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Captains Office (Sealed) - The new Captain of the Retribution stepped from the door over to the desk and had a seat, resting her hands in her lap as she crossed one leg over the other. Her face was blank, not really believing that this was anything worth her time but she would hear him out. After what had happened in the conference room her patience was running thin. She had wanted to discuss other things, such as job assignments and more but after people were focused on what they could get out of the situation and wanting her to divulge information she would only share with her most trusted she felt it was best to not even deal with these Alliance folk anymore. Part of her wanted vengeance, in the truest since of the word against the Alliance. They had burned her planet and taken her family. Now they had taken her childhood friend. Harper was Alliance, or so she thought at this point, so was Carla and Foy - all three could take a walk into the black. She owed them nothing. Jahosafat she wondered just whose side he was on since there was no file on him. That she needed to find out.
As Harper began to speak Anisa cocked a brow, that was not what she was expecting; letting it roll around in her mind for a moment before she spoke. Resting her hands on the desk she leaned forward a bit and locked eyes with the man. "That's one humdinger of a story. So, who are you and why should I believe you?"
"Identity... yes, we may start there." The clean and polished Alliance Pilot reached into his uniform's jacket pocket. A note of caution took him, he darted his eyes up to Anisa to gauge her response at what amounted to a strange man wearing enemy colors shoving a hand into a concealed spot while alone in the room with her. He cracked a smile and held his free hand up, then slowly retracted his other from inside of his jacket. Held within his first two fingers was an ident card. It looked a little rough, as if it had been improperly stored or had seen a ton of use, but it appeared fully readable. "This is big. It's the last bit of who I am that exists in the Alliance. After you're done scanning it, I would appreciate it if you purge the system. If you don't know how, I'll do it. All of the data is clean. Just know that this person stopped being a person a few years ago."
Anisa took the ident card from him and flipped it over in his fingers a few times as she examined it. Slipping into her personal tablet she let it do its thing to pull up the information. Leaning back in her seat she started reading, her face blank as she read. Removing the ident card from the slot when she was finished she handed it back over to him and slide the tablet as well. If he was good enough to cover his tracks this well, she was sure he could do better than she at erasing any trace that she had pulled it up. "Alright Crispin. Why tell me this now? Could have kept up the ruse and exited the ship when we docked, never looking back. Why do you want me to know who you really are?"
"Lieutenant Harper will suffice." an ever-so-unhinged grin flashed for a moment, "Liam to my friends." He bent forward and recovered his ident and the tablet. As he delved into the root programming of the device, he explained. "I really was an Alliance officer. Fairly good one, too. Then lots of things happened. In the War, back at home, I'll spare you the details - Point is: I got stuck someplace very, very bad for three years, and I took the very first plausible opportunity to extricate myself from the situation. The problem was, I 'extricated' myself right back into the Navy." He chuckled for a second or two. This was definitely not the man that was piloting the ship earlier. "I have two more years as Harper before I have the option to re-up or retire my commission. That's two years of looking over my shoulder, praying that no one finds out. If they do, that's a world of difficulty."
He leaned in closer, dropping the volume of his voice a little, "If Harper dies... I'm a non-person again. But at least I'm free. Under the right circumstances, I can even fix my status. Your takeover is my big opportunity, but only if it takes. I use what I know and who I am now to keep this going. I've even got a list. Then we can help each other."
Leaning back in her seat, Anisa drummed her fingers on the desk for a minute. The tapping going staccato on the hard wood. It was a lot to take in, especially considering everything that had happened that day already. Letting out a short breath before pushing her seat back and standing up. "Well, this's something to mull over. I would ask how much I can trust ya but considering what I know about you now, thinking yer placing a lot of trust in me. Then there is this list your talking about. What is all that about. Oh, and then the big question," she said as she stepped around the desk ad leaned back against it looking down at him as she crossed her arms over her chest. "How does Harper want to die?"
The Pilot Formerly Known As Harper leaned back in his chair as Anisa walked around the desk at an approach. Decreasing space between one another was a time honored method of implying camaraderie, or attempting to intimidate. He steepled his fingers in front of himself again, his eyes glinting a telltale mirth. "Now that is an interesting question, isn't it? Harper could have easily been taken by Reavers on Whitefall. He might have been taken captive by terrible, bloodthirsty Browncoats, left to a fate unknown. Hell, maybe he had a routine shipboard accident." His face betrayed his interrupted train of thought. "Uh, that reminds me... stay away from the foremost lavatory on Deck A. Trust me." Shaking his head, he got back on track. "We have time to hammer out the details. For right now, Lieutenant William Harper is the highest ranking Alliance officer on board the Retribution. He has access to everything except the Captain's private systems (which can be circumvented), and he's probably the only remaining person the personnel will listen to. Well, except for the mercenaries. They'll listen to whomever pays them. Or no one. Hard to say."
"Oh, here's your tablet back. I'd prefer to scrub it with my terminal, but this should be clean enough with a cycle or two of overwrites."
Taking her tablet she nodded and set it down on her desk. "Well that actually brings up something. Jahosafat. He isn't in the files that I can find. He says he is the current ranking officer. So two things I need done is the Captains systems opened and information on this so called Doctor. As far as the two Mercenaries go, I'm half a mind to just jettison them from an air lock," she said as she glanced towards the door. Shaking the thought from her head she reached over and picked the tablet back up, handing it over to him.
"Go ahead, nothing I keep in there the Alliance doesn't already know," she said. She had learned long ago that anything put out in any electronic form was traceable, so she stuck to old fashion methods. Cocking a brow she stopped and looked at him. "Wait, what happened in the outhouse?"
"Yeah, about that... that guy was a jìn jiāo húndàn. He was our Doctor, said something about using unnecessary crew for spare parts... ah, vacuum seal malfunction with the waste reclamation system. It's supposed to be fixed, but I'm running an outside diagnostic from a proper shipyard before I'm setting my nethers anywhere near that toilet. Pulled him inside out. Through his ass. Easier cleanup than you might think."
But back to business, "I'd actually need to poke around the Retribution's systems directly to get any access to the Captain's files. Luckily, this has been classified as a Black Ship, I'm guessing due to our mutual enigma Dr. Jahosafat. The Retribution won't be broadcasting a damned thing about what's going on inside, except on regular intervals to specific people, and only by someone with Captain's access. This is both good and bad. Still, I'd need access to Quinn's office and cabin, see what he has on hardcopy. As for the mercenaries: I have no idea what to think of them. My interactions were not overly pleasant, but the stuffy one looks like he keeps up appearances. I'd prefer the opportunity to learn more."
Anisa nodded as she pushed off the desk. Well, we will take care of that tomorrow. Today has been enough. For now, lets keep this all between us. I trust my crew but there are others on the ship I don't. You are still one of them but we seem to have a mutual understanding for now. I have some others that want to speak with me before we close out for the night as it were. Go meet with Daphne and give her a run down on things you think she should know to pull night duty. She's a quick study and damn gifted," Anisa said as she stepped over towards the door and unsealed it.
"Alright, who's fucking next?" she said, her demeanor turning into the rough exterior she kept on deck at all times, as the door opened and she looked outside.
"Why my dear lady, I suspect that should be I." Jahosafat was quick to rise and tip his hat to the newly self appointed Captain of the Retribution. Anisa's eyes ran over him before giving a side ways glance towards Harper and letting out a long breath. This was going to be an even more trying day than it already was.
"Riiight.... Have a seat," she said in a flat tone. "Harper, we will talk more later. For now other than what we discussed, keep your part of the crew in line," she added in a firm voice as Jahosafat whisked by her and had a seat promptly as he removed his hat and set it in his lap. He did take such good care of his finery. Anisa had to force herself to keep form rolling her eyes as she closed the door and sealed it once Harper had exited the room.
The Preacher followed Foy up to the "Foyer" and glanced around letting out a long whistle of appreciation. "The Lord surely does work in fucking mysterious ways," he commented to himself before removing his coat and resting it over the arm of one of the free chairs in the room.
"Well, I suspect I will be needin' a bit of both. Cleanliness is next to Godliness but I have to continue to keep the look of a Shepard. So don't fleece me completely. It wouldn't do well for my flock," he said as he took a seat and grinned. "So where do you lay good man? A man of god? An orphan six days of the week? Or just an orphan?" he asked to Foy.
