The Hearing - Part 3

Posted on 24 Feb 2014 @ 1:57am by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal & Lieutenant Lucas Mason & Lieutenant Hayley Lawson & Sascha Oakheart

1,285 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: M11: Feet to the fire
Location: Earth

[Continued...]

Turning back to the matter at hand Rittenhouse called the next officer. “Lieutenant Hayley Lawson, please come forward.”

Hearing her name called, Hayley swallowed her fear, took a deep breath and made her way out to the Stand

As she took her seat he began. “Please state your name and position at the time of the incident for the record.”

"Lieutenant Hayley Lawson, Assisstant Chief Engineering Officer, USS Achilles" Hayley responded

“I understand Admiral Da`nal has appointed you as the Chief Engineering Officer for the Achilles?”

Hayley nodded, "yes sir. After the death of the former Chief Engineer, I stepped up to take over during the situation at hand. The Admiral said he didn't see any reason for that to change after we returned"

“I see. Please tell us in your words what happened follow the Achilles being taken back in time?”

"I wasn't in the best position to know what was going on" Hayley began, "I was on duty in Engineering, overseeing the general diagnostic run we were doing on all systems when we crossed over. It felt like the ship had run into a small moon at half impulse. After the Engineering staff righted themselves, Lieutenant Steven starting giving out orders to find out what had happened. He sent me to the bridge to CO-ordinate things from there. It wasn't long after that when he was killed"

"And how exactly did the Lieutenant die?" Konin asked

"During the crossover, a damaged Plazma Conduit vented into the crawl space he was in. There was little to no warning"

"I see and who was responsible for sending the Lieutenant into that crawl space?" Konin asked

"Regardless of that" Zedo interrupted "Responsibility lies with Admiral Da'nal for promoting to Chief Engineer an officer who was clearly unqualified for the position!"

Konin turned and gave Zedo a typically Vulcan quizzical look "I'm sure you agree that Starfleet trains its personnel to step up in times of need and Lieutenant Lawson did exactly what was expected of her, did she not?"

"Well perhaps" Zedo conceded "However, Admiral Da'nal bears responsibility for what occurred!"

"I do believe this Panel is to make judgement on that and we have not yet finished our inquiries" Konin said levelly. Turning back to Lawson "Please give you account of what occurred after the Lieutenant's death and what you did to repair the damage to the ship"

Hayley wasn't sure if she was being insulted infront of a room full of people or if the admirals were just being frank, but she didn't like what she was hearing. ~Unqualified? How dare they. I was the only person qualified to step up into the chief position~ she thought to herself as she listened to the Admirals question, "for the most part, that's all my teams were doing, repairing the ships systems. For nearly the entire time I was running that engineroom, I was IN engineering conducting repairs to the ships computers and to the warp drive. The ONLY times I wasn't in engineering was when I was on the bridge reconnecting the stations up there to the bio-neural network" she said, getting quite annoyed at how these so called 'impartial' judges seemed to have already made up their minds about who was to blame.

Da`nal stood to defend his crewmember. "I want it noted; FOR THE RECORD..." Staring directly at Zedo as he spoke those last three words. "...that Lt Lawson served as the Assistant Chief Engineer during the repairs follow the Kziniti war. She served her ship with honor in it's time of need. Under he leadership her teams restored the ship systems in the midst of death and injury and completed repairs before we entered Earth orbit. Lieutenant Lawson EARN the position as Chief Engineer...not by appointment or by selecting faceless candidates from service records...but by DEEDS. Any claim she is unqualified is blatant slander and without Honor!"

Zedo snorted derisively "Regardless of your personal opinion Admiral Da'nal, the majority of the Lieutenant's previous experience was working on Klingon systems, hardly ideal credentials for the chief engineer of a Starfleet vessel!"

Rittenhouse rang the bell before him vigorously cutting off Zedo. "Rear-Admiral Zedo! That is quite enough! Outbursts are not tolerated from the floor and they will certainly not be tolerated from the panel!"

Returnig his gaze to the Lieutenant. "Miss Lawson were you still on the bridge when Lt. Mason implemented his solution to the situation on the planet's surface?"

Hayley shook her head, "No Admiral, I wasn't. By that time I was back in Engineering trying to correct the communications problems we seemed to be having at the time. I had no way of knowing what was going on on the bridge"

After some final questions concerning the repairs to the ship the panel concluded their enquirers and moved on to the next crew member.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lt Mason (to include Logan, Lawson & Goodshire)


Thus far one of Admiral Da`nal’s crew had been found guilty of violations of the Temporal Prime Directive for her actions on the planet’s surface. Now the panel’s final case would deal with the actions taken by Lt. Mason while in orbit.

Ayren felt her face drain of blood. ~WHAT!?~ she scream mentally. This cannot be true. She had sensed hostility from one of the panel members, but who? She honed in on them, cocking her head slightly to the side, a habit she adopted. ~Not Ritterhouse... Konin... no... Zedo...? Yes... she is somewhat hostile~ She was too far away, there were just too many emotions emanating from anyone, it was like feeling where a draft came from in a room full of fans. She was not one to make assumptions quickly.... could be for many reasons, but it was there.

“Finally, this panel calls Lieutenant Lucas Mason.”

Upon hearing his name, Lucas mentally composed himself, stood and walked to the stand.

After Mason had passed and began to sit, Da`nal rose and stood behind Mason as he sat before the panel.

"You can return to your seat, Admiral Da`nal, you are not needed for this inquiry at the current moment." Zedo interjected sharply.

"I stand with Lt. Mason not only as council but it was I that placed him in command while the away team beamed down. While the situation could not have been foreseen it was my decision and my responsibility. Lt. Mason has my full support and I stand with my shipmate...his fate shall be mine."

There was a murmur from those in the gallery that were not from the Achilles and Rittenhouse tapped the bell before him to quiet them. "Admiral Da`nal, your support of and faith in your officer is welcomed and noted. However, he is responsible for his own actions. You may stand with him as council, but his fate is his."

Konin eyed the pair for a moment and then said "Do you specifically request Admiral Da'nal as your council, Lieutenant Mason?"

Lucas stood to address the panel and said,"Yes Admiral, I do," trying to sound confident.

Rittenhouse pursed lip and nodded. It was well within his right to council even in this inquiry. "Very well. Lieutenant Mason, according to the record there was an unknown object, referred to by another officer as a 'ghost' in orbit with the Achilles prior to Admiral Da`nal beaming to the surface. However there is no further information available on this object. There is a visual record of the object and only intermittent and inconclusive sensor readings. What was your take on the object and did you consider this object a threat?"


TBC

 

RSS Feed