Field Of Dishonor

blue eyes on her, then shrugged.

'My point, Commodore, is that each of us should realize that our fellows are as aware of the political dimension as we are ourselves.'

'It sounds to me, Sir, as if you are suggesting someone might cast a partisan vote,' Lemaitre returned, 'and I, for one, resent the imputation.'

White Haven carefully said nothing about shoes that fit, but he smiled faintly, holding her eyes until she flushed and looked down at her blotter.

'You are, of course, free to place whatever interpretation you wish upon my remarks, Commodore,' he said after a moment. 'I will simply repeat that this will be a politically sensitive decision, as we all know, and add to that the fact that it should not be allowed to shape our perception of the evidence. That warning, and the need to issue it, comes with my other responsibilities as president of this court. Is that understood?'

Heads nodded again, though Jurgens looked as if he'd swallowed a fish bone. Lemaitre, however, didn't nod, and White Haven's gaze sharpened.

'I asked if that was understood, Commodore,' he repeated softly. She twitched as if he'd pinched her, then nodded angrily. 'Good,' he said, voice still soft, and looked at the others. 'In that case, is it your pleasure to cast your initial ballots without debate, ladies and gentlemen, or to open the floor to preliminary discussion of the charges and evidence?'

'I don't see any need for ballots, Sir.' Jurgens spoke up instantly, as if he'd been primed and waiting, and his irritated voice was almost theatrically brusque. 'The entire body of the charges is based on an illegal interpretation of the Articles of War. As such, they can have no merit.'

There was a moment of absolute silence. Even Hemphill and Lemaitre seemed stunned, and Kuzak's poker face slipped enough to let contempt leak through. White Haven only nodded, lips pursed, and swung his chair gently from side to side.

'Perhaps you'd care to elaborate on that point, Admiral,' he said after a moment, and Jurgens shrugged.

'The specifications allege that Lord Young broke off the action on his own initiative and then refused orders to return to formation. Whether or not that's an accurate description of his actions, and whether they showed good judgment or bad, doesn't affect the fact that he had every legal right to do so. Admiral Sarnow had been wounded and incapacitated, and all other flag officers of the task group had already died in action. As the acting commander of a heavy cruiser squadron, it was his responsibility to take the actions he felt were called for in the absence of orders to the contrary from competent authority. He may well have shown execrable judgment, but the judgment was legally his to make, and any other interpretation is nonsense.'

'That's insane!' Thor Simengaard's deep, rumbling voice was a snarl of blunt disgust. 'Tactical command hadn't been shifted from Nike —and he certainly had no way to know Sarnow had been wounded!'

'We're not discussing what Lord Young did or did not know.' Jurgens glared at the captain, but, despite his junior status, Simengaard didn't even flinch. 'We're discussing the facts of the case,' the rear admiral went on, 'and the facts are that Lord Young was senior to the woman who instructed him to return to formation. As such, he was not bound to obey her orders, and she, in fact, had no authority to give them.'

'Are you suggesting she gave the wrong orders, Admiral?' Theodosia Kuzak asked in a cool, dangerous tone, and Jurgens' shoulders twitched again.

'With all due respect, Admiral, whether they were right or wrong has no bearing on their legality.'

'And the fact that Admiral Sarnow, Admiral Danislav, Admiral Parks, an independent Captain's Board, and the General Board of Admiralty have all endorsed them in the strongest terms also has no bearing on the case?' Kuzak's quiet, measured voice dripped vitriol, and Jurgens flushed.

'Again, with all due respect, it does not,' he said flatly.

'Just a moment, ladies and gentlemen.' White Havens raised hand cut off Kuzak's reply, and the members of the board looked back down the table at him. 'I anticipated that this point might arise,' he continued once he had their undivided attention, 'and I asked the Judge Advocate General to address it for me.' He laid a memo pad on the table and keyed it alive, but his eyes held Jurgens' rather than looking down at the small screen.

'This particular situation has never before arisen, but according to Vice Admiral Cordwainer, the precedents are clear. An officer's actions must be judged by two standards. First, by the situation which actually obtained at the moment of those actions; second, by the situation he believed obtained, based on the information available to him. Admiral Jurgens is correct that, in fact, Admiral Sarnow had been incapacitated. By the same token, however, Lord Young was under the impression that the admiral remained in command, and that Lady Harrington, as Admiral Sarnow's flag captain, was fully empowered to give him orders. As such, his refusal to obey her repeated order to return to formation constituted defiance of his legal, acting superior to the best of his own, personal knowledge. That, according to Admiral Cordwainer, is the reason the specifications were written as they were. He stands charged not with disobeying Captain Harrington, his junior, but with disobeying orders from the flagship which, so far as he then knew, had every legal right to issue those orders.'

'Gobbledygook!' Jurgens snorted. 'Lawyers double-talk! What he knew or didn't know can't change the facts!'

'What he knew or didn't know are the facts of the matter, Sir,' Simengaard returned sharply.

'Don't be absurd, Captain!' Lemaitre spoke up for the first time, dark eyes flashing. 'You can't convict an officer who acted within the law simply because some other officer withheld critical information from him. It was Captain Harrington's duty to transfer command when Admiral Sarnow was wounded. The fact that she didn't do so makes her culpable, not him!'

'And just whom, do you suggest, should she have transferred command to, Commodore?' Kuzak asked. 'The next surviving officer in the chain of command after Sarnow was Captain Rubenstein, but by his own sworn affidavit, his communications had been so badly damaged as to make it impossible to exercise tactical control from his ship.'

'Then she should have transferred it to Captain Trinh,' Lemaitre shot back. 'Intolerant's com facilities were unimpaired, and he was next in seniority to Captain Rubenstein.'

'Intolerant was also under heavy fire, as was the entire task group,' Kuzak replied in cold, dispassionate tones. 'The tactical situation was as close to desperate as any I've ever reviewed. Any confusion in command at that moment could have led to catastrophe, and Dame Honor couldn't even know the extent of Trinh's current knowledge of the situation. Under the circumstances, she showed eminently sound judgment in refusing to risk disordering the task group's command at such a moment. Moreover, her actions led the enemy directly into the arms of Admiral Danislav's relieving force and left forty-three enemy ships no option but to surrender to him. Captain Young's actions, on the other hand, speak volumes about what he would have done in her place.'

Kuzak's upper lip curled, and Lemaitre and Jurgens both flushed. It showed more clearly on Jurgens' pale, freckled complexion, but the commodore's face turned darker than ever.

'Even if Captain Harrington were a paragon of all the military virtues—a point I am not prepared to grant, Ma'am—she had still arrogated to herself a command authority which was not legally hers.' Lemaitre bit off each word with furious precision. 'Lord Young was not legally—legally, Ma'am!—bound to accept that authority, particularly when he was in fact senior to her. The details of the tactical situation can have no bearing on the law.'

'I see.' Kuzak regarded the commodore dispassionately for a moment, then smiled thinly. 'Tell me, Commodore Lemaitre—when was the last time you exercised tactical command in a combat situation?'

Lemaitre's dark complexion paled. She opened her mouth to reply, but White Haven's knuckles rapped sharply on the table, swinging the disputants back toward him once more, and his face was hard.

'Allow me to point out, ladies and gentlemen, that Lady Harrington's actions have been approved at the highest level. She is not, has not been, and will not be charged with any wrongdoing.'

His deep, measured voice was as hard as his expression, and Lemaitre clenched her jaw and looked away. Jurgens snorted derisively, but Sonja Hemphill sat in masklike silence.

'Having said that, this court undoubtedly has the right to consider any bearing her actions may have had on Lord Young's. Since this set of circumstances has never before arisen, we, like many a court-martial, are faced with