“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!”