In Between Days {Star Trek Enterprise fan fiction}

Shell Shock (Chapter 4)

It was a night filled with fitful, uneasy dreams. Once again, the same crewman was split in half, and then the protestors from the 602 Club were rent in two and then Dash Nolan and Captain Archer and all sorts of people. Malcolm sat up, bolt upright in the middle of the night, exhausted and troubled. 

Malcolm knew he had the means to contact Lili if he wanted to. But it still felt odd. He didn't want to overly involve her and didn't want to worry her. He just sent a quick PADD message the following morning – I am not out of the woods yet, but my attorney has an idea. 

Lili fretted, out there on Lafa II, but there was nothing she could do about it. She threw herself into caring for her children and tried not to think about things. 

The morning was late and Malcolm finally got out of bed when sunlight crept into the window and crossed his face. He checked – it was after 0900 hours. He didn't have a PADD message or anything, so he got himself to the Mess and hoped he'd have some sort of an appetite. He saw Chang, Curtis and Kastle, but they were all with their lawyers, so he didn't want to intrude. 

=/\= 

Dan Chang's lawyer, a woman, said to him quietly, "They're going to start going after reputations." 

"Don't I get a trial?" asked the private. 

"You haven't even been arrested yet," she said, "this is all preliminary. See, it's the nature of the weird beast that is Starfleet venue. We don't exactly help the police, but we also don't want them coming around and disrupting operations and just arresting anyone. That's why we've been going through this little dance. Essentially, we're thinning the herd for them." 

"And then the finger will get pointed at just one guy, eh?" 

"Not necessarily," she said, "we can and have gotten the finger pointing down to no one. But I need your help. You have got to work with me." She fiddled with her PADD in order to bring up his records. "It says here that you used to be a Corporal. But your current uni is for a Private." 

"Yeah." 

"And?" 

"And there's not a lot to tell. The old Major, Hayes, he was a hothead. He busted me two grades. It was early in 2154, during the Xindi War." 

"According to the records," she said, "that's not how it happened. According to your personnel record, you were AWOL and sexually harassing two of the women on the ship – sous-chef Ensign Lili O'Day and engineering Ensign Jennifer Crossman. And in the six years since then, you've gotten some commendations, but those were only for being a part of a team. You don't seem to have gotten any more individual contributor commendations." 

"Does that make me guilty?" 

"No," she said, "but it makes you suspicious. And you get suspicious enough; it magically converts into probable cause to arrest." 

"It's ancient history, and the guy is dead anyway." 

"That doesn't mean they won't bring it up," she replied. 

=/\= 

Curtis and Kastle also spoke with their attorneys, but their conversations weren't quite as urgent. Like most people, they had both positive and negative entries in their personnel files, but nothing as positive – or as negative – as Chang had. 

Kelby was in his room, talking to his own lawyer. He also had a disciplinary action on his record. "Nothing is ever easy," his lawyer muttered, shaking his head. 

=/\= 

Fresh from court, Dash was beamed to the Enterprise. "I hate that thing," he said of the transporter as José Torres, the engineer in charge, greeted him.