Chapter IIa: Absolute Disaster

Cass is on her feet now, pacing the ready room like a caged lioness at the sound of everyone losing their damn minds at the same time. She tries to run a hand through her hair and, of course, can't. There's a stupid helmet in the way. She notices that her hand is shaking and realizes she literally can't remember when she last ate something. Hello, low blood sugar! What took you so long? And how the hell would she eat with this helmet--

Focus, Cass.

She can think of one way and one way only to properly assert her authority to her increasingly unruly crew.

"Transporter room, lock onto Lt. Comm. Bruce and Dr. Zlam and beam them directly into the ready room."

Moira looks around. She understands what Cassano did, but she's still annoyed. The last time she transported Marbo, he was dying, and she could see him looking at the medbay in distress before they were beamed.

She takes his hand again (Maybe it'll help? She has no freaking idea at this point) and waits for the inevitable fireworks.

Kendall looks to the door, at Lt. Comm. Darcy, and stares her down.

Zlam and Bruce materialize almost immediately, apparently in the middle of the doctor having something of a freakout and the engineer attempting to calm him. Registering their sudden change in surroundings seems to momentarily bring a pause to that interaction, and when the door chime rings, Cass thinks, amazingly, Darcy. Thank god.

"Come," she says. When Darcy is inside, she says, "I'm glad you're here. We seem to have some confusion about the meanings of 'medical leave of absence' and 'confined to quarters.' Let's get that all sorted out right now, shall we?"

For the first time, Cass allows herself to really look at Zlam, but she ruthlessly sidesteps the emotional response to seeing him so unexpectedly vibrant. She does modify her tone to be slightly less authoritarian as she says, "Dr. Zlam, it's very good to see you. We've all been very worried. But you are not authorized to be outside of sickbay. And you," she says, turning to Bruce, "aren't authorized to be anywhere other than your quarters. When I sent you to sickbay earlier, it was a one-time-only emergency exemption, not a get out of jail free card to use at your will."

Ah figured it was takin' mah chances or stabbin mahself in tha leg...

Moira says none of this, of course.

Commander. If ah may?

Cass leans against the desk and folds her arms. "Speak."

Kendall speaks up: "Cass, I think we need to all understand the end goal of this campaign before we proceed."

Are we all agreed that these slugs must all die?