Chương 63: The Court Martial

Academy Hill, Vidako Imperium Stellarum January 22, 2848 Arc found that he was, once again, grateful to have had a tailor adjust his dress whites. While he didn't expect any pictures from Cadet Khan's court martial to appear on the planetary net, it at least helped him to feel like he was somewhat prepared. Once he'd arrived at Montalban Hall, just after lunch, he was led to a small conference room where Vijay Iyer and Christina Fortin were also waiting, both dressed as formally as he was.

"I'm sorry they called you in for this," Vijay said, as soon as the door was closed. He walked over and extended his hand to Arc.

"I tried to convince them to leave you and Christina out of this, but the prosecutor wants testimony from all three of us."

"It seems like a bit of overkill," Arc admitted, shaking Vijay's hand.

"I mean, they'll have GPS tracking records to show he ran, his battery and ammo counts will be off compared to ours, and he didn't come back with the rest of the squad. I honestly don't know what possible defense the guy can have."

"He can plead lack of mental responsibility," Christina said, taking Arc's hand in turn.

"I don't think it's a very good defense, but then again, I'm not a judge advocate." The door clicked, then swung open, and a dark-haired man in a lieutenant's uniform entered the room. All three cadets turned and snapped to attention, but the older man shook his head.

"At ease, cadets." By common consent, Arc and Christina stepped to one side and swung about so that there was room for the officer to join the conversation, facing Vijay.

"My name is Lieutenant Courtenay, and I'm one of the judge advocates working for the prosecution," the older officer said.

"I'm here to brief the three of you on what to expect when we walk into the courtroom."

"Thank you, sir," Vijay said, and both Arc and Christina added their voices to his. Arc was grateful that he was the youngest cadet present; it meant that he could follow the lead of the other two.

"Cadet Khan has opted to be judged by a panel," Courtenay continued.

"That means there are going to be eight higher ranking officers in that room, on top of the advocates. You don't need to salute them, talk to them, look at them, or do anything but ignore their presence. You will each take a seat where I show you, and wait to be called in turn. Once you've been sworn in, you'll answer questions from the prosecution, and then the defense. All you need to do is describe your best recollection of events in as much detail as you can.

Let me be clear: none of the three of you are being judged here. The court is only concerned with Cadet Khan, and with what you can do to shed light on his actions, the event surrounding those actions, and his state of mind at the time. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Arc echoed along with Vijay and Christina.

"Excellent. Now, the three of you have each been implanted with neural lace and a shackled artificial intelligence," Courtenay said.

"None of those entities are being called as witnesses at this time."

"Is there a reason not, sir?" Arc asked, before he could think better of it.

"There is, in fact," Courtenay told him, turning to make eye contact with Arc for the first time.

"Your AIs are all very young—none of them even three years old. We prefer not to put artificial intelligences on the stand, so to speak, until they've had a bit more time to adjust to human interaction. It generally takes a few years for them to have a real context for human behaviors and social norms. Essentially, we think of them as children, though legally of course they aren't. Still, we don't make them testify unless there's no other choice, not until they've had more time to adjust."

Interesting argument, Iceni grumbled. Though I believe my recollection of events would be far more precise and accurate than yours. Are you feeling insulted? he asked silently. Rather than an explicit answer, Arc felt a sort of mental huff, and had the feeling that the AIs attention was turning away, so much as she could do that.

"Any other questions?" Lieutenant Courtenay asked. When no one else spoke up, he moved on.

"Follow me, cadets." Courtenay led them out of the conference room, down one hallway, and through a door guarded by two fleet MPs. They followed him into a space that looked less like a court-room, and more like the sort of place where a lecture might be held. It was panelled entirely in polished wood, and along the left wall sat eight officers in two rows, behind a divider. Arc recognized two of them: one was Commandant Marlowe, and the other Rear Admiral Anson Townshend, the superintendent of the academy.

Of the other six, he saw that there was a single representative each of the Alu'kan and Torean species. There was a judge advocate presiding at the head of the room, as well as another two who Arc assumed were the prosecution and the defense. The latter was easy to pick out, as he stood next to a polished table that had two chairs, one empty and the other for Cadet Khan, also dressed in his whites. Behind the older man in the position of a judge hung the pulsar-flag of the imperium.

Both Marlowe and Townshend turned to watch Arc and the two older cadets as they entered; while the other six empanelled officers glanced their way, they showed no particular interest and looked aside again just as quickly. Sareth Khan did not look up at all.

He was slumped in an old-fashioned wooden chair, staring down at the table in front of him, and he did not so much as stir between the time Arc and the others walked in through the door, and when they'd finished seating themselves at Lieutenant Courtenay's direction. As things got moving, Arc couldn't escape the impression that he'd walked in right in the middle of a holo-drama, and was missing half the story.

It was clear to him that this was not the first day of the court martial, and that he and the other cadets who'd made up a squad with Sareth Khan out in the jungle were not even the first order of business that day. Nor was anyone going to make any effort to catch them up.

"Call your first witness, Lieutenant Commander Calvet," the officer overseeing the court commanded, from his seat at a desk in front of the imperium flag. Arc glanced at his rank insignia, and saw that he was a commander, himself. His face was deeply lined and clean shaven, and his gray hair was visibly thinning. By the tone of his voice, he might as well have been ordering a cup of coffee at a cafe.

"Yes, sir," Calvet replied, with a precise nod. Her nut-brown hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and Arc thought that she was perhaps a decade younger than the commander.

"The prosecution calls Cadet Third Class Christina Fortin." Christina, who'd settled between Arc and Vijay, stood up from her chair. Arc had to stand with her, to give her room to squeeze by him before he could sit again. He suspected that, like him, she'd assumed Vijay would be called first. Once she was sworn in and seated at the witness stand, she removed her cap, revealing that shock of vibrant red hair that always seemed so incongruous when matched with her calm, steely persona.

"Cadet Fortin, were you a member of the mech squad that left this academy on a patrol into the jungles, on or about the date of October thirtieth, twenty-eight forty-seven?" Lieutenant Commander Calvet asked.

"I was, sir," Christina answered.

"Please tell me who else was a member of that squad."

"Cadet Second Class Vijay Iyer," Christina said.

"Cadet Fourth Class Arcturus Sandhurst. And Cadet Third Class Sareth Khan."

"On the first of November, during the course of this patrol, did you or did you not intercept a distress signal?"

"We did." Christina had not, so far as Arc could tell, looked at Sareth Khan even once: she kept her eyes entirely focused on the prosecuting judge advocate. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"At that time, Cadet Second Class Iyer was in command of the squad, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"And what decision did Cadet Iyer come to, upon receipt of that distress signal?"

"He sent me ahead to scout," Christina stated.

"Then, once I'd identified two Spiked Terrors fighting in the middle of what appeared to be a narcotics processing camp, he ordered us to move in and engage."

"Specifically, he ordered every member of the squad to drive the cornibus males away from the civilians, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"And do you recall Cadet Khan's response to that order?" Christina pursed her lips.

"It was—vulgar, sir." At that, the commander overseeing the court martial leaned forward and spoke directly to her for the first time.

"This will not be the first time a panel of officers has heard a few obscenities, Cadet. Give us his words as closely as you can recall them."

"Yes, sir. He said something like: 'Fuck this. I'm not getting killed for a bunch of drug running scum bags."

"And what happened next?"

"Cadets Iyer and Sandhurst engaged at close range," Christina said.

"I backed them up with my rifle from a distance."

"Cadet Kahn did not?" Christina shook her head.

"No. Cadet Iyer told him that if he wouldn't move in to engage, he should at least cover us from a distance, but as far as I could tell he didn't even do that. He just left." A ripple of subdued muttering spread through the panel of eight officers. Arc glanced in their direction, and saw several of them leaning in to whisper to each other with their heads close together. From their body language, I would not interpret any of them as pleased by the testimony, Iceni told him.

When it was the turn of the defense to ask questions, Arc was only half surprised by the tact that Khan's judge advocate took.

"Cadet Fortin, are you aware of the incident that Cadet Khan was involved in during the spring of twenty-eight forty-seven, which led to the death of another cadet?" The lieutenant began. He wore wire-framed spectacles, which must have been an affectation, because anyone who'd been in fleet long enough to make lieutenant would have had ample opportunity to correct their eyes with genetic retroviruses.

"Yes," Christina said.

"That was the patrol where Özacar died."

"He was part of the same class as both you and Cadet Khan, I believe," the lieutenant pressed.

"How would you characterize the relationship between cadets Özacar and Khan?" Christina let out a deep breath.

"They were friends."

"Would you say that Cadet Khan was emotionally affected by the death of his friend? Distraught?"

"Objection," Lieutenant Calvet said.

"The witness is being asked to make a supposition."

"Withdrawn," the other judge advocate said.

"I'll rephrase. Did you observe a difference in Cadet Khan's behavior after the death of Cadet Özacar, as compared to before that incident?"

"Yes," Christina admitted.

"He withdrew. I know that all of his grades slipped."

"Did you express any misgivings to Cadet Iyer about the presence of Cadet Khan as part of the patrol he led?"

"I did." Christina said.

"What did you tell him?" Her eyes flicked over to Vijay, and for a moment Christina hesitated.

"I told him that I didn't trust Khan to have our backs," she said.

"That he wasn't reliable. That I didn't feel comfortable bringing him out into the jungle."

"But Cadet Iyer did anyway, despite your objections."

"He did." Christina's voice was lower, barely audible.

"Cadet Fortin, if you had been placed in charge of the patrol, would you have brought Cadet Khan?" There was a long moment of silence.

"No." Arc glanced to his side, and watched as Vijay Iyer winced at her admission.

"That will be all for this witness," the judge advocate said, and returned to his seat at Khan's side. Once again, Arc rose to let Christina shuffle by him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to Vijay.

"All you can do is tell the truth," the other cadet said.

"The prosecution calls Cadet Fourth Class Arcturus Sandhurst," Lieutenant Calvet declared, once again rising from her seat. Arc felt as if every eye in the room was on him, as he walked up to the witness stand. It was the commander who recited the oath for him.

"Cadet, do you solemnly affirm that the evidence you shall give in the case now before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and that you will state everything within your knowledge in relation to the charges, under the pains and penalties of perjury?"

"I do," Arc said, though he felt suddenly as if his throat had gone dry.

"Proceed, Lieutenant Calvet."

"Cadet, were you present as part of Cadet Iyer's attack on two male cornibus, in the jungle of Vidako, on or about the first of November?"

"Yes, I was," Arc answered.

"And did you hear Cadet Iyet give the order to engage?"

"I did."

"What was Cadet Khan's response?" Calvet asked.

"I don't recall the exact words," Arc said. I do, Iceni grumbled.

"It was something like, 'The fuck I will," Arc continued, ignoring his AI.

"And that he wasn't going to get killed for scumbag drug-runners."

"And what did Cadet Khan do at that time?" Calvet asked.

"He left us to engage alone," Arc said.

"By the time the fight was over, he was way off in the jungle somewhere. They had to send a Saker to find him, I think."

"I believe that you killed one of those two xenobeasts, did you not?"

"Barely," Arc admitted.

"If Christina hadn't got a shot in to distract it, I think it would have ripped me right out of my cockpit. But she gave me time to get a plasma blade up and into its neck."

"Your mech lost a limb, I believe?"

"The right arm," Arc confirmed.

"In your judgement, if you or one of the other two cadets at that engagement had been killed, would Cadet Khan have carried some portion of the blame?"

"Absolutely," Arc said.

"The fact that he ran away forced us to fight them three on two."

"That's all from me." Calvet nodded, and took her seat. Arc couldn't help but tense when the defence rose, and adjusted his glasses on his nose.

"Cadet Sandhurst, were you acquainted with Cadet Khan prior to the patrol in question?"

"No," Arc admitted.

"We were both at convocation, and we may have passed on campus, but I didn't know who he was."

"During the course of the patrol, did you have any reason to be concerned about Cadet Khan's competence to carry out his duties?"

"It seemed like he didn't want to be there," Arc said.

"We were supposed to work together to dig a latrine, and I practically did it all myself. And when I went to wake him for his watch, I had to keep after him or I don't think he would have gotten up."

"Following these incidents, did you express any reservations to Cadet Iyer?" Arc did his best to keep his face neutral, but he could see exactly what the judge advocate was doing: he was calling Vijay's judgement into question. If not only Christina, but a first-year cadet who'd never even met Khan before had been able to tell there was a problem, surely the squad leader must have been aware, as well.

He felt like anything he said would be a betrayal of a man who'd reached out to help him when he'd been at his lowest—someone who'd offered friendship without a second thought. But he also didn't see any way to avoid the question.

"I did," he said.

"And what did Cadet Iyer say, in response?" Arc sighed.

"He told me that Khan had lost his friend back in the spring—bled out, even with a tourniquet, and that he hadn't been the same since. But he told me that he wanted to give Khan a chance, and that I should have faith in him."

"I believe that you secured your spot at the academy by winning the emperor's Tacticalis tournament. Is that correct?"

"Yes." The judge advocate walked back over to the table in front of Khan, and touched a tablet.

"And I see that you're majoring in history and war studies. You must be familiar with great military leaders of antiquity, then." Arc nodded, and then, a moment later, added, "Yes."

"Would you have brought Sareth Khan on this patrol?"

"Knowing what I know now?" Arc shook his head.

"No."

"Was it a mistake for Vijay Iyer to do that?"

"Objection," the prosecuting judge advocate called out.

"Again, I'll rephrase. Do you believe Cadet Iyer made any mistakes, as squad leader?" Arc closed his eyes for a moment.

"Yes."

"What were they?"

"He didn't push when Khan became insubordinate," Arc said.

"He told Khan that if he wouldn't engage, he should at least cover us. That was showing weakness, instead of discipline. He accepted that a subordinate under his command would not be following his initial orders. A commander can't do that." He felt as if he'd slipped a knife in between Vijay's ribs himself.

"No more for this witness," the defending judge advocate said. Arc escaped the witness stand, but he couldn't look Vijay in the eye. Khan would be judged guilty of insubordination, of that he had no doubt—and Arc didn't see any way that the older cadet wouldn't be drummed out of the academy, and barred from ever trying to join fleet again. There was simply too much evidence against him, even if the panel bought the idea that he'd been emotionally traumatized at the time of his actions.

But he was equally certain that Vijay's ability to command had now been thoroughly called into question, on the record—and that was the sort of thing that could condemn a young officer's career before it even got started.