by TJ Berry
“It’s fine. It’s not as if I can get very far in this grass. Did any of you ever hear of a lawnmower?” asked Jenny.
“I will personally take Captain Perata into custody at our jail,” said Gary. He stepped behind her to push through the weeds and she let him.
“You already have a jail?” she asked, tilting her head back to look up at him.
“First building we built,” said Gary
“My kind of planet,” said Jenny.
As they walked away, Bào realized he still hadn’t let go of Ricky’s arm. “I can’t believe it’s only been a few hours since we met in the medbay,” he said. “I didn’t mean to ruin your card game with my fake five unicorn flush.”
“Are you kidding? This is the best first date I’ve ever had,” said Ricky, looking at Bào for one extra second to see if he protested their evening being called a first date. Bào chuckled and leaned his head on Ricky’s shoulder.
“I need a nap. Besides being crushed by a necromancer and shot by a rogue cowboy, pretending to be twenty-two all day is exhausting,” said Bào.
“Too exhausted for a kiss to end our first date?” asked Ricky.
“That would be lovely,” said Bào with a smile.
The necromancer Bào Zhú would never have guessed that his evening would begin with unnecessary surgery and end with a kiss from the most intriguing person he had ever met. They kissed under the rosy pink sky of the planet lovingly named after Gary Cobalt’s mother until a shadow passed over them. Bào looked up into the face of the martial arts centaur.
“May I help you?” he asked.
“Just bored. There’s no TV here,” said Horm.
Ricky leaned toward the centaur. “Is there a decent bar on this planet yet?” she asked.
“Gods, no,” said the centaur. “And I’m dying for a drink.” Ricky took Bào’s arm on one side and reached up to take Horm’s arm on the other. “I’m Ricky, this is my boyfriend, Bào. Tell me about the local berries,” she said, walking them toward an empty grass plot on the outskirts of the settlement.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Space Unicorns
Though he had no real control over the fledgling judicial system on Anjali, Gary had requested the charges against Jenny be narrow and specific. It would have been easy for her to become the standin for all of humanity’s crimes against the Bala. He encouraged the hastily-assembled Investigating Committee to be as granular as possible; to limit their scope to a handful of the most damaging acts that would lead to a satisfactory accounting of her crimes.
In the end they had come up with two. The primary charge against her was the massacre and kidnapping of Bala at the Siege of Copernica Citadel, a battle in which she’d been lauded as a hero by the Reason. The second, which surprised him, was related to the detention of a sapient being – himself. He hadn’t expected his own ordeal to be adjudicated. In a way, he dreaded the detailed testimony he would be asked to give about his time as her captive.
In the absence of paper records and computer files, the Investigating Committee thought they would have to use witness statement and Jenny’s own testimony (which she had been all too willing to give) to compile the evidence. It wasn’t until someone sifting through the wreckage of the Kilonova found the data center floating in openspace that they realized they had a record of the entire history of the Reason, war crimes and all. The Siege of Copernica Citadel had been faithfully recorded in all its auditory and visual glory.
Gary sincerely hoped that they would never be required to play that file. It was bad enough to have to talk through the worst experience of one’s life, but to see it replayed in gory detail was too much to bear. He knew that firsthand because of what the Pymmie had done to him at the Century Summit, forcing everyone at the table to relive the horror of Cheryl Ann’s death.
It had been fifteen years since Copernica Citadel but the Bala justice system had no concept of a “statute of limitations.” There was no date at which trauma expired. No arbitrary number of years when a harm no longer mattered. No, the Bala allowed transgressions to be tried long after their best-by date. Unlike the Reason, which seemed focused on making sure perpetrators were never too inconvenienced by their crimes. Gary guessed that, in a society full of perpetrators, it benefitted everyone to ensure that no one was in too much jeopardy for their harmful behavior.
On the Bala planets, with their smatterings of immortal beings, and the ingredients for immortality often at hand, there was no point to restricting the timeline of the trial process. A crime could be adjudicated at any point during, or even after, the lifetime of the victim or the perpetrator. There were occasionally trials of fact held centuries after the original act had taken place. And the same matter could be retried multiple times in light of new information or changes in the public understanding of law.
One notorious murder case had been re-adjudicated nineteen times in the three thousand years following the original crime. New evidence had surfaced, as well as new witnesses. Some of those retrials had been initiated at the request of the killer herself, as popular sentiments toward mercy killings had turned in her favor. Unfortunately for her, none of the outcomes were substantively different, and the murderer had remained at the Abbey prison of the Sisters of the Supersymmetrical Axion for the last several centuries.
Gary had briefed Jenny on the history of Bala tribunals, and specifically war crime tribunals, so she would understand that all of her crimes against Bala, no matter how old or seemingly insignificant would be fair game for the tribunal. The trial would be overseen by the Consensus of Nine: a group of beings representing a cross section of Bala species. They would see the evidence, hear the testimony, and formulate a decision as to guilt or innocence, then hand down an appropriate consequence. In that way, they acted as both judge and jury.
Jenny rolled into the newly constructed courtroom in a fresh wooden wheelchair given to her by the dwarves of Anjali. This one had new carvings, representing a necromancer in a wheelchair tearing the Reason flag in two. It was clear whom the dwarves were rooting for. But they seemed torn over Boges’ actions. None of them wanted to talk to Gary about her actions.
Bào and Ricky huddled together whispering on a bench with two young human cadets from the Kilonova– a South Asian girl and a pale boy who never stopped staring at Bào. Kaila sat in the front row chewing her fronds anxiously. Gary took a spot against the wall near her and tried to offer a comforting smile. Kaila sighed in return, sending a cascade of dry leaves onto the floor.
The Consensus of Nine entered the room and took their spots behind a railing at the front of the room. Jenny wheeled to the table allocated for the accused. There were slates and writing stones stacked neatly on the table. It was odd, going through a sophisticated court proceeding with stone-age tools. Jenny fumbled her electronic tablet down onto the table. It echoed throughout the room. There was a hint of defiance in the way she sat back in her chair. If she dug in for a fight, this could take years.
Jenny would be permitted to submit any item, written or recorded, in her defense. She’d been offered an assistant, someone to help with procedure and developing her case, but she had declined, preferring to simply speak for herself. Gary suspected Kamis was offering advice to her as well. He hoped she wasn’t taking it.
Gary was supposed to sit at the testimony table to her right while he recounted the tortures visited upon him, but he walked toward her table instead. His status as a leader was not supposed to have a bearing on the outcome, but it surely would. No one was immune to admiration and the desire to protect those who were in power. It was second nature. Which meant that the Consensus of Nine were likely already biased against her. He would do whatever he could to ensure the trial was fair.
He stood beside her and waited until she looked up from her notes.
“Is this spot taken?” he asked. “You are not sitting next to me,” she said. “Isn’t that your table over there?”
“I don’t think there’s any r
eason to pretend that we’re strangers. Or that we don’t have a history together. This is a complex and nuanced situation,” he said.
She shook her head but didn’t insist that he leave the table. “You are not helping,” she grumbled. But he was sure that he was.
Yes, she had done the things she’d been accused of, but she had also convinced the Pymmie to save the Bala and stopped an invading force from landing on Anjali.
The chatter in the hallway outside of the room rose in volume and pitch. Unamip – lower god of the Bala and liaison to the Pymmie – trotted through the double doors at the back of the room. Most Bala and none of the humans had ever seen him in person. The craned their necks to stare. Some shouted thanks to him. He smiled bashfully in response. Unamip tucked his huge unicorn body into the back row like a common spectator. Coming in like that, instead of using the private door at the front of the hall, was a signal that he intended to watch the trial, but not intervene.
The speaker for the Consensus raised a tentacle to still the room.
“Gathered Bala, we are about to begin the first information gathering session in the trial of Geneva Perata. The first accusation is of forcibly detaining and injuring a Bala being, Gary Cobalt. This matter will be adjudicated separately from all other charges and all questions should be directed to the Consensus.
“Geneva, have you been briefed on the procedures of this tribunal?” asked the speaker.
“I have,” said Jenny.
“Then we shall–”
Findae burst in through the door behind the Consensus, scattering everyone for a moment as he pushed past to take a spot at the front of the room.
“You may proceed,” he said, as Bala in the first couple of rows rolled their eyes.
The speaker for the Consensus waited for him to settle himself, then looked over at Gary and Jenny.
“Gary Cobalt, you are not required to sit with the accused.” She waved the tentacle toward the empty table intended for him.
“It would be ridiculous to pretend that Jenny and I aren’t well acquainted. Unless she objects, I believe it will be beneficial for her to have a Bala companion to assist in the trial,” he said. A murmur went through the rows of beings observing.
“I don’t need your help,” Jenny whispered at him. “Jenny Perata, do you wish Gary Cobalt to leave your table?” asked the speaker.
Gary reached out and patted her arm.
Jenny rolled from behind the table to the open area before the Consensus. “I know I’m the one on trial here, but these unicorns. I just…” She shook her head and a few of the Bala in the seats chuckled. “They think they know everything.”
“Some of us do know everything,” said Unamip from the rear. Jenny wheeled up to the railing containing the beings who would hear her defense and judge her. She looked resolute. She held her tablet up toward the speaker, who wrapped a tentacle around the smooth glass and drew it up to their eyes.
“I would like to offer the Consensus my electronic tablet,” said Jenny, ignoring the wistful meow of a neofelis cat behind her. “I have detailed the dates, times, and locations of every crime I have committed against a Bala being that I can remember. I am responsible for killing and detaining thousands at Copernica Citadel. I am responsible for the decision to capture and torture Gary Cobalt.
“I understand that what I did was wrong and motivated by fear and xenophobia and entitlement and I can never undo the damage I have caused. I’ve tried to make things right by telling the Pymmie that humans couldn’t be trusted and by taking out the Kilonova, but I don’t think that it’s enough. I mean, nothing I can do will be enough.”
She spun her chair to face the onlookers.
“I’m sorry. For what I’ve done and for the way humans have treated you. If it’s any consolation, we were this to ourselves for millennia before you showed up. It’s nothing personal, it’s just the way we are,” she said. “We wasted an opportunity for cooperation, back at the start. If things had gone differently… anyway.
“I’ve committed every atrocity on that list of charges and probably some more that I’ve forgotten. I’m willing to do anything to make amends for the awful things I did.” She looked over at Gary. “And to you in particular, Gary Cobalt. I can’t undo the damage or bring anyone back from the dead, but I am sorry. I accept any consequences the Consensus feel is appropriate.”
The room was silent. The speaker flicked through screen after screen of Jenny’s confession.
Jenny wheeled back over to behind her table. Gary grasped her hand, now empty in her lap, and gave it a squeeze. She was right that there was probably nothing she could do to absolve herself of those terrible actions. But hearing her admit they were wrong and offering an apology did help. More than he thought it would. There was a small measure of relief in hearing his former captor say, “What I did was wrong and I’m sorry.”
The speaker looked up at the rest of the Consensus. “We will take a break to review this document. It will be made available for the public as well.”
Jenny cringed and wiped at her face.
“Ms Perata, I trust that you do not need to be detained and that you will return at the appointed time.”
“Of course,” said Jenny.
“Then we won’t bother returning you to the holding cell. We will reconvene when the thricbugs begin to sing.”
Gary got the feeling they were giving her the time to say goodbye to Kaila and her friends while they deliberated in private. The Bala generally did not believe in the death penalty, but, with magic, any option was on the table. They could decide to stick her on a stoneship and send her to another planet, or even plunge her into the null and leave her there, discorporated and adrift. There was no end to the creativity of Consensus rulings.
When the Consensus had gone into the private meeting area the onlookers shuffled out of the back of the room. Jenny wheeled out at Gary’s side. He wasn’t sure but it seemed like she’d slowed down to use him as a shield from the angry crowd. Kaila stepped forward and draped her fronds over Jenny.
“That was hard,” he heard Jenny say into Kaila’s foliage.
“I told Gary war was coming,” said Kaila.
Findae trotted up, indignant. Kaila hopped backward, leaving Jenny unguarded.
“Your crimes are numerous,” he said.
“I don’t deny it,” said Jenny.
“You will answer for them,” said Findae.
“Is that not literally what I’m here for, fella?” Jenny asked. Findae, intolerant of both sarcasm and being called “fella,” huffed away.
Horm was nearby, trying to incite a group of Bala to go yell at Jenny. Gary wandered over.
“…and we should tell her all of the ways that humans hurt us. Make her understand. Maybe show her.” Horm punched a fist into her open palm.
“Is she answering for all of humanity’s crimes, or just her own?” asked Gary.
“Step out, Gary,” said Horm. “You’re getting your time in court. My torturers are back at Fort J having the time of their lives.”
“Somehow, I don’t believe that’s the case, but Jenny isn’t here to answer for what happened to you,” he said.
“When who is?” demanded Horm. It was not a question that Gary had an answer to.
The Consensus had to have known that angry Bala would confront Jenny during the break. Perhaps that was also their intention.
A group of Bala, led by Horm, swarmed her chair. Gary stepped behind her, ready to step in if it got out of hand. Some of them knelt and told her their tearful stories. Some stepped up and swore at her, then left fuming.
She nodded at their complaints and offered apologies to anyone who would stay long enough listen. She seemed to understand that most of them were not saying these things to her, but to the humans who had wronged the over the years.
The other human refugees hung back at the edges of the crowd, not wanting to be drawn into the hostile recounting of past wrongs. Their own trials would be coming
at some point and this was a glimpse into what they could expect. Most of them had entered into Bala society chastened and willing to learn but a few holdouts had a hard time letting go of the Reason rhetoric they’d been steeping in for generations. Those humans had been shunted off to a smaller village in the south, near the gorgons, sirens, and banshees. Word around town was that after a handful of run-ins with the neighboring Bala, the humans had become content with staying put in their own little encampment and were not causing much trouble.
As carefully as they had sifted through the wreckage, the bodies of Cowboy Jim, Captain Singh, and Boges were never found. They were marked as dead, on the assumption that they had either floated too far away to find or were perhaps incinerated in one of the fires that had burned on one the Kilonova’s still-sealed decks. But not everyone was convinced they were gone for good.
“Hey there, Jenny Fucking Perata,” said Ricky, pushing through the crowd. “Want to take a walk?” The Bala parted for her. In just a handful of days, Ricky Tang had become one of the most beloved residents of Planet Anjali. She’d already learned how to make a passable juice out of cryberries and the sweet sap of the pink trees. And there were six tanks of grain mash fermenting in her cabin.
Gary made a note to consider enacting liquor laws before the week was out.
Ricky dropped Bào’s hand and grabbed the handles of Jenny’s chair and swiveled it toward the marshes, waving away the Bala. For once, Jenny didn’t protest being pushed. Kaila and Gary walked behind both of them.
Ricky walked down to the water line and stopped at an area where the grass had been trampled into a hard-packed dirt by the grain harvesters.
“This’ll do,” said Ricky, letting go of the chair and flopping down on the dirt next to it. Kaila stretched her roots into the soil and unfurled her branches, creating a shady canopy for them to rest under. Bào stood in the shade, complaining about the heat.
Gary sat in front of them all. It was like the opening line to a joke – a unicorn, a starship captain, a dryad, a necromancer, and a conwoman walk into a bar. Jenny chewed her fingernail and Ricky kicked at the ground, stirring up little clouds of dust that settled back onto her boots. Kaila’s branches shuddered every now and then. None of them without battle-scars. All of them looking worried in their own way.
