//For reference on events leading up to this thread, please read this thread: http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40779
Please, if you arent a high ranking individual of The Order, particularly among it's high command, do not post here//
Captain Thompson stood behind a podium, to the right of the Order's High Command members, addressing a large crowd of Order personnel. On the left hand side of the room, fifty two individuals stood behind a short wall, all of them wearing chains around their hands and feet, strung together and secured to the wall of the room. These individuals were the remaining crewmen of the Order Carrier Bastet.
Thompson spoke to the assembly, "Ranking members of The Order..." he paused and turned to the high command members on his left, "...and honored chairmen of the High Command - Months ago, one of our finest ships, the Assault Carrier Bastet, was comandeered by Admiral Aki Kimura and a portion of the ship's crew loyal to her. Admiral Kimura was, at that time, a member of the High Command, and was wanted for creating diplomatic unrest between The Order and it's allies."
He paused and took a breath, "In these past months we have not been able to find or capture the Bastet, and there have been numerous reports of the ship attacking house military vessels across the width and breadth of Sirius. Sixteen hours ago, the Bastet returned to us, and was surrendered to The Order by the remaining crewmen you see to your left. Admiral Kimura was not aboard the Bastet, though all other rebellious crew have been accounted for."
"The Carrier Bastet has been apprehended, and is currently undergoing refitting and maintenance at Evora Shipyard so that it may be re-admitted into the active fleet under a new crew. The purpose of this meeting today is to assess the evidence against the remaining crew members, and their punishment at this Court Martial. After the hearing and conviction, we will be assigning a new crew to operate the Bastet."
Thompson turned to Commander John Mathews, the closest to the front of the room and the XO of the Bastet during it's renegade travel across Sirius. "Commander Mathews, you acted as Admiral Kimura's first officer and second in command during these past few months, and it was you that gave the order to return the ship to us. Explain, if you will, the reasoning behind her betrayal."
Mathews stepped forward slightly to address the crowd, and the High Command, "Admiral Kimura betrayed no one. At the time of the Court Martial notice against her, the Admiral was at the brink of uncovering something that may have prevented another full on war with the Nomads. If she had come in willingly, she would have lost command of her ship and her goals would have been forfeit. That is why she chose to disobey direct orders from the High Command."
"During the time in which the Bastet was considered renegade, yes... we did attack numerous house military vessels. If you do enough digging, you'll find that every last one of them was being controlled by an infected individual, under the influence of the Nomads. The group known as the 'wilde' have invaded every house by this point, and our ship logs will show records of communications with these craft before their destruction."
"Six days ago, we were piloting uncharted space under orders from Admiral Kimura, when the Bastet was attacked by an unknown craft, matching no nomad, phantom, or human records in our databanks. This craft, no larger than a gunship, easily overcame our Carrier's defenses, and unleashed a weapon which rendered the entire crew unconcious for seven hours. Sometime during those seven hours, all of the experimental technology we had aboard the Bastet, along with Admiral Kimura herself, were removed from the ship."
"I chose to return and take responsibility for Kimura's actions because I believe that there is a threat to Sirius greater than the nomads, greater than the phantoms even. The ship which attacked us was something never seen before in Sirius, and it overpowered us without seeming to exert any effort at all. If there are more of those ships out there, and they have any plans to invade Sirius, there will be nothing we can do to stop them."
"So... I will take responsibility for the actions of the rest of my crewmen here, and for Aki's decision to disobey direct orders. All I ask is that a search and rescue effort is put forth to find her, and investigate this new threat."
Rand Seith listened to what the man was saying with a rather still look. Not giving out any hints of anger or sympathy. He was a wall.
When John Mathews finised his speach, Rand cleared his throat, even enjoyed a few seconds of sipping from a glass of water before speaking.
He looked Mathews in the eye and started talking;
- "My dear Commander Mathews. You claim actions heroic enough to save the galaxy. How brave, how nice. You claim that Aki Kimura did this for saving us all and we would prevent her from doing it if she tried to tell us. Nice." Rand had a hint of irony in his voice now.
- "Why would you think that you and your "admiral" would be the only people to understand this Mr. Mathews? What would make you think that you are capable of doing this and the whole rest of the fleet is incapable? Even if it is outrageous, it would be understandable to see that Kimura going off, stealing a ship and her crew as well as her duties, AFTER she tried to prove something and everyone was blinded to it. And, of course, it would be rather solid to see that what she did foresee to happen.
Your story, Mr.Mathews, doesn't fit to anything at all. All you say may be true and I believe that most of it to be precisely true. However, this doesn't give you the right of what you did. To prove the gravity, you cannot throw people off from roofs. You drop an apple to the ground. What, stupidly enough, your commanding officer and you did was childish to say the least. There will be no understanding here of the honor about what you did, nor grandeur talks about you. No, Mr. Mathews. While you were wandering around doing deeds of heroism, you were ruining certain diplomatic aspects, and to hell with the diplomacy, you were ruining half of what our spies managed to do and gather information about the Wilde and their operations. Bravado. I truly appreciate how well you ruined certain things and spoiling the greater cause. Because of your insensible acts, we had the Freeport almost downed. Minor being hit constantly and 74 being under threat."
Rand didn't even raise his voice once, he was as if this father, telling his son why he was being bashed.
- "You don't awake the snake, if you don't have the stick to hold it Mr. Mathews. Your commander and you precisely did this, causing lives to perish, resources to thin and Order to weaken. Bravado."
This time, Rand slowly clapped his hands. He was not angry, he was sad to see that the action of one raging Admiral caused too many problems. He had a whole bunch of problems to solve and what Aki did, even though she had some points, was a narrow range of vision at best, causing more harm than she thought. And sadly, the crew were so focused on it, they didn't realize the effect of impact.
Before Rand stopped talking, he looked back to Mathews, and then to all officers filling the room.
- "Every action, has a consequence. And every consequence as a price tag coming along. If you can predict the tag 20% of times you pick a path, you are a great leader then. Don't ever fall into the trap of thinking you are seldomly doing the right thing. Right and wrong, are only points of views with their own backyard to fill."
Rand leaned back to his seat, continuing the joy of his water.
Mathews looked curiously at the spokesman before responding, "Admiral Seith, I do not know you, and I am rather shocked at you standing in Admiral Malacos' place, it is apparent that many things have changed within the Order since our departure. Perhaps it would have been better, had we not gone with Admiral Kimura... but I trusted her judgement and followed her Orders. Unfortunately I am not entirely privy to the knowledge she had, and I'm sure that if she was here today her arguments would have you responding differently."
"I am only going off what little I know, that we were searching for some kind of artifact that Aki had a premonition of. During that search, we destroyed numerous infected vessels throughout the entirety of Sirius, and we lost the Admiral to a new alien threat in the process."
"Do with myself and my crew what you must, but we had to make a choice between following our Admiral and Captain, or submitting to a Court Martial transmission with seemingly no reason behind it. I really have no other information to give beyond that... check the ship logs of the Bastet and you will find more information regarding what occurred during our absence from Order space."
Rand was amused with the man's response. He wasn't shocked, only amused. Usually, officers who had done something wrong or believed in they were doing something right would argue like forever, even babbling to the point of stupidity. Mathews seemed like he understood his position and seen it from more than one perspective, even though it was a bit late for that manner.
- "I know the logs of Bastet officer Mathews. Sorry to have so many changes around while you were gone. Admiral Malacos has... retired."
Rand didn't give any hint of what really happened to Malacos. No one knew of it except for a few very high level officers. Rand was one of them but he knew too well about keeping secrets.
- "Anyway. Since you were a commander, you knew how to adapt to changes of ranks and caliber. I will not bore you to death with the rank tree and sincerely, I myself get bored at times with it.
I have read your reports and logs as well as the interrogation notes. It still doesn't justify what you did. To be sincere, some of the lieutenants here also destroyed several Nomad and Wilde craft as well. So what, this makes you equal in means of body counts? I hope you are getting the point of why you are being accused Commander. I assure you, I would probably do the same if I was being accused and called for the court but then, I would probably accept the consequences of such an action as well."
Some officers looked Rand in the eye with praisal. He was an open minded and direct person. He didn't tangle with words any more than necessary and he always thought in triangles, not in rounding circles when he acted.
- "This is not seldomly my own judgement to bring but I will not ask for an execution since you didn't willingly kill anyone unlike those rebelling idiots outside. Mathews, you and all the commanding crew of Bastet shall be exiled from Order and Order space. You will take the next civilian liner passing from Delta and will be left to your lives in house spaces. You will be watched and if any one of you ever gets noticed of doing something... interesting, I will show you my dark side. Rest of the ship's crew acted on command and all will be questioned and demoted or casted away accordingly. This is my judgement and I bring this on voting to the rest of the command."
With that motive, Rand turned around to see the judgement of his collegues.
After a brief discussion among the High Command members, Captain Thompson stepped to the podium once more to deliver their judgement on the Bastet's former crew.
"A decision has been made regarding the sentencing of the crew. Commander Mathews and Sub-Commander Keyes, please step forward."
He paused as the two highest ranking members of the crew stepped in front of the rest, "The both of you have been exiled to Liberty space. You will both receive neural wipes to prevent any sensitive information from being revealed to potential enemies. A shuttle will transport you to the Texas system via Rheinland space at 0700 hours tomorrow morning, under the guise of refugees of the war."
The two returned to the line, quite obviously distraught at what was to become of them. Having your memories zapped away by neural wipe was not a pleasant experience... their entire period of service to The Order would be gone in an instant. Thompson looked down at the list in his hands before continuing, "Lieutenant Sarah Morris and Doctor Winston Giovanni will be given transport to Bretonian space. As the two of you are not permitted access to secure Order datafiles, a memory wipe will not be necessary."
He looked further down the line, "Major Damien Brown, you will be returned to Corsair space. Arrangements will be made to have you returned to your former position as an Engineering Officer aboard the Dreadnaught Calypso."
After a short pause, he addressed the rest of the crew, all of lower rankings, "The rest of you will receive a one rank demotion, and will be assigned to planetside or stationary operations until it is deemed you are ready for shipboard assignments once more. Guards, please escort the crew to their quarters."
One of the High Command members motioned at Thompson, and handed him another list. Thompson returned to the Podium to give the announcement.
"The Carrier Bastet will be refit and recommissioned as a Deep Space Reconaissance, Research, and Support Vessel. It's repairs should be completed within two days at Evora Shipyard. The following command crew have been assigned to the Bastet upon it's departure..."
"As it's Commanding Officer, the Bastet will be run by Commander Kaylee Staite, the youngest recognized warship Commander within the Order. Commander Staite has been aknowledged to excel in the areas of research, strategic command, and diplomacy. The Bastet will be her first Command... congratulations Ms. Staite."
---
Kaylee, watching the conference from Toledo's bar via holo-vid, dropped the glass she was drinking from. It shattered across the floor as she stared dumbfounded at the screen. Several of the off-duty officers around her, along with the bartender, gave her a round of applause at the assignment.
The bartender smiled at her, disregarding the dropped drink. "Have another, on the house Commander. Congratulations on your new command." He filled another glass and slid it down the bar to her.
Still staring at the screen, blank-faced in shock, Kaylee shifted her eyes to the bartender to reply, "I... I've never commanded a ship before! I dont even know what to do..."
One of the nearby captains patted her on the back, "Dont worry Kay, it aint as hard as it looks. You'll have plenty of command crew there to help you out, enjoy it!"
[i]"T...Thanks, I hope you're right..."
---
Thompson continued down the list, "Sub-Commander Christopher Bourne will be assigned as second in command and XO of the Bastet. Bourne has received recognition in the areas of aggressive negotiations and fleet combat command, and will be transferred from his current position as tactical officer aboard the Gunship Borealis."
"Lieutenant Michael King will serve as the ship's Chief Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Jason Mercer as the Chief Control Officer, and Major Jacob Thomas as the Chief Engineering Officer. Crewmen assignments will be sent out within the next twenty-four hours. The Bastet is scheduled for launch in seventy-two hours, and will receive it's first field assignment after that time."
Thompson looked back at the High Command members, and they nodded one after the other, getting up to leave the room, "This court martial conference is ajourned."
Soon after the meeting, Commander Staite received a comm message. She was still excited of the news and when she saw who was on the comm, her heart almost failed.
- "Ye..yes Admiral? How can I be of service?"
- "Congratulations with your promotion Commander." Seith was as emotionless as usual. His voice didn't hint anything.
- " I just wanted to remind you of your duties near to my applause. I don't want the same things happening with you as it happened with Kimura. Remember your responsibilities and the restrictions your rank gives. Good day Commander. Duty calls. I am expecting to see outperforming reports of you and your crew ASAP. Seith out."
Kaylee couldn't even say a thank you or give some kind of an assurance by words before Seith left the comms.
There was a rumor about the Bastet not being taken in because Seith didn't want it to happen. There was always a greater scheme at work and Kaylee didn't want her career to be covered in dirt by being part of a scheme. She would perform her duties at its best.