"Captain's orders," she said crisply to the officer on watch, "You received an IFTL a short time ago?"
"Yes, ma'am, to the captain's address with encryption."
Sassinak could not tell if the com officer's tension was normal or not. "The contents of that message require me to sit com watch myself for two hours." This was unusual, but not unheard of: sometimes extremely sensitive information was sent this way. "I expect incoming IFTL signals, encrypted, and by these orders," and she waved the paper, "only the ship's captain can receive them."
"Yes, ma'am. Will the captain need any assistance?"
Sassinak let herself glare, and the com officer vanished onto the bridge. What she was going to do was both illegal and dangerous… but so was what Dupaynil had done, and what the enemy had done. She logged onto the board and engaged her private comlink to the Ssli interface.
So far, normal procedure. But now… her fingers danced on the board, calling up the file of the original encrypted message. And there it was, the quadruple header code she had never forgotten, not in all the years. Idiots, she thought; they should have changed that long since, as she had changed from a naive ensign standing communications watch to an experienced and powerful ship captain.
With the right header code, it was easy to prepare an incoming message Dupaynil would have to believe was genuine. The other 'incoming' message would be in regular Fleet fashion, Ford's detachment on 'family compassionate leave'… but it would not arrive until Dupaynil was gone.
Where to send Dupaynil? Where would he be safely out of her way, and also, in his own mind, doing something reasonable? She wished she could send him to a Thek, preferably a large, old, very slow one… but that wouldn't work. Fleet Security had nothing to do with the pacifist Bronthins, or the Mrouxt.
Suddenly it came to her, and she fought back a broad grin which anyone glancing into the alcove might notice (why would the captain be grinning to herself in the com shack?): Ford would dig up dirt on the Paraden family's dealings, and Lunzie would find what she could on Diplo… and that, according to what they'd found on Ireta, left the alien Setis without an investigator. That would be Dupaynil's chore.
He had done a lot of diplomatic work, he'd said. He had bragged after dinner, once, about his ability to get along with any of the alien members of the Federation, and even said the Seti weren't as bad as everyone thought.
So, quickly, carefully, Sassinak wrote the orders. The Ssli had always shown her special considerations, above and beyond their usual shipboard duties. She owed her life to the sessile Ssli communications officer on her first tour of duty when Hssrho had located her in deep space after she'd had a 'misadventure' in an evac pod. In gratitude she had always taken care to cultivate the Ssli communications officers on every other posting. Now she consulted the resident Ssli. She could not simply pretend that an IFTL had come in; the computer records would show it had not and Dupaynil probably had subverted computer security to some degree. But Dupaynil's actual shipboard experience was limited and Sassinak knew that he had never bothered to introduce himself to Dhrossh. Her favorite Wefts, such as Gelory, had mentioned in passing that Dupaynil's mind was not the right sort for direct contact. Whatever they meant by that.
The Ssli thought her scheme was delightful… an odd choice of adjective, Sassinak thought, and wondered if the speech synthesizer software was working correctly. She had never suspected the Ssli of any remotely human emotions. Ssli syntax tended toward the mathematical. But she entered her encrypted message, and the Ssli initiated IFTL communication with another Ssli on another Fleet vessel. Which one she would never know.
The Ssli, her own had informed her, felt no compunction about concealing such communications from human crew. Her own message bounced back, and appeared as a true incoming message on the computer and the board. Sassinak routed it to the decryption computer, peeled a copy for Dupaynil's file, and leaned out to call to the com watch officer, who had taken a seat on the bridge.
"Get me Dupaynil," she said, letting herself glower a bit.
Ford glanced at her but did not even let his brows rise. Dupaynil arrived in a suspiciously short time; this time Sassinak's glower was not faked at all.
"You," she said, pointing a finger at him. The rest of the bridge crew became very busy at their own boards. "You have an incoming IFTL, which not only requires decryption and states that I do not have access, but in addition to that, it carries initiation codes I remember all too well!"
He would have to know that, or he could find out - and perhaps her flare of anger would distract him from the unlikeliness of his own orders. At the moment, he fooked confused, as well he might.
"This!" Sassinak pointed to the display she'd frozen onscreen. "The last time I saw that initiation code, that very one, in quad like that, someone smacked me over the head and dumped me in an evac pod. If you think you're going to do something like that, Major - take me out and take over my ship - you are very much mistaken!" She could hear the anger in her own voice, and the bridge was utterly silent.
"I… Commander Sassinak, I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about. That code is known to me, yes - it's from the IG's office. But…"
"I don't like secrets on my ship, Dupaynil! I don't like junior officers receiving IFTL messages to which the captain is forbidden access. And encrypted messages at that. I don't like people going over my head to the IG's office. What's your gripe, eh?"
Dupaynil, she was sure, was not as upset as he looked. He was too smart by half. But he was responding to her obvious anger and had lost some of his gloss. "Commander, the IG's office might have reason to contact me about the Security work I've done here - if nothing else, about that - you know…" His voice lowered. Sassinak let herself calm down.
"I still don't like it," she grumbled, but softly. Someone smothered a cough, over in Weapons, and nearly choked from the effort. "All right. I see what you mean, and from what Lunzie said that whole thing was classified. Maybe there is a reason. But I don't like secrets. Not like this, at a time when we're all…" She let her voice trail away. Dupaynil's lids drooped slightly. Was he convinced? "Take your damned message, and unless you like causing me grief, tell me what's so important I can't even read it."
Dupaynil moved to the decryption computer and entered his password.
Sassinak turned to the communications watch officer, and said, "Take over. And make sure I know about any incoming or outgoing messages. From anyone." This last with a sidelong glance at Dupaynil.
The Security officer was staring at the screen as if it had grown tentacles; Sassinak controlled an impulse to laugh at him. He glanced at her, a shrewd, calculating look, and she spoke immediately.
"Well? Are you supposed to clap me in irons, or what?" He shook his head, and sighed.
"No, Commander, it's nothing like that. It is… odd… that is all. May we speak in your office? Privately?"
Sassinak nodded shortly and left the bridge with a final glower for everyone. She could feel the support of her crew - her own crew - like a warm blanket around her shoulders. In her office, she put her formal desk between herself and Dupaynil. His brows rose, recognizing that for what it was, and he sighed again.
"Captain, I swear to you…"
"Don't bother." Sassinak turned away, briefly, to glance at the hardcopy he offered her, then met his dark eyes squarely. "If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you don't - but I cannot ignore anything like that. It nearly cost me my life twenty years ago."
"I'm sorry. Truly sorry. But just as you received unwelcome orders a short while ago, I have now received unwelcome orders to leave this ship - unwelcome and even stranger than yours."