Star Trek: The Next Generation – Souvenirs
Written By: Commander Cody CC-2224
CHAPTER 38
U. S. S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)
Main Bridge
1200 hours
A semi-formal hearing was now in commencement on the Main Bridge. The Bridge itself was cleared of most of its personnel, leaving a majority of the senior officers, who were at the rear end, and the five children, who were at the very front. The helm and NAV consoles were swung open for easy access between the personnel and the children themselves.
Most of the senior officers were gathered, as well as some curious minor crewmembers, most notably Lt. Keswick and Ensign Kevin Bates, who were behind Worf, who in turn was stationed at the security console. Riker was seated on his commanding officer's chair, which was on the right side of the captain's chair, and Troi was seated on the counselor's chair, which was on the left next to the captain's chair as well. The only senior officers absent from the Bridge were Dr. Crusher and Chief Engineer La Forge. Capt. Picard, on the other hand, was on his way to the Main Bridge.
At the very front of the bridge were the five colonial children, seated in their respective orders on light gray folding chairs brought from the Replimat. Nearest the front of the view-screen were Nan, Elizabeth, and William in their respective seating positions, with Nan at Elizabeth's right side and William at Elizabeth's left, thus leaving Elizabeth herself at the center next to the view-screen itself. In front of the trio were both Felicity and Ben, with Felicity seated on a chair very next in rank and file to where Ben was seated.
In a few minutes, after everyone seemed to be fairly settled, Capt. Picard made his entrance to the Bridge. He still maintained the same serious look as he usually did during his tenure as captain of the Enterprise. Riker, as somewhat of a master of ceremonies, led the nuances of the initial observances of every Federation-based court hearing.
"All rise," he announced briskly, his inflection making its ascent.
The senior officers immediately stood up straight as sticks as Picard made his formal entry to the center of the Main Bridge. He shot a seriously curious look at the children first, where Felicity, Elizabeth, Nan, and William were the only ones standing up in fair attention. Picard made a bit of a face at the peculiarity of Ben not standing up, as was his usual rebellious attitude, but he never bothered to do much of anything about it, as there were other more important matters at hand to discuss at the hearing. He then faced the senior officers.
"At ease," he boomed.
The officers immediately took their usual seating, as Picard fluently took his seat in the captain's chair. While seated, he turned left his head to a middle-aged Negro crewman in yellow uniform, as a signal that he should open the hearing with the taking of an oath to speak the truth. The man immediately stood up.
"Mr. Davidson, please stand up and raise your hand," he commanded.
Ben slowly stood up from his seat rather awkwardly. "Which one?" he asked.
"Whichever you feel fairly comfortable with," rejoined the crewman.
Naturally Ben rose up his right hand, since he was by all means a right-hander. His arm was raised in the form of a 90 degree angle. The crewman resumed the procedure.
"Do you swear before the jury that you will speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"
Ben could not help but feel cautious as to what he was going to say. This was the very first time he was in a courtroom-like hearing. He swallowed before he spoke a word.
"Um…aye, sir," Ben uttered in his usual awkwardness. He felt as if roles between white men and black men had taken a rather drastic shift in roles when it came to a hearing such as this.
"So help you God?" continued the crewman.
With his hand still raised in the same position, Ben couldn't help but feel rather skeptical of the procedure, as well as the content of the oath, since he could only recall what took place before his eyes, and he anticipated strongly that he would never find the right words to explain the happenings of the skirmish itself. "Why, is that what I'm supposed to say?" he asked rather skeptically. "I mean…um…I'm not entirely sure if…"
"Yes, Mr. Davidson," cut in the crewman seriously. Almost immediately it dawned on Ben that the Negro was sort of no-nonsense. He heaved a rather unenthusiastic sigh and declared slowly and surely, "So help me God."
The Negroid crewman made a curt nod and took his seat. Picard launched the initial stages of the hearing by signaling a young Vulcan in his early 30s to begin the interrogations.
"Mr. Sumok, begin the proceedings," he commanded.
Felicity was a tad frightened about the whole affair, but not nearly as frightened as Elizabeth was. At the background, near the very front of the Main Bridge view-screen, Elizabeth struggled to maintain her composure. Little William whispered a remark that was very much intended for Elizabeth to hear.
"What a weird name," remarked William. "Don't you think, Elizabeth?" Elizabeth only gave a rather nervous nod.
The Vulcan took up his PADD from the left-hand edge of the security console and began his formal accusation and analysis in his usually cool calmness typical for a Vulcan life form.
"Mr. Benjamin Davidson," he began, "You have been hereby accused of using an unauthorized brand of penetration cream to gain unauthorized access to Weapons Locker 2, Deck 4, Section 11, making off with three phaser rifles and five hand-held phasers. In addition to said charges, you have been accused of attempting to gain unauthorized entry to Shuttlebay 2, thereby leading to a possible conclusion that you and your party of four, including yourself, were going to make off with a shuttlecraft."
The Vulcan casually put down his hand holding the PADD as he faced Ben coolly.
"Do you accept responsibility for said actions committed approximately 1127 hours during the skirmish you and the rest of your comrades-in-arms had with the security personnel?"
Ben faced the young Vulcan rather skeptically. "Excuse me?" he asked suspiciously, his inflection going up.
The Vulcan just kept to his cooln3ss. "Do you accept responsibility for what you and your comrades did during the skirmish between you and the personnel on board the Enterprise?"
Ben was silent for a moment. He swallowed a bit before he uttered his verbal reply.
"I do, sir," he replied frankly and honestly as he ever could. The Vulcan quickly glanced at his PADD before staring Ben in the face again.
"Do you admit that you and your party collaborated with each other to make an escape attempt from the ship?" he queried.
"Well, yes," rejoined Ben almost right away.
"Then perhaps you can enlighten the rest of the jury as to what gave you the sudden impetus to concoct a daring escape from the Enterprise," said the Vulcan right away coolly.
"Are you saying that our escape from this ship, the Enterprise, as you call it, was a criminal act?"
"We are only interested in the truth, Mr. Davidson. Nothing more."
Ben heaved a rather wry sigh over the reply. "Very well," he said, as he began mulling over his recollections, trying to come up with whatever reason for the weapons locker raid and escape attempt.
"Our escape attempt from the ship…was largely due to fears about Mr. Riker getting rid of us," he began. Ben felt that he didn't have the time to go into detailed explanations about precisely what Mr. Riker was up to, so this was pretty much his summarized answer.
"I would caution you, Mr. Davidson, about bringing up a circumstantial accusation against Commander Riker," warned the Vulcan composedly.
"Well, that's how we saw it," Ben pressed further, feeling quite annoyed about being cautioned against accusatory remarks to senior officers. "And because of that, and given that Felicity's fears were quite…convincing, we decided not to give Mr. Riker that chance."
Ben noticed that the captain was frowning at him rather suspiciously. "…Assuming, of course, that Mr. Riker was involved in such a plot," he added carefully.
The Vulcan mulled over his PADD again. "Do you have fairly convincing evidence to support your claims that Commander Riker was behind this weapons locker raid and said escape attempt?"
Ben sighed. Felicity turned her head to her right and glanced at Elizabeth. Elizabeth gulped fearfully, and Felicity followed suit a bit, as both the older girls awaited Ben's seemingly fateful reply.
"I…um…," began Ben. He paused for a moment to recollect his thoughts, and then continued his reply in a tone of voice that hinted great uncertainty. "I have some evidence." He paused again. "But I'm afraid that most of it lies with my second-in-command, Miss Felicity Merriman."
Felicity couldn't help letting out a muffled giggle over the idea of her being Ben's second-in-command. To her, such a thing would have been unheard of back in her time, as girls weren't normally expected to participate in the activities of most boys. But somehow she suppressed it and continued facing Ben with anxiety because the situation of the hearing was somewhat serious. Elizabeth, Nan, and William took notice of Felicity's behavior, too, and so did Capt. Picard. The Vulcan, however, was rather skeptical in his observance of Felicity that he perceived from the bottom of his mind as…unusual.
"She overheard Mr. Riker discussing with some…crewmen in uniform…about him stuffing us into…'torpedoes'…and scattering us across the vastness of space." He gave Mr. Riker a rather suspicious look, but Mr. Riker looked at Ben rather quizzically. The Negro crewman mentally stepped into the scene and politely challenged Ben's assertion in a rather professional manner.
"Is that exactly what the Merriman girl said to you?" the crewman inquired, his inflection making its descent.
Ben was a tad skeptical. "Well,…um,…she might have said it a little differently,…but…"
"Be careful, Mr. Davidson," warned the crewman. "You're under oath."
Ben gave his answer another thought. His mind whirred through recollection upon recollection of the minutes prior to the skirmish.
"Aye, sir," he replied. "It is…exactly how she said it. And…it convinced me in a manner that I felt I had no choice at hand but to take her at her word."
"But if such was the case, couldn't you take it up with any of the crew?"
"From what Felicity told me, it seemed that none of the crewmen on board the ship could be trusted, since they seemed to be in league wit the plot. Who knows? I mean…we couldn't just simply sit by while the plotters took unfair advantage of us." Ben shot serious glances around the jury. "If anyone of you felt the same way Felicity did, you would understand."
Been glanced at Felicity, and Felicity looked back, forming a small smile on her face mixed with demure seriousness. The Vulcan decided to delve into matters on gaining access to Shuttlebay 2.
"Do you know why you were unable to access Shuttlebay 2?" asked the Vulcan.
"I wish I knew," Ben replied rather wryly.
The Vulcan scanned his PADD before looking up at him again in a cool fashion.
"You forgot to take into account a control booth on Deck 11, which remotely engages and disengages security to the entranceway on Deck 13. Fortunately you weren't intelligent enough to figure that little factoid out."
Felicity glowered at the Vulcan. His statement implied that Ben was somewhat stupid, and she didn't take kindly to anyone making implications of stupidity about her and her friends. How can he say this! she thought to herself rather bitterly. Shame on him!
Indifferent to Felicity's indignant scowl, the Vulcan glanced cursorily over his PADD before he perked his head up. "I propose that we hear from the redheaded human female," he announced coolly.
"Miss Merriman, you mean?" corrected Ben. He felt a tad miffed over the very idea of the Vulcan calling her that term, as if the Vulcan himself lacked respect for her dignity; that is, from his point of view.
The Vulcan shrugged lightly. "Miss…Merriman, please come up to the floor.
Felicity perked her head up, looking a little confused…and angry with the Vulcan at the same time. "I beg your pardon?" she said.
"You have been officially summoned to the floor," replied the Vulcan calmly.
"You forgot to say, 'please'," put in Ben.
The Vulcan just kept silent. The Negro crewman intervened on his very behalf.
"Miss Merriman, you will do what he says," he commanded.
Scowling and biting her lip bitterly like a rebel child, Felicity pushed herself up from the folding chair in a rather unladylike manner and stomped over to the center of the Main Bridge where Ben was currently standing. She heaved a cross sigh.
The crewman turned his face to Ben. "You may sit down, Mr. Davidson," he said.
"Oh, thank heaven," Ben rejoined sarcastically, as he plopped on his seat and shot furtive, casual glances across the room, especially at Elizabeth and the little mites at the back of his seat, near the view-screen.
The crewman began the procedures of oath-taking. "Do you swear before the jury that you will speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" he asked almost tiredly.
"Aye, sir," Felicity replied almost fluently and a tad confidently. Outside she felt brave, but inside her heart pounded a little, as if it was a fine mixture of both anxiety and audacity.
Picard nodded to the Vulcan, giving him the signal to resume the proceedings of the hearing.
"Miss Felicity Merriman," he began, "As the individual responsible for the claims against Commander William T. Riker, you are here to testify to said claims. Please begin your testimony."
Felicity could observe the jury awaiting her fated replies. The Vulcan fished out a tablet pen, preparing to record her reply on his PADD. A blonde crewwoman in yellow uniform, acting as a court reporter, was also readying her PADD as well. Twitching her fingers while her hands were clasped out of slight nervousness, Felicity forced herself to recall the happenings of the skirmish.
"Well, I…um…," began Felicity a little nervously. It was her first time she tried to give an account of a happening she was involved in, especially in a hearing, and it was not often done with women and girls in her time. "I was walking around the deck where the Guest Quarters were, when I came upon a discussion that was taking place in an open room," she said, enunciating her words a little carefully. "Out of curiosity, I decided to check it out."
Riker looked at Felicity gravely and suspiciously. Being a First Officer, he had to protect his reputation, since his career sort of depended on it. "Wait a minute," he said charily, trying to get every single word out of her. "You were…curious?"
Felicity nodded a serious nod. "Aye, sir," she said in a small voice.
Meanwhile Ensign Bates was whispering something over to Keswick, who was standing beside him on Bates' left side. "What a nosy!" he whispered.
Though the accusation was somewhat serious, the idea that an 11-year-old could just suddenly come up with an accusation like that as if it was out of the mouth of babes made Riker chuckle somewhat involuntarily. Felicity continued casting demurely serious looks at him, as if she was somewhat accusing him for all the misery he had caused her. Assuming of course it was he who was behind the initial moments of the skirmish.
"Continue with the testimony, Miss Merriman," said the Vulcan.
Felicity took a deep breath before she resumed her reply. "…And when I was…eavesdropping,…I overheard Mr. Riker say…something to the effect…that he wanted to…stuff us into "torpedoes" and scatter us across space."
Silence encompassed the Main Bridge as the jury stared at her in some sort of disbelief.
"As the one responsible for this claim," put in the Negro crewman, "Didn't it ever occur with you to take the matter up with a higher authority, specifically the captain of the vessel?"
Data's android body immediately switched itself to alert mode. "That would not have been possible," he put in quickly. "At approximately 1057 hours, the captain and I were on board the Corellian Battle Cruiser K'Mar, facilitating further stages of diplomacy with the Corellians."
"Oh," replied the Negro rather tactlessly as he turned to Felicity in a rather superior manner, which made her think that the world turned somewhat upside down, given the vice-versa change in roles from her time to the 24th century. "Then didn't it also occur to you to take up your issue with any of the crewmen on board?"
Felicity shook her head. "No," she uttered.
The Negro crewman looked her skeptically and suspiciously. "Hmm…"
Felicity decided to press her point further. "But I did try Mr. La Forge," she said. "And he didn't believe me. Not on bit."
"Perhaps your story was tad preposterous," the Vulcan put in.
Felicity scowled it him for what she perceived as a rather tactless remark about her testimony. The Vulcan only widened his eyes, wondering what sort of behavior the redhead was exhibiting. Felicity breathed a cross sigh before resuming her response.
"Well, he did…sort of believe me," she continued, trying to put angry feelings for the Vulcan for the time being, "And he said he would check it out later,…if he was not to busy with his work."
"Why did you decid to go to him first?" queried the crewman with his inflection down.
Because he was…one of the senior officers," rejoined Felicity with indignant seriousness. "Because he was trustworthy." Both her replies had their inflections ascending, save for the latter. "But there were others," she pressed on. "I did take into consideration…Miss Counselor…and the good Doctor," she finished with slight uncertainty in her tone of voice.
"Did you manage to get them?"
Felicity shook her head. "Nay," she replied in a small voice.
"Well, then, what happened to them?"
Felicity gulped a bit. "They were…knocked out," she responded.
"Unconscious, you mean?" put in Data.
"'Tis however you say it, Mr. Data," said Felicity a little meekly. "But a word by any other name is still a word."
"Impressive Shakespeare, that one," commented Bates in a whispering tone of voice to Lt. Keswick. The Negro crewman, seeming slightly indifferent to Felicity's derivative to Shakespeare, resumed his interrogation.
"Could there not have been other senior officers and lower-ranking crewmen that you could have taken up your issue with?" he pressed on.
"No, sir," replied Felicity.
"There was Lt. Cmdr. Worf, whom it's likely you omitted from your list of trusted personnel," the crewman put in.
Felicity was silent. Worf? she asked herself in mental bewilderment. How could I not? But then…
"Did you not consider taking up your paranoid matter with Lt. Cmdr. Worf?" the Vulcan pressed on.
Rather than answering the question, all thoughts about Worf aside, Felicity scowled at him again and berated him for what she thought was an implication that her fears were crazy. Unable to restrain herself, she retorted angrily, "Paranoid matter? How dare you!"
The Bridge was steeped in silence, as Felicity defiantly challenged her onlookers. Ben gave a rather wry shrug. Elizabeth in a state of shock at her friend's behavior had her right hand on her mouth, naturally dismayed a bit by Felicity's unorthodox actions on the Bridge, and at the same time, fears for her friend, too. Anger boiled inside Felicity. From her point of view the Vulcan's statement implied that she was…crazy. She knew she was not. Felicity decided to berate the Vulcan for his tactless statement.
"How can you say such a thing like this to me?" she scolded quite loudly to him, her emerald-green eyes blazing with fury that matched her natural reddish-auburn hair. "You know full well I overheard Mr. Riker…"
"You'll have to take into account the matter that it may have been someone who appeared as Mr. Riker," interrupted the Negro crewman even louder.
Felicity heaved a sigh of exasperation. "Just what exactly do you mean, sir?" she asked rather crabbily.
"For all you know, it may not have been Mr. Riker saying what you claim to interpret as 'getting rid of you'," added the crewman.
Felicity was beginning to feel a mite tetchy. "So you're saying that the Mr. Riker I was overhearing was not Mr. Riker?" she spat.
"Quite possibly."
Felicity took a deep breath before she began her next outburst. "Fine!" she spat again with great force as her eleven-year-old body could afford it. "The point is, I overheard someone discussing with other members of the ship's crew about how to get rid of us while we're fast asleep!"
Silence overran the bridge again before the Vulcan made his comment on Felicity's seemingly unorthodox behavior that seemed quite unorthodox to him.
"So it is true that humans tend to irrationally unleash their emotions at the slightest whim," he remarked coolly. The human female with red hair has just demonstrated it for us through her outbursts..
The Negro crewman shrugged, as he was anxious to continue on getting to the current matter on hand. "Precisely why would Mr. Riker want to get rid of you in the first place, if that is what you claim?" he pressed on.
Felicity tried to answer as best as she could, swallowing a bit before she spoke her word in order to cool her hotheaded self down a bit. "I…um…I heard…that the reason why he…or someone," she emphasized on the last word. "…However you call him…wants to get rid of us…" She lowered her tone of voice. "…Is because…well,…um…"
Felicity's voice trailed off as the incident flashed into her whirring mind, as Commander Riker's fearful words echoed in its depths. They're targets of a relentless enemy…They have to be dumped…And soon…"
Felicity swallowed again in order to force herself to concentrate. "Mr. Riker,…" she began, as she cast blatant glances at the jury onlookers, "…Or someone…said that we had to be gotten rid of because we were targets…of a 'relentless enemy'," she finished. "So there! Does that…satisfy you?" She abruptly exhaled as she rolled her fists into balls.
His right fingers near the area of his mouth, Picard skeptically and furtively muttered something to his very self. "Targets…of a relentless enemy…" he mused quietly. He raised his voice as he turned to the Vulcan. "Mr. Sumok, note that in the minutes," he demanded.
The Vulcan fished out a PADD tablet pen and took down the records in a jiffy. Picard faced Felicity squarely in the eye.
"Specifically what kind of 'relentless enemy' are you talking about?" he inquired. Based on his discussion with Capt. Viss on board the K'Mar, he would have naturally assumed it was the Borg, but he wanted absolute sureness as to what Felicity would have encountered from her experiences.
"I…" began Felicity, her voice trailing off. "I really don't know,…Captain. That was all I heard from the discussion. Nothing more."
Silence encompassed the room again before Data stepped into the scene. "Captain, allow me to speak on behalf of Miss Merriman's defense," he said coolly.
"Go on," said Picard.
Data jerked his head a little. "It is theoretically possible that Miss Merriman could be making allusions to her experiences in an event involving a Borg takeover of the Corellian Science Vessel K'Tan," he babbled, as he turned to face Felicity. "Would I be correct in presuming this hypothesis, Miss Merriman?"
Felicity nodded, finding herself almost unable to process Data's mild technical jargon, and surprised at how Data was able to get to the matter she had in mind because she forlornly thought that no one else would know what on earth she was talking about in the first place. It was fairly presumable that Data gained such knowledge while he was Picard on the K'Mar, at around the time when Felicity and her friends and siblings were involved in the skirmish with the crew personnel.
"Enlighten me as to what you're implying, Mr. Data," ordered Picard in a skeptical tone of voice.
"According to the memory logs, at approximately 1101 hours, on stardate 48367.2, the K'Tan was intercepted by two Borg vessels while she was traveling at a maximum warp with a higher capability than that of the Enterprise. During the initial stages of the brief skirmish between the K'Tan and the Borg, the Borg compromised the vessel's warp engines and began boarding the ship as soon as they were within a 920.7-meter range. This in turn led to the human children being hurriedly evacuated from the K'Tan, approximately 4.3 seconds prior to the activation of its self-destruct systems."
It was the Negroid crewman's turn to speak his piece. "That sure as hell is an interesting story, Mr. Data," he observed with semi-fascination. "So you're basically stating that the Borg managed to find a way to intercept the children while they were on board that particular alien vessel?"
"That is correct, sir," rejoined Data coolly and emotionlessly.
The Vulcan looked at the trio of Picard, Data, and the yellow-uniformed African-American in yellow uniform. "Shall I note that particular incident in the log?"
"Go ahead," replied Picard.
Scribbling on his PADD with his tablet pen, the Vulcan wrote down the particulars of the K'Tan incident that Data had just described in fair detail. After that, he decided to ask Felicity some questions regarding her knowledge on how she was ale to disengage the force field on Deck 4 during the initial stages of the skirmish with the personnel.
"I do have one intriguing question to ask you, though," he said to Felicity. "How did you manage to figure out how to disengage the force field on Deck 4, shortly before you and your comrades evacuated the deck?"
Felicity stared it him. "Pray, what are you talking about?" she inquired rather cautiously. She had a gut feeling that the Vulcan was trying to pry incriminating information about her and her deeds during the skirmish.
"Perhaps I should rephrase the question," said the Vulcan coolly. "How were you able to bring down the security force field on Deck 4?"
Felicity heaved a wry sigh. "My best friend Elizabeth seemed to have figured it out," she replied. "I merely followed her suggestion."
"I see," put in the Vulcan in a casual tone of voice, his inflection descending. He mulled over his PADD before uttering his personal verdict. "It seems…that the human female child's logic is sound," he said sort of finally.
"Well, that's a relief," declared Felicity, sighing in near exasperation.
The Vulcan was not finished…yet. "However, unless investigated further, Miss Merriman's evidence…will simply be circumstantial in its entirety."
"Then perhaps we need to expound on Miss Merriman's fearfulness and distrust with the Enterprise crew, now, do we," put in Picard. He immediately turned his head to face his trusty android crewman. "Mr. Data, any witnesses regarding the exact time prior to the skirmish?"
"I happen to know of one, sir," replied Data.
"The send him in," Picard ordered in a curt manner.
Data jerked his head sideways a little. "As you wish, Captain," he replied in an emotionless tone of voice.