Testing Loyalties
Posted on Thu Oct 1st, 2026 @ 7:54am by Lieutenant Commander Aer Feshau-Patton & Captain M'Mira
3,111 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
Mission 6 - Candy Leads to Cavities
Location: Captain's Office
Having completed her meeting with Kaylee, it was time to bring in Intelligence. The only concern that M'Mira had was that the Chief Intelligence Officer was her XO's wife and her XO had a running feud with Candy for whatever reason. M'Mira did not question it too much. After all, she had a tendency to upset a great deal of people.
Well, there was nothing for it. M'Mira need information on Candy and she needed information on the goings on in the sector. =^= Commanderrr Feshau-Patton, could you please rrreporrrt to my office?=^=
The Captain’s voice reached Aer in the intelligence suite while she was standing over a low holographic display, watching the morning’s sector reports arrange themselves into something approaching a pattern.
Shipping movements. Diplomatic traffic. Three intercepted transmissions that were probably harmless and one that was trying rather too hard to appear so. Candy Templeton’s arrest occupied a secured window at the edge of the display, already surrounded by conflicting statements, incomplete records and the kind of sudden official caution that usually arrived after somebody realised there might be consequences.
Aer lifted her eyes as M’Mira’s voice carried through the room.
Her expression gave nothing away.
She touched the communicator at her chest.
“Understood, Captain. I’ll be there shortly.”
The channel closed.
Aer secured the Templeton file beneath her personal authorisation and gathered the dark-cased PADD containing the current intelligence summary. She could have gone without it. M’Mira had not said what she wanted.
Experience had taught Aer that arriving empty-handed only guaranteed a second journey.
The intelligence suite sealed behind her as she stepped into the station corridor. Faltan’s command level carried its usual restrained pulse around her: turbolift doors parting and closing, distant voices passing through open comm channels, the muted rhythm of boots against the deck. People moved quickly without quite appearing hurried. The station had become very good at pretending that tension was merely another duty shift.
Aer entered the turbolift.
“Captain’s office.”
The lift began to rise.
She did not attempt to decide what awaited her. There were several matters that could reasonably bring Intelligence to the Captain’s door, and only one of them had managed to entangle station command, Security, the civilian press and Aer’s own household before breakfast.
That did not make it the answer.
The doors opened onto the command level. Aer crossed the remaining distance at an unhurried pace, the secure PADD held lightly against her side. At the entrance to M’Mira’s office, she touched the annunciator and waited until the doors admitted her.
She stepped inside and stopped before the Captain’s desk. The office light caught briefly against the gold wedding band and the El Aurian bonding bracelet worn beside it before her hand settled once more around the PADD.
Aer inclined her head.
“You asked to see me, Captain?”
Her light brown eyes remained on M’Mira, calm and attentive.
She gave the Captain the courtesy of choosing where the conversation began.
Unusually, the Captain was already sitting in her seat when Aer arrived. Unlike normal, there was a serious look about her, while her eyes were slightly downcast. "I did," M'Mira told Aer. "Please take a seat."
Aer felt the difference before M’Mira finished speaking.
Unease sat close to the surface, threaded through with reluctance and something quieter that Aer could not yet place. It was heavier than the ordinary strain of command, but she made no attempt to reach beyond what the Captain was already giving away. Feeling was not thought, and empathy was not permission.
“Of course.”
She crossed to the chair and turned carefully before lowering herself into it, one hand settling beneath the curve of her stomach to ease the movement. Pregnancy had made certain small things slower than they had any right to be. Aer did not draw attention to it.
Once seated, she rested the secured PADD across her lap and looked back at M’Mira. Her expression remained composed, though some of the professional distance had softened.
“What’s happened?”
"I have come to underrrstand that ourrr rrresident rrreporterrr has been arrrrrrested." M'Mira wondered why they could not make the word, "arrested," easier to say, as she stumbled over the multitude of "r"'s in it.
She sighed, stood up and walked over to the replicator, and replicated a White Russian with extra cream, as she so dearly loved. "Can I get you anything? This converrrsation is not likely going to be easy, especially since yourrr husband is the XO."
“A ginger tea, please. Light.”
Aer adjusted slightly in the chair as a small pressure shifted beneath her ribs. Her hand settled against the curve of her stomach, more reassurance than discomfort.
“The babies have been expressing opinions today.”
Her attention returned to M’Mira. She had known about Candy’s arrest before the summons and had already begun tracing the edges of it, quietly enough that nobody involved should yet have known Intelligence was looking. There were gaps in the official account, competing versions of the arrest and rather more caution surrounding it than an ordinary detainment warranted.
None of that reached her face.
“I’m aware she’s been arrested,” Aer said. “I’ve made a few enquiries.”
She left the extent of them unanswered. M’Mira’s drink, the sigh before it, the weight Aer could still feel beneath the Captain’s words all suggested this was not going to be a straightforward request for a report.
Aer’s thumb moved once across the edge of the PADD resting on her lap.
“You mentioned Jack before telling me what you need.” Her voice remained quiet, without challenge. “So I assume this isn’t only about what Intelligence knows.”
M'Mira obtained the ginger tea, lightly done and walked it over to Aer, carefully palming it in her paw. She handed it to Aer and replied simply, "You arrre marrrrried to the XO and I am keenly awarrre that he dislikes Candy. Trrruth be told, she has been a pain my ass frrrom time to time. That said, I know herrr well. She's been herrre eight yearrrs. I cannot believe that she had anything to do with any of those charrrges."
She paced behind her desk as she continued to explain, "I would have hoped that Candy and you and Candy and Ms. Serrrrrra would have been able to worrrk togetherrr. Can you tell me yourrr opinion of herrr?"
Aer accepted the tea carefully, allowing the warmth to settle into her palms before taking a sip. The ginger was light, but it took some of the restlessness out of the two small lives shifting beneath her ribs.
Her gaze remained on M’Mira as the Captain paced.
“Jack can be headstrong,” she said. There was affection in the admission, though it did nothing to soften its honesty. “Once he forms an opinion of someone, moving him from it can become an operation in its own right. That certainty has served him well on occasion.”
Aer paused over another sip.
“It hasn’t always benefited him.”
She lowered the cup, keeping it held between both hands.
“I married Jack, Captain. I didn’t inherit all of his conclusions.”
The secured PADD remained across her lap, its screen dark beneath one resting hand.
“Candy and I have an understanding. She gathers information in places where a uniform would close every mouth in the room. People talk to her because she makes being overheard feel remarkably like being chosen.”
A faint curve touched Aer’s mouth, there and gone.
“She enjoys the performance rather more than I do. She can be intrusive, careless with the discomfort she causes and far too pleased when someone else’s secret makes good viewing. Those are not insignificant faults.”
Aer shifted slightly in the chair as one of the twins pressed somewhere awkward, then settled again.
“But she hears things we don’t. She notices grievances before they become reports and rumours before anyone has decided whether they’re respectable enough to investigate. I don’t treat what she gives me as fact. I test it. Candy knows that, and she also knows I won’t dismiss useful information merely because it arrived wearing too much perfume.”
Her thumb moved once along the rim of the cup.
“I can’t speak for Lieutenant Serra, but I have no objection to working with either of them. Candy and I cultivate information differently. We respect that difference, even when we don’t especially enjoy it.”
Aer looked directly at M’Mira now.
“As for the charge, it’s treason. I don’t believe it fits.”
There was no hesitation behind the words.
“Candy is quite capable of crossing lines. She provokes authority, embarrasses people who would prefer to remain unexamined and occasionally treats discretion as an obstacle placed there for her amusement. None of that makes her a traitor.”
Aer touched the PADD beneath her hand.
“I’ve already begun taking the arrest apart. I want the original detention authority, the complete evidence chain and the raw communications, not someone’s prepared account of them. I also want to know who chose that classification.”
She lifted the tea again but did not drink.
“My opinion is that Candy can be a liability. She can also be extraordinarily useful. I have seen nothing yet that makes me believe she betrayed the Federation.”
A beat passed.
“Someone decided to call it treason very early. I’d like to know why.”
M'Mira settled into her chair and purred lightly. "I like you," she told Aer. "And I cannot wait to meet your cubs. You will rrraise them well."
She stopped to drink some of her White Russian with Extra Cream. Some cream settled on her upper lip as she put the cup back down. Without hesitation, her tongue reached out and up swiping all of the cream down into her mouth. "Almost as enjoyable when I get that second sip overrr my lips. Could do without the hairrr, but Caitian, I am."
Switching topics back to Candy, "You have assessed herrr the exact same way that I have. She can get places to that I cannot and I think that even underrrcoverrr fleet memberrrs cannot. Howeverrr, if she has any dirrrt on you, she will publicize it. As farrr as I can tell, herrr only goddess in the universe is discoverrring trrruth as she sees it and she does not carrre how she can get to it. She is a useful, but volatile tool, which yourrr husband does not agrrree with."
M'Mira took another swig of her drink before laughing. "But if men werrre smarrrt, then I would have been marrrrrried severrral times overrr by now." She shrugged her shoulders and coughed, as some of the drink went down the wrong pipe.
Once she had regained her composure, M'Mira told Aer, "But like you, I believe that something smells bad. Candy is many things but a trrraitorrr is not one of them. Unforrrtunately, wherrre Candy is concerrrned, I cannot help herrr this time. Yourrr husband is the XO and he thinks I prrrotect herrr. I do not think that I do; but I do let herrr rrrun herrr courrrse because she is useful that way. If I assist, whoeverrr has set this up will likely implicate me next."
She sighed. "I do not look good in jumpsuits," M'Mira said forlornly before giving Aer a wry grin. "So, knowing you arrre as suspicious as I am, is encourrraging. Hopefully yourrr digging will get to the trrruth but I will miss my Sweet Trrruth brrroadcasts."
The comment about the babies caught Aer slightly off guard, enough that the professional reserve around her expression softened.
“Thank you, Captain.” Her hand rested briefly over the swell of her stomach. “I hope so.”
She meant it. There were some compliments that could be politely accepted and forgotten. That one would probably follow her home.
What followed was rather harder to ignore.
Aer watched in near silence as M’Mira collected the cream from her upper lip with her tongue. There were moments when cultural curiosity became indistinguishable from simply being unable to look away, and this was apparently one of them.
She took another sip of her ginger tea instead.
By the time M’Mira returned to Candy, Aer’s attention had settled back where it belonged.
The Captain referred to Jack as her husband again.
Aer noticed.
She also noticed that each time it happened, the conversation shifted a little further away from the Executive Officer’s professional judgement and towards something personal. Perhaps deliberately, perhaps not. She did not challenge it. Intelligence work had taught her long ago that people often revealed far more through the frame they chose than through the information they put inside it.
“Candy isn’t unique in keeping dirt on people,” Aer said, a faint trace of amusement touching her voice. “She’s simply rather more enthusiastic about publishing hers.”
Intelligence had its own collections. Some verified beyond reasonable doubt, some waiting on corroboration, some disproven but retained because even a falsehood could become useful if enough people believed it. Careers, affairs, debts, quiet favours, unexplained journeys, private grievances, old loyalties. Much of it would never leave the secured databases beneath her authority.
Candy Templeton had a file too.
Naturally.
Aer had no intention of discussing its contents.
“The difference is what you do with information once you have it. Candy wants people to know. Intelligence generally prefers that they don’t know we know.”
A small movement beneath her ribs made her shift in the chair, one hand pressing lightly against the offending spot until whichever child had discovered her internal organs lost interest.
“She and I probably disagree on what constitutes truth from time to time as well.” Aer glanced down into her tea. “Candy likes hers immediate. Preferably with an audience. I’m quite happy to spend a little longer finding out which parts survive contact with evidence.”
That did not mean Aer possessed any particular devotion to pristine truth herself. Intelligence rarely afforded such luxuries. There was truth, there was what could be proven, there was what someone could be made to believe, and occasionally there was the useful territory somewhere between all three.
Knowing the difference was part of the job.
Her eyes returned to M’Mira.
“I agree with you about staying clear of this publicly. If whoever arranged Candy’s arrest is trying to build a chain rather than remove one troublesome reporter, giving them another link would be generous.”
She lifted the cup again.
“I’m not feeling especially generous.”
There was the smallest flicker of something warmer in her eyes then.
“And I wouldn’t start mourning the Sweet Truth just yet, Captain. Candy strikes me as the sort of woman who considers being forcibly removed from the terminals an unfortunate scheduling conflict.”
Aer took another sip.
“She may be back irritating half the station before we’ve finished proving who tried to stop her.”
That made M'Mira laugh. It was more of a hissing and purring sound combined than what might be human laughter, but the smile on her face was unmistakeable. "It would be nice to have the station back to its norrrmal chaotic self. But, I sense an ill wind in the airrr."
The Caitian rose from her chair. "Thank you forrr coming, Aerrr. Please keep me inforrrmed of any developments on this or anything else in the sectorrr. I do not like having any of my inforrrmation currrtailed."
Aer’s mouth curved faintly at the Captain’s choice of words.
“I’ll keep you informed of anything you need to know.”
The distinction was deliberate.
There were things commanding officers absolutely needed placed in front of them, regardless of how unpleasant the contents might be. There were others that benefited everyone by remaining several compartments removed from the centre chair until they became useful, actionable, or unavoidable. Plausible deniability had saved more than one captain from questions they were better equipped to answer truthfully with I wasn’t aware.
And Aer liked having a card nobody else knew was still in her hand.
She finished the last of her ginger tea before setting the cup aside.
Getting out of the chair required rather more consideration than getting into one had. Aer planted a hand against the armrest and rose carefully, pausing once upright while the twins apparently reconsidered how much internal territory they required.
Her composure survived the negotiation.
She gathered the secured PADD from her lap and settled it against her side.
“Thank you for the tea, Captain.”
Aer remained where she was rather than simply assuming the meeting had concluded, posture relaxed but properly attentive, waiting for M’Mira to dismiss her.
M'Mira noted the distinction that Aer had specifically made, when she said, "anything that you need to know." The Caitian wondered what the intelligence officer thought she did not need to know. However, with Candy cut off, she did need to develop another level of trust with her officers.
Aer, unlike Jack, seemed to understand Candy's value, and that was enough for M'Mira for now. There would be other conversations, other times to reach understandings, and develop more trust.
However, Aer, like Jack waited for a formal dismissal order and that raised a bit of a concern, though it just might be M'Mira reading too much into nothing. "Thank you again, forrr coming, Aerrr. I look forrrwarrrd to hearrring what you find. Feel frrree to visit anytime, but underrrstand, therrre is no rrreason to be so forrrmal. You arrre dismissed."
Aer gave a small nod.
“I’ll remember that, Captain.”
Whether it would make her substantially less formal in the Captain’s office remained to be seen. Respect for the chain of command had never struck Aer as particularly burdensome.
At the dismissal, she inclined her head once more.
“Then I’ll let you know when I have something worth bringing you.”
She turned for the door, PADD tucked securely against her side. The twins had apparently decided to grant her a temporary ceasefire, which she accepted without questioning their motives.
The office doors parted and Aer stepped back into the movement of the station beyond.
By the time they closed behind her, her thoughts had already returned to Candy Templeton.
Treason was a very large word.
Someone had chosen it deliberately.
Aer intended to find out who.
Captain M'Mira
Commanding Officer
Faltan Station
Lt. Commander Aer Feshau-Patton
Chief Intelligence Officer, Faltan Station
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