Survivors - Jean Lorrah [47]
“No. I could have logged the defective phasers out to Maintenance and thought no more about it,” she said triumphantly. “Mr. Adin would not have known there was anything unusual until the end of the following day, when I turned in the completed inventory report. But we had a … an appointment that evening. So, scheduling me for inventory duty meant that he was informed and had to repair them sooner, rather than later.”
“And did he?” the prosecutor asked.
“Repair them? Of course. That’s what we were doing when the Orions attacked.”
“No, Ensign-did Mr. Adin begin repairs on the defective weapons sooner? Your preliminary statement indicates that even though you reported them that evening, he did nothing until the following day.”
“That is correct,” she admitted, feeling Dare’s eyes on her but unable to look his way. “First thing next morning he was in the Weapons Room. The phasers were only unusual; we didn’t know there was anything seriously wrong until we found the boosters discharged. You cannot blame Mr. Adin for not resolving an emergency when he did not know it existed.”
The questioning continued, and Yar was forced to relive those hours in the Weapons Room, pointing out that Dare had acted according to Starfleet procedure in each step, including calling for the best person aboard to trace the fault and effect repairs.
“I have here the Weapons Room log,” said the prosecutor. “Let me play the section in which you discovered the problem with the boosters.”
An overview of the Starbound Weapons Room appeared on screen.
Yar and Adin discovered that the phaser booster handles were discharged. Adin ran the diagnostics, his voice becoming tighter and more nasal with each new discovery.
“Tasha,” he instructed, “check the duty roster for everyone who has worked in here since the last inventory. Assemble them in the main briefing room at 0900 tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we must recharge as many units as possible. Get Bosinney from Engineering. I want to know what caused these burnouts and power drains! It will do us no good to recharge the units if they simply discharge again.”
“Uh, Commander-” Yar said hesitantly.
Dare’s head came up abruptly. The camera picked up a front view of his face, showing his lips pull back from his teeth almost in a snarl.
Yar was behind him, and could not see the grimace. “You mean after we report to the Captain?” she asked.
Adin swung on her, the anger plain on his face for just one moment before he controlled it. Then, “Yes,” he said calmly, “it could be a breach of Security, Ensign. You take the report to Captain Jarvis. I’ll call Engineering.”
The screen blanked.
The prosecutor rounded on Yar. “Is it Starfleet procedure to inform the ship’s commanding officer of a breach of Security?”
“Of course,” she replied. “However, we did not know that it was a breach of Security. In fact, we still do not know that the weapons failure was not a terrible coincidence.”
“Oh, come now, Ensign Yar!” said the prosecutor. “We know the cause: an improper circuit breaker, whose installation was unlogged. Expert witnesses have testified that the power losses and surges caused by repeated failure and resetting of that breaker for nearly thirty days damaged the booster units, and once they failed the hand phasers started to deteriorate. It would take approximately twenty-five days to guarantee that no boosters would be in working order. Mr. Adin did not schedule inventory of the Weapons Room until twenty-seven days out from Starbase 36. You discovered some defective hand phasers on the twenty-eighth day, and the rest of the damage on the twenty-ninth.”
“And immediately started repairs!” Yar insisted.
“Which were interrupted by the arrival of the Orions. Now, Ensign, several of your shipmates have testified that after the battle the Orions collected the bodies of their dead companions and removed them from the Starbound. Is that correct?”
“I was unconscious,” she replied. “All I know is that there were no Orion bodies aboard when I recovered.”
“Do you know why?”
Yar had no idea where that question