Shore Leave: The Warehouse

"We'll talk in the basement, I think," Cass says. She looks to Alex for agreement.

Alex nods, offering a polite smile to Hector and Endra. "If you’ll excuse us for just a moment."

As she stands, she lifts her eyebrows just a bit toward Endra, suggesting an unspoken question.

Cass stands and walks toward the stairs to the basement.

"Well, you are correct. I am intriguing, though not everyone is so willing to accept it as you are," Alex responds archly. Was that an accusing glance she just shot at Cass? It was quick, whatever it was. "I'm not entirely sure how comfortable I am having a drink with someone who's already kidnapped me once."

Alex crosses her arms loosely, and looks back at Endra. She's not saying no, but it looks like she's going to need more convincing first.

"Wait, I find you intriguing," Cass objects in an injured tone.

Alex’s eyebrows dart up, and her lips press together to hold some sort of expression back. "Well, when you put it that way..." she murmurs. "I’ll think about it. But right now, I should really go speak with my Commander.". She flashes a quick smile, then turns to follow Cass.

Rooting around the basement, Cass wrangles a couple of very dusty chairs. Brushing them semi-clean with one hand, she sits on one and waits for Alex to settle on the other. When they make eye contact, Cass can't hold back any longer, stifling a snort of laughter with one hand. Unfortunately, it's the hand she used to brush the dust from the chairs.

"So it looks as if you'll get to live out that dom-sub fantasy you mentioned earlier."

Alex snorts indelicately. "Please. One, despite my apparent habit of finding myself in hostage situations, that isn't particularly my scene. Two, she's not my type," Alex says with a crooked grin. She reaches over to brush the dust away from Cass's cheek. "You had a smudge."

Alex settles into the other chair, shaking her head. "I shudder to think of what she saw when she was poking around inside my head that she found intriguing."

"Ugh. What were you thinking while she was doing that? The whole time, I was silently screaming, 'Get out of my head!'"

Shaking her head as though suddenly realizing that they were here to discuss something more weighty, Cass says, "Okay, the way I see it, we don't have any good options. We can agree to help with this 'mission' and possibly end up on the wrong side of a treason court-martial, or we can say no and be held prisoner until they deem it safe to release us." She pauses. "And that's assuming that he's telling the truth about that part of it."

"I was trying not to think about anything, honestly. In the diplomatic service, there's always a chance that an unfriendly entity might try and get inside your head for sensitive information. They train us on resistance techniques. I didn't mind if she got a sense of truth or falsehood, but I didn't want her accidentally picking something useful up by accident," Alex says.

She runs a hand over her face and through her hair. Maybe this whole experience is starting to wear on her a bit. "My instinct is to play along and maintain plausible deniability should they turn out to not be on the up and up. We might be able to gather useful intelligence if we say yes. We avoid doing anything strictly against Spacefleet regs, we ought to be okay."

Cass leans forward in her chair. "That's my instinct, as well. I'm concerned that we won't be able to avoid going against regs, though. They're bound to ask us to do something we shouldn't strictly be doing. Hell, just cooperating with them without reporting this would be going against regs. But if we're doing it with the intent to gain information about whether or not they're on the up-and-up, I hope we can argue that we were acting in the best interests of Spacefleet, either way."

She sits back, noting Alex's minor display of fatigue, and sighs. "I'm really sorry you had to be dragged into this, especially after the Veron thing. I was trying to get them to substitute me for you, not take both of us."

"Don’t apologize. I volunteered to be here, remember? I was trying to keep you safe, silly," says Alex, reaching forward to put a hand lightly on Cass’s knee for a moment.

"Look, what if I let Endra buy me that drink and I see what I can learn from her? I’m pretty certain I can handle her without too much trouble. Extra information is a good thing."

From the lack of surprise on Cass' face, it's clear that she has been entertaining this idea, too. From the look of discomfort and... embarrassment? shame?... on her face, it's equally clear that she isn't proud of entertaining it.

"It might yield something we could use, but... are you sure you're okay with doing that? It feels a little sketchy even thinking about it."

Alex chuckles dryly. "It is a little sketchy. But it's all part of the job. I've done worse," she says. "But we won't talk about that just now."

Suddenly, she stands up and begins pacing slowly. Maybe she's a little less nonchalant about the idea than she lets on. "All right. So we will agree to help out? Anything else we need to discuss?"

Cass looks at the ceiling - or where the ceiling would be if she could actually see it in this gloom - and thinks. "We'll say that we agree to help out pending a meeting with Tanner. We've expressed enough skepticism that I don't think they'd believe that we've bought in without meeting the admiral. After we meet with him, we are either convinced of the legitimacy of this operation or we pretend to be, and we join the team for real or for the purpose of gathering intel on it. If that's what we end up doing, I hope we can find a way to document what we see and do so that we can prove we were trying to expose the illegal operation. So if we can lay hands on a datapad or something, that would be very helpful."

Alex's pacing hasn't escaped Cass' notice. She stands and puts a hand lightly on Alex's arm. "About the other thing. I hope you understand I'm not expecting you to do that. I'm not even asking you to. There's no guarantee it will net us any intel, and... I really don't want to feel like your pimp. If you are uncomfortable with doing it, then don't."

"No, I'm not uncomfortable doing it," Alex says, laying her hand on Cass's with a grateful smile just touching her lips. "I mean, Endra puts me in mind of a snake, but I'm very capable of handling her. I'm..."

She breathes in and out audibly. "All right. I'm not entirely at ease with the idea. But I have no better suggestions, and it seems like a perfectly logical plan of action. Therefore, I'll do it, because I'm uniquely positioned to make it happen. I do appreciate your concern."