Part 10 (1/2)
”Uh, Commander-” Yar said hesitantly.
Dare's head came up abruptly. The camera picked up a front view of his face, showing his lips pull back from his teeth almost in a snarl.
Yar was behind him, and could not see the grimace. ”You mean after we report to the Captain?” she asked.
Adin swung on her, the anger plain on his face for just one moment before he controlled it. Then, ”Yes,” he said calmly, ”it could be a breach of Security, Ensign. You take the report to Captain Jarvis. I'll call Engineering.”
The screen blanked.
The prosecutor rounded on Yar. ”Is it Starfleet procedure to inform the s.h.i.+p's commanding officer of a breach of Security?”
”Of course,” she replied. ”However, we did not know that it was a breach of Security. In fact, we still do not know that the weapons failure was not a terrible coincidence.”
”Oh, come now, Ensign Yar!” said the prosecutor. ”We know the cause: an improper circuit breaker, whose installation was unlogged. Expert witnesses have testified that the power losses and surges caused by repeated failure and resetting of that breaker for nearly thirty days damaged the booster units, and once they failed the hand phasers started to deteriorate. It would take approximately twenty-five days to guarantee that no boosters would be in working order. Mr. Adin did not schedule inventory of the Weapons Room until twenty-seven days out from Starbase 36. You discovered some defective hand phasers on the twenty-eighth day, and the rest of the damage on the twenty-ninth.”
”And immediately started repairs!” Yar insisted.
”Which were interrupted by the arrival of the Orions. Now, Ensign, several of your s.h.i.+pmates have testified that after the battle the Orions collected the bodies of their dead companions and removed them from the Starbound. Is that correct?”
”I was unconscious,” she replied. ”All I know is that there were no Orion bodies aboard when I recovered.”
”Do you know why?”
Yar had no idea where that question was leading, so all she could answer was, ”No, sir.”
”How many people aboard Starbound knew about the consignment of dilithium crystals?”
”The Captain, First Officer, and Security staff.”
”Why were you told, Ensign? You were only a trainee.”
”Except for Commander Adin, the Security staff were all trainees. In order to do our job, we had to know about the dilithium crystals.”
”Mm-hmm. Mr. Adin exercised his judgment to waive your security clearance in that instance, proper procedure under the circ.u.mstances. Interestingly, though, he did not share with you another piece of information which he had learned at Starbase 36. Ensign Yar, if you expect to encounter hostile Orions, with what weapon would you arm your away team?”
”At least Phaser Two, sir.”
”Why not simply hand phasers?”
”Orion males are very difficult to kill with a hand phaser. You must hit a vital organ, or the Orion will only be injured. While we are taught to avoid battle if at all possible, it is sometimes necessary to threaten-and in the case of Orions, Phaser Two can be a deterrent. If they start a fight, they're risking their lives from any direct hit at the higher settings.”
”So-reducing your weaponry to hand phasers gave the Orions a great advantage. But was everyone aboard the Starbound such a poor shot that not a single Orion was. .h.i.t in a vital organ?”
Yar remembered drilling a few very precisely herself. ”No, sir, I don't think so.”
The prosecutor smiled smugly at her. ”And you are right not to think so, Ensign. The information Mr. Adin did not share with you is that the Orions have developed a new personal armor. It's lightweight, flexible as heavy cloth-and it absorbs and diffuses enough of the energy from a phaser bolt that a hand phaser kill-setting shot to the heart may stun for a few moments, at most. Any other body shot won't even drop your target. It's even some protection against Phaser Two-but these Orion pirates made certain none of the Starbound crew had Phaser Two or higher available. In other words, there were no Orion bodies after the battle because none of the Orions were killed.”
Yar stared from the prosecutor to Dare, and back. ”And ... you claim Commander Adin knew this?” she asked.
”He learned of it in a Security briefing at Starbase 36. Can you think of any reason he did not share the information with the Starbound Security staff?”
Dare looked as if he had been hit by a stun bolt. His defense attorney was staring at him, surprise, disgust, and anger mingled in his expression.
Yar had no answer for the prosecutor, but she did have a question. ”You mean it was hopeless? There was no way we could have stopped them?”
”Oh, you did stop a few-in fact, an amazing number. The logs show quite remarkable sharpshooting from Security trainees in their first test under fire. But the Orions were only stunned. In that armor, with the protective helmets they always wear, an Orion can be killed only by a direct shot through the eye. Not much of a target.”
”Oh,” Yar said weakly.
Dare had known: they couldn't kill the Orions, but the Orions could kill them.
”We should have surrendered!” she blurted out. She stared at Dare, who stared back wild-eyed and pale. ”Oh, Dare-why? Why did you let us fight? The Orions would have had no reason to kill if we had just let them board, made no effort to stop them! Maybe ... maybe they still would have slaughtered the officers, but there'd have been no cause for them to shoot trainees.”
Dare shook his head, slowly. ”No,” he said. His defense attorney put his hand on his arm, but Dare shook him off. ”No!” he insisted. ”There was no such Security briefing on Starbase 36-or if there was, I was not notified. Check the records! If it happened, I wasn't there. I didn't know!”
He played right into the prosecutor's hands. The records were produced. It was a secured meeting, in which some highly cla.s.sified information was discussed; therefore no computer log of the meeting could be presented in open court. But the agenda could-parts of it blanked out on the screen for security reasons. The matter of Orion armor, though, was uncla.s.sified and high on the list of announcements.
There was also a roster of attendees. Near the top, among the A's, was the name Darryl Adin. ”This was a high-security meeting,” said the prosecutor. ”All attendees were computer-checked by voiceprint, fingerprints, and retinal scan. As you can see, Darryl Adin was in attendance.”
He turned to the admirals who made up the jury. ”So, ladies and gentlemen, if he were not charged with conspiracy, treason, and murder, Darryl Adin would still be guilty of gross neglect of duty, first for not informing the officers and Security staff of the Starbound of this vital information, and second for allowing his s.h.i.+pmates to attempt to fight off the Orions with only hand phasers, resulting in unnecessary injury and loss of life.”
From that point on, Yar hardly heard the proceedings. It was a foregone conclusion that Dare would be found guilty ... for he was. The only reason he could possibly have allowed them to fight was to set up his own shooting-on stun, of course. And she had thought him a hero!
She had trusted him, with her life ... with her heart.
A few times Yar felt Dare's eyes on her-and when he drew her gaze she found his cold, hard, accusing. He whispered something to his attorney, who shook his head, but asked for a recess. When they returned, Dare's face was shuttered, and his attorney's was tight-lipped and grim.
The defense tried, but the evidence against Dare was indisputable.
The verdict came quickly, and Dare was consigned to a rehabilitation colony, where the doctors and counselors would try to find out what had turned a loyal Starfleet officer into a traitor. If they could, they would cure him and return him to society. If they could not, he would be confined there for the rest of his life.
Dare took the verdict and sentence quietly enough, although cold fury turned his ever-changing features as ugly as Yar had ever seen them.
To her surprise, his defense attorney called her that evening. Dare had asked to see her. ”You don't have to,” he told her. ”In fact, I advise you to refuse.”
”No,” said Yar. ”I want to see him. I need to ask him why.”
But it was Dare who demanded the moment they were face to face, ”Why, Tasha? Why did you betray me?”
”What?” she asked, confused.
He was back in the tan prison coverall, but he did not look small or vulnerable now. His anger sustained him. ”It had to be you,” he said. ”Where was I when the message came about the Security briefing? In the shower? Gone for a bottle of wine? It was a Starfleet Security play/erase; the hotel records show only that there was one, not what it said.”
”Dare-I couldn't have accessed your message!”
”Why not? You had examples of my voice on tricorder, and you know my ID number. Was it curiosity? Mischief? Did you not tell me about the meeting because we were enjoying ourselves, and you didn't want our sh.o.r.e leave broken up a second time?”