Debrief? Or an Interrogation?

[STSF_Scooter 0]

USS Comanche Creek

Currently docked at SB North Star

SD 2260.38

30 minutes after docking

 

Audraya sat in her office, filing the paperwork for Crash's signature. Fuel expenditure and requisitions, purser's stores, bosun's stores, fortunately a butcher's bill from T'Aral that didn't include serious casualties. She puzzled, though, over the request from the Doc to ban the sale of cigarettes and other nicotine products from the ship's store. The door chime pulled her from he paperwork, and a glance at the desk calendar showed that she wasn't expecting any appointments. “Enter.”

 

Two agents, in the stark black uniforms of SFOSI entered. “Commander Wesley,” the redhead said, “I'm Agent Scully. You already know Agent Mulder.” The gold oak leaf on their collars stood out, contrasting against the black tunic, as the agents sat down on the other side of her desk.

 

“Yes, I do, Agent Scully. Why exactly are you here?”

 

“We're to debrief you on Operation Whiteout, as well as your ship's temporal incursion.”

 

“Wait just one damned minute. Your agency shanghais me while on leave, ship me off to T'tooine without so much as a 'Here's your contact and what you're looking for' and leave me hanging while I get informally reprimanded by my commanding officer. And now you want to debrief me, and include our entering that lightning storm in space? Surely you're not serious.”

 

“We are serious,” Mulder piped up. “Your disappearance for several weeks had both sides of the Neutral Zone screaming at each other. It also doesn't help your position that Admiral Coyote mutinied and hijacked her entire task force when orders redeploying it came in.

 

“Agent Harmon, from Intelligence, has also shown us a particular 'ghost' file that was residing in your mail inbox, Commander. Headers indicate it was transmitted from a secure terminal aboard the Revenge. Now, we could refer you to the witch hunters in TempCorps...”

 

“Agent Mulder,” Audraya growled, “if this is going to be an interrogation instead of a debrief, then I invoke my rights under Article 31 of the Starfleet Code of Military Justice^•. I will not answer your questioning without a member from the JAG Corps or my commanding officers present.”

 

“Commander, please answer...”

 

“Major,” she stood. “I am the executive officer of this ship, and a full Commander. Therefore, I outrank you, and I no longer need to conduct this interview. Now, get the hell out of my office and off my ship. Both of you.”

 

Scully stood, dragging Mulder up by his arm. “Our apologies,” she said. “We'll continue this debrief at a time when you've had a chance to settle down and relax. Without turning it into an interrogation.”

 

Out in the corridor, after the door closed Scully looked at her partner. “Way to go, Fox. You just had to turn it into an interrogation. I doubt she'll was to talk or even work with us again.”

 

“Yeah well, you know, the truth is out there.”

 

She smacked him on the back of his head. “Forget about that, Fox. Now we need her, for an upcoming mission. But your alienation of her wasn't the greatest. I'll have to talk to her...offline.”

 

“What do you plan on doing?”

 

“That, my dear Mulder, is a secret."

 

 

•Article 31, UCMJ (Ported over into the Starfleet Code of Military Justice) states:

(a) No person subject to this chapter may compel any person to incriminate himself or to answer any questions the answer to which may tend to incriminate him.

No person subject to this chapter may interrogate, or request any statement from an accused or a person suspected of an offense without first informing him of the nature of the accusation and advising him that he does not have to make any statement regarding the offense of which he is accused or suspected and that any statement made by him may be used as evidence against him in a trial by court-martial.

[c] No person subject to this chapter may compel any person to make a statement or produce evidence before any military tribunal if the statement or evidence in not material to the issue and may tend to degrade him.

(d) No statement obtained from any person in violation of this article, or through the use of coercion, unlawful influence, or unlawful inducement may be received in evidence against him in a trial by court-martial.