The Letters of the Law

Posted on Fri Feb 15, 2019 @ 10:21am by Commander Caleb Ryan & Captain Maritza Soran

1,855 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Soran's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 04 0700

::ON::

The Sector JAG office was based on New Brooklyn, one sector closer to Sol, and had been ever since the Borg had destroyed it years ago. But it was also entering its night cycle, and she couldn't wait until the JAG corp had slept. She needed to talk to someone about Commander Ryan. After explaining her request, she waited patiently on hold for the switchboard to pass her to the duty officer.

Lieutenant junior grade Diana Villiers, Legal Affairs Advisor, sat in the darkened JAG call center with her uniform jacket open, shoes off, and feet up on the desk. A fairly attractive young legal officer with raven black hair and blue eyes, she curled a lock of her hair around a finger and chewed on her lower lip in concentration, her black frame glasses perched on a cute, slightly freckled, nose. She had never gotten around to getting corrective surgery, but she only needed the glasses for reading. Her coffee sat relatively untouched on the console beside her. Currently she was engrossed in the padd in her lap, the book version of Richard Longwood’s latest holo-novel, The Thorn and the Rose.

Rose O’Malley’s green eyes flashed defiance at Lord Alexandre Thorne. The heated gaze of his stormy blue-grey eyes took in her lush young form dressed only in her chemise and petticoats, her only dress ruined in the tumble from the rowboat into the lake, now hanging on a branch as she waited for it to dry.

“My lord, this is highly improper!” Rose lowered her gaze, unable to face the smoldering desire she saw in Alex’s eyes, her poor Dublin accent slipping through. She crossed her arms over herself, trying to find some measure of dignity in her compromised position, conscious of the way the wet silk clung to her.

Alexandre Thorne gave a deep-throated laugh as he removed his jacket. “My dear,” he said in his posh Ascendancy enunciation flowing like smooth cream over her ears, his baritone sultry and caressing. Rose felt her cheeks grow pink. “You will catch your death. Let me warm you.”

Alexandre’s arms came around Rose with the jacket. As it settled on her shoulders, he pulled her to him, his hand settling at the small of her back, finding the gap between the chemise and the petticoats to caress her bare skin. Her full breasts pressed against his muscled chest as her lips parted, her green eyes staring up at him.

“No, my lord! This is...this is most improper!”

“Let us get you out of these wet things before you catch your death, Rose.” Alexandre’s fingers deftly worked the laces of her chemise. When they knotted, he gave a growl of frustrated denial and simply hooked his finger in the fabric, shearing the sodden silk away from her pale, tender flesh.

Rose O’Malley’s cry of protest was drowned when Thorne’s lips crushed against hers, his strong arms pulling her more tightly against him. She felt the turgid throb of him against the sudden heat of her loins and found herself returning the kiss with unexpected ardor, her fingers curling into his thick black hair.

“Oh, Lord Thorne... Alex, I am yours….” Diane whispered the words as she read, licking her suddenly dry lips, a bit breathless. Was it warm in here?

Suddenly the comm panel beside her beeped and Lieutenant Villiers yelped and jumped, her reverie of the handsome Alexandre Thorn broken. She fell out of her chair and hit the floor with a thump as the Starfleet logo spun on her screen, still beeping. Diana scrambled up and slapped the controls, connecting the link. Her blue eyes blinked, glasses askew on her cut nose, kneeling on the floor with an open uniform jacket as she stared at the severe countenance of a Trill woman with tightly braided blonde hair and hard blue eyes.

“C-Commander!” she stammered. “JAG Legal Affairs. How may I help you?” Di swung her arm around behind her, trying to find her chair without appearing to do so. Unfortunately, the drop to the counter had activated the holo-display on Diana’s padd, showing a small scene of a nearly naked couple in an intimate embrace.

Soran glanced at the holonovel and then gave the lieutenant a hard look. "I have had a situation with my XO. I'm seeking an legal opinion on how far I have to take things versus how far I should take things. I trust that won't be too much of an imposition?"

“Oh!” Diana said. “No! No, of course not. That is what the JAG call line is for!” the lieutenant said, managing to find her chair. She looked down at her open uniform jacket and then quick did it up. “Why don’t you tell me your situation?” Di pushed up her classes and smiled nervously at Commander Soren.

"My XO is also a commander and he punched a journalist who was asking impertinent questions about his deceased wife. Given his rank and position, I can't be seen to let him off with a warning. But I believe he was provoked, and the reporter himself hasn't volunteered a statement to Security even though he made the evening news. I would appreciate knowing all my legal options before I make a decision on how to proceed."

Diana considered a moment. “Well, if he went on the news that evening, it doesn’t sound as if the battery was too severe,” the young lieutenant said. “No permanent harm was done? If the reporter didn't make a statement, and it is a first offense, along with the contextual evidence provided by your XO, you would be well within your legal rights to just drop it.” Di pushed up her glasses. “However, if you are looking to make...an example of your XO, you do have the full range of legal options. Throw the book at him, as it were. However, you might have a hard time finding a military judge willing to even take the time of day on such a case.”

"Oh?" Soran raised an extremely surprised eyebrow. "That surprises me."

Diana shrugged. “In my experience, judges love to avoid a full court martial whenever possible, reserving that for more serious infractions. Dereliction of duty, fiscal malfeasance, insubordination.” She shrugged and pushed up her glasses. “We may be getting ahead of ourselves, though. You said the altercation was caught on tape and broadcast on the news. Your XO might just plead guilty and we can avoid a court martial. That would likely be in his best interest anyway. Then we just need a sentencing hearing where we can provide the mitigating evidence. And your recommendation, of course. It seems likely you’ll want no more than a special court martial for an offense like this, so you would be limited in your sentencing options. But if you want more than just a dock in pay, you need a general court martial. His being an officer provides him some protections.”

Diana paused to take a sip of her coffee and looked at Commander Soran on the screen. “Just what do you wish to do to him, Commander?”

"What I wish is largely irrelevant," Soran replied. "I have an delicate situation here that means, regardless of my desires, leniency will provoke civil unrest, and severity will likewise provoke unrest." She also didn't want anyone looking to closely at Ryan and his family, in case it got back to the Symbiosis Commission. "I need to balance one side's need to see Humans held to account with the other side's belief that Humans are disproportionately harassed and censured."

Diana blinked. “Just what is going on there?” she said in amazement. Then she shook her head. “I’m sorry. That is irrelevant. My job isn’t politics, Commander,” she said, pushing up her glasses. “I am here for legal advice. My legal opinion is that your XO committed minor battery, and the victim seems in no way concerned with pressing charges. While that does not exonerate him, it is often balanced with pragmatic considerations of legal caseload and severity of the crime, which it does not seem much. We hold rowdy shore leave to less consequences than it seems you wish to place on your XO. You and your XO have a better knowledge of your situation. Perhaps you can discuss with him a suitable public penance rather than making a show trial of a court martial. You might get less than you wish for, and I know military judges that might give you a dressing down for wasting their time and not handling it yourself. Sir,” Diana added quickly, not wanting to appear insubordinate to a superior officer.

Soran gave her a long look. "Lieutenant Junior Grade Villiers. This was not rowdy shoreleave, and Commander Ryan is not a cadet. He is the XO of a large Starfleet facility. Rank alone holds us to higher standards, and his position doubly so. I don't disagree with you that your job isn't politics. But mine is. I need options that let me manage the optics without making the situation worse and sacrificing a good officer on the altar of political necessity."

Diana took a breath as the reprimand hit her, and she nodded. “Well, personnel decisions are usually considered confidential, but have you considered having Commander Ryan give a public apology?” she asked. “That would serve your optics. This sounds like it would best be served by a Captain’s Mast, sir. A non-judicial hearing and punishment, all at your sole discretion. It keeps the appearance without the consequences of ending his career.”

Soran nodded. She hadn't considered a public apology. But that might be more than adequate. She was quite sure that both sides of her brewing hate problem would find the public humiliation less than satisfactory. The non-Humans would say it was a Human getting off lightly, the pro-Humans that it was scapegoating. No one would be happy. And wasn't that the sign of a good compromise? And an option where she didn't have to lose an otherwise good and trusted officer, when she needed him most, would also not go amiss.

"Thank you. That’s an angle I hadn't considered. Better for the station as well as him, I think."

“I am glad I could help, Commander Soran,” Diana Villiers said, giving a small smile. She looked over at her script on a small monitor to the side. “Is there anything else I can assist you with?”

Soran shook her head. "That will be all, thank you, Lieutenant." She cut the line.

For a moment her office was still, then she tapped her comm badge again. "Soran to Toussaint. Claude, would you rearrange my diary. I want to see Ryan at nine am. Let him know."

She sat staring at her bare office, her bare walls. Then she called up the officer’s manual on a padd and began to read.

[OFF]

Commander Soran
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant junior grade Diana Villiers
JAG Officer

 

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