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?'
'That's right.'
'How was it stored in there? Filed neatly?'
Sullivan twisted his face in thought, then shook his head. 'No. It looked like it'd just been tossed in.'
'How old was the oldest unopened mail?'
'Let's see.' Sullivan checked his data pad. 'The oldest date was 22 August.'
Mashiko looked as if he were tasting something unpleasant. 'According to the charges, Lieutenant Silver assumed duties as the main propulsion assistant on the Michaelson on 20 August. Is that correct, Commander Carr?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Special Agent Sullivan, what sort of games did you find on Lieutenant Silver's terminal?'
Sullivan consulted his data pad again. 'I can list them by title if you want. Essentially, they were all action games. Twitch and shoot stuff.'
Paul felt like smiling, but repressed it. Shoot 'em up games are common enough on the ship, but the existence of lots of those games alongside unopened official mail creates a strong image of an officer playing games instead of doing his job. Which matches what I know about Scott Silver. Dammit, I shouldn't be taking any pleasure in this. Besides, even if that convinces Captain Mashiko to vote for conviction on the charge of dereliction in performance of his duties, that still leaves all the other charges against Silver and the rest of the members to convince. If I know anything about Herdez, she's wishing she could get Scott Silver alone for twenty minutes while she reamed him out for not doing his job. But what about the rest?
Captain Mashiko cast a long look toward the defense table. 'The members have no more questions.'
Paul knew the next prosecution witness, even though he wasn't from the Michaelson.
'If the court pleases,' Commander Carr asked, 'trial counsel would like to stipulate that Chief Warrant Officer Rose is one of the top software engineers on Franklin Station, and in the Navy as a whole.'
Judge Halstead gave Rose a skeptical look. 'I might agree to so stipulate if Warrant Rose can fix my case management software so it doesn't lock up almost every time I try to update my files.'
Rose looked up at the judge. 'Milcourt version 9.5, sir? I can fix that.'
'See me after the trial. Does defense counsel have any objection to the stipulation?'
Lieutenant Commander Jones shook his head. 'No, Your Honor. Warrant Officer Rose's qualifications are known to me.'
'Then the court stipulates that Chief Warrant Officer Rose is an expert software engineer.'
Commander Carr nodded to acknowledge the ruling. 'Thank you, Your Honor. Warrant Officer Rose, during the evening of 19 September the engineering logs on the USS Michaelson were so severely damaged that no data could be recovered from them. Have you examined those logs?'
'Yes, ma'am, I have.'
'What was your conclusion?'
'The damage to the logs was caused by a hacking program whose name I've provided to the court but otherwise prefer to keep confidential. It's very hard to detect when this program has been used, but it leaves a couple of markers for those who know where and how to look.'
'You're saying the damage to the engineering logs was deliberate.'
'Absolutely, ma'am.'
Paul glanced over at the members to see how they were taking Rose's testimony. He couldn't decipher the poker faces they were wearing, but they were definitely all paying very close attention. Paul shifted his gaze to defense table, where Lieutenant Silver displayed every appearance of being horrified by the revelation.
'Could you tell the time-frame in which the engineering logs were deliberately damaged?'
'Yes, ma'am. The hacking program activated at 2235.'
'At 2235 on the evening of 19 September.' Carr looked directly at the members. 'According to previous testimony, Lieutenant Silver's presence could not be accounted for from about 2200 to about 2300 that evening. Was Lieutenant Silver logged on to the Michaelson 's system when the damage occurred?'
'Yes, ma'am.'
'Objection.' Jones pointed to the witness. 'Warrant Officer Rose can only testify to what he knows, which is that someone using Lieutenant Silver's account and password was logged on at that time.'
Commander Carr nodded. 'Defense counsel is correct. I'll restate the question. Warrant Officer Rose, was someone using Lieutenant Silver's account and password logged onto the Michaelson 's system when the damage occurred?'
'Yes, ma'am.'
'This hacking program you described. How would someone acquire it?'
'Off the 'net, ma'am. Anyone can find stuff like that if they look for it, which is why I don't want to name the program here.'
