Approaching Oblivion (Jezebel's Ladder Book 4)

by Scott Rhine

  “NASA would never approve a half-assed plan like that,” Pratibha muttered.

  Red defended the roadmap. “We all agreed to this mission. We’ve plotted out the only part we can, emphasizing caution and conservation. Our only directive from the Magi is that ‘the hand of the uplifter cannot be seen.’” Red was sweating. She had fifteen minutes left, and they were going to find some reason to reject the proposal or delay the only choice until it was too late. “We’ll need to form a winter committee to chop firewood, insulate Garden Hollow, and set up the Olympus duty rotation. We may even want to freeze-dry more food in preparation for the landing.”

  When Rachael raised her hand for what promised to be an embarrassing question, Red scratched her ear to signal Herk and called on him first.

  The sergeant at arms announced, “I have one more item of old business that can’t wait till next week. Doctor Toby Baatjies has been held without arraignment for a week, without a lawyer, food, exercise, or a bathroom.”

  “He’s perfectly safe there,” Yuki complained. “That twisted bastard kept first me and then Yvette in the freezer for months, and no one complained.”

  “Neither of you had been accused of a crime. According to international law, that creep has the right to be well treated while awaiting his speedy trial. He must be allowed the opportunity to defend himself, or as chief law enforcement officer, I have to set him free. If he does get a trial, I have to thaw him for that, too.”

  Chaos ensued. No one cared about the time or details about what would happen in seven years. They had a lynching to attend. Red would find some reason to delay the proceedings until tomorrow, by which time they would be under the sheet, locked into Zeiss’ road to Oblivion.

  Chapter 3 – Nine Angry Women

  Zeiss remembered a play about juries called Twelve Angry Men. The drama unfolding before him could have been called Eight Angry Women; though, technically, the absent Yvette would make it nine. He also wasn’t certain if mere anger could encompass a punishment involving chainsaws and rabid wolverines. Nadia, the power expert, grabbed her high-resolution camera to capture the event documentary-style.

  “Since we’re all here, I can’t think of a better time. All in favor of planning the trial now?” Red asked.

  “It’ll be the shortest one in history. We all know he’s guilty,” Rachael proclaimed. “Seconded.”

  Red asked, “In favor?”

  Everyone raised a hand, while Mercy raised both—unanimous.

  Red banged the gavel and announced, “Meeting adjourned until next week. Officer Herkemer, take over.”

  “Maybe Toby should stay in the freezer for his own protection,” whispered Lou.

  Zeiss shook his head. “That only works until one of us gets seriously . . .” He paused in the middle of the sentence. It took a moment to fish for the right word. “Injured. From previous experience, any injury is going to happen in the middle of a crisis where we can’t take the time to reason out all arguments.”

  The large, Polish security officer looked nervous. Even his normally hyper-rational wife had a look in her eyes like a shark at feeding time. “I don’t like the guy either, but he’s an Active. According to the rules, we need three judges, a prosecutor, and a defense attorney. As an enforcement officer, I can’t take sides.”

  Given her own injuries, Mercy represented those wronged by the accused. Red demanded to handle the UN’s case. “You can share this bench,” ruled Herk.

  Sojiro and all the women rushed to share the prosecution’s side of the room.

  Herk said, “Yvette was the only one trained to be a defense lawyer.”

  “Oh well, he should’ve thought of that first,” Red argued. “Now he’s just as screwed as she was.”

  “Auckland? Want to volunteer?” Herk asked.

  “I can’t. You’ll need me to do the psychiatric evaluation. I can be objective about that, but not whether he should fry. The plaintiff, Yvette, stood up for me at my wedding. Lou won’t be a good choice because Toby blinded him and stabbed his wife.”

  “Mercy broke his nose first,” Zeiss clarified because his own wife had wrecked a few people’s faces in her day.

  “Z should volunteer,” Johnny said.

  “Hell no,” Zeiss objected. “Red will take it out on me if he wins.”

  “We all have women. You’ll be fair,” Johnny insisted.

  “What about Yuki? She was on Toby’s side.”

  The Japanese woman with one sleeve pinned to her side said, “Not now. If I sided with him against the team, people wouldn’t trust me anymore. Honestly, I think he deserves whatever punishment Red can devise.”

  Zeiss closed his eyes. He still felt weak and had trouble finding words, but no one deserved to be crucified like this—especially since Red was forcing this spectacle to vacate the stasis chamber for his sake. “I’m doing this under protest,” he noted for the record. “That leaves Lou to play chief justice.”

  “Because I’m second in command?” asked Lou.

  Herk laughed. “Naw, you’ve been through the disciplinary system more than any of us.”

  Before his marriage, Lou had been a notorious womanizer, known for his lewd and offensive behavior. Lou flipped him off by rubbing an eyebrow. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll be biased because he took my eyesight?”

  “You let him off with Sensei,” Herk allowed. “Do you promise to attempt to be unbiased in this trial?”

  “Sure, but I get paid in beer,” Lou requested.

  “I would ask that no women be allowed on the bench because of prejudice,” Zeiss said.

  “A woman must be placed on the bench because men don’t take the issue seriously enough,” Red countered. “We’re over half the population; therefore, we deserve at least one seat.”

  Lou said, “Might I suggest Oleander? She’s more mature and has spent far more time in the legal system than I have.”

  Herk asked, “How about it, Ole?”

  The guard chuckled. “Being an old felon—what wonderful qualifications.”

  “Please,” Zeiss said, pausing again. “You make a good compromise. You were falsely accused of a crime and served many years. I’m hoping your experiences may make you willing to listen to all evidence before ruling.”

  Oleander asked, “How did you know I was innocent?”

  “Your statements in the signed confession were all passive. The bomb was planted. The time was selected to minimize injuries.” Zeiss didn’t mention that he suspected the real criminal had been her younger brother.

  “Because you gave me the benefit of the doubt, Z, I will try to do the same.”

  Lou announced, “That leaves only Park, Johnny, and Sojiro, who aren’t married.”

  Sojiro shook his head. “I’ve been an assault victim before. It wasn’t rape, but he held me down and cut off two of my fingers.” The young artist swallowed. He coped so well with his prosthetics and machine interface ability that people forgot. “I can’t listen to descriptions of any violation and remain impartial. Sorry.”

  Red put an arm around the man. “It’s okay.”

  Johnny said, “I think Park should do it. People will know what I’m thinking. I throw things at the TV and shout. Italians are very passionate people, not inscrutable and logical like Asians.”

  Calmly and barely above a whisper, Park said, “Objection: racial stereotyping.”

  “See?” said Johnny. “I would’ve punched me in the face by now for what I said.”

  Lou asked, “Have either of you been a judge of any kind before?”

  “For a martial-arts tournament,” Park admitted.

  “Good enough. You’re in. Ole, how do we get this party started?”

  “After we read the charges to the accused, he makes a plea: guilty, not, or no contest. If he fights the charges, the state presents each piece of evidence and their witnesses. For each of these, the defense gets a chance to cross-examine and rebut. Once those cards are played, the defense presents witnesses, who R
ed will call names and reduce to tears. If Dr. Baatjies is found guilty, we do another round of testimony for mitigating or increasing the penalties.”

  Zeiss raised a hand. “We actually begin with pretrial motions and deals. I would start by removing talk of the death penalty from the table. The charter is founded on the idea that in space, we’re all necessary to survive. Jezebel Hollis wrote that criminals need to be reintegrated in the society.”

  Red grumbled, “You’re not allowed to use my mom’s words against us.”

  “Mercy, you thought Lou killed Yvette by accident or negligence, and you forgave him readily.” Zeiss nodded to her pregnant belly, causing her to blush.

  “Your point?” Red asked.

  “It seems your rules apply to any crime except rape,” Zeiss replied.

  “That’s not fair.”

  “According to Mercy’s own discoveries, repeated exposure to subspace radiation has unbalanced Toby—”

  “Objection!” Red shouted.

  Lou winced. “I’m blind, not deaf. Let him finish the sentence, Red. Only people born with talents like you and Mercy are immune to the transition to subspace.” The jumps made everyone else nauseous, drunk, or worse.

  Zeiss pressed his advantage. “Mentally ill people cannot be executed. Even if the defendant didn’t qualify when he allegedly committed the crimes, Yvette recently reformatted his brain with the Ethics page, the nuclear bomb of punishments for Actives. It forces him to obey the Charter. He’s a mess of twitches and glitches now.”

  When Red refused to reply, Zeiss changed tactics. “Ladies, our primary mission is to educate the natives of Oblivion B4. Do you agree that we’ll need to scout the surface of the planet in person when we arrive?”

  “I hate when he gets this way,” Red complained.

  “Yes,” Mercy admitted.

  “And for the survival of our scouts, a doctor needs to go along on any mission?”

  “Yes,” Red snapped.

  “Which one? Auckland can’t exert himself. Yvette can’t take the stress right now.”

  “Whose fault is that?” demanded Red.

  “Order!” said Lou. “Answer the question.”

  “After the birth, I might be able to go—” Mercy began.

  Nearly everyone shouted her down, including her husband, Lou. “It’s too dangerous.”

  Auckland provided the capstone. “If anything happened to Mercy in the first year, we couldn’t synthesize the milk.”

  Zeiss held out his hands. “Point proven. We need Toby for the scouting mission if we’re ever going to get home again.”

  “Conceded,” Red said. She also offered several colorful embellishments that would need to be edited from the tape. “As long as he’s frontline fodder. We haven’t agreed to let him out for any other duty.”

  Zeiss asked, “Can we agree that we need to see if the defendant is fit for trial and have the doctor evaluate what Toby might need for continuing psychiatric treatment?”

  “Yeah,” said Lou. “That sounds like a good first step. Red, can you find any hole in his logic?”

  “No, but Toby can still hurt people he views as a threat or attempt to escape. Your honors, we ask that Herk slap the accused in restraints for the duration of the trial. Furthermore, the victims have petitioned that Toby never be alone with a woman again.”

  Zeiss couldn’t remember the legal word he wanted, so he said, “Sure. That’s a no-brainer.”

  Auckland said, “Um . . . I’ll need a few hours, and it’s late already. Can we delay the actual trial till tomorrow after lunch? I’d like to leave him in stasis till after we enter subspace to avoid further trauma.”

  Everyone agreed. Herk turned off the recording until Toby could be roused and checked over by the doctor.

  Red had won her gambit. Using the crowd’s emotions, important technical questions were delayed until it was too late, and the stasis chamber would be emptied. Now someone had to tell Yvette she had to be present at the trial.

  Out of the room on a bathroom break and unable to object, Mercy was elected to do the job.

  Chapter 4 – Asking the Impossible

  Mercy stood on the floating patio attached to front door of the control saucer. Her irreverent husband called it ‘the disco ball’ because the saucer, covered with gray, domino-shaped tiles, dangled from the interior of the spherical vessel. She preferred to think of it as a water tower because the saucer was connected to the rest of the ship by a long, thick umbilical that could carry air, water, and people to the ‘underground’ shuttle bay. From this vantage point, she could see the verdant interior of the ship. The curvature of the hull warped the textured blanket of lakes and trees like a fish-eye lens or a wrap-around nature channel. She was always on the lookout for damaged tiles or field generators. To her special senses, the many overlapping gravity generators in the habitat resembled the dimples on a golf ball.

  Nevertheless, Mercy was stalling. She hadn’t met with her friend since they opened the stasis unit to set Yvette free. At first, Mercy stayed in Olympus to be with Lou and to receive medical treatment. Since then, she had been delaying the reunion. Somehow Red had talked her into breaking the bad news about the trial to Yvette.

  Mercy took a stroll on the floating, domino boardwalk that circled Olympus, grateful for the pergola slats overhead that filtered the sun, as they also prevented people from bouncing too high. After a few hops, Mercy had to adjust the sling that kept her right hand close to her chest and above her heart. When it was too loose, the bandaged hand slapped her in the left breast with each landing. Lower gravity saved fuel, but it was hard on human health and safety.

  Others regarded the green zone as the fuel tank and air supply that made long voyages possible. She thought of the ecosystem as a piece of home they always carried with them—the seed pod that a piece of dandelion fluff carried on the wind. The alien ship’s design reminded her of Frank Lloyd Wright’s desert homes—in harmony with nature.

  Eventually, the weight of her promises overcame her dread of the confessions she’d have to make.

  Because the staircase of floating dominoes had been ruled too dangerous, she rode the elevator platform to ground level. The weirdest and most exciting part of any day was walking the nearly four kilometers to work. The journey felt like she was running in a colossal hamster ball. Since the gravity fields formed the skin of the balloon, down was always directly under one’s feet.

  She followed the well-worn path as it weaved through the fruit and nut orchards. At this end, she had adjusted the gravity strength to a little over half Earth-normal in order to give the traveler time to adjust from the microgravity of Olympus. She had gradually ramped the power up to almost a standard g at the colony nestled in the Counterweight foothills—the other pole of the habitat. Unless the ship was engaged in high-g maneuvers, the planners kept this default setting. Passing the orchards, Berry Hill, and the vegetable patches, she eventually wandered into Garden Hollow.

  Her friend Yvette paced at the gate in her hiking clothes, with her dirty-blonde hair in a twist, ready for chores. Yvette’s mentally unbalanced ex-boyfriend, Toby, had faked her death and kept her captive in the stasis chamber for months. Outwardly, there were few signs of her recent ordeal, except slight wrist abrasions from being bound. Mercy cringed at the reminder. I should have found her sooner. She’s going to hate me.

  Forcing a smile, Mercy waved and said, “Hi!” The nurse opted for a greeting hug, and the gesture lasted a little longer than anticipated. Awkwardly, Mercy said, “Thanks for doing this.”

  “Auckland has removed me from all duties,” Yvette said with a shrug. “Yuki won’t let me do anything for myself. I’m already bored senseless.”

  Mercy handed the lab coat to her friend. “I’m not supposed to touch anything dirty, and we’re doing chickens first. All the birds will be more comfortable if you wear this. They’ve come to associate it with feeding time.”

  Yvette donned the coat. “Do not worry. These chor
es are simple and soothing. You surround yourself with life. It’s more therapeutic than the Valium.”

  “Yeah, it’s just like Easter morning because they like to hide the eggs. We also have to feed them and check for signs of predators.” Inside the gate, Mercy handed the egg basket to her friend. “Speaking of which, how are you sleeping? Any nightmares?”

  “Has the doctor been dropping hints?”

  “No.” Mercy glanced at the ground. “I just remember what I went through after my . . . encounter.” If you didn’t mention the word rape, it didn’t have as much power. It had been over six years, and she couldn’t say the word without pulling an extra layer of clothing around her.

  “Of course.” Yvette followed her to the first coop. After they collected a few clutches of eggs, she said, “Every so often when I close my eyes, I see Toby leering at me. Sometimes I even have the irrational fear that he’s up there in Olympus, watching my every move.”

  “He can’t hurt you anymore; I revoked his Snowflake access.”

  Outside the coop, they remained silent until entering the turkey run. Once under the shelter, Yvette burst out, “Why can’t I pick decent men? Why do they all hurt me? Is it me? Do I ask for it? Tattoo it on my forehead?”

  Mercy knew that Yvette’s first husband had started as a surgical resident but ended as a drug addict. “Not all men are bad. Lou . . .” She looked down, embarrassed.

  “Made you curious?”

  “I admit, I totally jumped his bones, but I had a scientific reason.”

  Yvette laughed, the first time since her captivity. “Do tell. What changed your mind about him?”

  “Hope.”

  “That he’ll change? He’s permanently seventeen.”