The Voyages of the Penelope and the Yydryl , page 12

Captain Luder entered the large judicial chambers alone. The room was roughly the size of a basketball court, with rows of seat lining the rear of the chamber for viewers. The three admirals were positioned toward the back, sitting together at a mahogany table, facing the door. They all looked stern and unhappy.

He moved to a position approximately six paces in front of the table, stopped and saluted. After they returned his salute, they asked to hear his testimony.

"Gentlemen. To address the USS Nimitz situation. Firstly, upon our arrival in the Alpha Centaurian space sector, we failed to achieve contact with any of the Alpha Centaurians for nearly two hours. Finally, our first contact was with a belligerent Praetorian who eventually led an attack on the ship. His battle group was accompanied by the USS Nimitz." Luder stopped.

"What do you mean, accompanied?"

"The Nimitz was moving along at nearly a thousand meters behind the Praetor's battle group, primed for combat. After the triangles began their attack run, Nimitz launched her complement of fighters and opened fire on the Penelope."

The Admirals looked at each other.

"So, after that happened, I opened a channel to the Nimitz and tried to talk some sense into her Captain, who I thought to be Theresa Jackson at the time."

"It wasn't Jackson?" Admiral Hollingsworth asked.

"No, sir. It was some other female. We never made visual contact. After we closed the channel, I ordered Seeker to focus his weapons fire on the engines and weapons of the Nimitz, to diable her. My plan was to have a contingent of marines board the ship to regain control of her."

"But you had trouble convincing the marines of that, didn't you? Colonel Studious was disobeying you at every turn...."

"No sir. Colonel Studious had well-founded fears about sending his men into an unknown situation without all the details and as such, was acting to protect his marines."

"So you wouldn't say he was blatantly ignoring your orders?" Admiral Hollingsworth asked.

"Sir, I respect my mens' opinions, even during the heat of combat. I eventually convinced him to move some special ops marines over to make a grab for the Nimitz." Luder stopped, waiting for another question. After a few moments, he continued.

"The battle continued. Colonel Studious moved to the bays to carry out the order and I had navigation move us through a boarding sweep against the Nimitz. During that sweep, Seeker began his attack against the Nimitz."

Admiral Hollingsworth held up his hand. "But he had other plans, no?"

"Sir, it is my full belief that Seeker intended to carry out my order to disable the ship. We later learned there was a degree of outside influence involved in the events that took place." Luder said, quietly grinding his back teeth.

"What took place, Captain Luder?"

"Sir, after we began our boarding sweep, Seeker launched roughly seven of our highest yield torpedoes directly into the Nimitz, crippling her shields and destroying her, her complement of fighters and the remaining enemy ships all at once. His actions were not his own."

"Captain Luder, we reviewed those events in the data tapes, please continue."

"Well, sir - after that, I ordered Colonel Studious' ship brought back on board. Luckily, he survived the events of the battle."

"What did Colonel Studious do after he came back on the ship, Captain Luder?" Admiral Hollingsworth asked.

"Sir, you can see what happened in the data tapes."

"I don't care what the data tapes show, I want to hear it from you."

"Sir, Colonel Studious was understandbly upset due to the fact he believed we ordered him and our own pilots destroyed. He didn't have all the facts..."

"Captain. Tell us what happened." Hollingsworth was visibly agitated.

"Alright sir. He came to the command center with a weapon and demanded to know what happened."

"Was he attempting to take over the ship?"

"Sir, he felt the command staff had been compromised and was acting to protect the Penelope and her crew."

"By waving a weapon around on the bridge?" The admirals aked, skeptical.

"It was his last resort, sir. He presented no real danger to me or the command staff, we had a weapons screen on in the center. He withdrew, ordered his marines to detain us and moved to the sick bay. After my security chief and Seeker located what had actually ocurred, he was apprised and understood what happened was no fault on anyone in the ship."

Hollingsworth nodded at Luder and waved for him to continue on.

"After Studious was calmed down, I ordered a search of the ship to locate our intruder. She was eventually discovered in our engine room, hiding."

"And you allowed her to escape?"

"Sir, it was never my intention to do so. I was acting under an outside influence. I don't even remember letting her go, yet the ship's computers will clearly show that I did."

"Captain, you speak of this outside influence, can you elaborate more on it, please?" Admiral Gordon said.

"Sir, I cannot. All I know is that Seeker did a scan, which you can seek on the logs, and found that some type of psychic or quantuum tunneling connections was established between.... wherever... and the Penelope. Who or whatever was behind it was controlling the crew at will."

"With your crew compromised like that, what were your next steps, Captain?"

"After we discovered it, Seeker sent a burst back through and used his abilities to close its access off for the time being. We then returned to space dock."

Admiral Gordon shuffled his papers. "Captain, why did you fail to return to space dock as ordered?"

"Sir, our engines were down. Not only that, we felt there was evidence of nanotechnology from a project called Cold Harvest aboard ship and were trying to prevent its spread to Earth or any of the facilities here."

"Captain, why didn't you mention this during our last interaction?" Gordon asked.

"Sir, we weren't sure what was going on and rather than give you a less than full report and cause alarm, I thought it best to just seem disobedient until we could get the situation resolved." Luder moved his toes around in his shoes. He hated standing at attention for more than a few minutes. Stuff started to go numb after long enough.

"What of the death of your navigator, Fooks?" Admiral Hollingsworth asked.

"Sir, his death was caused as a result of the outside influence we discussed earlier."

"These logs show that it was discovered that your security chief was responsible."

"Again, Admiral, his actions were not his own and he cannot be held responsible for them. Nor can Seeker, or the Colonel. They were all acting as they felt necessary and in some cases, their actions were beyond their own control. These are all good men, Admirals. All of them. They are part of a fine crew and due to this outside inteaction it seems as if they are a mutinous bunch of ruffians hell bent on death, destruction and the disregard of my orders, but it is not the case, I assure you. They are my men, Admirals. All of them. As such, if there is to be anything done, I offer myself as being responsible for their actions aboard ship. Please take time to review the tapes and evidence and learn the truth before passing judgement."

"Captain, we will determine who is right and who is wrong. You are dismissed."

"Admirals, they weren't acting under their own influence. They can't be held accountable for stuff they were made to do!"

"Captain, you will leave this chamber at once."

Luder saluted them, turned on his heel and departed the chamber, furious.

[edit on 2-4-2009 by mf_luder]