“I’m planning follow-up interviews with the senior staff later today,” Desai said. She pointed to one of the data slates before her. “Then, tomorrow, I plan to talk with the Sagittariuscrew. Given the events they witnessed on Jinoteur, there are some conflicts in individual statements. Understandable, considering what they went through, but I don’t want to leave anything to chance. If there’s even the slightest crack in our strategy, Sereb will force it wide open, and we’ll end up fighting with our backs to the wall.”
“Isn’t that when you’re at your best?” Reyes said, allowing a hint of innuendo to creep into his voice. Despite the court-martial hanging over his head and the very real repercussions he likely was to endure, it felt almost too easy to slip back into old routines. Sitting here in his quarters, wearing the uniform for which he always had felt unmitigated pride—until recently, of course—drinking coffee with the woman who had brought him a happiness he had not known for far too long, it took almost no effort to resume such enjoyable pastimes as teasing his lover.
Desai, for her part, was not amused. He saw her jaw tighten as she began to tap her data slate’s stylus along the tabletop. “You need to be serious, Diego. When it comes to Sereb, we can’t afford the slightest chink in our armor. Once he finds that hole, we’ll spend all of our time just parrying whatever attacks he sets up to keep us from the most important matter at hand, and we’ll look weak and guilty doing it. It’ll just make his case appear that much stronger.”
“So, he likes to play mind games,” Reyes said, pursing his lips. “Feints and dodges and whatever else he can dream up to keep you off balance.” He shook his head, grunting in irritation. “Have I mentioned how much I hate lawyers?”
As if on cue, the door leading from his quarters opened, and he and Desai turned to see Captain Sereb himself marching into the room, silver briefcase in hand. Behind the Tellarite, one of the two security guards stationed outside his door, Lieutenant Beyer, regarded him with a look of shock and apology on her face. Reyes remained seated, but Desai bolted from her own chair, her expression one of surprise and newly blossomed anger.
Sereb released a derisive snort. “You may go now, Lieutenant.”
Beyer ignored him, her attention still focused on Reyes. “Commodore, I’m sorry, he—”
“No problem, Lieutenant,” Reyes replied, raising a hand to silence her. “It’s fine. We’ll take it from here.” Waiting until Beyer offered a sheepish nod before backing out of the room and allowing the door to close after her, he turned his attention to Sereb.
“Please, docome in, Captain.”
Before the attorney could respond to the obvious sarcasm, Desai cut him off. “What’s this about? How dare you just barge into someone’s private quarters without invitation? Particularly when they belong to my client?”
Sereb grunted. “The commodore is still in the custody of station security, is he not? Regulations grant me access to accused prisoners at my discretion.”
“If you want unfettered access to me any time you damned well please,” Reyes said, keeping his voice low and tight and refusing to rise from his chair, “then make your case to the judge, and get me thrown back in the brig. Until then, you request permission to enter myhome just like anyone else. Otherwise, they’ll be adding an assault charge to my sheet after I dropkick your ass through the nearest bulkhead. Do I make myself clear, Captain?”
After a momentary pause, during which Reyes figured the lawyer was contemplating the pros and cons of pushing this issue, Sereb finally nodded in agreement. “Understood, Commodore. I apologize for my rudeness. It will not happen again.” He glanced around the room before adding, “I was told you both would be here, and in the interest of expediency, I thought it would be more convenient if I just came to you rather than setting up a meeting at a later time.”
Casting a glance in Desai’s direction, Reyes replied, “Well, golly, why didn’t you say so in the first place?” He indicated one of the table’s two remaining chairs. “Coffee?”
“Given the circumstances, I don’t believe that would be appropriate,” Sereb said, clearly caught off guard.
Reyes shrugged as he leaned back in his chair. “That’s me. Mr. Inappropriate.”
“Diego,” said Desai, her tone and the narrowing of her eyes telling Reyes that she wanted to move this along. Turning to Sereb, she asked, “What can we do for you, Captain?”
“It’s what Imay be able to do for you,” Sereb replied as he moved around the table to the chair. He set his briefcase on the table and did not sit down. “Obviously, Starfleet is interested in dispensing with this matter as quickly and cleanly as possible. With that in mind, I’ve been given significant latitude in order to bring about such a resolution.” As the Tellarite spoke, Reyes noted that he seemed to have recovered some of his earlier bluster but was still reining himself in, to a degree.
“I take it you’re proposing some kind of plea bargain?” Desai asked, and Reyes heard the hint of skepticism lacing her words.
Sereb nodded. “Exactly. The offer, were I to tender it, would be simple: I move for all but the charges of releasing classified information to be dismissed. Plead guilty to the remaining charge, and I request that no incarceration be levied against you. Your Starfleet career would, of course, be over, and you would lose any and all benefits and standing afforded a retired officer of your rank.”
He forced his features to remain fixed and impassive, but Reyes still felt the kick to his gut as he absorbed Sereb’s offer. Of course, he had expected to be offered a choice like this, but being stripped of everything for which he had served and sacrificed for his entire adult life was almost too much for him to contemplate.
Fortunately, Desai knew this, too. “You seem to be forgetting some very important facts, Captain. If we can demonstrate that the orders under which Commodore Reyes was operating were illegal, then you don’t have a case. Perhaps that’s what you’re worried about and why you’re so eager to offer up such a generousplea deal?”
Sereb appeared unruffled by her remarks. “I forget none of those things, Captain, just as I do not forget that you are an accomplished and respected attorney. Because of that, I’m confident that we both know just how fragile your stance with respect to legal or illegal orders will be. If this is the strategy you elect to follow, then you do so at great peril to your client.”
Before Desai could answer, Reyes held up his hand. “What about my staff? What happens to them?”
Looking across the table at him, Sereb asked, “Except for Lieutenant Commander T’Prynn, there appears to be no willful impropriety or wrongdoing on the part of any other member of your staff.” Snorting, he reached up with one massive paw to wipe his stout, porcine nose. “Charges havebeen filed against T’Prynn, but until or unless the commander emerges from her coma, there is nothing else we can do.”
Reyes was, of course, troubled by the thought of any proceedings that might be launched against his intelligence officer—assuming she ever regained consciousness and only if she somehow managed to avoid any serious or prolonged damage induced by her affliction. Despite that, Reyes wondered if Sereb’s offer was something he could accept. In truth, he had been trying to prepare himself for just such a decision for weeks, attempting to come to terms with what it might mean for his life going forward and especially any future he hoped to share with Rana.
Screw it,he decided. You’re old enough to retire, anyway, right?He knew it was going against everything he had been telling himself for weeks, to say nothing of what he had communicated first to Commander Spires and then to Rana, but what he had been trying to ignore during that time—the single thought that had been gnawing at him during those uncounted hours alone in his cell—was that he simply was tired and wanted all of this to be over. With it done, perhaps he and Rana, assuming that her own career aspirations did not preclude a continuing relationship with him, might settle somewhere, build a life and a home together, and maybe even start a family. He knew Rana was hesitant at the notion, but perhaps this sort of life-altering event was just the thing to renew the infrequent, fragmented conversations they had shared on this topic.