Facts and Honesty

Posted on Sat Feb 4th, 2023 @ 9:24am by Executive Officer Jake Ford & Commodore Ledeya ‘Ed’ Ehestri (*)

Mission: Elsewhere
Location: Starfleet HQ
Timeline: Elsewhere
1325 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Kane had been sat in the detention facility for almost four hours before anyone had come to speak with him. Enough time for him to replay the events in his head a dozen times. He'd given the speech. Left the podium. He'd passed Representative Blake. He'd started to walk towards the seating area, and...

He could remember little more than that. In fact he barely remembered what Blake had even muttered to him as they passed one another.

And now Blake was...what? Dead? Almost certainly the other notable figures there had been caught in the blast. The Romulan, Nerak. The Academy Dean, maybe.

He was also trying to process what he'd seen before the security team had extracted him: the sight of the frozen PADD. His PADD. With a detonation code showing. The purest implication out of anything that he had - somehow - triggered the explosion.

His mind continued to whirl as the forcefield suddenly dropped, and someone finally approached.

"Commodore...Ehestri?" He was surprised to see her. Not that he was unhappy; he'd shared a couple of misadventures with the Commodore in the not too distant past. He'd had her back, just as she had had his. And he felt like he could trust her. "I must admit, I was expecting Admiral Minawara."

Ehestri took no pleasure in the slightest in the sight of her comrade secure in a dentation facility. It was not at all where a rising star in task force 72 should be at all. She stepped further into the room pulling her jacket down and looked him over. “He is indisposed in dealing with the media storm around the events. So you have the pleasure of my company I am afraid Captain.” She informed him.

"If I might ask...how bad is it?" he asked softly. "Did the Representative make it?"

Ledeya sat across from him and sighed resting her hands on the table. She was going through the information she had and nothing about it lined up with what she knew of the man in the slightest. It reminded her of another chain of events that led to the founding of Haumea with another officer but she could not let those events influence her choices today and what she needed to get out of this interview, "The Representative is in a coma but likely to live. Several people are dead and injured. Captain this is really not very good. I need to know the events that led to all of these in your own words."

Kane leaned back, gathering thoughts. "I was on the podium, giving the commencement speech. I stepped away...passed the Representative. The next thing I know, I'm on my back and half the stage has gone up in smoke. I think someone said something about my PADD showing a detonation sequence, but that's impossible. It only had me speech on, nothing else." He felt his hands curl into fists. "I didn't do this, Ledeya." He was letting his anger get the best of him, especially to call her by her first name like that.

“Calm yourself Captain or this interview is over.” Ledeya said simply maintaining her dignity despite the powder keg situation. “Show the footage please.” She said looking up at one of the many cameras in the room. The requested footage appeared on a screen to their left and started showing the moments before half the stage disappeared.

Kane winced, uncomfortable with the sight being repeated in front of him. It was as he described: passing the Representative, a simple shake of the hand, and three seconds later an explosive device ripped a section of the podium apart.

"The blast," he noted quietly. "It originated near where I was supposed to be sitting." Another nail for them to crucify him with. He looked back at Ehestri. "They're going to throw the book at me, aren't they? Full Court Martial. Life imprisonment in a penal colony in the back end of nowhere."

“If you are lucky,” Ledeya commented quietly as the footage ended and they were left with an uncomfortable silence as the Commodore took in the forensic information with a medical eye. Ledeya sighed and shook her head at him. “This type of thing is one of the penal colonies close to hand where everyone will know who you are and what you supposedly did. You will never be able to escape this event.”

He felt his jaw tighten. He hadn't done this. And someone had set it up to look like he had. And Ehestri was right: he would become infamous, likely a target in whatever facility they put him in. It had been a clever arrangement. He let out a faint sigh. Not of resignation, but a quiet determination not to let himself be defeated in this way. He look up at the Commodore. "You haven't said whether you think I actually did it."

"My opinion Jacob does not matter I am here to ask questions and gain the facts of the situation," Ehestri said sadly as she looked him over. "But for your record... no I do not believe you did. Your moral compass is not inclined that way so no I do not believe you are capable of this but I do need to know who you have pissed off enough for them to create this situation." Ehestri was no help if she did not know the facts completely and honesty.

"Make a list..." he grumbled, leaning back. "Half the Admiralty didn't seem too fond of me getting this command. And there's at least one Breen Fleet Captain out there with a blood vendetta against me..." Honestly, he had nothing to go on. Nobody to really point the finger at with any strength of conviction. Whoever was responsible had been careful to make sure that he didn't have an alternative suspect to point them at. All the eyes and the evidence would point at one man. "No. They were too careful. They hid their actions well." He clasped his hands together. "I suppose I'm in the hands of the JAG now."

Ledeya sighed and raised from her seat and paced back and forth a few times. She had no way to help him right now and that was not somewhere she liked to be, it left her thinking about Christopher and whatever was going on with him. "Yes, this is beyond Minawara and myself." Ledeya said with regret. She wished there was something more than being a familiar face getting the facts and figures.

"I would never expect any favours, Commodore," he said, with a little shake of his own head. He was sure they could pull strings or call in favours. But this was too public, too political to touch. He understood that. "I'm grateful that it was you that came. Even if this all goes...badly. I just appreciate the trust."

“I am sorry that is happening to you Jacob. If I can help I will but please be prepared that this could mean the end of everything for you.” Ledeya said pulling her uniform straight and looked at the camera that was watching everything they was said and done in the room for inspection and review by JAG and command. “Anything else you would like to add Captain before I leave?”

"I guess we'll see whether it is the end or not," he noted philosophically. "Or maybe just the beginning of something..."

Ledeya offered a nod to him. She hoped for his sake that it was the beginning of something greater but the tide was definitely against him at the moment but if anyone could turn the tide it would be him. “I wish you the best Captain.” Ledeya wished she had more to offer than that but she was there for investigation and there was nothing from what he had said was helpful to assist. She just hoped others had better luck.