"I'm sorry, ma'am. My…?"
"Your certain knowledge. Did you see or hear Lieutenant Silver being informed of the impending failure?"
"Oh, yes, ma'am. I was standing in Forward Engineering maybe a couple meters from Chief Asher when he was talking to Lieutenant Silver about it."
"What did Chief Asher say to Lieutenant Silver?"
"I didn't catch every word, ma'am, but he was saying we needed to get a spare installed."
"And what did Lieutenant Silver say in reply?"
"Uh, something like 'I'm on it, Chief.' Something like that."
"You're certain? Lieutenant Silver discussed the impending failure of the controller with Chief Asher in your hearing, and assured Chief Asher the issue was being addressed?"
"Uh, yes, ma'am."
"Did the controller eventually fail?"
"Yes, ma'am, it did."
"When?"
"Friday, uh, 18 September. About noon, I guess. I came back from lunch and Petty Officer Lai told me the controller had gone belly-up, and everything was being routed through the power junction in After Engineering. Chief Asher told us he was going to talk to Lieutenant Silver about it."
"Lieutenant Silver wasn't present? Even though a critical piece of equipment he was responsible for had failed?"
"No, ma'am."
"Did Lieutenant Silver come to Forward Engineering at all that afternoon?"
"No, ma'am, not that I saw and not that anybody else told me. But that wasn't unusual."
"It wasn't? The ship's main propulsion assistant not visiting Forward Engineering wasn't unusual?"
"Not with Lieutenant Silver, ma'am. We never saw him much."
"You never saw him much?" Commander Carr paused to let the statement sink in. "Then what happened?"
"We worked on other stuff, ma'am. There wasn't anything we could do about the controller until we got the spare, and it didn't show. When knock-off ship's work was announced I called Chief Asher and asked what we should do about the power junction and he told me Lieutenant Silver was working on it, and we shouldn't bother hanging around."
"How did Chief Asher sound when he told you that?"
"He was real unhappy with somebody, ma'am."
"Are you certain of that?"
Petty Officer Kulwari couldn't suppress a quick smile. "Ma'am, I've been around Chief Asher when he was real unhappy with someone, and believe me, you don't forget what he sounds like." The smile vanished. "Uh, sounded like, I guess I oughta say."
Commander Carr nodded sympathetically. "What time was knock-off ship's work that afternoon?"
"It's almost always 1700 in port. Sometimes 1730 or 1800 if there's an extra lot to do."
"Petty Officer Kulwari, how would the controller be replaced? How many personnel does it require?"
"At least two, ma'am. Two specialists, that is. They gotta know that gear. There's some kinda safety interlocks to keep the junction from overloading and blowing while the controllers are being swapped out."
"Could one person do the job?"
"If'n they were crazy, ma'am. They'd have to shut off the interlocks and then work real fast and if nothing made the junction overload without the controller in, they could do it. You'd have to be real good and a bit lucky."
"So it's not impossible for one person to do it, but it's very unwise."
"Yes, ma'am. I wouldn't do it."
"What if you were ordered to do it, Petty Officer Kulwari?"
As Kulwari hesitated, Commander Jones rose. "Objection. The trial counsel is asking the witness to speculate as to what she would've done if faced with a hypothetical situation."
Commander Carr faced Judge Halstead. "Your Honor, Petty Officer Kulwari is an experienced, highly trained specialist. Her answer will shed light on the reaction of such a person to an order of that nature."
Halstead shook his head. "Sorry, Counsel. No matter what the witness's qualifications might be, unless you're willing to argue she did receive such an order, then her response will not be germane. Objection sustained."
If the setback fazed her, Commander Carr gave no indication of it. "Petty Officer Kulwari, how long did you serve with Chief Petty Officer Asher?"
Kulwari furrowed her brow in thought. "About a year and a half, ma'am."
"In all that time, did you ever witness Chief Asher bypassing or circumventing safety procedures?"
"No, ma'am. He always told us to go by the book on that."
"Would you say, from your experience with Chief Asher, that for him to have worked on repairing that junction single-handedly would be out-of-character?"
"Yes, ma'am. He didn't do that."
Commander Carr turned, walked a couple of steps, then faced the witness again. "Tell me what happened the Monday after the accident in Forward Engineering. Lieutenant Silver spoke to all of you, didn't he?"
"Yes, ma'am, he did." Petty Officer Kulwari's eyes shifted toward the defense table, where Scott Silver was watching her intently, then back to Commander Carr.
"What did he tell you, Petty Officer Kulwari?"
"I don't remember all the words exactly, ma'am, but he told us how terrible it was that Chief Asher had died, and how it'd be a lot more terrible if anybody thought he'd died doing something wrong, because then his wife and family wouldn't get any benefits."
Carr came closer to the witness. "And what message did you and the other personnel in the division derive from that?"
"Derive, ma'am?"
"What did you all decide based upon what Lieutenant Silver told you?"
"That, uh…" Petty Officer Kulwari looked around again, her nervousness visible also in hands that kept twisting around each other. "That we shouldn't tell anybody what Chief Asher had been doing."
"What do you mean, Petty Officer Kulwari? What did you all believe Chief Asher had been doing?"
"We knew, or figured we knew, that he had to've been replacing that controller and that'd been what made the power junction blow. And doing that alone meant he'd broken some regulations."
"And Lieutenant Silver led you to believe that if Chief Asher had broken any regulations, Chief Asher's family would receive no death benefits from the Navy?"
"Objection!" Commander Jones waved toward Kulwari. "Trial counsel is leading the witness and attempting to cast her own individual interpretation of Lieutenant Silver's words as both reasonable and unmistakable. Neither position is supported by the testimony of a single witness."
Commander Carr held her data pad aloft. "As defense counsel is aware, I have sworn statements signed by every enlisted member of Lieutenant Silver's division attesting that they reached the same conclusion based upon Lieutenant Silver's words. I'd like to have all those statements entered into the record at this time."
Halstead curved his lips in a momentary, tight-lipped smile. "Objection overruled. All the statements are hereby ordered to be entered into the record. Continue, Commander Carr."
"Thank you, Your Honor. I'll restate the question for the witness. Petty Officer Kulwari, you've stated all the enlisted personnel in Lieutenant Silver's division assumed Chief Asher had been working on the power transfer junction. None of you disclosed that information, or even the status of the power transfer junction prior to the accident. Why was that?"
Kulwari bit her lip again and looked down. "We didn't want Chief Asher or his family to get into no trouble."
"Because of what you had all been told by Lieutenant Silver?"
Still looking down, Kulwari replied in a strained voice. "Yes, ma'am."
"Thank you, Petty Officer Kulwari. No further questions."
Judge Halstead nodded toward the defense table. "You may cross-examine."
Lieutenant Commander Jones walked slowly toward the witness stand, his face skeptical. "Petty Officer Kulwari, you claim you heard Lieutenant Silver and Chief Asher discussing the problem with the controller. Yet you also said you didn't catch every word. How can you be sure of what you did hear?"