"Because I don't know his reasons!"
"You don't know his reasons. Do you know Chief Sharpe's reasons, Master Chief? No? You never even asked.” Carr eyed Wilmont for a long moment while the master chief visibly began sweating, then spun away. “No further questions."
Jen felt a heavy feeling in her gut as she watched Carr walking back to her seat after savaging Master Chief Wilmont. She never did that to me. Not like that. What if she had?
Hue was rubbing his forehead again. “No redirect, Your Honor."
Captain Daladros cleared her throat. “Master Chief, did you have any qualms about ordering someone on the scene to shoot at a target they were hesitant to engage?"
"No, ma'am. I gave him a clear order.” Wilmont was breathing heavily. “I could see clearly enough."
"Even though you weren't on the scene?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Lieutenant Brook leaned forward. “Why did you press these charges, Master Chief?"
"Because Sharpe's actions were dangerous and negligent, ma'am. I need to know that people under my command will do what they're told, and they need to know that obedience to orders is expected of them."
Brook's expression was hard to read. “Exactly as they're told?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Hue waited until Master Chief Wilmont had left the courtroom, then rose again. “The prosecution rests."
* * * *
The court recessed for lunch and Jen ran out to grab food while Carr kept working. “Sandwich, ma'am?"
"Thanks.” Carr took an absentminded bite, then gave the sandwich a surprised look. “Bulgur wheat? How'd you know?"
"And herbal tea,” Jen said, giving her the drink. “Why didn't you bring up the personal stuff? About that master chief not getting along with Sharpe?"
Carr chewed and swallowed, looking thoughtful. “If that was all I had, I'd use it, but proving personality conflicts are behind charges is very hard to do. The members could decide that the master chief had every right to dislike Sharpe but still believed charging him here was the right thing to do. Or that Sharpe might have disobeyed the order because of a personality conflict, which is no defense at all. It's a minefield I prefer to avoid, especially since it might have brought out the fight between Sharpe and Wilmont, which would have made them both look bad."
"You've got them on the run, don't you?"
"Probably. But I never let a wounded enemy escape, Lieutenant. We need to finish them off."
* * * *
"The defense calls as its first witness Lieutenant Junior Grade Akesha Taylor."
Jen watched Taylor walking confidently toward the witness stand. Taylor had worked her way up from enlisted and had served with Paul on the Michaelson for a while. Despite her junior officer rank, she was probably the most experienced individual in the room.
Carr stood in an attentive but relaxed posture in front of Taylor. “Are you Lieutenant Junior Grade Akesha Taylor, currently assigned to the staff of Commander, United States Naval Space Forces?"
"Yes, ma'am.” Taylor rubbed her brow for a moment. Under the cover of that movement, Taylor gave a surreptitious wink to Jen.
"Were you assigned to evaluate lessons learned from an electronics standpoint after the attack of 6 July?"
"Yes, ma'am.” Taylor spoke casually but with total confidence.
"Are you familiar with the signals environment involving the station emergency response forces on 6 July?"
Taylor made a small snort. “Yes, ma'am."
"How would you characterize that signals environment?"
"In polite company, Commander?” Taylor asked. “Chaos. Bedlam. Goat-rope."
Carr leaned forward, suddenly intent. “Why? What happened?"
"Two things.” Taylor held up one hand with the first two fingers displayed. “First thing, the bozos who attacked us deployed broad-spectrum noise makers. Those things pumped out random messages and signals up and down the frequency range to confuse and jam our own signals.” One finger came down. “But our suits could handle some of that because of their comm suite filters. A bigger problem was that the relays and junctions were blown out or fried in a large area of the station and our masters-at-arms had to operate there.” Taylor's other finger dropped. “Normally, our suits use very low-power signals on very limited frequencies to minimize the amount of RF energy bouncing around inside the station."
"RF energy?"
"Sorry, ma'am, I mean radio-frequency energy. The station is shielded to keep radiation out. That means it also keeps radiation in. If everybody and everything was yakking away on high-powered wireless connections this whole station would turn into an economy-sized microwave oven. Great for popcorn, bad for people and equipment."
Carr nodded, her expression serious even though many other people grinned at Taylor's description. “Normally, you said. What happened during the attack?"
Taylor spread her hands. “The relays were gone, or the junctions were gone, or both. Our suits tried to shake hands with the nearest relays so their low-powered signals could be picked up. No joy. So the suits automatically shifted to emergency comm mode, boosting signal strength and changing frequencies. The suits keep doing both until they find a relay to shake hands with.” Now Taylor moved her hands rapidly from side to side. “We ended up with high-power signals bouncing down the walls of passageways like they were giant transmission channels, leaking through everywhere they could, reflecting here, there, and everywhere. And these were signals our suits were supposed to listen to. So they tried, but the signals seemed to be coming from all sides, the real locations couldn't be identified, their strength varied like crazy, and most were distorted or fragmentary.” Taylor shrugged. “Goat-rope."
Carr nodded. “We earlier reviewed recordings of the scene from Chief Sharpe's suit during the engagement. That recording was filtered to make it clearer. With the court's permission, the defense would now like that recording run unfiltered, exactly as Chief Sharpe experienced it."
Halstead glanced at Hue, but the trial counsel apparently realized the request was too reasonable to be denied. “The court so orders."
The display winked to life, the now-familiar scene appeared, but this time a constant stream of noise rattled from it and symbology flashed and faded in seemingly random patterns on the heads-up display. Words and phrases could be picked out, as well as occasional sentences, but Jen found herself developing a headache as the cacophony went on. She could still make out Wilmont's orders and Sharpe's reply, but not easily. Finally, Carr turned off the recording. “That was only thirty seconds of the replay,” she reminded the members. “Thank you, LTJG Taylor."
As Carr returned to her seat, Major Hue approached Taylor warily. “Lieutenant, don't survival suits contain the means to filter out signals such as we just experienced?"
Taylor nodded. “Sure."
"Then Chief Sharpe could have reduced that noise, could have rendered his operating environment clearer."
"Yeah, Major, but—"
"Thank you, Lieutenant. Did the system records reveal Chief Sharpe complaining about the comm environment during the engagement?"
Taylor smiled unpleasantly at Hue. “A lot of the words I heard from Sharpe and the other masters-at-arms had something to do with that. I'd be happy to recite some of them if you want, Major."
Hue gave Taylor a sour look and shook his head. “That's quite all right. How do you know those words concerned the communications environment?"
"Well, when I hear people saying the ‘f-ing circuits are f-ing f-ed up’ and ‘what the f-ing hell is the f-ing chief trying to f-ing tell us,’ then I figure it has something to do with the comm environment."
Chuckles in the courtroom were hastily stifled as Judge Halstead glared around. Hue twisted his mouth, gave Taylor a long look, then started back to his table. “No further questions."
"Defense wishes to redirect,” Carr said, standing again. “LTJG Taylor, what were you saying regarding Chief Sharpe's ability to filt
er out the signals he and the other masters-at-arms were encountering on 6 July?"
Taylor grinned. “I was saying, it has to be done manually, calling up the right subroutines and reassigning functions and priorities. The software can walk you through the process, but it takes a while and it takes your full attention."
"Manually? It requires a lot of time and your full attention?"
"That's correct, ma'am. One of my strongest recommendations was for that system to be totally reworked."
"No further questions."
Lieutenant Commander Nasser nodded to Taylor. “How long would it take you to do such a manual filtering?"
"Me?” Taylor thought for a moment. “In that complex an environment? Five minutes, I guess. I don't do it every day."
"How long would you estimate it would have required one of the masters-at-arms to do it on 6 July in that environment?"
Taylor squinted toward the overhead. “Fifteen minutes? Maybe half an hour. If they didn't get shot while they were figuring out the next step."
Master Chief Kobo spoke next. “Why didn't Colonel Lamont talk about this problem, LTJG Taylor?"
"I don't know. I wasn't here when he talked to you. But I do know the Marines didn't have the same problem. Their combat armor is designed to operate in places where there aren't relays, so their own suits function as relays and junctions for everybody's comms. They also don't use the same frequencies or protocols as Navy suits, so they weren't bothered much by the junk our suits were putting out. To the Marine comm suites it was just so much sailor noise to be ignored."
Kobo looked thoughtful. “Is the rest of fleet staff going to get input to the comm fixes you've proposed?"
"Look me up after this is over, Master Chief. You'll get a say in it."
Master Chief Kobo settled back, looking contented.
Carr stood up as Taylor left. “Your Honor, the defendant wishes to testify as a sworn witness on his own behalf."
Halstead gave Sharpe a questioning look. “Chief Sharpe, you have the right to make a statement. Included in your right to present evidence are the rights you have to testify under oath, to make an unsworn statement, or to remain silent. If you testify, you may be cross-examined by the trial counsel or questioned by me and the members. If you decide to make an unsworn statement you may not be cross-examined by trial counsel or questioned by me or the members. Are you certain you want to testify under oath?"
Sharpe had risen, too, and nodded firmly. “Yes, Your Honor."
"Then take the stand, please."
Sharpe sat in the witness chair and waited as Commander Carr approached. “Chief Petty Officer Sharpe,” Carr began, “tell us your thoughts when you received the order from Master Chief Wilmont to fire at the individual in the hatch."
"Yes, ma'am.” Sharpe's expression was as serious as Jen had ever seen it. “The situation was really muddled. Lots of noise, lots of things happening, and no one knew enough about what was going on. I saw the hatch open and I aimed my weapon at the person who appeared in it. I couldn't make out any identification. I hesitated, because I knew we didn't know exactly where all of our own people were. Master chief ordered me to fire and I started to, but I stopped, trying to see if I could make out anything on the target that would ID it as friend or foe. Master chief ordered me to fire again. I said, ‘aye, aye’ and prepared to fire, but stopped again because I couldn't see any weapon, couldn't see any ID, couldn't see anything to tell me who that target was. Master chief came on again and I started to ask how we knew that person wasn't a friendly, and then whoever it was jerked back inside."
Sharpe grimaced. “I had an order. I admit that, but that could have been a friendly, ma'am."
Carr nodded with just a trace of sympathy. “As a member of the armed forces, are you required to obey any and all orders, Chief Sharpe?"
"All orders? No, ma'am. Only lawful orders."
"Lawful orders?” Carr prodded.
"Orders that don't conflict with existing law or regulation,” Sharpe recited. “You can't be ordered to rob a bank or mutiny or desert your place of duty, just to cite a few examples."
"Can you be ordered to shoot someone you believe might be friendly?” Carr asked.
"Objection, Your Honor.” Before Major Hue could say more, Halstead stopped him with a gesture.
"Defense counsel has every right to question her witness as to his own state of mind, Trial Counsel. Overruled."
Sharpe looked from Halstead to Carr. “No, ma'am. You can't be ordered to shoot one of your own people."
"Did you honestly believe there was a real chance that individual was a friendly, Chief Sharpe?"
"Yes, ma'am, I did."
"No further questions."
Major Hue walked up to Sharpe, his face hard. “Chief Sharpe, how strong was this belief that the target might be a friendly?"
"Strong enough, sir."
"What evidence did you have that the target was friendly? Was there any evidence?"
Sharpe nodded, not intimidated by Hue's pointed questions or attitude. “Yes, sir. A suit that appeared the same as ours and no obvious indicators of hostile action or intent while I was observing that individual."
"Do the sailors under your command routinely decide whether to obey your orders, Chief Sharpe?"
"No, sir.” Sharpe's lips drew back slightly. “I don't do it routinely either, but there was nothing routine about that situation."
Major Hue watched Sharpe, then shook his head and walked back to his table.
LCDR Nasser gave Sharpe a challenging look. “Chief Sharpe, how often have you disobeyed orders? Lawful or unlawful?"
Sharpe rubbed his lower face, obviously thinking. “Disobeyed, sir? Once, sir. On 6 July."
Nasser glanced at the judge. “He's still under oath, right?"
"That's correct,” Halstead replied.
"Just once, Chief Sharpe? In how many years?"
"Twelve years in the Navy, sir."
Master Chief Kobo leaned his chin on one hand. “I got the impression from your boss's testimony that he doesn't like you. Are you a smart-ass, Chief Sharpe?"
"I can be, Master Chief,” Sharpe admitted.
"Do you get the job done?"
"Yes, Master Chief. I get it done and I get it done right. I've never had a bust thrown out in court, and I've never let down the people I work for. Ask anybody."
Kobo's gaze went to Jen for a moment. “I don't think I have to, Chief Sharpe."
Captain Daladros spoke next. “Chief Sharpe, knowing everything that you know now, would you have fired when ordered to fire?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"If the situation somehow repeated exactly, if you knew then only what you knew then, would you fire or not?"
Sharpe considered the question, his face troubled. “I don't know, ma'am."
"You've thought about it?"
"Yes, ma'am. I wasn't certain I was right, it turned out I was wrong, but I don't know if I'd do different if the exact same thing happened again."
Captain Daladros sat back, clearly thinking.
"The defense rests,” Commander Carr announced.
Halstead faced Major Hue as Sharpe returned to his seat at the defense table. “Is Trial Counsel prepared for closing arguments?"
"Yes, Your Honor.” Major Hue walked steadily to a point facing the members’ table. “Your Honor, members of the court, a lot of excuses have been offered in this court today. Excuses like ‘it wouldn't have mattered.’ ‘It didn't make any difference.’ ‘The situation was confusing.’ ‘There was noise.’ ‘The target couldn't be precisely identified.’ Every one of those excuses fails the tests to which they must be set. The test of duty. The test of responsibility. The test of discipline. Even the test of teamwork, which Colonel Lamont invoked, because how can a team function if one member takes it upon himself to disregard the instructions of the team leader? Chief Sharpe received a clear, unequivocal order. He acknowledged receiving that order. He didn't carry it out. He
didn't even offer an explanation at the time for not obeying the order. The very existence of this station, the lives of everyone on it, were on the line, and Chief Sharpe hesitated in the face of the enemy. That's the bottom line, that's the one thing no excuse can minimize. When his duty made its sternest demands on him, when his fellow personnel needed him the most, Chief Sharpe hesitated. I ask you to find him guilty as to all charges and specifications."
Major Hue sat and Commander Carr walked to about the same place, facing the members. “Your Honor, members of the court, there are indeed serious issues here, but they involve second-guessing of a single action by a single individual and attempts to blow that one action out of proportion. You heard the testimony of Captain Dila and Colonel Lamont. Those who attacked this station did exactly what they were told, even when those orders were clearly wrong and counter-productive, and when deprived of detailed instructions were at a loss. The personnel defending this station had to react in the face of confusion, of lost and damaged systems, of inadequate information, but they did act, and they frustrated the attack on this station. Why? Because we entrust our defense to people who are trained to think.
"A military force needs discipline. But it also needs initiative, it also needs wisdom, it also needs common sense. You heard Colonel Lamont, a decorated veteran of combat. It depends, he said. Should front-line troops follow exactly the orders they receive from superiors removed from the scene? It depends. Chief Petty Officer Sharpe is being charged with failing to follow an order to fire when he believed his target was a friendly. He could have fired and avoided these charges. But he is not a robot, not a machine. He is a human being, and in the final analysis we need to ask ourselves what we want defending us—machines that kill without hesitation on order, or humans who sometimes hesitate, sometimes think, sometimes decide that the order they've received may be unlawful, may be wrong."
Carr pivoted to look at Sharpe. “Some of the charges against Chief Sharpe were disproved by the testimony of the prosecution's own witnesses. His failure to fire on one occasion at one possible target did not have any impact on whether or not this station was saved, but his actions as part of the emergency response team were important in saving the station. But as Chief Sharpe testified, and as the prosecution did not attempt to refute, he was under no obligation to obey an order he reasonably believed could be unlawful. In the end, that's what this court-martial comes down to, what the members of this court must decide. Do we grant those to whom we entrust our defense the right to think and to decide, or do we insist that they rigidly follow instructions even when they have cause to believe those instructions are wrong? Do we use the intelligence and common sense of our personnel, or do we order them to do exactly as they are told without question? The answers aren't always easy, but that's why we need to offer our personnel the right to use their own initiative instead of insisting on ironclad, no-exception rules. Our enemies have chosen one path. I urge you to chose the other, and find Chief Petty Officer Sharpe innocent as to all charges and specifications."
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