The judges were observed to be in animated discussion as they left the bench.
Careful not to wrinkle her whites any more than was necessary, Kris removed herself from the witness stand.
“Do you need me?” she asked Tsusumu. “If not, I need to step out.”
“Go ahead. I think you and your Nelly have created quite a stir.” He glanced at where several clerks of the court were eyeing their own computers as if whatever Nelly had might be contagious. “Quite a stir.”
“Always glad to be of help,” Kris said, and was grateful when Jack and Penny served as blockers to make it through the milling crowd.
Jack halted at the ladies’-room door, but Penny followed Kris in.
“A fine mess you’ve got us in,” Kris muttered to Nelly as Kris did the necessary things.
“Would you have let them take me? Heavens knows what they would have done to me. Would I ever get back to you?”
“I know, Nelly. I know. But you could have let me handle it. I’m only human. I needed a few more seconds to respond.”
“I keep forgetting that, Kris. Sorry. In the future, I’ll try to hold my tongue for a few seconds to let you take the lead. Humans seem to like it when another human does.”
“Especially judges,” Kris observed.
Penny was waiting for Kris as she washed her hands. “You know, Kris, you filed a report with King Raymond before we launched out to battle. I can’t believe that the other admirals didn’t make similar reports to their governments. Have you heard anything about Kota’s report?”
“I’ve been looking for such a report since I first talked to the Mutsu’s skipper. I’ve also asked Tsusumu. So far nothing,” Kris said, and they hastened back to the courtroom. But Kris got no chance to say anything to her lawyer; he had his head together with several of his associates. Kris settled back into the witness box with not a word spoken.
The judges returned, some of them still chuckling, others of them most dire of face. The Chief Judge rapped his gavel. “We will accept as evidence, under objection,” he quickly added as the prosecutor started to jump to his feet, “the files submitted by the defense. They will be turned over to the court’s computer experts for review and analysis. The bailiff is charged to remind the technicians that these files are to be reviewed not only for inconsistencies, but also for too much consistency between them.”
One of Tsusumu’s assistants provided the bailiff with five separate storage devices, and a junior bailiff hustled off with them.
“Mr. Kawaguchi,” the Chief Justice drawled, “you will have witnesses to enter all five of those files into evidence, won’t you?”
“Ah, four of them are in court today,” Tsusumu said. Jack, Penny, and Abby had front-row seats. Cara had declined the invitation as threat of death by boredom. With a glance from Kris, Abby headed off, a woman on a mission.
“Ah, yes,” Tsusumu finished. “We will have all five for you, Your Honor.”
“May I ask a question?” Kris said.
“It is customary to leave that to the court officers,” the Chief Justice said.
“Yes, I know sir,” Kris said, ignoring the clear intent of his words, “but I filed a report to my king with the ships that were returning to human space before our battle fleet sortied. Didn’t Admiral Kota?”
“Objection,” came from the prosecution.
“That is a very good question,” Tsusumu muttered as he turned to the Chief Justice. “The defense has petitioned the government for just such a report. It seems that one was filed, Your Honor. There is even a receipt for it in the files.”
Tsusumu paused to eye the prosecutor. “Unfortunately, there is no report present in the file. Just the receipt for a hundred-megabyte report. But no report at all. I find that interesting.”
“So do I,” said one of the judges well down the bench.
“You’ve tried to get the report?” the Chief Judge asked.
“Several times and via several people. It seems that the report has vanished.”
“Or it was a defective file when it was sent,” the prosecution offered.
“Such a report would certainly explain Admiral Kota’s actions, but without it, we are left with only questions, aren’t we?” Kris’s lawyer observed with a shrug.
“Enough suppositions,” the Chief Justice rumbled. “Do you have any more questions for this witness, or can we get this trial moving?”
“I have one question,” a judge from well down the bench said. “I’m not sure if this is for the commander or her defense, but we are much bothered by the source of the files we have from the War Council. Certainly the good ship Wasp must have some recording of this exchange.”
“I can answer that question, Your Honor,” Tsusumu said. “The Wasp returned from its circumnavigation of the galaxy in little better shape than a wreck. It is officially reported that the ship is being broken up at the first space station it docked at.”
“But its logs and records must be on file somewhere?” the inquisitive judge insisted.
“Of course, Your Honor. It is normal for governments to maintain such official records. We have asked the U.S. government to provide them. We have petitioned. We’ve tried everything we know to do. Every query results in a reply that they can not find any such record in their archives.”
“So Musashi is not the only planet where things about this voyage of discovery are not discoverable anymore.”
The Chief Justice looked like he would dearly like to gavel his own associate to order, but didn’t. Instead, he glowered at Mr. Kawaguchi.
“I do have just one question left, Your Honor,” Kris’s lawyer said. “Commander, every one of the witnesses faulted you for the attack you made on the small mining site just one jump from the system where you fought the alien base ship. They fault the attack itself and your being so far forward. Would you care to inform this court just how it all came to take place?”
Kris couldn’t suppress a grin. She had so wanted to shout at each of those witnesses, never more than when they brought that up.
She took a deep breath. “It is true that we were unsure of how much time we had before the base ship would enter the next system, and we absolutely had to be in a position to ambush them before they got there.”
“So why did you attack the mining site?” the Chief Justice interrupted.
“I didn’t,” Kris spat out. “Admiral Krätz headed for the planet with the mine, insisting that his Marines would take it down and give us some aliens to talk to. The aliens had been decidedly unwilling to say a word to us, and none of us involved in the operation were very happy with repeating what happened to us and the Iteeche when we went to war with no idea of who the other side was or what they wanted.”
“So Admiral Krätz of Greenfeld took off with half your battleships, leaving you to do what?” Tsusumu asked.
“I could either try to carry out the ambush with half my battleships or follow him. I chose to follow him because I had doubts his Marines could handle the assault on the mine head. They’d been in a lot of shooting situations lately, but not so many with people who had guns and could shoot back. Admiral Kota happily agreed to have his Imperial Marines join my company. Mine were the most combat experienced in the fleet.”
“And you ended up being shot down?” Tsusumu said, raising an expressive eyebrow.
“All of you who question me being in a Ground Assault Craft buzzing the mine head should be happy to know that my chief of security, Captain Jack Montoya, said any and all of the things you would have told me.”
That brought a laugh from the gallery and several of the judges. Jack’s poker face devolved into a look of pure helpless disgust.
The Chief Justice reached for his gavel, and order was restored.