CSI:Achilles

Posted on 14 Sep 2010 @ 6:52pm by Captain Reva Madhava & Captain Antonio Vazquez

1,187 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: M6: Blood of the Innocent
Location: Vazquez's Office

The two, Antonio Vazquez and Reva Madhava, had changed venues after the "How to Destroy a Derelict Saucer" meeting. They were now in Vazquez's office and Reva was just uncovering the contents of her box. "Lieutenant Meru and I collected this earlier," she said, "You're the weapons expert, but I think it's the detonator, or pieces of it, at least."

Eyebrows lowered, Antonio looked into the box. "These should of been brought to my attention as soon as the two of you returned", he stated as he pulled out each piece individually from the box, eyed it, and then sat it down on his desk.

The man was infuriating. Reva balled a fist and bit her tongue to keep from unleashing a snide, snarky remark at him. She lost that internal fight: "Oh, right, Lieutenant, because Lieutenant Meru and I knew exactly what this was when we picked up the pieces on the Ballard." Her words dripped with sarcasm. "Yeah, we knew and we just sat on the evidence, keeping it from you."

Antonio sat down and tapped on a console, "Are you finished, Ensign?" he asked calmly, and then glanced at her half smiling as he picked up the PADD that had accompanied the box.

Before she caught his smile and the amusement rolling off of him, Reva reacted: "Look, buddyboy, just because you were my instructor on the Montague doesn't mean you can be so damned cute...," she paused. In her anger, she'd just blurted the wrong word. "I mean... annoying...," she stopped and frowned, her eyes narrowing at him.

Pressing a hand on one leg as he turned in his seat, Antonio leaned back to stare back at her, "Well..'if' not anything, Reva, at least you are honest. Allow me to be as well." he responded firmly. He understood the volatile nature of Orion women, but he also understood the control they were very capable of. It was part of their subvertive, deceptive nature.

"You and I..." he used a finger to indicate between them, "...are of different worlds, and different ranks, but we will talk to each other with mutual respect as Starfleet officers." He studied her, "I 'know' what you are capable of", he raised an eyebrow, "Do we have an understanding?"

"An understanding?" She eyed him, still frowning. Hands on her hips, she turned the frown into a glare and demanded, "When have I ever not spoken to you with respect as a fellow starfleet officer?" She softened, "Well, other than perhaps just now and... before, when I was ... trying to convince you to take me to bed..." She shook her head slightly and made a diminutive gesture, "Not that you took me up on that..."

Okay, one exception of control; an Orion woman within her heat cycle. Antonio rubbed his forehead, "I wasn't...referring to..." and stopped himself. He looked over at another chair and nodded at it, "Pull up a seat, Ensign, and let's get to work."

"No," she'd felt him toss up a wall, a sudden emotional block against her, something to prevent her from getting under his skin. Why? He was the only male she'd ever wanted who had had the temerity to refuse her, which made her want him all the more. "No, wait a minute," she looked at the clock: they had a minute. "What was that? You go from demanding equal respect to 'let's get to work'? Look... I was going to apologize for coming onto you like that. It was inappropriate. But it wasn't disrespectful." She studied him for a second then asked, "Do I scare you, Lieutenant?"

He stared back at her...until he had to look away. "No." Yes, a part of him was scared of her. A part of him that was still in the past. He looked over at the parts on the table, and glanced back up to her, "We are on duty, Ensign." He picked up the PADD to go over the information it held. "And no apology is necessary. I led you on in order to get you to Sickbay..."

He was lying, that much she could tell. She edged marginally closer to him and said, "This conversation will need closure when we're not on duty, then, Antonio." Dropping it, she saw him reviewing the information on the PADD. "These wires and the device were coated in biological material when we discovered it. I've cleaned it, so you needn't worry about ...decomposing body bits getting on you," she smirked at him. "Lieutenant Meru said I should bring these to you."

He nodded as he reviewed the lab results of the metals. A moment later he looked up, and grabbed the device, and held it up. "You were right on your hypothesis...this 'was' a detonator. Part of one, to be more accurate...", he placed it on the image scanner padd that sat next to his console, and tapped on the console's keys to do a search. "There was a Larucian attack on the Kyari two years ago...", the search ended with a gridded image of a Larucian detonator, and the word Match stamped in red across it.

"Okay, so the Larucians were behind the bombing," Reva said.

Resting a hand on his chin, Antonio tapped at the console keys again, "Not necessarily, the design is Larucian, but the componants are a mix of Laruc and...,"and placed the remaining parts on the scanner padd. Another search ended, " ...Kyari. Specifically...the igniter...being Kyari...". Taking his hand away from his face, he sat up straight, and picked up the device, "A deliberate move," he added, his tone filled with annoyance as he tossed it into the box.

"A Larucian design using Kyari parts? The two entities have been trading for years. That's the sort of cross-over I'd expect," Reva argued against the 'deliberate move' comment.

As she spoke, he picked up the wires, and studied them, turning them as his fingers traced over them. His brow furrowed in thought as he did so, something familiar with the way they were intertwined...

She'd seen that look before. "What's bothering you about this?"

His eyes moved quickly to hers, and then back to the wires, "No...umm.." and he pressed a palm to one side of his forehead. "I don't know.." he said as he placed the wires down.

After feeling lost for a moment, he began placing all the parts back into the box. "And trade metals...sure..." he looked to her, "...but weapons? and weapons parts? unlikely."

They were heading toward a dead end, it seemed. "Larucian design, Kyari parts... perhaps, then, it was a bomb maker trained by Larucians hired and supplied by a Kyari." She was a scientist and she wanted a solution to the puzzle. Frowning at Antonio, Reva wanted him to provide it.

"That's good, Ensign. Possible. And almost too easy" he replied as he grabbed the PADD. "We'll add that to your report. The fact that someone may want us to think it, makes it helpful".

___________________________
Lieutenant Antonio Vazquez
Weapons Specialist
USS Achilles

&

Ensign Reva Madhava
Scientist
USS Achilles

 

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