Security - Keith R. A. DeCandido [2]
Angelopoulos didn’t finish the thought. He also noticed that, while Corsi mentioned Powers and the people who died at Galvan VI, she didn’t mention Ken Caitano. He died, not protecting the ship or doing his duty, but from some secret weapon created by a crazy Vorta, one that also claimed his roommate, Ted Deverick, one of the engineers. Corsi had taken those two murders particularly hard for some reason, and Angelopoulos wondered if that meant she was going to be even harder on them.
Like it could get worse.
“All right, we’re en route to Coroticus III—we should be there in three hours. It’s one of two pre-warp planets that the Dominion occupied during the war, the other being Sachem II. We’re going to help to set the observation posts back up, and also to examine cultural contamination the Dominion might have engaged in, on both worlds. Prime Directive’s in full force on this one, and there’ll be lots of engineers, including a bunch we picked up at Hidalgo, so the away teams will include four security per. Chief Hawkins will have Angelopoulos, Krotine, and Konya on Sachem. I’ll be taking T’Mandra, Vinx, and Lauoc to Coroticus.”
Thank God. Angelopoulos let out a long breath. I thought for sure she’d stick me on her team. At least Hawk doesn’t want to kill me. Probably.
“After that, the da Vinci’ll be headed to Avril Station for an upgrade. Robins, you’ll be it for security, but Commander Ling told me that six of her people will be detached to you to handle security for Commander Gomez and her team.”
Robins simply nodded.
“Powers’s replacement will be reporting to the ship at Avril, also, as will Deverick’s, and the U.S.S. Musashi is supposed to be dropping Lense off—apparently their CMO was up for the same prize. Robins, I expect you to break the new guy in.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Even though he knew full well that the best thing for him would be to keep his mouth shut, Angelopoulos found himself saying: “Uh, ma’am, don’t you mean Caitano’s replacement?”
Now Corsi glared at him, and Angelopoulos was trying to bury himself under the bench. “Of all the people in this room who should be keeping their mouth shut, Angelopoulos, you’re pretty much at the top of the list.”
“Yes, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am.”
“And I said Caitano’s replacement.”
Angelopoulos wisely said nothing. Hawkins was giving Corsi a strange look—she really did say Powers, and that meant something was wrong. But no way was Angelopoulos going to pursue it just at the moment.
“All right.” Corsi looked out at everyone. “Dismissed.”
Stepping over Vinx and T’Mandra, Angelopoulos set a land speed record getting out of the hololab. He wanted to be away from Corsi as fast as possible. He’d been in security for a little over three years, going back to just before the war, and one truth he’d learned was that, if you were in your CO’s doghouse, avoid said CO like the plague.
On his way down the corridor, he almost literally bumped into Lieutenant Commander Tev. “Sorry, sir.”
“Guard,” the Tellarite said dismissively, and started to walk past him.
“Uh, sir?”
Tev turned around and asked impatiently, “Yes?”
“I just wanted to apologize to you, sir.”
“I was unaware of any offense you’d committed. If you had, I’m quite sure I would have reported you for it.”
This is a bad idea, Angelopoulos told himself, but, as with his pointing out Corsi’s misstatement, he found the words coming out of his mouth before his brain could stop them. “Back on Artemis, sir, you broke cover, and I was slow to watch your flank. I didn’t anticipate your move and lagged behind. So—”
“Of course you didn’t anticipate my move.” Tev snorted, which sounded like a pipe bursting. “You couldn’t possibly have worked out how to use the crystalline power systems