Lieutenant Commander Jones shook his head. "No questions."
Judge Halstead consulted his watch. "I'm aware that line officers have a tendency to work through meals, but since this is my courtroom we will break for lunch. The court-martial is closed, and will reconvene at 1300 in this courtroom."
"All rise!" Paul and the others in the courtroom came to attention as Judge Halstead and the members filed out through their respective doors. "Carry on. Court will reconvene at 1300."
Commander Carr sank back into her chair, then swiveled in it to look at Paul. "That didn't go too badly."
Paul nodded. "It sure isn't making Silver look very good."
"Ah, but we not only have to make him look bad, we have to convince those five officers that he did bad."
"Did you deliberately set up Lieutenant Commander Jones to ask that question of Petty Officer Sharpe?"
Carr grinned. "You caught that, huh? You may have the makings of a lawyer, Mr. Sinclair. Yes. It served two purposes. Having Sharpe say Chief Asher was upset over something out of the normal in response to the defense counsel's question gave the answer more force since no one expected it. It also made Commander Jones a bit gun-shy with the next few witnesses, since he's worried about me ambushing him again."
"How much could Commander Jones have done against Mike Bristol and the other supply Lieutenant? Their testimony was pretty straight-forward."
Carr's grin turned knowing. "A good lawyer, if that term's not an oxymoron, can make any witness look bad. Exactly what time did it happen? There aren't any other boxes that look exactly like that one? Are you positive Silver is the man who picked up the part? Could it have been Chief Asher? Etc., etc., and so on. Besides, my knowledge of line officers is that they don't place a lot of credence in what supply officers tell them. Right?"
Paul smiled. "I'm afraid so, but that doesn't apply to Mike Bristol."
"Great. But those members of the court don't know Bristol personally. Those two supply officers would have been the easiest witnesses for the defense counsel to discredit on the stand in the eyes of the members of the court. But defense counsel held back because he thought I might have laid another mine in his path."
"It sounds like you're into strategy and tactics as much as line officers are, ma'am."
"Why not? We're both out for the kill. Metaphorically speaking in my case, of course, since the charges against Silver don't merit the death penalty. I'll see you at 1300."
Paul left the courtroom trying to decide where to eat lunch, but to his surprise found someone waiting for him. "Jen? How'd you get off your ship?'
She smiled. "I walked. After I convinced my department head I could really use some time ashore. Interested in lunch?"
"You bet. We've got 'til 1300."
"I've got less than that. I have to be back on the Sorry Maury by 1230."
"Okay. Quick lunch. Let's hit some vending machines."
Paul filled Jen in on the events of the morning, then spread his hands. "I wish I knew what the members of the court were thinking."
"I know what I'd be thinking. Do you ever get the feeling Silver's been coasting on being an admiral's son?"
"The thought had crossed my mind. I've also been wondering how much being a Navy officer was really his idea in the first place. He sure doesn't act like he wants the job."
"You may be right, especially with a daddy like Vice Admiral Silver, who might've just expected his son to follow in the family footsteps. Or else." Jen looked away, her face troubled. "Speaking of fathers, I do have some news you need to know. My father's been tapped as a defense witness."
"Oh, great." I'll be sitting there looking at Captain Shen staring at me from the witness stand as he answers questions about whether or not Lieutenant Silver's to blame for that accident. "And my captain wants me in that courtroom."
"Captains in front of you and captains behind you. I'd dodge, if I was you."
Paul laughed briefly. "Immediate evasive maneuvers! Brace for collision!"
"Abandon ship?"
"No, I think I'm supposed to go down with it."
"How do you go down with a spaceship?" Jen asked. "Unless you're in a gravity well."
"I'll let you know. Does this mean you've talked to your father?"
"Uh-uh. Strictly intelligence collection using secondary but reliable sources. Speaking of intelligence collection, how are you and that hot little commander getting along?"
Paul frowned. "You mean Commander Carr? She's way out of my league, Jen, even if I wasn't taken. How would I ask a commander on a date?"
"Oh, you've wondered about how to do that, huh?" Jen giggled. "I'm just teasing. The commander's married, in case you haven't noticed the ring."
"No, I guess I hadn't. I haven't really looked at her that much — "
"Uh-huh. Sure. But I'll pretend to believe you."
Before Paul knew it, Jen had to head back for the Maury. He was halfway back to the courtroom himself before he realized Jen's bantering had driven thoughts of the trial from his mind for a while. Thanks, Jen.
Chapter Eleven
The first prosecution witness called after lunch was the first to be wearing civilian clothes. "Special Agent Sullivan, you are assigned to the staff of the fleet commander as a representative of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service?"
Sullivan nodded as he answered. "Yes, I am."
"Did you conduct a search of the stateroom formerly occupied by Lieutenant Silver onboard the USS Michaelson?"
"I did, along with Special Agent Connally."
"Can you summarize your findings?"
Sullivan nodded again, then consulted his own data pad. "Most of the material belonging to Lieutenant Silver in that stateroom was of a personal nature. Clothes, toiletries, that sort of thing. We found twenty-two data coins, of which eighteen contained various professional and personal files along with computer games, music and assorted other software. Four of the coins were totally blank."
"Excuse me, Special Agent Sullivan. Totally blank?"
Another nod. "Yes. Not unused, because then they'd have had all the formatting on them. They'd been scrubbed clean. Nothing was recoverable on them."
"The data on them had been deleted, then."
"No. If it'd been deleted, we could've recovered it. These had been wiped by software designed to render the contents unrecoverable."
"Did you find that particular software?"
"No. It wasn't in the stateroom."
"What else did you find?"
Sullivan consulted his data pad again. "One of the larger drawers assigned to Lieutenant Silver contained a quantity of unopened official mail for the main propulsion officer."
"Unopened?"
"Yes. Stuff like software updates for systems, safety advisories, technical manual updates and revisions, that sort of thing."
Paul stole another glance at the members. This time he caught Captain Mashiko's brow lowering in a sign of disapproval. Let's see Scott Silver explain that.
"Lieutenant Silver hadn't been opening his official mail and passing on the materiel in it to his personnel or entering it into the engineering system?"
"No. We found no trace of opened official mail. You know, envelopes that hadn't been discarded, contents of opened mail in the files or drawers, that sort of thing."
"I see. Anything else, Special Agent Sullivan?"
"Lieutenant Silver's data terminal contained numerous pieces of personal software. Mainly games. That's unauthorized, but it's not all that unusual on ships."
"Thank you, Special Agent Sullivan. No more questions."
Lieutenant Commander Jones didn't bother getting up. "No questions."
"I have some questions," Captain Mashiko stated. "Special Agent Sullivan, this unopened mail in Lieutenant Silver's stateroom. It was in a drawer?"