Assault on Cambriol: The Manhattan Trials

by Jerry Borrowman

  “This is still a load of rubbish!” Kensington blasted. “Whether the sites are approved or not has little to do with the underlying inclinations that prompted his visits. It’s clear that such attitudes are harmful to the service and, as such, this man should be mustered out!”

  “Colonel Kensington,” Brighton replied, “even on Kalenden one cannot be prosecuted for private thoughts. We can only react when there’s a cause of action and Mr. Wight has provided none. He’s broken no laws, either military or civilian, so he’s entitled to his privacy.”

  Kensington attempted to interrupt, but Brighton cut him off. “There’s nothing more to be said on this matter. From a legal standpoint, it’s closed.” Turning to the group he added, “And because this inquiry was conducted as a confidential investigation, you are all obligated, legally and ethically, to refrain from ever discussing this matter outside of this room. Should you communicate even the essence of this discussion to anyone else, you will be subject to military censure. Is that understood?”

  “A grand way to protect your little conspiracy…”

  “You may find, Colonel, that our privacy requirements are there to protect everyone.” He gave Kensington a menacing glance that seemed to unnerve him.

  “Well, then,” said Kensington importantly, “in spite of my reservations, I’ll be on my way.” Turning to Jesik he added, “It seems your cadre has protected you once again, Jesik. But time will eventually reveal all your dirty secrets and you will be known for who you really are.” With that Kensington stood and started towards the door.

  “Not so fast, Colonel Kensington, we have another matter to settle before this inquiry is concluded. Please take your seat again.”

  “Commander, I’ve been patient with you, but I will not have you ordering me around. I am not a subject of these proceedings, so I will go whenever I damn well please.”

  Brighton stepped between Kensington and the door and put his hand on his sidearm. “This is an official inquiry, Colonel, conducted jointly under military and civilian authority.” He reached down on the table and handed Kensington a piece of paper. “And since you are a target of the investigation, I require your participation.”

  “What in blazes is this?” Kensington’s face reddened.

  “It’s a subpoena, Colonel, directing you to participate. Again, please take a chair.”

  Kensington’s hands trembled as he fumbled through the document while attempting to take his seat.

  “During the course of our investigation of Lieutenant Commander Wight, we encountered a disturbing trend in which a number of individuals were logging onto some extremely hard core pornographic sites maintained on distant planets – sites that go beyond human sexuality, employing graphic scenes of murder, torture and bondage. These are the type of sites that Kalenden laws quite rightly prohibit.”

  Jesik glanced up from the viewer screen listing some of the titles and noticed that Kensington had gone as white as a sheet.

  “As you can see, each of these sites were visited multiple times by these individuals. Naturally, it became our responsibility to identify the offending parties and bring them to justice. What we found, however, is that all the names traced back to men who had previously retired from the service, thus making service related computers unavailable to them during the times noted. In at least one case, the officer in question had died several years before he supposedly went to these sites.”

  “I don’t see what any of this has to do with those of us in this room…”

  “Perhaps not, Colonel, but let me describe where our investigation took us. In an attempt to find a common denominator to these hits, we noted there was never a period during which any of the individuals in question were logged onto a site at the same time. That seemed strange, so we initiated a query to show the geographical location of each computer used for these visits and to then relate it to the known positions of command officers who might have been at those locations at the indicated times. The search narrowed the field to two candidates.”

  “Why only officers?” Magill asked.

  “Because automatic filters would have blocked access to these sites for enlisted men. We knew that only someone with intelligence authority could bypass the filters without drawing attention. So, we pulled the profile on one of the men and found that during an unusually intense period of activity, he had been assigned to a project that required him to work during the specific logon times noted in the record. That left us just one name.” Brighton paused. “Of course the name on the record was no help, since we already knew the access was stolen, but the pattern of usage provided us the name of just one active officer.”

  The sick feeling in Jesik’s stomach made it difficult for him to look up from the table. While he’d sometimes felt Kalenden laws were too restrictive of people’s individual freedoms, he’d never doubted the wisdom of keeping this kind of material from the public. He’d read that on ancient Earth, even children had been exploited to fill the increasingly insatiable appetite for sexual stimulation and that people had actually been murdered in the production of sadomasochistic video images. More than one convicted felon had pointed to this material as the main contributing factor to the emotional desensitization that allowed them to inflict horrid suffering on their victims. It seemed impossible that anyone in contemporary society could actually watch material such as this.

  “Colonel Kensington, would you like to add anything to the discussion at this point?”

  “Why would I want to add to this discussion, it has nothing to do with me.”

  “Of course it has something to do with you,” Brighton fixed his gaze on Kensington. “You are the officer the system identified as meeting all requirements of the search criteria.”

  “Which simply shows that your search methodology was flawed. There is nothing concrete to tie me to any of this and I bitterly resent the implication.” Gone was his usual bombast, replaced by suppressed rage.

  “You’re correct, Sir, that we could not break through the encryption that would have provided us the true name of this user and we could never bring charges through merely circumstantial evidence.”

  Kensington seemed to relax a bit.

  “But, then, we caught a break. It turns out that while most of the sites were available without charge, there was at least one where credit was required. We were able to use our security clearance to log back through the originating computers’ search history, where we found the encrypted card number. The issuing company at first resisted our attempt to name the owner until we reminded them that they carried the risk of criminal charges themselves for not blocking payment to an unauthorized site.”

  Kensington stood abruptly. “I suppose it was my name on that credit! Well, for your information, my card was stolen and could have been used by anyone.”

  Brighton sat down and sighed. “Colonel, you never reported the card stolen and you’ve used it many times since then.”

  “I was unaware it was lost for a time and obviously someone else used it while out of my possession. When I got it back, I had no idea it had been used for such a purpose.”

  “Colonel, enough already. The card had an encrypted retina scan which the computer took automatically while you were viewing the site. The credit card vendor has absolute verification that you witnessed the site in question with your own eyes. The proof is irrefutable.”

  Kensington let out a strangled cry and dove at Brighton, but the Commander sidestepped, which caused Kensington to crash into the wall. The door opened when the guards heard the commotion and two guards rushed in to subdue Kensington. After a few moments of struggle, Brighton asked if Kensington would like to know his alternatives. Picking himself up he finally settled back into his seat. Brighton handed Magill a weapon set to stun force and asked him to keep it trained on the Colonel in case he lost control again.

  “Colonel, up to now I’ve brought no formal charges against you. Nor have you confessed to any crime. You are, of course, entitl
ed to legal representation in a Courts Martial. In spite of your current assignment, these incursions into forbidden territories took place while you were an active military officer, so the Army can claim jurisdiction.”

  Brighton paused, awaited a response from Kensington, but the Colonel sat stiffly in his chair as if he didn’t understand what had been said.

  “You have a choice, Sir. If you sign this letter of resignation, from both the military and your diplomatic assignment, along with a second document that requires you to submit to a formal psychological reprogramming sequence, no formal charges will be brought against you. These accommodations are made in recognition of the negative effect your arrest would have on your family, the military and the diplomatic corps.”

  “Yes, we wouldn’t want to embarrass any of those august groups, would we?” replied Kensington.

  “Colonel, the main person we want to avoid embarrassing is you. That’s why the choice is entirely up to you. I have Lieutenant Commander Magill as an impartial witness that I am not asking you to sign under duress.”

  “And what additional requirements are included in these documents?”

  “First, that you surrender, forever, your authority to use the interstellar net for anything but financial transactions and electronic messages. Second, that you submit to periodical psychological reviews to confirm that you have not acted on any impulses created by your viewing of forbidden material. And third, that you never reveal anything you have heard or seen about my personal situation or that of Lieutenant Commander Wight and Captain Jesik. If you violate any of these terms, the protection afforded by this agreement will terminate immediately and you will be arrested and brought to a public trial where all your activities will be revealed. You will be monitored electronically to detect any breach of the agreement.”

  “So you think you’ve got me, Commander. Well, I don’t think so! You’ve forgotten that I’m the charge d’ affairs to Alturus. I suspect the Prime Minister will not be at all pleased to have me disappear suddenly. That would be too great a public embarrassment. So, in spite of any supposed difficulties in my personal viewing, I will not resign.”

  “Did I mention, Sir, that the Chairman of the Council Control Board for Morals and Sobriety is Prime Minister Larimore’s eldest son? Naturally, before we decided to offer this plea bargain, we discussed it with the Prime Minister. He has agreed to accept your resignation. Publicly he’ll express regrets that your personal health has forced you to take this action and wish you well in your recovery. Kalenden’s privacy laws will prevent any disclosure of the health issues he refers to, so as you can see, Colonel, sometimes privacy protection is indeed an important part of doing what’s right for an individual.”

  Kensington looked around with malevolence. Jesik felt the hatred that had driven him all those years with new recognition that it was fueled by the insipid things he’d viewed. He finally understood that there was nothing he could have done to appease Kensington. It also explained how Kensington had discovered Wight’s wanderings through cyberspace. He undoubtedly used the computer on many occasions to try to find like-minded individuals and a random search turned up Wight’s name. Kensington’s high level clearance, stolen from a dead man, allowed him to build a record he hoped to use to destroy Wight and Jesik.

  An angry growl brought Jesik’s thoughts back to the proceeding. He watched as Kensington picked up the electronic pen and angrily attacked the piece of paper with his signature. That initiated an automatic computer sequence that instantly sealed the record, securing it so that only a member on the Quadrant Council Control Board for Morals and Sobriety could open it in the future. It also ensured that any public utterances of the items or individuals mentioned in the document would be reviewed for compliance with the secrecy agreement Kensington had agreed to. If he directly or indirectly produced a leak, the computer would automatically open the file and bring formal charges. Kensington had effectively signed away his room to maneuver.

  “Now am I free to go?” he asked Brighton icily.

  “You are free to return to your cabin to prepare for your transfer to the Legato. The Prime Minister will communicate to Captain Garrard the need to return you to Keswick, where you will be transferred to the next available ship destined for Kalenden. While you will not be a prisoner, he will make it clear to the Captain that you will not enjoy full liberty and that he is to enforce your return home.

  Kensington stood, shook his head, and then turned to Kevin. “Just think, Mr. Wight, my bad habits on the interstellar net started much like yours – doing ‘research.’ Why, in time you could become just like me, facing a group like this. Wouldn’t your mother love that!” Jesik stood, ready to block Kensington before he could reveal his personal knowledge of Kevin’s mother, but Kensington saw him and backed off.

  “And as for you, Jesik, I suspect you’ll long bear the scars of our initial encounter. I’d hoped for more, but I’ll just have to be content with what you’ve already lost.” His sneer was intended to infuriate Jesik, but it only added to the pity he felt. Kensington left the room, accompanied down the corridor by the guards.

  As the doors closed, Jesik and Brighton sat down in their chairs. No one said anything, too stunned by their reversals of fortune.

  Finally, Lieutenant Commander Magill inquired, “How’d you figure all this out in just two days, Commander? I find it remarkable what you accomplished. And how can any one person nurture such hatred that he would try to harm others in such a vicious way?”

  Brighton chewed his lip for a moment.

  “I’ll never be able to answer your second question, Commander. It makes no sense to me. As to the first, my motivation was simply to save Kevin from a fate he didn’t deserve. I knew what it felt like to be on the receiving end of Kensington’s wrath, but at least I was prepared. Kevin has never experienced that kind of malice, and should not have had to face it.” He turned to Kevin and added. “Mr. Wight, have you thought about what you’ll do now?”

  “I don’t know, Sir. I’m very confused.”

  “I know the feelings you have are considered unnatural on Kalenden and to act on them would be illegal. But there are places in the system that holds the opposite view, good places with decent people. Perhaps, even Earth. You should go there to explore for yourself what you feel. There may be someone special with whom you can share your life.”

  Wight didn’t say anything, so Jesik added, “Or, perhaps you can discover a way to sort out your thoughts in our own system. There are counselors who will treat you with consideration and in confidence. I think it’s long overdue that we address this issue as a society.” He searched Wight’s face for how to proceed, but saw only confusion. “In any event, there’s no hurry. We still need your service here.”

  “You mean you’d allow me to serve, knowing my struggles?”

  “As long as your performance remains unaffected.”

  “But, what about the effect on the ship’s morale if someone should find out or guess? What would it do to you?” Wight was obviously trying to think through all the potential ramifications.

  Jesik really didn’t want this discussion, because it was so unfamiliar. But, that’s what leadership was all about, so he had to respond.

  “In the first place, no one need ever know, unless you decide to share it. None of us will break the confidentiality of this proceeding. Then if you feel you want to open your thoughts to another person and it gets spread around, I’ll deal with the ship’s morale. That’s my job. My concern is the effect it would have on you. As Commander Brighton indicated, there are other planets in our area of space that are very open to people’s natural expression of their nature. I think you’d find our crew far more understanding than you might expect.”

  Wight shook his head in unbelief.

  As he watched Kevin trying to sort it all our, Jesik found his own opinions were softening. “You are a man of integrity, Mr. Wight, so I have no reservation asking you to stay aboard this ship as an
active member of the crew for as long as you like. Mr. Brighton, Mr. Magill, what are your thoughts?” Both nodded their assent.

  Finally, Wight looked up and explained, “The truth is I don’t know what I’ll do in the long run. I’ve spent so many years being afraid that I simply don’t know what to think. Right now I’m trying to understand how mistaken I was about what would happen if this became known. In my imagination I thought everyone would see me as Colonel Kensington did, loathsome and contemptible. Yet, the three of you have done everything possible to reassure and protect me. I guess I wasn’t prepared for that. Thank you.”

  Jesik stood and extended his hand to Wight. “You have plenty of time to decide what to do next – that is, after after you help pilot us to Alturus. Right now that’s your most important responsibility.”

  Turning to Lieutenant Commander Magill, he related, “I’ll discuss with the Prime Minister what to do in Colonel Kensington’s absence. My suspicion is that he’ll not want to delay our initial contact with Alturus while waiting for another civilian representative to be appointed. So, he’s likely to ask me to serve as a military liaison. If so, I would like you to serve as my attaché. Do you object to that?”

  Magill answered that he did not and stood to leave, then decided to add his thoughts. “Captain Jesik, Mr. Brighton, I want you to know that I consider it an honor to have participated in these events. I’ve learned more about integrity and loyalty in the past two days than in all the classes I’ve ever attended. Thank you for protecting Commander Wight.” Then, turning to Kevin he said, “How about a game of racquetball before lunch.” Wight smiled, nodded, and the two left the room.

  When they were alone, Jesik turned to Brighton and asked, “How can I ever thank you, Tom? You found a way to elude the disasters threatening to swamp me. I can’t believe my change in fortune.”

  Brighton returned the smile and said, “Kensington was right when he said that all secrets will be revealed. He just didn’t know it applied to him.” They laughed and Brighton said, seriously, “I should have told you about Sondra earlier than today, but the truth is that you came down on me so hard in our initial conversation that it irritated me to the point where I didn’t want to involve you. Now I realize you were trying to protect me because of your own experience. I’m sorry.”