Finally, he saw her point of view.  "Precisely!"

He jotted down a few more notes, then looked up at her again, ready to move on to the next subject.  The next subject, however…would be the most decisive one about the whole trial.  "Six months later…you encountered the Kiklar," the Judge stated coldly.  "In trade for technology to send the Dragon home…Captain Harriman decided to just simply hand over the Dragon's entire database, giving them a large tactical advantage over the Federation, should they ever decide to make their way to us.  I'm curious as to what your views are on this, Lieutenant Commander."

She visibly hesitated on this.  This…was something major.  Chris even told everyone to say that it was his order alone, and to not mention whether or not they agreed.  He wanted to take the blunt of the repercussions…

"Well…at first, the Kiklar seemed very peaceful people.  They seemed very intelligent, highly evolved, and most species that are highly evolved, with a few exceptions, are peaceful."  She shrugged her shoulders.  "There was no way of knowing that they had a hatred for humans, especially since we thought there were no other humans in the Kalium galaxy."

"I see," the Judge simply replied.  "So you are saying you agree with Captain Harriman's decision to just hand over the computer data base?"

"I'm not saying that," she quickly replied.

"Then you didn't agree?" he asked, acting somewhat shocked…the only emotions he displayed what so ever.  "Yet you were the one who carried out his order when you should have objected?!"

"I never said that either!" she stated in an obviously agitated voice.  "What I was saying is that it is understandable that he would give our computer data base to them.  He even suggested that if they learned about us, they would never consider violence with us.  Just like how Odo educating the Founders stopped the Dominion war!"

That stopped the Judge cold in his tracks, and she could easily see it.  At first, he thought he had found something to hurt her case with…but she turned it right back around on him.  He stared at her for a few moments, a sort of cold ice behind his glare.  She gave him an easy grin…despite the fact that she felt uneasy.  Her triumph might only be short lived…

He nodded to her, wrote something down on his PADD, then moved on.  "On to the next subject of matter, dealing with the Dragon's trip back into the Kalium galaxy's past.  While in the past, Captain Harriman initiated negotiations with a civilization that called itself the New Republic.  This is a clear violation of the Temporal Prime Directive."

"I'm curious as to what your view is on this, Lieutenant Commander Halkrat."

Tom looked into the past for a moment, remembering the events that transpired.  "Well clearly, we couldn't just let the Borg invade the past of the galaxy," he said, shrugging easily.  "And there was no way of taking on the Borg by our selves."

"What about ramming the Borg cube at maximum warp?" the Judge asked, catching him off guard.  "As first officer, you should have brought this possibility to the Captain's attention, should you not have?  After all, your duty, above all, was to maintain the Temporal Prime Directive."

He was trying to make Tom look guilty.  Like it was his fault that they breached the temporal Prime Directive…and he didn't like it at all.  He wished he had the courage to just glare at the Judge right now, similar to what Vendar had done during her…'interrogation.'

Then he thought of something…  "Well, as you say, our duty is to protect the Temporal Prime Directive.  What if the Borg somehow stopped us from ramming them at warp speed and disabled us?  We would have told no one how to defeat them, and soon they may very well have established a collective in the past, making them unstoppable.  We had a better chance of saving the past by allying ourselves with the New Republic.  After all, your honor…protecting the Temporal Prime Directive is of paramount concern, and in any case, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

He glared at Tom hard, but that didn't stop the grin from appearing on Tom's face.  He never thought he would have been able to face down an authority figure like that…

Finally, the Judge wrote down some notes, then once again moved on.

"How many people have died aboard the Dragon, doctor?" the Judge asked, looking Commander Kara Trieal square in the eye.  "And I don't mean instant death from an explosion or something, actually died while under care in sick bay?"

That was hitting below the belt.  How dare he make her think about that…and how dare he try to make it seem like she was the reason they died!  However…making the Judge angry wasn't going to help anything…

She thought back…realizing over eight hundred people total had died on the Dragon…but just over half of those people had died in sick bay.  The rest had died instantly…

"About four hundred twenty, give or take," she stated calmly.

"How many of those were part of the Dragon's original compliment?"

She had to think even further about that one.  She knew it was the majority, during the Vorkalai war…  "About ninety percent of that."

"I see, and why could you not have saved them?"

She was very angry now, and she couldn't control her anger any more.  "All of his major arteries had burst, there was no time to save him.  She had a piece of metal lodged in her head; it's a wonder she hadn't died instantly.  Neural activity was dropping for apparently no reason at all, the EM shock must have caused massive neural damage.  Some sort of weird pathogen had infected him, I came up with a cure, but only after he died.  The Vorkalai weapons caused neurological damage to Sarah, irreparable damage, and it spread quickly.  She was brain dead maybe five to seven minutes after the weapon hit her, maybe even longer.  Take your pick…your honor."

He certainly wasn't winning any popularity contests…

"And with all of your medical expertise, and all of your technology, you couldn't save any of those who died?"  He was also pissed off…

"Put any other doctor in the same situations, and lets just see if any of them could save as many people as I had!" she stated, trying to keep her voice from raising.  "I wasn't the one who killed them, I'm not to blame for their deaths.  The Devil's Virus, Vorkalai weapons, exploding bulk heads…those were the causes!"

"As you are chief engineer, is it not your duty to keep the ship intact?" he asked next.

Commander Kalia Tarkent nodded her head evenly.  "Yes."

"So the destruction of the Dragon was your fault?"

He certainly wasn't going to be popular after today…  "No."

"But isn't it your duty to keep it together, to stop it from self destructing like that?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, but managed to keep her anger in check.  "My duty is also to know when the ship can't be saved so that I can give the crew enough time to evacuate the ship."

He nodded in agreement and jotted down a few notes.

"Shouldn't you have been able to lead your security forces well enough so that the murderer could have been captured?"

Lieutenant Ada Marquet glared evilly at him.  "Perhaps if we had known how to scan for Vendar while she was infected, we could have.  The fact of the matter is, her bio signature was altered, masked."

"Is that an excuse?"

"No, it is not an excuse," she stated, ice shooting at the judge from her eyes.  "It is a reason.  And I eventually did come up with a way to scan for infected crew.  Tell me, your honor, if you were put in the same situation, could you have found a way to scan for them?"

A few of the people watching let out a few snickers, eliciting an icy stare from the Judge.  "Perhaps not, but security isn't my forte."

"And what, tweaking the sensors to find alien viruses is my specialty?"  She kept her frown and continued to glare at him.

The Judge nodded his head.  "I suppose not."

"So where were you while the Captain lead his gallant venture to save the Venshai?"

Lieutenant Terry Latrael shrugged.  "In my office, knowing that there would probably be deaths.  I was preparing, mentally, to help any crew member that needed counseling after the battle."

"But Captain Harriman was ordering the crew to do something against the Prime Directive.  All you did was sit in your office, preparing to aid in making the aftermath easier, when you should have been suggesting to him not to take the actions he proposed?  In fact, why did you not check up on his mental health to make sure he wasn't insane?"

Terry shrugged easily again.  "I’m a telepath.  During the briefings before the actions, I could easily tell that his mental health was fine, and that he was thinking rationally, with a calm, calculating mind."

"So you mean to tell me that the few Venshai that still existed…were more important than that of the lives of the thousands of Federation personnel that died when the Vendoth attacked?"

"Starfleet's protocol is that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," Chris quoted.  "At the time, the needs of the Venshai, who were more numerous than my crew, outweighed our safety.  How were we to know that some sort of spatial vortex would send the Vendoth to our galaxy?"

"The fact, however, remains that you violated the Prime Directive, yet again, to save those people.  As amiable as that may seem, you're a Starfleet Captain, and upholding the regulations should be of paramount concern."

Chris thought about that statement for a moment, then shook his head.  "No, you're wrong."  The Judge looked at him, wide eyed with surprise at his blunt statement.  "As a Starfleet Captain, it is my duty to uphold the moral beliefs of the Federation.  That, above all else, is what matters.  And no citizen of the Federation would ever dream of just leaving a species for dead.  If we had left them…we might as well have committed genocide."

The Judge stared him down for a minute, not pleased that he proved him wrong…but then finally nodded and jotted something down.  He then looked at his watch.  "It is now…seventeen hundred forty three hours."  Seventeen hundred?!?  This trial went on longer than it seemed…  "We are now in recess until further notice.  Once we reconvene, you will have my decisions."

He then frowned curiously and looked at Chris.  "One thing, however, puzzles me, Captain Harriman."  He hesitated for a moment, clearly afraid to make anyone else angrier than they already were.  "How did you obtain the rank of Captain and command of a prototype vessel…when you've only been a Starfleet officer for nine years?"

To Chris and the Dragon crew, as of now, he had been an officer for twelve…but to everyone else, it was still just nine.  Not to mention it was still nine years when he did take command.

He shrugged at the question, not wanting to give the real answer.  "I can't tell you, sir…but I would be willing to tell the Admiral in private."  By saying that…he was setting into motion a plan…that he hoped would work…

The Judge raised a curious eyebrow, then shrugged and stood up.  "You are all now dismissed."

Chris stood up in response to the door chime.  He was very nervous…but he did indeed hope that it was a Section 31 agent…  In fact, he was betting on it.

"Come in," he stated loud enough for who ever it was to hear.  He stood erect, not wanting to draw his phaser yet.  If it was a Section 31 agent, they wouldn't just open the door and fire…they would come in and probably try to toy with Chris before killing him and making it look like it was someone else entirely, if not just a suicide.