Once again everyone waited, standing while the judge and members of the court left through their respective doors. Jen stood at attention the entire time, moving only after the masters-at-arms came to stand beside her in order to escort her back to the brig. She also didn't look at anyone as she left the court-room.
Paul waited while Lieutenant Bashir made some notes on his data pad. "I never thought Commander Carr would do something like that."
Bashir glanced at him. "Like what? That stuff at the end?"
"Yes. I mean, it's crap."
"Almost certainly. But the government had to find some motivation for what they allege Lieutenant Shen did."
"But they didn't prove anything! That little bastard Taber just described totally innocuous things and implied there was something improper about them."
"Right." Bashir shook his head. "Unfortunately, in this case all the government has to do is introduce a reasonable level of belief in the members' minds that something was going on. I warned Jen about this. I told her a military judge would be far less likely to be swayed by innuendo. But she insisted on being tried by members, because she was sure they'd stand with a fellow officer."
Paul sagged back into his seat. "But why would Commander Carr stoop to that kind of thing?"
"Because she's got a job to do, Paul." Bashir pointed toward the trial counsel's table. "She's in charge of prosecuting this case. Carr's in charge of bringing to justice someone she believes murdered sixty-one of her shipmates. I disagree, obviously. But that's why Commander Carr would do that."
Paul nodded, feeling numb.
Carr really believes Jen must be guilty, doesn't she? Carr wouldn't do this if she didn't believe that, didn't believe that she was legally right to introduce something like Taber's garbage. Even if I could tell Carr hated having to do it
.
"If it's any consolation," Bashir added, "she pulled her punches."
"What?"
"You heard me. Carr pulled her punches. She had to sow suspicion in the minds of the members of the court that Lieutenant Shen had engaged in improper relationships with other officers on the
Maury
. She did that. But if she'd really gone after the accusations it would've looked a lot more damning."
"How?"
"Oh, take that little sleaze Taber. The Alex Carr I know would've checked up more on him, found out if he had ulterior motives for his little fairy tale about Shen and Schmidt. She didn't. Consciously or subconsciously she left me an opening to discredit Taber. She also could've raised the issue of hearsay on those statements about his asking the ladies for dates. It wouldn't have held up because my sources personally witnessed the events, but still . . ."
Paul looked over to where Carr was reading something at the trial counsel's table. "She hasn't looked happy. Not like when she was trying to get Silver convicted."
"She's got a job to do, Paul. She's doing it. She thinks it's necessary. But, like you say, she's not loving it this time." Bashir sighed. "Unfortunately, even when she's not loving it, Alex Carr is one tough opponent."
"It doesn't help that Captain Carney's obviously made up his mind already."
"You've picked up on that, eh? No. It doesn't help. But he's allowed to do that. He's not allowed to order the other members of the court how to vote, but he can exercise his seniority as president of the members." Lieutenant Bashir looked toward the now-vacant table used by the members of the court, his jaw tight.
Paul just nodded, knowing what Bashir was probably thinking. Captain Carney had decided what decision he thought the Navy wanted, so Captain Carney was going to do what he could to make sure that decision was reached. That way, the Navy would hopefully be grateful to Captain Carney, and it never hurt to have the Navy grateful when the next promotion board came up.
I hope he's wrong. I hope the Navy as an institution isn't pushing for Jen's conviction regardless of whatever the truth might be. I can't believe it. I can't believe that some of the people involved in this, people like Alex Carr, would be part of that kind of thing. Like Mom said. There's a lot of good people in the Navy. People who surely wouldn't stand for that
.
"It'd be a lot simpler if it was a big conspiracy, wouldn't it?" Paul stated aloud.
Bashir gave him a skeptical look. "Why?"
"Something that big, somebody'd talk, right? Somebody would refuse to play along."
"I like to think so." Bashir shook his head. "But it doesn't feel like a grand conspiracy to me. The senior people I've seen pushing for this court-martial seem to think Lieutenant Shen's guilty. That's why they're pushing it." He laughed bitterly. "It'd be a lot simpler if they didn't believe it. Then you and I and Lieutenant Shen wouldn't be here." Bashir paused, then reached into his pocket and offered Paul a data coin. "You asked me to look into SEERS. This is everything the government provided."
Paul took the coin gingerly. "Everything the government provided? Nothing else?"
"There isn't supposed to be anything else, Paul. I asked for all material pertaining to SEERS. The government's obligated to provide that if I ask for it and it's reasonably available. When Commander Carr gave me this she said it's the whole ball of wax and she's looked at it all. If Alex Carr says it's everything, then it's everything, and if she says she's looked at it, then she's looked at it. Now here it is for you to look at. Development, testing, evaluation, the works. I've skimmed it and I don't know how they managed to pack so much stuff into one data coin."
"You've just skimmed it?"
Bashir raised one eyebrow at Paul. "Don't sound so shocked. I went through all the executive summaries, did global searches for certain words and phrases, and so on. I'll be frank. I didn't find anything that contradicted what Admiral Hidalgo said. But if you want to dig into it, be my guest. I'd really appreciate input from a line officer, especially one as motivated as you are."
"You'll get it." Paul put the coin away carefully.
Good thing I'm on leave. If this contains all the material Bashir says it does then I'll take a long time to go through it. And there's only so much time somebody like Colleen can give me for it because she's got her own job to do
. "Thank you, sir. I'm sorry I . . ."
"Thought I wasn't working hard enough for Ms. Shen? I'm doing all I can. Let me know if you find anything in there. As soon as you can."
Paul rushed back to the
Michaelson
, where Colleen Kilgary copied the coin and promised to look at it even as she couldn't help casting a despairing glance at the lengthy 'to-do' list visible on her display. Sitting down in his own stateroom, Paul began scrolling through documents, trying not be overwhelmed by the sheer mass of material on the disc. Just the listing of document titles seemed to go on forever.
Now I know why Bashir just went to summaries and did word searches. There's months of work in here. Why can't he get the court-martial suspended until we have time to go through this in detail
? Even as he framed the question to himself, Paul saw the probable answer in his own search results. Every reference to "failure" or other likely keywords was in the context of avoidance or ensuring it couldn't happen.
Because we need to find some indication in this mass of charts, graphs, data and words that SEERS could've caused or contributed to what happened. And none of it's saying that
.
Paul kept going, nonetheless, until he realized he wasn't actually absorbing what he read anymore. His numbed brain just slid over the surface of endless pages, all of which seemed to say that SEERS was doing just fine, thank you very much.
Just my luck. The one system I want to be screwed up somehow or other, and it's the
only
system in the Navy that
isn't
screwed up somehow or other
. Something in the back of his head hesitated over that, but the thought dwindled away into nothing before he could grasp it. Paul shut off his display with a muttered curse.
I can't even think. I need a break. Sorry, Jen. Jen . . . Maybe they'd let me talk to her. Cheer her up a bit, and remotivate me. I can ask.
* * *
The brig allowed him some time to visit Jen. That surprised Paul at first, until he mentioned it to Sharpe and the master-at-arms nodded knowingly. "They want you to soften her up, sir. Not deliberately. But maybe get her to blurt out something to you, maybe get her thinking about cutting a deal."
While he was waiting for Jen, Paul read the warning posted on the wall of the visitor's room. "All conversations and movements within this compartment are subject to audio and video monitoring at any and all times. Use of this compartment indicates acceptance of these conditions."
I hadn't really noticed that before. I wonder how many prisoners have said something here that they regretted
?
A master-at-arms escorted Jen into the room, checked the door Paul had entered by to ensure it was securely locked, then left through the other door. Jen sat down heavily in the chair opposite Paul. Paul cleared his throat cautiously. "Hi, Jen."
"Hi."
"I, uh . . ."
Want to cheer you up but hadn't really thought about how I'd do that beyond being here, which doesn't seem to be doing the trick
. "How—"
I'm going to ask how she's doing? What a stupid question
.
Jen looked away from him. "I can't decide whether to be angry or despairing."
"We'll beat this, Jen."
"
We
aren't facing anything.
I
am. Thanks in no small part to your favorite lawyer."
"Commander Carr's doing her job, Jen. It's not fair—"
"
Fair
?" Jen finally looked at him, glaring with anger. "If you're going to bring up fair then what am I doing here?"
"I . . . I just wanted . . ."
"It's very convenient, isn't it?"
"What? Convenient?"
"You know what I mean. That hot-shot babe gets me convicted, leaving Paul Sinclair free to fill the role of her part-time boy-toy."
Paul held up his hands in a calming gesture. "Jen, are you serious? You can't really believe— "
"How am I know what to believe, Paul Sinclair?"
"I would never choose Commander Carr over you. Not for an instant."
"Then why are you defending her? Siding with her even while she drags my reputation through the mud?"
Paul looked down, unable to meet her gaze for a moment.
Look at it from her perspective. She's right
. "I'm sorry. I'm here, I'm at the trial, for you. Not for anyone else."
"Can you believe it? Bad enough I had to sit there while they recited all those names. Names of my friends and co-workers." Her face worked with emotion. "And what could I do? Cry? I couldn't do that. I'm an officer. I have to be strong."
"You're stronger than I believed possible, Jen. I mean that."
"I wish it helped. But I'm sure they're figuring out some way to use that against me. Just like they're using my professional skills against me. How can I defend myself against this? I'm supposed to be able to refute evidence. To strike back at hard facts. But there aren't any. There's just these ghosts, things I can't hit no matter how hard I swing. How do I prove I'm not guilty? Or am I crazy to even ask?"
"You're
not
guilty, Jen. And you're not insane, either."
Jen sank back into the chair, elbows on her knees and her head buried in her hands. "No hard targets to hit. That little son of a bitch Taber. I can't believe he made that stuff up."
"Lieutenant Bashir discredited him."
"No, he didn't! You saw the members!"
"Bashir proved Taber didn't know what he was talking about, that he'd distorted what he testified about, that he had ulterior motives. Jen, I'll tell Bashir that I'll go on the stand and testify for you. That I know you couldn't have had anything improper going on with Schmidt because you couldn't have done that. You're too honest."
Jen smiled sourly. "Honest. That's doubtless another crime on my part."
"Everyone knows Taber was wrong. Nobody'll believe him."
"That's wrong, Paul Sinclair. You know that's wrong. You know what everyone'll be thinking. Sailors. They leave their marriage vows and other commitments at the pier. They sail off and have affairs and patronize hookers, and it's always been that way and always will be that way. You know they'll think that. And even if you
and
Schmidt's guy go up there and swear teary-eyed that she and I were faithful to you two everyone'll just think 'those poor guys. Always the last to know. Don't they know what sailors are like?' You know that's what they'll think, Paul!"
Paul bit his lip as he met Jen's gaze.
Do I deny that? Knowing she's right? I can't see where pretending that I'm oblivious is going to make her feel any better
. "Yeah. I know that."
"How the
hell
do I prove I
didn't
have an affair with a dead woman? How do I
prove
that?"
"I don't know." Paul let his helpless feelings show. "This isn't how it's supposed to work."
"Oh, that makes me feel a lot better. Thanks for letting me know that."
"Jen, I'm doing everything I—"
"
Then why am I still here
?"
Paul stared at her, momentarily silent with shock at the way her anger had erupted. Anger obviously directed at him once again.
How do I answer a question like that? I don't know. Maybe that's the only answer that fits now
. "I don't know." Jen leaned forward so she could press her fingertips against her temples. Paul could see the flesh around her nails whitening from the force Jen was using. "I'm there every day, Jen."
She didn't look up. "For me or for her?"
"Her? Her who?"
"Commander Carr." Jen almost spat the name this time.
Paul felt his own anger flaring now. "Jen, for God's sake knock it off. I told you that's nonsense. You know full well—"
"I don't know
anything
anymore, Mr. Sinclair." She finally raised her head to look at him again, but Paul found his own eyes flinching away from the emotions mirrored in Jen's. "I'm fighting for my
life
. And I don't know
why
."