“Perhaps, I should take the lead on this one,” Mason interrupted smoothly. “Since Captain Riggs is an observer on my ship and therefore under my command.”

Captain Thorne’s dark gaze cut to him. Her elegantly shaped eyebrow arched, just slightly.

“You could, Captain Mason, but you won’t. You are both captains, and you are both culpable for the loss of your division CO.” she carried on, leaning forward, forearms resting on the table to lace her fingers together. “Which is why Captain Reese-Riggs is going first.”

Instantly, he understood their TFCO’s warning. Olivia Thorne was steel through and through. Flirting wasn’t going to work. Especially not with Commander Rose-Thorne glaring at them like he planned to rip their spines out through… unmentionable locations if they even thought about trying.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that RJ had gotten the memo, or if he had, he didn’t care.

“I will, but I warn you, nice guys always finish la—“

Thorne’s eyebrow arched more.

“Are you sure you want to complete that sentence, Captain Riggs?” she asked mildly as she reached for her padd to make a note.

Giving a slight cough, he shifted position in his chair and plastered the most charming smile Mason had ever seen on his face. “My apologies, ma’am. I agree, that conversation is best left for more… intimate surroundings.”

Mason leaned back in his chair, his expression neutral as he watched RJ adjust his approach on the fly.

“Well, I suppose I should start with the fact that Captain Murphy was well aware of the risks we were undertaking when we planned the mission.” RJ sat back, and it was like looking at a different person. “Given the highly dangerous nature of the technology we were tasked to recover and the fact that those in possession of it were aware that a Starfleet team would be dispatched, we had to resort to a somewhat irregular mission plan.”

Damn… Mason blinked, but the same ‘new’ RJ sat in front of him. His expression was serious and his focus didn’t switch from Captain Thorne one iota.

She tilted her head. “Interesting. Would you care to elaborate on this ‘irregular’ mission plan?”

“Perhaps I should just break in he—“ Mason tried, but she held her hand up to stop him, still looking at RJ.

“Well,” RJ sat back, crossing one leg lazily over the other. He looked totally at ease. “Given that we knew they’d be expecting a starfleet team, we leaned into it. Captain Murphy took on the role of bait.”

“Bait?”

RJ didn’t even blink. “He played the part of the starfleet officer undercover, while the secondary and tertiary teams—“

“Secondary and tertiary teams?” Surprise washed over her face. “Explain. How many starfleet personnel did you involve in this… highly unorthodox approach?”

“Four,” RJ said promptly. “Maybe five.”

Rose-Thorne’s glare intensified as Captain Thorne tilted her head, her voice dangerously mild. “Maybe five? Over three teams?”

“Well,” RJ shrugged. “Captain Mason counts as a whole team all by himself. Murphy was with Rennox, since neither of them could operate undercover if their lives depended on it, they were our distraction. Which left me with Vayne.”

“The ‘maybe’ fifth?”

He nodded. “Vayne was our way into the black market auction where the tech was being sold off. I suspect he was undercover something or other though. He knew our protocols and procedures far too well not to be.”

Mason grunted. Interesting that RJ had picked that up.

“We made the auction, where our targets attention was on Murphy and Rennox. Then we created a diversion so that we could snatch the tech out from under their noses.”

“Yes… so I read in the report,” the new division CO said, looking down at her padd. Presumably it had a copy of their action report on it. “But this appears to be where they snatched Murphy out from under your noses.”

She looked up. “What diversion did you use?”

“I beg your pardon, ma’am?”

For the first time RJ looked surprised, and Mason took the opening. 

“I made a pass at him,” he explained. “And Vayne picked a fight. He slammed me into the table, or I slammed him into the table. It broke and chaos ensued.”

“Then the orions opened fire,” RJ cut in. “The lights went out and there was an explosion.”

Thorne rubbed her temples, looking a lot like most senior officers they came into contact with.

”Why would this Vayne pick a fight… actually, no, I don’t want to know,” she sighed.

“Okay, the notes on this report say you have a plan to track down Captain Murphy’s current whereabouts. Do you want to run me through your ideas before I end up with a headache trying to figure out your thought processes?”