-----chapter 12-----
1450 hrs EST
Matthew Gideon stood before the board of inquiry. A panel of three superior officers. General Monroe, Admiral Harris, and the one person to surprise him the most, General Miller. The same Miller that gave him command of Excalibur.
General Monroe was the first to break the long silence trumpeting in the chambers, overlooking the ground level of MarsDome.
AThis board of inquiry is now convened. We are gathered here today to probe key command decisions of Captain Matthew Joseph Gideon. Current commanding officer of the Excalibur.@
AThis inquiry will hear details, and see evidence of Captain Gideon=s command decisions which now stands before us,@ Admiral Harris spoke.
AThese hearings will be monitored by a member of the Bureau of MetaSensory.@ Monroe announced. The woman sitting in the darkness in the back of the room.
APermission to speak?@ Gideon asked as he stood behind his table.
AGranted,@ Monroe answered as he gazed at a compad obscured from view from the platform desk.
AWith all due respect to the inquiry, but I am entitled to council.@
ANoted,@ Monroe responded coldly. AYour only defense Captain, will be the truth.@
Gideon knew as before, he was going to be burned at the stake. There were no one vid call in the military.
AState your name and current posting for the record,@ Miller ordered.
Gideon stood firm as he always did when he faced an enemy. But he never would had believed that the enemy would be his own people. AGideon, Matthew Joseph. Captain, attached to the Earth Alliance Starship Excalibur.@
And as Galen would say, AAnd so it begins.@
APlease, sit, Captain Gideon.@ Admiral Harris ordered. AThe Inquisition now commences.@
ACaptain Gideon,@ Monroe said as he looked at the compad before him.
APlease recount for this hearing the events that took place on May 13, 2267.@
AI=m sorry, but the date is just one of many.@
APerhaps we can help you,@ Monroe answered. AExcalibur was on tour through the Eridani star system when you came across an escape pod carrying two occupants.@
Gideon nodded his head.
AYou recall this event, now?@ Harris inquired.
AI do. Onboard the life pod, were two individuals, Lyssa and Durkanni. They were two government agents from a near-bye planet. They life support diminishing, Excalibur answered their distress beacon and brought them onboard.
ATo our surprise, they wore human influenced clothes, and spoke perfect English. They came onboard, alleging that Earth has been influencing their culture.@
AAnd what did you discover?@
ADuring my investigation, another encounter with an agent, Kendar, reinforced my belief, that the influence was coming from their planet. Preventing another civil war, the agency Kendar was employed by, was using transmissions sent by Earth, to construct a conspiracy in which their people were being controlled by an extra terrestrial civilization.@
AAnd what did you do at the end, Captain?@ Miller inquired as he skimmed through Gideon=s personal journal on his pad.
AWe released Lyssa and Durkani from our custody, and sent them back to their homeworld. Durkani shortly followed. After debating a course of action, I ordered Excalibur to their homeworld, and dropped probes carrying encyclopedia galacticas on the planet. To reveal the truth.@
AAnd what did you hope to accomplish when you dropped the encyclopedias on their world?@ Monroe inquired.
"To let the top off the conspiracy. That their government was imprisoning them to. I saw it as an acceptable risk.@
AAcceptable risk?@ Monroe echoed the term.
AYes, sir. One day Earth would make first contact with their civilization. Would it had been preferable to make first contact with a cleared name, or hatred?@
AAnd in the process of you letting the top of their conspiracy, which was the sole factor in which kept their planet stable and intact, civil wars have recommenced. You may have signed a billion people=s death warrant, Captain.@ Monroe said, staring Gideon down. "Yet, you may have cleared humanity's names. But from intelligence reports, they're may not be a planet for first contact within the year."
This is not looking good.