| ENTRY 20 |  |
|
|---|---|---|
| STARDATE | 100320.2 | |
| RECORDED FROM | Deep Space 13 |
View Personal Log
Lauren is standing. She paces outside the camera and then returns, headed the opposite direction. She checks a chronometer, then reaches for her PADD. “Here it is. The transcript is out.”
The next several minutes of the recording are silent as the Captain reads off the device where she stands with somber, grim focus. She taps and scrolls to reference various other files as she does. Eventually the computer chimes to prompt her in case she forgot that the log recording was running. “Continue,” she instructs without looking up.
When she’s finally finished, she sets the PADD down and contemplates, facing the screen. “My mind always goes back to Terix, of course, whenever a court martial comes up. I look for the parallels- I usually find them. It’s why I didn’t attend. I feel biased, constantly. Not just regarding my respect for Ashkeph, but with other trials too. I’ve found that it’s very difficult for me to come to a conclusion that isn’t influenced by my own trial, so long ago.”
“Maybe that’s not a problem. The system is there to compensate for our biases; to best apply it we should simply operate within our normal parameters. That seems to be how everybody else goes about it.” There’s a weak smile, “But I’m prone to this sort of over-introspection.”
The smile fades as her thoughts turn to the transcript itself again. “I think the ruling could swing either way. Both sides put up an aggressive case. Trying to frame the diversion as a surprise training drill? Pulling up Neema’s own orders to force her judgement?” Lauren gives her head a brief, weary shake. “Bold, to say the least. Tens of thousands of years of history shared cumulatively across the Federation member worlds and our best method of determining objective truth still has a tendency to read like a squabble in the mess hall.”
“Ah, well. JAG does good work, I have faith in the system’s results. I just find myself questioning the process often enough.”
“I don’t think I’ll lament over what my own ruling might be. I could go in circles for a while. I will hope, though, that the Admiral isn’t facing time at a correctional facility, because I believe her judgement was sound and her actions based in good, moral wisdom. Yet these two things have no bearing on whether she broke the rules or not. Reality necessitates we hold ourselves to much more than such a simplistic ethos.”