Forum:Riker and the Pegasus

Why was Riker not court-martialed for his involvement in the phase cloak cover-up? He stayed silent about the cloak until the Enterprise was facing destruction in the asteroid. At the least he should have been convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice and participating in an illegal experiment. The entire crew of the Pegasus knew about the cloaking device. Even with a plea bargain, Riker's career should have been wrecked since Starfleet Command could not trust him in the future to be truthful. In addition, Erik Pressman and the other high-ranking participants would use Riker as a convenient target to deflect blame from themselves. Syalantillesfel (talk) 04:14, August 16, 2012 (UTC)


 * Riker was going to provide information to the inquiry, maybe a deal was made. 31dot (talk) 10:10, August 16, 2012 (UTC)

Possible, but consider what happened to the cadets in "The First Duty" and Tom Paris. Confessing after the crime had being committed did not earn them a clean slate, instead they were either imprisoned, socially exiled, lost academic credits, or expelled. Red Squad only escaped an inquiry because they could claim that they were not in a position to question Leyton's orders. There is a difference between following a questionable order during the Dominion "Red" scare and covering-up a direct crime that severely violates regulations. Riker should have been forced to resign or banned from serving on starships. Plea bargains and deals only ensure a lower sentence or punishment. In addition, why did Picard trust Riker again? If Riker stayed silent about one crime for so long, then why risk having the incident occur again in the future? Syalantillesfel (talk) 03:59, August 17, 2012 (UTC)


 * This site is not big enough, to list the moral, legal and cultural infractions throughout all of the Series'. SWHouston (talk) 04:40, August 17, 2012 (UTC)


 * It's also not the purpose of this forum(anything beyond a simple answer, I mean). :) 31dot (talk) 09:17, August 17, 2012 (UTC)