Burden of Proof (31 page)

"Then Lieutenant Silver had it overnight before providing it to Chief Asher."

"Yes, ma'am."

"No more questions."

Lieutenant Commander Jones took up position directly in front of Mike Bristol. "Lieutenant, are you certain the box you saw under Lieutenant Silver's desk was that part?"

"Yes, sir."

"You couldn't have been mistaken? It couldn't have been something close to that part's package in appearance?"

Mike Bristol shook his head. "No, sir. I work with spares a lot, and Commander Sykes, he's my boss, he says I need to be able to look at a box and know what's in it. I pay attention to boxes, sir."

"You said you were 'pretty sure' the box was there the next morning. You're not certain?"

"I can't claim to be one hundred percent certain, sir. But I'm ninety percent sure."

"Is being ninety percent sure you have the part needed to fix something the same as being one hundred percent sure?"

Mike Bristol flushed slightly. "No, sir."

"No more questions."

Then came Lieutenant Fung, the officer from the station supply office. Yes, the part had been drawn late on Friday afternoon. Yes, it had definitely been Lieutenant Silver. "He had this big sob story. I really don't remember why I agreed to let him draw the part. He's really persuasive, I guess."

Commander Carr nodded. "Then Lieutenant Silver got the part without requesting an emergency parts draw, which would have required his captain's signature?"

"That's right, ma'am."

"At what time did Lieutenant Silver receive the spare controller?"

"According to our database, the part was logged out at 1630."

"1630? Then Lieutenant Silver had the part as of 1630 on Friday the 18th of September?"

"That's right, ma'am."

"Which, as a petty officer from the
Michaelson
previously testified, is at least half an hour prior to knock-off ship's work. Thank you."

Lieutenant Commander Jones shook his head. "No questions."

Judge Halstead consulted his watch. "I'm aware that line officers have a tendency to work through meals, but since this is my courtroom we will break for lunch. The court-martial is closed, and will reconvene at 1300 in this courtroom."

"All rise!" Paul and the others in the courtroom came to attention as Judge Halstead and the members filed out through their respective doors. "Carry on. Court will reconvene at 1300."

Commander Carr sank back into her chair, then swiveled in it to look at Paul. "That didn't go too badly."

Paul nodded. "It sure isn't making Silver look very good."

"Ah, but we not only have to make him
look
bad, we have to convince those five officers that he
did
bad."

"Did you deliberately set up Lieutenant Commander Jones to ask that question of Petty Officer Sharpe?"

Carr grinned. "You caught that, huh? You may have the makings of a lawyer, Mr. Sinclair. Yes. It served two purposes. Having Sharpe say Chief Asher was upset over something out of the normal in response to the defense counsel's question gave the answer more force since no one expected it. It also made Commander Jones a bit gun-shy with the next few witnesses, since he's worried about me ambushing him again."

"How much could Commander Jones have done against Mike Bristol and the other supply Lieutenant? Their testimony was pretty straight-forward."

Carr's grin turned knowing. "A good lawyer, if that term's not an oxymoron, can make any witness look bad. Exactly what time did it happen? There aren't any other boxes that look exactly like that one? Are you positive Silver is the man who picked up the part? Could it have been Chief Asher? Etc., etc., and so on. Besides, my knowledge of line officers is that they don't place a lot of credence in what supply officers tell them. Right?"

Paul smiled. "I'm afraid so, but that doesn't apply to Mike Bristol."

"Great. But those members of the court don't know Bristol personally. Those two supply officers would have been the easiest witnesses for the defense counsel to discredit on the stand in the eyes of the members of the court. But defense counsel held back because he thought I might have laid another mine in his path."

"It sounds like you're into strategy and tactics as much as line officers are, ma'am."

"Why not? We're both out for the kill. Metaphorically speaking in my case, of course, since the charges against Silver don't merit the death penalty. I'll see you at 1300."

Paul left the courtroom trying to decide where to eat lunch, but to his surprise found someone waiting for him. "Jen? How'd you get off your ship?'

She smiled. "I walked. After I convinced my department head I could really use some time ashore. Interested in lunch?"

"You bet. We've got 'til 1300."

"I've got less than that. I have to be back on the
Sorry Maury
by 1230."

"Okay. Quick lunch. Let's hit some vending machines."

Paul filled Jen in on the events of the morning, then spread his hands. "I wish I knew what the members of the court were thinking."

"I know what
I'd
be thinking. Do you ever get the feeling Silver's been coasting on being an admiral's son?"

"The thought had crossed my mind. I've also been wondering how much being a Navy officer was really his idea in the first place. He sure doesn't act like he wants the job."

"You may be right, especially with a daddy like Vice Admiral Silver, who might've just expected his son to follow in the family footsteps. Or else." Jen looked away, her face troubled. "Speaking of fathers, I do have some news you need to know. My father's been tapped as a defense witness."

"Oh, great."
I'll be sitting there looking at Captain Shen staring at me from the witness stand as he answers questions about whether or not Lieutenant Silver's to blame for that accident
. "And my captain wants me in that courtroom."

"Captains in front of you and captains behind you. I'd dodge, if I was you."

Paul laughed briefly. "Immediate evasive maneuvers! Brace for collision!"

"Abandon ship?"

"No, I think I'm supposed to go down with it."

"How do you go down with a spaceship?" Jen asked. "Unless you're in a gravity well."

"I'll let you know. Does this mean you've talked to your father?"

"Uh-uh. Strictly intelligence collection using secondary but reliable sources. Speaking of intelligence collection, how are you and that hot little commander getting along?"

Paul frowned. "You mean Commander Carr? She's way out of my league, Jen, even if I wasn't taken. How would I ask a commander on a date?"

"Oh, you've wondered about how to do that, huh?" Jen giggled. "I'm just teasing. The commander's married, in case you haven't noticed the ring."

"No, I guess I hadn't. I haven't really looked at her that much -"

"Uh-huh. Sure. But I'll pretend to believe you."

Before Paul knew it, Jen had to head back for the Maury. He was halfway back to the courtroom himself before he realized Jen's bantering had driven thoughts of the trial from his mind for a while.
Thanks, Jen
.

The first prosecution witness called after lunch was the first to be wearing civilian clothes. "Special Agent Sullivan, you are assigned to the staff of the fleet commander as a representative of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service?"

Sullivan nodded as he answered. "Yes, I am."

"Did you conduct a search of the stateroom formerly occupied by Lieutenant Silver onboard the USS
Michaelson
?"

"I did, along with Special Agent Connally."

"Can you summarize your findings?"

Sullivan nodded again, then consulted his own data pad. "Most of the material belonging to Lieutenant Silver in that stateroom was of a personal nature. Clothes, toiletries, that sort of thing. We found twenty-two data coins, of which eighteen contained various professional and personal files along with computer games, music and assorted other software. Four of the coins were totally blank."

"Excuse me, Special Agent Sullivan. Totally blank?"

Another nod. "Yes. Not unused, because then they'd have had all the formatting on them. They'd been scrubbed clean. Nothing was recoverable on them."

"The data on them had been deleted, then."

"No. If it'd been deleted, we could've recovered it. These had been wiped by software designed to render the contents unrecoverable."

"Did you find that particular software?"

"No. It wasn't in the stateroom."

"What else did you find?"

Sullivan consulted his data pad again. "One of the larger drawers assigned to Lieutenant Silver contained a quantity of unopened official mail for the main propulsion officer."

"Unopened?"

"Yes. Stuff like software updates for systems, safety advisories, technical manual updates and revisions, that sort of thing."

Paul stole another glance at the members. This time he caught Captain Mashiko's brow lowering in a sign of disapproval.
Let's see Scott Silver explain that
.

"Lieutenant Silver hadn't been opening his official mail and passing on the materiel in it to his personnel or entering it into the engineering system?"

"No. We found no trace of opened official mail. You know, envelopes that hadn't been discarded, contents of opened mail in the files or drawers, that sort of thing."

"I see. Anything else, Special Agent Sullivan?"

"Lieutenant Silver's data terminal contained numerous pieces of personal software. Mainly games. That's unauthorized, but it's not all that unusual on ships."

"Thank you, Special Agent Sullivan. No more questions."

Lieutenant Commander Jones didn't bother getting up. "No questions."

"I have some questions," Captain Mashiko stated. "Special Agent Sullivan, this unopened mail in Lieutenant Silver's stateroom. It was in a drawer?"

"That's right."

"How was it stored in there? Filed neatly?"

Sullivan twisted his face in thought, then shook his head. "No. It looked like it'd just been tossed in."

"How old was the oldest unopened mail?"

"Let's see." Sullivan checked his data pad. "The oldest date was 22 August."

Mashiko looked as if he were tasting something unpleasant. "According to the charges, Lieutenant Silver assumed duties as the main propulsion assistant on the
Michaelson
on 20 August. Is that correct, Commander Carr?"

"Yes, sir."

"Special Agent Sullivan, what sort of games did you find on Lieutenant Silver's terminal?"

Sullivan consulted his data pad again. "I can list them by title if you want. Essentially, they were all action games. Twitch and shoot stuff."

Paul felt like smiling, but repressed it.
Shoot 'em up games are common enough on the ship, but the existence of lots of those games alongside unopened official mail creates a strong image of an officer playing games instead of doing his job. Which matches what I know about Scott Silver. Dammit, I shouldn't be taking any pleasure in this. Besides, even if that convinces Captain Mashiko to vote for conviction on the charge of dereliction in performance of his duties, that still leaves all the other charges against Silver and the rest of the members to convince. If I know anything about Herdez, she's wishing she could get Scott Silver alone for twenty minutes while she reamed him out for not doing his job. But what about the rest
?

Captain Mashiko cast a long look toward the defense table. "The members have no more questions."

Paul knew the next prosecution witness, even though he wasn't from the
Michaelson
.

"If the court pleases," Commander Carr asked, "trial counsel would like to stipulate that Chief Warrant Officer Rose is one of the top software engineers on Franklin Station, and in the Navy as a whole."

Judge Halstead gave Rose a skeptical look. "I might agree to so stipulate if Warrant Rose can fix my case management software so it doesn't lock up almost every time I try to update my files."

Rose looked up at the judge. "Milcourt version 9.5, sir? I can fix that."

"See me after the trial. Does defense counsel have any objection to the stipulation?"

Lieutenant Commander Jones shook his head. "No, Your Honor. Warrant Officer Rose's qualifications are known to me."

"Then the court stipulates that Chief Warrant Officer Rose is an expert software engineer."

Commander Carr nodded to acknowledge the ruling. "Thank you, Your Honor. Warrant Officer Rose, during the evening of 19 September the engineering logs on the USS
Michaelson
were so severely damaged that no data could be recovered from them. Have you examined those logs?"

"Yes, ma'am, I have."

"What was your conclusion?"

"The damage to the logs was caused by a hacking program whose name I've provided to the court but otherwise prefer to keep confidential. It's very hard to detect when this program has been used, but it leaves a couple of markers for those who know where and how to look."

"You're saying the damage to the engineering logs was deliberate."

"Absolutely, ma'am."

Paul glanced over at the members to see how they were taking Rose's testimony. He couldn't decipher the poker faces they were wearing, but they were definitely all paying very close attention. Paul shifted his gaze to defense table, where Lieutenant Silver displayed every appearance of being horrified by the revelation.

"Could you tell the time-frame in which the engineering logs were deliberately damaged?"

"Yes, ma'am. The hacking program activated at 2235."

"At 2235 on the evening of 19 September." Carr looked directly at the members. "According to previous testimony, Lieutenant Silver's presence could not be accounted for from about 2200 to about 2300 that evening. Was Lieutenant Silver logged on to the
Michaelson
's system when the damage occurred?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Objection." Jones pointed to the witness. "Warrant Officer Rose can only testify to what he knows, which is that someone using Lieutenant Silver's account and password was logged on at that time."