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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.

*the choclate point continued to purr*

*my ancestors hunted rakasha, we were feared and dreaded!, I smell catmint....*

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."

*there is catmint inside this ship!!! I demand you take me to it NOW!!!*

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."

"Right. I'll just see what else I can find."
He strode to the captains room and knocked with his free hand.

The door irised open. Uschi was busy stacking dataslates and reorganizing the piles of material that had been gone through.

"Captain?"

She looks up, her expression carefully neutral. "Yes, inquisitor Novum?"

Great, now they're working in relays.

"I am here to see if there's any way this investigation could be concluded more expiditiously."

"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.

She blinked, shrinking a bit at the mental touch.

"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."

"Yes, my Sergeant was rescued by your former Captain. I dare say we all were. That's the reason you aren't dead right now." Pater said patiently.

"I would think that we've proven our faith with blood, our own and the enemy's. What else can we offer?"[/i]

"I realise this may be hard to comprehend. I am asking how I can help You."

"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."

"No. This isn't my investigation, for a start. I can, however, do my best to get the wheels moving faster, if you tell me how."

"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."

"Every round?"

"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."

"Ludicrous. Anything else?"