Falling Star

Part 12

"This committee recognizes first the Honorable Minister of Staff, Elijah Cannaes," the mastiff chairman began, the length of the board struggling to avoid any kind of attention paid to the admirals behind them as they turn to face him.

"Thank you, Mister Chairman," the one called Cannaes replied as he rose to his feet and subtly adjusted his clothing. "Commander Salk, would I be correct in my conclusion that you were aware of the desperation of Oikonny's position prior to your engagement with him?"

His lowered head hanging above the support of his elbows propped on the table he occupied, Salk leaned forward just so to deliver his agitated response. "Yes."

"I see," Cannaes replied, clearing his throat before continuing his interrogation, "would I then be correct in my assumption that you were knowledgeable beyond a reasonable doubt of the risks associated with engaging a formidable opponent in such a position absent of the timely arrival of any equally formidable support?"

"Mister Cannaes, all tactical maneuvers involve grave risk," Salk answered, only just maintaining the composure of his half-hearted response, to which the minister gave a mere derisive exhale.

"No further questions, Mister Chairman." he concluded, confident of the implications made as he took back to his seat and began scrawling notes among the many papers laid before him.

"This committee next recognizes the Honorable Ministress of Extraplanetary Coordination, Belisarius Kursk."

"Thank you, Mister Chairman," the next interrogator called out, bolting out of her chair to a stiff upright position. Her eyes having first cut into Salk with a menacing glare, she then began to read off a prepared script from a bundle of perfectly aligned papers in her dominant hand.

"Commander Salk, your division was operating on the prime directive of ultimate apprehension or termination of Andrew Oikonny, correct?" she began, pausing her train of thought so that Salk could affirm the direction of her inquiry, "and you were aware of the option to terminate when assessing and acting upon the engagement, yes?"

"That is correct," Salk replied.

"Despite this, however, you authorized the organization of your division into an offensive wing formation such that a high speed boarding maneuver could be executed," she described, her eyes only breaking from their leer into his so that she could momentarily reference her own words. "Am I to conclude, and is this committee in turn to conclude, then, that you had authorized this maneuver with the intention of capturing Oikonny alive?"

"I had hoped that would be the result, yes." Salk confirmed, a rising pain and tension inside of him buried under a growing friction in his hand.

"Commander Salk," Kursk began again, a snide confusion having come over her expression, "I happen to know that a fair portion of your ships, including your own, are equipped with armaments capable of at the very least inflicting crippling damage to Androssian cruisers such as the one designated as Oikonny's own flagship."

"I also happen to know that your division was well within effective range of the Androssian flotilla to have actualized such an outcome." she continued. "Why then, I must ask, was an extremely reckless and, frankly, unnecessary boarding maneuver chosen as your course of action in this instance?"

"Past experience has taught me that making martyrs out of the enemy is not a sound strategy when trying to quell insurrections, especially given the cult of personality that surrounds Oikonny and his uncle." Salk explained, his feet firmly planted on the ground below him.

"Contrary to popular belief, I prefer to keep people, whether they be Cornerian or Venomian, alive; and I was confident that information valuable to his cause could be siphoned from him – had we been successful."

"And yet here we are," Kursk soothed, her tone having grown in scorn as she lowered her script to her side, "Oikonny continues to plague our republic, and we've yet anything to show for it in months."

"Not quite," a raspy voice from behind the voice-only display labeled 03 suddenly piped up, "has the Honorable Ministress so easily forgotten that Jacob Thaag, one of Oikonny's most decorated and trusted captains, was also lost in the engagement?" Though the room remained dignified following this unprompted statement, the ire directed towards him in response to it was nonetheless prevalent to everyone.

"Admiral Massa, you will abide by the rules of discourse in my court and refrain from speaking out of turn," the chairman mastiff growled in quick succession, "do not mistake my allowance of your presence here as any form of submission. Your statement will be retracted from the record, and if you repeat this behavior I will disconnect you from the hearing."

"My apologies, Mister Chairman, I've no objection to your oversight here," Massa followed, "In accordance with said rules, however, I would like to request that Miss Kursk's statement be retracted as well." Embittered silence once again dominated the atmosphere as he drew breath to complete his thought.

"That is, unless you will allow gross false witness against a friend and ally."

His head grown downcast as he masked a frustrated exhale by massaging his forehead, the question of whether this frustration was aimed at yet another challenge to his authority and principle or the clear infraction of another member of his posse remained speculative. "Miss Kursk, you have indeed born false witness towards Commander Salk and, as is appropriate, your statement too shall be struck from the record."

"Very well," she replied, a soft groan escaping her as her eyes drew off to the ceiling as if to try and roll. "No further questions, Mister Chairman."

"This committee next recognizes the Honorable Minister of Communications and Procurement, Magnus Aevaris."

"Thank you, Mister Chairman," the minister replied in a droning tone fitting for his manifestly aging appearance as he slowly rose from his chair to a somewhat withered stance. He made no eye contact with Salk, reading from an array of documents on the table before him, though his words nonetheless echoed an introspective belligerence.

"Commander Salk, over the past three months, and up until just weeks before your encounter with the Androssian flotilla, you're personal holo-comm channel recorded four separate transmissions with an unidentified party, the contents of which have been erased or irreparably corrupted," he questioned, his field of view shifting to Salk only after he had finished.

"I-I..." Salk winced, suddenly doubling over where he sat. A muffled ache escaped him before he began viciously couching into his right wrist, the other hand struggling to keep his head off of the table surface. The debilitating fit subdued him for a short while before finally concluding in a final, horrendous expulsion of blood and mucus which coated his arm and beak in bright red.