A Blatant Though Necessary Violation Of COI

20250320

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

Dammit, this was exactly what conflict of interest regulations was meant to prevent. But currently there wasn’t another investigator or navigation engineer on the station.
Well, not one in any state to carry out duties.
So here they were. Both shuffling paperwork, avoiding each other’s eyes, and uncomfortably wondering if they should have taken their wedding band off before entering the meeting room.
Riley finished fiddling with his notebook and girded himself. Reached out to tap the recorder on. Gave a brisk cough, just as he started every questioning. “Record start. This is Investigator Riley Cassaway, questioning Navigation Engineer Naomi Cassaway, who is currently acting as Chief Navigation Engineer in place of Barrett Glome.”
This cough was reflexive. Discomforted. “For clarity I must confirm that Dr Cassaway” cripes it felt so weird to talk about her like that “is my wife. We are aware that this questioning does not conform to regulations, and will be requesting a new session as soon as either an Investigator or Navigation Engineer without this” gaping “conflict of interest is available.”
Naomi was staring deadpan at a point right above his head. Whenever he’d seen that previously he’d felt sorry for the poor sod who was about to get the sharp end of her professional opinion. He hoped that in this case it was simply due to how awkward the whole situation was.
“Dr Cassaway.” It felt so foreign on his tongue. “I must ask about the incident which occurred last night at approximately 200 hours.”
Naomi’s face twitched. Ah. Hm. She would probably describe that as having occurred this morning. But this unorthodox situation called for strictest professionalism so the quibble had to be swallowed.
She simply said “Certainly, Inspector Cassaway.”
While he was well used to being addressed such, hearing it from the voice which normally called him ‘poochy’ was dissonant.
“The station was making preprogrammed automated pathing adjustments. These had been filed two days prior. Full details are in the report.”
She waved at the lilac envelope. The orange envelope next to it would be the raw printouts, the green would be supplementary evidence, and the blue her personal notes.
Riley decided that there was no need to officially state the presence of each section; ‘the report’ covered any number of envelopes or binders, right?
“During the manoeuvre an approaching freighter disregarded the broadcasted clearance zone and plowed into the station. We at the Nav Division hold that we followed all appropriate procedures and regulations and are without fault.”
No shit. Dumbass probably had a homebrew navAI. But the list had to be followed.
“Were you or any of the team present at the time of impact?”
“No, Inspector.”
“Who filed the path?”
“Chief Engineer Glome.”
“Have there been any previous issues with his work?”
“No, Inspector.” Naomi was staring fixedly above his head again.
“I see. I hereby declare this matter on hold until the investigation into the freighter piloting concludes. End record.”

Prompt was “Write a scene between two characters who have suppressed their feelings for each other.”