CHAPTER 1 – DISHONOR
15:18 (Drakan City Time, Ross 128b)
Tuesday, November 02, 2320 (Earth calendar)
Disciplinary Court, Drazt Navy Headquarters
Drakan City (Capital of the Drazt Empire), Ross 128b
Ross 128 System, 11 light-years from Earth
‘’GUARDS, ESCORT THE ACCUSED IN!’’
Grand Admiral Tok Tharn kept an impassive expression on his face as the accused, wearing the uniform of a shipmaster of the Drazt Navy and closely escorted by two armed guards, entered the courtroom at a lively step, then stopped at attention once inside the accused’ dock. Four other high-ranking Drazt Navy officers were assisting Tok Tharn today as judges for this court-martial, as the offences pursued today were of a grave nature indeed. The accused, a mature and solidly-built Drazt male, in turn kept a neutral expression, but Tharn could still feel his apprehension. In that, Shipmaster Lem Doz had good reasons to be nervous, as the charges against him were most serious. Measuring some 192 centimeters and with his two pairs of long arms bulging with muscles, Doz was the typical image of an adult Drazt male, with a large torso, brown skin sparsely covered by short body hair, a short but powerful pair of legs, a square, strong jaw with two rows of large teeth and two black eyes visible under a prominent brow ridge and flanking a large, flat nose. Tharn looked at his four assistant judges, getting nods from them, then banged twice his gavel.
‘’This session of the Navy’s Disciplinary Court is now opened! The prosecutor will now read the charges against the accused.’’
The prosecutor, a commander from the Legal Department of the Navy, raised his electronic pad in front of him and started reading from it in a strong, steady voice.
‘’The accused, Shipmaster Lem Doz, previously in command of the space cruiser MURKAN, is charged with gross incompetence and negligent performance of duties that led to the loss of a large quantity of highly classified and sensitive data at the hands of an alien spaceship which intruded into Drazt space on the fifth of the month of Rotha of this deca-rotation. Shipmaster Lem Doz is further accused of letting through inaction that said alien spaceship escape after it copied and stole all the classified data stored in the MURKAN’s central computer.’’
Tharn, like the four other judges, stared coldly at Lem Doz as the prosecutor fell silent.
‘’How does the accused plea about these charges?’’
‘’I plea ‘innocent’ to all charges, Admiral.’’
‘’A plea of ‘innocent’ will thus be recorded into the proceedings of this court. The prosecutor may now detail the circumstances in which the alleged offenses were committed.’’
‘’Thank you, Admiral!’’ said the prosecutor before activating a large viewing screen set to one side of the courtroom, where everybody could watch it. A video file showing some kind of alien spaceship then started playing as the commander spoke.
‘’Honorable judges, what you see now is a video recording taken by the cruiser MURKAN as it closed in on an alien spaceship which had entered Drazt space and was approaching our star system on a direct course. Later data and analysis told us that this alien ship was an interstellar ship which originated from the home world of a race we know as the ‘Koorivar’, situated some 676 jokten from our star system. That ship had apparently traveled for many decades at sub-light speed and was under automated control, while its crew and passengers were hibernating during their long space trip. When that Koorivar ship neither reacted nor responded to the calls from the MURKAN, Shipmaster Lem Doz then ordered his crew to board that ship and enter it. However, before his crew could do so, a second alien ship approached the MURKAN and interposed itself. I am now going to show a video recording of that second alien ship, which identified itself as a Human ship named ‘KOSTROMA’. As you can now see, that Human ship was truly enormous and approached quite close to the MURKAN before stopping.’’
While Tok Tharn stayed impassive as he looked at the pictures of the Human spaceship, having seen that video a number of times in the past days and weeks, the four assistant judges stiffened as they examined the space behemoth. One of them then asked a question to the prosecutor.
‘’How big exactly was this Human ship, Commander?’’
‘’It measured a good 2,900 drachs in length, Vice-Admiral Komosh. While huge, our experts however determined that it used an inferior kind of propulsion technology, as it was propelled by a type of nuclear rocket rather than by a directed gravity drive.’’
‘’And how could a Human ship with such a said ‘inferior propulsion technology’ come all the way from the Humans’ star system to our own system, Commander?’’ replied caustically another judge, making the prosecutor smirk in embarrassment.
‘’That we don’t know, Vice-Admiral Hanh. It however possessed as well some kind of unknown star drive that made it disappear in a flash after it attacked the MURKAN.’’
That response only made Hanh frown.
‘’You do realize for how long we have been trying to invent such a star drive, right, Commander?’’
‘’Er, I do, Vice-Admiral. The charge of negligent performance of duties partially resulted from the failure of Shipmaster Doz to immobilize and capture such a prize when he had the occasion to do so.’’
‘’Very well! Continue presenting your case, Commander.’’
‘’Thank you, Admiral. You will next see the video exchange of communications between the MURKAN and the said KOSTROMA as a standoff developed. The first alien to speak with Shipmaster Doz was actually a Koorivar, who said that the Koorivar ship intercepted by our cruiser was an automated ship full of Koorivar refugees trying to find a new home planet after their own star system had been devastated by the passage of a wandering brown dwarf1. The Koorivar alien then forbade the crew of the MURKAN from entering the automated ship, saying that this could endanger some of the Koorivars sleeping in hibernation inside it. When Shipmaster Doz insisted on inspecting the automated ship, the Human captain of the KOSTROMA then cut in and insulted him just before a computer virus introduced aboard the MURKAN during the course of the conversation took control of our cruiser, plunging it into chaos. The MURKAN went through quick alternances of chaos and normal operations for hours before the alien computer virus finally erased itself, returning our cruiser to normal. That was when the science officer of the MURKAN was able to ascertain that all the ship’s data files had been copied by the alien virus and then transmitted to the Human ship.’’
The five judges watched carefully the lengthy video before Tharn asked another question to the prosecutor.
‘’And what did the Human ship do then?’’
‘’It was already gone, along with the Koorivar automated ship, Admiral.’’
Tok Tharn, like the four other judges, switched their eyes to Lem Doz, eyeing him coldly.
‘’Shipmaster Doz, what did you do or attempted to do to neutralize and capture that KOSTROMA? How could it infiltrate a computer virus aboard your ship without you being aware of it?’’
Lem Doz, who had to defend himself without the benefit of a legal advisor, braced himself before answering: his Navy career and possibly more now rested on how effective his defense would be.
‘’Admiral, when it became apparent that those aliens would continue to refuse to obey my demands, I discretely ordered my electronic operations officer to send a computer virus to the Human ship, which he did. Then, as we believed that our virus had been able to infect the computers aboard that KOSTROMA, the Human captain, a female, threw an insult at me just before we lost control of our ship. Apparently, the Humans were able to detect and neutralize our computer virus, then sent to us their own virus. My deduction from this is that the Human computer technology may well be superior to our own.’’
‘’Superior to our own?’’ nearly exploded Vice-Admiral Hanh. ‘’Those Humans were still living in caves when we were already roaming through our star system, if we believe the intercepted radio and video signals emanating from their Solar System. How could they be superior to us in any respect?’’
‘’I frankly don’t know, Admiral. Maybe those Koorivars helped them in improving their technology.’’
Tharn nodded slowly his head at that.
‘’That very well may be the case. However, what I don’t understand is why you took so long before trying to neutralize that Human ship. That delay only gave time to the Koorivars and Humans to infect your cruiser with their own computer virus. Why the delay?’’
Now having beads of cold sweat rolling down on his high forehead, Lem Doz spoke in as firm a voice as he could.
‘’Admiral, I was hoping to resolve that dispute without having to resort to hostile acts. The tone was at least polite until that female Human captain interjected herself into the exchange, just before the enemy virus took control of my ship.’’
His argument unfortunately seemed to leave his judges cold, with Tok Tharn’s tone of voice hardening.
‘’You were hoping? That hoping of yours resulted in nearly all our military and ship technology being copied and stolen by that Human ship! Those barbaric Humans, who are so fond of war, can now use our own technology to attack us, especially now that they have proved to possess a working interstellar drive. This court will now deliberate in private about all this. Guards, escort the accused out of this courtroom and return with him only when I will signal you to do so.’’
Tharn watched the guards leave with Lem Doz, then looked at his four assistant judges.
‘’What do you think, my friends? Could Lem Doz have acted both faster and more effectively than he did, in your opinion?’’
‘’He certainly could have, Admiral!’’ responded Vice-Admiral Komosh. ‘’My own reaction to these alien ships, especially to that giant KOSTROMA, would have been to shoot first and ask questions later once it became clear that it would not obey our directives.’’
‘’I concur with Komosh, Admiral.’’ said Hanh, immediately supported by the two remaining assistant judges. While Tharn agreed with them, he still brought forward a point that had been worrying him deeply for a few days already.
‘’We may be dealing with Doz’ case today, but this leaves all of us with a scary situation: that we have still not managed to develop a working interstellar drive despite over six millenniums of efforts, while those Human barbarians now have one and can travel to our star system at will. This could well translate into a disaster for us in the short to medium term. At the least, we will now have to significantly boost our space defenses, and this quickly!’’
‘’The more reasons to make an example of this Lem Doz, so that our other shipmasters show more vigilance and resolve.’’ said Komosh forcefully. Tharn had to hide his distaste for what he believes to be an unjust opinion: to simply make that unfortunate shipmaster the official scapegoat in this crisis would do nothing to counter the new threat represented by the Humans of the Solar System. While a strict officer, Tharn also believed in treating his subordinates in a fair manner. However, he knew that Supreme Conductor Bar Kosh was closely following this court-martial and that showing too much leniency towards Doz could well cost him his own position as Grand Admiral of the Drazt Navy.
‘’Very well, comrades. Let’s call back the accused to announce to him our verdict and sentence.’’
19:58 (Drakan City Time)
Married officers’ quarters, Navy District
Capital city of Drakan, Ross 128b
Zar Doz had been reduced to a nervous wreck as she had been waiting at the family suite for the results of her husband’s court-martial. Due to strict Navy rules, no spectators were allowed to watch the proceedings of such court-martials, with the families of the accused in particular told to stay home until the verdict was officially announced. The noise of the entrance door to their suite being opened made Zar jump on her feet and run to the door. She however nearly bounced on a severe-looking Navy security guard who was preceding her husband Lem, with a second security guard behind him. Zar then noticed that Lem was not wearing his navy uniform anymore, instead wearing a nondescript brown coverall. That, and the downcast expression on her husband’s face brought tears to Zar’s eyes. Going to Lem, she shared with him a desperate hug. Himself in tears, Lem spoke in her right ear as they embraced each other.
‘’I am sorry, Zar: I was found guilty and booted out of the Navy. We now have to vacate our family suite and leave the Navy District…immediately.’’
‘’Now?’’ asked Zar, shocked, making Lem sadly nod his head.
‘’Yes, now! A navy cargo platform is waiting outside and will carry our belongings and us to our new residence.’’
‘’But, where will we live?’’
‘’I don’t know yet, Zar. I…I hope to find some friend in this city who will accept to receive us for at least a while, time for me to find a new job and a new residence. If not, we will have to ask our relatives back in the Khangar Province to accept us. At least I was not given any jail time.’’
Those last words finished to break Zar’s spirits and she started crying openly, her head still resting on Lem’s chest. One of the Navy security guards, while keeping a cold, unsympathetic expression, felt bad for Zar as he watched the couple: that officer’s wife had done nothing wrong by herself after all.