The room contained a desk, two chairs, a sideboard with a lighted indicator on the wall that had remained green ever since Mei-Lin had seated herself, and a large viewport that allowed her to see the central square of the colony. Outside, vendors from the various planets were beginning to unpack their wares; a Bolian was carefully placing items in neat rows and a young child was darting between the stands, shouting excitedly as its parent yelled after it. Just another ordinary Tuesday morning. And yet, no one outside of these walls could have imagined that she was sitting inside them.

Lieutenant Commander Harris sat across from her with his PADD open displaying her file. Since she had sat down, he had gazed at her file more than he had gazed at her.

"Ensign Zhao," he said. "Thank you for coming in today."

She hadn't had a choice about coming in. "Of course," she replied.

"This is just a preliminary review," Harris explained. "No decision has been made. Your presence here is simply part of our fact-gathering process." He placed his hands together on top of the desk. "Do you understand that?"

"I understand that," she replied.

"Please walk me through the events of the evening of Stardate 51847.3 using your own words," he asked.

She'd reviewed it all night since 0300. She knew precisely what she would say. At 0300 she'd also realized that accuracy wouldn't necessarily equal usefulness in this meeting.

"We all decided to go to the civilian settlement in the evening," she said. "That included myself, Lieutenant Okafor, Ensign Drescher, and two civilian contractors, Maren Solis and Dev Prasad. We went to a bar in the commercial area called the Anchor. We spent roughly two hours there."

"You were off-duty," Harris pointed out.

"Yes."

"Did some or all of your group engage in drinking?" Harris asked.

"Some of them did. I drank one drink over the course of two hours," she replied.

He scribbled down a few notes. She observed as he wrote.

"When did things start to happen?" Harris asked.

"Approximately 2130. Prasad got into a verbal argument with a group of local patrons at the next table. I don't know how it started. When I finally recognized it, it had escalated beyond mere arguing."

"Where were you when the physical altercation broke out?" Harris asked.

"I was standing at the bar. I'd gotten up to get water. As soon as I turned to look (I heard loud voices) it had already become violent."

"What did you do?" Harris asked.

"I assessed the situation" she said. "Prasad and one of the locals were already in physical contact. Okafor was attempting to pull Prasad away from the conflict. Drescher had stepped away from the table by then. Solis was positioned between two of the other locals with her hands held up to try and calm everyone down."

"And what about you?" Harris asked.

"I stayed where I was at the bar. I didn't interfere. I believed my best course of action was to call security, which I did."

Harris scribbled down a new note. She watched as his stylus moved and concluded that Harris' note wasn't based upon her analysis. His note was based upon the bar itself.

"You didn't intervene" Harris stated.

"I analyzed that intervening would not assist the situation," she replied. She heard it land poorly as she said it.

"Ensign Zhao" he said and something in his demeanor changed completely. He put down his PADD and met her gaze directly for the first time since they began interviewing each other. "Let me assure you that I am making certain you comprehend the entire scope of what we're talking about here." He pulled up a secondary file and angled his PADD toward her.

She read it.

The Medical Report was detailed enough so that even though she was an engineer, she didn't require medical experience to realize what she was reading. The first victim suffered a severely fractured orbital socket needing extensive reconstructive surgery; four fractured ribs of which two displaced and perforated his lungs; a fractured jaw; numerous cuts to his face and scalp requiring more than sixty sutures via a dermal regenerative device; and his hands were broken in multiple locations consistent with defensive wounds, which meant he was on the ground protecting himself from being struck again. The second victim was transported unconscious with significant cerebral hemorrhaging, bleeding within his brain and a fractured C6 vertebrae. He underwent surgery for six hours. His current status was medically-induced coma; prognosis uncertain.

She returned her attention to the tabletop and looked back at Harris.

"I believe I understand the picture," she replied. Her voice remained flat which required more effort than she anticipated.

"These are not injuries typical of a barroom brawl getting out of control," Harris said. "These are injuries typical of a prolonged, calculated attack. The people involved did not cease their actions once their opponent became incapacitated; they continued."

Mei-Lin considered the forty-five seconds. She reflected on everything occurring during those forty-five seconds that she couldn't witness because she'd been at the bar reaching for the comm console. She thought about the man who now lay in a medically-induced coma with a fractured neck vertebra and blood leaking onto his brain and she thought forty-five seconds is a very long amount of time...and a very brief period of time...depending on which direction you are viewing it from.