by Jim Rudnick
"Yes, you are surely qualified, Ambassador. But my next question is not about you or the RIM; instead, I would like you to tell us all about the Issians, who come from Eons on the RIM. Would you give us your take on them—and their special skills?" Qor asked.
Ambassador Harmon was surprised, and yet as most diplomats, he would surely rise to the occasion.
"Yes, I can tell you about Eons and the Issians for days. But the short of it is the Issians are a small group of citizens from their planet Eons. They are very 'specialized' human beings. We still have no idea what gave them those special powers, but the following is true. They can read someone else's mind—"
A huge gasp and more beak clicking came from the rotunda crowd. He paused to let that lessen and after a few seconds, he continued.
"They have some better luck with some aliens and then not so much with others. They can also not only read a mind that they can link to, but they can also put in false memories into some brains too. They also, though we are told this is a very 'iffy' science, can see what lies in someone's future too. Sometimes just mere minutes, sometimes I've heard for days. As you may imagine, they are often wrong, so that puts this whole mindreading ability as a suspect set of skills. While I've no idea why, they also act as an Adept Officer in many navies on the RIM—the RIM Navy itself, the Barony Navy, the Conclusion Navy—there is quite a long list. Bottom line is—we just don't know if the skills are true or not. Sometimes yes and sometimes no," he finished off and smiled at the prosecutor, who nodded back as he was finished.
Tanner looked at the head juror and got a nod back, and he rose to question his ambassador.
"Ambassador Harmon, do you have any personal information that an Issian can in fact read minds? Anything that you know as you were involved in this somehow?"
Ambassador Harmon shook his head slightly. "Not at all, ever. What I related to you was simply what is bandied around on the RIM about the Issians. No one knows, for sure," he said and he was dismissed from the witness chair.
As Tanner sat, Bram leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Sir, the ambassador had one single word in his mind when he patted my arm—and he wanted me to see it. He said simply 'lose,' Sir."
As Tanner leaned back in his chair, that made him wonder why Harmon wanted them to lose. He must know something that we don't. If only I could talk with him. Knowing he couldn't talk to him right now, Tanner shook his head. Why would he want us to lose this case?
The prosecutor then called Resources Officer Swanki, the Enkian who had been in charge of the food processing treatment plant that handled the chemical immersion procedures.
More than five minutes of backstory about the process, how it was accomplished, and why it was necessary to so treat the food pellets that would initially colorize a set of white feathers into full muse colors in one evening too were covered. Qor asked many questions on the procedures as to what happened in the processing treatment room and how and why. He also drilled down a lot, Tanner thought, on the actual immersion process and how it was not run by any kind of Enkian AI. It was a manual chore, to simply hit a button, wait until the buzzer went off on the operator's console and then hit the button again. Qor also asked the tech how many times he'd done this before and received the answer of never.
"So this was your first time ever doing the immersion treatment then?" Qor asked.
Swanki confirmed he had never done this before, but he knew via his training and instructions from the treatment plant supervisor what to do and how to simply press a button.
Smiling, Qor then got to the meat of the testimony. "And on this day, when the immersion treatment occurred, were you alone in the treatment plant?"
"No, I was not, I had a visitor who said he had come down to see the immersion treatment, in person," Swanki said.
"And what did that person say to you—exact words, please, if you remember?"
"Yes, I remember what he said exactly as it was so nice. He said that he'd come to enjoy my first-ever food pellet immersion process and to congratulate me too. And I remembered how good that made me feel, so I thanked him and then pressed the button. A few minutes later, the tanks came back up, dripped out the excess chems, and they were done. I remember it well, Prosecutor," he said with pride even now.
"And, Officer Swanki, who was this person, this human, who came all the way over to the Resources pyramid, down into its depths, and into the food treatment process plant to stand beside you? Who was that person?" Qor said.
Swanki turned to look directly at Bram and pointed to him as he said, "Well, it was the defendant, Lieutenant Sander, who did that," and he smiled at his friend.
Again, there were gasps from the rotunda and much muttering drowned out the beak clicking that were louder than normal.
"Exactly, Officer Swanki, it was Lieutenant Sander, the Issian Adept Officer, who did that, wasn't it?” he said as he smiled at Bram. The prosecutor then smiled at Officer Swanki and said, "One more question, please ..."
Resources Officer Swanki nodded.
"Why is what the human said of such great interest, Officer Swanki?" Qor said.
"Because there was no way that he could have known that this was my first time, Prosecutor. I never told anyone that, ever. So the only way he could have known is by reading my mind," he added.
Beaks clacked, shout-outs happened, and mutterings changed into yells as the rotunda suddenly exploded with noise and opinions.
Qig, the head juror, let it go for a moment and then looked at Tanner as if to ask if he had any comment or objection. Tanner sat still, saying nothing and looking down at his pad as he doodled in a corner. There was nothing to say here if he was to follow the ambassador's advice.
He leaned over to whisper into Bram's ear. "Are you positive that the ambassador said lose? One simple term for us to follow—lose?" he asked, his voice quiet but pointed.
Bram just nodded.
Tanner ignored the unspoken question on the head juror's face. Officer Swanki was relieved and the witness chair sat empty.
Tanner waited as the prosecutor seemed to be looking at the binder of notes in front of him, and Tanner was as surprised as anyone else when Qor said to the jury, "The prosecution rests, Your Honor," and then he sat down.
The head juror conferred with some of the other jurors and then turned back to his microphone. "Captain Scott, please present your defense of these charges," he said and sat back.
Everyone sat back to see what the defense counsel would do and what they'd be presenting as proof that the defendant was not guilty of terrorism.
Tanner pulled the microphone a bit closer and looked directly at the head juror. Something else is afoot, I'm sure of that, but what? He shook his head. No time for that—the trial needed losing.
"Your Honor and all the jurors. We have, as you also have, sat and listened to the evidence that was presented to yourselves as truth that there was enough evidence for the defendant to be guilty of terrorism. While the suitability of this charge is a topic for another day, what we heard—what we all heard—is conjecture, opinion, and conclusions based on gossip from the RIM, from a technician, and yes, from the prosecutor himself. We therefore ask that the jury would agree with us and issue an immediate and summary not guilty verdict." He leaned back in his chair and waited.
The head juror didn't even bother to confer with his other jurors. He said, "There will be no summary judgment in this case. Please present your defense, Captain," and he smiled.
Tanner shook his head and said into his microphone, "Then the defense rests, Your Honor. We do not believe that the prosecution has met their burden of proof, so we rest."
In the rotunda, the beak clacking and the mutterings started again. It was even happening at the prosecution table, and while Tanner wondered what it might be that they were discussing, he knew he'd never know.
The head juror nodded, spoke to one of his jurors for only a few seconds, and then looked back at the prosecutor. "Prosecutor, if you have a clo
sing statement, please present it now," and he again leaned back.
Qor rose, looked at his notes, and then turned to face Bram. "You have done a major disservice to the Enkian people, Lieutenant Sander. You have, using your un-natural skills as an Issian, made a mockery of our most basic Enkian tradition—the graduation of our younglings into full muse adulthood. You did that. There is no question that you went down to the food treatment plant to ensure that the chemical immersions would not be completed. And out of your own mouth, you uttered the one thing you couldn't have known about Resources Officer Swanki, to prove your own mindreading meddling. You did this, Lieutenant, and I call upon our Enkian jurors to see that you are guilty and to ask for the most severe penalty of all, death. We ask for this lieutenant to pay the price of his guilt with his life—and we ask on behalf of all of Enki, jurors," he said, and he pushed the microphone away.
The crowd in the rotunda roared. Beaks were clacking like mad, there were deafening screams and yells, and chants of “Death, death, death,” were also being made.
Tanner was in shock. At no time did he ever envision the penalty for this would be capital punishment. He looked at Bram who whispered one single word, "lose," and then he looked away.
Tanner nodded. Something else had to be afoot because if they lost, then Bram would die.
The head juror looked at him and said, "Does the defense have a final closing as well?"
Tanner nodded to Qig and then smiled. "As the head of the defense team for Lieutenant Sander, it falls to me to offer up only the following. As I have already stated, the prosecution has failed to make its case. This should be a simple task for the esteemed jurors to see as we all do—and find the lieutenant is innocent."
He sat and was quiet.
And he waited. They all waited, as the jurors rose and left the stage for their discussions.
#####
He turned to Bram and said, "We really didn't have a case, did we?"
His lieutenant shook his head.
"And if we'd have had a tape of the Fine Arts Muse trying to muscle us about the election, we'd have used it, wouldn't we?"
Bram nodded again.
"And yet, the ambassador must have his reasons for asking us to stand down—not, to be honest, that we really had any cards to play."
Bram smiled. "I have no more information than you do," Bram said, "and with the thought of a death penalty being a part of all of this, all I can think of is that is exactly what the Ambassador said and that means—"
He stopped as a hand squeezed his shoulder, and he and Tanner turned around to see Ambassador Harmon standing behind them. He smiled at them and then squatted down to talk as surreptitiously as possible in the crowded rotunda. He leaned forward too so that his face could not be seen, and he said, "This is for us only—agreed?" as Kondo rose to stand directly behind him as a blocker of a sort.
Tanner said, "Lose? You wanted us to lose with a death penalty on the table?" He couldn't keep a tone of incredulousness from his voice.
Up above, the view-screens showed them conversing, but there was no audio. Thank God.
Harmon nodded. "I've been in talks with Qig, the head juror, since almost midnight. We struck a deal about a half hour before the trial started, and here's what you need to know. Sander will be found guilty, but Qig will not allow the death penalty to be applied. Instead, it is a lifetime banishment from Enki. We will simply take him up to the Atlas, and he's never to return. That left Qig some face-saving room as it was him that got this all started with the threat to us to help him rig the election, which we did. He wants that buried and so do we. Qor is none the wiser by the way," he said under his breath, "and we want that to remain the same too."
Tanner nodded but something stood out in all of this. "Ambassador, one thing? The probe metal, the Xithricite? What about that?"
The Ambassador nodded and smiled. "Hence the long, long discussions. We reached agreement on the lieutenant in an hour—but it took more than seven more to gain at least some standing with that one. We will be able to get twenty-five percent of their ore output, on an annual basis. And yes, we had to let them know that the metal has some great value to those of us who have advanced technology—we did not reveal its true value, of course. And yes, we all know that this is a small amount, so the Enkians have nicely agreed to allow us to provide better technology in the mining of those ores only—to begin with. That, we estimate, will increase the ore tonnage by about four hundred percent. They, however, get the technology for free, of course, as the first of the many ways that the RIM can help Enki move into this millennium."
They all nodded.
"And FTL?" Bram added.
"Ahh ... yes, the crux of new technology, FTL ... but that's not even on the table yet. Here they come," he added as he slowly stood up as the jurors were coming back to the stage.
"Out for less than a half hour—would a real lawyer be worried about that?" Tanner mused.
"No way to know," Bram said as the ambassador left the stage area to return to his seat and the jurors climbed the stairs to take their seats.
The head juror rose now, and his feathered crest rippled and rippled. The crowds eventually noticed and sat, and silence broke out in the rotunda.
Qig stared at them all on the stage, first at the prosecution and then at the defense team, and finally at Bram himself. "Would the accused please rise," he said.
Bram, Tanner, and Kondo all stood and faced the table of jurors.
"After much reflection and the weighing of the evidence, we, the jurors, find the defendant, Lieutenant Sander, guilty as charged with terrorism."
The rotunda went crazy with loud shouts and beaks clacking, and again, the chant of “Death, death, death,” could be heard.
Qig, waited until the crowd quieted and then went on. "We therefore herewith impose the penalty of death to the guilty defendant to be carried out within the week," he said, and the crowd roared with delight.
Tanner thought that he'd misheard Qig and looked to Bram who was frozen in his chair.
"Militia, please take the guilty party back into custody." Qig sat once more in the head juror's chair.
Tanner half-rose but couldn't be heard over the tumult that was going on in the rotunda. Enkians from the audience were climbing up the stairs to congratulate the prosecutor or the jurors perhaps, he didn't know, but suddenly he wished he had worn his sidearm, as some turned toward the defense table. Thank God. The Militia soldiers on picket duty had stepped up and were pushing off the Enkians who had no business on the stage. A small squad put cuffs back on Bram and began to move him out of the rotunda and back to the Militia pyramid.
Before he left, Tanner leaned over. "Don't despair, Bram, I'm on this and on this with all the might of the RIM," he said, and as Bram nodded, Kondo nudged Tanner.
"Sir, the ambassador is waving at us—we should go too," he said, and they got in behind the soldiers as they left the stage.
Once down on the floor, they had to push a little and move chairs out of their way, but eventually they reached the ambassador who said, "Upstairs to the offices," and he turned to work his way out of the crowd to the far side of the rotunda.
CHAPTER TEN
Lieutenant Cooper, at the helm on the bridge, tried to signal the Air Force wing commander, as he strode onto the bridge, but he never caught the officer's eye.
Colonel David Richards marched straight up to the captain's chair to speak to his captain. "Sir," he said."Colonel, what are you doing on the bridge without asking for an admit to same?" Tanner said, his voice fierce and his glare aimed straight at the now uncomfortable colonel.
"I ... I didn't know that I had to—" he said but was interrupted by the captain.
"XO, what regulation in the Barony Navy regs did our colonel here just breach?" he barked out.
Kondo had his fingers flying on the keyboard, and if one looked, they would have seen a long scrolling page of fine print rolling across his console monitor.
&nb
sp; "Sir, yes ... sorry, Sir, for the delay—that would be Navy Regulations on Bridge Deportment, um, Article Eleven, but I don't yet see—"
"Never mind, XO," Tanner barked once more, and he looked instead at the Air Force colonel. "What is it, Colonel, my lunch is about due from the stewards," he said as his wing commander visibly came to attention, and his face looked like it was carved out of stone.
"Sir, yes, Sir. I just wanted—sorry, Sir. I am here to report that our first Air Force military exercise have been ongoing and quite successful, we believe, as well, Sir. Just got the debriefings, Sir." He handed a set of printed reports to Tanner. "We had more than one hundred and fifty of our single, double, and even troop carriers down on Enki as per our plans. While there was no actual combat, we showed what kind of a combatant we would be to all onlookers, and, Sir, I've sent through some fighter display footage if you'd care to see it?"
Tanner nodded to his helm officer, and moments later on the huge bridge view-screen, suddenly they were flying over Enki, the brown sands far below.
His fingers were tapping one, two ... one, two on his knee. He was under stress now, as Bram's future—Bram's life—was at stake. He turned back to the screen.
As this fighter flew along in the distance, a set of pyramids slowly grew along the horizon, and the fighter seemed to slow, as passing it now were dozens of other fighters, both singles and doubles too. They moved off at a terrific rate, and the camera fighter climbed to get above the conflagration below near what could be seen was the capital city of Enki.
While the exercise included no adversary squadrons, it was understood that this was not a combat dogfight exercise but instead a bombing exercise. Wave after wave of the fighters took a low bombing run at the central pyramid of the city, the Resources pyramid. At no time, one could see, was there any real threat to the pyramid itself, as the singles took straight runs at it. The doubles, instead of using a straight run, took spirals down toward the central pyramid, pulling up and out of the way at the last instant.
