He nodded, still keeping a suspicious eye on the strange creature. The only cats he's really dealt with were nearly two hundred kilos of ravenous death and roamed the wilderness outside of the Schola. While they were mostly smart enough to avoid humans, occasionally they would waylay trainees, something that was considered a beneficial part of the training. He'd never been attacked by one, but he'd had occasion to see one.
Pater scooped up the Cat and handed it back to Lillith, getting out of the bed with a wince and picking his stuff up, including the precious photo.
"I'm discharging myself. Nathan, I'll be happy to show you the photostat machine..."
Several minutes later....
While Nathan was copying the photos for everybody Pater went over the details of the investigation into the Chaos Cults and the Fool's Wager. He activated his Vox and contacted Gix. He explained that he thought he could expidite the process, the crew of the Wager not being inclined to hate his guts quite as much.
Several more minutes after that he was saluting Severa. "I don't mean to butt in, Lieutenant. It's just that I have a proven record of not flinging these people into walls. They're less inclined to shoot me where I stand."
Severa saluted him crisply, then nodded. "As you say, inquisitor. So far, I've seen nothing beyond the sort of underhanded dealings of the regular Rogue Trader."
"We are cooperating fully, Inquisitor Novum. The timetable is in the hands of the Inquisition." A pile of dataslates started to tip over, and she moved quickly to catch it.
The pile stopped tipping and righted itself seemingly of it's own accord. Pater raised his eyebrow in a challenging manner. Don't underestimate me, Captain.
"I'm not," she said. "I have opened up everything, I've cooperated fully, and if there's more to be done to satisfy the Inquisiton, I honestly don't know what it is."
"I don't doubt that. Mistakes are made, we're all a bit twitchy at the moment. I'm sure this will all be sorted out; in time. However, time -and troops, who are all currently going through your holds- is what we're lacking. So. I ask again. Is there anything I can do for You to get this over with?"
She paused, uncertain of what to say. "Perhaps you could see that our actions are not the sort of behavior that people with something to hide from the Inquisition would likely engage in. Our only orders were to assume a holding orbit over the planet, but Captain Engelier engaged in a support mission on a hunch that something was wrong on the Ramilies and that our help might be needed. There are plenty of Rogue Traders in the Imperium who would have simply walked away, even the above-board ones."
"And I'm trying to come up with an answer that won't be disrespectful. I seriously doubt that 'call off the investigation and let us go on our way' is what you want to hear."
"There isn't a fast way to do a stem to stern search of a vessel this size. This ship can house over three thousand people at optimum capacity, overload to twice that number, and our current crew is nine hundred and ninety-three..." A wince. "Nine hundred and seventy-six. Beyond performing a less thorough search or skipping the detailed records analysis, I don't know of a way to expedite this sort of thing, unless you detail more personnel to the job. For example, they're busy doing scans on each and every round of ammunition for the CIWS arrays even as we speak."
"They're belt-fed, so they're running sections of the belt through the auspexes, apparently fifty rounds at a time. Lieutenant Severa is very thorough."
