"Interrogation"

[Damian Porter 0]

"Interrogation"

 

 

A log by Lieutenant Damian Porter.

 

Porter couldn't believe this was happening, not to him, not at all… ever. He was sitting at a table in a room which was clearly supposed to be an interrogation room. Two of tr'Jeth Dabi's trolls were flanking the door in all their golden glory. Only they weren't Dabi's trolls anymore as he was undoubtedly going through a similar experience as Porter was at the moment. This was ridiculous and Porter was beyond angry. He made a point of looking calm on the outside but on the inside he was fuming. SFHQ should have known better than you trust the Romulans.

 

 

He had been sitting there for exactly 45 minutes when the doors opened. To him, not having a clock of any kind at his disposal, it had felt like hours. But Porter would not do them the favour of getting impatient, angry or violent while waiting. He just sat there and stared at the wall opposite him like he saw a Da Vinci masterpiece somewhere underneath the coat of Starfleet regulation grey paint.

 

 

When he finally heard the soft swoosh of the doors opening he knew the game was on. He didn't look up to see who had entered; he just kept staring at the wall, seeming indifferent to any disturbances. A voice unknown to him ordered the trolls outside and a few seconds later another gold uniform invaded Porter's field of vision. The face belonging to said uniform was unknown to him, but it didn't matter, all that mattered was that he was dealing with a Starfleet officer. Not Dabi, as he was under suspicion as well in this ridiculous farce initiated by an even more ridiculous, Romulan, over achieving J-tube rat. The King of J-tube Rats. A rat indeed.

 

The gold shirt took a deep breath and then started to speak: "Well, Mr Porter…"

 

Porter looked the man in the eyes and interjected coldly: "Lieutenant Porter, Ensign." What the heck was the guy thinking?

 

Goldie nodded and continued: "We shall see about that, Lieutenant."

 

"Indeed, we shall." Porter had said all of this in as even a tone as he could muster. He very much wished he could just yell at the security troll, or even better, hurt him with a heavy, blunt object.

 

"Lieutenant Porter, you know what you are being charged with?" Goldie was talking business now.

 

"Actually, I'm a tad fuzzy on the details. You see, a crazy Ferengi invaded the Control Tower and dragged me, along with a few other people, I might add, from my station. At gunpoint. I've been waiting for someone to show interest in me ever since, looks like I've just become the popular kid now. But you might want to check on the Ferengi, because he seemed a bit delusional, kept taking about a mutiny. And while you're at it, you might want to check out the crazy Romulan who's running Engineering, too. Actually, doesn't it seem a mite strange to you that the highest ranking Starfleet officer, the Chief of Security and the Operations Manage have been taken into custody just because two non Starfleet individuals start throwing around big words? Now if you want to investigate a mutiny I suggest you start right there." Porter couldn't help it. He just wasn't the kind of person to keep his mouth shut. Someone had to try to whack some sense into them and his sarcasm was a powerful tool; at times.

 

"Let's not focus on the Ambassador or anybody else. Let's focus on you and your actions." Goldie was still calm and very professional.

 

Porter was still waiting for someone to jump out and tell him it was all just a big joke: "My wha… my actions? What on earth kinda actions would you be talking about? I did my duty, I wasn't late for my shifts, I didn't kill anybody and I sure as hell did not", at this he raised his voice as if to make sure the guards outside heard him too, "I repeat; did not stage or take part in any kind of mutiny. This is a joke, there was no mutiny. Ambassador Drankum hit his head during the attack. He was declared unfit for duty by the docs. From then on I received my orders from Commander Chirakis. The Commander did not take over the station, she did not, in no way whatsoever, act like the Ambassador would not be returning to duty."

 

Goldie perused a PADD but Porter knew that was just show, Goldie knew what he was doing and he had practised his lines: "But Commander Chirakis' actions during the attack proved fatal for some fighter pilots, is that or is that not true, Lieutenant Porter."

 

"We were attacked. It is not my place to judge the Commander's orders. Whether she took the right course of action or not is something you will have to discuss with her. But when Starfleet sent us out here, to the butt crack of the quadrant, without any support worth mentioning, it surely must have taken into consideration that there could be losses. I am very sorry that we have lost men. But it's a risk that comes with the job. That has nothing to do with mutiny, however. So, what is your point?"

 

Now Goldie looked Porter straight into the eyes: "My point is that you seem to follow orders rather willingly, even if they mean people are going to die."

 

Porter tried to calm himself by thinking of a variety of earlier mentioned heavy blunt objects and picturing himself chasing Goldie out of the interrogation room with them: "I am a member of Starfleet, a superior ordered me to do things during an attack. Of course I followed her orders. I'm not sure what they teach you in security kindergarten, but during an attack all hell breaks loose on the Control Tower. I secure the station, I deal with communications, I relay orders from the Command staff, I distribute repair and medical crews, and I keep track of damage and systems functionality. As you can see, I don't have time to question orderes at the same time, let alone starting a full fledged discussion. Commander Chirakis made a decision, and whether she made a wrong or a right decision does not matter, because at the end of the day, what does matter is that we lived through the attack."

 

Goldie nodded: "And after the attack?"

 

"Nothing, we patched up the station. Things were business as usual. Sure, the Ambassador wasn't well, but we heard that he wasn't seriously injured. There were no plans of anybody taking over the station and Chirakis has no secret fantasies of world domination. Everybody was doing their work just as they would have done had the Ambassador been on the Control Tower. Until we were dragged to the brig, that is. That's what happened and that's what you can tell your superiors. I have only one more thing to say: We're out here pretty much on our own. Right now we can't even contact Starfleet and reinforcements take an awful long time to get here. We can't afford to turn against each other, so you best gather up your toys and tell whoever's in charge of Security right now that they find out what's going on here. Because I'm pretty sure that if we keep going like this we'll soon all join the fate of those fighter pilots."

 

With that Porter resumed his earlier stance, looking at the wall. They would not hear another word from him, and Goldie seemed to realise that, as he gathered up his PADD and left the room, leaving it to his thigs to take Porter back to the brig.