| Questions Left Behind |
| Summary: | Roubani brings the CAP tape report to Kai, along with a small talk about the impending merger. |
| Date: | PH 235 (10 Dec) |
| Related Logs: | Smokescreen |
| Players: |
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Kharon - Ready Room
Sitting in one of the seats in the quiet ready room, Roubani is dressed in blues and looking through one of the many technical manuals. A common enough pasttime for him, though he's got a neat-looking folder sitting on the desk next to him. Probably waiting for someone.
As it so happens, someone trudges on in right on the dot of shift change. It might be the someone Roubani's looking for, or it might not. Flight suited and sweaty, the CAG is just returning from patrol. He's still carrying his helmet under one arm, and working down the zipper of his flight suit with his free hand. Spotting the Lieutenant, he grunts an "afternoon" and continues thumping toward his desk.
Leda steps into the Ready Room most likely to recheck the boards to see where and when he is on duty. As he enters into the room he stops and looks over at Kai and then to Roubani suprised to find the JiG in the Blues in here. He looks over at the CAG, "Sir." He then moves over to check the boards as if he was a man on a mission.
Sweaty captains. Gross. Roubani looks up from the spot his thumb marks in the manual. "Sir." They're both sort of in uniform, so the protocol area of his brain fires and he tenders a proper stand-and-salute, with the heavy book couched in his left elbow. "Would you let me know when you have a minute, Captain? I can come back if need be." He glances at Castor and also formally salutes that way, even though he wasn't addressed.
Gross, indeed. But it could be worse. At least Marek keeps his distance from the blues-clad junior officer. The salute's returned, and he sets his helmet down on his desk before dropping into the chair and pulling out a couple of drawers, one after the other. Pen, pen, pen, aha. "Afternoon, Leda." He glances up at Roubani. "I have a minute now. About twenty, to be precise. What's up?"
Castor looks over at Roubani and he returns the salute briefly and then he looks over at the CAG and he gives another salute, "Afternoon, Sir." He then goes back to looking at the board as if looking for who is doing what and when since the devil is in the details. He isn't paying much attention to Roubani or Kai at the moment since the board has his full attention.
"We may have turned up something on the tapes, sir," Roubani replies, quiet and succinct. "I wanted to discuss the report with you." Though hesitant to keep talking with someone else in the room, he shuffles the appropriate folder up out of his things and sets it down on Kai's desk, facing the CAG.
Kai hasn't chased Castor out of the room yet, so maybe he's not concerned about the other pilot overhearing their conversation. He slides out a clipboard from under a few of his papers, and starts to jot something down just as Roubani's folder drops. Pausing, he looks from it to the Lieutenant quietly. His pen is set aside, and he flips open the report and begins to read.
Leda for his part seems to care less about the report for a moment since he isn't the one in charge of all of this and he already knows most of the facts, well, maybe one of the facts but he is still studying the board as he memorizes who is working with who. Case, Birdman, and Shepherd seems like a good pairing. Eyes flicker to note that Marissa is working with Thorn and Screamer.
Roubani lets Kai read rather than speaking first, setting his hand idly on the back of the chair on the other side of the CAG's desk. His eyes flicker over his own typed words upside-down, brows slightly drawn in thought.
Kai looks over at Castor a couple of times, taking idle note of the other pilot perusing the flight board. His attention's mostly on the report, however. He reads slowly and purposefully, and his expression grows subtly perplexed as he reaches the final conclusion. "Hm." He rubs the knuckle of his thumb against the scar above his lip. "That's strange. I'll go through the cabinets in the navy offices, see if someone misplaced the tape there." He flips back to the first page again. He looks dubious.
Leda doesn't comment but when the cabinets are mentioned the pilot frowns and his shoulders dip slightly as he looks at the board still, Dash is with Shadow. Eyes flicker over the board again Crybaby is with Songbird and Madman.
Roubani looks just as dubious, but nods. "Yes, sir. If it is there, we'll happily go through that one as well." He sits down on the edge of the chair, keeping feet on the floor. "The whole thing leaves behind more questions than it solves."
Kai rubs at his nose again, with the back of his thumb, and softly grunts his assent. "Sure as frak does. Good work on this, Nadiv." He closes the folder, slides the attached elastic around it, and tears off a small sheet of paper from his notepad to jot down a memo to himself. Something about securing tapes PHD 98 and PHD 100. "I'll pass it off to the S2 from here, and see what we can do about that missing tape. If I'm not mistaken, it was right around the time of those system failures and missing explosives."
Leda continues to frown as missing explosives are mentioned and his shoulders move from down to suddenly tense as he continues to stand there looking at the board. He remains silent, however, since he hasn't lost his senses yet and he really doesn't want to know about this since the last time something bad happened Leda was the one to go into the fire and the culprit conviently died without even facing a firing squad.
"Yes, sir." Roubani is sitting at the chair in front of Kai's desk, talking quietly with the CAG while Castor looks over the CAP list. "99 was the day everything went mad. Captain Legacy had some notions about that, if you want to discuss it with her. Do you have any questions about the report?" He hasn't gotten up, so this particular topic might not be the only one he's got.
"I've got plenty of questions, but none that you can answer," Marek answers a bit glibly. The report's tucked into one of his desk drawers, which is then slid shut and locked. "I'll have a word with Black Cat." He pauses, and his eyes come up again. "Was there something else?"
Matto steps over the threshold, post post-flight, pre post-CAP wash up, to judge from the bad case of helmethead and the still mostly intact flightsuit. He has no particular business left over, the post-flight details all having been taken care of in the comfortable confines of Foxbat-4— he thought N would be around nosing tidying up any loose ends on yesterday's excitement, and, finding himself right, at least in the fact that N's here, he sticks around, looking aside to Castor and generally not bothering the folk down front.
Leda continues to look at the board and as Matto walks in he stops looking at the board to turn to nod to Matto, "Kissy." He says as eyes flick over to Kai and then to Roubani and he nods his head again. He then turns to Matto, "How was CAP? Anything interesting?"
"Two things. The second is…rather private." Roubani says that a touch awkwardly, as Castor makes it apparent someone else is here now too. "But the first, I was curious about what might be happening to us. With regards to the Hestia. If the Vigilantes and Ghostriders were going to stay intact, I mean, or if the lean is more towards a total integration."
Kai glances at his watch when Roubani mentions 'private', and gives a small nod to signify.. well, who the hell knows what that signifies, exactly. Maybe he'll just take any excuse he can get for a smoke break. "Demitros wants to meet with us tomorrow night to discuss it." His lips twitch in a brief, wan smile. "I'll know then, for sure. More likely than not, the squadrons will be split up and slotted into the Hestia's wing. You'll be in good hands, whatever happens. Captain Sito's competent, from what I hear." His feelings on the matter are, as always, closely guarded.
"Smooth liftoff, smooth landing and clear skies the whole way," Kissy murmurs to Castor in a low tone as he meanders closer, looking at the board to give his eyes something to do, scouring the names. "Can't ask for much more, yah?"
Leda listens to Kissy and he adds, "Good, glad to hear things went well." Then Roubani asks about the future of the wing and Leda frowns since he doesn't hide his feelings on the matter. However when the Captain speaks he listens and again he doesn't comment since his face says everything.
Roubani nods slightly to that. Guarded meet guarded, at least as far as their impending identity crisis is concerned. His voice has gone back to somewhat normal volume now, after the quiet of earlier. "Is there any information about the Hestia that might be available to us? I know that is but a security blanket, all things considered, but it would be nice not to go in completely ignorant."
Kai eases back in his chair, and tugs the zipper down on his flight suit a couple more inches. The motion jostles his dogtags, which he hooks with a finger and tugs out without even looking; his eyes are fixed on Roubani. "I don't have a stack of tourist information guides, if that's what you're after," he replies drily. "Best I can suggest is to ask around. I know it's a ship with a good reputation. Not as good as the Pegasus, but not a no name like Kharon, either." There's an ounce of self-deprecation there, but he doesn't seem to be being purposefully harsh.
Matto keeps his eyes on the board, and his ears, as far as can be discerned, to himself, N's business with the Marek being… well, his own business. He rests his hands to either side of the seat back behind him, and leans there.
Leda listens to what Kai has to say about the Kharon and the Hestia but he doesn't say a word since this is Roubani's conversation and when Matto goes quiet Leda begins to eye the door since Roubani has private matters to discuss. "I think maybe I should hit the gym since I am the elephant in the room. Take it easy, sir." He looks over at Roubani and then to Matto, "Later."
"If this is how the cylons have treated a no-name ship, sir, I can't help but wonder what may have happened with a vessel a 'step up', as it were." It's a little dry, yes, but there is an underlying seriousness in that statement. And in Roubani's dark eyes. "Do you know what percent of our personnel will make up the skeleton crew remaining behind?" His head turns, shoulders making a slightly awkward turn. "I don't mind if the Captain doesn't. I mean, this does rather concern us all." He probably caught the watch glancing and interpreted a later cigarette break correctly.
"Eh?" is Kissy's only comment to Castor's elephantine claim, eyes narrowing briefly as he tries to puzzle that one out, glancing briefly back toward the other two as though to see whether they looked to understand the comment. He does scootch his feet back up toward the row of seats, letting Castor by if he wants to go. Standing up straight, he turns, "Are you guys talking about the, ah, transfer?" he wonders. Yeah, he'd tried his best not to listen in. He's been honing that skill in Red Squadron, some.
Kai looks over at the imminently departing Castor, Matto climbing to his feet, and back to the desk in front of him. He doesn't meet Roubani's eyes, and it's difficult to pinpoint what, precisely, is going through his head at the moment. "I won't know until tomorrow, Nadiv," he reminds the younger pilot gently. "Whatever's decided, I'll make sure you all know before going in. You're all officers, and I expect you to act like it. But you've also fought hard to be where you are now, and I expect you not to forget that, either." It's rare to find humility in a viper jock, but there's a trace of it right there.
Castor steps by Kissy gently since he realizes sensetive issues need to be discussed and he really doesn't want to here or talk about the transfer anyway and with that the pilot is on his way to the gym.
Castor heads through the exit labeled <O> Hallway.
Castor has left.
"Sir," Roubani tells Kai, gently but quite gravely, "If there is one thing I would hope you wouldn't feel you had to remind us of, it would be to handle this like officers. Whether or not it is the last thing we are able to do to make you proud as our CAG." He glances back at Kissy and nods to the question, and then falls silent as if leaving room for any of the other's burning concerns.
Having thus tuned in, Kissy listens to the end of the exchange. Brows rising as Nadiv subtly hands off the queries to him, and he turns his head briefly to one side in a half-shake of his head, "If we find out tomorrow, we find out tomorrow. If not then, well… presumably we'll have orders eventually," he adds with a vague chuckle, seeming not entirely concerned— or maybe that's just his manner, not to show it.
There's no reply to that; Kai is, as ever, circumspect about whatever's going through his head, and doesn't bother defending his previous words. Maybe the idea of the merge doesn't bother him. Maybe it does. One might never know he cared one way or the other, by his apparently dismissive manner. "You'll find out after tomorrow," he states firmly, once Matto's spoken. Then, blowing a tired-sounding breath out his nose, he starts patting down his flight suit pockets for his pack of cigarettes, and easing to his feet.
That piece of assurance delivered, Roubani also rises from the chair. His manner's not changed from the first moment he spoke, ever mild as though they'd been talking about what color to paint the walls. "Tomorrow, then. Kisseus, I'll see you back at Red shortly?"
"Mh'm," Kisseus replies, the slight monosyllable accented upward at the end with a subtle note of brightness and maybe even optimism— those who know Kissy well will recognize the sort of upbeat demeanor that typically follows a dip into a depressive state. "I'll go wash up a little. I'll see you later, N. Marek," he adds, the same sort of brightness to the word, brief and official-sounding as it is, there's a friendliness there before he shuffles out.
Matto heads through the exit labeled <O> Hallway.
Matto has left.
Kai, meanwhile, collects his coffee cup and heads for the hatch with a steady thunk, thunk, thunk of boots on the deck. "Have a good evening, Kisseus," he offers the raptor driver quietly, just briefly meeting his eyes as he heads past. Then a glance at Roubani as if to say 'where to?'.
Well now that the place is deserted. The corner of Roubani's mouth twitches almost imperceptibly, noticing that fact, then he glances at the hatch. "The usual storage? May as well get mine in too." Cigarette, he means, as he searches his own pocket for his.
"Sure," answers the Captain, a bit gruffly. His eyes follow a desultory path from Matto, back to Roubani, and then the hatch as he shoves it open and heads out. It's held with a boot for the junior officer before he moves off down the hall.
