LTjg Nico P Caito looks out of The Cafe's window for a moment, He watches the building across the way, completely lost in his thoughts.
Arroz Arum: sighs as he walks towards the restaurant. He assumes he'll find Nico there again, as the man was seen there every Friday. He was reluctant to do this interview, but it had been a few days since they had found Slate's body and he hoped Nico would be able to calmly answer some questions. The whole thing was gutwrenching. He moved to the ramp leading to the cafe and paused, trying to settle his thoughts, and prepare himself to look his role... maybe security was the wrong branch for him.
LTjg Nico P Caito blows out a breath and turns from the window. He sees Arum outside of it and groans. Too late to duck out now. He spreads his hands in a 'Seriously? SERIOUSLY' motion. Still, he is not sure if hes ready for this and already his back is up.
Arroz Arum: walks up and steps through the door. He nods to Nico, and strides to the counter to get a Raktajino. "Make it a extra large," he adds to the boy who is serving. While he waits, he turns, resting his back on the counter, looking towards Nico, and mouthing the words, "We need to talk."
LTjg Nico P Caito watches the security ensign walk in and order a raktajino. That makes him grin, as the boy at the counter blinks at him and stammers. "I ... we ... I ... we don't have replicated drinks here . m ... mister .... Maybe .. um ... our coffee?" the kid looks anxious. He snorts a laugh at the pair and calls out to the boy between he and the security officer. "Give him two." he says heading for the door. He doesn't want to have this conversation in this building. He pauses right out front, nearly.
Arroz Arum: ignores the boy and moves towards the cafe entrance, as he gets through the door he says, "Better stop right there, mister. You may be higher in rank but I am the Investigating Officer on this, and as such I have the right to question you and even detain you. Don't make me do that, okay?"
LTjg Nico P Caito stops out front as he's chased. He turns and looks at the ensign for a long time before he sighs, almost explosively. "What do you want, ensign Arum?" he asks. The coffee ruse didn't work, so he won't even have that to sustain him. he heads away from the cafe, stopping at the only other building near by.
Arroz Arum: rubs his palms on his uniform pants. He fixes his eyes on Nico, trying to look stern and businesslike. He follows the man as he moves towards what serves as the Pebble community hall. He lowers his voice, "You know what I want, Sir. Like it or not, we need more information about Slate, his friends, his movements. There's a mystery here we're trying to solve, and I would think, if you cared about your... friend, you would want to help us get to the bottom of this. Now, we can talk out here, in the cafe, or back at the brig. Your choice."
LTjg Nico P Caito listens to the voice behind him and whirls around. "The Brig?" he asks incredulous. He closes his eyes. "Listen here. My best friend was killed over a week ago. But *I* didn't even notice he was missing. So obviously I wasn't really such a good friend, was I? Or we wouldn't have found him literally feeding the local insects." he growls. Then ha pauses. "But sure ... what do you want to know about him? I'll do what I can to answer you." he looks pained. This has been eating at him.
Arroz Arum: looks to him, "Hey Nico," the man is out of uniform so maybe first names are okay, "look, I know you lost someone close to you. I don't want to harass you but I have a situation here that needs resolving. Slate missed a couple of duty shifts, it's happened before and he's been brought up on charges and had to pay a fine. We all figured it was the same thing again, only this time he might have had brig time. But when he failed to report at all, AND we couldn't find him on sensors, that's when the alarm bells went off. Either he was AWOL and off the planet, or something had happened to him here. So I need to talk to you about that. I AM sorry that he's gone and I know it must be hard for you. But I have a job to do and I need to talk to you to do it."
LTjg Nico P Caito pinches the bridge of his nose. "He was a kid .... Aroz." he may as well get informal as well. He didn't give a shit at the moment if the man was in uniform. "Slate was an irresponsible little kid. He always let his woman dictate when he would go in or be late." he shrugs. "I've been there sometimes. You wake up and the warm body beside you feels too good to leave for some cold Starfleet duty. Sure I was always able to say 'nah I gotta go in', but Slate .... he was a kid ... and his girl..." he shakes his head. "She considered her his top priority. Always convinced him he should stay to be with her. Am I even making sense?" he is trying not to be TOO crude about it, but ....
Arroz Arum nods, "I'm not a prude. I go to the Astra Spring festival same as everyone else. So she had him hooked but good?" He turns to look at the stream flowing by them, water more treacherous than it looked, the running rapids catching his glaze. "Sometimes I even question why I joined Starfleet. I was all set to join the APF," looks at Nico, "Astra Police Force," he explains in case the officer doesn't know. "Starfleet came and I got all google-eyed at the thought of the Federation and the Prime Directive. But all I'm doing," he kicks at a pebble, "is following up leads on small cases, and I haven't even been into space other than my training cruises."
LTjg Nico P Caito scoffs. "Like a fish on a hook for the last year at least." he nods. "Yea. I've heard of them .... I ... was thinking ... maybe its time for a change ... I'm so deep in engineering wells I feel like I could come out the other side of the planet." he sighs. "I was born on Luna . so .. I was assigned here a couple years back. That's how I met Slade. Recruiting." the word sounds sour, as if he now regrets recruiting the young man. he pauses. "Believe me it takes time, kid." he speaks almost automatically. "You won't hit earth for years .. if ever." he stops speaking, realizing he's no being encouraging and may actually be talking the kid OUT of his commission. "Slade ... he wanted to marry Latte ... but he'd finally managed to get HIS first shipboard assignment. Which meant he'd be off planet ... for who knows how long .. and she didn't like it..." he sighs. "They were gonna ..." and he stops.
Arroz Arum: raises an eyebrow, "What were they going to do?" He looks around. Things are pretty quiet. He can hear the hum of the engineering facility but there's noone in earshot of them. He makes a decision, "Nico, I am sorry to say, we did find what we feel might be the cause of death. There was an unidentified substance in Slate's body. The Doc hasn't been able to figure out what it is, but it's possible whatever it is, might have killed him, because there's no sign of anything else that might have done so," he's giving out some privileged information, but he wants to talk frankly.
LTjg Nico P Caito pinches the bridge of his nose. "Stupid, stupid child." he growls. Then he looks around, as if looking for people in earshot. "Latte really had him by the .... short hairs. And she was getting him to do things that ..... would get him trouble with the local police, never mind Starfleet." he pounds his right fist in his left palm. "I told him that girl was not worth a stint on a prison planet. And he told me it wasn't illegal because it wasn't even KNOWN." he snarls "Wink wink, nudge nudge." he growls. If Slade were alive the man looks like he was willing to beat him to death.
Arroz Arum: "So you're telling me whatever he had was illegal? It's certainly not a known substance, not to Starfleet Medical, nor to Astra Police. Question is, where did he get it, and why did he take so much? Was it.. a good high, or something to do with.. sexual functions? was she... kinky?"
LTjg Nico P Caito makes quotes out of his fingers. "Its not illegal if they don't even know it exists." he quotes his dead friend. He drops his hands. "That's how he put it. I told him that was bunk." he blows out a breath. "She told him about some drug she got from some dude that he got from some moon. That would rock his world, like she wasn't doing that already." he pauses. "Kinky is one word for her. She liked sex and he was a young man, just like you. Hard to say no to some people."
Arroz Arum: breathes out slowly. "Illicit drug, then. You think she deliberately put him in danger? Was she... sniffing around any other boys? You don't seem to think much of her." Takes out his PADD, "you think one of them purchased this drug?" He looks to Nico, "Any idea who they would have gotten it from here on Astra?" Scrolls through his Padd, "Who would have clearance to go to an inhabited moon... how many habitable moons are there near here," he's talking half to himself as he looks up the information. "There's Questa but that's virtually off limits for environmental concerns, only scientists allowed there now, any visit would be logged, I can check though. Then there's" looks further, "someplace called N'Doto, that's in a dead system almost inside the Takaar Nebula. Difficult but not impossible to get to. Beyond that, I can't see any other moons that support life in this Sector. I can check the shipping records for traders coming in from outside Astraios Sector but that will take some time. They all have to report their manifests and some are boarded."
LTjg Nico P Caito licks his lips. "She loved him, but she didn't want him leaving this system." he shrugs. "You know how that goes for families sometimes. If a guy isn't posted to a family ship he gets to leave his family behind for months or years at a time. She didn't want that. But I don't know how far she would have gone to stop him from wanting to." he listens to him list moons. "If this place is anything like Luna or Earth ... theres gotta be a place for this sort of thing. Drugs, unauthorized vehicles, stolen technology. Take the stars out of your eyes, ensign." he considers the list. "There some talented civilian pilots on this planet that could get to that N'Doto you mentioned. So try there first. If its habitable, then Starfleet will explore it sooner or later." he sounds a bit bitter .. as if he's lost his taste for Starfleet.
Arroz Arum: says softly, "I can go one better." He looks to Nico, "did you know Slate was assigned to pilot a shuttle that took Fleet Captain Toocool to N'doto recently?" He scrolls further, "and the duty shift was changed... he must have traded a shift with someone in order to go. Doesn't sound like him. Why do any extra work?"
LTjg Nico P Caito blinks. "No sh .... kidding ......" he shakes his head. "Yea, the only reason he'd pull extra duty would be for Latte." he shakes his head. "If he did then ... wow ... it would mean he transported an illicit drug in the same vehicle as the Fleet Captain?" he whistles low. "He might be better off dead if she found out...." he's doing some detective work of his own …
Arroz Arum: nods, whistling softly, "He'd be in a lot of trouble if he wasn't already..." he was going to say dead, but sudden realization he was talking to the man's friend stopped him. "Well I guess I can report this. Maybe I'll be going to N'Doto soon. We have a bulletin out for this Latte, but haven't been able to find her. Yet."
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