Assault on Cambriol: The Manhattan Trials

by Jerry Borrowman

  “But, Sir, such a proceeding would be devastating to my mother and to her family,” Wight pleaded. “Can’t I just resign from the service quietly and avoid a public trial? My mother’s done nothing wrong, but she would pay the biggest price.”

  The mention of Kevin’s mother brought Jesik to his feet and he exploded. “Kensington, I will not allow you to destroy this young man or Commander Brighton! Whatever has happened can be dealt with through private discipline and you know it. Your only motive in forcing these incidents into the public spotlight is to embarrass me, even though it ruins the careers of these men. Understand me clearly. I will not stand for it. Not this time!”

  Even Brighton shrank back in his seat at this. He’d never seen Jesik in such a fury and the tone in his voice suggested that he was angry enough to actually move against Kensington physically.

  Even though he shrunk back in his seat, Kensington did not yield. “Captain, I will not be intimidated by you. You are in no position to make demands at all. It falls to the ship’s Captain to keep track of his officers and their breach of the Morality Laws makes you subject to censure as well. That you promoted this man to a line position at such a young age, particularly in view of his egregious conduct, shows the total lack of sound judgment on your part!”

  “So, that’s it! One last chance to take me down.” Jesik clasped his hands together to mask their trembling. “I actually thought you’d changed, that this assignment to Alturus had given you whatever you needed to get on with your life and let old demons die. But, no, you son-of-a-bitch, you have to stay with it no matter who gets hurt. You will not do it to these men! With heaven as my witness, you will not destroy them to get at me!”

  “Lieutenant Commander, what’s your name?” Kensington looked at Magill, whose name he should have known, but Magill quickly averted his eyes. Still, he quietly repeated his name. “Lieutenant Commander Magill, you will note that Captain Jesik is threatening me.”

  “I’m not threatening, I’m promising.”

  For a moment the two of them stared at each other with a fury in their eyes that spoke of ancient grievances. Then Kensington relaxed and smiled.

  “Perhaps you’re right, Captain. The best way to cure a cancer is to cut out its core. The only thing these two men have in common is your leadership. That they could both commit such flagrant violations of our most sacred laws right under your ineffective nose indicates an appalling lack of supervision on your part. Maybe they’re symptoms of the illness, while you are the cause.”

  “You’ll not blame my behavior on Captain Jesik,” said Brighton, but Kensington waved him down with a gesture.

  “Here’s my offer, Jesik. If you will submit your resignation from the service, effective immediately, I will see that Lieutenant Commander Wight is allowed to resign quietly, with no entry of this in his record. He can then slink back to Kalenden or Tatrius to pursue his degenerate practices in private, while you simply disappear from the public scene. I’ll even drop the charges against Commander Brighton if he agrees to leave Kalenden permanently.”

  Jesik slumped in his seat. Wight tried to protest that he would go through the ordeal of a trial rather than have the Captain surrender to this blackmail, but Jesik put his hand on Kevin’s arm and told him to say nothing more, since the real attack was against Jesik, not him.

  Finally, after what seemed an eternity of silence, Jesik told Kensington that he was likely to accept the offer, but that he needed some time to consider its ramifications. Kensington smiled and moralized that he was a reasonable man and Jesik could have the two days Commander Brighton requested – just as long as he resigned before the Legato left station. Kensington then turned and thanked Magill for his service, indicating that as an officer, he was bound to report all that had happened accurately and without prejudice if ever questioned. Magill nodded glumly in the affirmative and Kensington left the room.

  After he was gone Jesik turned to Kevin, whose eyes were now watering as he tried to hold back tears. His humiliation was complete and the force of Kensington’s vitriol and Jesik’s anger had cowed him completely.

  “Kevin, I know this sounds like the worst thing in the world, but I promise that things will work out.” Wight didn’t look up. He stared at the table in front of him, trance-like.

  “Kevin, look at me.” The young man caught his breath and looked up with a paralyzed expression.

  “Kevin, whatever is going on in your life has little to do with what took place here today. Colonel Kensington has been seeking to destroy me for many years and the charges against you and Commander Brighton are simply his current line of attack. I promise you that he will not use this to hurt you or your mother.”

  “But, Sir, it’s true that I went to those sites. I didn’t think they were in violation of the morality laws. But if they’re forbidden, I’m guilty.”

  Jesik caught his own breath, afraid to ask the next question, but knowing he had to.

  “Kevin, do you have questions about your own sexuality? Moreover, have you ever acted out your doubts?”

  At this Wight couldn’t control his emotions any longer and started sobbing, his shoulders heaving up and down as the physical manifestation of the emotional agony he was enduring. Jesik stood up and put his arms on his shoulders, while Magill and Brighton moved closer to provide support. Finally, he quieted down and looked at them with something of a pathetic look.

  “I have never acted, Sir. But it’s true I don’t understand my feelings. I’ve lived with thoughts that I hate for so many years it’s hard not to hate myself. Yet, this is how I’ve always felt and a part of me says it isn’t wrong. I’m sure that this is me, because I’ve tried so hard to think other ways.” He took a deep breath. “It’s just me.” Wisely, Jesik and the others said nothing. “My greatest fear has been that someone would one day find out about it. Now that’s come true and may cost you your career, or make my mother face the public humiliation of a trial.” The look of terror returned.

  Jesik calmed himself as best he could, taking a number of breaths to steady his own voice.

  “Kevin, I have no frame of reference to understand what you’re feeling, because I’ve never personally had such thoughts. I don’t pretend to comprehend the complexities of human nature, but I know, first hand, of your character and you’re one of the finest men I’ve ever known. You have a great deal to offer our system, no matter your personal feelings. The only tragedy that can happen today is if you lose faith in yourself. I want you to look at me.”

  Wight kept his eyes averted until Jesik lifted his chin.

  “Kevin, no matter what happens in the next two days, I personally think highly of you. If I end up making a career change, it will be because of events in my life, not yours, so don’t give up hope. Trust me to make things work out.” Wight tried to avert his eyes again, but Jesik held them with his. “Will you trust me?” Finally, Kevin nodded in the affirmative.

  “Good. I want you to go to your room now and collect your thoughts. I also want you to report to duty for your regular shift. You are every bit as capable of piloting this starship now as you were half-an-hour ago before Colonel Kensington summoned you here. Understand?”

  “Yes, Sir. Thank you.”

  “Mr. Magill, will you be kind enough to escort the Mr. Wight to his quarters?”

  “Yes, Sir.” Magill gave Wight his arm and escorted him from the room. Concerned that Wight might do something drastic if left alone Sean spent the next two hours in his room talking. Magill told him of his own struggles of having been an outsider in school and how lonely it was to feel different from everyone around you. He also talked about what he’d learned from having his feet burned, having to trust other people to help him when he’d prided himself of being independent. For the first time in his life, Magill was offering comfort to another human being by opening up to his own fears, anger and disappointments. Eventually, Wight was able to share his feelings with Magill, telling him everything he’d suppressed throu
gh the lonely years he’d nurtured his thoughts. It started with halting words, but eventually flooded out. “I’m embarrassed to say such things openly, but sharing this with another person is helpful.”

  Magill nodded. He was not as naïve as many of the others and knew perfectly well that there were others on Kalenden who felt as Kevin did – there had always been. He’d had friends whom he suspected of it, but no one in his rank had made an issue of it. When Kevin finally started to nod off to sleep, out of sheer exhaustion, Magill covered him with a blanket and turned out the lights.

  Back in his own quarters Magill reflected on what he had learned the past year, painfully aware that before being wounded on Keswick, he would have had a much harder time expressing empathy to Wight. But, now, because of his own suffering, he felt an understanding for Kevin and wished, more than anything, that he could comfort him and give him hope that his life still had meaning, no matter what lay ahead. “Who’d have guessed I’d have to lose my feet to find my heart?” He lay back on his own bed and fell into troubled slumber.

  * * *

  As soon as Wight and Magill had cleared the room, Jesik turned to Brighton.

  “Blast you Commander, why didn’t you talk to me about this earlier? I tried, but you always brushed me off. Now Kensington’s involved.”

  “Captain, you don’t need to worry on my account. I can take care of myself.”

  “Not worry? Not worry?” Jesik shook his head, at a loss for words. How could Brighton be so naïve to his own danger? “I tried to make you see this could end your career, Tom, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get your attention. You’re a great officer, but your cavalier attitude may now ruin everything.”

  Brighton started to respond, but Jesik interrupted. “Tom, you’re the best officer I’ve ever served with.” He hesitated, “And you are my friend. Why didn’t you protect yourself?”

  “Captain, you have to believe me. I’m okay and my career will not come to an end. There’s a reason I asked for a formal inquiry. Please trust me on this. I can handle Colonel Kensington.”

  Jesik hesitated. “Well, I don’t see how, but if you wish to proceed on your own, I guess I have no choice but to trust you.”

  “I won’t be on my own. At the right moment you’ll stand up for me. But in the meantime there are some things I need to take care of.”

  “Then that’s how it will be.”

  “My concern is for Wight,” Brighton continued. “I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach when Kensington accused him. Nothing like this has happened in more than a hundred years, at least as far as I know. But, it sounds like the charges are true.”

  “I’ve got to protect him, Tom. It’s rotten for Kensington to destroy his life, no matter what you or I may think about Kevin’s inclination. He doesn’t deserve to be humiliated for what’s a part of who he is.” Jesik slowly shook his head, as if trying to force his mind to come to terms with this new challenge. “But I don’t know how I can help. To do so, I’d have to take on the Morality Laws themselves and it would be hard to find anyone who would support that. I don’t know if I support it. So it may be that the only way out of this is to meet Kensington’s demand for my own resignation.”

  “Sir, with all due respect, I need to intrude on your personal life. I don’t know how I can help Kevin, but I intend to find a way. But, to do that, I need to know the source of the bad blood between you and Kensington, so I’ll know what I’m fighting.”

  “That’s my business, Tom, not anyone else’s, not even yours. I put it to rest a long time ago and I don’t want to resurrect it.” Jesik had a faraway look to his eye that said he was re-living some incident from the past.

  “Captain, whether you put it to rest or not, Colonel Kensington hasn’t. Please tell me. I need to find some way to stop him.” After a moment he added, “You said you think of me as a friend.”

  Jesik looked up and started to reject his inquiry a second time, then paused. Lowering his face, he sighed. “Why not? There’s nothing more that Kensington can do to me, now. He’s left no way for me to win this time, just like the first time, except that now I’ll go away and never bother him again.”

  Jesik slumped into his seat and proceeded to tell the story. “When I was a nineteen-year-old Cadet at the Academy, I fell in love with a beautiful young woman named Helen Wentworth. She had the most striking eyes in the world and her personality was the perfect match to mine. While my natural inclination is to take things as they come, she was much more ambitious, but not in an arrogant way. She thought that people who did their very best could make the worlds brighter and more meaningful. She was a true idealist. But, since her ambition was softened by a terrific sense of humor, it was easy to talk with her – and fall in love.”

  In spite of the circumstances, he smiled at the memory. “She had the kind of laugh that could fill an empty room. At first I had a lot of rivals, but in time it came down to just one – Kensington. I’d gotten into the Academy on one of the three scholarships offered to second-class families, just like Lieutenant Commander Magill. Helen, though, was from a distinguished family. In fact, her father was a minister on the Council. Naturally Kensington thought it was shameful that she showed interest in a second-class person, so he made it his personal mission to win her away from me.”

  He stopped to sip some water. Brighton sensed whatever was next was obviously painful. “He didn’t succeed, though. Helen couldn’t stand his posturing and saw through his shallow attempts to flatter her. He thought she should marry him because of his family name, but she cared nothing about that.”

  Jesik paused, again. Brighton could see that there was another “but” statement coming.

  “Unfortunately, her father cared, aghast at the thought of her diminishing the family name by marrying someone from a lower-class. He tried to break us up, even forced her to stop seeing me. But, it didn’t work. In fact…” Jesik paused abruptly as if it was hard for him to breathe.

  “… In fact, she became pregnant and scared to death. But I was thrilled, because I thought it would force her father to let us marry and I wanted that more than anything. Our confrontation with him was ugly, but when she threatened to run away from home he finally relented. He insisted on a small, private ceremony quickly, so the timing would make the pregnancy appear legitimate.”

  Jesik stopped again, much of his energy spent. Brighton nudged him to go on.

  “Everything seemed to be going right for us and then one day Kensington overheard us talking. He was smart enough to put two-and-two together and bribed a nurse at the clinic to give him a copy of the pregnancy test. Rather than coming to us, he went straight to her father and threatened to reveal the incident, including her father’s attempt to cover it up. Of course, that would have ruined her father’s career and so he called Helen and me to face Kensington, telling us that we had to give the baby up for adoption and I had to agree never to see Helen again. If we’d do that, Kensington would sign a document promising never to reveal the details in exchange for a recommendation that he be promoted directly to Captain upon graduation. His grades didn’t justify that, but cabinet ministers had a way of making their influence felt. So, the devil’s deal was struck. Kensington was able to blackmail Helen’s family and they could still blackmail him by proving that he didn’t deserve his posting to Captain. Thus, a successful balance of terror was established.”

  “What did you do?”

  “What did I do? I pleaded with Helen to go with me to Tatrius or even Earth, where we could get away from all of these narrow-minded, bigoted people and raise our child. I begged her to run away with me. I’ve never seen anyone struggle so hard emotionally and I hated Kensington for making her suffer such anguish. At one point, it looked like she was going to go with me, but then her father pleaded with her not to ruin his career. She had never seen him show any emotions except anger or impatience previous to this, and it unnerved her. So, she chose her father over me and that night was the last time I
ever saw her, at least alone. Her father arranged that I never had the chance to see our baby, or to even know whether it was a boy or girl. I would have been washed out of the Academy, too, if it had been up to Kensington. But Helen’s father thought that would look too suspicious and so she went to visit relatives on a distant planet and I was transferred to boundary patrol, while Kensington moved up the military command. He thought that when I was out of the scene he could win Helen’s heart. But of course, she hated him more than ever. For someone like Kensington, that meant his victory over me was only partial, so he’s spent the past twenty-five years trying to get me kicked out of the service to make his triumph complete.”

  Jesik looked totally spent from telling the story.

  “Forgive me, Sir, but can I ask you a question?”

  “Yes.”

  “Whatever happened to Helen Wentworth?”

  Jesik looked up with a wan smile. “That’s what makes the story so very interesting. She remained single for a time and then her father arranged for her to marry another cabinet minister, a much older bachelor in his late-forties who was very wealthy, but in need of a wife to help him fill his social calendar. His name was Jonathan Wight and Kevin is their only child. Jonathan died several years ago”

  Brighton sat back in his chair and exhaled slowly. “Now Kensington has the chance to hurt both of you again.”

  “Which is why I’ve got to stop him, Tom, no matter what it costs me personally.” Jesik leaned forward with fire in his eyes. “He hurt Helen once and I won’t let him do it again. Through the years I’ve put up with his bullying, in part to deny him the satisfaction of getting to me, but mostly to protect Helen.”

  “Captain, I don’t know what I can do, but will you arrange for me to be relieved of my regular duties for the next two days. It’s urgent that I have some time to think this through.”

  “I’ll arrange it,” said Jesik, “but I don’t see it’ll do much good. I think he’s finally got me.”