by Chris Hechtl
The jury pool was highly limited since each had to rank or outrank the accused. That meant they needed flag officers. Admiral Shren was forced to make some compromises. He frocked a few personnel up to commodore rank to fill the pool up. Technically, they were still unacceptable since the accused had them beat by time in grade, but he filed a waver since there were no other suitable flag officers available. He wasn't certain if he would have enough flag officers if there was a second trial, so he hoped the prosecution got it right the first time.
It still made Omar unhappy to involve a marine he couldn't control. He shook his head when Admiral Shren made the final selection and showed him the results. “Problems, sir?” the elf asked, staring at the human admiral.
“I don't like that last one to be honest,” Omar growled, tapping his finger on the thumbnail photo of the colonel.
“We can't have it all our way. It is already looking suspicious as hell. We're having enough problems finding the right people and having them available when we need them,” Admiral Shren pointed.
Omar grunted and then nodded. “It is what it is I suppose. He is one of three. He'll be outvoted. Just make sure if he gets cute that someone lets him know which side he's on,” Admiral Childress growled.
“Yes, sir.”
@
When they heard the selections, Doctor Bullettine pulled out a report. “I was afraid of this. I had my people do some digging. Just about everyone in uniform above the rank of captain owes someone on Childress's side something. Some might be hanging in there out of duty, but there can't be many.”
“You'd be surprised,” Horatio said, remembering some of the crap they'd had to deal with in Pyrax when he'd been relieved. “Continue,” he said when the doctor looked up to him.
“Okay. We did some digging, and we know that the lead judge, Rear Admiral Harry, 'the hanging judge,' Thurgrad is a friend of Childress. His patron is a friend I should say. No surprise there,” he said dryly. “Admiral Silvestri is a different story. We're not at all sure about him. He is new for his rank. By all indications, he is a follower. He's keeping quiet and going along with the herd.”
“And the colonel?”
“Ah, the colonel. By all accounts, the Marines have largely stayed out of the naval infighting. In fact, they haven't had many departures. Only those already slated to leave their service have left.
“Surprising,” Ginny murmured. “I wonder why?”
“Marines are indoctrinated to duty, honor, and such. They are trained hard and have an independent command,” Doctor Bullettine stated.
“Some people do not take those traits for granted no matter what uniform they wear, Doctor,” Ginny replied tartly.
“My apologies, ma'am. What I was saying is, they are there and are flexing their muscles to remain independent of Admiral Childress.”
“Oh?”
“We obviously do not have the details, but I can tell you that Admiral Irons separated the branches. It's caused a bit of a rift between them.”
“He did indeed. I have the orders on file,” Horatio stated.
“So why include a marine at all?” Benny asked. “We should have one or more of the judges taken off the case. Thurgrad for sure. He's obviously biased.”
“We can't. We have no proof of it at this time,” Ginny said with a shake of her head. “It would also prejudice the judge and the others against us,” she said firmly.
“You mean more than they already are, right?” Benny asked scathingly. She didn't answer.
@
Doctor Bullettine waited patiently in security. Finally, a guard came in and shook her head. “You still here?”
“We are waiting on our client. Where else would we be?” the psychologist asked whimsically.
“You've been denied security clearance. Therefore, you can go home,” the guard said coldly.
“Really? Okay, so we'll just file a motion, then we'll go to the public and make certain all sorts of details are released. I'm sure your bosses will love you for that one,” he said.
She stared at him. “No need to get nasty. For the record, this isn't my idea.”
“Okay, so, why don't you buck it up the channel to whoever is playing roadblock. See what they say. You've got …,” the psychologist looked at his watch phone, “about ten minutes, then I'm going to leave. When I do, I'm going to be making a whole lot of calls to people and pissing some really powerful people off with stories about how you've been torturing my client to try to get a confession out of him.”
“We have done no such thing!”
“Oh? But you are admitting to denying his right to counsel?” Benny asked. “We can get into keeping him in chains and in prison when he hasn't been convicted yet to. I bet they'll eat that up,” he said with a nod to Bull. “The AG has already expressed an interest in this as well as in everyone involved.”
The woman glared at them and then stormed off.
“Made her day,” Bull said mildly as he crossed his arms.
@
“Ah, here we go,” Doctor Bullettine said as he noticed a blue-skinned officer coming down the hallway to the security waiting area.
“You two can leave. The accused has been assigned counsel.”
“And he's retained civilian counsel. That's us. From the look of things and how you've got the whole impartial system rigged against him, I'd say he needs all the help he can get.”
“You do not have clearance.”
“Then get us the clearance.”
“No.”
“Then we'll allow the JAG to handle that part, and we'll handle our own parts.”
“We will prosecute you for violating security,” Captain Rising Tide threatened. “And there is an existing gag order. You will adhere to it.”
“First, you can't prosecute us,” Benny said, rising from his seat.
“The hell you say. You …”
“Are a civilian? You have no jurisdiction,” Benny replied with a smirk. That made the high elf stop and stare at him. “The difference between military and civilian courts, remember? I dare say you'd need the AG involved in this. And if you did file federal charges, everything we know will become public knowledge anyway.”
There was a long fulminating moment as the high elf digested that statement.
“Blackmail?” the elf finally demanded.
“No, horse trading. We want access to our client, unfettered access. And oh, yeah, no more recording devices,” Bull replied.
“You know they aren't going to honor that,” Benny said, looking over to the doctor.
“No, but it's fun and polite to ask,” Bull replied with a brief smile. “We've already documented the recording of sessions with our client. And then there is keeping him in chains and all the other little stunts you've pulled. Death by a thousand cuts to wear him down.”
“I'll get you clearance,” the captain said as he turned and left.
“Well! That was fun,” Doctor Bullettine said with a shake of his head.
“I can't take you anywhere it seems,” Benny joked as a guard returned and issued them passes to enter the complex.
@
“Leave them alone. I don't want them to make good on their threat,” Admiral Shren said after the captain reported the conversation. The elf had heard about it but hadn't seen the video. He shook his head. “Stop playing games.”
“Sir, I thought you were serious about keeping the civilians out of this,” the captain replied.
“I was. We don't always get what we want,” the elf said. He grimaced once and then looked away. “Get back to the case and win it, Captain.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
@
Doctor Bullettine was mildly elated by their minor victory. His team was worried about the exposure and dangers involved in such a high-profile case.
“I know it's risky, but there is no reward without risk.”
“Just the same, we've air-gapped our computers. The comput
ers with the most sensitive case material are in a Faraday cage in the vault,” his tech specialist informed him.
“Good.”
“Bull, you have to play nice with ONI and the prosecution. We're all walking a tight rope here. One slip and we're all in freefall.”
“Freefall doesn't mean you fall,” Benny said as he took a bite of an apple.
Theresa Morgana gave him a quelling look and then turned to Bull. “Do I have to remind you to watch yourself? You need to temper your desire and that of our client to score one on Childress at the expense of the big picture. A lot is riding on this case. Don't screw it up.”
“Well, the good news is, getting our client off does both,” Bull replied with a shrug.
Theresa shook her head mournfully. “In your dreams, Bull, like that is going to happen.”
“Watch me,” Bull replied.
“I'm not the only one you have to worry about watching,” Theresa said with a sour look to the van parked across the street from their office. All eyes in the team turned to the van and then away.
@
Agent Drover grimaced as he tried to get a good clean audio signal with the microphones. The damn bastards in the building were too good. They had a random noise generator hooked up to each of the windows to vibrate the glass and keep the laser microphones from picking up anything coherent. The shotgun microphones got nothing either. They were still trying to hack the building’s computers.
His ire intensified when there was a knock on the side of the van. “Go away!” he bellowed as he tried to concentrate.
When the van rocked, he snarled. He looked over to his partner. The Neocat shrugged, flicking her ears to show it wasn't her.
He went to the door and threw it open only to find a couple of cops standing on the other side.
“You are spoiling our op,” he said. “We're ONI. Go away.”
“News flash. ONI isn't allowed to do civilian ops. And by the way, you've been made. It's time you pack it in. If you persist, we'll arrest you.”
“On what charge?”
“We'll start with unlawful surveillance. I bet you don't have a warrant,” the lead cop said. “We can go on from there if you want.”
“Frack …,” Agent Drover grumbled. He turned to his partner. “Pack it up, we're calling it a day,” he said.
The cop nodded sagely. “I thought you'd see it my way,” he said mildly.
The agent shot him a fulminating look and then slammed the door.
The cop pounded on it once and then stepped back as the van's engine started and then the vehicle rumbled off.
“Well! That was fun,” the cop said with a grin to his partner.
@
Colonel Talia shook his head as he read the list of revised charges. It was insane, also laughable. He hated that he was sitting on what was obviously a kangaroo court. Just the Article 32 hearing transcripts and files were a laugh. He shook his head as he read another request for a copy of the file from the defense. It was from the civilian attorneys he noted. They were also requesting copies of everything the prosecution had, which they were supposed to be entitled to. He didn't even have full access to the damn hearing, let alone some of the evidence! He wasn't even certain if one had been held.
Not that it mattered it seemed. Come hell or high water they were proceeding full steam ahead. There appeared to be little he could do to stop it. He was the junior member of the judicial bench. Technically, he shouldn't even be on the bench since the accused outranked him even as a commodore. But, apparently, due to the exigencies of the situation, a waver had been filed on his behalf.
Joy.
He was well aware he would be outranked and outvoted during the trial. He decided to keep a low profile initially and feel the situation out as well as the players before he started to throw his weight around.
It would also be interesting to see if the accused got to face his accuser in open court. Somehow, he doubted that would happen. It would be one hell of a three-ring circus if Childress did take the stand. He had his doubts that it would happen though.
@
The court and Admiral Childress had issues with Horatio's new promotion. There was no reference to a promotion board, and since the promotion had been delivered over the ansible without a ceremony, there were questions there. Admiral Childress had instantly latched onto the legitimacy of the promotion and apparently refused to accept it. The prosecution argued that it had to be fabricated; therefore, the orders to relieve Childress were as well. No one could get promoted like that, not over the ansible, and certainly not without going through a promotions board.
Getting them to accept his promotion turned into a motion fight, one Commander Steele refused to commit to and kept advising him to just drop it and go with the flow. Horatio flat-out refused to agree to that. Most of their argument hinged on the legality of Admiral Irons issuing orders through the ansible. In accepting his new rank, the court would legitimize his orders to relieve Childress.
Given that they had no evidence that a promotions board hadn't been held, they couldn't throw it out either Benny argued. Instead, after some wrangling, the court tabled the issue on his new rank as new evidence was processed by NCIS and the prosecution. Each side had to plan final arguments for the rank situation in two weeks as each side assembled their other evidence.
Horatio realized he had a serious fight on his hands, one that he hadn't expected.
Moving on to other evidence opened up a fresh can of worms. The prosecution refused to turn over evidence to his defense team. Motions were filed to get access. The main thrust of the prosecution's argument was that civilians were not cleared to handle or see the classified material.
“You are complaining the accused broadcast it but refuse to give the defense the material or use it? As to other material, the jury will be able to see some of it, but not the defense? How is that supposed to work? How can we even tell if the evidence is real?”
“I can provide certified copies of all evidence I have access to. My orders, plus all relevant files, logs, and actions I've taken in relation to the charges I am being accused of,” Horatio said. “In fact, I already did.”
“You did what?” the captain said in surprise, turning on Horatio.
“Counselor, I'd advise your client to remain silent during motion hearings,” Colonel Talia said gravely.
“Your Honors, the prosecution moves to add an additional charge of providing classified data and breaching security protocols to civilians to the list of charges. The specific charges will be made once we know the nature of the breach,” the prosecutor stated firmly.
“Given that it is attorney-client privilege, I don't see what the problem is. And we've each been vetted with government security clearances,” Mister Cosolon stated.
“That does not give them the right to see classified naval files,” the prosecutor stated.
“We can argue the clearance situation at a later time. For the moment, the civilians in the defense team and the accused will be banned from accessing the prosecution's files. Commander Steele will be allowed access to them since she maintains her clearances,” Admiral Thurgrad stated. “As long,” he said, turning to the other two judges, “as that is okay with the other members of the bench?”
“Yes,” both officers replied.
“Can I get a copy of the charges I've been accused of? I still haven't seen them,” Horatio stated, raising a hand.
Admiral Thurgrad glowered at him, but Colonel Talia turned to Captain Rising Tide. “I think that can and will be arranged.”
When Horatio got the list of charges later that evening, he just shook his head. Some of the charges were easy to refute. He assembled files relating to each charge, bookmarking them in his implant memory.
@
But he found out the following morning things would not go as planned. When they went over his files, Commander Steele indicated without saying much that the originals that the prosecu
tion had were modified, deleted, or in some cases, missing. Horatio provided his own copies, but the prosecution insisted that they were not certified and were therefore considered tainted. A flurry of motions occurred to see what was acceptable and what wasn't.
When some of the crew of Ilmarinen refused to sign off on the prosecution's copied files, the problem grew. Some of the motions were set aside as the two sides bickered over other issues.
Other charges were hard to get into because of the nebulous nature of them. Some were a “he said, she said” situation without witnesses. “Why they are keeping these in and not dropping them,” Benny muttered, shaking his head.
Horatio wondered the same thing. He provided his own files. Seeing things through his eyes changed the perspective of many who viewed them. The prosecution then insisted on gaining access to those files, but Commander Steele provided a stack of files stating that they could only be used in his defense unless he was charged with treason.
Horatio was not surprised when a treason charge was tacked on the following morning. Both sides went to the mat arguing over that charge.
It bothered him that he was supposed to have presumption of innocence but he was still in prison and was kept chained, even when he talked with his counsel. It took several motions to allow him to be unchained while in the courtroom.
During witness vetting, many witnesses who began to testify against Horatio changed their tune when they were shown his recordings refuting their version of events. It opened them up to charges of perjury. Word quickly got around, and suddenly some of the witnesses were no longer available to testify. Some of the lesser charges were even dropped.
Then the prosecution went after the recordings and demanded that they be thrown out as prejudicial and that they were being used as blackmail in witness tampering. The judges ruled in a two to one vote that the recordings could no longer be used to vet witness testimony before the trial since the people recorded did not consent to being recorded at the time.
