A Just Determination (32 page)

Perhaps because of his mood he walked quickly and arrived first at the court room. He took a seat, trying to look calm despite his internal turmoil. Paul turned slightly in his chair so he could glance at others as they entered the court room, hoping to catch a quick glimpse of Jen. He saw all the department heads file in, most of them sitting in a pack, but Sykes slightly separated. Herdez came in, striding to her seat like a warship steaming past small sailboats, and also took a seat away from anyone else.

The junior officers began trickling in. Jen Shen arrived at last, walking briskly to take a seat in the back as usual, then glanced toward Paul and gave a brief nod and small smile in greeting. Paul returned the gesture.
Right. Just friends saying hi. No goopy-eyes. Whatever those are
.

Kris Denaldo entered as well, but instead of going with Jen she came up front and took a seat in the row just behind Paul, then she leaned forward and whispered in his ear. "Have you and Jen started picking out curtains, yet?"

"What? How did you—?" Paul looked down at his clothes as if something there had betrayed the events of last night.

"Relax. It doesn't show. Jen and I are girlfriends. We talk about stuff. Nobody else knows."

"Uh, thanks."

"She's worried about what you're going to say up there today."

Paul bit his lip.
Jen's got a right to be worried. Even before last night. She's a good friend
. "I'm not entirely sure. I've gone over stuff with Commander Garrity, but she wanted me to sound unrehearsed when she questioned me."

"You going to fall on your sword for Wakeman?"

"No. What happened wasn't my fault. I'm just not so sure it was his fault. Not on a criminal level, anyway."

"Okay. Jen told me she was attracted to your idealism. That's funny, huh? Ms. Cynic and Mr. Idealism. So, do what you think is right. Jen'll be there."

"Thanks. Thanks a lot."

"No problem." Kris got up again, moving back to sit next to Jen, where the two ensigns bent their heads together in conversation. Paul stole glances their way, afraid to let his eyes linger on Jen too long, and finally saw her looking up at him again. She shook her head as if exasperated, then one eyelid flicked in a wink almost too quick to see.

At precisely 1000 the bailiff made his "All rise" announcement and the legal ceremonies and procedures marking the entry of the judge and the members began. Paul took a close look at Wakeman, whose stubborn determination seemed to have slowly eroded into despair. Perhaps it was the way Wakeman was sitting this morning, but over the course of the prosecution's presentation Wakeman seemed to have collapsed in on himself like a inflatable doll with a slow leak.

Lieutenant Commander Garrity stood. "The defense calls as its first witness Operations Specialist First Class Yolanda Daniels."

Daniels walked to the witness stand, her uniform and military bearing immaculate. If she felt an qualms at being surrounded by officers it wasn't apparent from her squared shoulders and calm demeanor.

After the swearing in, Garrity stood before Daniels. "Are you Operations Specialist First Class Yolanda Daniels, assigned to the Operations Specialists Division in the Operations Department on the USS
Michaelson
?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And is your duty station during general quarters at one of the consoles in the
Michaelson
's combat information center from which primary combat system sensor results are displayed for warning and analysis?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Petty Officer Daniels, what exactly does that job entail?"

Daniels looked around slightly, as if trying to gauge the ability of her audience to understand a technical explanation. "Ma'am, I occupy the console's primary monitoring station. That's the one on the right. Petty Officer Li occupies the back-up station on the left. When the combat system sensors detect anything they think might indicate a threat, we get an alert on the console and the raw data gets displayed along with the system's assessment of what it means."

"What sort of data are you talking about, Petty Officer Daniels?"

"Anything the sensors might pick up, ma'am. Visual, IR . . . excuse me, that's infra-red, ultra-violet, radio spectrum emissions, any kind of energy or visual detection that stands out from the background environment."

"How sensitive are these sensors?"

"Objection." Commander Wilkes spoke for the first time that morning. "That information is classified."

"Sustained." Judge Holmes addressed Garrity. "If the defense wishes to go into detail on that issue the court-martial will have to go into closed session."

"I understand, Your Honor. That won't be necessary. Petty Officer Daniels, can the sensors you help monitor detect energy weapons being charged on another ship?" Instead of answering, Daniels looked concerned. "That's all right, Petty Officer Daniels. I'm not asking for precise information or detailed capabilities. Just in general. Can your sensors do that?"

"Yes, ma'am. They can do that."

"What exactly is involved there?"

"Well, ma'am, when a weapon charges, an awful lot of energy has to be pumped into whatever's being used as a ready-storage source."

"A ready-storage source?"

"Yes, ma'am. That's what slams energy into the weapon when it needs to fire. But when you're pushing all the energy into the ready-storage source, you get leakage."

"Energy leaks out?"

"Yes, ma'am. Any place there's a gap in the shielding. Just like if there's a light under a blanket it'll shine through any holes."

"And under the right conditions you can detect that happening?"

"That's right, ma'am."

Garrity strode several steps to one side, looking away from Daniels now. "Petty Officer Daniels, I want you to tell us about the incident with the SASAL ship. You were in the
Michaelson
's combat information center and occupying your duty station?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"What happened as the SASAL ship closed on the
Michaelson
?"

"I spotted a transient energy detection on my console, ma'am."

"The same sort of transient energy detection which could indicate weapons were being powered up on the SASAL ship?"

"Objection. It has already been established that the SASAL ship was unarmed. There were no weapons to power up."

Judge Holmes looked toward Garrity. "Well?"

"Your Honor, we're dealing here with events on the
Michaelson
prior to confirming that the SASAL ship was unarmed. Decisions made on the
Michaelson
, decisions made by Captain Wakeman, were based on the information available to him at that time. Ex post facto determinations of evidence found after that time do not bear on whether or not Captain Wakeman's decisions were correct based upon what he knew when he acted."

Holmes nodded. "Very well. Overruled. Continue, Commander Garrity."

"Petty Officer Daniels, did the transient you saw correspond to the sort of detection you would expect to see from weapons powering-up?"

"Yes, ma'am. Exactly that kind of transient."

"And you reported that detection to your superiors?"

"Yes, ma'am. I passed it immediately to Commander Garcia, and I heard him pass it to the bridge."

"Commander Garcia didn't question your detection?"

"No, ma'am."

"He informed the bridge that the
Michaelson
's combat system sensors had detected a transient which could indicate weapons were being powered-up on the SASAL ship."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Has Commander Garcia or Captain Wakeman or any other officer ever questioned your qualifications to occupy your duty station at that console? Do you have their confidence?"

"No, ma'am, no one's ever questioned my qualifications. I know my job, ma'am. And Commander Garcia and Captain Wakeman, they know I know it."

"Thank you, Petty Officer Daniels. No further questions."

Commander Wilkes came forward, eyeing Daniels sternly. "Petty Officer Daniels, isn't it a fact that the combat systems on the USS
Michaelson
automatically maintain a record of all activity, including any detections by the sensors?"

"Yes, sir. It's usually on a seventy-two-hour loop, but we can permanently save anything we need to retain."

"And you did permanently save the combat system recordings of the encounter with the SASAL ship, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do those recordings indicate your console ever displayed a transient detection such as you just described?"

Daniels hesitated, then her face hardened and she stared defiantly back at Wilkes. "No, sir."

"No? The combat system records indicate there was no transient detected when you say there was? That you never saw such a detection?"

"I saw a transient detection, sir."

"How do you explain the fact that such a detection isn't in the combat system records?"

"I can't, sir. But I saw it. It was plain as day. I know my job."

"I'm sure you do, Petty Officer Daniels." Wilkes held up his data link. "Trial counsel would like to introduce into the trial record this exhibit, which is an excerpt from a standard, definitive text on psychological wish fulfillment. In summary, it states that in periods of crisis or other intense emotion, individuals are capable of seeing things they expect to see, rather than what is actually there. Examples are provided herein from past military engagements in which combatants 'saw' nonexistent threat information."

The judge nodded. "The excerpt is accepted as appellate exhibit six."

Wilkes turned back to the witness stand. "Petty Officer Daniels, isn't that possible? That you saw something that wasn't there because of the tense atmosphere inside the Combat Information Center?"

Daniels stared steadily back at Wilkes. "Sir, I didn't imagine anything. I saw it."

"I'm sure you believe that, Petty Officer Daniels. I wouldn't suggest otherwise. But you were tense, weren't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Everyone in Combat was tense, weren't they?"

"I'd say so, sir."

"Why?"

"Because of the situation, sir. Because that SASAL ship was coming right at us and not saying a word."

"How did you get into that situation, Petty Officer Daniels?"

"Sir?"

"How did the
Michaelson
come to be so close to the SASAL ship despite the other ship's failure to communicate?"

"We intercepted that ship, sir."

"So you wouldn't have been as tense if the
Michaelson
hadn't been in that position? If your commanding officer hadn't created a situation in which you were so fearful you imagined you saw weapons being powered-up on the other ship?"

"Objection!"

"I withdraw the question. No further questions."

Garrity was looking down at the surface of the defense table, her mouth a thin line. Paul felt a stab of sympathy for both her and for Petty Officer Daniels, who was trying to maintain a cool military bearing despite Wilkes' attack on her testimony. Finally, Garrity looked up. "No further questions."

The next witness was Petty Officer Li, whose testimony went much like Daniels' had. Yes, he'd seen a transient, too. Yes, he was absolutely certain. No, he couldn't explain why the combat systems had no record of having displayed such a detection. When Li left the witness stand, Paul felt the testimony of the two Operations Specialists had resulted in a draw between the trial counsel and the defense with no gain for either side. Which would make what he had to say more important than ever.

I'm the last witness
. Paul stole another look backwards to where the junior officers sat. Jen and Kris gave him twin thumbs up. Carl Meadows made a gesture of squeezing something between his palms, then grinned reassuringly.
Right. No pressure. Hah. I feel like I'm under three g's of acceleration
.

"The defense calls as its next witness Ensign Paul Sinclair."

He walked up to the witness chair, no longer aware of anyone else in the courtroom. Commander Wilkes came into his line of vision. Whatever Wilkes thought or felt about Paul wasn't betrayed by his fixed expression as he administered the oath. "Do you swear that the evidence you give in the case now in hearing shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

Paul's mouth and throat suddenly felt dry. "I do."

Wilkes left and Lieutenant Commander Garrity came before him. "Are you Ensign Paul Sinclair, assigned as primary duty Assistant Combat Information Center officer and collateral duty ship's legal officer to the USS
Michaelson
?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And in your capacity as ship's legal officer, did the ship's executive officer, Commander Herdez, ask for your interpretation and assessment of the operational orders issued to the USS
Michaelson
governing its last patrol?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And did you provide such an assessment?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Please summarize that assessment."

"Yes, ma'am." Paul took a deep breath before he started speaking. "Basically, I told the XO, Commander Herdez that is, that the orders seemed to be very broad in a number of critical areas, and also vague on a number of very important points."

"What made them very broad?"

"The wording, ma'am. The orders kept using terms like 'appropriate' and 'necessary' to describe what the captain should do instead of setting parameters, but then they'd turn around and say he shouldn't do anything that'd be wrong, but they didn't specify what that might be. You ended being confused after reading them as to what was and was not mandated, what was and was not prohibited."

"Shouldn't the captain have known what would be wrong, Ensign Sinclair? What was mandated and what was prohibited?"

"No, ma'am. The orders said we, our ship, needed to do anything necessary and appropriate to carry out our primary mission. It said the captain 'shall' do anything needed to counter attempts to violate our sovereign claim to that area of space. The kind of wording pretty much leaves it up to the captain to decide what methods are, uh, necessary and appropriate."