Where No Witch Has Gone Before

Chapter Five

"Ensign Llewellyn," Edmundsson's voice boomed over the intercom. "My office. Now."

Llewellyn closed her tricorder and scrambled back down the Jefferies tube, making her way to Engineering as quickly as possible.

Edmundsson was standing behind his desk, scowling. Pushkin was prowling back and forth in his office like a caged lioness. As soon as Llewellyn entered the room, Pushkin locked the door behind her.

"Sir?" Llewellyn asked as she stood at attention.

"What in the hell were you thinking, Ensign?" Pushkin roared in her face.

"About what?"

"Do not play innocent with me, Ensign. You know full well what I'm talking about. What made you think you could get away with visiting the prisoner last night, pouring truth serum down his throat, and conducting your own interrogation?"

Llewellyn's eyes darted briefly to Edmundsson, who simply raised his hands.

"I am asking you a question, Ensign. What. Were. You. Doing?"

"I had a couple of questions that I needed the answers to that had nothing to do with your investigation. Sir."

"Did you transfer to Security yesterday and no one bothered to tell me?"

"No, sir."

"That's right. You're an engineer. You have not been trained in how to conduct an investigation, and you have no way of knowing what is and is not relevant.

"You have tainted, you have invalidated everything we have found and neutralized every piece of evidence we have.

"And, frankly, I would like nothing more right now than you have you court-martialed. Can you give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw you in the brig, too?"

"Yes, sir. A couple, actually. One: as far as Ludd's motives and methods go, I wouldn't have learned anything that you wouldn't have figured out in your investigation. And two: being a witch, there might have been things he said that could have been rather important that wouldn't have meant anything to you."

"That doesn't matter, ved'ma! You knew that using Veritaserum was against regulations. And any defender worth his salt will argue that this wasn't the only time it was used, and have the whole case thrown out."

"I'm sorry," Llewellyn said quietly.

"I can't believe that, in your four years at the Academy, no one ever told you that dumping truth serum down a suspect's throat was a bad idea!"

Commander Edmundsson finally spoke. "Are you almost done, Lieutenant? I think she gets the point."

"Almost, Commander. I only have one or more two things.

"Ensign Llewellyn, we'll arrive at Starbase 15 in four days. I've spoken to Captain MacGregor, and when we arrive, we will hold a disciplinary hearing. Until then, you will be held in the brig, and you will surrender your wand."

Llewellyn looked like she was about to say something, but thought better of it and closed her mouth.

She pulled out her wand carefully and handed it to Pushkin, handle first. "Just be careful," she said softly, "and make sure nothing happens to it."

"It will be safely locked away, along with Ludd's," Pushkin said. She escorted Llewellyn to the brig and placed her in a cell, as far from Ludd as possible.

---

The next four days passed relatively painlessly for Llewellyn, aside from being locked in a cell twenty-four hours a day. Ensign Najm spent most of her off-duty time visiting to try to keep her spirits up; Najm even let her win a couple games of three-dimensional chess.