Stardate 2393.8: As Una Chin-Riley's trial approaches, Starfleet offers her a deal: She will be released if she agrees to a dishonorable dismissal and remains silent about the affair. Meanwhile in the Vaultera Nebula, captain Pike persuades the Illyrian lawyer and civil rights activist Neera Ketoul to take over her childhood friend's case. At Una's request, Neera declines the deal and prepares her defense. Captain Batel, who works for the prosecution, reads out the extended charges. Una now faces dishonorable dismissal and 20 years in prison for submitting false information, for bioengineering and for sedition. On the first day of the trial, Neera calls Admiral April to the witness stand, ostensibly as a character witness. But then she turns his testimony against him and Starfleet. Una knows that Neera does not like Starfleet, and she is upset that her friend uses the trial as a platform for her activism. After La'an, Spock and M'Benga have testified on the next day, Una herself is called to the witness stand. She recounts her childhood in the Vaultera Nebula colony that had just been admitted to the Federation, but under the condition that genetic engineering ceased. Her family gave her the treatment nonetheless because it was a tradition. Genetically enhanced Illyrians were arrested. Her family concealed Una's true nature, and she almost died when her broken leg was infected and couldn't be treated in an official hospital. Una says that she admired Starfleet since her childhood, and saw it as a way to escape from her miserable life. She also admits that no one else reported her but that she did it herself, in order for the truth to be finally known. Vulcan Prosecutor Pasalk inquires since when Captain Pike knew that Una was an Illyrian. Under oath, she admits it was four months ago, well before she turned herself in. Now the case seems lost for her, and may even end Pike's career as well. But Neera asks Captain Batel to read out Starfleet Code 8514, which grants every person, who is being oppressed, asylum by Starfleet, and which requires the discretion of a Starfleet captain. All these conditions are formally fulfilled in Una's case. The court grants Una asylum under this law and reinstates her.

• E01 Previous
• E03 Next