Asylum

[Gallus 0]

Asylum

 

AENG’s Shore Leave Part II

 

It was like a challenge to the death. He may have well challenged this man to Ushaan for the reaction that he received after he heard the allegations. The Vulcan attorney looked as if he would strike Gallus down, inject him with poison and then phase pistol him for good measure, he clearly did not like Romulans, the Andorian would have normally wondered why, but at this point, he was looking at the possibility that he would be prosecuted by the Andorian government once this was over. There would be a heavy cost for any acts of espionage they convicted him of, there was no escaping it. Hopefully Tomov was some sort of legal genius. He’d better be, for the credits he was charging.

 

On the way to his office during the recess between sessions of court, the Vulcan finally broke the silence.

 

“I must ask you to be entirely truthful with me, are you a Romulan spy?”

 

Gallus couldn’t fault the man for his question, it was at least direct, somewhat respectful, it made the Andorian feel as if the Vulcan’s mind was receptive to the truth. A rare thing. “No more than you are, this is a false allegation, I think that my government wishes to prevent me from pursuing a life beyond the Central Command, although I cannot see the objective just yet, it makes no sense to me.”

 

“I am supposed to take your word for it then?”

 

The Andorian bristled at this comment, he didn’t like being accused of lying. “I thought you Vulcans were supposed to be about logic. What logic would there be in lying to you when I depend upon you ability to extricate me from this precarious situation?”

 

“What logic would there be in admitting guilt?” He shook his head, “No, I suppose there is nothing to be done but formulate a defense for this charge. From what I have seen of his evidence, it appears that he has a solid case for espionage, these communications will be difficult to refute, there are fifty-nine separate transmissions in this database.”

 

Gallus looked at the padd in front of him, accessing the logs one by one, he noticed something was off about them, “It seems as though the person who sent these messages used a triaxilating frequency modulation. The frequencies, amplitudes and offsets of each individual data pulse was altered, the only way that a protocol like this would work is if the other side had a way to discriminate which pulses were noise and which were signal. How would the Andorian government have access to the Romulan algorithms that they’d need to do that? Without a prearranged formula or sequence from the person sending the information, it is supposed to be impossible to tell if there is a message, and if it is by whatever chance that they do detect a message, there is no way that they can find the source or snag any significant part of the data.”

 

“I have no idea what you are talking about, but what if you are saying is true then how can they have these?” This was probably the first time that he had heard a Vulcan admit ignorance, this did not bode well.

 

“They are either fabricated or the espionage is being conducted for the Andorians, the alternative to those is that the spy sent the message via government computers and transmitters, but no one is that much of an idiot.”

 

The look on the Vulcan’s face indicated that his lawyer was indeed that much of an idiot. At least he understood that this meant he might that he might win for once.

 

“Is there any way to disprove the account logged by your communications officer, T’Parek?”

 

That pointy-eared seductress, his stalks curled with repressed fury, ”No, that incident actually occurred, the best that I can give you is the contents of the message, if our resident Vulcan backs up her data like she is supposed to, otherwise, she can explain the misunderstanding, it was a letter to my family.”

 

“Are the comments and complaints lodged by your chief of security based on ‘fact’, and if so can we disprove said ‘facts’?”

 

More anger at the fools that he works with, how could that evil cat-thing-slave lodge official complaints?! What had he done?! NOTHING! He balled his fists and considered finding a bladed weapon so he could start hunting down the Caitian in return for her efforts to sabotage him. “Our chief of security is a housecat that hates me, I’ m sure that she hasn’t found any such ‘facts’ as there are none to find, cats evidently have problems dealing with emotions.”

 

“And finally, their most serious charge, the theft of data from the University computers, was this also a fabrication? I would be fascinated to hear your explanation.”

 

Well, that was downright hostile.

 

“That actually happened.”

 

“Indeed, the evidence points to that conclusion, evidently your terminal aboard Challenger transmitted an id sequence when you opened the subspace link.”

 

“There were mitigating circumstances! I can’t be expected to program gigaquads of data from memory in order to allow a starship to pass through a fold in subspace without shields. I was working against a deadline, my only other alternative would have been to duct tape the windows and hope for the best.”

 

A look of bewilderment crossed the Vulcan’s face. He quickly recovered.

 

“It is possible that the board will consider the theft of the data enough to disqualify you from continuing with Starfleet, it is also possible that they will take the circumstances surrounding this action into account when making their final decision. Tomorrow the hearing will continue, it is likely that some your crewmates will be called to testify. If the board decides that you are innocent, they will send you their determination on the matter of asylum soon afterwards. Now go to your ship, we have nothing more to discuss.”

 

There was no reason to argue, Gallus was hungry. He walked towards the shuttle port that was situated near the lawyer's office. San Francisco was as hot as ever, but at least the sun was beginning to go down. The Andorian contemplated taking a shuttle to Antarctica, but decided against it, he would be happy just to get off this verdant sphere. About halfway there he felt something odd, it took him a moment to realize that someone had grabbed him and covered his mouth, it was not nice to do someone still dealing with the aftereffects of two days solid drinking, but did this rude person read the book on etiquette? Most decidedly not.

 

“Don’t struggle, just listen.”