Playing Dumb

Posted on Aug 22, 2014 @ 12:19pm by Captain Kassandra Thytos

Mission: Absolute Power

"Playing dumb"
(Cont 'Metamorphosis part 2')
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Location: EARTH
Stardate: 2.140817.1349
Scene: Main Courtroom

Kassandra tugged absently at her collar as she used her nets to people
watch the gallery in the Board of Inquiry. Dress collars always made
her feel as though she was being strangled, and the crowd was making
her antsy. No one else seemed to be feeling her discomfort.

Kane’s uniform was impeccable; his golden eye stared out at Edgerton
like he was daring him to say something. He managed to make his
testimony sound other than mechanical and rehearsed, though she had
the strong suspicion that he was the sort who would have charted out
and practiced every reply and every detail of his testimony.

Kassandra found herself unwillingly fascinated by the Captain. He was
a weird one for sure. On one hand he had this sense of superiority
where herself and the other Marines were concerned, looking down on
them as one would on a particularly loud, aggressive dog. On the
other, she’d been reading about the thousands he’d killed on Calnaria.

In a single moment Kane had single-handedly killed enough people to
make Kassandra’s decade of Marine operations look like playground
bullying. He’d shown with the DISCOVERY that he was more than willing
to take lives and yet he looked down on her and the other Marines for
having made a career of being ready and able to kill when the
situation demanded it. She wondered how he overcame THAT bit of
cognitive dissonance. She briefly considered asking him about it next
time he started ragging on her marines, but quickly discarded the
idea. Kane did not strike her as the sort that would confide in a
subordinate, nor one that would appreciate the cheek.

She was yanked from her reverie by the woman in charge of the Board
calling her name. She tugged the top of her dress uniform down and
buttoned the top collar. She’d slicked back the long section of hair
on the top of her head and got the sides freshly shorn. The twins had
assured her that she looked like a ‘battle axe’, in their words.

She walked slowly to the front.

“Please state your name for the record.” The clerk asked as she sat down.

“Cap’n Kassandra Thytos, UFP Marine Corps, Assigned to the USS
DISCOVERY.” She said shortly.

“Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth?” The recorder asked.

“Ah shore do… Ah mean, yes.” Kassandra unleashed her full Sherman’s
Planet accent for the occasion. She realized her position here was
tenuous, Edgerton at least knew what she was supposed to have been
doing, and her encounter with Mr. Johnson had proved that he was quite
willing to take her out to keep her quiet. Despite her bravado with
his assassin, the last thing she wanted was the twins targeted because
of this. She wanted to seem as non threatening as possible, and she’d
found that her accent caused core worlders to discount her as a
hayseed- a rather stupid being who couldn’t be counted on for a smart
answer to any difficult questions. With any luck, they wouldn’t ask
many questions and press her if she claimed ignorance. And in doing
so, maybe Edgerton would decide she didn’t know anything, and
certainly wasn’t about to narc on him. Of course the dim view core
worlders tended to have of Marines as all muscle and no brains helped.

“Can you please tell me how the DISCOVERY was lost?”

“Don’ rightly know, ma’am if I’m bein’ honest. Somethin’ to do with
microfractures, right? All I know is all th’ space day-bree was
hittin’ the ship and making us all sick. then suddenly th’ ship was
‘bout as air tight as a waterbucket with a hole, and then it was
kay-ouss. Then I was tole we had to ee-vac-you-ate.” Kassandra
punctuated that with a head scratch.

“Do you know much about the mission there?” Martine cocked her head.

“Naw. Kane don’t think too kindly of the Corps, ma’am. Treats us like
mushrooms-“ She paused and then added very unnecessarily “In the dark
an’ feeds us shit, if you pardon my French, Ma’am.”

The look she received from most of the onlookers was similar to what
she expect if she’d pissed on their legs.

Edgerton leaned in.

“You seem to be a controversial figure, Captain Thytos.” His eyes
sought hers and she obligingly met them with her dead blue ones. “The
crew seems split as to whether you were instrumental with rescuing the
surviving crew, or whether you held them all at gunpoint. Do you care
to explain?”

“The truth sir?” She allowed herself a brief, knowing smirk for his
eyes only. “The truth is that pardon to all you Space Cadets- uh,
Starfleet personnel, ain’t so great when you’re in a panic. Oh, like
half of you keep your marbles together, but the other half, they’ll
run around like a headless chicken pitchin’ a fit unless you give ‘em
an incentive. Well, I’m a Marine sir, ain’t got rank over them, so my
incentive was in the form of some of our standard issue munitions.”

“I see. Since you seem to have been central to evacuating the crew,
can you tell me why causalities were so high for you Marines and
Security?”

“Sir, I trusted my Marines and the Security officers to take care of
themselves and others. I ordered them to go help round up the crew on
the upper decks, thought they’d be able to help save more of the crew,
but I guess time ran out, and I just got ‘em killed. But that’s the
risk I had to take, I guess.”

“I see, and the accusation that the Security officers and your Marines
were Neo-Essentialists?” Martine interjected.

“That they were what? That some sort of religion, Ma’am? Religion is
personal, ma’am, if any of them were, I wouldn’t know.”

Martine gave her a hard look as though she was having a hard time
buying Kassandra’s stupid act. Kassandra let her jaw hang a little
slack, and scratched her crotch. Martine’s eyes quickly averted.

“Thank you, Captain Thytos. You are dismissed.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

NRPG: Sorry it's short...

Alix Fowler
the voice of
Captain Kassandra Thytos
UFP Marine Corps