Saboteur Part 9
by Jason, Eleni, and Maureen

There was a knock at the door to Kassi's quarters. Kassi frowned and kicked the covers off, gazing around her unfamiliar quarters. She didn't know where she was for a second. There was a louder knock from the door.

"Ensign, Permission to enter?"

"Uh... come in," she said, running her tongue over the roof of her mouth. Yuck. She could taste her own morning breath. She fumbled for her glasses. The door opened and she saw the full-of-himself lieutenant, Diringer. Swell, she thought.

"Good morning," he said, not really meaning it. "You've been temporarily reassigned," he said, handing her a disk.

"To what?" Kassi asked, wiping her eyes behind her glasses. The room was still too dark to see. She reached over and turned on the light.

"Security," he said. "That's just a memo from the Commander."

"Thanks," she said. She gazed over it. "Permission to speak freely?"

"No uniform," he said, indicating his clothes. "Granted."

"What are you doing up this early?" she asked.

"The senior security team has been all but incapacitated," he said. "The Commander recommended you."

To work with YOU? Can the humilitation be ANY worse? she thought. Not only was he now her new commanding officer for the duration of this mystery on the ship, but he was damn fine, too, and she had made an ass out of herself yesterday. It had started stupidly, when Kassi had asked for some help with getting her duffle bag off the conveyor as she entered the ship. She was afraid she'd drop it, despite her training and her new record of 23 pounds on the bench press, she knew that bag was heavy, and didn't want to break anything in it. The two guys that helped her seemed nice, at first, maybe they'd understand her. She always felt so lost. They asked her where she was from, where she went to school. She made the mistake of saying she went to a Catholic high school before joining the Navy. Well, that was plenty for those goons. They started asking her if she wore a uniform, dressed like that stupid teen pop icon Britney Spears, and asked her if she'd "return the favor." Why did it always seem that men just assumed that Catholic school girls were sluts? Kassi seemed to get herself into way too much trouble, without even trying and Lt. Perfect wandered along and bitched at her two new friends for sexual harrassment. Could that be any worse? This kind of crap didn't ease her insecurities.

"I went over your record. You were salutorian at your high school, breezed through the OCS paper courses, too. You're pretty smart to be messing with grunt-work like mechanics on this ship," he said. "Are you just trying to take an easy route or something? That's really sad if you are."

"No," Kassi said. She had meant to put a note of sarcasm in her voice, but it sarcasm never sounded right on her. "because this is what I enjoy doing. I wake up in the mornings and want to go to work. How many people can say that?"

"You don't seem to want to go to work right now," he said. He didn't seem to have trouble speaking his mind.

Kassi easily suppressed the urge the roll her eyes. She was so used to being quiet and non-confrontational. She shrugged, instead. "Just let me get dressed and get a cup of coffee, and I'll be at optimum levels," she said. She sighed, but stopped short, remembering her morning breath.

"I'll give you an hour," he said. "We've got a meeting at 0800 in the Captain's ready room."

WE? What's all this WE stuff? she thought. "Sounds good to me," she lied.

He turned and left without saying good-bye.

Azra sat on her bed, surrounded by books, her glasses digging into her nose. "Stupid reading, stupid officers tests...stupid, stupid, stupid!" she muttered to herself. She was trying to understand the books, but as usual, the printed words were eluding her once again. Sighing, she looked at the chronometer on her desk. She'd been at the books for nearly three hours. It was time to give up for the night.

She quickly stripped out of the baggy t-shirt and shorts she was wearing, replacing them with her seaHawk wetsuit. She was not on duty until the following morning, but she wanted to be on hand in case the Commander needed any underwater repairs in the aquatubes. She snorted at her excuse. In reality, she wanted an excuse to get out of studying and into some action.

She pulled her t-shirt back on, no use putting herself on display, and pulled her hair back in a secure braid. Grabbing her goggles she left.

Azra quickly reached the repair site and headed over to the Cmdr. "Sir, Seaman Piccolo. I'd like to help with the repairs."

"Of course, Ms. Piccolo. What can you do?"

"I'm certified for underwater repairs, sir."

"Perfect timing. I need someone unafraid to sink their teeth into an intensive inspection of the aqua tubal internal structure. Requisition a rebreather and fins and take a look for us."

"No sir,..."

The commander started to turn, prepared to deal with more of the same insubordination he'd met when she almost shot him as he tried to board the seaHawk.

" ...I don't need air tanks. I'm a Piccolo."

False alarm. "Report back after you've given things a once over so everyone can be on the same page, and so I can make sure all the technicians know what we're up against."

SN Piccolo saluted quickly, heading over to retrieve a talkie and equipment.