Current Events

Posted on Tue Aug 27th, 2019 @ 10:24pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Master Chief Petty Officer Hans-Peter König

Two deaths. Astraea had been fortunate. One does not put freedom fighters in the same space as oppressive regimes. Anyone with even a child's understanding of politics knows how bad of an idea this is. König was beginning to wonder if the main fleet was led by admirals who even had a child's understanding of the real universe. He missed serving in the "Other Starfleet." Astraea's fortune lay in the fact that neither of those deaths involved her crew. Yet. Every barfight and murder brought a higher probability that some of Astraea's complement would be joining the KIA list.

There was also the matter of the possible implications of Astraea's actions beyond the ship herself. The Federation enjoyed a great deal of popularity in the core worlds. That was about the end of it. Up until now, the Federation had held its empire by being perceived as the lesser of two evils. What happened here and now could influence a lot of opinions one way or the other.

König, however, was an NCO. Questions of cosmic significance were the domain of the commissioned and the elected. His concern was getting Astraea's crew out of this mission alive.

It was time to check in with the Skipper.

Abigail stood in her ready room, staring out the view port at the stars, feet shoulder width apart, back straight, her hands clasped behind her back. She heard the door chime sound, but instead of moving she remained standing where she was, simply calling 'enter'.

König stepped through the door. The instructor in him, out of habit, critiqued her parade rest pose: perfect except that her hands should have been bladed not clasped. The human in him saw the tension and stress in the pose. It was the NCO, however, that spoke, "Good afternoon, ma'am. I'm dropping by to see if there's anything you need from me."

"I was actually just contemplating a latte," Abigail said quietly. The array of nearly full cups scattered across almost every available surface in her ready room were a clear indicator that this was a thought she seemed to be having with some kind of regularity. "Can I get you something from the replicator Master Chief?" She turned and walked across the room, pausing next to the replicator and turning back to look at him.

"Mineral water, perhaps a squeeze of lemon," König answered, bringing his hands in front of him and resting them on his cane.

Replicating the two drinks, Abigail carried them back toward the couch and chairs near the viewports, next to where she had previously been standing, motioning for him to take a seat before she set the glass down on the small side table, wrapping her hands firmly around the mug of latte, blowing across the top gently. "What do you make of things?" She asked, sinking down onto the edge of the seat and looking across at him over the edge of her mug.

"Things have been going better than I expected," König answered completely truthfully, "But we're walking a fine line now."

"Can I be honest with you?" Abigal asked, looking across at him, wide eyed and expectantly.

"Please do, ma'am."

"I'm not playing this game any more. If they want to play, on my ship, then they can play by my rules." She drew a deep breath, pausing mmomentarily to take a sip of her latte. "I've just given the order for all the Trion's to be held temporarily in the lounge before being relocated to Cargo Bay Two, and honestly, if they kill each other down there, I don't care."

König ran through the consequences in his mind, "That would probably ruffle the feathers of the legal eagles but as long as we make sure to document your decision properly, I don't think that would be a problem." König took a sip from the water, letting the fizz sit on his tongue a moment before swallowing, "We don't have anything valuable in Cargo Bay Two, right?"

"Security is clearing it out as we speak. It will be left with four walls and a dozen bunks." She shook her head slightly. "I'm not putting my crew at risk any more. Let them babysit each other." She paused momentarly again, taking another sip of her latte. "I feel like we've been set up to fail, and that doesn't sit well with me. That's the only explation I can come up with... that someone is sitting back and pulling on our strings."

With a sigh, she lowered her mug and looked across at him. "Tell me I'm wrong," she challenged quietly. "Tell me I am crazy and that that couldn't possibly be right."

"Who do you think set us up?" König inquired.

"I don't know," she said quietly, raising her mug to her lips again, taking another sip of her latte. "It's just all too convenient for it to be happenstance."

"My father was fond of something von Goethe wrote: 'Mißverständnisse und Trägheit vielleicht mehr Irrungen in der Welt machen als List und Bosheit. Wenigstens sind die beiden letzteren gewiß seltener.' A century and a half later an American author summarized that as 'Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity'," König shifted in his seat and took a sip, "I tend to look at situations like this through that lens.

"However," König quickly continued, "We would have to assume a lot of incompetence. So, no, I don't think you're crazy. I hope to god that you're wrong; I don't want to go back to doing that hall-of-mirrors spook shit. But, unfortunately, you're not crazy."

"Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough. Until then, here's hoping we have a little bit of lady luck on our side." Abigail offered the faintest of smiles before taking another sip of her latte. "Maybe, until this is over, you could keep an eye on your friend Mr Voroshilov for me? He seems to be making regular guest appearances in this drama. I don't want to immediately think the worst, but, well, I guess my request is just as much for his benefit as mine."

"I always keep an eye on him," König smiled flatly, "But consider allowing him some liberty. If you're right and someone is pulling our strings then that is going to be a someone who plays a very dirty game. I played those games for far too long so believe me when I say that you want someone on your side who can play just as dirty and you aren't going to want to know the details."

"If I give him any more liberty I may as well give him my chair," Abigail replied quietly. "I've allowed the man free run of my ship with all of his little intrigues, and now we've got two murders on our hands. I just want a reassurance that my trust isn't being misplaced."

König snorted, "Ma'am, if we find out that he is responsible for either of those murders, I will personally beat the ever-loving shit out of him for bad tradecraft. I taught him better than that," König shifted his weight and leaned toward the Skipper, "Look, I'm not saying don't roll up a newspaper and smack him on the nose once in a while. He definitely needs that. I am confident, however, that your trust isn't misplaced. I would bet my life on that." König extended the index finger of the hand holding the glass of water, "And if you ever tell him that I said that, I will deny it."

Abigail laughed, a genuine laugh that actually surprised her. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me," she said quietly. "And thank you, I appreciate your presence. It's reassuring to know there's someone here that I can just be honest with at all times without having to be guarded."

"I'm honored by your trust in me, ma'am," acknowledged the compliment, "I hope you don't mind me offering an opinion about what we should do next."

"I welcome your advice," Abigail said genuinely. "God knows, you likely can't make things any worse at this point."

"I think it's unlikely but there is a chance that one or both of these murders was committed by our crew. We should, therefore, pursue our investigations to make sure that isn't the case and then make sure we deal with the matter internally. After all, this is a Federation-flagged ship. Trion does not have jurisdiction here and, unless I'm mistaken, the Federation does not have an extradition treaty with Trion.

"However, if we discover that either a member of the Trion government or the TLF bears responsibility, I think we should do nothing. In the case of the Trion officials it would be illegal since they're all senior delegates and are, therefore, covered by diplomatic immunity. I don't believe we have any junior delegates onboard that would only be covered by functional immunity but even then prosecution gets tricky and I suggest we don't get our hands dirty with it.

"The Federation doesn't recognize the TLF as a legitimate government, on the other hand, so they are not immune," König paused a moment to make sure he was going to express this correctly, "However, we should still do nothing. We brought them here under a diplomatic truce and if we don't extend them the same courtesy that we extend to government officials we can seriously hobble the Federation's efforts to ever again bring rebel factions to the negotiating table. Any rebel faction, not just the TLF. I personally find diplomatic immunity in any of its forms distasteful but it serves an important purpose: it's a guarantee that, even if you don't trust me, at the very least I'm not going to hurt you for being willing to talk to me. The principle relies on the Federation's track record and if we jeopardize that track record then violence will be the only option we'll ever have in a conflict."

Abgiail paused, taking a sip of her latte and sighing softly. "Well at least we agree on the fact that diplomatic immunity is nothing short of deplorable," she said quietly. "If we can determine that one of the Trion's is responsible for the murder, then how do we handle it? Do we just pat them on the head and send them on their merry little way?"

She shook her head slightly. "Believe me, I have no desire to deal with the amount of paperwork that would come with arrestng a member of either of the Trion parties, but can we in good conscience just send them home knowing one of them has killed and will likely kill again? Do we at least have an option to turn the evidence over to the Trion government and let them deal with it?"

König smiled mirthlessly. This is a conversation that came up a lot in his line of work and that question in one form or another had been asked by many a candidate in SOD school. He gave the answer he always gave to his students, "This is a case of what is ethically correct is not morally correct. One author wrote that 'moral behavior is survival behavior,' by which he meant the survival of the race as a whole. Any action that ensures the survival of the race is a moral course of action. Any action that jeopardizes the survival of the race is immoral. This is an extremely abstract concept that ends up being an impossible sign post in our day-to-day lives. That's why we have ethics: a defined code of behavior that, in most cases, mirrors moral behavior.

"Our Federation ethics tell us that we should pursue justice for the deceased. History tells us that, in cases like these, pursuing justice will cause the death of thousands if not millions. It's the classic Trolley Problem: a problem that most people will never encounter but if you intend to keep this command and pursue future command opportunities it's a problem you're going to be faced with time and time again. You're a good person which means you're going to want to do the 'good' thing but, as an officer, you need to remember that, as that same author wrote, '... goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.'

"As for what diplomatic immunity will allow, we can take action to protect the ship. That means that we will be allowed to detain the suspect: detain, not arrest. And remember that they will only be a suspect because our system of jurisprudence. Once we arrive at Trion the suspect will have to be free to go. Now, this isn't entirely a get out of jail free card. Once we've delivered the suspect to Trion we can classify him or her as Persona Non Grata meaning that if we ever find them in Federation space or aboard a Federation-flagged vessel again we can arrest and charge them for the murder. We only have to give them a chance to make it home first.

"We can also share whatever we want with the Trion government and they can act according to that information as they please. Of course, I imagine they would only act if the suspect was TLF. I get the impression that Prizio is a believer in the spoils system. But, if we detain the suspect don't turn them over to the custody of the Trion government before release. That would be an extradition pro forma and we want to avoid that. If Trion wants to prosecute, they will have to catch the suspect themselves."

"You know, I'm starting to understand why they resort to murder," Abigail muttered darkly. "It's easier than politics."

"It's worse than that if the TLF made the kill," König responded, "We're dealing with unstable terrorists. Calling the suspect persona non grata would be politically neutral with an established government. A terrorist would consider it a declaration of war. There's nothing we can do that won't ultimately fuck us in the long run. That's why I suggest we do nothing.

"I've taken up enough of your time, ma'am," König downed the rest of the water, "It's been a good 45 minutes since I last harassed Lieutenant Voroshilov. We can't have him getting too comfortable."

Commander Abigail Laurens
Commanding Officer
USS Astraea, NCC-80819

&

MCPO Hans-Peter König
Chief of Boat
USS Astraea, NCC-80819