Questions and Answers "
By: Patia Zoei, Chief Counselor, [PC]
Matthew Mason, Prisoner, [RNPC]
Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]
Ian Hunter, Commanding Officer, [PC]
Alyssa Northop , Chief Intel officer , [NPC]

Stardate: 58205.25 1845

Captain Hunter and Doctor Dane entered Sickbay together making small talk. A few minutes later Northrop arrived.

Hunter greeted Northrop and then cut to business,"Were you able to find any of Atwood's logs," he asked.

She held up the PADD that contained the sensor logs and all the other information Tapert had found for her. "Yes, Sir....we've got it. Though I still have my reservations about him."

"Very good."

Hunter, Dane and Northrop entered the sickbay conference room where Jarvis and Zoei were already seated.

"Before we start, I want to remind everyone to be objective. We need to assess if he is a threat to the Alliance or if he could become an ally."

Looking around, it appeared everyone was in agreement.

"Let's bring him in." said Hunter with a gesture.

Jarvis nodded at the security officer standing guard at the door. He returned a few minutes later with Mason.

Hunter gestured to a vacant chair, "Please, have a seat."

"Thank you sir," said Mason as he sat down. He surveyed the room. The faces before him showed no emotion. Mason folded his hands in his lap.

Hunter nodded at Yeoman Yates, "begin recording," he said as he stood and announced, "I'm convening on this day, May 25 in the year 2382 a formal hearing into the matter of granting temporary asylum to Prisoner Matthew Mason, currently in custody of the USS Zion's security department. We will hear testimony from Mason as to why he should be granted this request and supporting testimony. I will announce my decision tomorrow morning." Hunter looked around at everyone and then sat down.

Hunter turned to look at Mason, "Please state your name for the record."

Mason surveyed the people in the room. "Matthew Mason," he said.

"In swear and testify you here of your own free will?"

"I am sir," said Mason.

Do you swear and testify that everything you say is true?"

"To the best of my knowledge, everything that I tell you today is the truth," he said.

"Please, then," said Hunter, "tell everyone why you seek asylum."

Mason cleared his throat, "I do not seek asylum, this implies that I need to be protected from the Federation, I do not, I seek to join the Maquis Alliance. I want to fight with the Maquis against those who I once served."

Hunter leaned back, "Now enlighten us as to why this should be granted."

"Since this civil war began, the Federation has told us what horrible butchers the Maquis are. How else do you think they get anyone to fight for them. Up until I was captured I believed as everyone else on the Lynx that we were fighting for a just cause." Mason paused, he looked around the room. "With the exception, of your former intelligence officer I have been treated well and have not been abused, even more importantly, I have come to know some of you," Mason paused and looked at Zoei and Dane, "I cannot bring myself to fight against you further knowing you as I do now, and also knowing that while the Maquis did not abuse me my own alies did not hesitate to do so."

Mason took a breath, "After I was transported from sickbay after killing the Cardiasian who was about to hard your counselor, I found myself running for my life. My own allies beat and tortured me and then for their amusement, they gave me a few minutes head start then they hunted me like some wild animal." Mason paused, his face was pale and his eye seemed lost in the past. "The events of the prisoner revolt opened my eyes to the terrible thing that the Federation has become."

Mason felt sick to his stomach. If I had only listened to Mara, he thought, I would not be here now. "I know, some of you think I am just out to save my ass," he looked at Northrop, "And I would be lying if I said that had nothing to do with it, however, it is not my soul motivation in this case. I am positive that if given a chance, I can prove myself useful."

Hunter turned to Zoei, "I have no further questions at this time, Counselor?"

Zoei felt queasy. The emotions coursing through Mason were temptuous and the visions of the beatings which had taken place were brutal. Her eyes narrowed marginally. "Mr. Mason, do you have any other motivations to be on the side of the Maquis as opposed to rejoining the Federation?"

"I'm not sure what you mean," he stalled. Did she know about Mara. She couldn't.

Zoei nodded. "Yes, you do."

Mason's eyes got wide, she was a betazoid, "Mara," he said.

Zoei nodded again, eyes locked on Mason. She waited patiently for him to elaborate.

Mason had no choice, "My wife," he said, sadness filling his eyes, "When the war began she wanted to run to a neutral planet," he said, "I should have listened to her, she was right." Mason looked at the Zoei and continued, "When I refused to go, she took our daughter Abby and left. I have not seen them since. I hope to find her."

Mason turned to face Northrop, anticipating her skepticism, "You can verify my story easy enough," he said to her, "About ten or eleven years ago she was part of a research team that discovered the remains of an ancient civilization on Seltira IV. It was published in the Federation Journal of Archeology." He sighed, "Her name is Mara St. Claire." Mason sighed again, "I suppose that would not be standard reading material on a ship like this, would it?"

Hunter raised an eyebrow and pivoted his chair to face Northrop, "Chief?"

"No...it wouldn't be here on the Zion. But it was required reading when I was attending Yale, Oxford and Harvard. You see Mr. Mason, before I joined the Maquis, I was an Archeologist myself. Yes...I know of Mara St. Claire. I even met her once....when she lectured at Harvard about 9 years ago."

Mason smiled. Remembering a much happier time.

What he'd said about Dr. St. Claire was technically accurate. Soon after that lecture, the woman had vanished. Well...apparently she'd been hiding out here for nearly a decade. Thinking back on what she knew of Mara St. Claire....she did remember that she had a husband....and that the man had been in Starfleet. But she couldn't remember his name. That would be easy enough to track down, she supposed.

Anyway, that didn't matter just now. She had a couple questions for this man. Thoughts of what Maxine had termed "stealth-code" floating around her head. "Captain...if I may?"

Hunter nodded.

"Mr. Mason....Have you ever been a part of any special assignments? Perhaps to Cardassian bases? Do you have any memories that seem overly fuzzy to you? Like you know what happened...but can't recall the exact details?"

"I have not been on any Cardassian bases," he said, "and my memory is clear."

"Moving on....you were the Tactical Officer aboard the US Lynx. How long have you been a Tactical Officer?"

"At the beginning of the war I was in security, but transferred to tactical about 5 years ago to tactical because we were short handed at that position," Mason regarded the intel officer, unable to read any emotion on her face.

"Ok....and in all that time...was it common practice of Starfleet to keep it's Tactical Officers in the dark about fleet movements?"

"Shortly after the war began the Federation began partitioning it's battle groups," he explained, "We were given only the information that was necessary to meet out objective. Starfleet Command has become quite secretive in the past nine years."

"Now, I'm not going to lie to you. I came aboard the Zion just after your capture...but I read several reports on the engagement between your Battle Group and the Maquis Ships Zion and Atlanta. Neither ship seemed to take much damage....which makes me wonder, is the Federation simply using incompetent officers....or is the Federation starting to 'throw' engagements? Perhaps that entire episode was simply an excuse to get you here? Other wise...how could an entire Joint Cardassian/Starfleet Battle Group be defeated so easily?"

Mason managed a laugh, "the Lynx was the most experienced of the ships, at least in the experience of her Captain. Perhaps your report noted that the USS Bezar was an Excelsior-B Class ship. DO you have any idea how old that ship was? It was held together by spit and determination. It was supposed to be conducting a cadet training mission not fighting in combat."

Mason paused to pour himself a glass of water from a pitcher that sat on the table in front of him. After a quick drink he continued, "If you had captured the Bezar instead of destroying it you would have been shocked. The Captain was barely out of diapers," he said with disgust, "a good portion of the crew compliment were cadets."

"In the case of the Lynx," Mason continued, "Many of my crewmates were tired of fighting, they turned on the Captain and when the Maquis came on board, they chose to help the Maquis." Mason looked at Northrop, "I guess to answer your question, you had an easy time defeating our battle group because we were either too in-experienced, or too tired to put up a good fight"

Hunter looked at Dane, "Doctor, do you have any questions?"

"Mason, why did you save us," Teilani asked. "You could have easily let the Cardassian have their way with us. You wouldn't have to run for your life then?"

Mason looked at the doctor, "To be real honest, I do not care for cardassians all that much," he said, "His intentions were clear to me, and I had to stop him. I remember thinking, what if it were Mara in this turbolift instead of the counselor?" Mason glanced quickly in the direction of the counselor, "It just wasn't right, I knew I had to stop him, so I did."

Hunter turned to Jarvis, "Lt Jarvis, do you have any questions?"

Melissa fixed him with a stare, "Mr. Mason, you expect us to believe you, however, one of the first actions you did after getting to sickbay that day was assault a senior officer of this crew," said Melissa referring to Atwood, "These are not noble actions, how do you account for yourself."

This was the one question Mason was afraid of. He had responded to Atwood with a great deal of pent up rage because of the manner in which Atwood had treated him in their first interview. At that to the manner in which he was treating the sickbay staff; Mason had just snapped. Still, Mason could not deny that he had been wrong to attack Atwood. "I was wrong in doing that. I can give no excuse because there are none, however, I do have a reason."

Melissa waited for him to continue.

"He was the person who initially interviewed me. He was a very nasty person, and in the end he forced me to admit I was a spy, even though I told him I was not. Anyways, when he came into sickbay and started being a jerk to everyone, I just snapped and went off on him."

"You say Atwood forced you to admit you were a spy," said Melissa with and arched eyebrow, "How?"

Hunter interrupted her, "I understand Tapert and Northrop were able to recover some of the original interview. Let's look at it."

Melissa watched the video, and she could hardly believe what she saw. She just shook her head as she watched Atwood abuse the bound Mason. When Charles used a ceremonial klingon painstik on Mason her shock turned to anger. This was supposed to be used when in conjunction with the Klingon Age of Ascension ritual, Charles has used it in a dishonorable manner. She hoped she would get to speak to him again about this someday.

"It was not only the abuse which drove Mason over the edge Sir," Teilani said softly. Atwood also ignored my orders and started to pull rank on me, preventing me to do my job.

Hunter rolled a stylus between his thumb and his fingers. He recalled a report to that effect. Turning again to Melissa, "I find this disturbing. Please do a full report. Any other questions or concerns for Mason?" Hunter gestured toward him.

"Mr. Mason," said Melissa, "Your cause would be helped if you could give us something useful in our battle with the Federation."

"The cardassian's have the ability to cloak their ships," he said.

Melissa fixed Mason with a stern look, "That is not new news Mr. Mason. We already know that."

Mason smiled, "Did you also know that in their haste to get it into production, he installed a flawed cloak. It does not properly mask their warp signature. You can configure a tactical sensor panel to detect the very weak signature."

Hunter smiled. A tactical advantage would definitely help sway his decision. "Does anyone else have any questions for Mr. Mason at this time?" He looked around the room. It was quiet. He stood up and announced, "This session will reconvene tomorrow morning at 0800. Meanwhile Mr. Mason will furnish the technical data to Westfall. Have Westfall report to me as soon as the information is assimilated." Hunter nodded, "Dismissed"