A thin line of blood trickled down Maya's left cheek, stinging under the bright overhead lights. Commander Briggs loomed over her, adjusting the cuffs of his pristine white dress uniform as if brushing off dirt.
Commander Briggs: Stand up and face the wall. Keep your hands where I can see them.
Maya: Commander, call harbor defense. Please, give me thirty seconds to show you the telemetry.
Commander Briggs: You really think you can play games with me, Lieutenant? Your career in this Navy is finished!
Maya: This is not about my career! Thousands of sailors are asleep on that carrier right now!
Commander Briggs: Do not lecture me about sailors! I run this command section, not an insubordinate tech officer who thinks she knows better than naval intelligence!
Maya reached out toward the scattered papers, her knuckles white as she tried to gather the printed sonar maps.
Commander Briggs: Don't you touch those!
Briggs kicked her hand away. His boot struck the papers, sending them fluttering across the polished floor like dying white birds.
Maya: Why won't you just look? Why are you hiding what's in the bay?
Commander Briggs: Because there is nothing there except your paranoid delusions! You went behind my back to intercept classified feeds!
Maya: Because you ordered the sensor drones shut down at zero-two-hundred! Why did you kill the perimeter sensors, Briggs?
Briggs froze for a second, his jaw tightening until the muscle twitched.
Commander Briggs: Routine maintenance. A junior technician does not question operational maintenance schedules.
Maya: Maintenance doesn't take down the primary acoustic sensors right before a carrier battlegroup leaves port!
Commander Briggs: You are digging your own grave, Lin. Disobedience, breach of national security, and now insubordination.
Maya: You took money from someone, didn't you? That offshore account flagged in the logistics audit... it was yours!
Briggs's eyes flared with pure venom. He stepped into her space, leaning down so close his breath hit her face.
Commander Briggs: Say another word about that audit, and I will ensure you never see daylight again. You will be stripped of rank and dishonorably discharged before sunset.
Maya: Do it then! Discharge me! But evacuate the docks first!
Commander Briggs: There will be no evacuation. There will only be your formal confession.
Briggs reached down, grabbing her by the collar of her tan service uniform, hauling her halfway off the floor.
Commander Briggs: You will sign a statement admitting you stole military intelligence for private sale.
Maya: I will die before I sign a lie for you.
Commander Briggs: That can certainly be arranged, Lieutenant.
Before he could pull her further, the heavy mechanical lock on the double blast doors let out a deafening hiss.
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