk about, but she wasn’t going to start arguing with him now. She’d loose, spectacularly and, she had at least enough presence of mind for self preservation at the moment.

• Commander Raauhl, XO

Once he left she looked at Cobb. “Don’t give me that whole, ‘I’m a monster, you have no idea what I’ve done’ speech. The same can be said for both us. I’ve seen real monsters, and they are all flesh and blood.” She pointed at him again. “We all have dark sides. We do what we think is best at the time. Out of everyone on board I probably understand that the most. Now suck it up and let it go.” She snapped her mouth shut. He was still the captain and she probably shouldn’t have said that, “Sorry Zachariah, I…I know you’re perfect for this ship, you just need to see it too. I’m too drunk still.” She sighed, soul weary. “Tomorrow we can exchange tails about who is more of a monster.”
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

The energy to fight her on this had dissipated long ago. The trouble, Cobb had found, with telepaths was they constantly considered to know your own mind better than you did yourself. And who was to say she was wrong? Certainly, it had been years since Zachariah had risked a dalliance with introspection. Still, the way she made him feel constantly naked, his every thought and fear and emotion on show was…unsettling.

“Aye, if you wish.” he shrugged. Dammit, she might be drunk but he was barely getting started. “For the sake of all the gods, Cas, where are you hiding the bottle now, eh?” he roared in desperation.

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Casela pouted, actually pouted. “Ryder took them away and left them in the lounge, but....” she got up and put a request for whisky into the replicator. The default was synthohol, but real alcohol could be gotten simply by adjusting a simple setting. And since she hadn’t asked for anything from the replicator that night, she was able to get the bottle and a glass. She walked over and handed both to Zachariah. She could see from the look on his face he was uncomfortable with her again. And it was always the same thing, with everyone- her telepathy. “You know one of these days I’ll have the paracortex of my brain removed and no one will look at me like that anymore.” She wouldn’t drink with Zachariah. Ryder had been right, an hour ago it had been far past time for her to stop drinking. The Captain was welcome to the whole bottle. She knew the look without reading his mind, and it hurt. Zachariah’s opinion mattered to her, and she didn’t like how he saw her at the moment. “Normally I’d tell you, your wrong. I don’t use my telepathy that much, but tonight I’m too drunk to know one way or the other.”
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS