Some notes on general law as applied to Penelope's dire straits:
1) Ships, just as individuals, have a right to self-defense when threatened. The NI threat to destroy Penelope, and/or kidnap her captain and a
crewman was an act of piracy. A genuine and valid "arrest" would have occurred when Penelope got to port, OR a fleet vessel would have effected the
arrest, NOT NI. Piracy, plain and simple. Penelope is within her rights of self-defense. It's the NI ships who've gone rogue. Besides, the likeliest
course of action for NI would have been to destroy Penelope to hide the evidence, with an attack while she was "headless" had the captain and Asher
gone over as demanded.
2) Mutiny is a serious problem with ships far from port, with no immediate support. That's why the penalties for it are so severe. Shooting the
captain would be the act of a "fifth columnist", an NI agent sent to assasinate him to facilitate an NI takeover or destruction of the vessel.
3) Trying to kill your own leadership in the middle of a firefight is generally frowned upon, and considered bad form. Especially in front of
witnesses, whose very lives depend on that leadership's continual functionality through the fight. A leaderless group is a DEAD group under such
circumstances.
4) No valid Persons in Luder's chain of command ordered him to stand down. The NI ships were not "friendlies", they were hostiles, who had already
signaled their intent to commit a crime "on the high seas", and decidedly NOT in Luder's chain of command. This made them valid targets for
destruction.
Neno knew and evaluated all this, and knew Studious DIDN'T know all the circumstances, so he didn't feel justified in outright shooting him dead,
except as a last resort. Neno DIDN'T know that Studious was under the impression that Penelope was firing on "friendlies", and in fact he wasn't
quite sure where Studious gained his knowledge of WHO was being fired upon, not having been privy to the occurrences on the bridge. I presume studious
found out the ships were NI when he appropriated the earbud at sickbay, but neno knew nothing of that, and had to presume that Studious got his
information from a comm link to NI, and the possession of such would indicate that Studious was a 5th columnist NI sleeper agent.
Or maybe he just wanted to whack somebody so they didn't spoil the fight in NI's favor, regardless of what was on anyone's mind.
Or maybe it was just the call of duty to defend Penelope and the Captain from any dangers he could (both foreign and domestic), at any cost.
Or maybe he just wanted to whack somebody, and didn't really think about it at all.
[edit on 2009/7/1 by nenothtu]