Swords and Saddles (21 page)

“Granted.” Halstead waved one hand in permission and Carr walked over to the defense table, unsmiling. “Thanks,” she told Turen as he vacated his seat, then Carr turned toward Sharpe. “How are you feeling, Chief?”

Sharpe seemed to be trying not to grin as he looked from Carr to Jen. “Better than I have in quite a while, ma’am.”

“Good, but even Lieutenant Shen and I can’t guarantee the outcome of this trial. Look professional, look concerned, look offended if appropriate. Don’t look cocky or confident. Understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Three minutes later Major Hue walked to stand before the judge’s bench. "The general nature of the charges in this case allege failure to follow lawful orders in the face of the enemy, which actions in turn placed at additional hazard a major government installation. The charges were preferred by Commander, United States Naval Space Forces, and forwarded with recommendations as to disposition to Commander, United States Space Forces. Your Honor, are you aware of any matter which may be a ground for challenge against you?"

"I am aware of none," Halstead replied.

"The government has no challenge for cause against the military judge."

Commander Carr stood. "The defense has no challenge for cause against the military judge."

Halstead faced Sharpe again. "Chief Sharpe, do you understand that you have the right to be tried by a court-martial composed of members and that, if you are found guilty of any offense, those members would determine a sentence?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you also understand that you may request in writing or orally here in the court-martial trial before me alone, and that if I approve such a request, there will be no members and I alone will decide whether you are guilty and, if I find you guilty, determine a sentence?"

"Yes, sir."

"Have you discussed these choices with your counsel?"

"I have, sir."

"By which type of court-martial do you choose to be tried?"

Sharpe didn’t hesitate. "By members, sir."

"Very well. The accused will now be arraigned."

Major Hue faced toward Sharpe as well. "All parties and the military judge have been furnished a copy of the charges and specifications. Does the accused want them read?"

Sharpe, still on his feet, nodded as he replied. “Yes, sir, I do.”

“Very well. Chief Master-at-Arms Ivan Sharpe is charged with violations of the following articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

“Article 91, Insubordinate conduct toward warrant officer, noncommissioned officer, or petty officer. In that Chief Petty Officer Ivan Sharpe, United States Navy, having received a lawful order from Peter Wilmont, a master chief petty officer, then known by the said Ivan Sharpe to be a master chief petty officer, to immediately fire upon an individual who was one of the terrorists then assaulting Franklin Naval Station, an order which it was his duty to obey, did, on board Benjamin Franklin Naval Space Station, on or about 6 July 2104, willfully disobey the same.

“Article 92, Failure to obey order or regulation. In that…Ivan Sharpe…having knowledge of a lawful order issued by Master Chief Petty Officer Peter Wilmont to immediately fire upon an individual who was one of the terrorists then assaulting Franklin Naval Station, an order which it was his duty to obey, did…fail to obey the same.

“Article 99, Misbehavior before the enemy. Specification One. In that…Ivan Sharpe…did…in the presence of the enemy, endanger the safety of Franklin Naval Station, which it was his duty to defend, by disobeying an order from Master Chief Petty Officer Peter Wilmont to engage the enemy. Specification Two. In that…Ivan Sharpe…being in the presence of the enemy, did…by refusing an order to engage the enemy, willfully fail to do his utmost to defeat that enemy, as it was his duty to do.

“Article 108, Military property of the United States – sale, loss, damage, destruction or wrongful disposition. In that…Ivan Sharpe…did…without proper authority, willfully suffer a large section of Franklin Naval Station, military property of the United States, to be damaged by allowing enemy forces additional time to commit acts of destruction against said property.

"The charges are signed by Commander, United States Naval Space Forces, a person subject to the code, as accuser; are properly sworn to before a commissioned officer of the armed forces authorized to administer oaths, and are properly referred to this court-martial for trial by Commander, United States Space Forces, the convening authority."

Jen tried to keep her face calm as the charges were read. She knew some of them had to be serious to justify a general court-martial, but it had still been difficult to hear Sharpe charged with misbehavior before the enemy.

Captain Halstead turned to Sharpe again. “Chief Sharpe, how do you plead? Before receiving your pleas, I advise you that any motions to dismiss any charge or grant other relief should be made at this time."

Commander Carr stood for a moment. “The defense has no motions at this time.”

Sharpe, his uniform and bearing so perfect that he looked like a recruiting advertisement for the service, faced the members. "I plead not guilty to all charges and specifications."

"Very well,” the judge responded. “Does the prosecution have an opening statement?"

“I do, Your Honor.” Major Hue looked toward Sharpe, then at the members. “During the assault upon Franklin Naval Station last July, the very survival of the station and the personnel embarked on the station demanded the utmost from all personnel. In this time of crisis, Chief Petty Officer Sharpe willfully failed to live up to those demands, instead taking actions which resulted in increased risk to this station and everyone upon it. Chief Sharpe should be found guilty as to all charges and specifications, for his failures not only imperiled this station and its personnel, but also acted to negate the sacrifices of those dying to save it.”

Commander Carr walked out in front of the defense table as Major Hue sat down. “The defense contends that, contrary to the charges lodged against him, Chief Sharpe did everything possible to defend this station, that his actions were appropriate and proper under the circumstances, and that claims his action increased the peril to Franklin Naval Station are exaggerated and without foundation.”

Carr returned to the defense table and the judge indicated Major Hue. “You may proceed, Trial Counsel.”

“Thank you, Your Honor. The prosecution calls as its first witness Captain Karl Dila.”

Jen’s department head walked into the courtroom with the slightly-distracted air he usually wore, as if Dila was constantly mentally calculating stress coefficients in surrounding structures. As he took his seat in the witness chair, Major Hue stood respectfully before him. "Do you swear that the evidence you give in the case now in hearing shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

"Yes, I do."

"Are you Captain Karl Dila, United States Navy, assigned to the engineering department on Benjamin Franklin Naval Space Station?"

“Yes. I’m in charge of the engineering department.”

Major Hue gestured and a very large schematic of the station appeared on one wall of the courtroom. “Did you participate in the engineering analysis of the actions of those who attacked Franklin Naval Station on 6 July?”

“I did. I led the analysis team. I also ultimately assumed command in engineering central on the day of the attack.”

“Trial Counsel asks that the engineering analysis be entered into the court record. Captain, what was your conclusion as to the goal of the attackers?”

Dila paused as if trying to make sure he understood the exact meaning of the question. “Ultimately, they wanted to destroy the station.”

Major Hue nodded. “Were the attackers equipped with weapons capable of destroying the station?”

“Not directly,” Dila answered with an engineer’s precision. “That would have required very large amounts of conventional explosives, which the station’s sensors would have surely detected on their approach because of the size and mass involved. Or nuclear weapons, and those would have been spotted by us even earlier due to radiation leakage. No, the attackers intended to create conditions under which the station would destroy itself as a result of free surface effect. They could do that while carrying small enough quantities of explosives to remain undetected on their approach to the station.”

“What exactly is free surface effect?” Hue asked.

Dila took on the expression of an engineer explaining to lesser beings how the world works. “In laymen’s terms, it’s what happens when a liquid is in a partially-filled container. On a ship at sea, as the ship heels to one side the liquid will react by flowing toward the low side, increasing the force of the heel. When the ship swings the other way, the liquid once again rushes to the ‘low’ side in a delayed reaction which further increases the force destabilizing the ship. The higher up in the structure the liquid is, and the larger the space available to move in, the worse the resulting effect. That’s why ships use a number of tanks to hold liquid instead of one big tank, and keep the tanks low in the ship.”

“How could this phenomenon effect a space station?”

“Because the water tanks are high up in the disc, toward the center. It allows us to feed water ‘downhill’ to the rest of the station and provides substantial mass in the lower gravity areas near the station’s core. Once the tanks were breeched, the water followed the forces created by the rotation of the disc to simulate gravity. Those forces are both outward and to the side, because of the rotation. But the station is designed to automatically compensate for shifts in mass. As the water rushed to one side and down, it redistributed mass, and the station automatically shifted other mass and altered rotational velocity to compensate.”

Dila pointed to the display, where an animation began playing out. “That compensation created forces shifting the water back up and in the other direction. As the water surged up and to the other side, with more force now, the mass distribution control systems tried to compensate again by shifting larger quantities of mass down and over and again altering rotation speed, which caused the free-flowing water to start rolling even more heavily down and in the original direction. Every shift in forces inside the station tended to reinforce the motion of the water, giving it more energy. On a ship, this eventually results in the ship heeling too far over and capsizing. On this station, the forces would have eventually exceeded the ability of the structure to contain them.”

Dila paused, thinking. “It’s the same sort of thing that happens when you’re carrying a pan partially filled with water, and the water seems to start sloshing back and forth with a life of its own until it surges over one side of the pan. Free surface effect and the delayed feedback from your own attempts to compensate.”

Major Hue nodded, his face grim. “But in this case the station would have been torn apart.”

“A big piece of it, yes, major,” Dila agreed. “The remainder of the station would have still been rotating but without the structural integrity. The models we’ve run produce different results as to how much more of the station would have subsequently come apart, but there wouldn’t have been much left by the time any remaining portions could be stabilized.”

“Then the attack had a significant possibility of succeeding in destroying Franklin Naval Station?”

“Yes, that was our conclusion, if by destroying you mean more than sixty percent structural loss.”

Major Hue nodded again, heavily this time, his expression somber. “How important was it to counter the actions of the attackers as soon as possible, to stop their assault, to reoccupy the damaged areas and begin damage control?”

Captain Dila waved one hand at the schematic. “Absolutely critical. Every second counted. That’s one of the reasons we believe the attackers seized engineering central, to prevent us from initiating corrective overrides of the automated stabilization systems. They probably also intended to download software which would have magnified the over-compensation of the stabilization systems and caused other problems for us, but couldn’t because all of the consoles had been secured and control functions redistributed. We can’t confirm that since all of the attackers’ software was destroyed, but it seems very likely.”

Major Hue nodded. “’Every . . . second . . . counted.’” He let the quote hang for a moment before speaking again. “You believe then, that in light of the damage the attackers had caused in the time available to them, this station might well have been destroyed if you had not very quickly recognized the danger –“

“Excuse me,” Captain Dila interrupted, “but I didn’t realize the danger first. That was Lieutenant Shen, over there.” Everyone turned to look at Jen, who hastily sat straighter. With an engineer’s obliviousness to the reactions of others, including Major Hue, Dila continued on blithely. “That’s one of the reasons she got that medal. I didn’t know she’d be here, though. You didn’t need both of us to testify on engineering matters.”

Hue was still trying to come up with words when Commander Carr rose smoothly to her feet. “I’m sorry, Captain Dila, but Lieutenant Shen isn’t in this courtroom as a witness in the case. She’s volunteered to assist the defense.”

“Oh. All right.” Dila turned back to Hue, who briefly looked daggers at Carr.

Judge Halstead said nothing, but shook his head at Commander Carr, who feigned innocence.

The members were watching Jen intently. She realized that this had been Carr’s plan all along, to bring to the members’ attention that one of those recognized for the defense of the station was now working to defend Sharpe. No wonder Major Hue hadn’t been able to hide his unhappiness.

“If I may summarize, captain,” Major Hue began again, “there was a real possibility that the attackers would succeed in causing this station to tear itself apart, and it was critically important to counter their actions as soon as possible. Is that right?”

Dila paused as if thinking through the statement, then nodded. “Yes.”