Rule of Evidence (26 page)

"Thank you, your honor. Rear Admiral Hidalgo, should I repeat the question?"

"Uh, no. You asked if it would need someone who wouldn't be watched or have what they did checked, right? Well, of course. They'd have to do a lot of stuff they weren't supposed to do and not get caught."

"Thank you, Admiral." Commander Carr turned to face the defense table. "You've already testified that you met all of the engineering officers on the USS
Maury
prior to her last underway period. That included Lieutenant Junior Grade Shen?"

"Of course."

"What is your professional assessment of her as an engineer?" Bashir began to rise. "Based upon what you know," Carr added. Bashir frowned and sat down again.

This time, Hidalgo avoided looking toward Jen. "She seemed very capable."

"Did you, personally, see any reason to question her expertise as an engineering officer?"

"No."

"Would you say it was fair to describe Lieutenant Junior Grade Shen as being exceptionally competent and capable?"

"Objection." Lieutenant Bashir's word held more force this time. "Trial Counsel is putting words in the witness' mouth, and asking him to make an in-depth evaluation of an officer he met only briefly."

"Sustained." McMasters pointed his gavel at Commander Carr. "Let the witness answer questions in his own words."

"Yes, Your Honor. Thank you, Rear Admiral Hidalgo. I have no further questions at this time."

Lieutenant Bashir, still standing from his last objection, walked up to the witness. "Rear Admiral Hidalgo, hadn't the USS
Maury
recently had extensive changes made to her engineering system? Changes which rendered her engineering system unique?"

Hidalgo frowned. "Well . . . unique . . ."

"The Ship's Efficiency Engineering Regulator System. SEERS for short. It's brand new."

"That's true."

"How much experience do you have with SEERS-equipped engineering systems?"

"None! You said yourself, it's brand new. No one has experience with such systems in an operational environment."

Lieutenant Bashir frowned as if puzzled. "But, then, how you can be so certain of what that system would do under any and all circumstances? Isn't your expertise and experience with
different
engineering systems, sir?"

Hidalgo flushed slightly. "It's still basically the same. More so. SEERS was designed to reinforce and consolidate all those safety features. Everything I had to say about safety in an engineering system goes double for a ship with SEERS!"

Bashir paused. Even Paul could see he'd been thrown off by the force of Hidalgo's reply, but Bashir recovered quickly. "Admiral, you're a very experienced officer, but upon what experience do you base that assessment of ships equipped with SEERS?"

"On . . . on . . . tests prior to its acceptance into the fleet. We don't just plop equipment onto ships, Lieutenant. SEERS was extensively tested. That's part of the design and acquisition process. Test it over and over again. Make sure it does what its supposed to do and passes every test."

"But not in an 'operational environment.' Is that right, Admiral?"

"Well, yes. The
Maury
was the first ship with SEERS. That was the operational integration phase. But I've seen the background material on the system, Lieutenant! SEERS was certified to be ready for employment on warships. That may make it a bit unique but it doesn't make it one tiny bit less safe. Quite the contrary. There are people responsible for reviewing these things, for making sure something is ready for the fleet. They said SEERS was ready."

"Your honor." Commander Carr had stood and was gesturing toward Lieutenant Bashir. "Counsel for the defense is apparently attempting to argue that the SEERS on the USS
Maury
somehow represented an unknown modification to safety measures on the
Maury
's engineering systems. But the defense has introduced no evidence to substantiate that line of questioning. Trial counsel objects to any attempt by the defense to make unsubstantiated claims regarding the safety or reliability of equipment which has been certified as ready for employment on ships of the U.S. Navy."

Judge McMasters nodded. "An excellent point, Commander. Lieutenant Bashir, if you want to pursue this line of questioning, you need to provide something to indicate it's anything other than pure speculation on your part. Are you prepared to do so?"

"Your honor, since the case against Lieutenant Shen rests on speculative modifications—"

"No, defense counsel. Do you have information substantiating your argument that SEERS could've altered the safety status of the
Maury
's engineering systems?"

Lieutenant Bashir shook his head, his expression again grim. "No, your honor."

"Do you intend to call any expert witnesses to claim SEERS adversely affected the safety of the
Maury
's engineering systems, or to otherwise counter Rear Admiral Hidalgo's statements?"

"No, your honor. Not at this time."

"Objection sustained."

Bashir consulted his data pad. "Rear Admiral Hidalgo, you testified previously that when you visited the USS
Maury
two days prior to her getting underway she had nothing wrong with her engineering system."

Hidalgo, who'd listened to Carr's objection and the judge's dressing down of Bashir with a smile, smiled again. "That's right."

"But the
Maury
had numerous casualty reports on file regarding her engineering systems. Fleet staff was an addee on those casualty reports."

Hidalgo's smile vanished. "Well, yes, routine CASREPs."

"Routine?"

"The usual stuff. Nothing ever works one hundred percent right one hundred percent of the time."

"But you testified there were 'no problems.' Your exact words, sir."

Hidalgo flushed again, deeper this time. "No significant problems."

"Fleet reporting requirements state that only significant problems with systems are to be reported via CASREP. Isn't that right, sir?"

A long pause, then Hidalgo nodded. "That's what the instruction says."

"Then the
Maury
's engineering system wasn't in perfect shape when she got underway."

"No. Of course not. No engineering system is ever in perfect shape. But—"

"Thank you, sir. When you met with the chief engineer of the USS
Maury
, did he indicate in any way to you that he lacked confidence in Lieutenant Shen?"

"Objection. Hearsay."

"Your Honor, I am asking Admiral Hidalgo what the
Maury
's chief engineer said to
him
."

A nod from the judge. "Objection overruled. You know what constitutes hearsay, Trial Counsel."

Bashir directed his attention back to Hidalgo. "Sir?"

"What was the question?"

"Did the chief engineer of the USS
Maury
communicate to you, in any way, any kind of misgivings regarding Lieutenant Shen?"

Admiral Hidalgo finally looked at Jen again. "No. He did not."

"Thank you, sir. No further questions."

Commander Carr came forward once again. "If it please the court, I'd like to redirect. Rear Admiral Hidalgo, did any of these casualty reports just referenced regarding the engineering systems on the
Maury
generate safety concerns?"

"No! I was going to tell the lieutenant that!"

"Then the fact that the
Maury
's engineering systems weren't in perfect condition didn't mean they were unsafe."

"Of course not. That ship never would've left the dock if she were unsafe."

"Then would you say those casualty reports have no bearing on the issues we've discussed?"

"That's right! I . . ." Hidalgo glared at Bashir. "I'd never let a ship leave this station in an unsafe condition!"

"Thank you, Admiral."

Paul had to resist an urge to bury his face in his hands. Hidalgo's last statement was bound to play well with the members of the court.
Did Bashir screw this up or was there no way to get anything good for Jen out of this witness? I don't know. But it went badly for Jen
.

Judge McMasters gestured toward Captain Carney. "Do the members of the court have any questions for this witness?"

Lieutenant Ishiki looked as if he might be preparing to speak, but Captain Carney looked at him and Ishiki subsided. Carney was shaking his head when Commander Bolton spoke up.

"Excuse me, Captain. Admiral Hidalgo, I'm not an engineering expert. I do know there's always some degree of uncertainty in any engineering process. Some level of concern. As you yourself said, no engineering system is ever in perfect shape. But you say it's still possible to rule out any accidental cause for what happened to the
Maury
's engineering system?"

Hidalgo nodded firmly. "Yes, Commander. It's more than possible. It's the only possible conclusion. Every sub-system in engineering has safety interlocks, both physical and virtual. They all have been extensively tested to absolutely minimize any chance of the sort of overload that causes explosive failure. But, yes, that doesn't mean it's absolutely impossible for one piece of equipment to have that happen. But every piece of equipment? Every sub-system? Nearly simultaneously? The odds of that are so very, very tiny that only the word impossible fits."

Bolton nodded, looking impressed. "Thank you, Admiral."

Carney took another look at the members. "Nothing else. Right?" It was much a command to the more junior members of the court as it was a question. "Fine. Thank you, sir."

Judge McMasters turned toward the witness stand. "Rear Admiral Hidalgo, you are temporarily excused. Please ensure you are present for the remainder of this court-martial in the event you need to be called again. As long as this trial continues, do not discuss your testimony or knowledge of the case with anyone except counsel. If anyone else tries to talk to you about the case, stop them and report the matter to one of the counsels."

"Absolutely." Rear Hidalgo stood and marched back down the aisle.

Paul watched him go, then focused back on Captain Carney.
He's obviously planning on running a tight ship. How much does he have the other officers on the court intimidated? Will he be able to keep them from asking anything Carney doesn't want them to ask
?

The next two witnesses for the prosecution, a civilian supervisor from Franklin's shipyard who'd overseen the
Maury
's engineering systems work and the captain in charge of the Fleet Engineering Readiness Group, simply reinforced the points elicited from Rear Admiral Hidalgo. No, it couldn't have been an accident. Yes, someone had to cause it to happen. No, we don't know exactly how they did it, but it had to be sabotage.

"The United States calls as its next witness Captain Richard Hayes, United States Navy."

Paul had known his own commanding officer was going to be called to testify, but he still didn't enjoy watching Captain Hayes come down the center of the court-room and take his place on the witness stand. Hayes scanned the room quickly after he'd sat, giving Paul a sharp, quick nod of recognition as Hayes' eyes swept over him.

Commander Carr faced the witness stand. "Captain Hayes, what is your current duty assignment?"

Hayes shifted position slightly in the witness chair as he answered. "I'm commanding officer of the USS
Michaelson
."

"Were you in command of the USS
Michaelson
on 21 February of this year?"

"I was. Yes."

"And was the USS
Michaelson
operating with the USS
Maury
at that time?"

"Yes. We were."

Commander Carr walked over to the courtroom display, where an image of an area of space had appeared, two long, curving tracks superimposed over the emptiness. "Captain Hayes, this is a representation of the area of space in which the
Michaelson
and the
Maury
were operating on 21 February." One of the curving tracks glowed brighter for a moment. "This was the path of the
Michaelson
." The other track glowed. "And this the track of the
Maury
."

Hayes studied the picture, then nodded. "That looks right."

"The two ships rendezvoused here." An small area where the two curving tracks swung close together shone a bit brighter. "Can you tell us in your own words what happened immediately thereafter, Captain?"

"Nothing at first." Hayes tilted his chin toward the diagram. "As you see, the two ships came together. Then we both deactivated our anti-detection devices at the same time."

"You were on the bridge of the
Michaelson
?"

"Yes. It was a somewhat risky maneuver, coming so close to another ship at those speeds with the anti-detection devices fully operative. I was on the bridge, along with my executive officer."

"You said nothing happened 'at first.' What happened after that?"

Hayes looked as if he tasted something sour. "The
Maury
's image was suddenly obscured on our sensors. Full spectrum obscured. It took us all a minute to realize what it meant. But our combat and maneuvering systems immediately identified the hazard to us."

Carr looked concerned. "Hazard? To the
Michaelson
?"

"Yes." Hayes glanced toward Paul. "An explosion like that generates a lot of debris. The
Michaelson
was in the path of some of it. We had to worry about the damage it might do to us."

"You couldn't just evade it?"

"No time. We were too close to the
Maury
and with the stuff spreading put in all directions it would have taken too long to get us clear of it. I ordered my ship to engage large pieces of debris and we rode out the impact wave."

"Your own ship sustained some damage, sir?"
Hayes made a dismissive gesture. "Superficial damage. Outer hull mostly."

Commander Carr indicated the display again. "Just before the
Maury
suffered her damage, was the
Michaelson
monitoring conditions in the area, Captain?"

Hayes nodded. "Sure. We do that all the time."

"What do you monitor?"