"Do foreign powers also provide their warships with estimates of what our ships are expected to do?"
"As far as my knowledge goes, yes."
"Do you think it possible that the South Asian ships at the asteroid had such an estimate? Not actual, detailed knowledge, but an estimate?"
"Objection. Defense Counsel is asking the witness to speculate on matters beyond his knowledge."
"Your Honor," David Sinclair countered, "this witness has already testified as to his impressions of what motivated the actions of South Asian warships. I am asking him for a similar judgment on their possible motivations."
Judge Campbell considered the question. "I tend to agree."
Commander Carr shook her head. "Your Honor, this is a different matter-"
"No, Trial Counsel, I believe it's substantially the same matter. I'll remind Trial Counsel that she introduced this line of questioning. Objection overruled. Continue, Defense Counsel."
David Sinclair looked back at Captain Hayes. "Captain, do you think it possible the South Asian warships were working from an intelligence estimate as opposed to detailed knowledge of your intentions?"
"It's possible," Hayes conceded.
"Is it also possible that such an estimate could've been what gave them the impression you cited, that they would be able to act without your interference?"
"Yes, that's possible. I'm not saying it's probable."
"Thank you, Captain."
Carr was standing almost immediately. "Trial Counsel wishes to redirect. Captain Hayes, regarding Lieutenant Pullman's reactions while events unfolded at the asteroid, you stated you were too busy to specifically note them?"
"That's right. I don't recall Lieutenant Pullman being on the bridge."
"Do you have any memory of him at all while the South Asian warships were attacking the asteroid settlement?"
"No. I don't recall noticing Lieutenant Pullman at all during those events."
"Then to clarify, your answer isn't that Lieutenant Pullman's reactions didn't seem to differ. It's that you have no idea what Lieutenant Pullman's reactions were."
"Yes. That's exactly right."
Carr nodded slowly, drawing out the moment. "One other question, Captain. Defense Counsel posed to you an alternate possible cause for the confidence you say you observed in the actions of the South Asian ships on that occasion. Which do you consider more likely, that they were acting off an estimate or that they were acting from certain knowledge?"
Hayes didn't hesitate. "Certain knowledge. Estimates are all well and good, but they're only estimates. They can be wrong. They can be very wrong. You have to take that into account. The sort of confidence I believed I saw the South Asians demonstrate tells me they had certain knowledge."
"Thank you, Captain. No further questions."
Captain Nguyen leaned forward, her elbows on the members' table, her hands clasped before her. "Captain, I find myself having to re-ask a question posed to you earlier. While NCIS was conducting its investigation to determine who was the source of the classified material being compromised to the South Asian Alliance, did you feel confident at every stage that the investigation was being carried out in such a manner as to minimize the possibility of an innocent person being charged or entrapped and maximize the possibility that the guilty person would be caught?"
Once again, Hayes didn't hesitate. "I would not have approved the investigation if I did not believe that to be true. I wanted the guilty person caught. More importantly, I wanted the compromising of our classified material to stop. Hauling in someone innocent of the earlier offenses wouldn't have accomplished either goal."
Nguyen nodded. "At the time the investigation began, your period of command of the USS Michaelson was growing short. I understand your change of command will be later today. Did you feel any pressure, internal or external, to resolve this matter quickly enough that it wouldn't be passed on to your successor in command?"
Hayes looked briefly weary, as if the burdens of his last two years had been brought to the fore by the question. "Captain Nguyen, as I'm sure you're aware, no commanding officer wants to pass on unresolved issues to his or her successor. Especially an issue of this magnitude. But at every decision point I realized that if I did not resolve it properly, then I wouldn't have resolved it at all. Telling my successor that I'd caught the right individual if in fact that person was still running free wouldn't have been doing him any favors. In fact, it'd be undermining him in a very critical way. That's a long way of saying I knew I had to resolve it right."
Captain Nguyen nodded again. "Thank you. Do any of the other members have questions?"
"I do, ma'am," Commander Sriracha stated. "Captain, you assigned Lieutenant Pullman to take over the Communications Division. This is a job which specifically deals with much of the classified material flowing into the ship, especially the most urgent material. Did you assign Lieutenant Pullman to this position because of a particular belief in his trustworthiness?
"No, Commander. I honestly can't say that. I had a division officer's job coming open, Lieutenant Pullman's record indicated he should've been competent to do it, and there was no reason to doubt his trustworthiness. No reason at that time, that is."
"Still, Captain, you could have assigned Lieutenant Pullman to a less sensitive position. In engineering, perhaps."
Captain Hayes frowned and shook his head. "I could've, but even though a job in engineering might be less sensitive in the sense of less exposure to classified material, it's still a position requiring great faith in the trustworthiness of the officer. I don't have any jobs on my ship that don't require me to trust their occupants. You know that."
Commander Sriracha smiled. "Yes, sir, I do. I just wondered how you'd express it. Thank you, sir."
"Captain?" Lieutenant Kilgary asked. "I'm assuming from what's been said that there's no indication Lieutenant Pullman attempted to communicate anything to the South Asians during or immediately prior to the engagement at the asteroid? Or is there something about that which will be presented later?"
A murmur arose in the courtroom, quickly quelled when Judge Campbell gave the spectators an acidic look. Paul found himself startled as well by the question. Startled because he wondered why he hadn't thought of that himself before. Communicating with the other ships wouldn't been easy, but it wouldn't have been impossible, either. The right software could've projected a simple code onto part of the Michaelson's outer hull using the video displays which were part of the visual bypass system, or a transmitter could've been run out past the grounded outer hull, though that would've required cracking an airlock which would've set off alerts.
But Commander Carr was shaking her head and answering for Captain Hayes. "There's nothing in the government's case pertaining to that issue, Lieutenant."
Lieutenant Kilgary looked surprised. "Even though as Communications officer Lieutenant Pullman would've had authorized access to the visual bypass system back-up message projection capability?"
Paul felt like slapping his forehead. Well, duh.
Captain Hayes had an expression that seemed just as startled, but then his face cleared. "No, wait a moment. Pullman didn't get tapped as the new Commo until after we were on our way back from the asteroid. He didn't have that access when we were out there. Lieutenant Denaldo was still Commo at that time, and I know she'd have ensured there wasn't any unauthorized access of that capability."
"Yes, sir." Lieutenant Kilgary nodded in agreement. "That does resolve the question."
Lieutenant Commander de Vaca looked from Lieutenant Kilgary to Captain Hayes. "There's high confidence, then, that this Lieutenant Denaldo would've done a good job of protecting her access codes?" Both Kilgary and Hayes nodded.