The still muted general appeared in the middle of the table, and rose out of the ground so all could see him. Again, he was encased in hard sand.
"The accused has plotted treason against an elected government."
A number of the orange officers shook visibly when they heard the word 'elected'. Treason didn’t seem to bother them. I unmuted the general.
"You are guilty of treason, threatening elected officials, plotting a military coup, and attempting to stop a judge in the performance of his duties. The penalty for treason is death by firing squad. Do you have anything to say before sentence is pronounced?"
The man looked defeated. For the first time I didn't see defiance and arrogance in an accused.
"I did what had to be done. For too long, our governments have been shorting the military, making us always fight a defensive war, never allowing us to do our jobs properly."
"Why is there a war, general?"
"There's always been a war. We've never been allowed to win it."
"And so you planned to seize power, using lies and deception about the true situation?"
"What lies?" asked the prime minister.
"The fleet at the blockade point was never destroyed. In fact, it has been reinforced, and the system previously lost has been retaken. The fleet now guards the original block point. The admiral in charge seems competent."
"Your doing Judge?"
"My intervention did prevent the fleet from being overrun, yes. I was also responsible for removing two renegade admirals."
"That part we heard." She was grinning now. "So our space is in no danger?"
"Not at the moment, other than the other block points have had their best forces stripped to fight this war. But that's a different situation, to be addressed later."
"So noted Judge."
"General. Frustration is no excuse for treason. Anything else to say?"
"What else can I tell you?"
"Did you orchestrate the war starting up again, by contacting the marshal?"
"Yes."
Just about everyone looked shocked at this admission.
"Did you tell the marshal the composition of our force at the block point?"
"Yes."
"Did you leave civilians behind when you evacuated the system?"
"Yes."
"Did you know many of them would be killed by any attempt to take back the system?"
"Yes. But I gave orders not to do so."
"Do you have a fleet secreted away somewhere?"
I could see him trying not to answer, but the compulsion in my questions was too strong for him.
"Yes."
"Who else knows?"
"All of them here."
I looked across the line of admirals and generals, and they all looked away. I looked next to the senior orange admiral.
"Do you also have a secret fleet?"
"We do. We suspected allowing our fleet into your space by more than a system, would ultimately prove to be a trap. Once the trap was sprung, we'd have hit their secret fleet with ours."
I nodded, and turned back to the general.
"Are you going to shoot me Judge? Or just sink me into the ground like the marshal?"
"I'm not going to shoot you. But you could take a long walk if you wished it."
"Are both my admirals out there somewhere?"
"One of them is. The other is buried over there."
I pointed in a direction he couldn’t see.
"Is he still alive? The one out there?"
"No."
"Bury me then. At least I'll have company."
"So ordered."
He sank into the ground. A grave stone appeared next to the other two. I inscribed it.
'Treason has its own reward. Forgotten for all time.'
Forty Eight
I waited for everyone to settle down before going on.
"Court is ended. The peace conference is now begun. Please state your name and position for the record."
"Record?" asked one of the civilians.
"Record. Everything happening here is being viewed and recorded on my ship. The recordings will be available to anyone who wishes a copy, including the media."
"Shouldn’t these be closed proceedings?" asked a general.
"No. Everything about the war has been kept in the dark. The peace needs to be negotiated in the open."
"How long are we going to be here in this heat?" asked the prime minister.
"As long as it takes."
"Can we at least get some air conditioning and food?" she went on.
I thought about it for a moment. The tent changed to a normal room, larger than the room I’d taken them from to allow for the larger table, and room for a buffet and drink selection table along one wall. The floor became polished wood, as were the walls. There was a door on either side, leading outside. The air was comfortably cool. For me, anyway.
"Facilities?" muttered someone.
I thought more, and a facilities block appeared beyond each doorway.
"Facilities for men that way." I pointed. "Women that way." I pointed the other way. "Food and drink will be here in a minute." I added lounge chairs at both ends of the room. "While you refresh yourselves, you may use the lounge areas for preliminary discussions."
They began rising, some of them stretching, and I concentrated on copying food processors of both kinds, and providing both tray style food for them, and the food already prepared for both groups back at their own meeting room's kitchens.
"I should point out I've eaten food from both sides now, and recommend you try all the food available. You never know, something you eat and drink here, might make a start with trade agreements."
I grinned around the room, but remained seated where I was. A bottle of water materialized in front of me, and I drank.
So far, so good. No-one was attacking anyone else. They were all suitably subdued by the court events, and were now hot, hungry, and thirsty, all of which was now being changed. I wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but I thought certainly the prime minister would be more amenable to actually making peace work, if not uncomfortable to the point of heat exhaustion.
"So young man," said the prime minister beside me. "Do you really expect us to make a peace treaty here and now?"
The newly promoted marshal was standing beside her, which I thought was a promising start.
"Expect you to? No. Demand you do? Yes."
"What gives you the authority to demand anything of us?" she asked.
"Call me an interested third party if you will. I see you both as long lost cousins, who have forgotten how to be civil with each other. I have no dog in this hunt. But I also hold your very lives in my hands."
"How?" asked the new marshal.
"What do you see out this door?" I asked him, pointing to one of them.
"Desert."
"And which planet is this?"
He looked at the prime minister, and she shook her head.
"I see your point. If you were to simply go, we would run out of food and water quickly, and perish, since no-one knows where we are but you. Five days did you say?"
"Yes. There is food and water here for one day, but not for all of you for five."
"What do you really want of us?" asked the prime minister.
"A declaration of peace, to be issued jointly by each side at the same time, in both languages. An agreement to open your borders to all for free trade. This includes the other choke points. I assume you have genuine aliens beyond some of them, and I'd like to see some attempt made to ensure peace with them, allowing their traders and ours to trade as widely as they can."
"Anything else?" he asked.
"Your society has to change. I’ll deal with the Inquisitors. You need to let your people decide what sort of civilian government they want. If they actually vote for a military one, then okay, but a military dictatorship is not going to be one of the options. I have other suggestions for both of you, if you want to he
ar them?"
"You've been very vocal so far, why stop now?"
The prime minister laughed, and the new marshal joined in. I waited for them to settle down again.
"There is a system between both of you, which has been continually fought over. It would make a good demilitarized zone, and on the planet there is a whole unoccupied continent. It would make a good place for either a central government should you decide you are one people with wildly differing skin colours, or a place for future negotiations to occur. Avoid the other continent for the time being, as too many people were killed recently, and there will be a lot of resentment for orange skins for some time to come, I'd expect."
The marshal looked confused.
"Did you say one people with differing skin colours?"
"I did. We are all one people. Everyone's skin is coloured according to the sun of where they and their ancestors were born. But underneath, we are all the same."
"You have proof of that?"
"I do. I ordered the autopsies myself. If you wish your doctors to confirm the findings, I can arrange for this to happen. In fact, I’d be quite happy to bring doctors from both sides here, and have them do side by side autopsies for you to observe."
I grinned at both of them, since they both looked a little queasy at the thought of having to watch such a thing.
"I'll think about it," he said. "You will make the relevant reports available to us?"
The prime minister's pad dinged, and she pulled it out, looked for a moment, and looked at the marshal.
"The reports are on my pad. As soon as we can arrange for communications between our equipment, you will have them."
She put the pad away, obviously not wanting to read it now. I can't say I blamed her. There was a chime, and the marshal looked surprised for a moment, pulled out something similar, and nodded. He put it away as well.
"Report. Your people are efficient Judge."
"They are. One of them will have a translation system available for each of you soon, so you can communicate after you leave here."
"And what will you do once you leave here Judge, if I may ask?"
She really did look confused about something.
"Go home."
"That’s it? Go home? You have us at your mercy. I've never seen anyone with the power you command. Why are you not declaring yourself king, and forcing peace on both our peoples, under your rule?"
"It's what any of my people would do in your place," added the marshal.
I shook my head sadly.
"If you don’t understand that, anything I say will still be meaningless after. Let's just say, need drives me at the moment. Mainly the need to stop a war no-one understands, and which has been eating at your societies for centuries at least. If force is what it takes to stop it, so be it. But I'm not here to force you to do anything."
"Seems like it to me," she said.
The marshal nodded as well.
"You are free to do nothing. Eat, drink, talk, not talk. You have freewill. If you do nothing, I will simply wait a few days, go get whoever replaces you, and start again."
"Threatening our lives is not a threat?"
"No. We're already well past the threat stage. You are here. You can't leave unless I decide to move you. I won't move you until we have peace, and a movement beyond peace. You can decide to get the job done, or not. Either way, I'm the facilitator, nothing more."
She looked at me with a very speculative expression on her face.
"What if we vote you king?"
The marshal shot her an alarmed look.
"I'm not one of your people, so voting me for anything is pointless. I'm going home, and my home is not in either of your space. An absent king will not get the job done. Besides, no-one should vote for someone with the power I have."
"Is this your home Judge?"
I started laughing.
Forty Nine
It'd turned into a very long day. For everyone. One of the reasons I’d provided stimulant drinks. I was asking a group of very tired people, to do the most important work of their lives. I'm not sure some of them were up to it.
I watched them while they ate and drank, discussing whatever in small groups, and went outside to use the facilities. Most of them who did go out, came back in very quickly, driven inside by the heat.
The prime minister and marshal together, called them back to the table. Names and positions were given by everyone, and discussion began. I left them to it.
I appeared back on the bridge, sank into my chair, and held my hand out for the drink Lea promptly put in it. I took a long drink of it, gagged, and spat it out. The liquid vanished before it hit the deck.
Everyone was laughing, but I was too tired to care.
"So, your majesty," started Jen.
"Don't go there!" I interrupted. "I am not, and never will be, any sort of king."
"Didn't they pretty well hand it to you?" asked Jess.
I shook my head. It wasn’t funny, and I was too tired to deal with it.
"Has Bill hacked the planetary databases yet?" I asked, to stop them continuing.
"Not yet," said Jen. "Do you…"
She broke off as Bill appeared in front of me, arms up and fingers moving madly. It took him a moment to realize anything had changed, at which time he screamed, and fell over.
I winced, but Tasha lost it. I gave her the look. The one which says show more respect for the bone weary, and the moved without warning. She laughed harder.
Bill picked himself up, and looked at me.
"Did I miss a call or something?"
"No. Just past mucking about getting people's attention."
"Oh good. It wasn’t me then. Did you want something?"
Tasha sniggered quite loudly, but everyone ignored her.
"When can we have access to the databases on the planet?"
"By morning. Anything in particular you need access to?"
"Inquisitor whereabouts."
It wasn’t what he'd expected to hear.
"O-kay. Any urgency?"
"The situation at the moment is contained, but the real power here is the Inquisitors. They'll need neutralizing before any society here can take on a more normal form."
"Is the leadership being missing at the moment going to cause a problem?" asked Jess.
"Very likely. I'm assuming you've reported the PM being at a peace conference to the parliament?" Lea nodded. "Here though? Just as likely the Inquisitors are choosing new leaders right now. I need to interrupt them as soon as possible."
"So," said Bill slowly, "locations of all Inquisitors, and actions of said personages over the back day."
"Yes."
"Fine. I'll get on with it." He suddenly cringed. "I'll walk, if it's all the same to you?"
I kept a straight face while he turned and walked out, but let a smile loose when he was gone.
"Thorn, are you really going to make those people work all night?" asked Jen.
"That was the plan."
"Better change it."
"Why?"
"People make mistakes when they're over tired. And you can't do the next part until tomorrow, so why hammer them?"
"True."
I thought about it. And remembered something else.
"Oh. There is definitely another fleet out there on each side. Better ask Bentley if he can ferret out a location for ours. And ask Bill to add it to his list as well. Someone will need to visit each fleet when we locate them, and get them to stand down."
"We'll keep an eye on them. Go and give those poor people some beds to sleep on. Then get some yourself."
My eyes went to Tasha, who had a grip on herself again, and she nodded.
I moved us both back to the conference room. The prime minister noticed us appear, and called a five minute break. Fatigue was showing on her face now. She rose, and came over.
"Progress?" I asked.
"Some. We have an agreement in place to end the war. That was the easy bit. We
're negotiating details, in particular the demilitarized system you suggested, trade possibilities, and how to word the announcements."
"How long?"
"Too long. Can we go home to our beds for a good sleep, and come back tomorrow?"
"No, but I'll create some basic accommodation, so you can all sleep. Once I do, I'm off for some myself."
She nodded, looked at Tasha, and nodded again.
"Good. I'll call a halt then, and we can all get a good eight hours. The other side are almost dead where they sit."
"Ah yes. We sort of had them up all their last night, while they tried to destroy us."
"I prefer them this way actually. Gives me an advantage in negotiating with them. But I'm not much better than they are either. I was up most of the night trying to figure out what the military were up to. Does this planet even have a night?"
"Not here. Its perpetual daylight, which is why this is a desert."
"Well I'll announce eight hours for sleep, and expect you to deliver us breakfast after."
She wasn’t asking. I nodded. She returned my nod, and went back to the table. I led Tasha outside. Ten minutes later, there were rows of bedrooms identical to the ones behind my beach.
Tasha was looking at the grave stones. I took her hand, but neither of us spoke. I moved us to the beach, and we sat there watching the sun go down. After, Tasha stirred herself.
"Where is that desert planet of yours, Thorn?"
I pointed up into the night sky, above where the sun had gone down.
"That bright dot there."
"But where is it?"
"Next orbit in. Not a lot lives there. The side which always faces the sun is too hot. The other side is too cold. A few areas on the joins can support life, but it's not particularly hospitable. There's a lot of life in the oceans though."
"And where's your penal island?"
"Same place, but at the equator, almost in the midpoint between hot and cold. More animal and plant life there, including a nasty predator, but you could live on the beaches there, living on fish, shellfish, and some of the plant life, in and out of the water."
She looked at me.
"Not books this time. I've spent a lot of time watching that predator. It does eat fish, some shellfish, and some of the plants in and out of the water. I even went there once, so I know the food is edible.
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