Burden of Proof (28 page)

Commander Carr returned to her seat, as Judge Halstead looked toward Commander Jones. "Does the defense have an opening statement?"

"We do, Your Honor." Commander Jones walked to the same position Commander Carr had occupied. "The defense contends that the government lacks proof of the charges lodged against Lieutenant Silver. There is no evidence Lieutenant Silver engaged in the actions alleged by the prosecution, and if he did not commit those acts, then he did not make a false statement or commit perjury when describing his role in the terrible events onboard USS
Michaelson
the evening of 19 September 2100. While the loss of life and property onboard USS
Michaelson
is cause for deep regret, scapegoating Lieutenant Silver will not bring back Chief Asher or undo the events of that night. Lieutenant Silver is a dedicated Naval officer who has done his duty to the best of his ability. Since the prosecution lacks proof otherwise, he should therefore be found innocent on all charges and specifications."

Commander Jones, his statement completed, returned to his seat. Silence reigned in the court for a brief moment as Judge Halstead seemed to be pondering his own thoughts. Then Halstead gestured to Commander Carr. "You may proceed, Commander."

"Thank you, Your Honor. The United States calls as its first witness Petty Officer First Class Alysha Kulwari."

Petty Officer Kulwari, looking slightly uncomfortable in what appeared to be a new uniform, came down the aisle, her eyes fixed on the witness stand. Commander Carr stood before Kulwari, her posture now more relaxed, her expression encouraging. "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?"

"I do, ma'am."

"Are you Petty Officer First Class Alysha Kulwari, United States Navy, assigned to the engineering department on the USS
Michaelson
?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Do you know the accused?"

"Yes, ma'am. Lieutenant Silver's my - excuse me, Lieutenant Silver was my division officer for about a month."

"In other words, you worked directly for Lieutenant Silver during that period. Is that correct?"

"Uh, well, ma'am, orders would usually come through Chief Asher, but Lieutenant Silver gave him those orders, yes, ma'am."

Commander Carr crossed her arms, her eyes still on Petty Officer Kulwari. "What can you tell us regarding the power transfer junction in Forward Engineering on the USS
Michaelson
during the period when Lieutenant Silver was serving as your division officer?"

Kulwari's eyes flicked around the room, avoiding resting on Scott Silver as they did so. "Ma'am, about a week after Lieutenant Silver took over from Lieutenant Kilgary the junction controller started going bad."

"It
started
going bad. The controller didn't just fail?"

"No, ma'am. They don't do that. You see them start to go bad and they get worse and worse until they crap out. I'm sorry, ma'am, until they fail."

"How long does it take them to fail?"

"Usually two to three weeks. You can nurse them along and compensate for the problems for that long, but after that they're too bad to use anymore."

"The controller is a critical part of the power transfer junction?"

"Yes, ma'am. That junction won't work without it."

"What happens if the junction doesn't work?"

Petty Officer Kulwari bit her lip as she formulated her reply. "The ship can operate on the other power transfer junction in After Engineering, but she can't do everything. There are a lot of limitations."

"Do you carry a spare controller onboard?"

"Sometimes, ma'am."

"Sometimes?"

"Ma'am, I don't know why, but there's not enough spares of that controller to go around, so they get reserved for ships that are going out on long missions. If a ship's operating in the local area, we never carry a spare because we can get home in time if one starts to go bad."

Commander Carr walked back and forth slowly in front of the witness stand. "To summarize, then, the controller in the power transfer junction in Forward Engineering started to fail about one week after Lieutenant Silver took over as your division officer. You had about two to three weeks before the controller would totally fail, and when it did fail the ship's ability to operate would be severely curtailed. Is that correct?"

Petty Officer Kulwari nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"To your certain knowledge, was Lieutenant Silver informed of the impending failure of the controller?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am. My . . . ?"

"Your certain knowledge. Did you see or hear Lieutenant Silver being informed of the impending failure?"

"Oh, yes, ma'am. I was standing in Forward Engineering maybe a couple meters from Chief Asher when he was talking to Lieutenant Silver about it."

"What did Chief Asher say to Lieutenant Silver?"

"I didn't catch every word, ma'am, but he was saying we needed to get a spare installed."

"And what did Lieutenant Silver say in reply?"

"Uh, something like 'I'm on it, Chief.' Something like that."

"You're certain? Lieutenant Silver discussed the impending failure of the controller with Chief Asher in your hearing, and assured Chief Asher the issue was being addressed?"

"Uh, yes, ma'am."

"Did the controller eventually fail?"

"Yes, ma'am, it did."

"When?"

"Friday, uh, 18 September. About noon, I guess. I came back from lunch and Petty Officer Lai told me the controller had gone belly-up, and everything was being routed through the power junction in After Engineering. Chief Asher told us he was going to talk to Lieutenant Silver about it."

"Lieutenant Silver wasn't present? Even though a critical piece of equipment he was responsible for had failed?"

"No, ma'am."

"Did Lieutenant Silver come to Forward Engineering at all that afternoon?"

"No, ma'am, not that I saw and not that anybody else told me. But that wasn't unusual."

"It wasn't? The ship's main propulsion assistant not visiting Forward Engineering wasn't unusual?"

"Not with Lieutenant Silver, ma'am. We never saw him much."

"You never saw him much?" Commander Carr paused to let the statement sink in. "Then what happened?"

"We worked on other stuff, ma'am. There wasn't anything we could do about the controller until we got the spare, and it didn't show. When knock-off ship's work was announced I called Chief Asher and asked what we should do about the power junction and he told me Lieutenant Silver was working on it, and we shouldn't bother hanging around."

"How did Chief Asher sound when he told you that?"

"He was real unhappy with somebody, ma'am."

"Are you certain of that?"

Petty Officer Kulwari couldn't suppress a quick smile. "Ma'am, I've been around Chief Asher when he was real unhappy with someone, and believe me, you don't forget what he sounds like." The smile vanished. "Uh, sounded like, I guess I oughta say."

Commander Carr nodded sympathetically. "What time was knock-off ship's work that afternoon?"

"It's almost always 1700 in port. Sometimes 1730 or 1800 if there's an extra lot to do."

"Petty Officer Kulwari, how would the controller be replaced? How many personnel does it require?"

"At least two, ma'am. Two specialists, that is. They gotta know that gear. There's some kinda safety interlocks to keep the junction from overloading and blowing while the controllers are being swapped out."

"Could one person do the job?"

"If'n they were crazy, ma'am. They'd have to shut off the interlocks and then work real fast and if nothing made the junction overload without the controller in, they could do it. You'd have to be real good and a bit lucky."

"So it's not impossible for one person to do it, but it's very unwise."

"Yes, ma'am. I wouldn't do it."

"What if you were
ordered
to do it, Petty Officer Kulwari?"

As Kulwari hesitated, Commander Jones rose. "Objection. The trial counsel is asking the witness to speculate as to what she would've done if faced with a hypothetical situation."

Commander Carr faced Judge Halstead. "Your Honor, Petty Officer Kulwari is an experienced, highly trained specialist. Her answer will shed light on the reaction of such a person to an order of that nature."

Halstead shook his head. "Sorry, Counsel. No matter what the witness's qualifications might be, unless you're willing to argue she did receive such an order, then her response will not be germane. Objection sustained."

If the setback fazed her, Commander Carr gave no indication of it. "Petty Officer Kulwari, how long did you serve with Chief Petty Officer Asher?"

Kulwari furrowed her brow in thought. "About a year and a half, ma'am."

"In all that time, did you ever witness Chief Asher bypassing or circumventing safety procedures?"

"No, ma'am. He always told us to go by the book on that."

"Would you say, from your experience with Chief Asher, that for him to have worked on repairing that junction single-handedly would be out-of-character?"

"Yes, ma'am. He didn't do that."

Commander Carr turned, walked a couple of steps, then faced the witness again. "Tell me what happened the Monday after the accident in Forward Engineering. Lieutenant Silver spoke to all of you, didn't he?"

"Yes, ma'am, he did." Petty Officer Kulwari's eyes shifted toward the defense table, where Scott Silver was watching her intently, then back to Commander Carr.

"What did he tell you, Petty Officer Kulwari?"

"I don't remember all the words exactly, ma'am, but he told us how terrible it was that Chief Asher had died, and how it'd be a lot more terrible if anybody thought he'd died doing something wrong, because then his wife and family wouldn't get any benefits."

Carr came closer to the witness. "And what message did you and the other personnel in the division derive from that?"

"Derive, ma'am?"

"What did you all decide based upon what Lieutenant Silver told you?"

"That, uh . . ." Petty Officer Kulwari looked around again, her nervousness visible also in hands that kept twisting around each other. "That we shouldn't tell anybody what Chief Asher had been doing."

"What do you mean, Petty Officer Kulwari? What did you all believe Chief Asher had been doing?"

"We knew, or figured we knew, that he had to've been replacing that controller and that'd been what made the power junction blow. And doing that alone meant he'd broken some regulations."

"And Lieutenant Silver led you to believe that if Chief Asher had broken any regulations, Chief Asher's family would receive no death benefits from the Navy?"

"Objection!" Commander Jones waved toward Kulwari. "Trial counsel is leading the witness and attempting to cast her own individual interpretation of Lieutenant Silver's words as both reasonable and unmistakable. Neither position is supported by the testimony of a single witness."

Commander Carr held her data pad aloft. "As defense counsel is aware, I have sworn statements signed by every enlisted member of Lieutenant Silver's division attesting that they reached the same conclusion based upon Lieutenant Silver's words. I'd like to have all those statements entered into the record at this time."

Halstead curved his lips in a momentary, tight-lipped smile. "Objection overruled. All the statements are hereby ordered to be entered into the record. Continue, Commander Carr."

"Thank you, Your Honor. I'll restate the question for the witness. Petty Officer Kulwari, you've stated all the enlisted personnel in Lieutenant Silver's division assumed Chief Asher had been working on the power transfer junction. None of you disclosed that information, or even the status of the power transfer junction prior to the accident. Why was that?"

Kulwari bit her lip again and looked down. ""We didn't want Chief Asher or his family to get into no trouble."

"Because of what you had all been told by Lieutenant Silver?"

Still looking down, Kulwari replied in a strained voice. "Yes, ma'am."

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

Judge Halstead nodded toward the defense table. "You may cross-examine."

Lieutenant Commander Jones walked slowly toward the witness stand, his face skeptical. "Petty Officer Kulwari, you claim you heard Lieutenant Silver and Chief Asher discussing the problem with the controller. Yet you also said you didn't catch every word. How can you be sure of what you did hear?"

"Sir, I heard enough to be sure of that."

"Could they have just been generally discussing the controller?"

"Sir, they were talking about the controller going bad."

"Are you certain the discussion wasn't theoretical? That Lieutenant Silver might have been asking his Chief about that piece of equipment and trying to learn about it?"

Petty Officer Kulwari looked taken aback. "Sir, that part was going bad."

"But are you absolutely certain Chief Asher was telling Lieutenant Silver that? Can you swear the discussion was about what was wrong, or about what
might
go wrong?"

"Um, well, sir, I thought -"

"I'm not asking for your interpretation, Petty Officer Kulwari. I want to know what you heard. Are you certain?"

"Well, sir . . ."

"Isn't it possible that Chief Asher never told Lieutenant Silver what was actually wrong with that power transfer junction?"

"Sir, that may be possible, but -"

"Thank you, Petty Officer Kulwari. Now, as to Lieutenant Silver's presence in Forward Engineering. That's a pretty big compartment, isn't it?"

"For a ship, yes, sir."

"It contains a lot of equipment, too. Is there any point within that compartment from which you can see everyone who's in there?"

Petty Officer Kulwari twisted her face as she thought. "I don't think so, sir."

"So someone could be in that compartment and you wouldn't know it."

"Uh, yes, sir."

"At any point, did Chief Asher tell you he had orders to replace that controller single-handedly?"