Chapter 20: Excerpts from Court-Martial Records

The following transcripts are taken from the Court-Martial of Roger William Edelmann, Captain, United States Navy, Retired, serving on detached duty as Commanding Officer, CNS Allington Castle, with collateral duty as Commodore, Trumanat Scout and Defense Force, concerning his actions on Truman Base on April 13 of the current year, as verified by interviews with witnesses and the Truman Base and CNS Allington Castle surveillance records, Vice-Admiral Eldon Andrews, presiding officer for NATO:

Testimony from Lieutenant 'Sonny' Valois, Commanding Officer, human contingent, Confederacy Transport Mayflower Madame:

We had no idea what he had planned. The ground base set up a training program for the ladies and directed that all companions go participate. It took a morning or afternoon and seemed useful. Everybody did it. Ellen didn't come back. One of her roommates asked me about her. I asked the Madame, who asked Truman. They didn't know where she went. No other companions were missing.

Not all the companions were in stable relationships, but most were. It wasn't until a day or two later that I remembered that she was with Commodore Edelmann, and that he had been in an argument with the base commander. I asked again, and I was told to not worry about her.

Well, I wanted answers, but no one knew anything. The base commander called and told me to drop it, she had left the Commodore and there was no reason for a fuss. Well, that may be but she left all her belongings in her room and she could have come back for that and I didn't think that "drop it" was a very good answer to a missing person report.

When Allington Castle came back I sent a warning to Commander Dickie Wilson, her XO, that we had a personnel problem and I couldn't get to the bottom of it. I must admit that we were all appalled to find out what had happened, and extremely gratified to hear how it ended. You're court-martialing the wrong man, Admiral.

Thank you, Lieutenant Valois, that will be all for you. You are released to your duties.

Testimony from Commander Richard Wilson, Executive Officer, Allington Castle, with accompanying video records:

It didn't take long to find out what had happened. Two days after we had left Trumanat for our patrol, the Base had set up a training program and required all 'companions' to participate. At the same time, a section of the planet's surface near the base was declared off-limits due to danger from unstable rock formations. Later analysis showed that, while the danger existed, that area was not in any way more dangerous than several other similar areas.

All companions cycled through their training in groups. Ellen was the only companion from Mayflower Madame who didn't return to her pod after the training. Truman had video of the base commander asking Ellen if they could talk privately about Roger. They had left the Base in their suits. The Commodore had later re-entered the Base through a different airlock, alone.

Ellen didn't have an implant that the AIs could track. However, the Commodore did. A review of implant tracking data showed where he'd stopped for some time, right in the middle of the new prohibited zone. On my orders, Truman dispatched a remote to retrace his path and found Ellen's body stuffed in a crevasse. Her suit had been cut open along her back and one side. A knife with biological residue was found nearby. At my orders, the remote had not touched anything. It was later verified that the DNA on the blade matched Ellen's.

"No, DO worry about that. It's obvious that he killed her somehow and left her body out there. There's no other conclusion possible. And, you may not care, but Commodore Edelmann is going to go berserk when he finds out. Didn't you know that she was pregnant? Humans have been known to go insane and kill everyone in sight when they lose their children. The safe upbringing of our children is our strongest instinct after personal survival. In fact, our records are full of humans who chose their children's survival over their own when faced with limited options."

"You AIs need to find out exactly what happened out there. And, you need to decide how much collateral damage is acceptable to you. You all let this happen to a pregnant woman he left in your care. How much loyalty do you deserve? I have to go tell him that Ellen and his unborn child won't be there to meet him. You have to decide how many more are going to die for your lapse of duty."

<We have sent a remote to follow Commodore Arbuthnot's path during that excursion. We will contact you when we have further data.>

"Make sure it doesn't disturb anything. We may need to see the scene ourselves before it is disturbed."

<The base AI has accepted that order.>

"And make it as fast as possible. I need to have the whole story when I tell Roger."

<Commander Wilson.>

"Yes, Allie?"

<Your conclusion was correct in all relevant respects. Your understanding of your species allowed you to predict what we would find with an accuracy that we find remarkable. Ellen Reese was found dead outside the station in a suit which appears cut and a tool capable of that task was found nearby. The tool is not automated. It would have to be used manually by a human or a remote. There were no remotes in the area at the time of the accident. Besides Ellen Reese, Commodore Arbuthnot was the only person in the area during the time range that it happened. Do you wish to see the video?>

"No, but I think I have to. Bring it up."

"Allie, you have to stop calling this an accident. In cases where there is clear planning and intent -Where did that knife come from?- we call this sort of thing premeditated murder. I have to go report this to the Commodore. At the absolute least, Arbuthnot must die for this. There may be a good many more that go with him, depending upon how this is handled, and you have a chance to completely destroy this alliance between humans and the Confederacy if you can't do something to rebuild the broken trust. Why should we go to war to protect your people, when you've already proven that you won't bother to protect our people?"

<Please remember that all AIs in this system except for the warships were built by races who are completely non-violent. The base AI did not understand that humans were capable of this action. For the future we can try to educate those AIs, but first we must resolve this issue before it destroys the alliance. Do you have suggestions for steps we can take towards this goal?>

"I don't know, but some kind of message about you AIs assuming complete responsibility for the safety of any human left in your care, with children's safety being an absolute and anyone harming a child on purpose being executed on the spot if possible and no statute of limitations for child abuse or murder would be a good start."

<We would prefer to not execute the base commander.>

"You don't have to. Roger will take care of that for you. Just give him access and stay out of his way."

"Enter."

"Thank you, sir. Captain, before we go any further I need to tell you that the AIs have agreed to a free pass on this as long as you don't kill anyone else. That's important. If you don't kill anyone else you have the moral high ground and the AIs have to support you. If you go postal and launch plasma torpedos at the base they will have to stop you."

"Did they find anything conclusive?"

"It's cut and dried, Roger. There's absolutely no question at all. She's dead, and he did it. I don't want to show the evidence to you, but I think I should. That bastard has to die, and you're the only one who can do it and walk away with clean hands. I'm more than willing to go kill him myself, but it will cause a lot of trouble if I do it. You, however, can do it and walk. You can't kill anyone else, though. If there were others in on it, let the investigation flush them out. We will take care of them. You only get to kill Arbuthnot."

Testimony from Commodore Roger Edelmann:

After Dickie showed me the videos I took a shuttle to within range of Truman Base and transported down to it and walked to the Commodore's office. I thought about taking a stunner, but I decided not to. Some of Truman's security routines might have objected. As long as I was unarmed I was 'safe'.

His inner private office door was closed, of course. He had to know I'd be pissed, although I had to believe he didn't think I'd actually do anything about it. Did he really think that he was the only man out here capable of killing someone?

His secretary told me his boss was busy. I asked who was with him. No one, but he's busy. I asked Truman if he could open the door, as we needed to discuss resource allocation between the fleet base up in orbit and the ground base here. Ellen was a resource, wasn't she?

The door opened, I stepped in, and the door closed. I asked Mr. Ar-buth-not where Ellen was. "She's not here."

I looked around, verifying that he was not, in fact, lying to me. Not that I doubted him, after seeing the airlock videos and the remote's videos of her desiccated body he'd left out in the vacuum with a knife-slice in her suit. She certainly hadn't stabbed herself to death in that little crevasse. Or thrown the knife 40 meters away afterwards.

I pointed out that the AIs could not find her anywhere, not on any of the ships or in any structure they had access to. She seemed to be missing. Mr. Ar-buth-not repeated that she wasn't there. He didn't have her. She must have left me.

"Mr. Ar-buth-not, I told you that if you caused trouble for me, I would return that favor."

There wasn't any reason to keep talking. I reached over his desk and grabbed his arm. In the low gravity, it was easy to pull him over his desk and then slam his body against the edge. I verified that his neck was broken and then said "Truman? This is not an emergency, but how much time do we have to get him to a med-tube before it's too late?"

<With your species, neck injuries can quickly lead to fatality if not immediately treated. Oxygen starvation will lead to brain injury within a minute. Should I call for medical help?>

"No, thank you. Do NOTHING about this until I tell you to. Please inform me when ten minutes have passed from MARK."

<Very well, Commodore Edelmann.>

I went and pulled his chair around where I could watch the piece of shit, in case he wasn't really dead. He began to stink, though, as his bowels released. Good. He can just lay in it. He can get BURIED in it.

When Truman informed me that ten minutes had passed since my mark, I asked Truman to summon Mr. Ar-buth-not's deputy, the man who had succeeded to command of the base ten minutes before.

When the door opened to show the deputy, I stood up, told him "You are now the base commander. If you ever mistreat a helpless woman I will kill you the same way. Don't. Test. Me.", and walked out.

I didn't throw up until I was back on the shuttle.

I didn't give any instructions at all about it. Let it play out. It was two days before a squad of MPs from Truman Base showed up at my cabin on Allington Castle to arrest me for murdering their boss's boss. It probably took them that long to put the squad together, as I don't think they had any MPs before that.

The crew knew my side of that, they'd all seen the videos. Hell, probably everyone in the system had, including the MPs at the door. I hadn't ordered them suppressed, but I certainly hadn't ordered them distributed, either. I'm pretty sure it was Billy who did that. I don't think the squad really expected to live through their arrest attempt if I resisted. They were all carrying stunners, but they had to have noticed that every crewman on the ship was carrying a holstered pistol.

I had long since decided what to say to their leader when they came. "Son, I want you to go back down to that base. Find and bring me my companion Ellen Reese and our unborn child. If you can do that, and she looks me in the eye and says she doesn't want to be with me anymore, you've got a good case for Murder One. If you can't do that, you don't have any kind of case at all. Where I went to school, they still have some old laws on the books. Some homicides are criminal. Others are investigated and declared 'Meritorious'. You might begin your investigation by tracking down where that knife came from."

Dickie pushed them all back out of my office, saying "You don't want to be here. He had every right to do what he did, and if you give him any trouble about it he'll have every right to defend himself."

"He can't just kill people whenever he wants!"

"He grew up in Texas. He certainly CAN kill anyone who deserves it, and he has, and he will continue as long as it's needed. I'm warning you, don't put yourself in a position to be someone who needs killing, like Commodore Arbuthnot did. Go back and actually do an investigation. Don't come up here again without a good reason. We'll probably shoot at you."

That wasn't all strictly true. I grew up in Maryland, not fifty miles from where Junior was a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy. I had, however, gone to school in Texas as an Aggie. Four years at College Station had left their mark on me and there had never been any doubt in my mind what to do when Dickie showed me those videos. And I wasn't at all sure the AIs would let us shoot at another Confederacy installation. The way I handled it was the right way, any way you looked at it.