Tomorrow's Spacemage

by Timothy Ellis

  They were quickly followed by some lawyers, and the people paying them.

  Buildings across all the systems were raided by police and military units, and thousands of slaves were freed. Some were killed by means of their collars before police could save them, and as soon as the reports reached me, those responsible found themselves standing by a sign and shovel in the desert.

  After a time, the law challenges stopped, and the courts became the battleground for if the parliament of the people should be declared invalid, and forced to a general election.

  At the same time, legal argument was introduced to the highest court stating my actions were illegal, and I should be arrested and tried for kidnapping and murder. The Prime Minister responded by saying I was merely doing what the police had been ineffective in doing. Maybe my methods were a bit unorthodox, but society as a whole was a lot better off with corrupt people removed from society. The calls began for her to resign.

  Through all of this, Tasha spent most of her time monitoring things, and interrupting my listening to whale symphonies, with summaries I wasn’t really wanting to hear.

  One report though, had me sit up and take notice. On two planets, people had stormed the building which made the slave collars, resulting in deaths when stocks of them, and the explosive raw material, were accidently detonated. On the homeworld, the building was surrounded by extensive fencing, and had private security ensuring the fencing wasn’t breached. No deaths, but a number of injuries. It wasn’t sure how people had been able to access two of the sites, and not the third, but there was speculation they got their timing wrong, and so the main building had been warned in time. All the same, the situation was bad.

  "Time to go be a superhero," said Tasha, grinning.

  I frowned at her, since I hated the whole concept of heroes, super or not, and even though I knew she was just teasing me, she was right this situation needed my sort of resolution.

  A quick clothing change into Judge uniform later, sight used to find the management, and I shifted to their main boardroom, where the directors were meeting.

  "How did you get in here?" demanded the man at the head of the long table.

  I didn't answer, as they were watching what was happening around their building, and it caught my eye. As I watched, a guard lashed out at someone on the other side of the fence with what looked like a cattle prod, and the man it connected with collapsed as if electrocuted. I moved the man on the ground direct to the nearest emergency room, and the man with the prod to my penal island. The predator he appeared next to didn’t even blink, before jumping on him, and ripping his throat out. The prod itself broke into three pieces, and dropped to the ground where the man had been.

  "Who are you?" said a woman half way down the table.

  "Judge Thorn."

  "Shit," said someone else.

  "I told you we should have closed down completely the moment the laws were changed."

  This was a man at the other end of the table. I flicked a glance at him, but I was actually concentrating on finding people in the building, and removing them to a sports ground a few blocks away. It took a few minutes, since the building was a large one.

  With everyone else gone from the building, I put a force wall around it, and over it. It was only meant to keep building in, and people out, so it wasn't my normal wall. Things would bounce off, not become dust.

  I turned to the people at the table.

  "You are all guilty of murder. You have three options."

  "How are we guilty of murder?" asked the man I assumed was the CEO.

  "You make a collar which explodes if triggered, killing people wearing them. How are you not responsible for the deaths of those killed by them?"

  "We just make a product. How people use them is not our concern."

  The woman was perfectly serious.

  "They are specifically for slaves."

  "Indentured workers," said someone else quickly.

  "Slaves. Call them what you like, but they were slaves. The collars are a control mechanism, and an instrument of terror. The collar is an abomination."

  "Nothing different to people buying guns, and shooting someone with them."

  My eyes went to the man who said this, and he went white.

  "Don’t get me started on guns. You might well convince me to remove them from society, along with your collars."

  "No-one would let you," muttered the same man.

  I moved a collar to sit on the desk in front of each of them. All of them reacted by backing away, several actually falling off their chairs in the process.

  "No-one is letting me do this. But I am. You have choices."

  "What are they?" asked the woman.

  "I can blow up this building, with you in it." Now they were looking at me wide eyed. "I can put these collars around your necks and trigger them. Or I can send you to a desert, where you'll die from lack of thirst before you find water. You choose."

  "You're going to kill us?" asked the CEO.

  "Killing slaves is an offence with a death penalty. You made a product specifically for slaves. You profited from the death of people forced to wear them. You are complicit with the rape and torture of people fitted with them. Make your choice."

  "We can't make a choice like that," said another woman, who hadn't spoken as yet.

  "Why not? You made the choice to provide the means of killing other people, why can't you choose your own method of death?"

  There was a silence which no-one seemed to want to break.

  "Fine."

  I moved to the roof of the building next door, linked up every collar, and every bit of explosive in the building, and instructed it all to detonate.

  The building imploded. Held by my force wall, the debris had nowhere to go but back in on itself. When the dust cleared, there was a large pile of debris. I forced the remaining dust to settle out, and dropped the wall.

  The security people were looking at the debris with astonished expressions. I moved them to the sports ground as well, minus their weapons, and made the fences vanish. Outside where they were, people stood gawking at the ruin.

  I moved home.

  Five

  "Judge Thorn, are you here to intimidate or threaten us?"

  Five judges sat the bench of the highest court, and only these five could decide challenges to laws, or rule if a parliament could continue to sit. I'd hoped I could slip in unnoticed, but apparently not. I hadn't thought I'd need to be invisible to do so, but maybe I should have been. Too late now.

  I rose from the seat in the back, I’d just sat down in.

  "Your honours, I merely came to observe."

  "Of course you did," muttered one of the judges under his breath, unaware I could still hear him.

  The others heard him, but ignored it. No-one else heard or saw anything. I pretended not to hear as well.

  "My only interest is in the truth. As long as the truth is told here today, and the decisions reached have a basis in law, there is no reason for me to be anything more than a spectator. And since what is to be decided today is a direct result of my actions, I thought I should follow through."

  "Very commendable I'm sure," said the middle judge, who'd issued the challenge to start with. "Please sit, and remember whose court this is."

  I nodded, and sat.

  A very long and boring day passed. The continuation of the current parliament of the people was the main decision to be reached. Once a ruling was issued, the validity of the last amendments to laws passed could be ruled on as well. They were both tied together, since if the parliament couldn't continue in its current member deficient state, the laws passed in this state, would not be legal.

  Arguments were presented from lawyers for both sides, and after hearing from both, I was very glad it wasn’t me up there making the decision. The legalese was like a different language, and I had to use magic to understand it like any other language.

  The Prime Minister came and went with her own law
yers, as did the Speaker and her lawyers. Three sets of opposition lawyers came and went as well. While between them, constitutional lawyers with their own opinions, made their own cases.

  "Keep your cool Thorn," came from Tasha on my pad, after one of them made a very good case for the parliament not being able to function as it was now.

  She was watching it at home, shown magically using my sight. No-one else was, as it was a media free zone.

  I kept my cool.

  The legal arguments eventually ended, the judges retired to consider their rulings, and I took the time with a lot of others, to get a drink and a quick bite to eat.

  As the afternoon began turning into evening, the Prime Minister, Speaker, and the new Opposition Leader, turned up again, and took reserved seats, and those of us waiting outside were called back in.

  We were called to rise, stood, the judges came back in, sat, and we were bid sit also. The mumble of voices died as the center judge picked up the gavel.

  "On the matter of the validity of the current parliament to sit, we find it can. Nowhere in parliamentary instructions is there stated all members must be present for a vote to be taken, and it is common practice for many members not to turn up for votes which do not interest them. As the lawyer for Madame Speaker submitted, at such times any member not present is considered to be abstaining. Until by-elections can be held, the number abstaining will be higher than usual, but as also submitted, not the highest ever."

  He looked around the room.

  "There is no quorum specified in the constitution, only that members from all of the five major parties must be present for a vote to occur. Such absences of entire parties have happened in the past, and this was deemed an illegal action more than one hundred years ago. Submissions state the current makeup of the parliament to contain members from all parties, so this parliament is ruled as constitutional in its current form. All major parties are warned to not test us, by failing to have members present for any vote. Such action here and now, in the current situation, will be viewed as contempt of court."

  He flicked a glance at me.

  "While the events causing the current legal crisis are unique, at no time was there a major party missing from the chamber, so therefore all votes taken during the last session are ruled as constitutionally valid."

  He banged the gavel.

  "This court is adjourned."

  The five judges rose, and began to turn towards the door to chambers.

  On a hunch, I put a force wall in front of the bench, right across the room.

  Shots rang out, and the judges flinched, making them hurry. People ducked down in front of their seats, leaving me a good view of the shooter. As his finger tightened on the trigger again, I removed the gun, and dropped him in front of the sign and shovel.

  The PM looked at the place where the person had been, and over to me. She nodded, and rose, following the judges out the same door they'd left through. The Speaker followed her.

  I went home.

  Six

  I was back in the same court the following morning.

  This time I was seated front and center, and the motion being addressed was the legality of my actions in the parliament.

  Once again, legal argument was presented, both for and against the motion, and the whole time, the five judges studiously avoided making eye contact with me. They glared at lawyers, stared down anyone daring to make eye contact with them, and listened.

  The essential argument was no one person should be judge, jury, and executioner. Or jailer. Anyone acting as such, was exceeding their authority. The only thing which surprised me, was I wasn’t called.

  After the judges retired to consider what they'd heard, the PM came up to me.

  "Their honours were appreciative of your actions yesterday, but it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to acknowledge it. I made sure they understood you stopped the shots from hitting at least one of them, and removed the offender before he could fire again. It was a good lesson in what you can do."

  "They got lucky. I put up the force wall on a hunch, nothing more."

  "May your hunches prove right all the time."

  She was laughing.

  "Which way do you think they'll go on this?"

  She went serious in hurry.

  "I don’t know. Someone with your powers has never been a judge before. Then again, no-one with your powers has ever been seen outside of books about myths and terrors before time began."

  "Sorry, what? There are myths of someone with my powers?"

  "Of course. Where do you think all the entertainment featuring super heroes comes from? Most of them are based on something considered a myth, and simply given shape and form in the image of today."

  "How far back do these myths go?"

  "Don’t ask me. I just remember hearing about them as a kid. You know, eat your greens, or the boogeyman will get you. And if he doesn’t, it'll be the grim reaper."

  She was laughing again. I wasn’t. Our cousins and now ex-enemies had used both words as well. I wondered where it came from.

  "I seemed to have missed them. At least, the consequences of not eating your greens in my day were something entirely different. Who would know?"

  "Absolutely no idea, but if I was looking, the university probably has a local expert on myths and legends. Try there."

  "I will. Thanks."

  "Why are you interested, if you don’t mind me asking?"

  "Our cousins deny magic, and here no-one believes in it, but accepts it without question when it happens around them. It’s a major contradiction, and I’d like to understand why."

  "I can see why you'd want to, but frankly young man, I don’t really see the point of it."

  Neither did I, but it was one of those gut feelings you ignored at your peril. There was something I needed to know in all this, and following it up could be very important. Or not.

  My pad dinged, and I pulled it out.

  "I should have an appointment for us by the time you get home."

  I'd forgotten Tasha was seeing and hearing all this. I put the pad away.

  About to respond to the PM, instead we were called back to our seats in preparation for the judges returning. They hadn't been gone long.

  Rise, wait, sit. The main lawyers for each side sat at the two presentation tables. I sat in the middle of the front observer's row, behind and between them. The PM was in the row behind me, and the room was packed.

  The center judge looked around the room. His eyes lingered on the lawyers bringing the motion for a moment longer than anyone else. My sight, looking at the room from the judge's perspective, saw the primary lawyer's mouth smile for a split second. He thought they'd won.

  "The motions to declare the actions of Judge Thorn illegal, are dismissed."

  "You've got to be joking!" rang out from behind me.

  The judge banged his gavel, and the outbreak of mutterings went silent.

  "The Prime Minister has the authority to appoint judges, with the sole exception being this bench. Such appointments are always made in consultation with this bench. In the case in question, the appointment was made to a roving bench, which is a specific class of judgeship, where the judge does not have an actual court to sit in, and whose brief is wider than most judges are given."

  His eyes met mine for a brief moment.

  "In this case, before his appointment, Judge Thorn had demonstrated not only the mindset of a good judge, but a skillset previously unknown, which allowed him to be a good judge. For example, no-one can lie to him. It is unusual for any judge to be appointed to a roving bench, but every single instance of it happening, has resulted in welcome change to our society."

  He sipped from a glass of water. The room remained silent.

  "The assumption has been made by those putting the motion that this bench has been in isolation, and only aware of what has been presented today. This is incorrect. We were consulted before the judgeship was conferred, we have been watching eve
nts since, and we did watch the entire sitting of parliament which led to the motion today."

  "Judges are given specific powers, which relate directly to their ability to make an unbiased judgement. This bench often acts as judge and jury, and the roving bench is considered to be of the same level of justice as this bench, although is excluded from constitutional matters, of which we alone have jurisdiction. The roving judge can at their discretion also act as jury. This is specified in the constitution."

  His eyes flicked at me again, but settled on the for the motion table.

  "Should a judge be able to act as jailor or executioner? We already do. In the normal flow of events, we render a judgement, law enforcement takes custody of the now prisoner, and they are either confined for a specific term, or confined pending execution. Normally the role of judge ends with sentencing. In Judge Thorn's case, his skillset also allows him to preempt the role of law enforcement. Instead of a prison, he sentences people to life in a penal colony, or death. Both are within the purview of a roving bench. The fact he makes people disappear after sentencing, is of no relevance to this court, so long as they do go where he says they do. And we have no reason to suspect the Judge is lying about where he sends people. The fact we don’t know where this is, is also not of relevance to this court, as any judge has discretion in where they sentence people to."

  He looked around the room.

  "This court is adjourned."

  He banged the gavel, we all rose, they left, and the room broke out into excited noise. I received some nasty looks from lawyers leaving past me, and as I turned to leave myself, more nasty looks from people who'd been behind me. If nasty looks could kill, I'd be dead. But since they didn’t, and it wasn’t illegal, I ignored them.

  I walked out, allowing myself to be filmed by media, and when I found an empty office, I jumped home from there.