The Silence of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (book recommendations website txt) 📕

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: THE TRIAL

The jury listened to GH306's reasoning - his explanations were a little strange from a human point of view. He was trying to make things clear - no excuses.

His potential accusers felt as if they were listening to a small child who was simply incapable of lying to them. But they could see that deep down this clone had doubts about his own nature.

Sometimes clones were allowed to keep some memories of their donor, but that didn't really exonerate them in the eyes of real people.

The futuristic building of Veoria should have been an honor in itself to any clone that was tried in it.

Its decoration was more than impressive, and few had escaped without convictions.

It was usually preferable to send the mines to the moon, where there was, after all, the possibility of minor relaxations in the regime for some high-profile defendants, as was the case with GH306.

However, it was difficult to predict which was more unpleasant for him.

Seeing the eyes of his own crew members, who had come here specifically in his defense, or the cold and expressionless eyes of the magistrates who were about to pronounce the dreaded sentence that would decide his further fate.

He would accept any decision they made. He was guided by the Articles of War, and had generally resolved that he would accept his end with dignity.

Before the actual trial began, by old tradition, all the necessary evidence and the case as a whole had to be presented.

The pleadings of the counsel for the two high governors were so florid and detailed that there could be no question of any extenuating circumstances.

They used specific words and definitions such as "the subject in question," "grave premeditation," and "murder in the first degree," clearly wishing to argue that the clone and clones in general should be treated as public enemies and that's that.

There was a profound formulation in the law which amounted to the following.

According to the constitution of the province, the most logical thing to do was to propose the death penalty, but given the person's special merits, there might have been some chance of pardon and partial rehabilitation.

The members of his crew who knew him best were first called upon, but, as we have said, their votes were not counted equally with the votes of real people.

- "Remember his great services to the defence of the Asteroid Belt," announced one of his cronies named Sonwright Vogue, "So he saved the entire planet Earth. That's a huge contribution.

His special part in freeing some of the captured human soldiers should not be forgotten," added another of his acquaintances.

- "Please treat him as you would, for he was attacked by his own benefactors," added his third defender.

The opinion of the jury was divided enough. Presumably there was no point in even wasting their time with nonsense and the verdict could have been given at the most at the second court meeting, but this time they feared some backlash.

GH306 on the contrary was silent and had his head bowed in anticipation of their decision. In the end though they gave him the floor for some brief speech.

He rose with dignity and stood behind the bank where he was to speak. There was a distant dreaminess in his gaze - like someone longing to deal with his problems, but in his own way.

- All my life I have tried to be who I am. And I have given much to this Earth Federation, which now treats me as a criminal and even a tribalist. The two late senators were like my fathers before I was mercilessly attacked by them and forced to spill their blood with these two hands. But it was legitimate self-defense that was unavoidable. I have heard rumors that the Earth Federation has new global plans that should increase the power and capacity of the Korolan Bru Corporation. That may have been an ulterior motive, me being removed. Don't get me wrong, we clones live thirty-five to thirty-six years, so there's not much to complain about. Our fate was predestined from the moment we were born. We were expected to serve obediently and obey our commanders directly. Sometimes the situation reached a complete farce, but we had no right to emotions. The bandage finally fell from my eyes. We were cannon fodder, but it was in our tragedy that the romance of our lives lay. That is, we were the faithful dogs of our masters and as such we were being indiscriminately obliterated! Don't take my speech as incitement to rebellion or anything like that - conditions on the moon are not much harsher than those on the battlefield. I do not wish to burden the budget of the Earth Federation, which is already stretched terribly thin with so many ambitious projects.

His reflections and free speeches caused an uproar among those present. The accusers were denounced, and no one dared to come out alone against these words, in which there was a great deal of truth.

But the law was still the law - they had to deal with the situation and just give some solution.

The jurors were divided and wished to retire to a short deliberation where they could deliberate some more - there was no time for unnecessary procrastination.

As more time passed, the sentiment against GH306 sharply changed and intensified. Not all were negative, of course.

He wasn't asking for sympathy, just a rudimentary understanding that he had resorted to legitimate self-defense.

Everyone awaited the court's decision with bated breath.

After some deliberation, they finally decided - he was to be sent to the moon to die in the Helium-3 mines.

The clone accepted his sentence with dignity and did not murmur in the least. Of course, the jury also decided to say a kind and encouraging word or two about his accomplishments to preserve the justice of the verdict.

The guards then escorted him out to be transported the next day to the nearest connection point and escorted to the flying port to the moon.

This construct was particularly important, as from there there was a real possibility that reinforcements could be transported directly to Mars, which saved some time, but still the fate of a prisoner did not appeal to him.

And the great dragon was cast down, that ancient serpent that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world was cast down to earth and his angels were cast down with him. (Revelation 12:7-9)

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: THE SEVEN BRIGHT CREATURES

In very few of the world's religions has there been such agreement as concerning the Seven Luminous Creatures. They were something very special.

Throughout history people had interacted with them and received help from their grace.

The Earth Federation had long since gone down a different path than that of true enlightenment. There was no way out for those who could not find salvation for their soul.

People needed guidance to carry out their mission on earth. But long ago they had turned away from the truth.

Too sick was an Earth society accustomed to plundering the riches of the solar system with no real prospect of restoring balance.

When the clone was sent to the moon, some sighed with relief because it would reduce their political influence, which was already not very great.

When you're in a bind, as was the case on GH306, you tend to lean on other powers, and so did the infamous Richwater - adjutant to Kenji Nolsuro - he had once intertwined his fingers in a prayer that was addressed to the Most High.

The moon mines of Helium-3 were a Hell where few survived.

The moon was characterized by what was called synchronous rotation, which meant that only one part of it was visible from Earth. This feature of hers was used cleverly to keep track of the progress that was being made on the mines.

On the so-called "dark side" of the moon were the laboratories for processing rare earth elements such as scandium and yttrium.

Lunar libration, or also known as lunar wobbling, was another interesting phenomenon associated with this celestial body that could actually cause a change in perspective for the observer.

Clones were known for their high level of intelligence and for this reason GH306 was sent to the dark side of the moon where it could take part in their extraction.

He soon felt the cruel truth - he was no longer needed by the Earth Federation, having done its dirty work and ridding it of the late Senators Bondor and Olroy.

But the truth was, he'd never been too comfortable in human company.

While the distribution process was going on at Port Terra Nova 2, as the new expansion of that connection point was known, he had time to look around at the other prisoners. They were not at all pleasant. Brutal ex-recidivists, there were also aliens.

Starting a new job was a little unusual for him, not for anything else, but because he realized that something terrible was going to happen in the colony in the coming days.

And he wasn't kidding himself. The robot in charge of him was first and foremost the most important allocator, and even for a brief time he felt a peculiar emotion expressed towards the clone:

- Time to feel the other side of the coin, Admiral. People will dump you once you do their dirty work. But that's what we're here for. This will be your new home. And we're gonna take care of you.

GH306 took his words seriously enough - he knew the robots sent a signal back to Earth if they sensed any fluctuations in the prisoners.

Sometimes there was a reverse elimination order.

The truth was that the idea of taking all the dirt to the moon had long been proposed by Earthlings, but no one had been hired to escort the dangerous criminals without the consent of the Galactic Federation, which could also veto the case.

To be precise there were over two hundred thousand colonists on the Moon, who, as worker ants, provided most of the rare elements missing on Earth.

A special space depot had been set up, whose role was to process some of the extracted resources and therefore make them fit for use in the colony.

GH306 was a strange bird - he immediately realized that since the Earth Federation had assigned him to this "hole", as most of the colonists incidentally labeled this satellite, he was entitled to at least use his available forces and survive on his own terms without being governed by its Military Charter any longer.

This change in him did not happen too suddenly - it took him time to realize the definite benefits of killing the two senators, who by the way were members of the upper house, which was, as we already know, entitled to a double vote over the others.

The reduction in its numbers gave some justification for the even easier passage of various bills including that to terraform Haumea, which he himself considered a farce.

But Earth was determined to build an underground base there, and that might cost the Korolan Bru Corporation too much salt.

- So all this time we've been ruled by complete idiots