Chapter IIa: Absolute Disaster

Cass thanks Belka and terminates the link,then starts a new one."Cassano to Bruce. Moira, how's Marbo doing?" Cass is familiar with Marbo's responses in the aftermath of stressful situations, and equally familiar with Moira's tendency to look out for him during those moments.

Aye, Commander, he’s fine. Nothin’ unusual. Ah’m on mah way back ta tha transporter room.

In the grand scheme of things, she really does like the rest of the commanding staff. Most of it, at least. Marbo is a strange fish man, but he’s genuine, and clever. Moira is impressed by Mike’s engineering. And glitches. And she has a deep respect for Zephyr. Largely because he owns his arrogance.

So, privately, Moira coms to Cassano. Her voice betrays an edge of concern. Nothing like Darcy’s outburst, but the first genuine change in tone all mission.

Have we found ‘em yet?

Cass hears in Moira's tone both her concern and the words she doesn't say, and allows herself to feel guilty. For the last few hours, Cass has thought of her missing crewmen as just that - missing crewmen - and not as familiar coworkers, friends, people she knows and enjoys knowing, people who've made her laugh or made her mad or just populated her life on a daily basis. It was just easier to concentrate on the mission and the burdens that brought to the person in command. But now, hearing the concern in her chief engineer's voice hammered home Cass' own concern for her crewmates.

Quietly, so no one else on the bridge can hear her clearly, Cass says, "Not yet. I'm starting to think that they're on one of the other ships." She pauses, not sure what she wants to say next. "I'm sorry."

Cass says, "How many conscious life forms are we reading on the pirate ship, other than our strike team?"

Cass mentally kicks herself for forgetting about the sensors and says no. To Hortam, she says, "How many pirates on vacuum suits are there? And where on the ship are you located?"

Kendall speaks up: "And how many are there?"

"Do you require additional assistance to gain control of the ship?" Cass asks Hortam.

"Send a security officer to sickbay, as a precaution, then beam Lt. Yang directly there."

Cass asks sickbay to confirm the nature of Lt. Yang's injury and how badly he's injured.