“I took an oath, and I knew my duty, but in the end, I betrayed it all. I did things no man should do. I acted as judge and jury and executioner. I decided who should live, and who should die. I played god.”

The words of a dead man echoed through the quarters he’d once inhabited, but now, he was gone. Chief Shafir had found him lying face down on the floor, his sidearm by his side. There was no doubt what had happened.

“I cannot claim innocence, nor ignorance. Not in this life, nor in the next. On Earth, I was given a second chance, my captivity recompense for my sins, but even in that baptism of fire ants and molten ore, I could not be saved.”

The medical staff had declared Lieutenant J.G. Jace Morgan dead on arrival. Once they’d ferried his body away, Chief Shafir had called Captain Lewis, and together, the two began to deconstruct what had happened. That was when they came upon his final personal log.

“When I returned to the Serenity, I reverted to that monster I’d become on Nasera. I knew better, but it didn’t stop me. Had just a few more seconds passed before the Bog signal stopped, I would have decided the fate of thousands more. That is a power no man should have, least of all one I should have.”

First on Nasera, and then again over Earth, Lieutenant Morgan had done his duty, but he wasn’t like the others. The young man hadn’t been able to box up his experiences and put them on a shelf. He’d become haunted by what had happened, and none of his colleagues seemed to understand.

“During his deposition, Commander Drake asked: ‘How can you live with yourself after that?’ Truthfully, I can’t. Every time I shut my eyes, I relive that nightmare, over and over, again and again, until there’s nothing left of me.”

The rage began to build in Captain Lewis’ eyes. The JAG investigator had intentionally ripped the scabs off their wounds, over and over, again and again, ever since Nasera, undeterred by what it was doing to the mental state of the team that had been through so much. The ivory tower shark cared for nothing but his investigation, and now a man was dead because of it.

“My captors on Earth, they had it right too. ‘You can make this all stop,’ they said. ‘You can make this all go away.’ They were right. I can, and I will. It is the only way.”

A single phaser shot rang out, and then the recording ended.

Captain Lewis and Chief Shafir stood there in silence. Neither said a word. What could they say? Lieutenant Morgan had not died on the battlefield in a valiant struggle against the enemy. He’d died by his own hand in his quarters aboard the Serenity.

“Delete it,” Captain Lewis ordered once he’d managed to recompose himself. “Delete it all. Make it so it never existed.” There was a darkness and an anger in his tone.

“But Jake, those were his final words…”

“No Ayala, those were not his final words!” Captain Lewis snapped back. “Those were the words of a man who gave up. That was not Lieutenant Morgan. Lieutenant Morgan was a loyal officer who did his duty.” The kid had risked his life to free the people of Nasera, and he’d done the same over Earth on Frontier Day. “He was a hero, and that is the only way he should be remembered. Can you make it go away?”

“Of course,” Chief Shafir nodded. She’d spent much of her breaking into systems without leaving a trace, and as much as it hurt, she knew Captain Lewis was right. Jace Morgan did not deserve to be remembered as someone who gave up.

As the chief got to work, Captain Lewis thought back to his last moments with Lieutenant Morgan. He’d seen the kid just a few hours ago, right before he’d turned the ship for Beta Serpentis. What was it he’d told Lieutenant Morgan then? Pour a stiff one and get some sleep. Fuck, how could he have been so blind? He should have said something more. And then when Morgan didn’t show up at battlestations, he should have sent someone to check on him. Instead, he’d just sort of forgotten about the conversation, wholly focused on the mission. He was always focused on the mission, and now it had cost a man his life.

“It’s done,” Chief Shafir declared as she stepped back from the console. She looked over at Captain Lewis with grief-stricken eyes, and a single tear ran down her cheek. “I… I… I just can’t anymore Jake.” One tear turned to many as Ayala Shafir slid to the floor and began to cry. “I can’t bury any more friends. If I do, pretty soon I’ll have no one left.” 

Captain Lewis just stood there awkwardly. He didn’t know what to say. This was not the sort of thing he was good at. You couldn’t shoot emotions with a phaser.

“We watched them murder Jason,” Shafir sobbed, recalling the town square in Nasera City where Petty Officer Jason Atwood had been executed by the Vorta after being captured by the Jem’Hadar. “We… we stood there and… and we watched. We fucking watched, and we did nothing!” Rationally, she knew there was nothing that they could have done. The mission came first, and they couldn’t blow their cover. That didn’t make it hurt any less though. “And then Nam and Ryssehl blew themselves up with the orbital station, and Kora caught an unlucky shot at the mansion.” That was three more members of their team that fell during the Battle of Nasera, but they weren’t even the ones that hurt the most. “And Brock…” Shafir exhaled, losing all semblance of control as she thought back to that moment in the tunnels beneath the planetary control center. “Brock is on me. I killed him. I should have kept him safe, and instead, I pressed the detonator.” That moment would be forever burned in her mind.

“We did what we had to do for the mission,” Captain Lewis offered as he took a seat next to her. “For our shipmates, for the people of Nasera, and for the Federation itself.” He reached out and set a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

His words didn’t help though, nor did his touch. For as deep as their bond was, the snowball of grief was rolling downhill, all the trauma, all the pain, all the little boxes she’d locked up in the deepest recesses of her mind. “And Fontier Day…” Shafir continued to cry as she thought back to the young officers she’d gunned down when they fell to the Borg signal. So many good officers had died by her hand. “It’s just like ninety-one all over again…”

“You can’t think like that Ayala,” Captain Lewis interrupted, knowing her line of thinking would lead her nowhere good. He remembered finding Ayala Shafir on Freecloud back in the nineties. She’d been a broken mess, working as a hired gun to make ends meet after resigning her commission following a year undercover doing unspeakable things. He’d been down and out himself at the time, having fallen on his sword to preserve the fragile peace of the eighties, and together, they learned to walk again. Together, they rebuilt themselves. “You really can’t.”

“Why not?!” she snapped back at him desperately as her eyes darkened. “I am Sayyida Alfawdaa, Jake. I am the lady of chaos.” The pseudonym she’d used as a hacker in her youth and resuscitated for her time undercover within the consortium, it had new meaning now. “Everyone around me dies! Every fucking one of them! I’m fucking cursed!”

“I get it,” Captain Lewis admitted sincerely as he locked eyes with her. “I really do. Ryssehl was my best friend, and Brock was my protege.” Both were now dead, as were so many that had trusted him and followed him into battle over the last forty years. He’d left a trail of bodies behind him ever since the Dominion War. “But it’s not that we’re cursed. It’s simply that we are willing to do the hard things that need to be done, and that comes with a price. A damn steep price.”

For a moment, the pair just sat there, thinking on those words. Captain Lewis was right, Chief Shafir knew. It was just the way of things.

“You know what really gets me here though?” Chief Shafir offered as she looked over at the spot where she’d found Jace’s body. “Jace had survived all of it. He made it through Nasera, and he made it through Frontier Day, and yet… I don’t fucking get it.”

“I do,” Captain Lewis said as he rose from the floor, conviction coursing through his veins.

Chief Shafir looked over with a confused expression.

“You heard him,” Captain Lewis explained. “You heard what he said. Drake got under his skin and twisted his mind.” The rage was building in his eyes. “After everything Jace went through, that piece of shit pushed him over the edge.” The anger was building in his veins.

“What are you going to do?”

“Drake did what the Jem’Hadar and the Borg could not. Jace’s death is on his hands,” Captain Lewis replied coldly. “And now he will answer for that.” It would not be quick, and it would not be painless. Not if he had anything to say about it.

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re not,” Captain Lewis replied firmly. She looked about to protest, but he didn’t let her get a word in. “You all followed me, and you all trusted me. This is for me to do, and me alone.” Chief Shafir and the others, they were still young. They still had a full life ahead of them. He knew he might pay a steep price for what he was about to do, and they didn’t need to bear it with him. He had to do it though. It was a matter of honor.

“But Jake, they’ll have your hide for it,” Chief Shafir warned desperately. She knew from the look in his eyes he didn’t intend to merely exchange words with Polaris Squadron’s JAG officer. She knew how far her mentor could go. Typically, those in power looked the other way because he took it out on the enemy, but this was a JAG officer they were talking about. Even Jake Lewis wouldn’t be able to wiggle out of that one.

“Then they’ll have my hide,” Captain Lewis shrugged. His mind was made up. His people had sacrificed too much already, and it was well past time to put an end to this whole mess before Commander Drake could do any further harm to his team. “Don’t try and stop me.”

“I won’t,” Chief Shafir nodded with a deep sense of loyalty. She respected what he was about to do. She shared his perspective on the world. “Do what needs to be done. Just try not to get locked up.” She wouldn’t try to stop him, but she just hoped it wouldn’t be the last time she saw the captain as a free man. She’d only come back to Starfleet because of him.

Captain Lewis left without another word.

Lieutenant Morgan was dead, and someone was going to pay. The kid might have taken his own life, but that wasn’t the whole story. “How can you live with yourself?” That was what Commander Drake had asked the broken man, the words that had pushed him over the edge, the words that had killed him. For that, there was only one answer.

After leaving the Lieutenant’s quarters, Captain Lewis returned to his own. He approached his nightstand, flipped over the lamp that sat atop it, and detached a power source concealed within its base. Then he walked over to his closet, dug out an old running shoe, plied back the insole, and retrieved a polaron focusing crystal he’d hidden there. Systematically, he continued to move about his quarters, retrieving discreetly hidden items and assembling them into a disruptor.

Not even five minutes later, Captain Lewis re-emerged from his quarters. He still wore his standard issue sidearm, but it was now nothing more than a prop. If he used it, it would do nothing except ensure him a one-way trip to New Zealand. Instead, he would rely on the ghost gun he’d concealed in an angle holster beneath his pant leg, a weapon the investigators would never trace back to him.

Typically, Captain Lewis would have beamed over to the Polaris, but the polaron power source would have registered on the transporter’s sensors so he elected to take a shuttle instead. As he made the quick flight over, Captain Lewis had time to think back on the last few months. His team had been through so much. On Nasera, they lost half their team to the Jem’Hadar; on Earth, Shafir and Morgan had been tortured by the conspirators of the Changeling plot; and in the shadow of Sol Station, they’d fought and killed their own when the Borg assimilation signal overtook their colleagues. Every step of the way, they’d done their duty and sacrificed so much. They didn’t deserve this. It was time to put an end to Commander Drake before his machinations did further harm.

“Welcome back, sir,” a shuttlebay manager greeted the squadron’s intelligence officer as Captain Lewis stepped off the Type-12 shuttle. “Staying long this time?” It was a courteous ask, one of pure logistics as to whether he should leave the shuttle on the pad or move it below deck to make room for the other shuttles coming and going from Beta Serpentis III.

“Just here to debrief with Commander Lockwood about the Borg tech,” Captain Lewis replied nonchalantly. After he paid a visit to the JAG, he would continue to the ASTRA lab to chat with the ASTRA team lead. It would provide believable cover for his real purpose. “I won’t be long.”

The shuttlebay manager nodded as Captain Lewis departed the shuttlebay and headed for the turbolift. When Captain Lewis stepped inside, he was pleased to see he was alone.

“Computer, locate Commander Drake.”

“Commander Drake is on deck 7, crew quarters.”

“Deck 7,” Captain Lewis ordered. As the turbolift began to move, he smiled. It couldn’t have been a better set up. The traitor would die to his disruptor, and no one would find him for hours. When that happened, Captain Lewis would be there to help, and, after everything that had happened recently, it wouldn’t take much to work everyone up over the fact there must be a Changeling infiltrator or something in their midst. Who else would have used a polaron disruptor to kill the squadron’s JAG officer?

As Captain Lewis stepped out of the turbolift, his eyes were flush with conviction. He and his team risked everything for these people, and what Commander Drake had done was unforgivable. With anger coursing through his veins, the only thing on his mind was vengeance. The captain turned left, and then right, and then continued on his way towards Commander Drake’s quarters. With everyone consumed managing the aftermath of the Beta Serpentis situation, the corridors were empty.

Just a couple turns more, and he’d be there. He’d simply jack into the door control, override it, and then it would be done. But suddenly, he ran headlong into the one thing that could stop him.

“Going somewhere, Jake?”

Standing there in the middle of the hallway was Fleet Admiral Reyes. The expression on her face left no doubt to the fact she knew his purpose, and he didn’t miss the fact that, although they were within the safety of their own ship, she had a sidearm on her hip.

“Step aside, Allison,” Captain Lewis ordered coldly as he drew to a stop momentarily. “This does not concern you. Turn around, walk away, and forget I was ever here.” Long ago, Allison Reyes had been a shooter, same as him, and she had to understand.

“I can’t do that,” Admiral Reyes replied firmly as she set her hand on the butt of her sidearm. The message was clear. There was murder in the captain’s eyes, and she’d draw on her old friend before she let him pass. She had no other choice.

“Suit yourself,” Captain Lewis sighed, feigning defeat as he turned. But then he just kept on turning, spinning a full 360 as he drew his Starfleet issue sidearm from its holster.

Admiral Reyes was ready for it though, and she was as quick on the draw as the captain. “Really, Jake?! Really?!” she screamed. This was insane. What had gotten into him? Would he really shoot her where she stood? It would be throwing away his life.

“You still have time to walk away,” Captain Lewis begged desperately. “Don’t make me do this.” He didn’t want to stun her, but she would not stop him. No one would. Commander Drake was responsible for the death of one of his men.

“How the fuck are you going to explain this?” Admiral Reyes pressed without backing down.

“I’m not,” Captain Lewis admitted. His plan had been to use the polaron disruptor tucked in his ankle holster to do the deed without a trace, but the disruptor didn’t have a stun setting. He’d have to stun the Admiral to get to Drake, and if he did that, all plausible deniability was out the window. Still, he couldn’t let Drake’s affront pass, even if it meant spending the rest of his days in prison.

“What the fuck has gotten into you?” Admiral Reyes asked as she took a step closer to him, staring down the barrel of his phaser. “This isn’t how things are done.” She took another step forward, but he didn’t flinch. “Are you really going to shoot me?”

“If I have to,” Captain Lewis snarled back. “Get out of my way, or you’ll wake up in a few hours.”

She could see the bloodlust in his eyes, but still she didn’t blink.

Suddenly, Captain Lewis felt the cold of a phaser muzzle pressed into the small of his back. He’d been so focused on what was in front of him that he’d lost track of his six. Just like how he’d lost track of Lieutenant Morgan as the young man fell into the dark spiral of his trauma.

“Put it down, Jake,” said a young female voice from behind him.

Captain Lewis recognized the soft, gentle voice instantly. It was Ensign Elyssia Rel, the young flight controller from his team, the one who’d found a crack in his armor, the one who’d kindled a spark within him he didn’t know existed. “Are you really going to shoot me, Elyssia?”

“If you force me to,” Ensign Rel replied firmly. She didn’t want to, but she would if she had to. The Admiral had told her what Lewis was going to do if he made it to Commander Drake’s quarters, and there’d be no coming back for him after that. He’d spend the rest of his life behind bars. Whatever fledgling romance she’d begun to develop between them, it would be over, but even more importantly, it would mean that those Captain Lewis might go on to save in the future would now be on their own. She needed him, and they needed him. It couldn’t end here. “Please, Jake. Please. He’s not worth it. He’s not worth throwing your life away for.”

“This isn’t about Drake,” Captain Lewis insisted. “It’s about Jace.”

“Bullshit!” Admiral Reyes countered. “This is about you.”

“You know me better than that…”

“No, I know you just well enough to know that,” Admiral Reyes shook her head, refusing to back down. “This is about you and your guilt.”

“You didn’t hear him…”

“No, I didn’t,” Admiral Reyes admittedly with a pained voice, aware of what Lieutenant Morgan must have been going through that brought him to his end. “But if you did, you should have done something about it.” She locked eyes with him, daring him to speak. She knew how he could be. “I’m going to guess that instead you said something along the lines of ‘straighten that upper lip soldier’. This is as much on you as it is on Drake.”

The bloodlust snapped from his eyes. The Admiral wasn’t wrong.

“So turn the fuck around and go back to your ship,” Admiral Reyes ordered as she reholstered her phaser. “And don’t make dear Ensign Rel have to shoot you in the back.”

Slowly, Captain Lewis reholstered his phaser. “How’d you know I’d come here?”

“Because I know you,” Admiral Reyes replied with understanding borne of decades operating alongside Captain Lewis and people like him. The moment she’d heard about Lieutenant Morgan’s suicide and then seen that shuttle on approach from the Serenity, she knew its purpose. “Now get out of here before someone comes along and asks why we’re all hanging around outside the JAG’s quarters with phasers drawn.”

She had him beat, for now, and so angrily, Captain Lewis spun on his heels and stormed off back towards the turbolift.

Admiral Reyes watched him go, and then she looked over at Ensign Rel. She could see the mix of emotions on the young woman’s face. “Go,” Admiral Reyes urged, and she watched as the Trill flight controller turned and rushed off after the captain.

“Wait, Jake… wait for me…” Ensign Rel was saying as her voice faded into the distance. 

“You know you’re playing a dangerous game,” came a calm voice as Dr. Hall approached from behind the admiral. “But I must say, I’m impressed.” Most flag officers would have called security, but that would have just added more fuel to Commander Drake’s crusade. Admiral Reyes had kept it discreet by keeping it in the family instead.

“We still need him,” Admiral Reyes sighed. It was quite the pickle.

“I do not disagree,” Dr. Hall nodded. The galaxy was a dark place, and they needed people like Captain Lewis. “But you’re just inviting disaster by keeping them both here. You got to him in time this time, but what about the next time? Unless you want to see Captain Lewis locked up, it’s time to send Drake packing.”

“I can’t do that,” Admiral Reyes admitted. Nor did she want to. As much as they needed people like Captain Lewis, so too did they need people like Commander Drake, even as inconvenient as it could be at times. “As much as I get that it would be convenient for you and the captain.”

“You can’t always have your cake and eat it too, Admiral,” Dr. Hall warned. It might not happen today, or tomorrow, but she knew Captain Lewis’ type. So long as Commander Drake was still part of the squadron, Captain Lewis would not back down.

“It’s not just that,” Admiral Reyes conceded. “I can’t just make him go away. Not so long as this investigation is ongoing. I’m under strict orders unless you want the whole damn JAG Corps turning the ship upside down.” Commander Drake was a shark, and once he sunk his teeth into something, he wouldn’t back down until he got his day in court.

“Then will you get rid of him after he fails in court?” Dr. Hall countered. She had no doubt he would fail. The evidence was circumstantial without a witness. She and Captain Lewis would never flip, and the JAG’s only possible flip was now lying dead in the Serenity’s morgue.

“Yes, after that, I will see to his reassignment,” Admiral Reyes agreed. There really wasn’t another choice. Commander Drake had done them a good one during the corruption purge of 2399, but now he’d become too much of a liability. “And until then, Ensign Rel will just have to keep Lewis on a tight leash.”

“You know about the two of them, don’t you?”

“Yes,” nodded Admiral Reyes with a twinkle in her eye. “And for now, it works to our advantage.” Protocol around good order and discipline would have argued the opposite, but Admiral Reyes was more pragmatic than that. “When this is all over though, he and I will have a conversation about it. He’s got to see how it could compromise his judgment.”

Dr. Hall didn’t bother pointing out how compromised his judgment already was.

As Captain Elsie Drake stepped into the office, she noticed that all of the admiral’s personal effects were stripped from the walls and removed from the desk. Even the piece of debris from Utopia Planitia, the reminder he kept from that tragic day, was gone. That could mean one thing. 

“We’re being reassigned,” Rear Admiral Alex Grayson said as he looked up from a box where he was packing away a few last remaining items. “Please have a seat.”

“Where are we going?” Captain Drake asked as she pulled back a chair and sat down.

“Starbase 27.”

Captain Drake tilted her head in surprise. “That’s an odd place for us to run Task Force 47 from.” While technically their mandate extended across the entire galaxy, the Archanis Sector was hardly a strategic location from whence to coordinate the Fourth Fleet’s pathfinding operations.

“You misunderstand me,” Rear Admiral Grayson replied as he crossed the office and took a seat across from her. “Our time with Forty Seven is over… or mine is, at least.”

Captain Drake looked shocked.

“Elsie, I’m not a bureaucrat, nor an administrator,” Rear Admiral Grayson reminded her gently as he rose from the floor and joined her at the desk. “I’m a frontier commander, and my appointment as TFCO was always temporary. Commodore Alexandra Sudari-Kravchik has been appointed as the Forty Seven’s new Commander, and we – well me, and you, if you’re game for it – have a new opportunity on the horizon.” The excited expression on his face was in direct contrast to the one on the captain’s.

“I see… umm… I guess I am just more than a bit confused,” Captain Drake admitted. She had known Rear Admiral Grayson didn’t exactly enjoy his role, but they’d made a good team, and she felt like they’d really hit their stride during the recent Fleet Action. “Starbase 27 is an aging station in a backwater sector along a border with a long-time ally. Forgive me for saying it this way, but it hardly seems like a promotion, or even a lateral.” Rear Admiral Grayson might have been in the later years of his career, but she still had aspirations, and as much as she enjoyed working with him at the head of Task Force 47, she wasn’t sure she wanted to step off her career track like this. “It feels more like the end of the road.”

“If we were still in the nineties, I would agree with you, but the crisis with Hunters of D’Ghor and the fungal blight in the Meronia Cluster changed everything,” Rear Admiral Grayson clarified as he handed her a PADD with the specifics. While the captain began to read, the admiral provided a voiceover. “Starfleet Command has greenlit a massive reinvestment in the Archanis Sector to address decades of neglect and rebuild local faith in the Federation. The first phase of that project, replacing the aging Starbase 27 with a new Canopus-class station, was just completed, and now, we are surging assets into the region, including a detachment from the Corps of Engineers and a new diplomatic mission.”

“And where do we fit in this?”

“Given my past operating humanitarian and economic relief efforts along our borderlands, I was offered, and have already accepted, the position of Commander of Sector Operations for the Archanis Sector,” Rear Admiral Grayson explained. “And I could think of no one more qualified for the role of Station Commander for Starbase 27 than you.”

Captain Drake’s demeanor had turned abruptly, her eyes now alight with excitement. A modern starbase with five thousand occupants was a far cry from the diminutive outpost she’d run prior, and suddenly, rather than stepping off the fast track, it felt like a very natural next step in her career. “I… yeah… I mean, yes, if it’s all you’re making it out to be, count me in… sir.”

Rear Admiral Grayson breathed a sigh of relief. Although he’d been a bit skeptical of the young captain when he first arrived on Starbase 47, he’d come to rely on Elsie, and he was glad she would join him for the next chapter. “There’s more too,” he added with a twinkle in his eye. “I hear the charge d’affaires of the new diplomatic mission might be someone familiar to you.”

“Who?”

“Ambassador Michael Drake.”

“My father?” she asked, the shock evident on her face. Her dad, a former Admiral in the Fourth Fleet, had once commanded Starfleet’s operations in the Delta Quadrant, but he’d long since relegated himself to Earth where he served as a mere diplomatic advisor to a bunch of bureaucrats who hardly heeded any of his advice. “Someone finally convinced him his talents were being wasted in San Francisco?”

“Something like that,” chuckled Rear Admiral Grayson. He knew more, but he was cognizant of the boundaries between service and family. Ambassador Drake’s choices were his own to share with his daughter, especially after what he’d just been through over Earth. “I’ve never met your father before, but his reputation precedes him, and I’m looking forward to working with him.”

Now, Captain Drake was beyond elated. It had been a long time since she’d spent any real time with her father, and that, plus the career opportunity Grayson had just offered her, meant she only had one more question: “When do we leave?”

“I will depart directly for Starbase 27 tomorrow,” Rear Admiral Grayson explained. “But I need you to make a pitstop before you join me.”

“A pitstop?”

“Yes, I need you to rendezvous with Polaris Squadron first.”

“Reyes’ squadron?”

Rear Admiral Grayson nodded.

“Isn’t she Sudari-Kravchik’s problem now?” Captain Drake asked, not bothering to conceal her feelings about the Fleet Admiral. Allison Reyes’ reckless, gallivanting ways had created a few headaches for Captain Drake and Rear Admiral Grayson since she came under their purview.

“Not exactly,” Rear Admiral Grayson explained. “Someone with a paygrade far exceeding ours has concluded she’s going to remain our problem.” 

Captain Drake frowned. 

“There’s a logic in it though,” Rear Admiral Grayson added. “Admiral Reyes’ squadron will reinforce our security posture in the sector, which is understandably important after the D’Ghor crisis, and her background as a former Director at Starfleet R&D may be helpful with our reinvestment efforts.”

“Why not just rendezvous with her at Starbase 27 then?”

“Because she’s completely lost control of a delicate situation aboard the Polaris,” Rear Admiral Grayson replied, frustration evident in his voice. “And as the convening authority in this matter, I would prefer it resolved before they arrive.”

“The convening authority?” Captain Drake asked, recognizing what he was intimating.

“Afraid so,” Rear Admiral Grayson sighed. The Polaris had been ordered to report to Starbase 27 once it finished with Beta Serpentis III, and when it arrived, if the matter had not been otherwise addressed, he’d have a significantly unpleasant duty to perform. “Unless, of course, everyone ends up dead first. First, there was that assault against the JAG investigator by one of the suspects, but now one of the other suspects has turned up dead by apparent suicide.”

“What the hell is going on aboard Polaris?”

“That’s what I want you to find out,” Rear Admiral Grayson explained. “You’ll be tagging along with a Preliminary Hearing Officer for the preferral hearing.”

“A preferral? You mean the JAG is pursuing a general court martial?”

“Technically, they are seeking an indictment to go forward to a general court martial,” Rear Admiral Grayson corrected, for there was still a possibility it would not go to a trial. “But yes, if if it moves past preferral, then we’ll end up playing host to a general court martial when they arrive at Starbase 27.” Although Grayson disagreed with many of Reyes’ choices, he was also aware of what she and her team had accomplished, and under what conditions. As much as he understood the importance of the law, he did not revel in the fact that officers who’d sacrificed so much might lose their commissions for what they’d had to do.

“Who’s the investigating officer?” Captain Drake asked, although she was pretty sure she already knew the answer. 

“Commander Robert Drake.”

“Wouldn’t it be a conflict of interest for me to go?” Captain Drake countered. He was her brother, after all.

“You will have no official role in the proceedings,” Rear Admiral Grayson assured her, fully aware of what he was doing. “But I sense that your presence might be helpful for all parties involved.”

“I’m not sure what I’ll be able to accomplish,” Captain Drake warned, still uncertain what it was Grayson even wanted her to do. “My brother is a shark. He wouldn’t hesitate to lock up even his own family if he felt it necessary to uphold the laws and values of the Federation.”

“Oh, I’m very well aware,” Rear Admiral Grayson assured her. “I’ve already received no less than a half dozen calls from highly-placed officers related to this case. He’s pulling out all of the stops.” Meanwhile, Fleet Admiral Reyes had been out there obstructing the investigation every step of the way.

“And this preliminary hearing officer,” Captain Drake continued. “Are you sure he’s up to the task? If Robert has even the slightest indication that justice wasn’t served, he’ll go right over the guy’s head.”

“I assure you that Captain Adler will have no problem handling a brash young lawyer,” Rear Admiral Grayson chuckled. “Nor will he have any issue managing the admiral.” When he’d realized where the Polaris situation was headed, he’d sought out Eleazar Adler specifically.

Captain Drake wasn’t so sure. She’d grown up with Robert, and she’d spent the last five months dealing with Reyes. The pair would make a tall task for anyone. But at least the PHO’s role made sense. “I’m still don’t understand exactly what you want me to do,” she admitted. Did he simply want her to observe? Or to stabilize? Or did he have a preferred outcome?

“Neither do I,” Rear Admiral Grayson offered a non-answer. “But I trust you to figure it out when you get there.” There were too many unknowns to be certain from a hundred light years away. All he knew for certain was that Reyes had created a powder keg, and they needed boots on the ground to keep it from spiraling out of control.

“What if you don’t like the outcome?”

“I trust the system,” Rear Admiral Grayson replied cryptically. “And more importantly, I trust you.” He paused for a moment an then offered the slightest of hints at his preferred outcome. “Even Reyes cannot stop justice from being served, if that is where this leads, but it would be best if a less messy solution could be found.”

“Why are you still following me?” the captain asked, his tone devoid of any kindness or affection whatsoever. Anything he’d felt for the young woman before, it was gone now. Gone now, and maybe forever. She’d betrayed him. “You feel guilty? You want me to forgive you? You want me to tell you it’s okay? It’s not, and I won’t.” This was personal. She’d committed an affront to his very being, and there was a bite to his words that made it all too clear. “There’s nothing you can say that will make me forget what you did back there. You and Reyes both.”

“I told you on the shuttle back there… You get me as your escort, or you get a squad of security officers,” the Trill flight controller reminded him as they made their way out of the shuttlebay and wound their way through the interior corridors of the USS Serenity. “Admiral Reyes was very clear about that, and I figured you’d prefer my company.” The admiral had also wanted to keep it within the family, and that meant not involving security. She was still hanging onto hope that somehow she could stop this whole situation from spiraling out of control.

“Right now, I wouldn’t be so sure,” Captain Lewis grumbled. A security team hadn’t stopped him from avenging Lieutenant Morgan’s death. Ensign Rel had. Ensign Rel and Admiral Reyes.

“We did it for you,” Ensign Rel offered in barely more than a whisper. His words hurt, but she was sure they’d done the right thing.

“Bullshit!” Captain Lewis spun on her like a bear, an angry glare splayed across his face as he drew his close to hers. “She might have you convinced of that, but she’s got other reasons.” Maybe it was because Drake’s dad was an old friend, or maybe it was because she still felt she owed the Commander something after what he did for them ’99. Or she might have just wanted to avoid the mess of a JAG officer on the deck. “Allison’s no saint, and I assure you her motives weren’t pure altruism.”

His aggressive posture didn’t intimidate her, but his words did make her wonder. There was no doubt he knew Allison Reyes far better than she did. “Well, I did it for you!” Ensign Rel blurted out, desperate for him to at least recognize that. “I couldn’t let you throw your life away for that ivory tower ideologue!”

If anyone had come across the pair standing there in the corridor, it would have made for quite a sight, the bulky captain towering over the willowy ensign as she screamed up at him. 

Realizing how it looked, Captain Lewis stepped back, softened his posture, and began to walk again. “Look, if you don’t get it, you might not be cut out for this line of work,” he said coldly as they came to a stop in front of the door to his quarters. “It’s our code.” It was no different than the Vorta. The monster had killed a member of his team, and he’d irradiated the creature’s skull for it. Drake had done the same, and he deserved the same.

“Eye for an eye, no matter what? If that’s our code, it’s a fool’s code.”

Captain Lewis looked at her incredulously. “Are you for real right now?” She’d struck a nerve with him. Who was she to pass judgment on any of this? He was bleeding for the Federation on the floor of a Dominion prison before she was even an idea in her parents’ heads. “I have half the mind to pull rank and order you the fuck off my ship.” He didn’t have to put up with this shit.

Ensign Rel refrained from pointing out that her orders came from someone that far outranked him. Meeting power with power would only provoke him further, and he was angry enough as it was. Instead, she simply reached out and took his calloused hands within hers. “Lieutenant Morgan is dead. Nothing you do now will bring him back,” she offered gently as she stared into his eyes. There was grief there, yes, but there was something more too… guilt maybe? “What you were about to do back there, it wouldn’t have helped him whatsoever, but it would have put you away forever.”

“It would have been just one more price to pay,” Captain Lewis shrugged as his defensive nonchalance returned. He’d always figured he’d always end up dead on the battlefield, but spending some time in prison was a reasonably likely outcome too.

“But it would have been for nothing,” Ensign Rel insisted as she squeezed his hands. He had to see it. “On Nasera, after the evil heart of our enemy was laid to bear, after we freed the colony from their clutches, you told me that was why we fought, why we suffered, why we died… Well, today, I say to you that reason, that same reason, is why we must also walk away. You… we… we have greater purpose than retribution for the sake of retribution.”

“Perhaps,” Captain Lewis replied flatly as the door to his quarters slid open. He pulled away and stepped through the threshold. He just wanted some peace and quiet to himself. 

Ensign Rel didn’t take the hint though. She just followed him inside.

“You certainly are persistent…”

She just nodded as the door slid shut behind her.

“You’re really that much of Reyes’ puppy dog? I’m pretty sure her orders to escort me back to the Serenity didn’t mean making yourself at home in my quarters… my personal space.”

“You’d be surprised,” Ensign Rel smiled as she walked over to the replicator. The admiral had been pretty blunt with Elyssia about the reason she’d sought her out, and it definitely had something to do with the closeness the two had developed. “What would you like for breakfast?”

The captain stared at her with a confused expression.

“Captain, even you need to eat,” Ensign Rel insisted with a caring, almost motherly tone. “I can’t imagine you’ve made much time for yourself since you called us to battlestations as we tore out of Wolf 359.” Since then, they’d blown apart a transwarp gate within the Roche lobe of the Beta Serpentis binary pair and recaptured Beta Serpentis III from the Borg worshipers, and then he’d discovered the suicide of Lieutenant Morgan and tried to assassinate the squadron JAG.

“No, thank you. I’m good.”

Ensign Rel frowned as she stepped away from the replicator. She’d tried, at least. Slowly, she walked over to the sitting area and plopped herself down on the couch, gesturing for him to join her. The intimation was clear. She wasn’t going anywhere.

“I don’t get you, and frankly, I don’t get a lot of this,” Captain Lewis sighed as he took a seat in a lazy boy opposite her, resigned to the fact he wasn’t getting out of this. “I mean how did Reyes rope you into this? I thought you were one of the ones that got it…”

“Because she knew that I wouldn’t let you throw your life away,” Ensign Rel explained. “At least not unless it really matters. When it does, I promise you I’ll be right there alongside you, but this… this wasn’t it Jake.”

“Does she know about us?”

“Yes.”

“I see…” Captain Lewis frowned. That was problematic, but then again, this whole thing was problematic. His growing affection for Elyssia Rel had caused him to hesitate on Sol Station, and that had almost gotten them killed. He should have cut it off then, but he didn’t. And now, even after what she’d just done, he still found himself entertaining the conversation with her. He didn’t even understand why he was doing it, but he was.

For a moment, a silence settled between them, each lost in their own thoughts. 

“Tell me, Jake,” Ensign Rel finally asked. “What is it between you and Commander Drake? From the things you’ve said, and the way he gets under your skin, I sense this isn’t your first rodeo with him.” He’d made some cryptic allusions to it in past conversations, but he’d never really gotten into it.

“No, it most certainly is not,” Captain Lewis explained as his eyes darkened. “We first crossed paths after Hobus. It was a messy time, and we were asked to do messy things. We got caught up in the assassination of a Romulan Senator, and a young, but no less brash, Lieutenant J.G. Robert Drake was there to try and prosecute us for it.” His voice trailed off as he thought back to the events of 2389.

“And?”

“Well, I didn’t end up in jail, if that’s what you’re asking,” Captain Lewis chuckled. “People like me don’t end up there, not when Reyes and people like her still need us to do their dirty work. But what none of us anticipated was that Drake wouldn’t back down, and when the criminal case fell apart, he went straight to the court of public appeals. He drummed up civilian hearings and staged a media campaign that, when all was said and done, forced me out of Starfleet.”

The dots started to connect. “Is that when you set up your private outfit?” She thought back to the three private contractors that had shown up with a Ferengi trawler and assisted them in infiltrating and liberating Nasera.

“Yes, exactly. Sebold Industries was the only way I could continue to do what needed to be done,” Captain Lewis nodded. “And to be honest, with all the bullshit we’ve gone through recently, I sort of miss it. I mean, look how easily T’Aer and Grok went back to what they were doing after Nasera. They don’t have a JAG breathing down their necks.”

“But what we did on Earth, and what we did here on Beta Serpentis,” Ensign Rel pointed out. “We never would have been in a position to do those if you were still on the outside.”

“I suppose.”

“Did you do it though?” Ensign Rel asked. “The Romulan Senator?” There was no judgment in her tone, just curiosity. For as much as he’d almost done something very stupid today, she still believed in his moral compass.

“No.”

“So why did it turn out like it did?”

“Because we couldn’t reveal who did it,” Captain Lewis explained. “We took the hit in hope of preserving whatever equilibrium still existed within the fracturing Romulan government.” Not that it had probably helped all that much, given how things had turned out for the fallen empire.

Ensign Rel tilted her head curiously at the answer.

“If we had revealed the Romulan faction that had actually assassinated the Senator, we would have destabilized the situation further,” Captain Lewis continued. “So instead, we just sat there and took it.” He paused for a moment and then smiled. “And the irony is that Drake’s inquisition did actually help convince the Romulans that the Federation was taking it seriously, and that it really was just the actions of a few bad apples.”

“And what about on Nasera?” Ensign Rel asked. She’d been in the tunnels with Chief Shafir when Captain Lewis, Dr. Hall, Lieutenant J.G. Morgan, and Lieutenant Kora had assaulted the governor’s mansion. Captain Lewis had never shared what they did with the Vorta when they captured it. All Ensign Rel and the others had seen was the outcome when the Jem’Hadar gave up the fight. “Did you guys actually do what Commander Drake is accusing you of now?”

“What happened down there is between me, Dr. Hall and two of our dead colleagues,” Captain Lewis said firmly. He would not share the details with Elyssia Rel or Allison Reyes or anyone else. Doing so would only put them in the line of fire for Commander Drake. “If you’re going to stay here with me, at least promise me you’ll stop asking me questions you don’t want the answer to.”

“I can respect that,” Ensign Rel nodded. “But are you worried?”

“About Drake? Not in the slightest,” Captain Lewis shook his head. “What’s the worst he’ll do? Take my pips? It’ll be a relief if I have to go back to Sebold.” He’d already considered it multiple times, and the only thing that stopped him was the promise he’d made to Admiral Reyes. After what had happened today, he wasn’t sure that even meant a damn anymore.

“Drake’s talking about war crimes, Jake,” Ensign Rel cautioned. When Commander Drake and Petty Officer Morrey had visited her, they’d leveled all sorts of accusations related to torture and murder of an enemy combatant. “They may be going for more than your pips.”

“Capital punishment is off limits, as much as I wish it wasn’t,” Captain Lewis chuckled. “And if you mean jail, don’t forget what I told you earlier. People like me are needed. Even if he manages to convince a tribunal to lock me up, I’ll be out in a week, as soon as the news cycle moves on. Just like after Algorab.”

Ensign Rel looked far from comforted by his words.

“But don’t worry, Elyssia,” Captain Lewis assured her confidently. “He won’t win anyway. His only chance at a conviction just put a phaser to his head and pulled the trigger.”

“Did you hear what happened aboard Serenity this morning?!” Chief Petty Officer Geoff Morrey asked as he blazed into the staff offices of the Polaris Squadron JAG. He was more than a bit worked up. “Apparently, the lieutenant shot himself in the head.”

“Come again?” asked Commander Drake, setting down his copy of the Eridani Law Journal, where he’d just been reading an article on protectorate trade rights. “Who shot themselves in the head?”

“Lieutenant Jace Morgan.”

A pin drop could have been heard in the silence that followed. The attorneys, investigators and adjutants milling about the office were all more than a bit familiar with that name. Jace Morgan, an operations officer from the USS Serenity, was one of the three officers they were preparing to charge for war crimes perpetrated on Nasera during the Lost Fleet crisis.

“Are you sure?” Commander Drake asked, caught aback by the news. He didn’t doubt that the Chief had done his research first, but it was a shocking development if true.

Lieutenant Commander Terok, the team’s forensic medical examiner, had already pulled up the latest medical logs from the USS Serenity, and he quickly confirmed what the chief had heard:  “According to latest report from Lieutenant Feyir, medical staff reported to Lieutenant Morgan’s quarters at approximately 0500 hours, and he was declared dead upon arrival.”

“What was the cause of death?”

“The preliminary autopsy finds cause of death to be a single polaron discharge to the right parietal,” Lieutenant Commander Terok explained. “And security is tentatively considering it a suicide after they matched the resonance frequency to that of Lieutenant Morgan’s sidearm, which was found at his side.”

“What’s curious is who stumbled upon the lieutenant,” Chief Morrey noted. “Chief Petty Officer Ayala Shafir.” That name was also familiar to them all.

“Captain Lewis’ intelligence specialist found him?” Commander Drake furled his brow. “That is certainly curious.” Lieutenant Morgan was, by far, the most likely to flip from Lewis’ goon squad, and his death was thus quite convenient for Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall. To suppose that this was an intentional cover up would be a stretch, but Commander Drake had learned that, when dealing with people like Captain Lewis, anything was possible. “Terok, get over to the Serenity and insert yourself into the investigation.”

The Vulcan nodded and headed for the door. If anything was amok, he’d find it.

Commander Drake turned back to Chief Morrey. “Do we know anything else? Did the Lieutenant leave a note or a log? Did he say anything to anyone?” If the lieutenant had legitimately taken his own life, there should have been warning signs. “And for that matter, have we even confirmed he was right handed?”

“Yes, he was right handed,” Chief Morrey chuckled, amused that he and the Commander had gone straight to the same place. “And no, nothing so far as to his mental state, but tonight, I’m going drinking.” Everyone knew what that meant. The gregarious chief was notorious for digging up evidence while knocking them back with unsuspecting subjects.

“If there were any doubts about the guilt of Captain Lewis and his team, I think we can put those to bed now,” Commander Drake addressed the entire team. “Lieutenant Morgan’s death is either a guilt-ridden escape or a dirty cover up, and neither of those happen when everyone’s innocent.”

Around the room, there were only nods of agreement.

“Lieutenant Kel’don,” Commander Drake asked as he turned towards the Rotciv attorney who was leading drafting and would serve as his second chair when at last the case went to trial. “How soon can you turn a final on the preferral of charges?”

“I can flip it back to you before you’re up tomorrow,” the lieutenant nodded dutifully. It would be a late night, but that sort of came with the territory. The opportunity to serve as second chair in a high profile case like this made it more than worth losing a bit of sleep.

“Very well. I’ll get time on Reyes’ calendar first thing in the morning,” Commander Drake smiled. “It’s well past time justice be delivered.” In less than a day’s time, they’d be leveling formal charges against Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall, and then he’d get to work ensuring neither of them would ever commit war crimes in the name of the Federation again.

“Do we know who our preliminary hearing officer will be yet?” asked Lieutenant Kel’don, fully aware the first hurdle they would face would not be the trial itself, but rather the hearing to determine if the charges had merit to move forward to a general court martial.

“Yes, I just received notice that Captain Eleazar Adler has been assigned as our PHO,” Commander Drake confirmed, drawing a series of nods from around the room. Eleazar Adler was a name known to all of them, and it indicated just how seriously the case was being taken. “I’m told he will arrive in just over a week’s time.”

“Do we want to consider waiting until he arrives before we show our hand to Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall?” Chief Morrey suggested. “It might give us time to solicit more testimony.” It was not lost on any of them that the physical evidence they had was more than a bit circumstantial, and while Commander Drake was an excellent litigator, Chief Morrey was still hoping he might be able to conjure up an admission from one of the witnesses.

“And leave more time for our witnesses to turn up dead or our evidence to get lost?! Fuck no,” Commander Drake retorted. It came off a bit more aggressive than he meant it, but the news of Lieutenant Morgan’s suicide has shaken him a bit. “There’s nothing else we’ll surface keeping the status quo in place. But look on the bright side… a week in confinement might be good for our dear captain and that sick excuse for a counselor.”

Captain Lewis opened his eyes, and the memories began to flood back. Lieutenant Morgan was dead. The young man had shown so much promise, but he couldn’t overcome his demons. They’d eaten him alive, and then Commander Drake pushed him over the edge. The JAG had as good as killed him, and the captain had set out to avenge his man in the only way he knew how. He would have succeeded too if not for Admiral Reyes and Ensign Rel. 

He was sure the admiral had her own reasons, but he believed the ensign when she said she’d done it for him. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that though. He was used to being the one who looked out for others, not the one others looked out for.

Captain Lewis rolled over in his bed, expecting to see the ensign there. In the aftermath of the showdown on the Polaris, he’d been so angry at her, but she was persistent. She’d followed him back to his quarters, and then she wore him down, bit by bit. Eventually, he gave in, and all that rage, all that grief, all that despair, a gigantic clusterfuck of emotions he didn’t truly understand, it all snowballed into a night of physical abandon. And then, when it was all over, he slept. 

But where was she now? All that was left was a light imprint in the foam of the mattress. 

Captain Lewis sat up and looked around. The bedroom was dark and perfectly still. The captain climbed out of bed, pulled on a pair of gray sweatpants, and walked out into the living room. That’s when he saw her, the young Trill flight controller who’d somehow pierced his cold exterior and made him feel something. She was curled up in a ball on the floor, her head between her legs, sobbing softly. 

“What’s wrong, Elyssia?” the captain asked as he crossed the room and sat down on the floor next to her. She’d been the one thinking logically when he was not. She was the one that had put him sort himself out after his desperate plan had fallen apart. What had happened now? Why was she crying? He reached out and rested a reassuring hand on her back.

“Everything, Jake,” she admitted, struggling to look up. “Just everything.” A tear ran down her cheek.  “The whole Nasera thing… the suicide run in the Ciatar Nebula… the shootout in Milan… going up against our own in Healdsberg… becoming… becoming Borg…” Her eyes darkened as she recalled her experience on Sol Station. Although she’d learned to live with the voices of her symbiont’s past lives, nothing had prepared her to become part of the Collective.

“It’s been a lot,” Captain Lewis nodded. “More than anyone should have to bear.” He didn’t know what to say, but he wanted to help. He needed to help. Before Lieutenant Morgan had taken his own life, he’d been perseverating on his trauma, and now Elyssia was too. Could this spread like a contagion? That thought terrified him.

“I mean, what the fuck are we all doing?” Ensign Rel cried. “It feels like everything is spinning out of control. Like Lieutenant Morgan, I mean, he was tortured on Earth, and rather than helping him heal after that, what did we do? We asked him to blow himself up.” That had been the order Admiral Reyes had given Lieutenant Morgan, Chief Shafir and Dr. Brooks as the fleet fell to the Borg.

“There wasn’t another choice,” Captain Lewis insisted. “If Picard hadn’t stopped the signal, blowing the Serenity would have at least given the survivors a chance.” Even that probably wouldn’t have stopped the Borg advance, but it would have created chaos and slowed them down enough that a few more might have escaped.

“Sure, I get that, but think about it, Jake… To do what he was about to do, he had to accept his death, so how can we be surprised he took his own life after?”

“We do what we do to preserve life,” Captain Lewis reminded her, but she’d raised a scary point. Lieutenant Morgan wasn’t the only one with demons. His mind drifted to Ayala Shafir, who’d been though as much as any of them. She too had been there on the Serenity in those desperate moments, and she’d been the one who found Jace Morgan in his quarters. She’d always managed to hold it together, just barely, but did he need to worry about her now too?

“Jake, I know you cling to that adage,” Ensign Rel sighed. “But lately, we seem to be doing a lot more dying than living.”

Her words stung. Captain Lewis felt the pain more than she, or anyone, knew. Rysshel was his best friend. Brock was his protege. Petty Officer Atwood, Lieutenant Kora, Crewman Nam, and Lieutenant Morgan, they had each put their faith in him, and now all of them were dead, dead in the span of less than six months. In the last six months, he’d buried more of his team than he had left alive.

“All I’m saying, Jake, is that we need to hold onto those we have left,” Ensign Rel offered as she reached out and took his hand in her’s. “What if there was something we could have done for Jace that could have stopped…”

A chime at the door pulled them from their thoughts.

“Yes, give me a second,” Captain Lewis said as he pulled himself away from Elyssia and rose from the floor. “Enter.”

Before the door even finished opening, security officers began pouring through, six in total. He knew instantly what was happening. These were not his men. They were not from the Serenity. They were from the Polaris. They were not men well known to him, and they all looked like they’d come ready for a fight.

“Good morning gentlemen. What can I do for you? Some breakfast maybe?” Captain Lewis asked sarcastically, trying to size up the situation. It was not lost on him that these were the six biggest, meanest looking security officers one could have found in the entire department.

“Sir, you need to come with us,” demanded the lead officer, his hand resting on the grip of his holstered sidearm. The captain’s reputation preceded him. They’d heard rumors of what he could do and what he was capable of. They’d also been warned he might not come willingly, and that he should be considered armed and dangerous. “Now.”

“Where are you intending to take me?” Captain Lewis asked, his gaze narrowing on them as he debated his options. “And what if I don’t want to come?”

The lead security officer had a half dozen inches and at least fifty pounds on the Captain, plus five armed men to back him up, but still he looked very uncomfortable. Was the Commanding Officer of the USS Serenity really refusing a lawful order? Were they really about to have to take him down?

Before anyone could speak, Ensign Rel rose from the floor. “Jake, do what they say,” she pleaded. “Please.” The team needed him. She needed him. All of this would pass, she told herself, as long as he didn’t do anything impulsive.

“You should listen to the Ensign,” the security officer cautioned as he eyed the young woman over. For a moment, he wondered what a junior officer was doing here in the quarters of her half-dressed captain, but he had bigger issues to deal with. He inched his sidearm out of its holster, just slightly, but the intimation was clear. “We have our orders.”

“Relax kid, relax,” Captain Lewis smiled, raising his hands in front of himself disarmingly as he relaxed his stance. “There’s no need for that.” He stared at the man’s sidearm. “I’m a Starfleet officer, not a two-bit criminal.” 

The captain snatched a lightly worn black tank top off the floor and pulled it over his head as he made his way towards the door, the security officers taking up flanking positions around him.

As he reached the door, Captain Lewis looked back for a moment. “It’s all going to be okay,” he assured Ensign Rel. “This will all blow over.” 

And then he was gone, leaving Elyssia alone. Completely alone.

The PADD felt heavy in her hands. As much as she disagreed with its contents, Fleet Admiral Allison Reyes had no choice but to go along with it for now. The heroes of Nasera would be tried for the crime of doing what was necessary. Or at least those who were still alive would be.

This was not what they needed, nor what they deserved, but it was what they’d be getting nonetheless. There was nothing she could do to stop it. If she tried, Commander Robert Drake, the JAG officer she’d handpicked for Polaris Squadron, would go over her head, and then she’d be no help to Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall. That meant she had to play her part. For now.

The hiss of the door drew her from her thoughts.

“They’re en route,” Fleet Captain Gérard Devreux reported as he stepped into the diplomatic reception room that had been converted into a makeshift judicial chamber. Admiral Reyes sat at the front bench as presiding officer, while Commander Drake and Lieutenant Kel’don, the prosecutors from the JAG Corps, sat at a desk on the right. The desk on the left was unoccupied but that would soon change. The accused were en route.

“Were there any issues?” Admiral Reyes asked warily. She knew how impulsive Captain Lewis could be. She hoped he hadn’t done anything foolish. Not again, at least. Just a day prior, she’d had to stop him from committing a cold-blooded murder of the very JAG officer that would now be sitting first chair for his impending court martial.

“No ma’am.”

As she exhaled a sigh of relief, Admiral Reyes cast her eyes over at Commander Drake. The JAG attorney leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed and a smug look on his face, almost as though he was enjoying the drama. The admiral frowned. That kid had no idea how close he’d been to becoming a corpse, and she would not have completely blamed Captain Lewis for it. Commander Drake had helped push Lieutenant Morgan over the edge. The situation had spiraled out of control, and Admiral Reyes wondered if she would be able to steer it to the best possible outcome in the end – or at least the best outcome for those still alive.

“Are you sure I can’t convince you to drop this, Robert?” asked Admiral Reyes. “After everything Commander Lewis has sacrificed for the Federation? After everything we’ve gone through? ” She knew it was futile though. Commander Drake didn’t compromise. Not for anyone or anything. It was what had brought them together years prior when they fought together to unravel a conspiracy within the highest ranks of the fleet, but now it was mighty inconvenient.

“Admiral, you sealed their fate when you sent them to Nasera,” Commander Drake replied bluntly. “But what Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall did down there, that’s on them.” The JAG locked eyes with the Admiral, and he didn’t blink. “That’s why they’re on trial, and you are not.”

From Commander Drake’s perspective, he’d actually been quite reasonable in the aftermath of Nasera. Nine hundred and thirty five officers had died as a result of the command decisions made by Admiral Reyes and her senior staff during the Battle of Nasera, but he’d elected to not investigate those choices out of respect to her and the difficult odds they’d faced. However, what Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall had done on the surface was not something he could look past.

Admiral Reyes frowned. No rank, no position, no relationship, no desperate situation, nothing whatsoever would stop Commander Drake from pursuing those who had desecrated the ideals of the Federation. Even all the history they shared would not dissuade him.

“Don’t feel bad, Admiral. If it wasn’t Nasera, it would have been something else,” Commander Drake added. “As much as you think you can control everything, you must realize that even you cannot tame the untamable. This is always how it was going to end for Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall.” If it wasn’t on Nasera, it would have just been somewhere else. It was just how rabid animals behaved.

“What about…” Admiral Reyes began to say.

“What about nothing,” Commander Drake interrupted, unwilling to entertain whatever mental gymnastics she was about to present. This was not up for debate. “We should consider ourselves lucky they didn’t do more damage this time, but there can never be a next time. Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall will be prosecuted for war crimes, and they will spend the remainder of their days behind bars.” It was the only way to safeguard the Federation from them.

“If they are found guilty,” Admiral Reyes reminded him. “So far, they only stand accused.”

“Oh, they are guilty, Admiral,” Commander Drake insisted coldly. “I have no doubt of that, and justice will be served.” For all the confidence with which he spoke, he knew though that he and his team had a tall task before them. The evidence was not as strong as his convictions. “And Admiral, let me remind you that, as Commanding Officer of Polaris Squadron, you have obligations to fulfill in this proceeding.” The relationship between Admiral Reyes and Captain Lewis was not lost on him. “I expect you to fulfill your duties impartially and by the book.” Otherwise, he would throw the book at her too.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, my friend,” Admiral Reyes assured him with a deep, but feigned, sense of sincerity. In reality, she absolutely intended to manipulate the proceedings, and she doubted whether they’d be friends after this. The reality was that the Federation needed people like Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall, and Commander Drake and his binary views of the universe had outlasted their welcome.

The door hissed open again, and a squad of security officers funneled into the room, flanking on all sides a lieutenant in teal and an older man in plain clothes. Dr. Lisa Hall, Polaris Squadron’s Counselor and the Cultural and Psychological Research Lead for the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity, had a nonchalant, disinterested look on her face, almost as though it was just another day in the office; meanwhile, Captain Jake Lewis, Polaris Squadron Intelligence Officer and Commanding Officer of the USS Serenity, had a determined and icy expression on his face, almost as if he was preparing for war.

The security team led the pair to the desk opposite that of the JAG prosecutors. They pulled back a pair of chairs and motioned for Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall to sit. The pair complied.

“Captain Jake Lewis, Lieutenant Lisa Hall,” Admiral Reyes began, staring at the pair with a deep sense of regret as to the proceedings that were about to unfold. “As the Commanding Officer of Polaris Squadron, and as a representative of the Admiralty of Starfleet’s Fourth Fleet, it is my duty to notify you that on this day, June, 18, 2401, the Office of the Judge Advocate General has filed a preferral of charges against you for crimes you are accused of committing on March 16, 2401 on Nasera II while serving as commissioned officers of Starfleet.”

Although it was a simple statement of fact, the mention of a preferral confirmed for Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall that the Judge Advocate General was seeking a General Court Martial, the most severe trial an officer of Starfleet could face. While capital punishment had been outlawed centuries ago, a General Court Martial could lead to prison time, up to and including a lifelong sentence. It would be Dr. Hall’s first time, but Captain Lewis had been through a General Court Martial once before. He’d avoided a guilty verdict, but even the mere proceedings had been enough to force him out of Starfleet for almost a decade.

Admiral Reyes then began to lay out the backdrop to the charges as laid out on the charge sheet: “The Office of the Judge Advocate General submits that on March 16, 2401, Captain Jake Lewis and Lieutenant Lisa Hall, along with two deceased Starfleet officers, Lieutenant Junior Grade Jace Morgan and Lieutenant Kora Tal, and at least two dozen civilians, identities unknown, executed a tactical operation against the governor’s residence in Nasera City with the objective of capturing the military commander of a Dominion force that had illegally occupied the Federation system.”

None of this was debatable or objectionable. It was fact that Captain Lewis and his team had gone to Nasera on a covert mission to undermine the defenses and command structure of the Lost Fleet in preparation for a counter-assault by the USS Polaris, and that, with the support of a group of angry colonists, they had executed a raid against the governor’s mansion to capture the Vorta in charge of the operation. This, and the other simultaneous operations that Captain Lewis’ team had conducted, had been essential in securing victory in the Battle of Nasera.

“While the initial assault on the governor’s mansion resulted in significant loss of life, including one Starfleet officer, an unknown number of civilians at least thirty in number, and an unknown number of enemy combatants at least twenty in number,” Admiral Reyes continued to read from the charge sheet. “It is the opinion of the Office of the Judge Advocate General that, until 1815 hours local time, the operation was within the bounds of the authorization of force issued by Commodore Imya Jori, Commander, Fourth Fleet Task Force 93, and that the loss of life, while regrettable, was within acceptable parameters based on the totality of circumstances on the surface of Nasera II on the evening of March 16, 2401.”

Captain Lewis could not hold back his surprise. Commander Drake had not submitted any charges related to his use of civilians? The JAG could certainly have cooked up a legal theory under which the Captain had used civilians with reckless disregard for their lives, and he’d even suggested as much in the early days of the investigation. The only reason Commander Drake had given him a pass was because the JAG had more substantive charges to level, and he didn’t want to get caught in a battle of semantics around the acceptability, or lack thereof, of the use of civilians during an occupation, which was a muddy subject given how civilian resistance movements had been celebrated across much of history.

“However, it is also the opinion of the Office of the Judge Advocate General that the actions of Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall, during the period between 1815 hours local time and 1910 hours, were not within the bounds of the authorization of force provided by Fourth Fleet Command,” Admiral Reyes continued to read, her tone growing serious as she leveled the accusation. “And further that criminal acts were committed during this period in violation of the General Orders and Regulations of Starfleet and the laws of the United Federation of Planets.”

If passing on their use of civilians wasn’t indication enough, the timestamps in the accusation told Captain Lewis everything he needed to know: this would be a war crimes tribunal.

“On the first count, Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall, you are accused of intentionally and unlawfully subjecting an unarmed and restrained enemy combatant to physical and pharmacological torture in violation of Starfleet Security Protocol 49, Starfleet General Order 2 and several interstellar treaties on the treatment of prisoners of war.”

Neither Captain Lewis nor Dr. Hall reacted. They had well-trained poker faces, but even more than that, neither felt even the slightest bit of remorse over what they’d done. Almost a thousand officers had died on Nasera, but it would have been far more if Dr. Hall had not bent the Vorta’s mind to the point that the creature gave the order to end the conflict.

“On the second count, Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall, you are accused of exacting capital punishment upon an individual in Starfleet custody in violation of Starfleet General Order 4. This charge may be elevated to an aggravated charge in the event that it is demonstrated that this action was, in part or in full, to prevent prosecution of the first count.”

Again, neither operator reacted. Where Dr. Hall had been the pharmacological mastermind, Captain Lewis had been the executioner. Not that it mattered who had pulled the trigger. Dr. Hall would have just as willingly. The creature deserved no other fate after all the lives it had taken: Lieutenant Commander Brock Jordan, Mr. Ryssehl Th’zathol, Lieutenant Kora Tal, Petty Officer Jason Atwood, and Crewman Nam Jae-Sun, all from their team, plus nine hundred and thirty other officers and an unknown number of civilians estimated well over ten thousand in total. Starfleet regulations might have banned capital punishment, but their code demanded nothing less.

“On the third count, Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall, you are accused of first degree murder in violation of the First Guarantee of the Constitution of the United Federation of Planets.”

Captain Lewis furled his brow at the civilian charge. The Vorta was not a Federation citizen, but the Constitution did provide its guarantees to any lifeform on Federation territory and, while it might be a stretch to argue that Nasera was Federation territory on March 16, 2401, the JAG had clearly set out to ensure that the totality of their incarceration would vastly exceed the remainder of their lives.

“And on the fourth count, Captain Lewis, you are additionally charged with multiple violations of Starfleet Command Regulations as it relates to issuance and supervision of illegal orders, with respect to one or more officers under your command and on the matter of the torture and murder of a prisoner of war.”

While the last one paled in comparison to the others, it would ensure that, even if Captain Lewis tried to pawn the built off on others, Commander Drake would tie him to the crime as the senior officer present. It also signaled that, if Commander Drake was open to cutting a deal, it would only be with Dr. Hall.

“Based on the nature of these counts, this preferral of charges has been referred to the Honorable Captain Eleazar Adler to determine whether or not these charges shall be referred to a General Court Martial,” Admiral Reyes wrapped up, just glad the recitation was over. As much as everyone in the room knew she was just doing her duty, she still felt like she’d just betrayed two people who had sacrificed so much for the fleet. “Captain Lewis, do you have any questions?”

“Not a one,” Captain Lewis said as he stared coldly at Commander Drake. It wasn’t that he was angry about the charges though. No, that just came with the territory. Instead, his fury was borne of the fact that he held Commander Drake responsible for Lieutenant Morgan’s suicide, and now, sitting in the chamber across from Drake in the chamber, his anger was building. He should have killed the JAG and avenged the lieutenant while he’d had the chance.

“And Dr. Hall?”

“No ma’am,” Dr. Hall shook her head calmly. The threat of life imprisonment didn’t phase her. In her past, she’d endured far worse than a comfy Federation prison cell.

“Then, in recognition of the impending charges,” Admiral Reyes concluded. “Captain Lewis, Dr. Hall, you are hereby suspended from duty and confined to your quarters until a determination is rendered in these proceedings.” Commander Drake cleared his throat from the plaintiff’s table, but the admiral tried to ignore him, “Security, please escort Cap…” 

“Ma’am…” Commander Drake interrupted. “A minute please.”

“Commander,” Admiral Reyes admonished, uninterested in entertaining anything further from the JAG. “There will be time to make a statement during the hearing.”

“Respectfully, ma’am,” Commander Drake insisted, refusing to back down. “The Office of the Judge Advocate General hereby requests that Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall be remanded into the custody of the brig officer of the USS Polaris. The risk to order and security is too great to allow them to remain free on their own recognizance.”

Admiral Reyes stared at him. “Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall have served with honor…” she began to say.

“Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall have a history of flagrantly ignoring restraints placed upon them,” Commander Drake pointed out. “Not even 48 hours ago, Captain Lewis disobeyed a direct order from my office to remain with the USS Polaris.”

To stop the Borg and save the crew, Captain Lewis thought to himself. But it wasn’t worth saying. It didn’t matter to him if he spent the next week in his quarters or in the brig, and frankly, he was sort of ready to just move on. This Starfleet appointment was proving more trouble than it was worth. There was a part of him that was ready to just be done with it and to return to private enterprise where he didn’t have to deal with holier-than-thou JAG officers.

“And before that,” Commander Drake added. “After being advised that they were under investigation, Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall conveniently found themselves on a two month soirée to Earth, out of reach of our investigators.” On that one, he knew Reyes was partially at fault too, and he could completely see Lewis, Hall and Reyes again contriving an excuse for them to run off once more. “Remember what I cautioned earlier, ma’am.”

“Very well,” Admiral Reyes sighed, recognizing this was not the hill to die on. “The defendants are hereby remanded into the custody of the brig officer of the USS Polaris.”

“Sir, you need to see this,” Lieutenant Irina Tarasova said, her voice uncustomarily frazzled as she approached the center island with a PADD in her hand. “Latest orders from the Polaris.”

Lieutenant Commander Ekkomas Eidran accepted the PADD, and as he read it, a look of shock washed across his face. “I assume you’ve authenticated them?” This would be the first time in his career he’d ever received instructions such as these.

“Three times, just for good measure,” Lieutenant Tarasova acknowledged. A security team from the USS Polaris had come aboard a couple hours prior, and now she knew why. “They’re signed by Fleet Admiral Allison Reyes.”

“Then it is what it is,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran sighed. The punches just kept coming. “Computer, prepare to transfer command authority.” He looked over at Lieutenant Tarasova. As Chief Security and Tactical Officer, the next step was, by custom, hers to take.

The computer chimed, awaiting further instructions.

“Computer, effective immediately, rescind all command codes belonging to Captain Jake Lewis, and transfer command of the USS Serenity to Lieutenant Commander Ekkomas Eidran,” Lieutenant Tarasova ordered. “Authorization Tarasova Four-Four-Eight-Tango.”

The computer chimed, awaiting acknowledgement.

“Computer, I acknowledge the orders and accept command of the USS Serenity,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran confirmed. “Authorization Eidran Two-Six-Nine-Alpha.”

The computer chimed again. It was done. Captain Lewis was no longer in command.

“The ship is yours, sir,” Lieutenant Tarasova added, as if the gravity of the order was not already clear. 

All around them, the bridge crew grew silent, staring at the Executive Officer and the Chief Security and Tactical Officer as they took in what had just transpired. 

As a Betazoid, Lieutenant Commander Eidran could feel their doubts and uncertainty. “Don’t you all have work you need to be doing?” They just kept staring. They felt a debt to their captain, a man who’d navigated them through Frontier Day and the situation on Beta Serpentis, and although it had been ordered by a Fleet Admiral, it still felt like a betrayal to strip him of his command so unceremoniously. “Lieutenant, you have the bridge. I’ll be in my Ready Room.”

Without another word, the now-Commanding Officer of the USS Serenity was gone. He didn’t have the mind to face the questions of the crew, as he had no answers for them, and frankly, he wanted some answers himself.

As soon as the doors of the Ready Room closed behind him, Lieutenant Commander Eidran put in an urgent call to the USS Polaris. He was informed that Fleet Admiral Reyes was otherwise occupied, but after rather insistently demanding that he speak to someone, he was eventually connected through to Fleet Captain Gérard Devreux, the Squadron Executive Officer and Admiral Reyes’ right hand man.

“Commander, I think the orders were fairly clear,” Captain Devreux explained to the young man once the Betazoid had unloaded his grievances. “Captain Lewis has been suspended from duty until further notice.” Although he said it in a matter of fact tone, his expression conveyed his disappointment. This was not what he wanted. As much as he often argued with the old spook about his methods, Captain Devreux was acutely aware that, were it not for Captain Lewis and his team, the Battle of Nasera would have turned out far worse. In fact, they might not have prevailed at all.

“But why, Captain?” Lieutenant Commander Eidran asked desperately. “We’re already torn up here dealing with the repairs from the battle and the news about Lieutenant Morgan, and now this…” He’d had to command the USS Serenity through heavy losses once prior, and now, here he was yet again in the big chair when he least wanted to be. “You’ve got to give me something more to go on.”

Captain Devreux could sympathize with the young man. He’d been there more than once himself, over the years, and a little more detail couldn’t hurt. “The Office of the Judge Advocate General has filed a preferral of charges against Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall related to their activities during the Battle of Nasera,” the captain elaborated. “It is a matter of protocol that they be suspended from duty until the conclusion of those proceedings.”

“A preferral?” Lieutenant Commander Eidran gasped. “You mean… you mean for a General Court Martial?” The Betazoid was, of course, familiar with the Starfleet Uniform Code of Justice and its most severe criminal process, but he’d never known anyone personally who was dragged into such a process. While Captain Lewis was a gruff old man with  questionable values, he lived and bled for the Federation, and did such loyalty not count for something?

“I’m afraid so,” Captain Devreux nodded grimly.

“And you said it’s about Nasera?” Lieutenant Commander Eidran confirmed. “What happened down there to warrant this?” After the stories he’d heard about Lewis’s team down on Nasera, and after the heroics he’d witnessed from Lewis over Earth, it just didn’t seem right.

“We fought a desperate, bloody battle for the soul of the Federation,” Captain Devreux replied, his eyes haunted by the crucible they’d been through. “And in the end, we prevailed, but not without hard choices made and too many lives lost.” He could still remember the stretchers lining the corridors after the battle.

“But what about that is worthy of a court martial?”

“Between you and I, I would say nothing. You weren’t there, but I was, and trust me what I say, after what we saw, the ends justified the means – whatever those means may have been,” Captain Devreux answered, his eyes dark and his voice uncharacteristically cold. Nasera had changed him. It had brought him face to face with an enemy so evil that suddenly Captain Devreux, the lifelong explorer, understood what had turned Captain Lewis into who he was. “But the JAG feels otherwise, and so here we are.”

“What’s Admiral Reyes going to do about it?” Lieutenant Commander Eidran asked. All that Lewis had done had to count for something, and Eidran couldn’t believe the admiral would just let him go down like that. He’d seen the deep bond between those two during the Frontier Day crisis.

“Allison is going to uphold the laws of our great Federation, just as she always has,” Captain Devreux replied cryptically, but he could see doubt in the younger man’s eyes. “Commander, you’d do well to remember that a preferral of charges simply means that the JAG believes grounds exist for a prosecution. It does not mean that Captain Lewis will be found guilty.” He chose his words carefully because he had no doubt that Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall did what the JAG accused. It was just that he didn’t want to see them go down for it. Not after all the pair had done. “It is just as likely that, on account of the evidence or in consideration of the circumstances, the Preliminary Hearing Officer may choose not to pursue a General Court Martial, or that, even if it goes to a General Court Martial, a jury may still not find him guilty.”

“What do I tell the crew?” Lieutenant Commander Eidran asked uncertainly. He had to tell them something, right?

“You tell them to do their jobs and to not dwell on rumors,” Captain Devreux responded firmly. “As I understand it, your ship took quite a beating during that hair-raising rescue in the Roche lobe, and that’s what they should be focused on.” The captain had been there with Admiral Reyes during their investigation of the Fouth Fleet conspiracy back in ‘99, and he knew how disruptive it could be if the crew got caught up in the courtroom drama. “Do not entertain their questions, nor their curiosities. Keep them focused on their duties.”

“I will do my best, Captain.”

“That’s all any of us can do,” Captain Devreux nodded, before changing topics. “And speaking of duties, how are the repairs going?” The USS Serenity had been pushed to its warp assembly to its limits to reach Commander Lee and Dr. Brooks before they blew themselves up with the transwarp gate, and as the Duderstadt-class cruiser raced away, it caught the shockwave of the warp core breach to its stern.

“It will be at least a week before every blown out emitter and shorted manifold is replaced,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran answered. “But we’ll be back at operational readiness, at least as far as propulsion and defensive systems go, by tomorrow afternoon.”

“That’s excellent progress, and very timely too,” Captain Devreux smiled. “Because the squadron will look to depart the system by tomorrow EOD. Starfleet Security is taking over the cleanup effort on Salvage Facility 21-J, and we’ve been told to expect, by first thing tomorrow, a team from Federation Colonial Operations that will take over administration of Beta Serpentis III. Once the handoff is complete, we turn for new shores.” It could not come soon enough either. The Borg were bad news, and he was glad they’d be soon closing the door on the whole Borg affair.

“Do you know where we’re headed?”

“Not yet,” admitted Captain Devreux. “But hopefully somewhere with a nice beach.” The crew desperately needed some R&R. It had just been one thing after another ever since the reemergence of the Lost Fleet.

“I won’t object to that, sir,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran chuckled. “Anything else?”

“No. That will be all,” Captain Devreux closed. “And Ekkomas, don’t worry… It will all work out in the end. Polaris out.”

As the link closed, both men were left to their thoughts. For Lieutenant Commander Eidran, he felt the onus of command and the weight of uncertainty over him. For Fleet Captain Devreux, it was little better. Although the captain had played it off with the younger man, he was nervous about what lay ahead. The whole affair between Commander Drake and Captain Lewis was worrisome, and he was skeptical if even Admiral Reyes would be able to navigate it. He just hoped she didn’t get caught up in trying to protect her old friend.

“Dr. Brooks, I wasn’t expecting you,” Commander Cora Lee smiled as the physicist stepped onto the bridge of the USS Ingenuity. “I figured you’d be aboard Serenity.”

“I signed up with a man who’s now in the brig,” Dr. Brooks frowned. “And I’d rather not catch an assault charge for giving the JAG a piece of my mind. This seemed a better place for me to be.” Although the old man said it in jest, Commander Lee knew there was truth behind his words. Captain Lewis might have been her colleague, but he was far more than that to Dr. Brooks.

“After 21-J, I’m not sure even I can keep you out of trouble,” Commander Lee warned in reference to the time they’d spent being hunted by weaponized synths and Borg worshipers aboard Salvage Facility 21-J. “But you’re more than welcome on my ship whenever you’d like… as long as you stay away from my warp core.” 

Lieutenant Commander Sherrod Allen, the steady hand who served as Executive Officer of the USS Ingenuity, glanced over: “Should I even ask?” Besides the frosty exchange they’d had during the hostage situation, he didn’t know much about the newest researcher attached to the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity. Not much except the rumors at least, and he hoped they were nothing more than rumors.

“Probably not,” chuckled Commander Lee. “But since you did, you should be aware that Dr. Brooks has only one play in his playbook: blow the core. Almost took us both out that way in the shadow of Beta Serpentis’ twin suns.” All she could do now was joke about it, but not even three days prior, as she stared into the transwarp aperture with four Borg ships bearing down on them, she’d had to confront her own mortality as her life flashed before her eyes. It was only on account of Captain Lewis and the crew of the USS Serenity that she’d not died aboard that shuttlepod with Dr. Brooks.

Lieutenant Commander Allen did not look amused.

“If it makes you feel any better, Commander,” Dr. Brooks added. “The dead have no memories.”

That did not make Lieutenant Commander Allen feel any better.

“Ma’am, I have incoming orders from Polaris,” interrupted Ensign Seltzer from the Operations station. “They’re the departure instructions we were told to expect.”

“Where’re we headed?” Commander Lee asked, relieved for the topic change.

“Gorion VII in the Meronia Cluster.”

“The Archanis Sector?”

“Affirmative.”

“Curious,” observed Dr. Brooks. “Did they say what we’ll be doing out that way?” The Archanis Sector was a backwater borderlands region the Federation had paid little attention to since long-standing peace had set in with the Klingon Empire. Sure, there’d been that whole kerfuffle with the Hunters of D’Ghor back in ’99, but those renegades were an unsophisticated lot, and that situation had been thoroughly handled.

“Negative,” shrugged Ensign Seltzer.

“Well, anywhere’s better than here,” Commander Lee remarked. “I’ll be glad to close the books on this whole Borg affair. This whole thing has given me the creeps.” It was an oddly frank omission from a Commanding Officer, but Cora Lee was still young in the chair. She had not yet learned that guarded style of leadership that Admiral Reyes and Captain Lewis practiced so naturally.

“On that, I can agree,” Lieutenant Commander Allen nodded as he approached the conn. While he was a command veteran, he’d made a career out of risk avoidance. The hostage situation and almost squaring off with the Borg was more than he’d bargained for. “Helm, bring us about and prepare to go to warp.”

Although the events of the last week had nearly killed him, Dr. Brooks didn’t agree. The case of the Borg vinculum and the conversion of the colony into Borg worshipers was intriguing, and he felt there was still so much they could learn about the Collective from what had transpired. Still, he knew better than to vocalize his opinion in the present company. For now, it was on to the next adventure.

“On your orders,” offered the ensign at the conn.

“Engage!”

The ship lept forth, and the stars became a blur around them. Commander Lee exhaled a breath of relief. True relief. Even after they’d destroyed the gate, purged the salvage facility, and retaken the colony, she’d still been holding her breath as if waiting for another shoe to drop. But now as they raced away from the shadows of Wolf 359, she could at last let her guard down. Somehow, against all odds, they’d survived.
 

The distance separating them was far more than the table between them. In fact, never had they been further apart. The impending case against Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall had chilled the once-close relationship between Allison Reyes and Robert Drake. Now, as the unflappable admiral and the incisive prosecutor waited for the hearing officer to arrive, they said nothing at all. There was nothing to say. The lines had been drawn, and now all they could do was wait.

Commander Drake had no doubt that Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall were guilty of war crimes. He was certain that they had tortured and executed their prisoner, a restrained enemy combatant. The JAG officer felt no love for the Vorta, but he loved the Federation to his very core. Animals like Jake Lewis and Lisa Hall could not be allowed to haphazardly trample on its virtues and values. It was his duty to stop them, to put an end to their impropriety, to see them behind bars for the rest of their lives. There was no appropriate alternative for such rabid creatures.

Admiral Reyes saw it differently. They had lost nine hundred and thirty five sailors during the Battle of Nasera. If not for Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall, they would have lost thousands more. Victory might have belonged to the Lost Fleet on that dark spring evening, and that would have meant the colonists of Nasera II would have remained under the savage yoke of their captors. The ends had justified the means. She was sure of that. The law might not agree, but the admiral would ensure her colleagues never saw the four walls of a prison cell. She owed it to them for the sacrifices they had made. But it wasn’t just loyalty either. It was also pragmatism. As much as their actions might be repulsive to common society, the Federation still needed people like Jake Lewis and Lisa Hall. Allison Reyes had seen enough over her many years to be certain of that.

The door chimed, cutting through the silence.

“Enter,” Admiral Reyes commanded as she rose from her desk, speaking for the first time since the JAG prosecutor had arrived. Across the table, he did the same.

An elderly gentleman, his hair more salt than pepper and his eyes bearing the wisdom of age, stepped through first. He carried himself with a seasoned gravitas, but the four pips on his collar had been earned in the courtroom rather than on the battlefield. Captain Eleazar Adler had come to preside over the preferral as preliminary hearing officer, and he was very much expected. However, the younger female captain that followed him through was not. What the hell was Captain Elsie Drake doing here? The sister of Commander Drake was neither a judicial officer, nor a non-biased party. As to who it worked in the favor of though, her brother or the admiral, neither was certain.

But the admiral didn’t miss a beat. She never did. “Captain Adler, Captain Drake,” she nodded as she calmly addressed each by name. Her expression did not betray her surprise in the slightest. “Welcome aboard the Polaris. I regret, though, that it is not under better circumstances.” She shot a glare at her colleague across the table.

Commander Drake opened his mouth to snap back, but the elder captain raised his hand, stopping the younger lawyer off before he could start. “But it is our duty nonetheless, is it not Admiral?” Captain Adler asked pointedly as he raised an eyebrow in her direction.

“Of course,” nodded the admiral.

“And we will find based on the facts, and the facts alone,” Captain Adler continued, his gaze now falling upon the young lawyer sitting opposite the admiral. “Isn’t that right, Commander Drake?”

“Absolutely,” nodded the young prosecutor.

“There have been far too many anomalies and delays in the handling of this case up until now,” Captain Adler observed. In transit, he’d read up on the totality of the situation, not just the preferral and the exhibit list, but also on the altercation in the Starboard Stardrive Computer Core, Reyes shuttling her operators away from Nasera aboard the Serenity, and, most recently, the disturbing news that one of her operators, Lieutenant Jace Morgan, had taken his own life. “Going forward, it is my expectation that this preferral shall be handled expeditiously and judiciously.”

“I would have it no other way,” Admiral Reyes smiled disarmingly, although it was a complete lie.

“I’m glad you see it that way,” Captain Adler smiled back, but he was no fool. He knew exactly who Fleet Admiral Allison Reyes was. “Because Admiral, given your past relationship with the defendant, I hereby order that you recuse yourself from any further role in the adjudication of the case against Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall.”

His tone left no room for ambiguity or argument, but Admiral Reyes didn’t blink. “Of course,” she agreed calmly and without protest. From the moment Commander Drake had brought his charges, she knew there’d come a point when she’d be forced to step away. Her conflicts of interest were just far too documented, and it was almost freeing that, unshackled from the facade of neutrality, she would now be able to wear her real colors. The colors of her crew, those who’d served loyally and done what needed to be done. She would recuse herself from further adjudication, but only because she would now act actively in their defense.

“And Commander Drake, you are ordered to produce, by no later than 0500 tomorrow morning, a final exhibits and witnesses list,” Captain Adler said as he turned to address Commander Drake. “You can direct it to my team, which is already setting up in the chambers on Deck 6.”

“Was the one you had incomplete?” Commander Drake asked, a bit confused by the request as he was certain Lieutenant Kel’don wouldn’t have made such a significant lapse.

“I would certainly think so if you have any intent of tying the defendants to the physical material present at the crime scene,”  replied Captain Adler with the tone and tenor of a stern professor. “And I would think it quite unlikely that you would have grounds for a referral without that.”

Commander Drake frowned. The Captain had made his position clear. He did not like the link Drake’s team had tried to establish between the corrupt operators and the instruments of torture and death. But at least he was giving them a chance to resolve it. “We’ll work on it. But 0500 tomorrow? Why such a tight turnaround?”

“I’d like at least a few hours to read it over before the hearing begins,” Captain Adler replied flatly, his intentions now clear. He would waste no time getting to work. He intended to start the hearing first thing in the morning.

“Sir, wouldn’t you like a bit of time to get settled?” Commander Drake offered, hoping to stall him at least a day or two. Lieutenant Morgan’s death had thrown a massive wrinkle in their litigation strategy.

“While that is a gracious offer, at my age you realize that time is valuable, and you must make the best of it,” Captain Adler shook his head. “Of my time, of your time, and of the time of the accused. You’ve had months to prepare. It’s well past time we get to resolving this matter.” The Commander opened his mouth again, but the Captain was having none of it. “We start at 0800, sharp,” he rearticulated. “As I said: expeditiously and judiciously.”

And then, without another word, Captain Adler spun on his heels and briskly strode out of the Ready Room, leaving Admiral Reyes standing there with brother and sister.

“Captain Adler is going to be far more than a rubber stamp on your indictment,” Admiral Reyes smiled cruelly as she looked at Commander Drake. “Sounds like you’ve got some work to do.”

Without another word to either the admiral or his sister, Commander Drake hustled off. That told Admiral Reyes all she needed to know. The Commander was feeling the pressure, and he was no more happy at his sister’s presence than she was. Admiral Reyes intended to exploit both facts.

Once the door had shut behind the JAG, Admiral Reyes turned towards the younger Drake. “Elsie,” she said warmly as she made her way around the desk.  “It’s been quite a while, but I must say I’m glad to see you.” She meant it too, although not for purely kind reasons. Elsie could be the key to undermining her brother, willing or unwilling. “Please, have a seat.” She gestured at a pair of couches, and then drew to a stop in front of the replicator. “May I offer you a drink?”

“That’s all too kind of you,” Captain Drake said as she approached the couch and took a seat. “I’ll take a Tarkalean tea, warm, not hot.” It was, after all, what Rear Admiral Grayson had sent her to do.

“We should put Miss Shafir up there and hit her with blowing up the L-T,” Chief Morrey offered, his tone almost too enthusiastic given his reference to the untimely death of the Polaris’ Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer.

“It’s frivolous,” Commander Drake shrugged ambivalently. Chief Petty Officer Ayala Shafir hadn’t even been present at the Governor’s Mansion on Nasera II when the crimes took place. She was busy exploding her boss a dozen kilometers away. “And they’ll say she was in the right.” The team had already looked into that situation, and they’d concluded that Brock Jordan’s death was regrettable but acceptable given the totality of the circumstances.

“I’m not saying indict her, Robert,” Chief Morrey countered. “I’m just saying that she and the Captain are very close. He’s bound to have said something to her.” The confrontation in the Starboard Stardrive Computer Core implied as much.

“I agree with the Chief,” Lieutenant Commander Terok interjected. While a medical examiner by trade, he’d spent decades helping prosecutors construct cases against difficult defendants, and he knew what it took to topple a hostile witness. “Humans are emotional creatures. No matter how walled off she is, force her to confront her darkest moments, and eventually, she will crack.”

“If I didn’t know any better, Terok,” Chief Morrey chortled as he patted his Vulcan counterpart a bit too hard on his back. “I’d say I hear a tinge of anticipation in your voice.”

“And if you’d say that, I’d say you’d lost your touch,” Lieutenant Commander Terok replied sternly. “But based on your successes the other night, the more logical explanation would be that you are simply trying, as you humans say, to get a rise out of me.”

“Caught me red-handed,” the gregarious crime scene investigator laughed. “But while we’re on the topic of the other night, we really should add the ensign to the witness list too.” He looked over at Commander Drake. Originally, the senior JAG officer had been skeptical, but that was before the Chief went drinking with Serenity’s gamma shift maintenance squad. “Maybe the Captain let something slip when the blood had drained to his other head…”

“Even if so, why would she flip, Geoff?” Commander Drake asked. Infatuation was a powerful thing, and she didn’t have the traumas of Miss Shafir for them to exploit.

“Embarrassment? Fear? I dunno man. She’s what… twenty-four? A baby,” Chief Morrey countered. Captain Adler had laid down the gauntlet for then, and they might as well go for the hail mary. “Put her up there, do what you do best, and make her fall all over herself.” As he said it, his eyes looked almost like a shark eyeing its prey.

The hiss of the facility’s main doors opening drew the conversation to a halt. The attorneys, investigators and specialists gathered for the late night brainstorm all turned as Captain Elsie Drake, former adjutant to the Task Force 47 Commander and sister of their boss, stepped into the room.

The captain looked the group over. She knew at once what was going on. She’d been there when Adler dressed her brother down in the Admiral’s Ready Room. She’d evidently walked in on her brother’s last minute attempt to shore up the strategy before he delivered the final evidence and witness list. From what Admiral Reyes had shared though, it was going to be an uphill battle. The deck was not in Robert’s favor on this one.

“Robert, may I speak with you?” Elsie asked pointedly, gesturing towards the private office that sat just off the main floor. “Alone.” She knew her brother to be prideful, and the conversation she was about to have would be best had in private.

Commander Drake looked over at Lieutenant Kel’don, the Rotciv attorney who would serve as second chair for the hearing. “Lieutenant, let’s add them both to the witness list. I’ll be back in a few.” The Commander stepped away and followed his sister into the private office.

Once the door had shut behind them, Elsie spun on her brother: “What the hell are you doing, Robert?” Her tone was a mix of frustrated and exasperated. The Robert Drake she knew, the one she looked up to, laid unbreakable foundations and then meticulously layered fact upon fact, each reinforcing the last, until the case was absolutely airtight. But in this case, the foundation was shaky and the facts hardly connected. What had gotten into him?

“What do you mean?” Robert asked as he made his way around his desk and sat down at his chair. “I’m defending our great Federation from the machinations of career criminals.” He spread his arms and raised his chin proudly. “Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall desecrated the General Orders and Regulations of Starfleet and the laws of the United Fed…”

“Yes, yes, I’ve read the preferral,” Elsie countered, cutting him off. “One count of torture, one count of unjust capital punishment, and one count of murder, plus a count of conspiracy for good measure.” Her brother looked almost proud as she listed out the charges. They were zingers. More than enough to lock up Lewis and Hall for the rest of their lives. “But Robert, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re on Reyes’ side,” Robert grumbled. He folded his arms across his chest stubbornly. “Don’t tell me you’ve come down here to tell me how the ends justify the means, or how we need bad men to keep good men safe.” His tone was almost mocking.

“I wasn’t going to say anything of the sort, Robert,” Elsie replied gently, staring at him with her bright green eyes. She admired him. She really did. Her older brother was a man who fought for justice, who had an unflappable devotion to the law, who never compromised his morals or his values. Not for anything. And usually, that meant he did the Federation a great service. But this time, she wasn’t so sure. She’d read the reports from Nasera. The circumstances had to count for something. But that wasn’t even why she’d come down to his office. She hadn’t come to litigate the case. She had a far more simple reason for coming. “I read the preferral, multiple times, and I’ve got to say, you’re really reaching here.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, sis… but I assure you, I will get my conviction,” Robert insisted, outwardly confident. “I always do.”

Elsie knew him better than anyone though, and she could see doubt deep creeping into his eyes. “With what, Robert? You can’t even place them at the scene at the time of death. The best chance you had was to flip Lieutenant Morgan, but the kid killed himself, probably at least in part because of how aggressively you interrogated him.” She knew how he could be. “And now all you’ve got are broad strokes that they were at the mansion at some point, and that they’re bad people, and that thus they must be guilty.”

“Eleazar will rule correctly.”

“Correctly?” Elsie asked. “Or in your favor?” Those were two very different things. The correct ruling would be the one based on the preponderance of the evidence. That was not necessarily to find in Commander Drake’s favor.

Robert glared at her.

“Eleazar is no bullshit, Robert,” Elsie warned. Often, prosecutors treated preferrals as just a routine step on the way to a General Court Martial, and, with many preliminary hearing officers, that was true. Statistically, the vast majority were referred, but Elsie had just spent the last eight days in transit to the Polaris with Captain Adler. “He’s not going to rubber stamp this. You’re going to have to earn it.”

“And I will.”

“Not unless you’ve got an ace up your sleeve.”

Robert glared at his sister, but Elsie met his defiant gaze with an expression of concern. She was worried about him. It was almost like, in his zeal, he’d lost himself. He was being reckless, and that meant Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall might go free. “Robert, put it this way… based on your preliminary brief, if I was your hearing officer, even I would not refer it to a General Court Martial.” And she was his own flesh and blood.

“Well, thankfully, you’re not my hearing officer,” Robert spat back. He wasn’t even sure why she was here. Did she really fly halfway across the quadrant because she was concerned about his case, or was there something more at play?

“But what if you fail?” Elsie asked as gently as she could.

“Then I’ll go over Adler’s head,” Robert replied, refusing to back down. “I’ll get a referral from Grayson… or Ramar… or even the CinC, if that’s what it comes to.”

Elsie frowned. Did he even hear what he was saying? The righteous defender of the greater laws of the Federation was now talking about circumventing due process? “And if you succeed with your plan, then what? If you can’t meet the low burden of proof required for a referral, how do you expect to prevail at a General Court Martial? If you can’t prove it to the PHO, you’ll never win before a jury.”

“I’ll have more time…”

“More time for what? You’ve had months.”

“This conversation is over,” Robert snapped, pointing at the door. “It’s time you go. I’ve got work to do.” He had less than twelve hours until the hearing would begin, and they were still doing updates to their litigation strategy. He didn’t need this distraction.

Elsie hadn’t come down to get in a screaming match. She’d hoped to talk some sense into him. Instead, he’d just validated everything Admiral Reyes had warned her about. In his zeal, Robert Drake had lost some of what had, for most of her life, made him her hero. 

Regretfully, she turned and headed for the exit.

“Lewis and Hall violated the sanctity of our most sacrosanct laws,” Robert shouted as Elsie departed. “And they’ll do it again and again. Unless I stop them!”

“I won’t give him a thing. Not a goddamn thing! They’ll have to strip my pips first.” After the inquisition of Robert Alastair Drake, she wasn’t sure it was worth it anymore. “I won’t testify against you. I can’t. Maybe I won’t even show up.” The galaxy was a big place. She could fade into the shadows, one of the forgotten, just like before.

“Why not?” asked Commander Lewis as he looked up at Chief Petty Officer Shafir from the floor of the holding cell where he’d been confined the last eight days. “If you skip out now, you’ll miss all the fun.” His sarcasm was palpable, and for a man charged with war crimes, he was remarkably relaxed.

She looked at him quizzically.

“You should come for the kangaroo court,” Captain Lewis added as a smile flickered across his face. “I hear it’s going to be quite a circus.” Word had reached him about what was happening beyond the four walls of his cell, and between the non-nonsense preliminary hearing officer and the JAG’s own sister showing up, it promised to be a spectacle, one he intended to slither right out of – hopefully more artfully than after Algorab.

Chief Shafir stared at him with a grave expression on her face. She didn’t understand. “I’m not selling you out. Or Doc Hall.” It felt like a betrayal to even respond to the JAG’s summons. She didn’t want to give the pompous prick a thing. “Not after all you’ve sacrificed for us… not after all you’ve done for me.” She locked eyes with the man who might as well have been her father. It wasn’t like her real one had ever been there like he had.

“Slow down and think, Ayala,” Captain Lewis said, holding her gaze as he pressed his forefinger to his temple. She wasn’t thinking straight. She was panicking. “What do you actually know?” He was not a fool. He never told anything to anyone that they didn’t actually need to know. Often, it was to protect himself as there were few he trusted, but in this case, it had been to protect her. “Go up there and be one hundred percent honest. To the facts. No speculation. Just the facts that you have firsthand knowledge of.”

That’s when it struck her. He was right. She’d inferred what he and the doc had done. She knew him well enough to know. But she didn’t actually know. Not as anything more than hearsay and inference. She’d neither witnessed it herself, nor had he admitted it to her. “What if I don’t want to give him the satisfaction?” It felt like letting him win to even let him drag her up there. “He killed Jace. He doesn’t deserve a fucking thing.” Robert Drake had salted their wounds and pressed on their traumas until it had been too much for the kid. He’d pressed the barrel to his head and pulled the trigger to make it stop.

“If you don’t go up there, he’ll come for your pips,” Captain Lewis warned. “It’ll be a consolation prize when he fails to take mine. Don’t give him that satisfaction.”

She nodded. 

He was right. 

But then the thoughts started flooding in. Memories of the last few months. The things she’d done. The things they’d been through. Her mind drifted to the city square on Nasera II, where they watched as the Vorta executed Petty Officer Jason Atwood. They didn’t even try to save him. Then she flashed back to the dark, claustrophobic tunnels beneath Nasera City. She’d held the detonator in her hand, and she pressed the trigger, ending Lieutenant Commander Brock Jordan’s life. And then she was standing there in Lieutenant J.G. Jace Morgan’s quarters, looking down at his lifeless corpse, the phaser still warm in his hand.

She began shaking.

And then the tears.

Captain Lewis wanted to reach out, to offer a hand of compassion, but a forcefield separated them. All he could do was watch as she cracked and crumbled as the little boxes where she hid her traumas came falling down. He knew what she was going through. He’d been there, back when he was a young shooter, back before he’d gone completely numb to the pain.

She lowered herself to the ground.

She began to cry.

But then, as quickly as it came on, it stopped. 

Her tears dried up, and her eyes grew black. All the vulnerability, all the despair, it was gone, replaced by a hollow shell and a deathly coldness. “I want to kill him.” She said it in the lightest of whispers, but it did nothing to diminish the strength of her conviction. She meant it. She would do it. “I want to kill him, and the consequences be damned. He killed Jace. It is the way of things.”

Captain Lewis didn’t flinch, but hearing her say those words made his heart hurt. He knew this Ayala Shafir, the one he’d found in the shadows of the rim after she fell. He’d helped her find her way again, two sailors abandoned by their service, and together, they’d found purpose once more. They’d made a difference together, and they’d returned to Starfleet together. Allison Reyes had assured them they could make greater change from within. While the admiral had been wrong, having watched Ayala heal and grow with the pips on her collar, Captain Lewis didn’t want her to return to the way it had been before. 

When finally he spoke, Captain Lewis chose his words carefully. “I don’t disagree he deserves such a fate, but it cannot be by your hand.” His tone was firm, but there was something more… compassion. “You have a long life ahead of you, Ayala, and you need to get to doing that.” He said it like a father addressing a daughter from his deathbed.

“What about you, Jake?”

“What about me? Commander Drake will either fail… or he won’t” Captain Lewis shrugged ambivalently. But his ambivalence, for once, was a feign, a defensive wall he’d put up. As much as he wanted to tell himself he had no weaknesses, he found that deep in his heart, he wanted to be there for his team, his people, and his cause, and if Drake won, he’d have to retreat into the shadows once more. “I hope he doesn’t, but if he does, then he does.”

“Sometimes, you can be so fatalistic Jake,” Chief Shafir said as a single tear trickled down her cheek. The captain knew how to cover his tracks, but the JAG was a shark. The case might not go in his favor, and she wasn’t ready for those consequences.

“I have always done the right thing – the necessary thing – and I won’t start regretting it now,” Captain Lewis insisted firmly. And he meant it. Torturing the Vorta had ended the bloody battle in the charred cityscape of Nasera II, and executing the monster was the only appropriate choice after all the damage it had wrought.

Chief Shafir nodded. Her mind was made up. She would respond to the summons, and she would testify. Not for Drake, but in spite of Drake. “Then I guess…” she said with a light smile as she turned to leave. “I guess I’ll be seeing you shortly.”

He could see the nerves on her face. “Don’t look so down Chief. It’ll all work out,” Captain Lewis assured her. “And as for our friend, space is a big place, and accidents do happen.”

That made her feel just a little bit better.

“Allison, you’ve hardly touched your eggs. It’s not like you to skip a meal.”

Admiral Reyes didn’t so much as look up. It was as though she hadn’t even heard him. She just poked unenthusiastically at her scramble. Her mind was elsewhere, far beyond the dining room where she and Captain Devreux sat sharing breakfast as had been their ritual nearly every Monday since August 8, 2394, when the pair first set out on a five-year mission of deep space exploration together.

“It’s the trial, isn’t it?”

“No shit, Sherlock.” The words just sort of came out before she could think about them. Of course it was the trial. It’s not like anything else was happening as they slowly meandered across core Federation territory towards the Meronia Cluster. As an aggrieved expression flashed across his face, she remembered herself. “I’m sorry Gérard. You didn’t deserve that.” He was, as always, just trying to help. She set her fork down and met his gaze. “I can’t help but wonder if I caused this whole thing?”

“These have been trying times,” Captain Devreux replied as he thought back. Over Nasera, they had almost lost their entire squadron, and nine hundred and thirty five sailors never made it home. “What was anyone to do but fight to survive?”

“That was an exceptional non-answer,” Admiral Reyes noted as she raised an eyebrow. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you might be practicing for a deposition of your own.”

“Captain Lewis is a grown man, Allison,” Captain Devreux reminded her. “His choices, whatever they may have been, were his own.” They hadn’t even been able to communicate in real-time with him for the two weeks his team operated covertly on the Dominion-occupied world.

“Were they though? Were they really? I know who he is, and what he is capable of.” This wasn’t their first rodeo, and she’d used him knowingly. “When we received orders to retake Nasera, I knew how outgunned we were going to be. I wasn’t sure we’d succeed, but we had no choice but to try.” It was the first time she’d admitted her doubts. Throughout the battle, and even in the aftermath, she stood strong with confidence and conviction, a leader who inspired those around her to follow her into hell itself. “He was my hail mary. I sent him there knowing that, if there was any chance of success, he’d find it… no matter the lines he had to cross.” And frankly, in those desperate moments, she hadn’t given those lines a moment’s thought. It was war of the worst kind, and they had to prevail. For those on Nasera. For those across the Deneb Sector. For the Federation itself.

“I’m no Dorian Vox or Jake Lewis,” Captain Devreux offered, referring to his fellow captains who were far more war-weathered than him. “I’m just an aging explorer who was thrust into the midst of a bloody war I never wanted.” It wasn’t what he’d signed up for, but it was where he’d found himself on March 16, 2401, standing on the bridge of the Polaris as they barreled towards their end. “So Allison, believe me when I say there wasn’t another move. Not that would have seen the people of Nasera freed from the yoke of the Dominion. Not that would have seen us survive. You were moments from death when the shooting stopped, and we weren’t that far behind you.”

Suddenly, Admiral Reyes wasn’t in the room with Captain Devreux anymore. Suddenly, she was back on the streets of Nasera II with blood on her hands and fire in her eyes…

“Vox, I need aerial support,” she shouted over her combadge. An explosion went off, hitting a burned out vehicle and sending two of her officers flying. Their bodies landed among the rubble, and neither got back up. “And I need it now!” 

“Tasking Diligent Three. ETA three zero seconds.”

She rummaged through her pack, hunting for a laser illuminator. Polaron blasts and mortar fire rang out. Explosions and debris flew everywhere. She needed to find that illuminator. She needed to find it, or they would all be dead. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally had it in her hands.

“Admiral Reyes, this is Diligent Three, coming out of the west. Call it as you see it.”

She focused. Where the hell was the mortar fire coming from? Another shot went off. She saw the flash from the rooftop a block away. She didn’t flinch as the round exploded nearby and two more officers died. She needed to keep eyes on that building. She lit up the laser.

“Target marked, one eighth klick south by southeast.”

“Diligent Three proceeding, kill box four alpha. Attack direction west.”

“Confirmed Diligent Three.”

From the cockpit of the Aspara-class bomber, the pilot locked in the target. But the building was awfully close to friendlies, including the admiral that had called him in. “Be advised, danger close,” he cautioned as his ship screamed towards the target.

“Roger, danger close,” she acknowledged. “Bring the rain.” There wasn’t another option. If the Aspara didn’t clear that mortar team, they’d be dead anyway. The relentless barrage of shells had already felled a third of their squad. 

She heard the screech of the bomber tearing overhead.

“Incoming!” she screamed as she covered her head with her arms. Three projectiles lanced across the night sky. The explosion lit up the streets, and the ground shook as the building turned to rubble. The mortar threat was no more. 

As dust blanketed them, she made out the bright light of another projectile. But this one had come from the surface. She knew instantly what it was.

“Diligent Three, vampire, vampire!” she shouted, but it was too late. 

The Aspara exploded in a blaze of orange light. Her heart fell. If she hadn’t called that pilot in, he’d still be alive.

“Admiral, we’ve got another problem!”

She turned just in time to see a Dominion armored vehicle advancing down the thoroughfare towards them. She glanced back the way they’d just come, but there, another armored vehicle sat, soldiers already piling out. They were completely surrounded.

But she didn’t die on that dark and bloody night. Instead, just as the Jem’Hadar closed in around them, they suddenly stopped. They stopped, they laid down their weapons, and then they gave themselves over to death. There was simply no explanation, except that Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall had engendered the surrender from the Vorta commander they’d captured at the governor’s mansion. Captain Lewis had never elaborated though, and she didn’t ask. They both knew better.

“We owe him our lives,” she noted.

“I know.”

“You never really liked him.”

“Not really, no,” he admitted. “But I like Commander Drake even less.”

Admiral Reyes chuckled. Captain Devreux had always questioned her choice in bringing both of them aboard, but she’d been selecting for specific traits, and that meant looking past their obvious defects. Unfortunately, it had gotten away from her this time.

“And Allison,” Captain Devreux added. “If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m not the same man I was before Nasera. What the Jem’Hadar did down there, it was pure evil. Only a monster could have done what they did.” Darkness washed over his face as he recalled the doctor whose wife was killed in front of him when he refused to turn his lab into a biological weapons plant… the woman who they amputated with hacksaws and a welding torch to inspire her brothers to work harder… and little Marvolo, the nine year old who was executed for just wanting to play. “And maybe we needed a monster of our own to deal with them.”

“It won’t be the last time.”

“I wish you were wrong, but you’re probably right.”

Admiral Reyes’ thoughts drifted back to the trial that lay ahead. Commander Drake couldn’t be allowed to win. “This isn’t about loyalty to an old friend,” she finally offered as she set her fork down and rose from the table. “It’s about being ready for the next time.”

As much as he wished he didn’t, Captain Devreux agreed. Nasera had changed him. It had changed them all.

His uniform neatly pressed, his face cleanly shaven, and his eyes filled with fire, Commander Robert Drake strode briskly into the chambers. All doubt and frustration from the night prior was gone, replaced by steadfast resolve and confident determination. Today, he would lock up two war criminals. Today, he would defend the soul of the Federation from those whose actions threatened to undermine it. There was only one acceptable outcome.

He walked with purpose towards the front of the room. Lieutenant Kel’don was already seated at the prosecution’s table to the right of center. The Rotciv attorney had grown up in the forgotten borderlands, and he’d experienced the abuses of corrupt Starfleet officers firsthand. That made this case personal for him – not as personal as it was for Commander Drake, but still personal nonetheless. Starfleet officers were meant to uphold the laws of the Federation, not violate them, and he shared his boss’s determination to see Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall held accountable for their actions.

Commander Drake glanced over at the defense as he took his seat. Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall had already been brought in, and a pair of security officers lingered behind them. The haggard old spook had an indifferent, disinterested look on his face, almost as if he didn’t comprehend the gravity of the situation, while the psychologist sat with a frigid expression on hers. Not an ounce of remorse was visible between the pair. To their left, Ensign Malik Aronian, an associate public defender from the JAG Corps, fidgeted in his chair. Commander Drake couldn’t help but notice how nervous the kid looked. Was it because he was sitting next to a pair of murderers or guilt over even representing these monsters? Or was it something simpler, like the recognition he was going to lose?

The murmurs of background conversation drew silent as the door at the rear of the chamber opened once more. All eyes turned to Captain Eleazar Adler, a highly-decorated and well-respected senior JAG hearing officer, as he stepped into the room. Carrying himself with the weight of an elder statesman, the sound of his footsteps was the only thing audible in the chamber as he made his way to the bench.

“All rise,” declared the bailiff.

Everyone assembled in the chamber rose in unison. This custom was a reminder that, while only a preliminary hearing, this proceeding had transcended the executive function of the fleet and were now squarely within the realm of the judiciary.

Standing at the front, Captain Adler surveyed the room with discerning eyes. He was acutely aware of what had preceded this moment, and he would allow none of those past shenanigans to taint the proceedings henceforth. “As officers of Starfleet, we are emissaries and protectors of the great principles on which the Federation is founded,” Captain Adler addressed the room. “Today, we assemble to consider serious allegations brought against two of our own, and it is our duty to ensure that justice is served equitably and fairly for all involved. The integrity of our institution, as always, depends on our commitment to the rule of law.”

Captain Adler pulled back his chair and sat down at the head of the chambers.

“This hearing is now called to order,” he declared as he gavelled in the session. All around the room, those assembled took their seats as Captain Adler picked up his PADD. “Today, the bench shall consider the preferral of charges brought by the Office of the Judge Advocate General against Captain Jacob Daniel Lewis and Lieutenant Lisa Anne Hall for crimes alleged to have occurred the evening of March 16, 2401 on Nasera II.”

Sitting at the defense’s table, Captain Lewis folded his arms across his chest obstinately and shook his head slowly. What a crock of shit. Next to him, Dr. Hall’s motions were more subtle, just a slight flicker across her jawline, but her thoughts were much the same. This was all so frivolous. There were real problems out there beyond the duranium hull of the Polaris, and yet here they were, arguing semantics over the rights of a dead Vorta, a creature who frankly had no purpose for existence except to serve the will of the Founders.

“Let the record show the parties present,” Captain Adler directed as he looked first to the table to his left.

“Commander Robert Alastair Drake, Polaris Squadron JAG Officer, representing the Office of the Judge Advocate General,” announced the proud prosecutor from the first chair. “Joined by Lieutenant Kel’don.”

Captain Adler then turned towards the table to his right.

“Ensign Malik Hayk Aronian, Associate JAG Defender, representing the defen…”

Whoosh. He didn’t get a chance to finish as the rear doors of the chamber slid open. Clack. Clack. Clack. The hard leather soles could be heard impacting the polished floor with a cadence that could mean only one thing.

“Fleet Admiral Allison Reyes, formerly of the Fleet Command Council, on behalf of the defense,” the admiral announced as she walked towards the front of the room. Her movements were crisp, her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and her face showed no hesitation whatsoever. The gloves were off, and her pips, adorned on the collar of her dress uniform, were, along with the title she’d announced herself by, a reminder of her standing and experience.

There was a stunned silence as she approached the defense table, and the ensign, who’d been in the midst of announcing himself, stepped aside in deference. 

“Not so fast,” she whispered to him under her breath before turning back to clarify for those in the chamber. “Joined by Ensign Malik Hayk Aronian.” Captain Adler was, many decades ago, a JAG defender himself, and the fact he’d selected the young adjutant as defender for this case meant he trusted that Ensign Aronian would faithfully and comprehensively represent the defense. She’d be a fool to just throw him aside.

“Objection!” shouted Commander Drake as he glared across the room. The admiral could see the fury in his eyes. This was a betrayal, plain and simple, after all they had been through over the years. “As I will remind the court, your honor himself instructed Admiral Reyes to recuse herself from any further role in these proceedings.”

“With all due respect,” Admiral Reyes smiled deviously as she met his gaze. “The court only instructed that I recuse myself from the adjudication of the case against Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall.” Two could play this game. She turned to face Captain Adler. “I’m certain that your honor did not intend, through your instructions, to deprive Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall of access to the best defense available and to the counsel of their choosing.”

“The admiral is not even a judicial officer!” Commander Drake snorted as he stuck his nose up at her. “Nor does she have any formal training in military law.” That wasn’t exactly true though, and they both knew it. As a member of the admiralty and a former member of Command itself, not only was Allison Reyes deeply acquainted with Federation law and Starfleet regulations, but, on the latter, she’d even participated in some of the drafting. It didn’t stop Commander Drake from challenging her though. “In what world is she the best defense available? Or the counsel of their choice?”

“In the world that it annoys you,” Captain Lewis snarled. He hadn’t never expected Admiral Reyes to do what she’d just done. Given her position, she was not usually so overt in her support. And neither too would he ever have asked her to do it. But since she had, he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The chamber erupted in a clamor.

“Order!” Captain Adler insisted as he slammed his gavel against the lectern. “I’ll have order!” They hadn’t even made it to opening statements yet.

Slowly, everyone quieted back down.

Captain Adler took a deep breath and then offered his ruling. “On the first matter, the admiral is absolutely correct,” he said as his eyes danced between Admiral Reyes and Commander Drake. “The restraint placed upon Admiral Reyes was not intended to in any way infringe upon the rights of the accused.” He then turned to address Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall directly. “On the latter point, Captain Lewis, Dr. Hall, the right to counsel is enshrined in our founding documents, and thus, as to the matter of representation, the choice is yours.”

“I believe I already gave you my answer,” Captain Lewis stated firmly. He looked over at Commander Drake as he spoke his next words, savoring the frustration that washed across the JAG’s face as he said them. “I elect for Admiral Reyes to represent me in this joke of a preferral.”

Captain Adler sighed. He would not deprive this man of the counsel of his choice, and he would rule fairly in this case no matter where the facts led, but it didn’t mean he liked the defendant in the slightest. A preferral was never a joke. It was a critical step in a most important proceeding, used as a final check before a case moved to a General Court Martial. And, if it got there, Captain Adler figured it might wipe the smug look off even the old spook’s face.

“If it’s good enough for him,” Dr. Hall nodded at the captain. “Then it’s good enough for me.” She saw no need to poke the bear as he had, but she welcomed the admiral’s assistance. She knew the admiral never acted without careful consideration.

“The clerk shall note the change in counsel,” Captain Adler instructed before turning back to the prosecution. “Commander Drake, Lieutenant Kel’don, you may now begin with your opening statements.”

“Do you recall what happened at 1808 hours?”

“Yes. That was the moment the light left Lieutenant Kora’s eyes,” Captain Lewis replied darkly. He’d been there. He’d locked eyes with her as she died. But there was nothing he could do. The polaron blast had irradiated her organs within seconds. “It took only a moment. That’s all it takes for any of us.”

The chamber was silent. Dead silent. It wasn’t just a courtroom drama anymore, something to gossip about after work at the Northern Lights Lounge. Suddenly, it had become real. All too real. Some of those in the room had known Kora Tal, the lifelong healer who joined the Polaris Hazard Team, not for the glory or the adrenaline rush, but out of a desire to heal her colleagues should they fall. But on Nasera, it was her that fell. She died when her compassion caused her to drop her guard for just a moment. One short moment. That was all it took.

“Yes, yes, most unfortunate,” Commander Drake noted disinterestedly. “But that’s not what I was referring to. What else happened at approximately that time?”

“I don’t know,” Captain Lewis answered, his tone ice cold, his eyes narrowing on the JAG. The way he’d flippantly dismissed her sacrifice, someone who gave her life for him, the Captain had half a mind to climb off the stand and rip that smug grin right off his face. “I get the sense that you’re going to tell us though.” He wasn’t going to guess. He had no interest in judicial games.

Commander Drake appeared pleased with the reaction. He turned towards the clerk. “If you would please,” he asked. “The audio recording entered into the record as Exhibit 7.”

A moment later, the chaos of battle, from the perspective of this ship’s bridge, flooded over the room’s audio. It didn’t take long to figure out the recording wasn’t just any battle, and it wasn’t just any ship. It was the USS Polaris, and it was recorded during the Battle of Nasera.

“Hull breach, deck 7.”

Four crewmen died in that moment, but the worst was yet to come.

“Make that decks 7, 9, 11, 12, and 25.” 

Even over the recording, the sounds of sparks flying and gas venting could be heard. Below deck, a dozen officers lost their life instantly, ejected into the vacuum of space before containment fields could activate. A further eight would succumb to their injuries in the following minutes, long before medical aid could reach them.

“Shields at 29%. Launchers 3, 4 and 7 inoperable.”

More explosions, and then the sound of a pylon colliding with the deck. Somewhere on the bridge, an officer howled in pain as he tried to pull himself out from under the debris. Consumed in the thick of the battle, no one came to his aid. He died a couple minutes later.

“Keep us on course for that station!”

The voice that gave the order was unmistakable. It was Fleet Admiral Allison Reyes. Now sitting next to Dr. Hall and Ensign Aronian, the admiral’s expression was unreadable. She didn’t react whatsoever. Instead, her mind was turning, trying to dissect the JAG’s motives. Why did he choose this recording? If anything, this moment, as they barrelled headlong towards the massive orbital weapons platform being turned upon the planet , emphasized the stakes of the conflict. That, in turn, could serve as justification for what Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall allegedly did. What was Commander Drake’s angle?

“We just lost all power to weapons!”

Admiral Reyes remembered the moment the tactical officer had screamed that at her. Suddenly, all optionality had been stripped from her. She had only one choice. She remembered making eye contact with Captain Devreux. He nodded solemnly, giving his silent blessing. She did not falter when she then gave the order.

“Conn, give me ramming speed.”

“Ramming speed, aye.”

Admiral Reyes had resolved to stop the Lost Fleet from razing Nasera at any cost, and that price would be their lives. In the gallery, each and every member of the crew who’d been aboard the Polaris that day flashed back to where they’d been at that moment, as they looked out windows or stared at their monitors, watching their death approach. For one young officer in the audience, the memory was too much. He stood up and rushed out of the chambers.

“Ryssehl to Polaris.”

Up until the moment he heard the Andorian’s voice, Captain Lewis hadn’t actually been able to place the moment they were reliving. He’d been down on the surface below, and he wasn’t privy to the bridge audio. But now he knew the exact moment of this recording. He remembered those words over his earpiece as they rushed through an interior courtyard of the governor’s mansion. It was that courtyard where Lieutenant Kora died shortly thereafter.

“Abort! Pull off! We have a solution. We’re going to blow this bitch.”

Admiral Reyes recalled that moment, as she paused to consider his words. The Polaris was thoroughly trashed. It would never survive a second attempt. To pull the ship off course was to trust that Captain Lewis’ accomplice would succeed. The lives of an entire planet would be in the hands of that Andorian, a disgraced, former Starfleet officer. But she trusted Commander Lewis, and thus she gave the order to pull away.

“Conn, bearing three three zero mark six zero, all engines full.”

If the call had come but a moment later, it would have been too late, and the ship’s momentum would have carried it straight into the platform. But as it came when it did, that call saved the lives of over fifteen hundred officers and crew aboard the USS Polaris.

“Ryssehl, you’re still on board the station?”

“I am.”

“You better be right about this. You only have thirty seconds before the station has a firing solution on Nasera City. Is that enough time for you to plant your explosives and get off?”

“No, we won’t be getting off the station. We were dead either way. This way, you all don’t go with us. You still have a planet to save.”

There was a pause. And then came the trembling voice of Crewman Nam Jae-Sun, the young operations specialist who, before Nasera, had never even taken a life. But on Nasera, things had changed. Working alongside the Andorian, they’d found a way aboard the station, and now, he would die alongside him too.

“Admiral, please tell my parents I love them, and that I did my duty.”

The sound of explosions tearing the station apart rippled through the room, and then the recording stopped. The room was silent, the audience processed the weight of what they’d just heard. Even the usually-steady Captain Adler, a man who’d seen so much, looked visibly shaken.

Commander Drake, though, didn’t give anyone a chance to breathe. He just right back after the witness. “You were down on the surface of Nasera when this took place, were you not, Captain Lewis?”

“Yes, I was,” Captain Lewis answered with a solemn nod. He remembered the moment the skies became fire, when the explosion of a thousand warheads contained on that station bathed the planet in a deep orange glow.

“And were you aware of what was going on above you in orbit?”

“Somewhat,” Captain Lewis nodded. “I had a firm grasp of the battlespace, as we had observed it for over a week, and I could extrapolate the resistance the Polaris would face when she arrived.”

“Sorry, let me be more clear,” Commander Drake clarified. “Were you aware of the conversation that took place?”

“On the bridge of the Polaris? No. Not at the time, at least. But yes, I heard the exchange over our inter-ship comms channel between Reyes and Ryssehl Th’zathol.”

“Ah yes, Mister Ryssehl Th’zathol,” Commander Drake then said, a devious smile crossing his face. “Let’s talk about your Andorian mercenary friend for a moment.”

Captain Lewis stared blankly at the prosecutor. Where was he going with this?

“Ryssehl Th’zathol,” Commander Drake read off the personnel file his PADD. “Graduated Starfleet Enlisted Training Command, 2362. Served in EOD for five years. Court martialled, 2367, for repeated instances of reckless behavior resulting in the deaths of others.” He noticed the Captain’s jawline tense up. “Followed by a long sequence of criminal activities… the Maquis in the early seventies… the Fenris Rangers in the late eight…”

“Objection, your honor,” Admiral Reyes interjected. Not only was she worried what Captain Lewis might do to the JAG kept at his attack on the dead, but she also felt a sense of loyalty to Ryssehl for the sacrifice he’d made. “Relevance.”

“Goes to motive,” Commander Drake insisted.

“I’ll allow it,” Captain Adler asserted from the bench. “But get to the point, Commander.”

“As I was saying,” Commander Drake said as he turned his attention back to Captain Lewis. “A terrorist and a mercenary from his point of discharge until his death over Nasera. Even did two prison stints, one at the New Zealand Penal Colony and the other in the Jaros II Stockade. A real good guy, wouldn’t you say, Captain?”

“One of the best,” Captain Lewis nodded without hesitation.

“Figures you would say that,” Commander Drake chuckled snarkily. “Given your shared proclivity to flagrantly violate the…”

“Objection!” Admiral Reyes interjected.

“Sustained,” Captain Adler said, his eyes falling back upon the JAG. “Make your point, Commander, or we’re moving on!” His patience was beginning to wear thin. The Commander was no closer to an admissible point than the last time the Admiral had objected.

Commander Drake was not the least bit bothered. He’d known the objection would come, and taht it would be sustained. He’d just taken the easy shot because it was there and because, as much as the hearing officer might try to put it aside, he knew such comments would still linger in Adler’s mind as he deliberated the verdict. “Would it be fair, though, to say that you and Ryssehl Th’zathol were close?”

“I try not to get close to anyone,” Captain Lewis replied coldly. “It makes it easier that way.”

“But you trusted him enough that, when you returned to Starfleet in 2399, you named him CEO of Sebold Logistics, your private little mercenary firm,” Commander Drake pointed out. He’d done his research. “Isn’t that right?”

“I disagree with your characterization of a highly-respected enterprise that counts both Starfleet and the Federation Merchant Marine among its clientele,” Captain Lewis replied, to which Commander Drake almost laughed out loud. “But yes, upon re-upping with Starfleet, I handed the reins to Ryssehl.” He’d known it wouldn’t be a good look if he appeared to be profiteering from a private military contracting firm while serving as an officer in Starfleet.

“So from where I’m sitting, it sounds like you have at least a good relationship with him.”

“Had,” Captain Lewis corrected. Ryssehl was dead. They’d just heard him die on the recording the commander had played. “But yes, you could say that.”

“So how did it make you feel then, when you heard him and Crewman Nam die?” Commander Drake asked as his eyes narrowed on the captain.

“It didn’t.”

“It didn’t?” Commander Drake parroted back with an incredulous tone. “It didn’t make you feel anything at all?” He had to have felt something. And even if he insisted he did not, it would still seed doubt in the minds of those reviewing the case. “Did it make you upset? Angry? Like you wanted to get back at those you held responsible?”

“No, none of that,” Captain Lewis shook his head. “If anything, it made me proud. Ryssehl and Nam gave their lives so fifteen hundred of their colleagues could live to fight another day.”

“Do you really expect us to believe that?” Commander Drake asked as he turned to address the hearing officer and the audience. “That your dear friends and colleagues died on that station, and somehow all you felt was pride?” He spun back around at the Captain. “That you didn’t consider, even for a moment, possibly taking your revenge on the Vorta in your custody?” His opening attack against the captain was now on full display, and there was not an ounce of empathy on his face.

“I don’t expect you to understand,” Captain Lewis replied in a dark, but genuine tone. “But Ryssehl and Nam died in a way few will ever have the chance… with meaning and purpose. May we be so lucky to say the same when death comes for us.”

“At 1815 hours, you provided the following sitrep: ‘We’re good here. It’s pretty peaceful, all things considered. We just need to have a chat with an old friend.’ This directly contradicts your after-action report, in which you described the mansion as still under enemy control,” Commander Drake pressed.

“Well, considering it was the first time we hadn’t been in an active shootout in fifteen minutes, it seemed an apt enough description,” Captain Lewis shrugged. “I’ve been known to understate the severity of a combat situation – you know, because you sort of just get used to it after a point – but to be clear, the mansion was still crawling with Jem’Hadar. We had just secured one corner of it.”

“And who were you referring to as ‘an old friend’?”

“The Vorta commander.”

The JAG looked over at the clerk. “Exhibit 11, please.” He turned back to Captain Lewis as the face of a deceased Vorta appeared on the terminal mounted to their left. “This Vorta?”

“Those impish creatures all look about the same to me,” Captain Lewis chuckled. “But that could be him, sure.” In reality, he knew damn well it was the same Vorta. He’d never forget the face of the sadistic mastermind who led the campaign of terror against the colonists of Nasera, and who was responsible for the deaths of half of his team. That said, diminishing the perception of his interest in that monster seemed an appropriate response given the accusations against him.

“And what did you mean by ‘a chat’?”

“A chat, as in a conversation.”

“As in shoving a needle into his arm?!” Commander Drake snapped back. He’d spent the last hour explaining all the reasons why Captain Lewis should have harbored a desire for revenge against the Vorta, and now it was time to drive the point home.

“No,” Captain Lewis frowned. That most certainly was not what he had just said. “A conversation, as in a verbal exchange of words between two or more parties.”

“Are you sure?” Commander Drake asked as his eyes narrowed on his opponent.

“Your honor…” came Admiral Reyes’ voice from the defense table.

“I agree,” Captain Adler nodded as he cast a disapproving gaze down at the prosecutor. “Commander Drake, the captain answered your question… and very clearly at that.” What was Drake playing at? Such insinuations might persuade an untrained ear during a jury trial, but Eleazar Adler was more than experienced enough to discern and disregard a blatant, unsubstantiated comment. “Move on.”

The prosecutor didn’t flinch. He just jumped straight to his next attack. “A moment or two later, the admiral replied to you with the following: ‘Your team did us a good one today’. Do you remember your response?”

“No, but I’m sure you’ll remind me.”

“You replied: ‘At a steep price’,” the prosecutor read from the transcript. “By a steep price, did you mean the price of compromising your morals and values?”

“Objection,” Admiral Reyes asserted. “Leading the witness.”

“Respectfully, I’ll allow it,” Captain Adler shook his head. There was some gray area when it came to deposing a hostile witness. “Answer the question, Captain.”

“No,” Captain Lewis answered without elaborating.

“No?” asked Commander Drake, the succinct answer unclear as to whether it was in response to Captain Adler’s direction or his own. “No, as in you won’t answer the question? Or no, as in…”

“No, as in, at no point during my time on Nasera did I ever compromise my morals or values,” Captain Lewis replied with complete sincerity. And he meant it. Even when he’d raised his sidearm to the Vorta’s head and pulled the trigger, he hadn’t compromised his morals or values.

“Then what, Captain, were you referring to when you mentioned a steep price?”

“I was referring to the price we paid in blood to reach that point,” Captain Lewis replied, his voice growing frustrated and pained. Of all the things asked of him, that one seemed particularly obvious. At least to him. “Petty Officer Jason Atwood. Ryssehl Th’zathol. Crewman Nam Jae-Sun. Lieutenant Kora Tal.” He spoke the names slowly, one by one, as he ran down the list of his team members who had already died to reach that moment.

“Oh yes, now you expect us to believe you have a bleeding heart!” Commander Drake countered, his tone equal parts sarcastic and scathing. “But alright, while you’re listing names, let’s talk about another one. Chief Petty Officer Ayala Shafir. Three minutes after your conversation with Admiral Reyes, Chief Shafir called and asked to speak with you on a private line. What did she say to you?”

“She told me that Lieutenant Commander Jordan was dead.”

“Did she tell you how he died?”

“Yes.”

“And why don’t you tell us?” Commander Drake prompted, his eyes giving away an out of place excitement given the subject at hand, that of a great young officer with a promising future who went down to the surface of Nasera II, never to return.

“Lieutenant Commander Jordan and Chief Shafir were part of a team that broke into the control center for the planetary defense system,” Captain Lewis explained. “Their mission was to blow it up so the Dominion couldn’t use the network against our ships. They successfully planted the explosives, but as they were retreating, Lieutenant Commander Jordan was captured by the Jem’Hadar.” He had no interest in explaining further.

“But Lieutenant Commander Jordan was not killed by the Jem’Hadar, was he?” Commander Drake asked pointedly. He had no interest in letting the Captain off that easily. There was no ground too sacred for him to trample across.

“No, he was a casualty of circumstance,” Captain Lewis replied darkly. “He died when Chief Shafir did exactly what she was supposed to do.”

“Which was?” Commander Drake pressed.

“Which was to blow up the command center.”

No one spoke. Not even a whisper. It was dead quiet as those in the room processed what he’d just said. Had they heard him right? Did he just say that Chief Shafir blew up the Polaris’ beloved Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer? The natural next question was why didn’t she try to go back and save him from the Jem’Hadar instead?

Captain Lewis was trained not to say more than necessary, but he could sense the shift in the audience, and he felt a debt to Ayala Shafir to not villainize her in front of her colleagues. “If the Chief had not done what she did, when she did, the Jem’Hadar would have retaken the control center,” he explained as his voice deepened and his expression darkened. “And if that had happened, everyone on this ship would be dead.”

A pin drop could have been heard in the silence that followed. But Commander Drake wasn’t one to let such moments sit. Especially if it might warm the audience to his target. “And how did Lieutenant Commander Jordan’s death make you feel?”

“It didn’t,” Commander Lewis replied flatly. “I told you already. I’ve moved past this sort of stuff. It just sort of is what it is.” 

While he said it convincingly, it wasn’t really true. Beneath his cool exterior, Captain Lewis thought back to the governor’s mansion, to that moment right after he’d received the news…

“What’s wrong Starfleet?” the Vorta hissed, unafraid of the blade held to its throat. “You appear to be in a fragile mental state. Was it something we did?” 

Killing the creature would have been so easy. But forcing it to betray its own, to break its vow to the Founders, that would be far sweeter. “You killed four of mine today,” Captain Lewis replied as he stared into the creature’s eyes. “This is personal.” He looked over at his psyops specialist. “Do your worst doc. And don’t make it quick.”

The cold shooter turned to walk away, to leave the creature to Lisa Hall, but suddenly, he spun back around. Without hesitation, and in one swift motion, he drove his blade straight into the Vorta’s thigh. It wasn’t to kill the Vorta though. It was just to make himself feel a bit better. 

The Vorta howled uncontrollably at the pain, and he just stared into its eyes, reveling in the misery. 

Yep, that did make him feel a bit better.

Now it was time for Dr. Hall to have her way with the monster. As she approached the Vorta, strapped to a chair in the center of a the room, there wasn’t a hint of concern or worry on her face. She didn’t care that her boss had just stabbed a restrained, unarmed enemy combatant. For a moment, she just stood there, watching it drown in its agony. A little pain could never hurt. In fact, it would soften the creature up for what she planned to do to it next.

“You really expect us to believe, Captain Lewis,” Commander Drake asked pointedly. “That after losing your number two, a guy you’d spent nearly every day training with for the last two years, that it didn’t make you want to murder the Vorta in your custody?”

“No, it did not,” Captain Lewis replied firmly. “You may find it hard to believe, Commander Drake, but I am a Starfleet officer.”

That wasn’t to say he didn’t murder the Vorta though.

“Anticholinergics, arylcyclohexylamines, and ionotropic receptor agonists, mixed with amphetamines, angiotensin inhibitors and beta blockers,” Commander Drake read from the toxicology report. “That’s quite a cocktail, wouldn’t you say, doctor?”

“I’m not qualified to offer an opinion on cocktails,” Dr. Hall answered flatly. “As I am not a bartender.” Of course she knew what he meant, but two could play this game. She might be the one on the stand, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t poke and prod at him. Over time, he would tire, and that would weaken his effectiveness in prosecuting this case.

“Don’t be coy with me Lieutenant,” Commander Drake snapped back as he stared at her. “You know exactly what I meant.”

“I may have hunches about a good many things, but in my line of work, it is important not to assume,” Dr. Hall replied in the tone of a school teacher lecturing a misbehaving student. “Just like in yours. You and I, we operate purely on fact, not conjecture, isn’t that right, mister Drake?” She chose each word with precision, from the way she mirrored his question with her response to the way she used a civilian honorific to belittle the proud JAG Officer.

“Alright, let’s try this again,” Commander Drake countered. If she wanted him to be direct, then he would be direct. “The Vorta commander, who was in your captivity from approximately 1815 hours until the time of his death…”

“Objection!” This time, it was Admiral Reyes’ turn to interject, and took pleasure in tag-teaming him with Dr. Hall. It was almost strange to think that once, long ago, she and Commander Drake had stood on the same side of the courtroom, fighting to protect the soul of the Federation from those who sought to corrupt it. “The prosecution has not demonstrated that Captain Lewis or Dr. Hall were in the presence of the Vorta at the time of its death.”

“Sustained,” agreed Captain Adler. The Commander was either being sloppy or trying for a cheap rhetorical trick. “Stick to the facts, Commander.”

“Very well,” grumbled Commander Drake. “A third time then, shall we?” He looked across at the psychologist, trying to read her unreadable face. Lisa Hall was, as ever, cold as ice. “The toxicology panel conducted on the deceased Vorta commander, who was alive and in your custody at 1815 hours as established by Captain Lewis’ testimony, identified a number of pharmacological substances in its bloodstream.” He handed the PADD to Dr. Hall. “In your professional opinion, what would the purpose of these substances be?”

“As I was neither the attending physician for the individual in question, nor do I possess any medical training or licensure related to the Vorta species itself,” Dr. Hall asserted. “I am not qualified to offer a professional opinion on the subject. Might I suggest reaching out to the Exobiology Division at Starfleet Medical if you’re truly concerned?”

Commander Drake just ignored her and pressed ahead: “How, Dr. Hall, did those drugs get into that Vorta’s system?”

“I have no factual basis to provide you with an answer, but if I must suppose, there were dozens of angry colonists that stormed the mansion. In my many years seeing and treating humans, I have found they are prone to strike back at those who try to do them harm,” Dr. Hall replied, and with the way she said it, and the way she stared him down, Commander Drake almost wondered if she was still talking about the colonists, or whether it was really a threat towards him. “If you’re really concerned, you might want to go back to Nasera II and ask each of them.” That was, of course, an absolutely preposterous suggestion.

“So then, do you deny having any knowledge as to how those drugs got in the Vorta’s system?” Commander Drake asked flatly. If she said yes, and later he could prove otherwise, he’d minimally have her on perjury, so it was a no-brainer question to ask.

“That is correct,” Dr. Hall replied assuredly. She had no qualms lying on the stand. She knew that Captain Lewis would do the same, and with Lieutenant Morgan in a body bag, the JAG had no witnesses to tie them to the crime. “I do not have any knowledge of how the drugs got into that creature’s system. And why bother anyways? A well known fact from the War was that the Vorta had a form of genetic toxin resistance.” She was far too well guarded to give any hint of the truth. But the truth was that it was a lie. All of it. 

Dr. Hall administered the bolus, watching a tendril of deep gray liquid slither down the intravenous line, the last ingredient in a concoction of pharmacological agents meant to excite and sedate specific biological and neurological functions. This particular medication was actually fairly merciful too. It wasn’t meant to distort reality like the anticholinergics she’d administered earlier, nor to ignite his γ-hydroxybutyrate and gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors like the ionotropic agonists now coursing through its veins. Those psychoactives were already doing their work, turning the Vorta’s bloodstream into a wicked maelstrom of psychosis-inducing toxins. This one, on the other hand, would simply reduce the risk of cardiotoxicity, to keep it from dying until it had served its purpose.

“This is futile,” the Vorta assured her through gritted teeth. Even though he could feel his mind warping and its veins burning, he knew the gifts the gods had bestowed upon him. This pathetic organic had no chance against that, against the very will of his gods.

“Futile, hmmm?” Dr. Hall asked as she stared at the impish creature. The Founders might have gifted the Vorta with resistance to poison, but they’d made a mistake by constructing their servants from a descendant of the galaxy’s humanoid progenitors. That meant the Vorta shared a genetic root with the species that Lisa Hall had spent her entire career interrogating. She would, in time, break this creature, just as she’d broken the Klingons, Vulcans and Tzenkethi that had come before it. “Futile, just as the Dominion’s attempt to take the Alpha Quadrant was futile? You and your colleagues have been gone a long time. Almost thirty years, in fact. If the Dominion had been victorious, would we really be sitting here right now?” The Vorta had no response, and she could see a glimmer of doubt developing within her foe. “There is only one explanation. The Founders failed.”

The Vorta’s nostrils flared. How dare this human speak so irreverently of his gods? “It is but a test of our faith!” It was the only truth he could believe. The Founders did not make mistakes. If they did not prevail in their war with the Federation, it was because they chose not to. That was the only explanation that made sense to him. “They will return and reward us for our loyalty.”

“They might reward you if you actually succeeded. But you didn’t. You failed. Just like your siblings are failing all across the sector,” Dr. Hall replied with a cruel smile, taking a bit of pleasure in her adversary’s pain. “Just this evening, we destroyed your Ketracel-White facility on Saxue, and we’ll finish mopping up Izar by morning.” It was a bluff. Neither had happened yet. However, she had picked real targets to make it more believable. She’d just need to make sure he never got out of captivity alive, or else he might alert the Lost Fleet to Starfleet’s plans. “I hear that when Saxue fell, the Jem’Hadar chose to die by their own hands.”

The Vorta sat there stunned. If Saxue had fallen, he could believe that the Jem’Hadar might have done that. They were never all that loyal beyond the White. The fact Starfleet even knew of Saxue was a shock too. That rogue planet was a complete secret, a linchpin of their plans to take the Alpha Quadrant. That this Starfleet officer knew about Saxue helped him believe the rest. The drugs probably helped too.

“Let me remind you, Lieutenant, that you are under oath,” Commander Drake cautioned. “So are you absolutely certain that you have no idea how those drugs came to be in the Vorta’s system?”

“Absolutely.” She did not hesitate, and her voice did not quiver. Lying came naturally to her.

Commander Drake, for his sake, didn’t believe her in the slightest. Unfortunately, for the moment at least, he didn’t have anything to tie her to the crime. “Alright, then let’s talk about what came next… as of 1910 hours, over three hundred of your fellow officers were dead or dying under the rubble of Nasera City. Were you aware of this at the time?”

“I did not have any discrete numbers, but I certainly had some sense of what was likely going on beyond the walls of the governor’s mansion,” Dr. Hall replied. “We had, after all, spent the better part of nine days surveilling the OPFOR.”

“Recognizing the high cost of this battle, did you feel the pressure to do something to save your own people?”

“Not particularly,” Dr. Hall shrugged flippantly.

“Come again?” Commander Drake asked, surprised by the bluntness. “What do you mean you didn’t feel the pressure to save your own people?” That would have been the natural response for anyone worthy of wearing the uniform.

“I don’t feel pressure,” Dr. Hall answered calmly. “I’ve moved beyond such basal human responses.” She had, after all, done her Ph.D. at VICA, but it wasn’t even at VICA that had stripped her of such responses. No, it was during the horrors of her youth on Turkana IV when she’d been immunized to such weakness. “But how about you, Commander? Do you feel pressure?” Of course he did. She could see it on his face and hear it in his tone. He was feeling the pressure, even over something as insignificant as a mere court case.

“I am the one asking the questions, Lieutenant,” Commander Drake reminded her aggressively, but she could tell she’d struck a nerve. “Let me cut straight to the chase. Between 1910 and 1915 hours, every single Jem’Hadar on the surface of Nasera II suddenly laid down their weapons and walked straight into oncoming fire. Were you aware of this?”

“I read as much in the after-action report,” Dr. Hall nodded, evasive even on the most basic of questions.

“But were you aware at the time?”

“No.”

The shock was evident on Commander Drake’s face. Why would the counselor lie about such a basic statement of fact, something he could so easily demonstrate? “Exhibit 24, if you would,” he requested of the clerk.

A moment later, slightly distorted comms traffic began to play over the speakers. Both of the voices were well known to everyone in the room.

“Reyes to Lewis.”

“Lewis here. Go ahead.”

“I suppose I have you to thank for what happened out here?”

“Victory is life. So too must the opposite be true.”

“Well, thank you.”

“Anytime.”

As the short conversation ended, Commander Drake jumped straight in: “This conversation occurred at 1915 hours. You were with Captain Lewis at this time, were you not?”

“I was.”

“Then how then can you say you were not aware that, at that moment, all the Jem’Hadar across Nasera had just committed mass suicide?” Commander Drake pressed, his eyes like those of a shark prepared to take a bite out of its prey.

“That all Jem’Hadar across the entire planet had killed themselves in that short period?” Dr. Hall repeated his question back at him, as she knew to be good practice for the sake of the record. “That would seem a particularly difficult fact for me to verify from a secluded corner of a plush diplomatic estate on the outskirts of Nasera City, would it not?” The prey was playing with the hunter. She would make him work for every inch, even on simple statements of fact, to wear him down and tire him out so eventually he’d make a mistake and fall on his face. She was, after all, a specialist in psyops and a scholar of interrogation. This was child’s play to her. Who then was really the hunter, and who truly was the prey?

“Semantics, counselor,” Commander Drake shook his head frustratedly. “Semantics. But alright, let me ask you another question about the exchange: when Admiral Reyes referred to ‘what happened out here’, what did Captain Lewis mean by his response?”

“Objection,” Admiral Reyes interrupted. “The defendant is being asked to provide an unqualified conjecture about the mindset of a co-defendant. ”

“Your honor, Dr. Hall received a doctorate in psychology from the Vulcan Institute of Cultural Affairs and presently holds dual appointments as Unit Lead for the Cultural and Psychological Research Unit of the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity, and as the Chief Counselor of Polaris Squadron,” Commander Drake smiled, knowing had the admiral beat on this one. “Dr. Hall would, even absent her direct involvement in this case, still be fully qualified as an expert witness whose opinion would absolutely fall within the scope of admissibility.”

“Unconventional,” Captain Adler observed as he stroked his chin. It was a risky choice for the prosecution to call a defendant as their own expert witness. “But I’ll allow it.”

Just because Captain Adler allowed it though, it didn’t mean Dr. Hall wasn’t going to slither right out of it. “I am a psychologist, Commander, not a mind reader.” 

And now the door had been opened, and Admiral Reyes stepped right through it. “Your honor,” Admiral Reyes jumped in before Commander Drake could ask another question. “Since the prosecution has added an expert witness testimony not previously provided on the witness list, might I also cross-examine the witness while she’s on the stand?”

“Objection,” Commander Drake countered instantly.

Captain Adler didn’t even wait for his supposed justification though. “You can’t have it both ways, Commander,” the senior hearing officer admonished with a disapproving glare. Admiral Reyes’ request was, given Commander Drake’s little stunt, absolutely appropriate. “I allowed your – to put it as gently as I can – last minute entrance of Dr. Hall as an expert witness, and it’s only fair that I thus also allow the defense an opportunity at cross. Please proceed Admiral.”

Admiral Reyes met Commander Drake’s glare with a devious smile before turning to the witness: “Dr. Hall, you stated earlier that the Vorta had a form of drug resistance, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, it is well documented in literature from the Dominion War,” Dr. Hall nodded. Once this was all settled, she’d eventually need to update that literature though. She had, through the very acts for which she was now on trial, found a way past that resistance. When the Dominion attacked the free people of the galaxy once more, as she knew they eventually would, even if everyone squirmed about ethics and morals now, in those desperate moments, Starfleet would welcome what she had done, just as they had when the morphogenic virus was unleashed upon the Founders. For now though, she just needed to get through the trial.

“Did the Vorta come by this immunity naturally?” Admiral Reyes asked. “Or was it, shall we say, engineered?” She was, of course, fully aware of the answer. She’d fought them during the War, and she’d studied them after, knowing full well that eventually the time would come that they would have to do it again. And, this past spring, that time came.

“Engineered would be exactly the right word,” Dr. Hall agreed. “The Vorta were once ape-like tree dwellers from a primitive world, as evidenced by their taste for kava nuts and rippleberries, but through genetic manipulation, the Changelings reshaped nearly every aspect of their being, everything from their reverence to the Founders to yes, a fairly impressive resistance to toxins. The Vorta were designed for one purpose, and one purpose alone: to oversee the Dominion.”

“And how, Dr. Hall, do the Vorta procreate?” Admiral Reyes continued.

“Your honor,” interrupted Commander Drake. He didn’t exactly know where the Admiral was going, and that lack of predictability alone was enough for him to object. “I don’t see how this is relevant.”

“Goes to standing,” Admiral Reyes replied. “For whether or not the laws Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall allegedly violated may even be applied to the Vorta.” And now Commander Drake realized what the Admiral was playing at, and that realization sickened him.

“Continue,” Captain Adler nodded, wary of the direction they were going, but unwilling to deprive the defense of the right to make its case as it saw fit. “You may answer the question, doctor.”

“How do the Vorta procreate?” Dr. Hall parroted back. “They don’t. The Vorta are cloned, and in most cases, even their memories are transferred as part of retiring the prior copy of a specific Vorta.”

“The way you describe them, Dr. Hall,” Admiral Reyes noted. “It is almost as though they are automatons, not living creatures with a sense of independence and free will. Would it be accurate to say that the Vorta might be described as a biological construct with a semi-sentient neural network, designed wholly to do the bidding of the Founders, no different than say an A500 synth was designed to do ours?”

At the mention of the model of synths that had sowed death and destruction across the surface of Mars, there was a notable gasp from those in the chamber. And then came the realization that the Admiral was trying to strip the Vorta of the most basic protections afforded to all life.

“Yes, that would be a fair analogy,” nodded Dr. Hall, a slight hint of a smile crossing her face, the first visible sign of emotion she’d shown over the last several hours. The Admiral had really gone there, a place no normal attorney, defender or otherwise, would dare go.

“And if the Vorta is just a construct, was was it alleged even really torture or murder? Or is it really just manipulation of a synthetic construct’s function?” There was not even the slightest hint of remorse in the Admiral’s voice. She had absolutely zero empathy for the Dominion. Not after the War, and not after Nasera. “The Founders certainly refer to the termination of a Vorta as nothing more than disabling a defective unit.”

“I think that is a fair question,” agreed Dr. Hall as she savored the panicked expression washing over Commander Drake’s face. This was most certainly not where the JAG had expected the trial to go. “Unfortunately, as an expert witness, I can testify only within the scope of my practice, and I am not qualified to assess the legal frameworks that…”

“Your honor, what is this?!” Commander Drake finally interrupted as he got his wits about him as it related to this farflung legal theory. “The Admiral and the doctor, they dishonor these proceedings by mocking them as such, and they play you as a fool!”

“Your honor,” Admiral Reyes jumped back in, giving the Commander no room to maneuver, but keeping her focus solely on Captain Adler. “I hereby submit a motion for summary dismissal on the grounds that Starfleet General Orders 2 and 4, Starfleet Security Protocol 49, the First Guarantee of the Charter of the United Federation of Planets, and the litany of other laws and treaties the Office of the Judge Advocate General has recklessly thrown into this preferral, pertain only to, as the Preamble of the Charter itself clearly articulates, ‘the lifeforms of the United Federation of Planets’ and ‘the fundamental rights of sentient beings’. And based on the testimony of the prosecution’s own witness, the Vorta is neither.”

“This is nonsense!” Commander Drake shouted. “By entering into a treaty with the synths of Coppelius, the Federation Council acknowledged that…”

“That the Maddox-Soong synths of Copellius Station were entitled to the rights of all other sentient lifeforms,” Admiral Reyes interrupted. She knew what he was reaching for. “But there are decades – centuries even – of case law that found other automatons, and even some forms of organic life, do not qualify for such rights. Just as you cannot charge Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall under the First Guarantee of the Charter for allegedly killing your cat, neither can you charge them for allegedly killing the Founder’s pet.”

For a moment, there was only stunned silence at the assertion she’d just made.

Even Captain Adler, as much as he believed in the importance of objective neutrality, struggled to contain his own feelings. “Admiral, let me make sure I am understanding you right,” the senior hearing officer clarified. “Do you really mean to argue that the Vorta, as a species, do not have a fundamental right to a protection against torture and murder?” It was a ghastly assertion, but as he thought back to the Dominion War, and to many wars and conflicts before that, he recalled many officers who had taken similar positions.

“It is not me arguing that,” Admiral Reyes replied slyly. “It is the facts that say as much.” But no, she did not believe the Vorta deserved such protections. Not after all that it, and its masters, had done to the free species of the galaxy.

Captain Adler was not ready to set precedent so abruptly, so after a moment of contemplation, he chose a measured middle ground. “The purpose of this hearing is to determine whether the basic facts of this case have merit, and we will defer consideration of the Admiral’s motion as to the applicability of the law until after a determination on those facts is made.” And if the prosecution could not make its case on the facts, then he would not have to play god and make a determination on life itself.

He had come expecting to rule on the matter of war crimes, but now, this case threatened to become a decision on humanity. “I did not want to kill you,” Captain Adler said, staring at the stars as if addressing the universe itself, yet while speaking to no one at all. “But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late.” Was the Vorta that to those who stood accused? Or were the defendants that to him?

“A curious quote, Eleazar,” came the voice of Captain Elsie Drake, the younger sister of the prosecutor and the attache to Rear Admiral Grayson. Quietly, she’d let herself into the anteroom to let the hearing office know that everyone had returned from the lunch recess. “I gather not one of your own creation though?”

“No, most certainly not,” Captain Adler replied as he turned away from the window to face his young colleague. “It’s from a book, All Quiet on the Western Front, written about Earth many generations ago.” The vacant expression on her face told him that she knew not of the reference. “It was an attempt to dissect the greatest war the people of twentieth century Earth had ever known… and at this moment, it feels far too applicable.”

The young woman looked at him curiously. She wasn’t following.

“The Admiral, she asks the question of an enemy whose humanity she no longer sees,” Captain Alder explained. “And me, I do not have it in me to find that an entire species is not entitled to the same fundamental rights as you or I.”

“As the hearing officer for this case,” Captain Drake pointed out. “That is your prerogative.”

“But it’s not, Elsie,” Captain Adler shook his head. “My responsibility is to find based on the facts and the law. Nothing more, and nothing less. The Admiral raised an important, albeit repulsive question, one that, if this goes forward, I will be forced to answer.”

“And where is your head at now?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure,” Captain Adler admitted. “All this synthetic life stuff, it sort of came after my time as a litigator. Back then, we had only the Louvois ruling. Now, things are far more complex.” The law now extended to some synthetic life, such as those of Coppelius Station, but the Admiral also had a point that the Vorta had many traits more akin to the very synths that the law still considered to not have such protections.

Captain Drake did not envy the position the older man found himself in. “If it’s any solace, she offered, although the disappointment was evident in her eyes. “You may not even need to figure it out because first, my brother needs to actually prove his case, which, if I’m being fully honest, is not a foregone conclusion.”

“And, if I’m being candid, Elsie, that saddens me too,” Captain Adler replied regretfully as he set a hand on her shoulder. “Your brother has had a remarkable career, but this isn’t his finest performance. He seems desperate. Him and Reyes, they both do, but you see, the standard is not equal. Reyes must only demonstrate a measure of doubt, while he must prove his case beyond a doubt.”

Captain Drake frowned, although she wasn’t even sure specifically why. Was it on account of her brother? Or Reyes? Or both? “Is it odd,” she asked. “That I feel I will be disappointed no matter which way this case turns out?”

“No,” Captain Adler assured her. “It is an indication of that which makes you strong.” He meant it too. The young woman had impressed him through her thoughtful and impartial approach, even with her brother as a party to the case. “These people, they have suffered through so much. That suffering, it takes you to impossible places. But that is why we have the law. The law is impartial. It offers us a true north when our own compass goes wonky.” And as he said it, he remembered his truth. The law would lead him to the right place. The just place. Just as it always had.

“No matter how many times you ask the question, and no matter how many ways you say it, the answer will always be the same. I don’t fucking know.”

“Then why, Chief Shafir, did your dear friend wind up dead in his quarters?” Commander Drake’s tone was equal parts ruthless and remorseless. The gloves were off. If Admiral Reyes was willing to try and strip the victim, a creature that had been executed by Starfleet’s own, of his most basic rights, then nothing was off limits. “If not for what happened on Nasera, why did Lieutenant Morgan put his sidearm to his head and pull the trigger?”

“Because of you,” the Polaris’ Intelligence & Computer Systems Specialist uttered darkly. Her eyes were blacker than black, and the fury was building within her. How dare he, of all people, speak to her about Jace? She held him responsible for Jace’s death, and someday, she would make him pay – with his life, if she had her way. “You killed Lieutenant Morgan.”

The chambers burst into a raucous commotion. It was a truly sensational accusation. 

“Order! Order!” shouted Captain Adler, slamming his gavel hard against its block. If the morning’s proceedings had been the appetizer, they were on the main course, and all of it was rotten. “I will have order!”

Slowly, the room quieted.

“This court shall remind the witness that she is under oath,” Captain Adler scolded Chief Shafir.  “Your comment shall be stricken from the record unless you can render further substantiation to the claim.” Commander Drake had a smug look on his face, but then the elder hearing officer turned towards him. “And Commander, you need to keep your questions relevant to the matter at hand. As heartbreaking as the untimely death of Lieutenant Morgan was, it occurred months after the crimes alleged in the complaint.” It was one of the many unfortunate outcomes of a prosecution – or a persecution, even – that had blurred the lines between personal and professional. This was not what they meant when they said lady justice was blind.

“Oh, my apologies, your honor,” Commander Drake smiled deviously as he walked around the table and approached the stand. “I guess I wasn’t clear, but you see, Jace Morgan’s death is directly related to this case.” There was a twinkle in his eye as he stared at Chief Shafir, ready to land the killing blow. “You see, as the Chief here is fully aware, Lieutenant Morgan killed himself, not because of me, but because of his guilt… guilt for the very crime that he perpetrated in concert with the defendants.”

“Objection,” Admiral Reyes interjected from the defense table. She was growing mighty tired of the baseless claims leveled by Commander Drake. They were rhetorical tricks meant to distract the process and diminish the witness. “No substantiation of claims, a matter of hearsay, and a lack of relevance to my clients and the allegations against them.” She looked over at the JAG prosecutor and shook her head. “Really the golden trio you got going there, Robert.”

Commander Drake, for his part, looked completely unphased, and that worried her. The reality was that he had a hammer to drop, and now was the time. Commander Drake walked over to the clerk and handed him an isolinear chip. “Your honor, I apologize for the late submission, but the prosecution now seeks to enter into evidence a recording that recently came into our possession.”

Admiral Reyes eyed him warily. “Your honor, this is most unusual.” She did not like surprises. “Just this morning, and mighty last minute might I add, counsel provided its final exhibit list. Under the rules of evidence…”

“Would the court deprive us of our ability to make our case?” Commander Drake interrupted. He knew he was toeing the rules in not providing prior review, and that the defense thus did have grounds to object, but it was a calculated risk. He hadn’t wanted the defense to have an early look at this one, and he was betting on Captain Adler’s tendency, as an elder statesman of justice, to prefer facts over process.

“Much of this case has been unusual,” Captain Adler replied in an exhausted tone. “But of all the requests made of the bench today, this is hardly the most concerning.” Both the Commander and the Admiral had worn on him. “As such, I will permit it, but Commander, don’t make me regret it.”

The clerk accepted the isolinear chip and queued it up. A moment later, the recording began to play over the room’s speakers.

“I took an oath, and I knew my duty, but in the end, I betrayed it all.”

Chief Shafir froze as Lieutenant Morgan’s voice echoed through the chamber. She’d deleted that recording. She did it the morning they found Jace lying face down in his quarters. She and Captain Lewis had concluded it would be best for his final words to go to the grave with him. That wasn’t how Jace, a true hero, deserved to be remembered. How, then, did Commander Drake have it in his possession?

“I did things no man should do. I acted as judge and jury and executioner. I decided who should live, and who should die. I played god.”

Commander Drake looked around the room, reveling in the expressions of the audience as they took in the confession of a guilty man. A dead man sure, but a guilty man nonetheless – a guilty man from Captain Lewis’ team who was admitting, in his own words, to executing a prisoner of war without due process.

“During his deposition, Commander Drake asked: ‘How can you live with yourself after that?’ Truthfully, I can’t. Every time I shut my eyes, I relive that nightmare, over and over, again and again, until there’s nothing left of me. My captors on Earth, they had it right too. ‘You can make this all stop,’ they said. ‘You can make this all go away.’ They were right. I can, and I will. It is the only way.”

The sound of a single phaser discharge rang out over the courtroom speakers, and then there was silence. For a moment, nothing but silence.

“Those are not the words of an innocent man from an innocent team,” Commander Drake stated pointedly as he turned back to Chief Shafir. She just stared back at him. “What, Chief? Cat got your tongue?” The smile plastered across his face said it all. Not only was he going to lock up Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall, but now he was also going to take Chief Shafir down too for criminal conspiracy. “That recording was erased from the Serenity’s computer core within hours of when it was taken. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

“No, not a thing,” Chief Shafir shook her head unequivocally. Even if Commander Drake had managed to acquire a copy of the log, she was confident she’d left no fingerprints. “Maybe it was a cosmic ray or something that jumbled those zeroes and ones?”

“Are you sure, Sayyida Alfawdaa?” Commander Drake pressed, fully acquainted with her past, now dragging it into full display for the court. Ayala Shafir should never have been allowed to don those pips – not with the sins of her past – and he’d be damned if he let her keep them.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chief Shafir asked, trying to stay composed. Captain Lewis had warned her that he would drag her through the mud, but she hadn’t realized how deep he would dig or how dirty he would get.

“You were a hacker, Miss Shafir, and a damn good one. You did time for your crimes, and supposedly, you’re a  changed woman, but you see, I’m not an idiot. While you all gallivanted off to Earth with the Admiral, we were busy filing for a court-authorized wiretap, you know, just in case some important evidence – evidence like this – decided to go missing.”

Chief Shafir didn’t reply. She just sat there.

“You see, while that ammosexual smut we found on Captain Lewis’ system was disturbing, it’s not illegal,” Commander Drake continued, unconcerned by her silence. “But this my dear lady, this is what we call a confession.”

Admiral Reyes had patiently waited as it unfolded, biding her time for the right moment. “A confession, yes,” she finally spoke up. “But not from my clients. You’re welcome to charge a dead man, if you’d like, but neither Captain Lewis, nor Dr. Hall are connected, in any way, to whatever confession Lieutenant Morgan has made in this recording.” She didn’t like the idea of dishonoring the fallen, but the dead had no memories. Better, in her eyes, to stick the dead with the crime than those who still served a purpose in the living.

“But who then deleted it from the system then, hmmm?” Commander Drake asked aggressively as he raised his PADD. “I have here logs from the USS Serenity. Chief Shafir, you entered Lieutenant Morgan’s quarters at 0450, and at 0700, Captain Lewis arrived. By the time you and Captain Lewis released the crime scene to my investigators, the recording was gone. That makes you and Captain Lewis responsible.”

It wasn’t a good look, and Chief Shafir knew it. “I deleted it.” The confession was abrupt, and it shocked everyone in the room. The Chief glanced over at the Admiral. Even the Admiral looked stunned. “I deleted it of my own volition, without telling anyone.”

“And that, your honor, is what we call a cover up,” Commander Drake noted as he folded his arms across his chest emphatically.

“A cover up?” Admiral Reyes mused. “My colleague appears confused. A cover up requires a crime, and as far as I can tell, the Office of the Judge Advocate General has not even charged the officer in the confession with a crime.” Before Commander Drake could reply though, Admiral Reyes turned back to the Chief. “Why did you delete the recording, Miss Shafir?”

“I did not want Jace to be remembered that way,” Chief Shafir explained, her tone genuine and sincere. Now the ball was back in her possession, and she intended to run it down the court. “Jace was a hero. He fought for us, for Nasera, and for all of humanity, and then, on Earth, he did it again. He bled for us, and he almost died for us.” She let the tears flow. Intentionally. “And what did we do for him? Nothing. Nothing except villainize him. I… I… I just wanted people to see him for the man he was, rather than for the demons that consumed him in the end.”

It was a moving moment, and the momentum in the room shifted.

From the defense table, Captain Lewis nodded somberly. He knew she meant every word, but he was also proud of her performance. She had, except for one little fib, told the complete truth, and in doing so, her emotions were real, and that made her entire statement, including that one little lie she’d buried amongst the truth, appear completely convincing.

Admiral Reyes waited for a moment to allow the dramatic effect to settle, but then, before Commander Drake could jump back in, she drove to another question: “Chief, at any point did you receive instructions from either Captain Lewis or Dr. Hall to delete this recording?”

“No ma’am.”

“And are you aware of any involvement by Captain Lewis or Dr. Hall in any crimes that Lieutenant Morgan may or may not have allegedly committed?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Then respectfully,” Admiral Reyes said as she directed her gaze back at Captain Adler. “Unless the prosecution is looking to instead charge the deceased, I do not see the relevance of this recording. It certainly has nothing to do with my clients and this preferral.”

“It was a crime for Chief Shafir to delete a personal log,” Commander Drake pointed out.

“Yes, and you’re welcome to refer that to my office,” Admiral Reyes smiled. “We would of course look into whether an administrative disciplinary action is necessary, but it certainly does not rise to the bar of a General Court Martial.”

“Ensign Rel, you were part of the covert operations conducted on Nasera II during the night of March 16, 2401,” the prosecutor opened as the flight controller took her seat. “While I understand that you were assigned to a different objective, what did you know of the plans and proceedings of the assault undertaken by Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall against the Nasera governor’s estate?”

“I knew of the general plan, but beyond that, not much,” Ensign Rel answered truthfully. “To be perfectly honest, besides timing, all we had were general plans. The reality is that, in the chaos of combat, you sort of set out in the right direction, and then you’ve just got to make it work.” As opposed to the others from the Polaris’ Hazard Team, Elyssia Rel’s tone was neither hostile nor confrontational. In fact, the Trill ensign seemed almost apologetic that she didn’t have more to share. “Plus, once operations got underway, we were out of communication as we crawled our way through the maintenance tunnels beneath Nasera City.”

“Yes, yes,” Commander Drake said with a flippant flick of the wrist. “Blowing up Lieutenant Commander Jordan and all that jazz.” His dismissive attitude over the death of a fellow officer caught Rel off guard. She hadn’t been part of the earlier proceedings. “Your colleague, Chief Petty Officer Shafir, already testified in regards to that clusterfuck, but on the matter of the assault against the governor’s mansion, tell us what you knew of that plan.”

“Well, intelligence had come to us that the Vorta commander responsible for the occupation had taken up residence at the mansion,” Ensign Rel explained. “That made it a high value target.”

“A target, yes, but to what end?”

“Come again?” Ensign Rel asked. She didn’t understand what he was getting at.

“The plan was to capture the Vorta,” Commander Drake gestured with his hands as if trying to pull something out of her. “But to what end? Once the Vorta was captured, what did the team plan to do with him?”

“A classic strategy in any battle is to decapitate the command-and-control structure,” Ensign Rel started to explain before realizing her unfortunate choice of words. “Sorry, that came out wrong… I didn’t mean to decapitate in a physical sense… just that the Jem’Hadar would be leaderless and without coordination.” 

“Yes, I’m sure it was just a slip of the tongue,” Commander Drake chuckled sarcastically in reference to her word choice. “After all, the Vorta wasn’t decapitated. He just had his brains blown all over the floor.”

Ensign Rel looked panicked. She was doing his job for him. “Yes, umm…” Ensign Rel tried to continue, fumbling her words a bit. Her lack of experience in a courtroom was very evident, but it also helped her come across as genuine. “The assault was to be carried out simultaneously with our attack on the planetary defense system’s control center in order to create maximum disruption for when the Polaris came out of warp overhead.”

“I gather, given the complexity and synchronicity required for success,” Commander Drake continued to press. “That you and your team went through a fairly detailed planning process for the operation?”

Ensign Rel shook her head. Hadn’t she just said the opposite? “As I already said, planning only gets you so far.” Her thoughts drifted back to when she and Chief Shafir found themselves alone under the command center, faced with an impossible choice. The plan had always been to press the detonator, but not while Lieutenant Commander Jordan was still inside. “At a certain point, you’re off script, and you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do.” 

“Yes, of course,” nodded Commander Drake disinterestedly. He had a point to his questions, and it wasn’t an elementary education in the fog of war. “But there had to be planning beforehand, and while planning, did anyone ever mention anything about what they planned to do once they captured the Vorta?”

“No sir.”

“What about torturing it?”

“No, as I…” she began to say.

Commander Darke just kept the rapid-fire questions coming: “Or murder?”

“Absolutely not,” Ensign Rel insisted emphatically.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course! I would not soon forget if something so heinous was proposed!” Ensign Rel assured him, her face aghast at the suggestion. And it was believable too, courtesy of her apparent youth and naivete. Even if it wasn’t true. Even if she’d died at their hands once before. She would not soon forget dying on the floor of that lifepod feeling from the Chin’toka system. “I am a Starfleet officer. I swore an oath. We all did. We went to Nasera to defend the people – our people – but who would we be if, in that fight, we became the very monsters we fought?”

Around the room, her appeal landed, both with the audience and with the elder hearing officer presiding over the case. The seemingly genuine words of a willowy young woman with silky hair and fair skin were hard to ignore, and they believed her – just as she meant them to.

Commander Drake, though, was unmoved. He knew who Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall were, and he knew the sort of people they associated with. Even if this girl was fooling the others with her innocence charade, she wasn’t fooling him. “What about afterwards?”

“Afterwards?” Ensign Rel asked. “What do you mean afterwards?”

“I mean what did Captain Lewis tell you afterwards about what they did to that Vorta?”

“Nothing, sir.”

“Nothing about torture or murder?”

“No sir.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes sir.”

The staccato of quick questions was meant to disorient, but suddenly, there was a shift in his expression, a maniacal twinkle of sorts in his eye. He was ready to deliver the killshot. “How about when you two were in bed?”

There was an audible gasp around the room. What had the prosecutor just charged? That the Serenity’s flight controller was sleeping with its captain? Ensign Rel looked like she was about to vomit. How had they… how had they found out?

Commander Drake’s eyes narrowed on the ensign. He was going for the jugular. “Did the Captain let anything slip during a moment of passion while you two were, shall we say, fucking?”

Ensign Rel lost any semblance of composure. She looked like she was about to break. She’d come to testify about a desperate battle, one where they’d lost half their team and almost the rest, but out of nowhere, the prosecutor had stripped her bare, exposing her most intimate and personal moments, moments unrelated to the events of the preferral at all, in a room full of strangers and colleagues alike. How did that even make sense?

“Objection!” shouted Admiral Reyes as she rose from the defense’s table. She could see the Ensign up there, stripped bare for all to see, and she felt for the young woman. It wasn’t fair. Not in the slightest. “Objection!” She wasn’t even sure what the basis for her objection was yet, but she knew she needed to stop it. “Objection!”

Commander Drake didn’t slow the attack. He didn’t care that Admiral Reyes had objected, and he didn’t wait for Captain Adler to address her objection. Instead, he just pressed the offensive, savagely and aggressively. “Did you know you were sleeping with a murderer?” His anger, now, was on full display. He was done with Captain Lewis and his goon squad. “A man who pumped the Vorta full of torture drugs and then shot him in the…”

“Ob-FUCKING-jection!!!” Admiral Reyes shouted furiously in a voice that commanded the attention of the entire room. She looked over at Commander Drake and shook her head. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Robert.” She’d once respected him so deeply, but now she just wanted to reach out and slap him. “This isn’t justice. It’s a fucking inquisition.” 

Commander Drake just stood there smirking. If Lewis and his goons weren’t going to play fair, then neither would he. Ensign Rel had slept with the enemy. That made her the enemy.

“What does how or with whom this fine young officer chooses to spend her off hours have to do with your allegations of war crimes?” Admiral Reyes spat at Commander Drake before she turned to Captain Adler. “I demand the prior comment stricken from the record, and frankly, I have half a mind to request censure of opposing counsel for falsely impugning the witness.”

“Objection,” Commander Drake countered. “Ensign Rel’s personal relationship with the defendant goes to her credibility.” He wasn’t wrong either. Not entirely, at least. Personal relationships could absolutely taint testimony.

Sitting up there on the witness stand in front of everyone, never had Ensign Rel felt more alone. She looked across the room, seeking something to stabilize herself. After a moment, her eyes settled on Captain Lewis. He just sat there, arms folded across his chest, unreadable as always. He never cracked. He always had a next move. She needed to be more like him. Her gaze drifted back to the presiding officer. “Your honor,” she asked as she recomposed herself. “With your permission, may I make a statement?”

“I think that would be appropriate,” Captain Adler nodded. He couldn’t help but feel for her. She was demonstrably not present at the governor’s mansion. She was not on trial, and as far as the questioning was concerned, she had been neither hostile, nor confrontational, and even if Commander Drake’s accusations were accurate, her violations of policy did not rise beyond administrative discipline. They certainly didn’t belong here. In this proceeding, she’d just been hit as collateral, and he was not a fan of his courtroom being used that way. “You may make a statement.”

“It is true what the Commander says,” Ensign Rel admitted, but she was going to turn an embarrassing situation into an opportunity. “Through the crucible of Nasera, the battle of the Ciatar Nebula, and the tragedy of Frontier Day, Captain Lewis and I have grown close, but that simply means I’ve gotten to see him in a way few others have.” She locked eyes with Captain Lewis. “Beneath his weathered skin and his cold exterior, Jake Lewis is a good man, a decent man, a man who has sacrificed every ounce of his being so that all of us, each and every one of us here in this room, and everyone across the Federation, can have a better life.”

“Objection!” interrupted Commander Drake. “Hearsay.” His gambit was quickly turning against him. He didn’t need the little girl pulling on anyone’s heartstrings.

“Goes to character of the defendant,” Admiral Reyes countered, parroting Commander Drake’s own words back at him. “Commander Drake can’t have it both ways.” She hadn’t expected this to happen, and she certainly would never have put Ensign Rel in this place, but she recognized this turn of events could end up working in their favor.

“The Admiral is right, Commander. You opened this door for Ensign Rel to serve as a character witness, so let’s let her speak to that character,” Captain Adler concluded. He would let her have her moment. “Please continue, Ensign.”

“The Captain, he never waivers, and he never cracks,” Ensign Rel continued as her gaze stayed centered on the man who, through the horrors of the past year, she’d begun to fall for. “He is an inspiration to each of us because, no matter the stakes, no matter the risk to life or limb, he will always do what is right.” She pulled her gaze away from Captain Lewis and addressed the room. “Does that sound like a man who would violate the very principles on which our great Federation is built, the principles he’s willing to fight for… willing to die for?”

“In your professional experience as a forensic medical examiner, what would you posit as the most likely reason for the drugs found in the victim’s bloodstream?”

“Enhanced interrogation with the intent to compel the subject to action against their will,” Lieutenant Commander Terok replied firmly. “There is no other logical purpose for the combination of drugs identified in the toxicology report.” In fact, mixing that specific set of drugs had been all but asking for a physiological and psychiatric disaster.

“Doctor Henderson, do you agree with the examiner’s assessment?” Commander Drake asked, turning from his medical examiner to the USS Polaris’ Chief Medical Officer. While it was unconventional to seek the testimony of two expert witnesses simultaneously, both he and Admiral Reyes had agreed to this format, where they would be able to interview the defense’s expert and the prosecution’s expert at the same time.

“I do,” Dr. Henderson confirmed.

“And if you were asked to administer a cocktail such as this to someone,” Commander Drake inquired. “What would be your reaction?”

“I would refuse,” Dr. Henderson answered, a disturbed look washing across his face at the mere suggestion. “As doctors, we take a pledge to do no harm, and administration of this combination of agonists and antagonists would absolutely violate that. In fact, while I am not an expert in Vorta anatomy, I would presume that, were it not for the secondary medications, the subject would have succumbed to fatal cardiotoxicity within minutes of administration.”

“And doctor,” Commander Drake pressed. “Over your illustrious forty year career of public service, have you ever seen someone with this particular combination of substances in their bloodstream before?” They’d done their digging. They knew this was not the first time the good doctor had stumbled across a situation like this.

“Yes, once before,” Dr. Henderson recalled as he thought back as his expression shifted from disturbed to haunted. “It was something similar, maybe even exactly the same. You’ll have to forgive me that I cannot recall completely, but it was long ago, back during the Dominion War. We came across a Cardassian with a similar cocktail of psychoactives in his bloodstream.”

“And what did you do?”

“We stabilized the patient, and then we filed a report with the Office of the Inspector General.”

“The Inspector General?” Commander Drake feigned surprise. “That doesn’t sound like a typical day in the field. Why would you file a report with the Inspector General?” He, of course, already knew the answer, a corollary to what he now alleged of Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall.

“Because the Cardassian had been in Starfleet custody prior,” Dr. Henderson explained. “And we were concerned it might suggest the commission of crimes against humanity. We are, as doctors, always on the lookout for such malfeasance, as we, all too often, are the ones who see the consequences firsthand.”

“Do you know what came of your report?”

“Not exactly,” admitted Dr. Henderson. “I tried to follow up on it. Many of us did, in fact. It was very disturbing to us, just like what you’re showing me now is quite disturbing. Unfortunately, we were told to bugger off by Starfleet Intelligence. They cited obscure Starfleet Security directives. It was, after all, the middle of a war.” A war where, as the rumors went, some within Starfleet eventually went so far as to unleash a morphogenic plague specifically targeting Changelings. His report of torture drugs palled in comparison to that, and ultimately, neither his report, nor the rumors of the attempted genocide, ever went anywhere.

“Starfleet Intelligence, hmm?” Commander Drake mused rhetorically. “The same organization that both Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall worked with for years.” An organization that he absolutely despised.

Admiral Reyes, for her part, saw no purpose in litigating the purpose of the drugs. That wasn’t a winnable battle. Instead, she chose a different path. “Dr. Henderson, looking at the toxicology report, I’ll admit I don’t recognize half the words, but tell me, if I went to a medical replicator and attempted to fabricate, for example, anticholinergics and arylcyclohexylamines, what would happen?”

“It would reject your order.”

“Even as a Fleet Admiral?”

“Yes, even as a Fleet Admiral,” Dr. Henderson confirmed. “Both are regulated and restricted substances that can only be replicated by those with specific medical clearance.”

“And who, aboard the USS Polaris, has such clearance?”

“Only I, as the ship’s Chief Medical Officer, can authorize such a requisition… unless I am incapacitated, in which case, that authority transfers down my line of succession within the medical department.”

“And did you, Doctor Henderson, ever provide such authorization to Captain Lewis, Dr. Hall, or any other member of their team?”

“No, ma’am.”

“And were you ever incapacitated such as someone else might have?”

“Not that I’m aware.”

“Suppose, for a minute, the JAG accuses you of lying,” Admiral Reyes pressed, looking over at the prosecutor who had already made far more reprehensible accusations during the course of the preferral. “What would you say to that?”

The doctor looked offended at the mere suggestion. “As a healer, I took a solemn pledge to consecrate my life to the service of humanity,” Dr. Henderson replied, his voice booming with sincerity as he spoke his truth. “To practice with conscience and dignity, to heal, to help, and to save. That, ma’am, is my calling, and so long as I shall live, I will rise to that calling each and every day. What you are saying would be completely antithetical to that.”

“And doctor, I don’t question that for a moment,” Admiral Reyes assured him genuinely. “But during the course of this trial, insinuations have been made that, to win our war, our officers might compromise even their most important values… so what say you?”

“I would sooner die than do that,” Dr. Henderson replied firmly. He meant it too. There was nothing he held more sacred. “But, even if you don’t believe me, you should know that, in the requisition of such tightly controlled substances, there are systems and protocols in place that generate an audit trail that no one – not me, not my staff, not the computer systems engineers, and not even you as a Fleet Admiral – can erase without leaving a trace.”

It wasn’t exactly true, Admiral Reyes knew. Certain parties had mechanisms for overriding such systems in the interest of Federation security, but that was a closely guarded secret, one never acknowledged in public circles. And thus, for the sake of this trial, it was enough. She turned to the medical examiner. “Commander Terok, I have always known you to be a very diligent investigator,” the admiral offered. “So I would presume you looked into this?”

“I did,” Lieutenant Commander Terok acknowledged.

“And did you find any trace of either such a requisition, or any tampering?”

“I did not.”

“So, why then, are we even having this conversation?” Admiral Reyes asked as she turned to Captain Adler, the presiding officer. “Unless the prosecution can present evidence that places Captain Lewis, Dr. Hall, or a member of their team in possession of these drugs, I see no purpose in this line of questioning.”

“We have reason to believe that the drugs may have come from the private military contractor that provided ‘logistical’ support for the operation,” Commander Drake insisted. “Including, but likely not limited to, the Ferengi trawler, the SS Lucre, that was used to slip past the Dominion blockade.” Disdain was evident in his tone, both because he despised the use of civilians in military operations, and also because of what the firm in question really was.

“Do you have any evidence to back up this claim, Commander?”

“We have tried to reach out to Sebold Industries, which, might I add, was Captain Lewis’ old outfit,” Commander Drake explained. “But they have not answered our subpoena.”

And they never would, Admiral Reyes knew. They were, at the end of the day, shielded by Starfleet Intelligence, who relied on them for services exactly like the ones they had provided to save Nasera, services that could never be publicly acknowledged but were absolutely essential. And that meant the JAG would never tie Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Hall to either the drugs or the murder weapon.

“This court is now prepared to render a decision in the preferral of changes brought by the Office of the Judge Advocate General against Captain Jacob Daniel Lewis and Lieutenant Lisa Anne Hall, Ph.D.,” Captain Adler began as he called the chambers back to order. With the testimony complete, and the arguments made, it was time to render a verdict. He’d seen enough, and he’d heard enough. There was no point in delaying further.

At the table for the defense, Captain Lewis sat with his arms folded across his chest, and Dr. Hall leaned back in her chair, her face ice cold. The defendants were, as they had been for most of the proceedings, unreadable. It made them seem remorseless, but remorse was not relevant to this determination. Neither was Captain Adler’s personal opinion of the pair, nor his opinion of the conduct of the witnesses, the prosecution, or the admiral serving as counsel for the defense. If his personal opinion had mattered, he’d have thrown the whole lot of them out an airlock, but lady justice was blind, and Eleazar Adler would not allow his personal opinions to taint his judicial opinion.

“I cannot overstate the gravity of the charges brought before this court, nor the gravity of the circumstances under which these officers found themselves,” Captain Adler acknowledged grimly. “However, gravity does not define a case, and gravity does not excuse impropriety. It is the responsibility of this court to review, in a purely objective manner, the facts as presented, and to issue a determination, based on the letter of the law, as to whether or not the evidence is sufficient to justify referral to a General Court Martial.” This was not the first controversial case Eleazar Adler had presided over, and it would not be the last, but it was his hope that, regardless of their feelings, all would accept the ruling nonetheless. “Would the defendants please rise?”

In unison, Captain Lewis, the haggard veteran of an earlier era who’d led the covert mission to Nasera, and Dr. Hall, the psychologist of questionable morals who’d accompanied the team, rose from their seats. Even as they rose, still their expressions gave nothing of their emotions away.

“This court finds the facts related to what occurred on Nasera II most disturbing,” Captain Adler noted. “And it is my opinion that there was a preponderance of evidence that the Vorta was, in fact, the victim of crimes against humanity.”

Commander Drake looked smug as the presiding officer spoke. From Captain Adler’s words, it was clear that he had not been swayed by Admiral Reyes’ argument that the Vorta did not qualify as a lifeform entitled to the fundamental protections enshrined within the Charter of the United Federation of Planets.

“However, on the matter of the four specific counts raised in this preferral, the court finds that, while there were certainly concerning irregularities in the record, there is not sufficient evidence that the defendants were themselves the perpetrators of those crimes,” Captain Adler stated firmly, his choice of words precise for he did not, in his heart, believe the defendants innocent, even though he could not, as an arbiter of the law, rule to the contrary. “And consequently, this preferral does not meet the bar necessary to be referred to a General Court Martial.”

Commander Drake’s face turned red – bright red – flushed with anger. How could Captain Adler sit up there, after hearing all he’d heard today, and not agree that there was enough to bring this matter forward?

Captain Adler turned towards the defendants. “Captain Lewis, Dr. Hall, as a consequence of this ruling, you are free to go.” The expression on his face betrayed his personal feelings and, before they left, he offered a stern warning. “As you depart from here today, I beg of you to think hard on the oath you swore as commissioned officers and remember your solemn duty to uphold the values of the Federation that we all hold so dear.”

“Thank you, your honor,” nodded Captain Lewis calmly. “You can rest assured that, as always, we will do whatever it takes to protect the Federation and its interests.” And he meant it. The only difference was the lines he would cross to make that a reality, lines that Captain Adler, Commander Drake and the others would never truly understand.

Dr. Hall, for her sake, simply nodded, and then the two of them took their leave.

Slowly, the chamber began to empty, but Commander Drake stayed sitting, staring seethingly at the bench where Captain Adler sat. He couldn’t believe it. He’d heard in the Captain’s words that the Captain did not believe the defendants innocent, but the old man hadn’t had the stomach to allow the trial to go forward. It was a disgrace to justice.

Admiral Reyes, for her sake, stayed seated, as did Captain Elsie Drake, the sister of the prosecutor, who sat quietly in the back. Both of them could tell that Commander Drake still had something to say, and neither intended to leave Captain Adler alone with the man after he had just handed down a ruling that the brash Robert Drake was unlikely to accept graciously.

Once the chambers were otherwise empty, Commander Drake addressed the senior hearing officer: “You know, in your heart of hearts, that those two were guilty.”

“I know, in my heart of hearts, that something very disturbing happened on Nasera,” Captain Adler counseled. “But Robert, put your feelings aside for a moment and think critically about the case you presented.” He empathized with the man. He’d been young and brash once, just like the young prosecutor before him. He just hoped the man would learn from it.

“Fuck you,” Commander Drake spat, and then he turned to Admiral Reyes. “And fuck you too. You’ve been covering for those two since the beginning.”

Admiral Reyes didn’t flinch, and she didn’t correct his tone, even though she absolutely had grounds to. Instead, she took a gentle tact. “No, Robert, I have not. In fact, I have gone out of my way to stay out of your investigation, maybe too much so…” Her eyes fell to the floor. “A man is dead, in part, because of you.” She’d given him far too much leash. If she had cut off the investigation like Captain Lewis had begged her to, maybe Lieutenant Morgan would still have been alive, but because of her desire to maintain the appearance of neutrality, a man was dead.

“How dare you!” Commander Drake snapped back.

“You played the tape, Robert,” Admiral Reyes reminded him somberly. “You heard his last words. Jace Morgan referenced you by name before he pulled the trigger.”

The blame did not rest solely on him though, Admiral Reyes knew, and it wasn’t even just about this inquisition. Lieutenant Morgan was a victim of the traumas he’d endured, and as much as Commander Drake’s investigation had pushed him over the edge, she and the rest of the leadership team had not served him well in terms of supporting him after the tragedy of Nasera, the desperate battle in the Ciatar Nebula, and the horrors of Frontier Day. They’d just acted like it was all alright, without acknowledging the very human toll it had taken on him.

“And Sebold, what the fuck is up with them?” Commander Drake pressed on, ignoring the points raised by both the elder officers. If he’d just been permitted to send the marshals to collect them and force their testimony, maybe he would have had a case, but he’d been blocked by Starfleet Intelligence. “This cloak and dagger shit, coupled with the lies of those on the stand, made this an impossible case!”

“Sebold Industries is a trusted partner of Starfleet, one who, at great risk to themselves, made the liberation of Nasera possible,” Admiral Reyes reminded him. “And lies? Are you sure, Robert? Are you sure that, in your blind crusade, you did not lose sight of the fact that maybe, just maybe, these two were not guilty? You demonized some of our finest, men and women who put their lives on the line to protect you and save an entire planet, with a case that had no basis in reality.”

Commander Drake was about to respond, but Captain Adler raised a hand to stop him. “The Admiral is right, in this one,” the elder lawyer cautioned. “This discussion is over. You would be best to learn from what happened here today as you go forth.”

There was nothing more he could say. They didn’t get it. 

In a dramatic gesture, Commander Drake reached up to his neck and ripped the pips off his collar. If the deck was so rigged against him, then what the hell was the point of any of this? Angrily, he threw them to the floor. And as the metal clinked against the floor, he was gone, storming out of the chambers without another word.

For a moment, there was only silence.

Admiral Reyes looked over at Captain Drake, who’d the whole thing transpire, and gave a simple nod. It was in that moment that Elsie finally understood her purpose, why Rear Admiral Grayson had sent her. It wasn’t to participate in the case or to manipulate its outcome. It was to make sure that a good man, a fine prosecutor, her own flesh and blood, did not throw his career away over one verdict that didn’t go in his favor. She rose, walked over to where Commander Drake’s pips had landed, picked them up and then, without another word, raced off to find her brother.

“I need to speak with the admiral urgently,” Commander Robert Drake insisted over the video link. “It’s about a legal matter of utmost importance.”

“I’m sorry, Commander, but the Admiral is not taking any calls,” apologized a pale-faced Arcadian. “If you would like to leave a message, I would be happy to pass it along.” 

What the comms officer had neglected to say was that the Admiral wasn’t taking any calls from him. Not for now, at least. Not since Elsie’s flash had come in and let him know that Eleazar Adler had ruled against him. The Admiral knew what the zealous prosecutor would be looking for him to do, and he wasn’t going to do it. It was best to leave it to someone else, someone already aboard the Polaris, to manage for now. At least until the JAG calmed down.

The door to Commander Drake’s office hissed open, causing him to look up. And then he frowned. It was his sister, who’d sat there silently and not so much as raised a finger in the courtroom as a grave injustice was committed. He slammed the screen shut, closing the link with the Arcadian. It wasn’t like he was getting anywhere with the call anyways.

“Here to tell me I was wrong, sis?” Robert shouted angrily. “Here to tell me that the ends justified the means? Or that I shouldn’t have done it because they’d just lie when I put them up there? That I…” His voice choked up as he thought about it. “That I should have ignored the crimes of hardened criminals who flagrantly desecrate our uniform?”

“I’m sorry, Robert,” Elsie said gently as she reached out and touched his shoulder. “I know how much this case mattered to you.” She really did. She’d seen how he fought in the courtroom. Typically, he only took cases he could win, but this one, it meant more to him than his win rate.

“To me? To me?!” Robert asked aghast. “No, sis. Not to me. To the Federation. To its heart and its soul. Those two, they tortured another living being, and then they murdered it in cold blood.” He exhaled deeply. “But the deck was rigged. It was fucking rigged. The witnesses lied, the evidence was tampered with, and the subpoenas went unanswered. And because Eleazar didn’t have the stomach, now those two are right back out there, no consequences, no nothing, ready to do it again.” And he had no doubt they would.

It was a scary thought, Elsie had to admit. Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall hadn’t even bothered to feign innocence or repentance, nor had they seemed even remotely worried about being found guilty. Maybe her brother was right. Maybe the deck was stacked against him. Still, that wasn’t healthy thinking. The burden of proof rested with the prosecution, a fundamental tenet of their system of justice, and so it just sort of was what it was. There was nothing that could be done to change that verdict. It didn’t mean, though, that she wouldn’t keep a closer eye on the reports coming from the USS Serenity in the future. “Who were you trying to call?” 

“Rear Admiral Grayson,” Robert replied, his tone desperate. He needed to find a way around the ruling. He needed to find a way to hold Captain Lewis and Dr. Hall responsible. “As the Task Force 47 Commanding Officer,  he has the ability to overrule the old man and do what is right.” And if Grayson wouldn’t, then he was even debating cold calling Ramar or Barrick.

“He won’t overrule Captain Adler,” Elsie warned. “None of them will. Eleazar is one of the most esteemed veterans of the JAG Corps, and he came here with the full support of Alex and the others. Plus, I’ve also worked with Alex long enough to know that, if you reach him, he’s just going to lecture you on the sanctity of our justice system and then send you on your way. He’d probably also tell you that you’re too close to this thing, that it became too personal.”

Robert looked furious.

“Besides, Grayson can’t help you anyways, since he’s no longer in command of Task Force 47,” Elsie warned. Even if the Rear Admiral wanted to overturn the case, he was no longer the convening authority, and it wasn’t like Sudari-Kravchik would overturn it. Not with her dual loyalties to Starfleet Intelligence.

“Come again?”

“He’s been reassigned to Starbase 27.”

“The old clunker out in that backwater?” Robert chuckled. What a step down from commanding the Fourth Fleet’s task force responsible for pathfinding operations. “Who’d the Admiral upset to get shelved like that?” 

“No one,” Elsie replied. “He wanted it, as did I.” Her brother looked confused. “You see, the aging Starbase 27, the one you’re thinking of, is being retired, and so is our decades-old attitude about the Archanis Sector. A new Canopus-class station has just come online to replace it, and we’re all heading out that way to begin the hard work of revitalizing a borderlands region that has, for far too long, been allowed to fall into disrepair.” The crisis with the Hunters of D’Ghor and the fungal blight of that same year had been the catalyst, and now, the whole situation with Toral had crystalised the need.

“You said we all?” Robert observed. “What exactly did you mean by that?”

“I mean you included, Robert,” Elsie replied calmly. “In fact, Grayson all but insisted. A sector like Archanis, neglected for so long, is in need of someone like you. Think about your work in the Triangle back in the early nineties. This could be like that, all over again. You are one of the best frontier prosecutors we have.” She set the three pips he’d discarded in the courtroom on the table in front of him. “Join us, and help us make a difference.”

Robert stared at the three pips on the desk before him. “How can you say that after what just happened?” He’d just suffered a gruesome defeat.

“I can say it more emphatically now than ever,” his sister replied kindly as she pushed the pips towards him. “This is a fresh start Robert, for you and for the sector. It’s a place where you can make a difference, where you can put an end to exploitative practices by criminals and pirates who’ve taken advantage of our absence, and where you can show skeptical colonists what the Federation can truly be for them.”

“Ok, I’ll admit, you have me intrigued,” Robert shared as his tone softened for the first time all day. Maybe it would be good for a fresh start, and there was an appeal to something like this. “But it comes with the condition that I have full judicial autonomy.”

“Alex would have it no other way.”

“And my team? Do they come with me?” He’d spent the last few years building his team, and he didn’t want to start fresh. It was hard to find good medical examiners and CSIs, let alone junior attorneys that would fight like he would.

“You’ll have a high degree of discretion on your team,” Elsie assured him. “Both in terms of your new office on Archanis Station, and as it relates to the resources you have on Polaris today.”

“What do you mean?” Robert asked. It was an odd way to phrase the response. Why would he still have access to the resources on Polaris if they were transferring to Archanis?

“Polaris is coming too… sort of.”

Robert looked confused. He wasn’t following.

“While it will still have its ASTRA mandate, Polaris Squadron will now be based out of Archanis,” Elsie explained. “With the rise of Toral and the posturing of the border houses, it made sense to double down, to have Polaris out there – when she’s not otherwise occupied – to reinforce our presence.”

Earlier, his sister had pitched it as a fresh start, but now it had become something more. Not only could he bring change to a sector that had suffered abuse in the face of neglect, to make a real difference and defend the core values of the Federation, but knowing that Polaris Squadron would still be around, he’d still be able to keep an eye on it, and to intercede if Lewis, Reyes or the others stepped over the line again. He reached down and scooped the pips off the desk. 

As Robert reattached his pips to his collar, Elsie shared some additional news. “And there’s more,” she offered. “You’ll be with family again, and not just me.”

Robert looked at her curiously. The Drake family had a multi-generational history with Starfleet, but besides himself and his sister, who among the family line was still in the service?

“Between the need to strengthen ties with our marginalized colonies, and the need to deal with this burgeoning situation with the Klingons, the Diplomatic Corps is establishing a new mission on Archanis Station,” Elsie explained. “And dad volunteered to lead it.” She beamed as she said it. Family had always taken a backseat to her career, but now, the two had become one and the same.

“Dad? Seriously?” The shock on his face was evident. “He hasn’t so much as set foot on the frontier since he made it back from Delta.” That experience had led Michael Drake, the lifelong explorer, to rethink his priorities and to choose a more stable, rooted path for his twilight years. “What convinced him to return to the stars once more?”

“It was the Borg.”

“The Borg?” Robert asked. The Borg were responsible for his dad’s retirement in the first place, but now they were also responsible for his return? “What happened?”

“Frontier Day happened,” Elsie explained, as if that should have been obvious. But then she noticed the clueless look on her brother’s face. “Robert, I thought I was the one that was too busy with my career… but the way you’re looking at me, have you really not spoken to him since Frontier Day?”

“No… I… I… I’ve been a bit busy…” Robert admitted sheepishly as he looked down at his desk. He’d been so consumed by this case, he’d literally not even bothered to call home after it was nearly destroyed by the Borg.

“Well then, brother, I think we have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Light shines not in the light, but in the dark. Jace stood against the darkness, and when the darkness fought back, he stood firm. Jace never asked anything of us, but when we asked everything of him, he answered. Jace was a man of honor and courage, a man who gave everything to defend that which we hold dear.”

The lamps of the Northern Lights Lounge had been dimmed, and the usually busy social space was silent as Chief Petty Officer Ayala Shafir spoke. Those who gathered in the memory of Lieutenant J.G. Jace Morgan bowed their heads in mourning, the deep hues of a star nursery trickling through the panoramic windows providing the only luminance in the otherwise dark room. Admiral Reyes had, in Lieutenant Morgan’s honor, momentarily stopped the squadron’s rimward charge so they could pay their respects, and Fleet Captain Devreux had identified a nebula that itself was the cradle of new stars to serve as the Lieutenant’s final resting place.

“On Nasera, Jace fought for the freedom of those who suffered unspeakably at the hands of the Jem’Hadar. When at last the battle was won, Jace did not rest. He knew the war waged on, and with the Polaris non-com, he joined us aboard the Serenity to take the fight to the Lost Fleet.”

Chief Shafir looked over to where Lieutenant Commander Eidran and the contingent from the Serenity stood. They’d been skeptical of Morgan, Reyes and the others when they’d first stormed aboard the Serenity, but through the crucible, they’d come to know, and to deeply respect, the Polaris operators. While they didn’t know Jace Morgan as well as those on the Polaris, this was also, for them, and for so many others in the room,  a personal reminder of the many losses they’d suffered in the recent months.

“Past Leonis and Arriana and deep into the Lost Fleet’s territory, Jace never rested as we raced the night through Minara and engaged the enemy in Ciatar.”

Chief Shafir could still remember the spacewalk near Minara, when Lieutenant Morgan backflipped out of the shuttle on their way over to hack the Jem’Hadar relay station. He still had a pep in his step then. And even in the Ciatar Nebula, staring down a Jem’Hadar battleship, he was still in his element. As they screened for the Mariner, taking the hits for Captain Kobahl’s little ship, if Lieutenant Morgan hadn’t juggled the PDUs the way he did, they wouldn’t have made it.

“And then… and then when at last the Lost Fleet withdrew, he came with us to Earth, and he fought, face to face, those who conspired to bring about our end.”

Chief Shafir looked down at the stub where once her index finger had been. She could still see the hulk from Milan as he squeezed the pliers around her metacarpal bones. She could still remember the pain as he viciously ripped and tore at it until it fell to the floor. But losing her finger, that had been nothing, nothing compared to the pain that Lieutenant Morgan had endured, through fire ants and molten ore, as their captors tore him down.

“And even then, in our most helpless – most hopeless – moment, Jace never gave up. He knew the stakes, and he never hesitated. When the Borg signal overtook the fleet, he did what needed to be done. He risked it all, for us, and for all of humanity.”

Lieutenant Morgan had beaten Ensign Bragg to the draw when the young security officer fell to his genetic coding. If it hadn’t been for Jace, Bragg might have gunned her down. And then, as the gravity of the situation became apparent – seventy percent of the crew assimilated, the ship completely locked down, and the entire fleet under the control of Fleet Formation – it was Jace that had reminded her there was always a way. He was the one ready to push the button to rip a hole in the ships of the line in the hopes that it might slow their advance on Earth. He would have too, if Picard hadn’t pulled off that last moment miracle.

“Sadly, as we now know all too well, the battle does not end when the shooting stops, and tonight, tonight we say goodbye, goodbye to a man taken from us far too soon.”

A tear ran down the Chief’s face as she yielded the floor to Admiral Reyes. 

Somberly, Admiral Reyes stepped into the center of the room and looked out the window. She took a deep breath, and then said the words that she’d said far too many times, over far too many years, for far too many young sailors and soldiers, those who’d given their lives in service to the Federation.

“In the name of the universe itself, we now commit this body to the deep. May we remember, for today and every day we continue to live, the courage and dedication that Lieutenant Morgan showed in the face of those who sought to end all that we hold so dear.”

Across the bow of the ship, a single torpedo lanced out across the night, one carrying not a warhead but one of their own. Admiral Reyes raised her hand in a salute as she watched it go.

“Rest well, Lieutenant. You are now at peace. May your journey through the stars be serene, and may you find the serenity you so dearly deserve.”

Slowly, the torpedo faded into the distance, racing the night one last time.

“From the stars we came, and to the stars we shall return.”

And then there was only silence in the starlight.