Posted by Lieutenant Commander Peter Sigmundsson (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Court Martial of Peter Sigmundsson

Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Court Martial of Peter Sigmundsson

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Peter Sigmundsson (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Court Martial of Peter Sigmundsson
Posted by… suppressed (11) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The courtroom felt pristine and clinical but also familiar and safe. The cases were being tried in one of the small diplomatic rooms on the ship. This made it feel familiar to those from the USS Atlantis with its familiar furniture and decor. What made it feel antiseptic was the arrangement of the room. A large table sat along the left wall with five chairs filled with five Admirals occupying the spot a jury normally sat. The accused sat in a chair perpendicular to the Admirals and facing McDevitt along with the opposing counsel James Hudson. There were no other seats in the makeshift courtroom which was by design. This was not going to be a spectacle. Starfleet wanted the trials over and done with minimal disruptions.

Peter arrived with his counsel fifteen minutes before the designated time. He wore his dress uniform, an older design with the gold trims of his department’s colours. On his broad chest, he had the salad dressing that protocol demanded, citations, awards and medals most of which were from the Dominion War. The oldest was a service medal given to those who took part in the Battle of Sector 001. He had a few other Service medals from the Liberation of Betazed, the Second Battle of Chin’Toka and some other less recognizable fronts. He also possessed the Grankite Order of Tactics, The Karagite Order of Heroism, Citation for Conspicuous Gallantry and the Star Cross.

The man with him was a tall thin human who looked to be in his late sixties. He wore a suit of Trill design clearly bespoke and carried an actual suitcase made of leather. The two men sat down, Peter placed his hands on the desk, interlocked his fingers and stared straight ahead unblinking. The man with him placed the suitcase on the desk, opened it removed a pad of physical paper and an ink pen and started writing something down.

“So Lt. Commander Sigmundsson, how long have you been a part of the crew of the USS Atlantis,” Hudson asked the man.

JAG lawyers

Peter blinked for the first time since arriving, looked at the Admiral then leaned to the man sitting next to him. The two exchanged a few hushed whispers then he leaned back and spoke “Since Stardate 22050.7, it will be two years in a few weeks” He answered simply.

CIO

“So how have you fit in with the crew so far? Things pleasant enough,” Hudson asked. He kept his tone neutral but leaning to the more friendly side. The charges against most of the crew were bogus and flimsy. The charges against Peter Sigmundsson had a lot more bite. Hudson chose his words carefully as if they were breadcrumbs to lead the accused down the trail he wanted him to go.

Hudson JAG

Again Peter leaned to his lawyer and the two exchanged a few words before Peter looked back at the Admiral, he considered a few approaches, perhaps coldly detached, charming and aloof, maybe arrogance would be better. “I fit in anywhere, Sir and I don’t find many things unpleasant” He gestured to the room “Even this is only mildly annoying” His expression hadn’t changed.

CIO

“So by fitting in do you mean due to your sparkling personality or your training because there is a difference. People fit in normally because they have a desire to fit in. They find something that appeals to them about a group and strive to become integral parts of that group.” Hudson paused for a moment before continuing. “You fit in very well with the Elder Novar did you not? Spent time with her…gained her trust. For the Federation or for sympathy of her cause.” Hudson let the CIO ponder the question.

Hudson JAG for the prosecution

For the third time, Peter leaned in towards his lawyer and the two exchanged a few whispered words. Peter leaned back and opened his mouth to speak but stopped and raised a finger to excuse himself then leaned back and whispered something, the older man looked at him sharply and frowned which the Intelligence officer smiled at then finally he leaned back up and answered “To your first statement, I’m not a psychologist and neither are you counsellor. The answer is both, I am exceptionally charming and personable and also expertly qualified.” He said with a straight face and a flat tone of voice. This exact phrase was in his personnel file at the moment but only because he’d called in a favour to have it added because it would be funny. Also, it was there to showcase that he could do things of that nature.

Hudson despised the calm, cool, collected demeanor of the man on trial. The charges held grave penalties. The Lt. Commander however was reacting as if it is was only a night in the brig if found guilty. The man’s record was pristine. Hudson would refer to him as the Teflon Commander if it would result in a contempt charge against the prosecution. He opened his mouth to speak but the slivered-tongued spy seemed to read the slight contraction of his lips and cut him off before a word could be announced.

He didn’t give the JAG officer time to rebuke him or answer “Jessa is a child who has been indoctrinated by a galaxy-spanning group of religious extremists that make Earth of Old look like it kindergarten. Despite that, she is still a young girl with very human pre-teenage tendencies and to boot possesses the guile of a Starfleet JAG officer” He said calmly “I proceeded with standard deprogramming designed for young humans, beginning with separating myself from other authority figures in her life. After that, I began treating her as I would an adult allowing her to feel seen and heard by a neutral party. After that, I began building a relationship of trust whilst simultaneously allowing her space to reveal information that she’d held back from others. I did so by allowing her to think that I was less observant than I am by not calling her out on her actions and also letting her think that she was manipulating me into letting her act. This was part of my report to Starfleet Intelligence”

He knew that the charge regarding Jessa was the flimsiest but espionage charges were bothersome to get rid of. The man sitting next to Peter finally stood up and cleared his throat “Johann Karlson for the defense” He said with an easy smile, he looked to be in his mid-sixties. “Unless the prosecution produces evidence to support this line of questioning I request that the charges in question be dropped. I’d also like to request that opposing counsel avoid testifying as he is neither a character witness nor an approved subject matter expert in humanoid relations” He spoke smoothly and politely and looked from each Admiral to the next, he stopped for a moment at Perkins and his smile seemed to turn knowing for a moment before moving on “My client has been charged with Disloyalty Statements but I have yet to see any proof in that direction and unless council thinks he’ll somehow use wordplay to get a confession. The most disloyal statement Commander Sigmundsson has said about Starfleet that I am aware of was complaining about the coffee at Starbase 13”

CIO & Johann Karlson

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“Sure we can change topics,” Hudson stated. “The interactions with the Terrorist Novar and her compatriots was not the first time the Lt. Commander made disingenuous statements against the Federation.” Walking over to a Padd on his desk, Hudson picked it up and began reading off some vague information. The information he had received had been delivered in an untraceable account. It would be conjecture or hearsay however Admiral Perkins had reviewed it and deemed it admissible in the trial. The charges were flimsy so anything that might help his case, Hudson would use.

Johann bowed formally, right leg scraping back, right hand on his stomach and left hand reaching out, it could be construed as mocking but it was done with such elegance and practice that it seemed natural for the elderly man. He sat back down and went back to seeming like he wasn’t paying attention.

“You had a break in your career with the Federation did you not?” It was a semi-rhetorical question. There was a period of time when Peter had been away from the Starfleet after the war. He also walked right back into Starfleet without what appeared as a thought or question as to his absence.

“I resigned my commission after the Dominion War like many others at the time. I didn’t join Starfleet to become a soldier” Peter said simply, the first time he’d spoken without whispering an exchange with his lawyer. “I also temporarily resigned my commission in 2389” He added.

“Tell me what you did in that time. Employment wise,” Hudson added to focus the question. The line between a privateer and merchant could be paper thin on the edges of Federation space. It was time to see if Peter would volunteer the information about that time period of it Hudson was going to have to rip it out of him.

Hudson JAG

Peter suppressed a smile, he’d looked forward to this part, it always came up whenever people tried to investigate him, be it internal affairs, SI, or in this case a JAG prosecutor. “Oh sure, for the first few weeks after I retired I did some odd jobs for civilian transports, colony hopping. During that time I got in contact with a civilian cargo ship Captain named Mongul, not his real name never did manage to discover that” He added with a frown, it was clear he considered that a personal affront to his skills that he couldn’t discover that even with Starfleet Intelligence resources “We first met on a bar on a Space station in the Cygnus Sector, this was just before the Borg attack on Earth in ‘73. I stopped a fight between him and several belligerent and drunk Nausicaans. When I retired he reached out and offered me a job, Security Chief on his ship the Tranquility, an older Civilian Cargo freighter, nearly a century old when I joined, Andorian Design.”

Peter was talking a lot more now, the more information he volunteered the easier it would be to slip in lies when necessary, the best way to lie was to hide it in enough truth especially when there wasn’t a way to verify what you were saying “I worked security there for three years until the old man, that is Captain Mongul retired, he left the ship to me and I captained her for seven years. We mostly did cargo transfers with the occasional passenger trips, we mostly did border crossings between us and the Kingons and to places like Freecloud or the Qiris sector, places close to the Federation.”

CIO

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