'And who is that, Captain?'
'Lieutenant Junior Grade Sinclair.'
'Thank you, Captain. No further questions.'
Paul stared at Jones, then back at Commander Carr, who gave Jones' back a hard, questioning look. Jones went to all that trouble just to ask my name? There's got to be more to this. I wonder what?
Captain Mashiko nodded in greeting to Captain Hayes. 'Captain, Lieutenant Silver has earned promotions to his current grade, indicating good performance evaluations. How do you reconcile that with your current opinion of Lieutenant Silver's performance?'
Captain Hayes shook his head. 'Captain, I don't know what Lieutenant Silver did in his earlier assignments. All I know is what he did on my ship. I regard that as more than sufficient grounds for reaching my conclusions.'
'I'm assuming you thought long and hard before reaching these conclusions?'
'Yes, of course I did.'
Commander Herdez spoke next. 'Captain Hayes, as commanding officer, have you toured every compartment on the USS Michaelson since coming aboard?'
'Yes, Commander, I have.'
'How many times have you visited Forward Engineering?'
Hayes frowned in thought. 'I'd say two or three times, at least.'
'Then you have visited that compartment at least as many times as Lieutenant Silver, the officer who holds primary responsibility for it?'
'That seems to be right, Commander.'
'Captain Hayes, have you observed Lieutenant Silver performing other professional duties on your ship?'
'Yes, I have.'
'Which duties, sir?'
'Officer of the deck underway, command duty officer in-port.'
'What are your opinions of Lieutenant Silver's performance in those duties?'
Captain Hayes frowned again. 'As officer of the deck underway, Lieutenant Silver displayed passivity.'
'Can you explain that, sir?'
'Sure. Whenever we had a special evolution, Lieutenant Silver would delegate it to his junior officer of the deck. Whenever he needed detailed information, he'd have to get that information from his junior officer of the deck or another watch stander. And he was habitually late in assuming the watch.'
Paul fought down another grin. I'll be damned. Hayes noticed how Silver was doing his job on the bridge. Just like Carl Meadows said. You don't think he's watching, but he is.
'And as command duty officer in-port, sir?'
Hayes shrugged. 'Prior to 19 September, on those few days in which Lieutenant Silver stood CDO, I was unaware of any problems. As I already noted, on 19 September he didn't have a handle on the situation.'
Lieutenant Commander Bryko licked his lips before speaking. 'Captain Hayes, Lieutenant Silver received a Navy Commendation Medal for his handling of the events of 19 September. Why did he get recommended for that medal if you had such a negative opinion of his performance?'
Hayes' face reddened slightly and his voice tightened. 'I don't know.'
'You didn't recommend or approve the award?'
'The recommendation for that award did not originate on my ship.'
Bryko looked surprised. 'Did you even know Lieutenant Silver had been recommended for that medal, sir?'
'No, I did not. If I had been aware, I would've done all I could to block it.'
'Can I ask exactly why, sir?'
'Given what I knew then, I didn't feel Lieutenant Silver's performance rated an award.'
'Thank you, Captain.'
Judge Halstead checked his watch after Captain Hayes had been dismissed. 'Does trial counsel have further witnesses?'
Commander Carr stood. 'No, your honor. The prosecution rests.'
'Then this court-martial is closed. It will reconvene at 1000 tomorrow morning in this same court room for the presentation of evidence by the defense.'
Paul stood with the others, stretching muscles he hadn't realized were tense. Commander Carr stood at the trial counsel's table for a moment, both hands resting on the desk top as if she needed the support, then turned to face Paul and smiled. Paul smiled back. 'That seemed to go real well.'
'It went okay. Not perfect, but you work with what you've got.' Commander Carr stretched as well.
Paul, sensitized to Carr's appearance by Jen's teasing, tried not to notice the way her body moved. As if I need that distraction on top of everything else. And with a superior officer no less. 'Do you think they'll put Silver on the stand tomorrow?'
Carr finished flexing her back muscles and relaxed. 'Ah, now that's a good question. On the one hand, anything Silver says could look bad, like he's making excuses for being such a screw-up at his job. On the other hand, good ol' Scott Silver is a consummate actor and may try to charm the members of the court into submission.'
'You don't think he'll make a sworn statement, do you?'
Carr snorted. 'No chance in hell. The little bastard's guilty, and they know if I get to cross-examine him I'll tear his entrails out and let the members read the proof of his guilt in them.'
'He'd probably take the Fifth — '
'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' Carr paused. 'Wasn't there a song like that a long time ago? Anyway, you and I know that taking the Fifth Amendment as grounds for refusal to self-incriminate is not ever, no way, supposed to be used as a presumption of guilt. You and I also know that just about everybody thinks anyone taking the Fifth is guilty, no matter what instructions they get from the judge. Otherwise, why do they refuse to talk? Unfair or not, that's the way it is. As defense counsel, I'd know that minefield was waiting for me and there's no way to sweep it, though if you're really good and really lucky you can navigate through it without getting your butt blown off. As trial counsel, I think that universally-assumed presumption of guilt is great.'
'Why do you think Commander Jones went to all that trouble to get my name introduced into evidence, but then didn't do anything with it?'
'Obviously, he's planning to do something with it.'
Paul felt the ice in his guts again. 'Will I get called as a witness?'
'No.' Alex Carr shook her head for emphasis. 'If Lieutenant Commander Jones had any intention of doing that, he'd have moved to have you excluded from the courtroom. No, I think he'll try to attack you indirectly. Undermine our evidence by raising questions about how it was obtained, about whether someone else could've been motivated to set up Silver. He doesn't have to convince the members you actually did the dirty deeds. All Commander Jones has to do is create sufficient doubt in the members' minds that Silver did it.'
'Oh.' Paul exhaled heavily. 'I hope he doesn't manage that.'
'It's my job to make sure he doesn't, and I'm going to bend every effort to ensure Lieutenant Scott Silver's head is mounted on my trophy wall in the very near future.'
Paul started to laugh at the image, then sobered. 'You really do believe he's guilty?'
'That's also my job, Paul. You can be as ambivalent as you want to be, now. The outcome's in the hands of the judge, the members, Commander Jones and me.'
Paul nodded. Starting a court-martial's a fire-and-forget weapon. Without any recall capability. Set it on the target, watch it go, and hope like hell the target deserves to get hit. What was that saying? 'Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.' You don't control them once you've set them loose. You just get to watch them do their work. 'I'm not ambivalent about his guilt, either, ma'am. I just wish it hadn't come to this.'
'If it all-too-often didn't come to this, I'd be out of a job. Unfortunately, I have the best job security in the world.'
Captain Hayes was waiting for Paul outside the courtroom. Paul felt another knot form in his gut, wondering how long he'd kept his captain waiting, but Hayes just indicated Paul should walk with him as they returned to the
