Win If You Can

Posted on Feb 06, 2015 @ 12:15pm by Captain Kassandra Thytos

Mission: Limbo

"Win if you can"
(Cont. "Purple stuff")
* * *=/\=* * *
"Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat." -Jesse Ventura
* * *=/\=* * *

Location: USS PHOENIX
Stardate: 2.15.0204.1714
Scene: Briefing room

As the officer of the PHOENIX left the briefing room, Kane noticed
Kassandra hovering around the edge of the room, a frown on her face,
giving the distinct impression of someone wrestling with how, or
indeed whether, to say something.

"Is there a problem, Major?" Kane asked as he and Aerdan halted in
front of the Marine. Her preoccupation crossed the line into agitation
as she squared her shoulders and with a look of intense focus brought
her eyes up to meet his in as normal a manner as possible.

"I... Knew... Rawyvin Seth... Back when I was in Starfleet, posted on
the SUTTNER, just after she became associated with the GATEWAY,"
Kassandra's voice was clipped, overly precise, her colony accent
erased by the care with which she was choosing her words. She paused,
her frown deepening.

"And?" Kane prompted when it became apparent that her pause had lapsed
into silence. Her eyes swung back up towards his, an affectation that
amplified the mixture of shame and guilt that had spread over her
face. Neither of those two emotions sat well on her features, they
looked awkward.

"I was- Um... I was his counselor. I did psyche evals on him," she
dipped her eyes again, and the reason for her embarrassment was
quickly obvious to Kane. "Sir, I didn't see any warning signs. He was
cocky, yeah, he was a bit of a narcissist, but this? I wouldn't have
imagined he would ever become this."

She bowed her head.

"I wasn't the best counselor in the world- I became one because a
friend much wiser than I suggested that it would do me good to heal,
rather than harm," With a sudden vicious movement, Kassandra slammed
her fist into the bulkhead next to her. "I shoulda seen it, there had
ta have been somethin' that I missed. How could I not've seen it?"

"Major, I'm sure that bulkhead is a completely innocent bystander in
all this, if you'd please refrain from taking out your frustrations on
it?" Kane said mildly, hoping to break the tension and divert
Kassandra from what was quickly spiraling into the adult equivalent of
a temper tantrum. She looked back at him and frowned, unsure whether
he was making a joke. "I'm assuming you're bringing this up because
you had a point to make?"

"Yes Captain. Sorry. It's disconcertin' is all. My point- I think I
have an idea how to lure him outta hidin' or at least, distract him
from the rest of the crew. He's smart, I don' t know how long it'll be
until he realizes we're lookin' for Selyara, but once he does we could
inadvertently lead him right to her. But I may be able to distract him
from the others for a while," Kassandra smoothed her uniform, and
tugged at the bottom. "Sir, Rawyvin is very competitive, and he knows
me. Back in the day, we were pretty evenly matched. Now, I don't
really know. He's gotten better, but so I have I."

"You want to goad him into coming after you to prove he's better than
you are?" Aerdan asked, his antennae swiveling towards her with a
twitch.

"Yes sir," Kassandra nodded curtly. "Place like Limbo there's gotta be
fightin' pits. If I can make enough of a name for myself on the
station Rawyvin won't be able to resist taking me on to prove he's
better than me. If someone's known for being smart, he's gotta let
everyone know he's smarter. He's not going to be able resist showing
off and proving he's better than me."

"And is he?" Kane asked bluntly. "We don't have enough crew to take
foolhardy risks."

Kassandra bridled at that, her chin jutting forward and lips curling
up. If she'd been a dog her hackles would have risen. Aerdan Jos
coughed slightly, and she settled down.

"Well how would I know that, Sir?" She said in a slightly sullen tone.
"I haven't fought him in years. I'm good enough to not get killed by
him, if that makes a difference. And I'm more likely to have a
fighting chance than anyone else in the crew. My sensor nets give me
an advantage fightin' him, in that they allow me to predict his
movements before they happen by givin' me information about what his
muscle fibers are doin'. He can fake other people out, but he won't be
able to do that to me."

"And if he decides to take you out with his phaser?" Kane crossed his
arms and stared down at the Marine. She mimicked his pose and shook
her head, sending her red ponytail swinging wildly. Her stubborn chin
jutted forward even more than usual, giving Kane the impression of a
bulldog.

"He won't. Anyone can use a phaser- A phaser is cheatin'. If he takes
me out, he's gonna to have to do it with his bare hands or he hasn't
proved he's better than me." Kassandra said with conviction.

Kane exchanged a glance with his second in command.

Kassandra was in a rare mood, she seemed to be very effected by what
she saw as an unforgivable failure on her part, and Kane didn't
particularly like the sudden hardness in the woman's eyes. Kassandra
wasn't exactly a loose cannon she was disciplined in her professional
life, if somewhat prickly, but from what he could gather from her
heavily redacted files, her private life stopped just short of a
disaster zone. This situation with Rawyvin seemed to be verging on the
personal for her.

"Thank you Major," Kane finally said. "I need to discuss this with the
Commander. Please go and get yourself and your Marines ready for
disembarking on LIMBO."

"Yes sir," Kassandra said in a tone that boarded on surly, and saluted
him. She exited the room.

Kane waited until the door had closed behind the Marine, and raised
his eyes questioningly at Aerdan Jos.

“She does have a point.” Aerdan said gravely, leaning his hands on the
edge of the table.

“I know she does.” Kane sighed. Even a broken clock was right twice a
day. Rawyvin Seth would most likely have to be dealt with using brute
force.

“You have reservations?”

“Yes and no. I haven't witnessed it first hand, but from all accounts
the Major is very good at what she does. The problem comes from the
fact that as far as I can tell, subtlety and diplomacy are not in her
vocabulary,” Kane thought for a moment. “If she gets into trouble her
solution will always be a to fight or shoot her way out, and one thing
I'm fairly certain about is that she's flexible about her definition
of acceptable losses for anyone she doesn't feel responsible for.”

“And people she does feel responsible for?” The Andorian cocked his head.

“Kamikaze lemming, take a bullet for them. Marines are predictable in
that regard.”

“I will accompany the Major,” it was a simple statement, not a
request. “I have had practice dealing with people very similar to the
Major. She will likely need someone with medical training to patch her
up, and frankly I fear for Cade Foster's life and and the Major's
sanity if we sent them to the station together. Besides, while she's
busy attracting Rawyvin Seth, I can be watching out for him. He is
searching for Selyara too, just as he could use us, we can use him.”

Kane nodded his assent.

* * * * * * * * * *

Location: LIMBO

Scene: The Atria

“Whatta dungheap,” Kassandra muttered under her breath. “I've been in
sewer systems that smelled better.”

“The view is nice,” Aerdan said diplomatically. Although the place was
grungy and as the woman had rightly said smelled like a combination of
excrement , clashing foods being cooked and unwashed bodies, the view
that he could see of the nebula through the enormous transparisteel
windows that ringed the Atria floor to ceiling was nothing short of
spectacular. Even down among the grime of the tenements the occasional
reminder of the original beauty of the space station could be found in
the shape of an old pond, or a bit of ornamental metalwork embedded in
the floor.

The Marine didn't respond for a moment. She seemed to be having a hard
time taking his measure. She was clearly not used to being the one
doing all the talking, and it was forcing her to make awkward attempts
at small talk. He suspected that her discomfort was heightened by his
rank relative to hers. She, like most Marines he had met, had a strict
belief in the chain of command and proper interactions with her
superior officers.

“I wouldn't know. My sensor nets don't go that far. Plus they ain't
very good at conveyin' esoteric appeal,” Kassandra frowned, apparently
deciding on a different tactic for conversations. “Are you here to
babysit me?”

“You're too old for a babysitter.” Aerdan pointed out with amusement.

“Can you fight?” She came to a halt and turned to face him. She looked
more than a little uncomfortable in her civilian clothing. She'd
chosen a feminine ensemble favored by the Human rim colony worlds, a
loose fitting white blouse and pants with a knee length dark blue
velvet surcoat secured at the waist, and a small red hat sitting
jauntily on her head. He had never understood the human obsession with
small hats. Her intention seemed to have been to make herself look as
non-threatening as possible, and it worked. She'd been reduced from
deadly Marine to a petite , naive colony girl with one change of
outfits.

“I'm adequate, or so I've been told.”

“So... I ain't your babysitter.” She scrutinized him, the expression
on her face spoiled by the unfocused stare of her eyes.

“I am also too old for a babysitter.”

Kassandra evidently decided that it was too much effort to continue
the converstation, and turned her attention to weaving though the
crowd, looking for something, it seemed. In a crowded space like LIMBO
Aerdan rather envied her sensor nets, she wove easily through the
crowd in front of him, managing to avoid being jostled by the mass of
beings that teemed around them.

“Major, I assume you have a plan, do you care to share with me?”
Aerdan asked finally after three quarters of an hour of silence. She
half turned so she could talk to him and he read triumph in her face.
Apparently they'd been engaging in a contest without his knowledge.

“I'm plannin' to get into a fight. Just lookin' for the perfect place
to start one,” she nudged aside an inebriated Breen that was lying on
the sidewalk near the entrance to a bar. “If I just show up at the
Pits here then it's gonna be too obviously a setup to Rawyvin. I gotta
get the pit boss to come to me, instead. And speakin' of perfect
places , I do believe this one ticks all the boxes.”

She pushed open the door of the bar and stepped primly up to the bar,
ignoring the stares of the grimy patrons. They were looking at her as
though she was a rabbit in among a throng of coursing dogs. Aerdan
quickly stepped in behind her,hoping this wasn't as stupid an idea as
it looked to him at the moment.

“A bloodwine, please, and an Andorian ale for my friend,” she said
sweetly to the glaring barkeeper, pulling a strip of latinum from a
pouch hidden somewhere in her surcoat. The Kingon tossed his head back
and laughed raucously.

“Run along, girlie,” he sneered. “That's a man's drink, and this is a
man's place. You look like a nice morsel, you better leave before one
of these boys try to take a bite.”

“I said, a bloodwine and an Andorian ale. Has gold pressed latinum
suddenly lost its value?” The Marine's voice reached treacly levels of
syrupy sweetness. “No? Then give us a bloodwine and an Andorian ale,
and let us deal with any of these toDSaH who've think they've got the
balls to beat me.”

She pulled out a stool from a table with her foot, and sat down,
primly crossing her ankles and cleaning the grime off of the table
with a handkerchief she produced from her pocket. The bartender threw
down the two drinks with a sneer at Aerdan which suggested that he was
held in contempt for being unable to control 'his female'.

Aerdan raised his eyebrows at Kassandra as she pulled the bloodwine
towards her, and took a sip. She gave him an impish grin as she took a
good swig of her drink and began a countdown with one hand. As she
reached zero a heavy fist slapped down on the table, sending her drink
sloshing in its cup.

An absurdly enormous human male towered over the two officers. Ugly,
of a size that rivaled a Klingon, scarred, and clearly very
inebriated, the man leered down at Kassandra.

“You sound like you need to be reminded of your place. You been around
fuckin antennaheads for so long that you need a real man?”

“Maybe, but I don't think you fit the bill. Tell me if you find one.”

The man made a grunt of rage, and swung his fist at the place where
Kassandra's head had been a moment ago, but the Marine had been ready
for the attack, tossing her bloodwine into his face, and rolling
backwards off her seat. She came to her feet and shoved the table,
sending Aerdan flying out of the way of the fight.

She tried to make a grab for the stool, but her opponent seemed to
have predicted that move, and caught her by the arm, tossing her into
a sliding fall across the bar in a spray of broken glass and
multicolored liquids. She fell off the bar and staggered to her feet,
and the man barreled towards her like a runaway train.

Aerdan winced in anticipation of a sickening crunch, but at the last
moment Kassandra ducked down, hip popping up into her opponents groin
while her hands deftly assisted him in a neat cartwheel though the air
and down onto a table. The table broke under the weight and the man
let out a woofing noise as the air was knocked out of him. Kassandra
hesitated a moment too long and he was back on his feet, approaching
her with a piece of the table leg and a greater sense of wariness.

Aerdan frowned. It seemed as though the Marine might have greatly
overestimated her ability as a fighter. He looked at the other
onlookers, but none of them seemed to be interested in wading into the
fight. On the contrary, they seemed more interested in making bets
than assisting.

Aerdan looked back in time to see the man swinging the table leg into
Kassandra's stomach. She grunted, but used the momentum to disarm him,
slamming her knee into his chin. The man fell hard onto one knee, and
Kassandra whipped the makeshift club into the back of the man's head.
He staggered and then fell still to the floor. She tossed the table
leg onto the prone body, and walked back over to Aerdan.

“Wusses. Let's get out of here, if I'm gonna have to fight, I want an
actual challenge.” She clamped onto his arm and steered him out of the
door. They wound a couple of blocks before Kassandra ducked into an
alleyway. “You OK?”

“Except for the fact that you seem to have grossly overestimated your
fighting ability, yes. You almost got destroyed back in there, and you
expect to be able to take on Rawyvin Seth?” Aerdan found himself
becoming angry as Kassandra looked back at him, a smirk on her face.
“Do I have to take you to sickbay to patch you up after you've wasted
our time with that?”

“Nope. Not a scratch on me, Sir,” the smirk was becoming positively
self satisfied.

“Which is more than can be said for me.” A deep, gravelly booming
voice said from behind Aerdan. “What ever happened to pulling your
punches, Red?”

Aerdan turned around to find himself face to face with the thug from
the bar who was wearing a similarly smug smile on his face as he moved
to squeeze Kassandra's shoulder.

“Same thing that happened to not makin' me play slip'n slide with
perfectly good bottles of booze, Harry. Sorry about that knee though.
The Doc on the ship is pretty good, he'll patch you up good. Here,
catch. Extra communicator. Ask for Lance Corporal Stacy Flannigan, our
logistics officer. She'll get you on board and situated. Move your ass
before someone sees us together,” Kassandra turned back to grin at
Aerdan again. “Even I'm not enough of an idiot to get into a fight
that's not 100% a sure thing just yet. Besides, I'm armed to the
teeth. If it really got that bad I'd've just shanked him.”
* * *=/\=* * *

NRPG: Errrrrrrrrgh. That was nowhere near as nicely written as I'd
intended. But yay, post?

Alix Fowler
writing for

Kassandra Thytos
MCO
USS PHOENIX