"Gentlemen."
He motioned they could sit, and they all did. He remained standing.
"Numero Uno, I assume," said Jen.
"We have invaders over our city. What are you doing about it?"
The admiral to his left touched a button before him, and a screen lit up on the wall. It showed our small fleet completely encircled by theirs.
"We are about to destroy them, Grand Marshal. If you would please give the order."
"The order is given."
The senior Admiral pressed what looked like a pad.
The fleet started firing everything they had at us.
Forty Three
Tasha and I arrived back on the bridge early the next morning, after spending the night at my beach house, in time to see the first enemy ship try ramming the force wall. It simply dissolved into dust as it touched the wall, the last section being carried in by momentum.
A quick check showed all the ships had run out of missiles, and after firing guns all night, many of them couldn’t fire anymore. The planet seemed to have run out of missiles as well.
Jen was the only one who looked like she hadn't slept. I'd told everyone to get some sleep before we left, as nothing of any interest was going to happen. I must admit though, the constant light show of missiles and pulses hitting the wall, was mesmerizing, and it was difficult believing it would still be happening after a good nap.
She was captain of course, and her responsibility was ship and crew, so it was no surprise to see she'd been up all night.
I looked in on the meeting below, and found it still going. Their leader was not a happy person at all.
"I'll be down below for a bit. Maybe other places as well. If anyone needs me, say my name loudly."
"Thorn!" yelled Lea, grinning.
"Like that yes."
I jumped to outside the meeting room door. A guard stood on each side of the door, and both went down together, as I force tapped them into the wall. The door opened without any problem, and I walked in.
A babble of voices suddenly went silent, and all eyes turned from the wall screen and each other, to watch me enter.
The marshal, who wasn’t looking quite so grand after being here so long, was predictably the first to recover from the shock.
"Who are you? What are you?" He paused. "GUARDS!"
Two guards came in the other door, so I force tapped them both as well. They went down without a sound. There were shock murmurs around the table.
I stopped under their wall screen, so they could see their own ships being destroyed while talking to me.
"My name is Judge Thorn. I'm a person like you, except I live in what you call enemy space. I'm here to ask you to tell your ships to stop committing suicide needlessly."
"What are you?"
"You would call me an Inquisitor." More shock noises. "Only yours don’t have my skill set. Stop your ships, please."
"Why should I?"
"Because the crews will die needless deaths. Because when the last one is gone, you won't have a space fleet to protect your space with. Because the only thing holding my people's fleet outside your space, is my order."
"What are you talking about? Your fleet is in orbit."
"My fleet yes. Those are my personal ships. My people wait at the border, to hear if my mission has been a success or not."
"And what's your mission?"
"Peace. I would see this war end. Once and for all time."
The marshal laughed, and his minions laughed with him.
"Who do you think you are, coming in here, and thinking you can end policy?"
I showed them my grey cowl and bony hand look.
"The reaper," exclaimed one of the junior generals.
At the same moment, their battleship hit my wall, and simply vanished into dust. The dual effect freaked a number of them out, but didn’t faze their leader.
I removed the effect, and pondered the next move. Their fleet admiral was now gone. Some dozen ships were also gone, and the rest were likely to follow at any moment.
"You refuse to save your people?"
"They do my will."
"So you ordered them to suicide?"
"I did. All of them have failed me. They all deserve to die."
"A guilty plea has been entered. Sentence is stayed pending future action."
"What are you babbling about creature?"
I looked up at the screen, focused my will on the crews, and moved them temporarily to another island I knew. I followed them with all the food and bedding on the ship, and left them their sidearms in case they needed to defend themselves from predators. I wasn’t sure with this island. I knew it was there, but not everything about it.
The ships destroyed themselves one by one as we watched.
"Now marshal, your ships are gone. Your crews are dead. Your space is defenseless. Shall we end this war?"
He laughed at me, like a stereotypical madman tyrant does, when the hero thinks he has him at his mercy, but actually doesn’t.
I sighed, and moved us all.
Forty Four
"This is a desert," I announced to a group of very shocked officers. "There is no food or water for five days in any direction. If you wish to live, stay right here."
"You are the reaper," said the one who'd call me it before. He dropped to his knees, and bowed towards me. "Please don’t kill us."
"If he doesn’t, I will!" thundered the marshal.
He reached for his sidearm, stepping towards the hapless junior general, and stopped when his hand couldn’t find his holster, let alone the gun.
"What the hell is this?" he bellowed, making everyone cringe except me.
He took another step towards the still kneeling man, his hands coming up as if he wanted to strangle him.
"The prisoner will be restrained."
A hole opened up below the marshal, and he dropped straight in. The hole closed up immediately, leaving the man encased in the ground, only his head above sand level. Just for good measure, I muted him as well. His mouth worked, but nothing came out. His cheeks orange started going darker.
I looked around the group. An arc of lounge chairs appeared behind them.
"I was serious about there being peace. Make yourselves comfortable. I'll be back before you need water. Don’t wander off if you wish to live."
"Who are you?" said the senior admiral.
"I told you. Judge Thorn. The guilty will be punished. And there will be peace."
I left them there, and popped back to the bridge. They were still on the monitor, the magic watching them having moved with them. Lea passed me a bottle of water, and I gulped a few mouthfuls.
"What's next?" asked Tasha.
"Now I check on what our top brass are doing."
"You won't like it," said Lea.
"Oh?"
"Bentley sent a report an hour ago, from sources he has in headquarters. The military have issued an ultimatum to the politicians over the war. A military coup is imminent."
"Sounds like they need a judge," laughed Jess.
"Indeed."
It took a few minutes for me to find the top military, since I hadn't been where they were before. Next door to the headquarters building, was the parliament. The long table there had uniforms on one side, and suits on the other. The suits didn’t look happy.
I winked at Jess, and jumped.
Bentley spilled his beverage down the front of his uniform, as I appeared in front of him while he was taking a sip.
"Damnit Thorn. Can't you give any warning when you drop in?"
I grinned at him, as a crewman took the mug away from him.
"I'm told all's well here?"
"Certainly is. No sign of the enemy at all."
"Their fleet has been neutralized, as far as I've seen. They might have another one."
"So might we. I've had some very strange messages from home."
"So Lea said. Anything concrete?"
"No. But I've had it
confirmed our reports are not reaching the government, and they're being told we've been dead for days."
"So someone is lying?"
"Apparently so. Are you going there?"
"Do they need a judge?"
"I’d say so!" said a voice behind us, and I looked around to see the admiral standing there. "What's the situation with our enemy?"
"I was just saying. Main fleet is destroyed, although crews survived. There is the possibility of another fleet I haven't seen yet. The top military officers are already at a place I've prepared for a peace summit."
"Did they go willingly?" asked Bentley.
"No."
"Ours won't either," said the admiral. "But I don’t spose that matters to you, does it?"
"Not really. There will be peace."
"Don’t let us keep you then."
I nodded to them both, cleaned Bentley's uniform for him, and jumped again.
Forty Five
I appeared in the center of the long table, turned, and walked calmly along it, as people on both sides reacted with sounds of shock, all the way through to falling backwards off their chairs. At the end, I jumped down, and turned to face everyone.
The civilian in the middle was a grey haired woman, and despite a man appearing from thin air in front of her, she appeared to be calm, and in control of the situation. The General opposite her on the other hand, was reaching for a gun. One which promptly vanished, along with all the others in the room.
The woman looked at me, nodded to herself, and told the general to sit back down. Those on the floor, picked themselves up, and also sat. I waited for them.
"You would be the Judge Thorn I've been hearing about?" she said.
"I would."
"Are you here to judge us young man?"
"I'm here for several reasons. I judge when I find the guilty."
"Are there any guilty here?"
"So I'm told."
"What would someone here be guilty of?" asked a man further up the table.
"Lying about the war."
A hush fell, as civilians looked at military, and back to me.
"We're told the war is going badly," said the woman. "We're told if we don’t dramatically increase spending on all things military, the war will soon be lost, and we will become redundant, and probably even killed if the enemy get here, and find civilians running things."
"And how have you been reacting to this?"
"With skepticism. These officers are trying to railroad us into spending billions on things which won't be available to use for years, while at the same time they tell us the enemy could be here in weeks. We're not as stupid as they seem to think. And they're not as autonomous as they believe."
The general opposite her rose.
"I'm sorry to interrupt madam prime minister, but you force my hand."
The doors on both ends exploded inwards, and troops burst in. They were outfitted the same as Sasha's team, and included heavy weapons. Exactly what they thought they were going to do with them is anyone's guess. Maybe they thought the presence of them would be enough to scare the civilians into giving up.
"Oh fuck this," said a voice, and most of those at the table looked at me. "Sorry, did I say that out loud?"
The troops vanished. I sent them, minus their weapons and armour, to the same island with the strange predator, I’d sent slaver ship crews to before.
"What the hell?" exclaimed the general.
"Not quite."
I moved everyone left in the room, including the table, and their chairs.
Eyes looking at me went wide in shock, as they took in the desert behind me, and started looking around. The shock turned to panic, when they saw lounge chairs with orange people in them. Said orange people didn’t react any better, but at least they stayed seated.
In the midst of the reaction, I moved the general over by the marshal, and dropped him into a hole as well.
"Help!" screamed the general, causing all eyes to turn his way, and thus returning order to the group.
He screamed even louder when he found an orange face next to his, silently screaming as well. I muted the general to give us some quiet to talk.
"Would everyone please move away from the table."
Most of them backed away in a hurry, and I waited patiently for the others. When there was enough room, I changed the table into a triangle shape, cut out in the middle. Along the third side, I copied in enough chairs for the orange contingent, and an extra higher one at one of the points, so I could sit with orange on my left, civilians on my right, and our military opposite me.
The ground underneath table and chairs turned to glass. Bottles of water appeared in each chair position, appropriate for the person who would be there. I turned to the lounge chairs, and gestured them to move to where I wanted them. They almost ran to the table, and seized the bottles before even sitting down. I waved the prime minister to my right, and the next senior officers to the middle opposite me. More water appeared on the table. A tent like structure appeared over the table, giving us some relief from the sun, but not the heat.
When everyone was seated, had addressed their thirst, and settled, I addressed them.
"Court is now in session, Judge Thorn presiding."
Forty Six
The marshal's head moved to the center of the table, so all could see him. He rose out of the ground, but still encased in hard sand.
"For the duration of proceedings here, all will hear everything said in their own language. If you are called upon to speak, speak as you normally would, and everyone will understand you."
"And if we're not called to speak?" asked an admiral across from me.
"You risk gaining my attention."
He sat back, worry now on his face.
"The first order of business is the Grand Marshal here. He is accused of the deliberate murder of his own troops, in ordering them to commit suicide attacking a force already proved to be impossible to reach. He has already pleaded guilty."
"That's not what he said," interrupted an orange admiral.
"It's what I heard," I countered.
I looked down the line of orange faces.
"Who gave the actual order for ships to ram the fleet over your planet?"
I was looking at the least ranked general at the end of the row as I spoke. He gulped, but could not stop himself answering.
"The marshal did."
"Who passed the order to the fleet admiral?"
I added compulsion for the guilty person to speak up.
"I did," said the senior admiral. "But I had no choice."
"Why not?"
"The marshal routinely shoots any officer who doesn't follow orders."
"How long ago was the last senior officer shot this way?"
"Only a few months ago. He complained we were not ready to renew the war."
"The Admiral was dead before he even finished his protest," added another admiral, halfway down the table.
"So you serve in fear?"
Most of them nodded, but no-one actually said it.
"How long has this been going on?"
I put more compulsion into the words. This was something I wanted to know.
"Since forever, Inquisitor. Marshals have always behaved thus, as did the kings before them."
"And you joined the military knowing this?"
"Joined Inquisitor? No-one joins the military. You're tested and drafted. Ability decides where you end up."
I looked down the row, and they all nodded. None of them seemed to be aware of the inherent contradiction.
"Who will be the next marshal?"
"I will," said the senior admiral. "But I'm sorry to say, I won't be any different to him."
"Why not?"
"The Inquisitors won't allow anyone to rule differently."
Ah. And there we had it. The rotten core behind the power.
"Let's leave that for the moment. The issue is the guilt of the accused."
I removed
the mute from the marshal's voice.
"Do you have anything to say in your defense marshal?"
"GRAND MARSHAL, you jumped up…"
I muted him again.
"Wrong answer. Guilt is confirmed. The sentence is death. Sentence will now be carried out."
The marshal dropped back into the ground, which swallowed him. I looked over to the head stone a short way away, and a second one appeared next to it. I added an inscription. Then I thought again, removed it, and replacing it.
'Absolute power corrupted him. Now forgotten forever.'
Forty Seven
I looked at the admiral next to me.
"You are also guilty Admiral. You all are. With one exception, you're all convicted of killing your own people for no purpose. How do you respond?"
"Which of us is not convicted?"
I pointed to a two star general, further down the table.
"He brought up asking for the surrender of what you all thought was a weaker opponent. He wanted to know more about his enemy. Surrender would have saved lives. It was the correct approach. It matters not it was rejected. He did at least ask, and I saw the cost."
"You were watching?" asked the admiral. "How?"
"The same way my people are watching all of you now."
"That wasn’t an answer, Inquisitor."
"No. But the only answer is apparently heresy. Let's not go there while the penalty for hearing it is still in force."
"What would you have of us Inquisitor?"
"Stop calling me Inquisitor, and call me Judge." He nodded. "You have one last service to perform for your people, before I pronounce sentence on you." I held a hand up to stop him speaking. "But first, we have a second trial to complete."
"If I may have your indulgence for a moment Judge?"
I nodded, he rose, and walked to the seat of the two star I’d been talking about.
"Rise, and take my seat. I think we need you to speak for us, here and now. Will you do so?"
"I will," said two star, rising, and taking the empty seat next to me.
The admiral sat, and nodded to me. I nodded back. The two star now promoted to marshal, looked humbled. Had he shown any signs of elation, I'd have reconsidered. As it was, in my mind, he was now on a sort of probation.
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