Shaking his head angrily, Admiral Singh held up his hand.
"Then perhaps sixteen-year-olds do not have a place anywhere there is serious work to be done," he shot back angrily, "and your Academy is a nuisance and hindrance to the jobs we must perform."
"It is precisely their spirit that our new and evolving society needs," Thorsson replied. "We need to see the universe through their youthful eyes and not the tired eyes of old men like you and me. We need their exuberance, and yes, their playfulness as well. And most of all we need their idealism. For idealism is born and nurtured in the hearts of the young. I came eighty-seven million kilometers to tell all of you this one thing. I believe that Cadet Justin Wood Bell acted in the highest tradition of the United Space Military Command. Article Twenty-five is placed last on the list for a deliberate reason, to remind all of us that in the end, all rules must be subservient to truthfulness and idealism.
"Too many in our society believe that truth is relative, and I say they are mad. No higher society can function without certain absolute truths to which all must adhere; and defining our ethics based upon a given situation is the path of the damned. I believe that Cadet Bell's act was one of selfless sacrifice to save a friend who could not protect himself from evil. It is that simple, truth versus falsehood, right versus wrong, and if you let MacKenzie go free and then condemn Bell, our Service is damned. And I for one would rather see our entire Service go down fighting and all of our careers destroyed than see one guilty man go free and a group of innocent cadets be condemned in his place."
Singh stirred angrily.
"Are you implying, Admiral, that we would place careers ahead of truth?"
"Yes, I am," Thorsson fired back. "Too many are quietly whispering that for the good of the many we should turn a blind eye to the faults of MacKenzie. We rationalize to ourselves that collectively we do so much good, and that we jeopardize that good by examining this case too closely. Yes, I know about the pressure from the top, Admiral Singh; believe me, I heard it myself, and that is why I flew here with my radio turned off."
Marcioni chuckled at Thorssons admission that he had ignored an order to return to his base and Justin wondered just how much flak was going up over Thorsson's actions. Most likely a lot, he realized.
"Is that all, Admiral?"
"Yes, it is. To condemn any of these cadets except for the one whose truthfulness I seriously doubt would be a crime unworthy of this service. I came here to state that I feel responsible, in part, for this incident as well. If they are found guilty then I am guilty as well of the crime of idealism. If they are found guilty I shall resign my commission in protest and retire from duty with a service that no longer represents the ideals which should and must be at the core of what we are."
Singh, face turning bright red, gazed angrily at Thorsson as he came to attention, saluted and then walked to the rear of the room to sit by Justin's side.
Justin looked over at Thorsson, unable to speak.
"Plebe Cadet Bell, Justin."
Thorsson winked at Justin as he came to his feet, nervously tugged at his uniform blouse to make sure it was tucked in, and then approached the bench. As he was sworn in Justin saw his legal advisor come into the room from the comer of his eye. Trying to appear unobtrusive, she slipped up to Captain Marcioni, leaned over, whispered to him, and passed on an envelope.
The questioning started, following much the same path that Justin had endured in the earlier hearing, starting with his relationship to Matt prior to shipping aboard the Somers, their conversations with O'Brian and others and through to Matt's confrontations with Colson and what Matt had said.
Justin tried to remain calm, but he could feel the sweat breaking out around his tight collar and on his brow. After two hours of questioning Justin felt as if the officer acting as MacKenzie's defense was boxing him into a corner, forcing him to admit that in the most technical sense Matt's statements could be construed as supportive of the separatists and therefore imply a mutinous action. Whenever Justin tried to add a "but" or make his own personal observation he was cut off; he would never get the chance to really explain what had happened in straightforward words other than "yes, sir," and "no, sir."
He was coldly furious when Matt's thrashing around in his sleeping net was turned into a physical attack on the Captain.
MacKenzie's defense finally rested and Justin could see the glint of cold satisfaction in the Captains eyes. Justin struggled with the temptation to stand up and somehow voice his protest.
Singh looked around at the other four judges.
"Are there any other questions?"
Marcioni, who had spent most of the time hunched over his desk computer screen as if ignoring the testimony, stirred and looked up.
"I have a few questions, sir."
"Go ahead then."
Marcioni stood up and looked at Justin.
"Can I quickly review a few things, Mr. Bell?"
"Yes, sir." Justin said wearily.
"First. We have not yet heard from Cadets Leonov, Smith, Everett, Iivollen, and Amin, but it is your contention that all will claim Cadet Everett never made any statement that he planned to take the Somers."
"I can not speak for the others, sir, but yes, sir."
Justin took a deep breath and then saw that Marcioni was giving him an opening to say more.
"Matt and I have been roommates from our first day together at the Academy. We know everything about each other, things we'd never tell anyone else. Matt is given to big talk, sir. And he spills everything out when he does. He never, sir, never even hinted that he had any intention of doing anything illegal."
"Yet he did express sympathy for the separatists."
"Sir, he expressed understanding, and I think that's different. And, sir, as I understand it, having opinions is freedom of thought, which the Academy teaches us is our right. We're not out here to police thoughts, only actions."
There was a stirring in the room at his comment and Justin wondered if he had said too much.
"So Mr. Everett, in your opinion, is innocent of the charge leveled by Cadet Colson that he was planning a mutiny."
"Yes, sir. There was bad blood between Colson and Matt even before we shipped aboard Somers."
"Explain."
Justin reviewed the encounter on their first day of the plebe year and up to the final encounter with Colson's threat of getting even.
"So you think Colson's accusation was revenge?"
"Yes, sir."
"And Matt hitting him?"
"Colson is lying about that, sir. Though I did not see it, I think Colson pushed him from behind; Matt tumbled and accidentally kicked him. I know Matt, sir. If he was going to nail someone like Colson he'd do it face to face and not go skulking around sucker-punching someone from behind. Also, I think that if Matt had hit him, Mr. Colson would be minus some teeth."
"And Matt hitting the captain?"
"Sir, it happened as I tried to explain it to you yesterday, and not like Captain MacKenzie's advocate is painting it now. Matt was still half-asleep, the Captain grabbed him and dragged him out of the net and Matt, tossing about, banged into the Captain."
"Mr. Bell. If what you said is true then first of all Captain MacKenzie's belief that a mutiny threatened was an ill-formed and incorrect opinion, based solely upon the lies of one cadet who knowingly played to the fears of his commander."
"Yes, sir," Justin said emphatically.
"Second. Captain MacKenzie went off, as the old saying goes, half-cocked, not properly balancing the evidence before acting, and therefore singled out Cadet Everett based upon his own prejudices and the falsehoods of one cadet. And finally, the incident of striking the Captain never happened as claimed by MacKenzie and was, in fact, an unwarranted attack by a commanding officer against one of his personnel."