Cassandra: Horse's head found in a bed

Who: Cassandra
Where: The royal suite
When: The evening before Davie's hijinks
Cataloguing and processing information bled out from a myriad of shipboard systems, the dozens of Slave schematics displayed on the massive monitors adorning the walls of the Royal suite scrolled information ever upwards
<snip>
With a soft thump, her head hit the pillow of the bed that Rufus had in his lab.
With the security systems in place, and Cassandra and the Scythers still out there, it was the only truly safe place left on the ship.
"Holly, you're still on our side, right?" she asked before she let herself fall asleep.
</snip>
Cassandra kept her face impassive, mitigating the possibility of LeChance being alerted to any discrepancies in Holly's behaviour
"Always, babe." she replied with a wink that was mirrored exactly by 'Holly' on the monitor in Rufus' lab
<snip>
"Wake me up if anything happens..." she said, then fell asleep.
</snip>
Cassandra cut the AI override, and watched Rosette's slumber in silence; it would be interesting to know what was in the files she had been browsing she reflected, but since that particular computer was off the local net, she'd need to either break in there herself, or hack the machine via field interference or one of the other more arcane techniques at her disposal...
"You shouldn't even be thinking about pissing LeChance off any more than you already have after what you did to her boyfriend" Brittany said from the back of the room
Cassandra cut the display link and turned guiltily to face Brittany
"I didn't hear you come in"
They regarded each other for a moment before Brittany finally broke the silence
"I mean it about LeChance..."
Cassandra made a gesture of hopelessness with her hands
"She... She killed Fifi" she said, her voice full of emotion
Brittany sighed and rolled her eyes
"Yeah, about that: I've been meaning to ask: What happened there!? I mean, I've never show any inclination towards batting for the other team!"
Cassandra frowned and folded her arms, hugging herself defensively
"She was ...persuasive"
"Oh?"
"Well, up until seeing all that grey blood, I assumed there was some psychotropically active agent in the bottle of wine she bought over; but if she really was an alien then I suppose there could have been any number of pheromonal or psionic influences at play"
Cass sighed
"...That and I found staring at my death down the barrel of the hand cannon she threatened me quite motivating as well"
"You mean...?"
"Yes! At smegging gunpoint, alright!?" she snapped, turning her back
Brittany blew a breath out
"Shouldn't have pried..." she said "Sorry"
"I mean it wasn't so bad once I got used to it; I enjoyed it... her..." Cassandra turned back to face her again, her expression unreadable "I even think I was in love"
She paused and blew out a sigh
"Anyway... Nowhere near as bad as the other shit"
Brittany closed her eyes, suppressing a shudder
"Neither of us are the same person that happened to" she murmured
"That's such smegging shit, and you know it" Cass snorted "But whatever. If it helps you sleep better at night..."
Brittany grimaced and shook her head
"I need a smegging drink..."
...
Brittany drifted back into hazy consciousness early the next morning with a stinking hangover, her slumber disturbed by hysterical screaming
Fumbling for the gun she had been given by her chief of security, she stumbled out of her bed and out into the suite's main lounge area, where a couple of bodyguards and other members of her staff were already hurrying towards the source of the cries
"What the smeg!?" she muttered, realising they were all heading in the direction of Cassandra's room, and in turn hurried on over as well
The sight that greeted her wasn't pretty
"Who the smeg has done this!?" she demanded, taking in the 'horse' head and the vast amount of blood in disbelief
"We're checking the security feeds now" one of the bodyguards told her "but how the intruder managed to override our systems is something of a concern"
"I'd say so" Brittany remarked coldly
Cassandra, besmirched with blood, and shivering with shock at the end of the bed as far away from the oversized mutant nags head as she was able to get, took a few deep gulps of air before she was able to say anything
"They're dead" she hissed, her voice building with an edge of hysteria to it "I don't care who smegging well did this, they are dead. I'm going to give them pain enhancing drugs and then smegging well torture them to death over the course of three smegging weeks! They are dead, you hear me!? Dead!"
Brittany raised her eyebrows
"Well, a security review would appear to be in order anyway; get her and that ...thing out of here"
The bodyguards, all quite aware that they had failed in their duties, scrambled to help Cassandra while trying hard not to meet the Queen's eye
Brittany turned and walked towards the kitchenette
A couple of glasses of water, some painkillers and a quick check on the security systems later and they had their man
"Davie Jones..." Brittany muttered to herself, watching the man furtively lugging a huge dripping bag in the direction of her suite "You bad, bad boy..."
She opened a comms channel on the rooms monitor
"Get me Security..."
She logged the incident with the pimply faced incompetent who answered the call and turned her attention back to the monitors, digging back through the archives and replaying Davie's exploits from the last evening
"Now, how are we going to crack that wonderful armour of yours?" she mused idly
"Portable micro-wormhole generator" Cassandra grated as she walked in towelling her hair dry "We can leave the armour intact and just suck his guts out through the wormhole"
Brittany turned around and smiled at her former-self
"Messy, but entertaining" she conceded
"Either way he's dead" Cassandra snarled sullenly
"You... You've really been through the mill lately" Brittany started after a moment's reflection "Why don't you take a little time off and let me worry about the crap for a while?"
"I don't..." Cassandra started
"You do" Brittany interrupted "Really. Take a break. Go get munted or drunk on the promenade, find a sim to immerse yourself in, get laid... anything!"
"But..." Cass protested weakly
"Go on... get out there!"
"Whatever..." Cass shrugged and turned to walk out
"Just don't go getting into trouble with LaChance or anything, ok?" Brittany called out as she left
<tbc/>