Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Part 6 - Information Exchanges

"All hands, this is the captain," announced Jonathan. "I think some of you have an idea of what I'm going to be talking about. Certainly the people who were directly involved know about this, and have probably been bracing themselves. But one of them said it was like tearing off a bandage quickly. I guess I'm about to do that."

He paused to collect himself. "We have been reviewing that database. And it's not all sunshine and roses. There were several occasions where various members of the crew misbehaved. Some were more serious than others. But they are a matter of public record, and we are quite certain that a lot of that information is lurking in various personal logs. Rather than make everyone piece everything together, we would like to tell you everything that happened. First, I'd like to start with Crewman Sloane."

He went on for a while, talking about her insubordination and then her part in the riot and, finally, her 'business'. "It was, I am certain, not something that Crewman Sloane was proud of at the time. I'm sure she feels pretty badly about it now. But I hope that the crew can be kind to her. These things can happen when people are depressed, and feel they are being pushed to their extreme limits."

=/\=

Sandra was in the Observation Lounge, listening with a lot of other people. Sophie Creighton put an arm on her shoulder. "You did some bad things, but I bet we all did," she said.

"Are we still friends?" Sandra asked nervously.

"Of course."

=/\=

The captain went on some more. "And now for the trial. This is an unpleasant chapter in the other NX-01's history. But they shared it with us, warts and all. I'm sure that they felt we could learn something from it. They did not hold back. They did not censor the information, so far as I can tell. And they had no motivation to lie to us. If anything, they would have had a motivation to retract and redact a lot of this information. But they didn't. I have to believe that this information is correct and complete. And so I will tell you about the sexual assault that was perpetrated on Crewman Patti Socorro, and its aftermath."

=/\=

In Navigation, Patti sat with Felicity Reese. "It was in my personal logs," Patti said, "but that doesn't make it any easier to hear about it. I dunno if I can talk to those guys, or spend time with them, or anything."

"I'm not saying that you should give them all free passes and clean slates," Felicity said, "but maybe you can look at them individually, and make your best judgments. If you never wanna talk to any of them again, well, I get the feeling they're gonna understand that. But maybe listen to the information before making a final determination, okay?"

=/\=

When the captain finally finished talking about not only the trial but the eventual deaths of Chang, Curtis, Reed, Hamboyan, Harris and Ketchum during the attempt to retrieve Curtis and Chang, he paused. "I know how shocking all of this is. But I think we'd hardly have complete information if it was all positive. A lot of it was positive, you know. But this was not so much. We have a chance here, all of us. Our chance is to make it all better than it was. I can't say whether we will be able to get a planet or two for agriculture. I hope we can. I can't say whether we'll again be able to pick up Ikaaran women to become brides. I definitely have a vested interest in that. I can't say whether this ship will make it back to 2154, but I think we'll all give it the old college try. Together, we will all do what we can. I have faith in all of you – even in the people who I have some rather serious and disturbing records about. They, too, deserve chances and the ways and means of proving themselves. Let's get to our destination – 2154 – together, with as clean a slate as possible. Thank you."