| Meeting With the CAG |
| Summary: | Alessandra talks with Cidra about her intentions to back the XO no matter what happens. |
| Date: | 27 May 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | TBA |
| Players: |
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| CAG's Office |
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| It's an office that belongs to the CAG. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #88 |
The CAG's office is one of the few properly 'private' spaces aboard the battlestar. It's little more than a glorified closet, but it at least has a hatch that one can lock away from the rest of the Navy offices. Cidra is in here now. Waiting. Standing rather than sitting, hands laced behind her back, arranging some flight manuals on one of her shelves. Currently, the hatch is slightly ajar. It typically is when she's in there, so pilots and others won't feel too intimidated about wandering in. One might note that today she's wearing her sidearm pistol at her hip. Odd, that. Even since the Cylon boarding, she rarely puts it on if she doesn't have to.
There's a soft rap and then Alessandra peeks in, peering around the hatch's edge to see if the Major's busy, her entry into the office halted for as long as it takes for her to realize Cidra's available. "Sir…" she greets the CAG but that too is paused, this time so she can close and lock the hatch behind her. A salute is given as she continues, her demeanor slightly nervous. Almost skittish. "Thank you for seeing me so quickly."
Cidra turns on her heel. It is usually hard to read the CAG's face, and today is no exception, save that her jaw is tighter than usual. "Lieutenant Sophronia." The salute is acknowledged fluidly. "As you were. Sit, please." She gestures to a chair in front of her desk, before striding over to slide into the one behind it. Legs crossed, posture straight. "Of course. I had been wanting to speak with you since your return from Leonis." Alessandra can make of that what she will.
Alessandra nods and takes the offered seat despite the urge to remain standing so she can pace. "I'm not surprised to hear that," she admits readily once she has gotten comfortable, it taking a moment long than it might normally because of her still-healing wounds. "You should probably go first, sir. So that was you can do whatever it is you need to do. You know. Like ask me questions or whatever it is you have in mind." Cidra has never once given Alessandra cause to act like this but her nerves have been wound tight, it putting her on edge very noticeably.
Cidra reaches into her desk, plucking out a pack of cigarettes and an beaten old metal lighter. "Smoke?" she offers to the lieutenant first. She'll wait until it's taken or declined before lighting up herself. "I have spoken with Major Tillman about what you witness down on Leonis." She gets right to it. "But I would like to hear it in your own words. I think we both know of what I talk. Speak freely in here. This room is secure."
The offered cigarette is declined with a faint shake of Allie's head, the habit yet to have stuck with her. "Thank you though." Prompted to talk, now, she begins to talk, her story told semi-slowly so she can make sure not to leave anything out. "It was the day that Captain Laskaris, Ensign Apostolos and Petty Officer Fasi and myself went into the city as a scouting party. We wound up under attack by several Centurions only to be saved by a civilian news crew who, to put it bluntly, saved our collective ass." The story doesn't get any easier to tell and she has to pause to swallow down the lump that forms in her throat. "I had been injured before they did so. Anyhow, they took us to where they had a safe house type set-up and the leader…the news reporter out of the group…he showed the others a video. I didn't see it myself but from what the ensign told me, I have come to believe that the footage was of our CO who was in the company of several Centurion escorts." Taking a breath, she stops there for a moment to let Cidra process all that.
Cidra does take a cigarette for her part, lighting it and dragging off it slow as Alessandra speaks. She smokes in silence, just listening at first. And her first question, when it comes, is not about the admiral. "The XO had mentioned there was one there who claimed to be…Lieutenant Shaker? One of our casualties from the Air Wing in the Cylon attack."
Allie nods. "It was just before Captain Sitka and some of the others found us. Shaker had approached us and then proceeded to flee after a short exchange. I had mistaken him for a looter, not having known Shaker myself. But Money Shot sure as frak knew him. And he knew her too. Several of us shot him dead." That's the more surreal of the news she has to give, the dead pilot not being dead so much more WTF-inducing than the idea that Admiral Abbot might be a Cylon collaborator of some flavor or another is.
"I remember him. Callsign Salt…" Cidra says softly, leaning back in her chair, cloudy blue eyes faraway for a moment. "I did not know him well. But who of us knew anyone well before that day?" Another drag before she continues, eyes going across the desk to meet Alessandra's again. "The Scriptures speak of souls adrift, if bodies are denied the proper rites after death. I believe in ghosts, Lucky. And I believe they can haunt us if they have business unfinished. But you do not kill ghosts, do you?"
Alessandra sighs and runs a hand through her hair, loosening quite a bit of it from the braid she commonly keeps it in. "No. We sure definitely didn't know anyone well. Too bad it took the Colonies getting nuked to bring us together." Spirituality has never been something Allie believed greatly in, religion something not shunned by her so much as listened to the way a cynic might listen to superstitious mumblings from those who preach, the comment about souls and death getting her to fidget. "No, sir. You don't kill ghosts. And they don't bleed, either." Pursing her lips, she fidgets a tiny bit more before asking, "Is it too late to take you up on the offer of a smoke, sir?"
Cidra passes Alessandra the cigarette packet and lighter. The CAG is Gemenese - with all that implies - and, though she speaks little of her personal history or life, seems to hold strong to religious traditions. And spend a good many of her off-hours in chapel. "You have thought that this tape could be some sort of trick? It would benefit the enemy greatly to sew discord like that. And there would be no greater discord than all of us believing our leader to be an enemy collaborator."
The pack and lighter are fumbled with as she goes to take one from the former only to then try to light it with the latter, it taking a few moments longer than it might if she was a bit more practiced in this. "Thanks, sir," she gives along with a smile, the gratitude offered as she puts the smokes and lighter back on the Major's desk. "At first I thought it was, yes. But I was also in pain and feeling the effects of the morpha PO Fasi gave me. It took me a moment but I soon realized that Laskaris and the rest of our team wouldn't lie to me. The disbelief was quick to pass." Allie takes a small drag and inhales shallowly, her body still too sore to really be able to breathe in more than she does.
"It is not that I think them liars, Sophronia. My fear is that this tape may have been…manipulated in some way. To make them see that which is false." Cidra sighs. "And you see the grave damage that would do. Of course, it cannot be simply ignored, with our people down on Leonis. If it is true. No good choices left, for any of us."
"I know. Our information is only reliable if its source is. That's something that I've come to realize not that long ago." Allie's tone is serious, husky with emotion, her expression troubled. "I had been questioned by the XO the day of my release from medical and I told him that I want to help any way I can, sir. He told me that in order to do so that I'd have to speak to Major Cavanaugh to see what I am looking at legally and then speak with you to get…permission to help…well, to help Major Tillman, of course. It seems like I will be questioned and everything by the JAG people so I can't be totally removed from the situation. Not with the information I have."
Cidra's brows arch and she regards Alessandra long across her desk. Again, it's very hard to get any particular read on her expression. The woman must do well at Triad. But there's that vaguely weighing look in her eyes she sometimes holds when studying young pilots. "Major Tillman has told me he shall have this done by the book. As it goes forward, you will no doubt be asked to give witness and tell your story to the JAG. That is your duty. Do you mean something beyond that?"
"Yeah, it does, Major," Allie's fast to confess. "I told the Major I'd have his ass if shit hits the fan and it comes down to needing to take the CO out…once we are sure such an course of action is necessary. I feel like it's…it is part of my responsibility as a Colonial Fleet officer." Now Alessandra feels like she's asking her mother if she can go out and party with frat boys, Lucky waiting for Cirdra to drop the no-hammer on her head.
Cidra holds up a pair of be-cigaretted fingers to Alessandra. "Threatening to the Admiral to your commanding officer is…unwise, Sophronia. And precisely what I hope the handling of this situation can avoid. Do speak no more of it. But…I think I take your meaning." A pause and she asks, out of the air, "Do you know what we are, Lucky? As pilots on this ship, that is?" It's unclear if it's a rhetorical question or not, though she does quiet as if awaiting an answer.
Alessandra takes a deliberately slow breath in, giving herself a bit of time to think. She does as requested, speaking no more on the subject as directed, instead answering the question. "We're protectors of the fleet, sir. Not just the Cerberus but all of the ships within it and those aboard them." It's one of those YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) kind of responses but she feels it's both befitting of the query the Major posed as well befitting her point of view.
Cidra nods to that. A small nod but a firm one. Alessandra hit what she was aiming for, apparently. "We are protectors. Defenders of the ship. Its first line of defense. This ship, Alessandra…" That may be the first time the CAG has used the woman's name. Her accent softens the double-s so the last syllables blur together. "…this ship and its welfare are above our own lives. Above that of our comrades, and that of our friends, above all that you hold dear. I can give you no go-ahead to stand on the opposite side of a mutiny. I pray to all gods such does not occur. If it comes to that…well, more is lost than you or I can reckon. What I give you is this. In your conduct, do what you must to protect the ship. If you believe your actions hold to that purpose, then I believe you act with honor."
There is no sign of surprise at the CAG's answer but there is a slight softening in Alessandra's expression when she gets that for an answer. "I would lay down my life to insure the safety of you and the others, Major. And I promise to do so in a manner that will bring no shame to you or any other superior officer." This puts an interesting spin on everything, of course, and it serves well to draw the line of what Major Hahn will and won't find acceptable, it clearing some of the confusion and blurriness everything had been shrouded in. She takes a drag of the dwendeling cigarette, letting Cid continue of there's need for her to do so.
"So go with my blessing to act in the best interests of this ship," Cidra says simply. "More than that…the more details you give me, Sophronia, the more difficult it is for me to defend you should the need arise." That seems to be all on that matter. "Now. Is there anything else, Lucky?"
Alessandra cracks a faint smile, her head shaken several times as the corner of her mouth twitches in a quick grin that disappears just as it shows itself. "That's it, Major. Thank you very much for your time." The smoke's snubbed out and she then salutes, every ounce of respect she has for the woman shown in that single held gesture.
Cidra rises and returns Alessandra's salute with a fluid one of her own. There is respect in her eyes as well, but it's mixed with a great unease. Likely for more things than having to do with a single Viper pilot. She's probably not walking around with a pistol on her hip for decorative purposes. "Dismissed," she says. Adding, before the young woman goes, "Shield of Athena protect you, Lucky."