To Prosecute? Or Not To Prosecute?

Posted on Thu Aug 20th, 2015 @ 5:52pm by Lieutenant Commander Nicolao & Lieutenant Raymond Benson & Lieutenant Bajun Julisa & Chief Petty Officer Siri & Senior Chief Petty Officer Chelsea May

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: JAG Offices

* JAG Offices *

The console on Chelsea’s desk beeped, indicating an incoming report. The morning so far had been quiet and so, she opened the report and gave it a quick scan. Then she gasped and began to reread it slowly.

“Oh my god, Siri...come look at this!” She motioned the Bolian over. “I think the calm is over.”

Siri trotted over to Chelsea's desk and looked at what was on her screen. Skimming it, she frowned. "Oh my. That doesn't seem real!"

Chelsea shrugged. “Surely someone wouldn’t make up something like this?” She closed the report and pressed her desk panel. “Better get your crash helmet, I sent it in.”

"Oh, this'll be good!" Siri hurried back to her desk and waited.

In his office, Ray was sailing through routine paperwork and singing a rather lewd song...something about liking big butts and not lying about it. When his terminal beeped, he reached for it and pulled up whatever was coming in. A few minutes later, he turned his attention to the screen and began to read. A moment later, the song died on his lips.

“Alright, who’s the wise guy?” he yelled out to Chelsea and Siri. “I’ll give them some for creativity but this shit isn’t funny. Girls! Get in here!”

With a sigh of resignation, Chelsea stood, waited for Siri to join her, then stepped into the office.

Siri went in with Chelsea. Because she was accustomed to handling Julisa, she spoke up, "We didn't do it. Lt. Darwin wrote the report."

“So Darwin’s the joker, huh? Is he that bored that he would --” Ray stopped mid-sentence as he saw another name in the report. Gilroy. “Oh Shit. Gilroy is in charge of this investigation? That man has no sense of humour that he is aware of. He wouldn’t be part of such a preposterous prank...which means…” He looked back at the two women. “Oh my god. Siri, get Julisa in here. Now!”

She did, hurrying to Julisa's office and bringing her back.

"What!? I have a motion to get done. I don't have time for an office meeting," the attorney griped. "Ray, what's with the hijacking?"

He turned his terminal around and then pointed to the seat by his desk. “Get a load of this.”

Julisa shot him a glare before sitting and scrolling through the report. She just skimmed it then said, "So? A science guy goes nuts and stabs a fellow, well, former, scientist."

“She is one of his best friends,” Chelsea piped up. “They hang out together all the time.”

Ray glanced at her a moment, then nodded. “And he did it in front of the security officer who was walking with her. Gil seems to think there’s more at work here...that somebody was messing with his mind. This is the same officer who was yanked out of his quarters by one of the recent rifts. Any of this piquing your interest yet? Did I mention he’s Betazoid?”

"And he's dating an Orion who is also dating Niro," Siri added in.

Julisa's head snapped up so she could see Siri. "How do you know that?"

The Bolian smirked. "Funny thing there. Folks in Saturnalia tend not to care about or notice round blue girls. But they do like to run their mouths."

"Uh-huh," Julisa nodded, taking note that her assistant was scary smart sometimes. "I'm interested, Ray."

“Good. I think your telepathy may be essential here. Nico’s assisting on this so he’s first up to see. According to this, he was there when Gilroy questioned Riley earlier.” He rubbed his hand over his face. “Did someone put a crazy pill in the water system?”

Julisa tapped in a quick order and forwarded the file to her queue. "Seems more like we have someone going around messing with people's heads." She wondered how Niro fit into this, if he did. She'd seen his talent with other people's brains at work before. "I'll talk with Niro," she said, meaning Nico.

Ray raised his eyebrows. “Niro? What’s he got to do with Riley? Other than trying to snake his woman?” Ray asked.

"Niro?" Julisa looked at Ray then Siri.

"You said Niro. You meant Nico, right?", Siri prompted her.

"Oh, oh, yeah, I meant Nico. Sorry." Julisa shrugged.

“Umm...sure.” Ray watched her a moment and laughed. “Just keep me in the loop. I want to know what the hell is going on here. This kid Riley is like the buddha of the station but then again...my mother always said to watch out for the quiet ones. There was this fellow where I grew up who killed his wife one evening just because she served him spaghetti for dinner. After thirty-five years together.” He shrugged. “Weird.”

"Very," Julisa nodded, troubled by that story. She'd heard variations of it before. "I'm off to get to work on that and some other things. Siri, set up a time with Nico, please." She left Ray's office.

Siri smiled at Ray and followed her out.

Ray watched them go, then looked back at Chelsea, who seemed more than a little shocked. “What?”

“That story,” she answered, and shivered. “That’s horrible.”

Ray shrugged again. “You think that’s bad, I knew this one guy….”

“Enough!” She stood and scurried out of the room.

* * *

Nico had been elbow-deep in the report on his visit with Riley when Julisa’s call came. This report was especially difficult and he was glad of the distraction. He groaned aloud and the sound brought Leto peeking in. “Trouble?”

“Just working on Riley.” He pushed the padd away. “I need to go down to JAG and see Julisa. I’ll be back.”

“Have fun.” She smiled as Nico slipped past her. “Let me know how it goes.”

* Julisa’s Office *

When Nico arrived, he stepped in and moved to Siri’s desk. “Julisa called?”

"Yep. Actually, I did, but she's the attorney," Siri smiled and let Julisa know he was here. "Go on in, Nico."

As he entered her office, Julisa stood and greeted him, "Nico. This is an awful case. Gilroy told me you detected traces of someone messing with Riley's head?

“Yeah.” Nico dropped heavily into the chair in front of her desk. “When I got there earlier, he was just regaining consciousness. Apparently Bryce had to knock him out to stop him in the Arboretum. He was screaming and yelling and struggling to the point they had to medicate him to calm him down. Awful...is right. His head’s a mess.”

Julisa frowned and played with a stylus on her desk, uncertain about how Nico would take her next question. "Would Niro do this for some reason? Are you aware he and Riley are dating the same girl?"

Nico nodded. “I’ve heard.” He frowned, considering, then shook his head. “No. There’s not much he won’t do but this? This is too much effort. If he wanted Riley out of the picture with Reva, he’d just tinker in Reva’s head, make her forget she ever was interested in Riley and be done with it. Why pull Six in at all? Niro also knows that I could d it out of his mind in a second so there’s no way he could hide it.”

"So the likely cause really is Riley's involvement in this Iconian slab research," she surmised. "We have a prisoner... or did, related to that." She pulled up a file and winced. "He was killed. In a Brig cell." Her tone was skeptical. "I'll follow up on that later. Tell me what his programming was."

“When I first saw Riley after he was returned from Archadia, I found an artificial block in his memory, put there on purpose. Reva described it as a black hole, but I was able to see beyond it somewhat. It was a memory of Riley in a cell somewhere, being questioned. They were interested in some coordinates, but he seemed not to know. That’s all that was there, and I was concerned that if there was more, it was planted in such a way as to be...incomplete and thus untraceable.” Nico frowned a moment. “It’s a tactic used often in undercover operatives. Parts of the program are implanted and when the agent encounters a specific stimulus, it all comes together and initiates. It’s a way of safeguarding those in the field in case of capture. That appears to be what was done with Riley.”

"What was his trigger, do you know?" She was taking notes and had her head down.

“He said, and this is a quote, ‘I was supposed to break up with Reva, go see Six. She’s my best friend, she would comfort me and then I had to kill her’. He also said that after that, he was supposed to confess so that we would put him away. As I said to Gilroy, someone knew way too much about his personal life.” Nico shook his head. “Hideous, even by the standards I am used to, but a neat way to sideline the two people working on that Iconian project, as you said.”

"By the Prophets, that's sick." She turned her console and started a search then frowned. "Lt. Tess Rutheridge and Ensign Ian Bren are working on that assignment now. No others are listed."

“Do you have any idea why Julian Crane might be a target?” Nico asked. “I found traces of a directive regarding him in Riley’s mind as well.”

"Oh, he'll be with the Colony folks on Cha'ru." She got it. "The device must be on the planet."

“Then I need to see Julian.” Nico shifted in his seat. “Are you going to see Riley? I recommended to Gilroy that he be put on suicide watch, either because of his mental state or in case whoever did this to him planted a kill switch. I didn’t find one but better safe than sorry.”

"I will. I want to see this myself. Perhaps we could avoid prosecuting him; we could put him in a psych ward." She just barely avoided saying, 'Like they did with you.'

“I asked Gil about that too.” Nico nodded. “At least till we figure this out. He will be more comfortable, if that matters, and the medical and counseling staff will be better able to monitor him. Is there anything else you need Julisa?”

"Not right now, Nico. If I do, I'll tell," she flashed him a quick smile.

“Sure.” He rose from the chair and stepped back. “Call anytime.” He flashed her a quick smile and departed.

**********
SCPO Chelsea May
CPO Siri
Lt. Ray Benson
Lt. Bajun Julisa
Lt. Commander Nicolao