Strategy Session

Posted on 04 Sep 2017 @ 12:50pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Ensign Miraj Derani

2,765 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Earth - San Francisco, Starfleet HQ
Timeline: MD 19, 1648 hrs

[ON]

Fiddling with a small piece of aluminum foil from her late-lunch snack, Admiral Saalm sat across the table from her appointed defense counsel while the two of them engaged in the unpleasant task of devising a strategy for the inevitable charges she would face at her trial in two days.

"Do you think they will try to show that I am insane and have no business being in command?" the Orion asked with a roll of her eyes.

The Ktarian woman was still in Dress Whites from an earlier session on another case. She didn't immediately respond as she finished reading some of the documents that had been provided on the case. After a moment, Czarien Hedra put the padd aside and looked at the Admiral with her golden, horizontally slit pupils.

"Only if they're utterly desperate, which they won't be." She assured the Orion. "Mental Illness is not a pre-requisite for an incompetence charge. And pleading mental incapacity is mitigating circumstance, not a prosecutable charge. They may be expecting us to try that, but I don't intend to do anything so deplorably crass."

Shame, the Orion thought to herself. It would make the trial much more interesting if some over-confident junior JAG officer thought she was loony. "Then what do you expect the prosecution to do?" she asked with curiosity.

"Trust that the bench hasn't bothered to read the case law and use the depositions of your crew to prove their points even though they have no basis in law. They'll look at what people say and claim its evidence of crime X or Y without bothering to check if X or Y is still actually a crime." Hedra picked up the padd detailing the charges.

"Take treason for example. For it to count as treason it has to involve actions to overthrow Federation rule. But there is zero evidence that there was any intention to do so. And in fact by refusing to do what you did, you would have been in violation of one of the core Starfleet directives - to provide aid."

Saalm mused on the semantics of Starfleet's legal code language. Federation Standard wasn't her native tongue but she nevertheless was fluent in it. At times she wondered why Humans had so many different words and synonyms for the same object, thought, or sentiment. "Is treason not defined by how someone interprets it? Even if it was not an intention? And how would such an intention be proved without speculation?" she wondered out loud.

"No it is not." Hedra said shortly. "Treason is a very specific crime with very specific definitions. As i said, it has to include attempts to overthrow or act against the lawful rules of the federation. Agreeing to negotiate for one nation with another isn't treason, its Diplomacy. As for proving without speculation, they would have to demonstrate that any of your acts would result in an attack on Federation authority and rule. They can't. If we didn't have to waste time defending it, I'd tell you not to worry. Be grateful they don't have you up for piracy. That would be a hell of a lot harder to defend."

"Well, piracy is not a viable charge anyway," Saalm shrugged. She knew the question of treason was more justifiable than her counsel was letting on to; the simple fact was that she'd sworn an oath as a commanding officer and knew the uniform represented that oath. "You do know that by removing my uniform, it could be argued that I've forsaken my oath and allegiance, which in most governments, is the literal definition of the term. And I know what such a verdict would be within the Orion Defense Fleet had I done the same."

"More viable than trying to argue treason based on changing your clothes. The commanding officer has complete discretion on enforcing uniform code, and there is precedent for serving officers donning the uniforms of allied powers." Hedra laced her fingers together and leaned across the desk. "Forget what you think you know about the law. Most people's understanding is deeply flawed. Lawyers rely on that to bully people. This is no different. We throw ridiculous charges around to see what sticks. The situation is serious. But not hopeless. I've got people out of worse."

Saalm's dark eyebrows peaked with curiosity. Worse than this? "Oh? Please tell." If nothing else, it would serve as a small yet temporary comfort.

"One commander on multiple violations of the prime directive." Hedra said, "He should have been drummed out of Starfleet, dishonorable discharge. We were able to argue mitigating circumstances, and plenty of case law showing that it would be unlawfully harsh, he got off with a comment in his file. Before the Hobus incident, A commodore violated the neutral zone, and lost half his crew. He was facing multiple counts of culpable homicide. He lost his commission, but he didn't end up in a prison colony either."

The Orion wasn't sure that either of those two situations qualified as worse than the plight she currently found herself in. Perhaps if they were combined into one single incident, then maybe there might be an equivalency. Regardless, it was good to hear no one had ended up at a penal colony. "I see. And I trust you will be as vigorous with my case as those others?" she replied with a steady stare at the other woman.

The Ktarian gave Lirha a look slightly colder than an Andorian ice age. "Admiral. I am always vigorous. No one wins anything wasting time with silly questions." She pulled a padd across. "To sum up, fratricide and property damage are spurious and easily defended by reference to the General Orders. The standing order vis a vus thr Klingon Neutral Zone only applies in time of war, which we are not in, even if the other side try and make some argument that actions of Kreanus and the Klingons constitute hostilities. The charge that we need to really be concerned about is the Negligence." Hedra tapped a finger on the padd. "From the evidence submitted so far you would have had anywhere between three and five minutes between realising you were out numbered and in a cross fire and when the ship was finally destroyed. The first thing you'll be asked is why you didn't attempt to surrender. We will need a good answer."

Saalm narrowed her eyes at the woman, not entirely sure what the counsel was trying to get at. "Have you ever tried to operate a spacecraft inside the Paulson Nebula?" she challenged.

Hedra shrugged. "No, But that's not answering the question. The Bench will want to hear a clear, unequivocal justification. It will play better if you look like you had good reasons that you can clearly and simply defend. No wriggling, no justification. You are a Flag Officer. Clarity of Vision is expected."

"Imagine watching a blindfolded Human attempt to catch a chicken," the Orion elaborated for her attorney. "The man knows it's there and can hear it...maybe touch it. But it would take him a long time to be successful and catch the animal. As we were in the nebula, the electromagnetic interference in that region of space was so plentiful that both navigational and targeting scanners were crippled. Even the most formidable weapons array is crippled if it cannot hit its target." She wondered if Hedra was following her line of thought.

"So you thought you could get away?" Czarien asked, trying to guess where this was going. "Hide back in the nebula?"

Saalm shook her head before leaning back in her seat to explain her tactical choice more in depth. "No, my goal was to escape. Even outnumbered, I knew the Kreanan ships would have difficulty targeting Galileo, especially at combat impulse. If we could have escaped out of the nebula, our communications and sensor capabilities would have been restored and we could have called for assistance. Most likely, the Kreanans wouldn't have followed us for fear of being revealed. I...calculated our chances of escape to be worth the risk."

The attourney had made notes through out on her Padd, "And when did you realise this strategy wasn't going to work?"

It was easy for Saalm to recall the entire series of events. Over the past months, she'd replayed each second of the encounter in her head over and over and over, until she'd dissected every detail. "When we lost the nacelle. But by then, there was little that could be done."

A short moment of silent pause ensued while the rear admiral crossed her legs and revealed more. "What I didn't know when we first encountered the Kreanans, was their level of sophistication. At the time, I thought them to be a simple band of Klingon raiders; a renegade fleet commander or something of the like." Her gaze floated down toward the table in front of them. "I didn't know they were Kreanan, or what Kreanus was. I didn't know that their people have been operating in the nebula for over 60 years and developed advanced sensor array modifications in that time."

Hedra kept writing, "I've been through all the depositions. I find no record of an attempt to surrender once the nacelles went. And you'll need a reason why, given the conditions of the nebula, you thought you could fly out, and weren't just exchanging a quick death from the Klingons to a slow death, lost in the nebula."

"That is because I didn't give the order to surrender. There was no time. After the nacelle, the warp core soon lost containment and a breach began. At that time...the only order to give was to eject the drive." She gestured with an open green palm to the top of the table they sat at. "As for my decisions in combat...I just explained them. I thought we had enough concealment to escape the engagement and get out a distress call."

"One of the things that is going to happen during cross examination is that the prosecution will ask you the same question multiple ways, in the hopes of getting multiple answers." Czarien explained, "You just said the nebula was next to impossible to navigate. Running into it with
damage and getting lost could have been just as deadly, so they have you on Negligence coming and going. When you get asked your answer needs to show that you were thinking clearly that getting lost in the nebula was better for your crew than being taken or killed by the Klingons. Getting away is not enough with a negligence charge and the bench needs to be left in no doubt that this was a crew welfare decision, not simply stubbornness over refusing to surrender, or being unwilling to lose."

Saalm didn't remember mentioning anything about getting 'lost'. While her ship's sensors had been severely degraded, they were by no means inoperable. And she didn't agree with the other woman's assessment that she'd somehow proved the validity of any such charge against her by trying to explain such a thing. If anything, Saalm felt there was a distinct lack of operational systems knowledge at hand that she could correct should anyone try to misinterpret her statements. "My answer will be as it was. If anyone in the room wishes for a full review of my ship's navigational sensor systems and wants to debate my use of them, then so be it."

Hedra tapped thoughtfully on her padd. "They have to prove that you departed from the conduct expected of a reasonably prudent person acting under similar circumstances. How many flag officers do you think would have chosen differently?"

It was a good question, one that Lirha hadn't expected or thought of. How many of them would have chosen differently? She knew a good number of them personally but definitely no more than 30%. And each of them had their own operational style that was probably drastically different from her own. "Perhaps many. Maybe few. I don't know," she answered while shifting in her chair. "You?"

"Probably three or four," Hedra admitted. "Plus Kirk. Which is not a good thing," she added quickly.

"Kirk?" Saalm's eyebrows raised at the incredulity of the reference. "You would have my decisions be compared to those of that notorious captain?" she scoffed.

"I'd compare you to a hero of Starfleet. One who has been given a frightening amount of latitude. Or to put it in legal terms, one who has set some extremely useful precedents." She gave a satisfied, feline smile, raising a conspiratorial eyebrow.

The Orion scowled and huffed with displeasure. "A hero? He mated his way through half of his tours of duty. It is no wonder he was so disliked by other governments."

Hedra chuckled. "But he was also effective, and that's far more important than what he does with his sex life. Something I'm sure you must understand?"

Narrowing her eyes, Saalm stared at the feline woman. "Take caution. I've not been sentenced yet, and there's no scorn like an Orion's," she subtly threatened to the commander across from her. "Kirk was not enlightened like my people are. He was crude...unsophisticated. And unremarkable in bed, as the whispers say."

The Ktarian laughed out loud. "That, I would believe." Then the lawyer got control of herself. "I think we've got enough of an angle for negligence . The other charge that might have more chance of sticking is wilful damage. We can argue self defense, but whilst it is a mitigating circumstance, it may not be enough to clear you."

"Good. Then we are done and you are confident in your," she paused to correct herself, "my acquittal?"

"Never count your judgements before the gavel comes down," Hedra cautioned. "But if i didn't think I could win this, I wouldn't have taken the case. I like winning just as much as the next person."

Saalm liked to win too, especially after what felt like a solid six months of losses and defeats for both she and her crew. "When you are up there defending my case, remember: this is not just another 'case' for you...it is my career and future life that is at stake," the Orion severely cautioned.

Hedra looked at her. "Do you insult everyone trying to help you, admiral?"

An intense moment of silent coated the air whole Saalm gave her final judgement of the commander's counsel. "No. Only those who bring trial to those who served them faithfully." She nodded at the woman with a gesture of appreciation.

"I didn't bring you to trial, and I didn't raise such ridiculous charges." Czarien Hedra stated. "To be blunt, I don't like people getting screwed, so everyone I represent gets my full and best efforts. I don't appreciate the suggestion otherwise. If you are not happy with your appointed counsel, you can refuse and represent yourself."

A small upward curl tugged at the corner of the green-skinned rear admiral's gold lips. She liked the fire she was finally seeing in the attorney and thought it would serve her well in front of the panel. After all, the best counsels were sharp-witted and confident which meant they often held no qualms about arguing their case.

"No, you will do just fine, commander."

Hedra raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "I do not need to be tested, Admiral. I'm not a wet behind the ears cadet, I am an attorney at law with twenty years experience prosecution and defense both. Provoking people on your side is counter-productive. Remember that when you face the bench."

"Everyone is always tested...just as I was in the Paulson Nebula and now as you will be at the trial," Saalm explained. "Experience means little in Starfleet compared to one's integrity in the face of adversity. Your pride and confidence will serve you well as long as it is channeled in the correct direction."

Hedra's eyebrow rose even higher, finding that statement intensely patronising. Hedra had served far longer than the Admiral had. She resisted the retort she would have given, bordering on insubordination as it would have done, and began to pack her padds and briefs back up. "Meet me at the hearing room at 0830 day after tomorrow. If you have any queries or concerns before then, I can be contacted through JAG."

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Commander Czarien Hedra
Senior Attourney
JAG
[NPC Derani]

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