Hale nodded to the door attendant. “We are ready for Lieutenant Hollis.”
Lieutenant Hollis entered with a man at his side.
The man wore a civilian suit, dark, conservative, unremarkable in the way meant to reassure. He carried a leather folder and moved with practiced ease, pulling out the chair beside Hollis and setting his materials on the table as if this were a conference room, not a reckoning.
Captain Hale didn’t react.
“Lieutenant Hollis,” Hale said evenly. “State your name and position for the record.”
“Lieutenant Carson James Hollis,” he replied. “Sailing instructor, United States Naval Academy.”
Hale’s gaze shifted briefly. “And your counsel?”
“Yes, sir,” Hollis said. “Lieutenant Commander Mark Ellis, JAG Corps. He’s here to advise me.”
“You mean to observe.” It was so quiet in the room, Fly swore he could hear a pin drop.
Hollis cleared his throat. “Yes, correct. I misspoke, sir.”
Hale nodded. “Lieutenant Hollis,” he continued, “you have reviewed Midshipman Gallagher’s sworn statement?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you dispute its accuracy?”
Hollis hesitated, just long enough to be noticed. His attorney leaned in slightly, murmured something under his breath.
Hollis cleared his throat. “I dispute portions of the interpretation,” he said carefully. “Not the sequence of events as a whole.”
Hale made a small note.
“Explain.”
Hollis shifted in his chair. “Conditions were within acceptable limits for competitive sailing. We’d seen gusts before. Nothing that warranted aborting the leg.”
“Did Midshipman Gallagher raise safety concerns?” Commander Jensen asked.
Hollis frowned. “He may have expressed concern. I don’t recall the warnings with the level of specificity he’s described.”
Another pause. Another quiet whisper from counsel.
“Did you hear the words ‘we are not safe’?” Professor Locke asked.
Hollis’s jaw tightened. “I can’t say that I did, ma’am.”
“Multiple midshipmen recall those words clearly,” Hale said, voice still neutral. “Can you explain that discrepancy?”
Hollis glanced sideways. His attorney shook his head almost imperceptibly.
“I can only speak to what I heard,” Hollis said. “In my assessment, the midshipman overreacted.”
“Overreacted? Can you expand on that.”
“Some sailors…when they’re put into pressure situations, don’t handle it well.”
Fly clenched his jaw. Hollis was using tame words but essentially calling him a coward and endangering the crew to boot.
There was a shift then in the air around the table. The patience thinning. The tolerance narrowing.
