“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, Sayidat 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.”