* * * *
The Captain stood still in what appeared to be some kind of a courtroom and he had a momentary sense of the space receding from him before the dizziness left him. There was no sign of his quarters, his crew or his ship. Everything before him however looked as real as he was.
“ Where am I? What is happening?” he asked loudly, looking around.
There was a man in human form standing near to the Captain and he turned around. “ Sit down and be quiet, we are not ready to start as yet.”
“ Start what?” he demanded.
“ Your trial, of coarse.” The man said and went on with sorting some papers at a desk.
“ My trial? What trial? Who are you and why am I here?” The Captain had no intention of meekly doing what he was told until he had some answers.
The other man glowered at him. “ All will be revealed shortly. Please keep quiet or they will restrain and silence you. We must follow the correct procedures here. Please sit on the chair provided.”
The Captain frowned. He decided had no choice for now so he sat down and began to examine and evaluate his surrounding.
It struck him immediately that all the people milling around and finding seats looked human and that the scene before him was reminiscent of a courtroom in the twenty first century on Earth.
A bailiff, a court stenographer, and twelve members of what appeared to be the jury were present. The man on his feet next to him was probably his defense attorney and he couldn’t help but wonder what the charges would be and how to extract himself from this situation.
What did this have to do with him and his crew? He couldn’t even imagine what crime he was accused of or how closely the events to follow would parallel the legal system on earth but all his senses were heightened by the realisation that he was in grave danger here.
He sat there for more than ten minutes and all this time he saw more and more people filing into the small courtroom.
Finally a man called out, “ All rise for the Judge!” The man beside him motioned him to stand. He did so, and a large man in black robes came out of his chambers and took his place. He lifted his gavel and banged it loudly it onto the hard surface of his huge desk.
Then the Captain heard a voice. “ This is docket number 31.1012, (which the Captain remembered was the star date of his last log entry) the people of the Beta quadrant verses Captain Angus Hemorrhoid of the Star Ship DVD.”
The Judge peered in the Captain’s direction and addressed the man standing next to him.
“ Where is Mr Jones?”
The man replied, “He has been delayed Your Honor. My apologies. However as his co-chair, I have been instructed to proceed and am ready to do so at your convenience. Mr Jones will join us as soon as he is able to so.”
“ Very well. Let us proceed if the prosecution is ready?”
“ We are Your Honor.”
The Captain peered around his defense attorney’s co-chair and sure enough, there was the prosecuting attorney and his assistant at the parallel desk. He had not noticed their arrival.
The Judge turned expressionlessly to face the Captain. “ How do you plead?” His voice was deep and polite.
The Captain knew it was important to keep his cool but he naturally felt puzzled and exasperated. “ What is this and why am I here? I will not plead until I know what this about.”
“ So I take it that you are pleading guilty?” The Judge asked impassively.
“ With all due respect Your Honor… I refuse to plead at all. I have no knowledge of why I am here or why I am on trial. Surely I should be informed of the reason?”
His defense attorney’s co-chair hissed at him. “ What are you doing? You cannot speak out like this, it is forbidden. This is your trial and you must plead.” To the judge he said, “ I apologise for my client Your Honor. He is an alien and unused to our ways.”
The judge said, “ I will make allowances this once for your ignorance. But do not try my patience. You must enter a plea for these proceedings to continue. We are waiting, and you are wasting this court’s precious time.”
The Captain knew there was no other course for him but to see this through but he had no intention of making it easy.
“ Your Honor, I plead not guilty.” He realised this might be the only way he could find out what was going on.
“ Bailiff please enter the plea into the record. Would the prosecution care to make an opening statement?”
The man stood up. “ I am Smith for the prosecution and we are ready to proceed your Honor.” Mr Smith cleared his throat. “ We have been monitoring the movements of the Captain and his alien vessel for some time now. We have found that they are in violation of many of the inter-planetary laws in our quadrant. This includes the disruption of the space time continuum… to the extent that the future has been irreparably altered. Their actions resulted in the planet Junee surviving instead of being destroyed by volcanoes.”
The Captain stood up. “ Your Honor, may I explain? We saved many lives in that instance… we were not aware of breaking any laws…”
“ Silence!” yelled the Judge. “ Sit down!”
His defense attorney’s co-chair was tugging at his sleeve. “ You cannot interrupt the Judge like that,” he whispered urgently. “ You must wait until it is your turn to speak. The crimes must be laid out for the court case to be continued.”
“ Are you ready to proceed?” The Judge glared at him. He quickly assured him that they were.
The prosecution continued. “ There was also the wormhole incident. They destroyed it. This wormhole was essential to our galaxy and eliminating it has already altered many present and future events.”
The Captain could not sit still. “ That was an accident, if it please the court. Moronite pirates were attacking us and we had no other options open to us.”
The Judge was beginning to lose his temper. “ It does NOT please the court. I require you to be silent at all times Captain. Bailiff… restrain the prisoner. If necessary, gag him. Captain, you will sit without speaking from now on, or you will suffer the consequences. Please continue.”
“ Yes Your Honor. The evidence will show that the Captain and crew of the DVD have broken laws that directly affect more than one planet. We became aware that the DVD did prevent a civil war from happening on star date: 24.0815. These are undisputed facts and cannot be denied. However these events have also had a negative affect on the future…”
“ For instance, the planet Tarrago should have been a barren planet by star date 01.0120, but because of the interference of the DVD crew this planet is still inhabited. It is in turmoil with civil war about to break out. We know that this war will attract others from other planets and will spread throughout the quadrant if not contained. This war will be far worse than the one they have already prevented.
“ There should have been no interference from these aliens. We wish for the Captain and all his crew be put into kryo status for two centuries.”
The Captain sat in his chair unable to believe what he was hearing. Not being able to comment was hard for him, especially when he had to hear so much that he did not agree with.
The judge cleared his throat. “ Mr White is Mr Jones about to join us at any time or do you wish to proceed?”
At that moment a man entered the courtroom. “ How nice of you to join us Mr. Jones,” said the Judge.
“ I apologise Your Honor. It was an unavoidable delay.”
“ Are you ready to proceed?”
“ If I may have a moment with my client Your Honor?”
“ I will give you five minutes when we shall resume.” The Judge left the courtroom.
Mr. Jones turned to the Captain. “ I am sorry I was late. Please give me a moment to confer with my colleague.”
They went over some papers, quietly talking and then Mr Jones said to him, “ These are serious crimes Captain. You should have pleaded guilty and thrown yourself on the mercy of the court.”
The Captain replied dryly, “ From what I have gathered, they are charging me with a so-called crime that has not been committed yet. So I don’t have much faith in the mercy of this court. I have my crew to consider. I have no choice but to plead not guilty. I cannot conceive why any being would be on trial for something that has not yet happened. That is not justice, where I come from.”
“ I can see how you would think that. However our species has guarded this quadrant for all time. We have a duty to see that there are no disruptions to the time continuum. However I concede that you acted in the only way open to you at that time. We must proceed with caution. You must trust me to defend you.”
The Captain felt very frustrated by this point. “ Please before you go on, will you tell me where I am and what has happened to my crew?”
“ They did not explain this to you?”
“ No, they told me to be quiet, every time I asked a question.”
Mr Jones sighed.“ All right then I will tell you. A prison vessel took your ship. There are many other vessels in that ship but you cannot see them because they are all held in different dimensions.”
“ And where am I right now?”
“ Nowhere Captain. Your mind has been altered to think that you are in a courtroom, fashioned after a legal building from your own planet. In fact you are really still on board your own ship.”
“ I see. And my crew?”
“ Do not alarm yourself Captain. Time has been slowed down… your crew are not in any danger, physical or otherwise. But time has been frozen while the court decides the outcome of your case. Then if you are not guilty you will be released. If guilty, you may be put in stasis for a time but no actual harm will come to you as beings.”
“ I am on trail but my whole ship will be included in my punishment?”
“ Yes. You are responsible for your crew Captain. But any decision you make will result in an impact upon them also.”
“ Why do you take this human form?”
“ We are beings who would not normally be visible to you in your dimension. We have taken this form because we realise that it will make you more comfortable during these proceedings. Also we have assumed these names for the same purpose. We have a legal system similar to yours, in that we have a judge and a jury and legal representatives. Our laws may be different but the basic concept of right and wrong are the same.”
“ Mr Jones, please let me inform you that I really don’t feel comfortable. I am on trial for what may happen in the future. On my planet we go on trial for things we have done in the past. I am most concerned for my crew.”
“ Your crew is safe, have no fear. They are in a state of suspended animation and will remain this way until we have a verdict from this trial. As I have already explained… if you are found guilty then you will be returned to your ship and will be frozen for a time, just like your crew. If you are innocent then you will be returned to the time that was just before you were arrested and you and your ship will be free to leave the prison ship.”
“ Will I remember what has happened here?”
“ Yes you will remember but your crew will never know what has transpired here and the court will make it clear that you should never reveal to them what has occurred either.”
The Captain frowned thoughtfully. “ I have one more question. How can I defend charges of something that has not taken place yet and will not occur for almost another three years.”
“ Leave that to me Captain, I may not look like it but I am a very good lawyer.”
“ It goes against the grain for me to leave myself entirely in your hands. But I can see I have no other choice.”
“ Correct. You do not. And failure to observe the procedures here could result in additional punishment. Please leave your defense entirely up to me Captain.”
Suddenly the door to the Judges chambers opened and everybody stood as he walked back to his desk.
“ Are you ready with your defense Mr. Jones?” The Judge asked.
“ I am your honor.”
“ Would you care to make an opening statement?”
“ No I think I will wait for now and make my comments in my closing remarks.”
The Captain looked a little uneasy hearing this.
“ Mr. Smith, would you like to call your first witness?”
“ I would your honor. The people call Mr. Brown to the stand.”
A tall thin man with glasses took the stand. The Captain thought he looked like his history teacher from when he was at school. At this moment it occurred to the Captain that everybody in the courtroom looked somewhat familiar and he realised that the aliens had used his own memories to create their human like appearance.
Mr. Brown was sworn in and he took his seat.
“ Mr. Brown will you please explain to the court what your field of expertise would be?” Mr. Smith asked.
Mr. Brown cleared his throat. “ I am a temporal scientist and I study time. The history of time, the past the present and the future. My particular interest lies in the field of time space and how we must keep it on it’s due coarse. To put it in layman’s terms.”
“ I see! Now have you noticed any discrepancies in you’re studies lately?”
“ Yes sir I have.”
“ How so?”
“ I have found that since the space ship DVD entered our quadrant we have many hiccups in the time space continuum that were not there previously.”
“ Mr. Brown would you please expand on what you have said so we can understand?”
“ Yes sir, I would be happy to.” Mr. Brown cleared his throat once more. “ I will give an explanation and then I will show the court how this will take place.”
“ Very well Mr. Brown, proceed.”
“ The DVD entered our quadrant for the second time some six months ago. We have already heard that they helped the people of Junee by preventing volcanoes from erupting. This planet was due to explode in two years time but because of this interference the planet will continue further than we can map.”
“ We did save lives!” The Captain repeated.
“ Silence!” yelled the Judge. “ You will not interrupt again. Mr. Jones tell your client that he will have his chance to defend himself later. Continue Mr. Brown.”
“ It is true that lives were saved, but because of this interference an elite scientist will never be born because the line he was to come from will go in a different direction. The wormhole was mentioned before. I have found in the last few days that this does not effect our quadrant in the coming two centuries. We have also seen that the wormhole will repair itself and should be operational in fifty years or so.
But it has impacted on the planet Tarrago. With the wormhole unusable the DVD was forced to travel back to their own quadrant the long way. So they are still in the Beta quadrant three years from now. We have seen that because of interference they prevent a civil war from occurring on that planet. This planet was scheduled for termination by 01.0120, five and a half years after the war was due to start.
“ But now the time line has been dangerously tampered with… future events will be impacted. Where once there would have been peace a new threat will be born. Tarrago will have a long violent history, which will result in further damage after the birth of a half human and half Tarragon child.
“ Once this child becomes an adult he and his offspring will be the source of much trouble in this quadrant. They will cause much disharmony and it will take more than a century before it can be corrected and under control once more.”
“ Do you have evidence of this Mr. Brown?”
“ Yes I have prepared a history of what happens and I would like to show it to the court. It will play out in real time the events that the DVD crew encounters with the people of Tarrago.”
Mr. Jones cleared his throat. “ I object to this your honor. The future is not written because it has not happened yet. What we see here may change in the future, especially with the Captain having witnessed
this in advance.”
The Judge thought for a moment. “ Your objection is noted Mr. Jones but I will allow it. Your objection is overruled. Proceed Mr. Brown.”
Mr. Smith spoke first. “ Thank you your honor. When you are ready Mr. Brown.”
Mr. Brown first looked at the judge and then at Mr. Smith. “ Before we start I would just like to say that what Mr. Jones said is basically true. The future is not written and with prior knowledge events might change. So this account that we are about to see is the future as it will happen with the time line that we know to be correct at this time.”
Suddenly the courtroom darkened and a holographic image appeared in the middle of the courtroom. As the Captain looked on he could see the DVD flying through space and it looked very real.
* * * *
Star Yawns Episode 7. A Few Good Cadets by David & Sabine Williams Smashwords Edition Copyright 2014 Page 2
