Lieutenant Catty Nebulart lounged casually on the couch in her quarters, half dressed and sipping on a glass of Iced Tea. Her lights were dimmed and the room was silent. It was moments like these that she simply wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet and let her mind wander for hours at a time. But she found little in the way of comfort or peace in this evening's session of zoning out. Whatever the Paranoids were up to, she was completely unable to make heads or tails of it. All of the evidence the medical and the Intelligence teams were able to gather were inconclusive, and didn't point towards any previously known Paranoid SOPs. Catty reached down to take another sip from her Tea only to find it empty save for a few flavorless icecubes. Disappointed, she returned the glass to the table and laid back, putting her feet up while avoiding the empty glass. She sighed deeply just as the silence was broken by the urgent knocking of someone in the hallway outside. Slightly startled, she got up to answer the knocking only to realize she was wearing only her panties and a T-shirt. She looked around hurriedly for her pants, upon finding them she attempted to pull them on while rushing to the door at the same time. Nearly falling over in the process. When she was sure the pants were fully secure around her waist, she proceeded to push the button that controlled the door's autolock. On the other side was Captain Dianea Galliean, who peered inside with a bit of bemusement, both at the state of Catty's room and also at her state of obvious undress. "Was I interrupting anything?" she tried not to smirk, but wasn't sure of her success in the matter. "No, not really Captain, would you like to enter?" Catty too tried to hide her embarrassment but wasn't sure of her success either. "It would be nice." This time she did grin a little. Catty promptly moved out of the way and attempted to remove the random bits of uniform and undergarments from her floor and into a nearby laundry basket. "So," Captain Galliean started as she maneuvered around Catty's mess "what do you think we should do about this new little problem." "I promise Captain, my room is not normally like this, you just caught me in the middle of an 'off' moment." Catty scrambled and stuttered. This time the Captain did laugh. "No Lieutenant, not your quarters, I'm talking about our Paranoid friends. What do you think we should do about them." Catty stopped, realizing how silly she must appear to her superior at the moment. She smiled and dropped the current bundle of clothes into the basket. Some garments remained on the floor, but her attention was no longer focused on her room's state of disarray. She sat down in the armchair perpendicular from the couch now being occupied by the good Captain. "To be honest ma'am, I don't any idea right now about what we could do." "None at all?" Dianea inquired. "Well," Catty paused, "none that follow our typical Standard Operating Procedure." "Lieutenant, nothing we've seen today follows the Standard Operating Procedure." Dianea huffed as she eyed the former glass of Iced Tea, which was little more than cold water by that point. Catty sighed, realizing what her Captain was getting at, "Nothing I've thought of has been done before. And to be honest, its incredibly dangerous." "Well? What do you have in mind?" Dianea was getting annoyed with Catty's lack of directness. "What if we were to simply ask the Paranoids what they are doing?" Catty suggested while avoiding eye contact. The Captain gasped and laughed at the same time. It was at this point she couldn't blame the young Intelligence officer for being so dodgy. That was indeed a crazy idea. Catty noted Dianea's reaction, "See?" Dianea gathered her composure and planned her reply, "Well, you are right, it's never been done before. But how exactly do you plan to put such an idea into action?" "Plan?" Catty would have fallen out of her chair if it wasn't so large and sturdy when compared to her petite frame. "Yes," Dianea stared at her subordinate, "did I stutter?" "I can't say that I've actually thought about beyond the mere suggestion. I've only just had the evening to sort things out. But in all seriousness, I don't know if it can actually be done." "I'll be the judge of that," Dianea replied. "Now go on..." "Well, what if we were to go about simply asking them what they are doing, it is obvious at this point that even though six Solnoids are dead, nothing we have seen so far points to a weapon, biological or otherwise. Their surveillance drone we captured was only monitoring medical practices. That in itself is a curiosity..." "Indeed it is." "So what if we asked them what they wanted to know and actually offer the information to them?" The idea was truly an absurd one, to both of them. Catty was bothered simply by thinking it. Dianea for hearing it. The very concept of communicating with a Paranoid for any reason went against the grain of everything both of them were indoctrinated to think from the moment of incubation at the birthing centers. But then again, work in Solnoid Central Intelligence often went against the grain of Solnoid Doctrine. "Catty..." Dianea started. "Yes ma'am?" "What if I gave you the go ahead? Would you be able to get this accomplished? An actual line of communication with Paranoid Intelligence?" Catty sat silently for a moment, but it seemed longer to both of them. "It would take me a while longer to determine the finer details ma'am, but I am fairly confident I can get the job done." Dianea scanned they young woman for a moment, "I am sure that you will, I have plenty of officers on my staff, but for some reason I keep coming to you to get things done." She grinned wryly. Catty accepted the compliment with a reserved smile. Dianea lifted herself from the couch and stepped around the coffee table. Before opening the door, she turned back to Catty. "I expect a full and thorough Intelligence Strategy on my desk by 1600 hours tomorrow. Oh and I also want you to make good on your promise." Catty stared confused for a moment. "I never want to walk in on your room like this again." The Captain clarified. The young Lieutenant snapped to and acknowledged her orders. "Yes ma'am. I apologize ma'am." Dianea smiled, "Good night, Catty." "Yes ma'am." The door closed and Catty let out a small sigh of relief. She slumped back down in the chair and thought quietly to herself. It wasn't easy being the Captain's "go to" officer. After recollecting her thoughts, she pulled herself out of the chair once again to resume cleaning her quarters, which in actuality were not that dirty beyond a few undergarments strewn about. Catty was nearly finished and ready to call it a night when another knock on her door interrupted her. "Honestly" she huffed as she dragged her feet back to the door. On the other side was a tall dark figure, hair slightly unkempt, out of uniform, and a long scar down her left eye. "Rica!" Catty cried in relief. "Yay, I've been wondering where you were, I haven't seen you all day, you weren't at lunch, or dinner. You didn't even bother to visit me this afternoon!" The tall tanned woman entered the room. "Well, I had a lot of work to do today. They kept me busy the whole time," Catty sighed. "Yeah I thought something was up when all you Intelligence spooks were up and about. Usually you are all hiding behind your desks." Rica quipped. Catty resumed her cleaning while shooting an indignant glance at Rica. "I'll have you know, I did no such thing today." "Yeah I heard, you got to hang around a bunch of corpses today." As much as Catty hated the way Rica would refer to things, she couldn't help but agree with her, both in fact and in tone. "It wasn't exactly my idea of a day well spent." Catty Admitted. Rica walked over and grabbed her Lavender haired friend by the waist, pulling Catty down to the couch she had already spent a lot of her evening on. "Well, I can help you feel better." Rica whispered wryly as she rubbed the small of Catty's back. "Damn, you are tense." Catty let out a tired sigh, she was going to turn Rica down this night, but considering all that she went through, and all that she would have to do tomorrow, the warmth of another body didn't sound so bad this night. Rica bent down slightly to kiss Catty on the lips, and, instead of playfully resisting as she usually would, she opted instead to let Rica take her prize with nary a fight. This confused the taller woman for an instant but latter decided to take the gift graciously. The night was still young and the young Lieutenant decided take advantage of it for a change. "All work and no play..." she purred between kisses. "That's my girl!" Rica laughed...
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