The Truth, The Whole Truth...

Posted on Wed Jun 24th, 2020 @ 2:55am by Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant John Sandoval & Ensign Emmanuelle Larose
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:41pm

Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Deck 17 - Security Division
Timeline: current

After hours of frenetic work, interrogating suspects and assembling every scrap of data they had, the Sec/Tac officers seemed no closer to finding their elusive quarry. The clock, as they were all painfully aware, was ticking. The recent revelation that Paradise Station had been taken over by the Breen added an entirely new level of urgency to their efforts. Even as one team worked feverishly on the investigation, trying to find new leads, two more teams went about the grim business of preparing for battle with the Breen, just in case the nightmare scenario came to pass.

For his part, Cailus was growing more worried by the moment. The discovery of Lieutenant Vicuno's body, as well as the revelation of the mortal peril that the Pandora was in, had raised the stakes considerably. As he left the turbolift and walked into the Security Division, noticing the dozens of security officers going about their work, the Security Chief could only frown. He was painfully useless when it came to preparing to defend against a possible Breen boarding attempt, something that irked him on a very deep level and only made him more irritable as time passed. Even the most junior ensign onboard knew more about the Breen than Cailus did.

Forcing himself to refocus, Cailus looked around before finding the one person in the large room who, rather than the usual gold undershirt, instead wore the much rarer purple.

"Larose," he called out sternly. "With me."

"Yes, sir," she replied promptly. She moved away from the console she was working at with two others and walked as fast as possible to the Chief. She stood at attention before him. "What do you need, sir?"

"I need you to find Sandoval and bring him to my office as soon as possible," Cailus said with quiet terseness. "His statement and the airlock logs do not match, and I don't have the time to chase him down and get answers. If he protests, kindly remind the lieutenant of the urgency of the situation."

Though she normally had a good poker face, Emmanuelle couldn't prevent her surprise from showing. But she quickly tamped that down. This was a perfectly good reason why Lieutenant Griffin would need to see Lieutenant Sandoval, who in turn must have a good explanation. She didn't think he was one to lie, and she was pretty good at reading people.

"Immédiatement, chef," she replied. "Anything else before I go, sir?"

"No," Cailus said curtly. "Hop to it."

With a terse nod, Emmanuelle left the security area and made her way to the turbolift. Questions raced through her mind as the lift moved up through the ship. What was going on? Did John really lie to the Chief? Or was there some kind of mistake? Arriving at deck 4, she briskly walked to the Diplomatic office and stepped inside.

John was leaning over Crewman Marcoux’s shoulder as they updated some report. The door caught his attention and he turned to look at she who stepped in. He smiled at Emmanuelle. “Good morning, Ensign,” he said. “I thought you were working with Lieutenant Griffin until this murder situation was resolved.”

“I am, sir,” she said, keeping her composure perfectly. “He ordered me to bring you to his office immediately. He has more questions for you.”

John stood and looked his attaché in the eye, putting a few points together. One: he already gave a statement, but the Chief apparently found that insufficient, though he gave no sign of that the day before. Two: he didn’t simply ask John to come down, but sent a security officer to do so. This was not a good sign.

Three: he didn’t just send any officer. He sent Emmanuelle. He’s trying to put John off his game, and possibly trying to test Emmanuelle’s loyalty. The bastard.

There was no resisting this though. He picked up his cane, which was leaning against Marcoux’s desk. “Lead on, Ensign.”

The two made their way back to the turbolift and back down to deck 17.

When they arrived at the Security Chief's office, they found the man sitting at his desk, working quietly. Cailus raised his head as the two entered, fixing the diplomat with a piercing look.

"Lieutenant, thank you for coming," he said with a dispassionate tone before his eyes flicked to Emmanuelle. "Please stay, Ensign. Your insight may be valuable." At that, the Security Chief refocused his cold gaze on John. "Lieutenant, I'll cut to the chase. The statement you provided indicated that last night, you stayed on the ship in your quarters. You were not on the station at any point during the evening. At approximately 0130 hours, Lieutenant Jamenson returned to the ship and visited you in your quarters, where she proceeded to stay the night with you. Is this statement accurate?"

“That’s right,” John confirmed, standing in front of the desk, Emmanuelle to his left and a step back, between him and the door. “Earlier that day I was with Captain Temple and the others on the Tellarite freighter that’s housing the Irokari, but when that mission ended I came back to the ship. I had dinner, read in my room, and then Aeryn showed up. Yeah, at around 0130. What’s this about, Lieutenant?”

Without replying, Cailus instead typed on his desktop monitor for a few seconds, the tense silence stretching on. Finally he finished and swivelled the monitor around, pushing to the other side of the desk so that John could read it. "Explain, please," the Security Chief said evenly.

John leaned in closer and looked at the readout. “Huh,” he said. The screen showed that he and Aeryn both returned to the Pandora from Paradise together at 0125, contradicting his testimony. John right away understood the implications. “Do the logs happen to show when I left Pandora? And do you mind if I sit?”

"Go ahead," Cailus said curtly, inclining his head at one of the empty chairs. The Security Chief sat straight-backed, his cold blue eyes locked on John with unerring focus. "The logs show that you left the ship alone at 0042 hours. Again, Lieutenant: please explain."

John pulled a chair to himself and sat down. He scratched the back of his neck and looked sheepish. “You sure you need to know? It’s not exactly something I want out in the open.”

Cailus' look didn't change in the slightest. "Would that be worse than Captain Temple putting a black mark on your record for lying to us during a murder investigation? Because right now, that is the best case scenario. The worst case scenario has our people dead in the corridors and Breen assault troops in command of this vessel because I had to waste time and resources on your deception. You should know as well as anyone that this is not something to be taken casually."

“Well,” John began, “I was honest that when Aeryn came aboard, she spent the night with me. But she didn’t come aboard alone. I met her on the station.” He rubbed the corners of his eyes. “She, ah, sent me a message, about when girls’ night was finishing up. It, ah, gave me a clear idea of what was waiting for me if I met her on-station, rather than wait for her. Mr. Griffin, you haven’t seen this message, but it was, ah, motivating. Highly motivating.”

Reading between the lines, Cailus had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. "Mister Sandoval, I wouldn't care if you were the headline act at a Gorn strip club last night. It's my job to stay discreet, and quite frankly, I wouldn't want to know anyway. What I do want to know is the precise reason you lied. Your initial statement mentioned your relationship with the doctor, so you didn't lie to conceal that. Simply picking up your girlfriend from a dance club is hardly cause for embarrassment, either, regardless of what occurred afterwards."

“I, ah, didn’t just pick her up from the club, Lieutenant,” John explained. He sat up straight. “Suffice to say that I was being highly inappropriate, in a way that I did not want on any records, neither mine nor hers. I sincerely hope you can relate to that.”

"Tough," Cailus answered with an almost cruel mercilessness. "The opportunity for that was before I had to confront you on this. In the statements provided for last night, I have had two people admit to doing far more embarrassing things than you did, and they are both ensigns who have been out of the Academy for less than a year. It's damned ridiculous that they demonstrated more maturity than two experienced senior officers."

Cailus paused, plainly haivng to stop himself from railing on any further. Instead he opened a drawer and fished out a PADD. then slid it along the desk. "Lieutenant, please write a full statement of what occurred last night in as much detail as you can, including the parts that you are disinclined to reveal to anyone. I will need a full accounting for the forty minutes that you and Doctor Jamenson were out of sight. I give you my word that nobody besides me will read it, not even Commander Nash or the Captain. Ensign Larose will remain in here with you until you finish the statement, and then you may leave. At the same time, I will find Doctor Jamenson and have her write a similar statement. If your statements match, then that will be end of the matter. You may have to answer to the XO for wasting our time, but I will assure him that you both cooperated fully, if belatedly, and that your privacy should be respected."

Then Cailus' glare grew even colder. "If the statements do not match exactly, however, then I will recommend to the Captain that you and Doctor Jamenson should be relieved of duty and confined to the Brig for the duration of this mission. Do we have an understanding?"

John nodded. He thought Cailus’s mannerisms and attitude were extremely cold, but his words were fairly reasonable. John didn’t scare easily, and was trained to pick up on choices of words. It was true that John and Aeryn’s indiscretion almost disrupted a murder investigation, and that was problematic. He had his reasons for not wanting to admit it, but apparently there wasn’t scope for his privacy in this regard. “Yes, of course, Lieutenant.”

He picked up the PADD and began composing his report. He would be very clear about what happened. He would spare no detail. He would note the areas that motivated him to keep this story a secret; the noise they’d made, the expensive piece of equipment they’d broken in the storeroom. John had been smart enough to cross over in civilian clothes (it was after hours, after all), but Terrans were rare enough in these parts that people who saw them enter or leave the storeroom knew they’d be from Pandora. Their behaviour was inappropriate at best, Conduct Unbecoming at worst. The lie seemed reasonable, but Cailus was being thorough and caught them coming back in together. He would bear this particular embarrassment.

What was harder to bear was the look on Emmanuelle’s face as he wrote. She looked straight ahead, at attention, refusing to meet his eye when he looked to her. She had had a fling that night, too, but reported it, like she was supposed to. Why couldn’t he? She supposed the report would tell. She just hoped the diplomat would be honest now, and not try to talk his way out of it.

END