Titan's Plague: The Trial by Tom Briggs (story reading .txt) đź“•
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- Author: Tom Briggs
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The list of suspects was not encouraging. Pati read through it and didn’t know most of the people on the list, only that they worked for a McLear, or were related to Bruno Redden, or were friends with the twins. It redoubled her desire to get off of Titan the first possible moment.
She had to wait thirty minutes for the trolley when she finally got to leave at the late hour. She walked from the station to her apartment complex. The robot at the desk let her in on sight, and she tramped her way to her apartment upstairs. Once in, she marched through the blue-carpeted and yellow-walled living room, had a quick meal in the kitchenette, and went straight to bed.
Her bedroom had the same color scheme as the living room, and only the white linens on her bed distinguished it from the living room with red leather furniture. She walked to the closet, dropped her work clothes into the laundry shoot, and threw on a soft t-shirt with shorts. They were her underclothes from the prison ship, and she would have trashed them if they weren’t so comfortable and easy to sleep in.
Without even a bathroom break, she slipped into bed. She fumed about what jerks the constables were and then stopped her train of thought. If she would sleep at all, she couldn’t afford to think about all the wrongs she’d experienced since moving to Titan. It would keep her up for weeks.
She instead thought about what it would be like when she got back to Earth. The wonderful thoughts relaxed her. She nodded off. She was no longer on Titan.
She was back at the docks, at her hometown of Dingle. It seemed a cloudy day, so cloudy that she didn’t notice any color, other than some green here and there, which was normal for Ireland.
The docks were empty, no boats anywhere, and no people. This was not what she was used to. Her father and brothers fished in the old style, and she spent much of her childhood walking down to see them after school. She felt a tinge of guilt dismissing their efforts as “backward” when she became a teenager and, unfortunately, that kind of thinking led her to the other place, which she couldn’t quite recall at the moment. Before she could put much thought into the subject, she saw a person.
She stood by the boat ramp on Pati’s left. Pati took two steps in her direction, and then she was in front of her. “Hello, Patricia,” the little girl said.
The little girl was maybe eight. She wore a traditional Catholic school uniform with a green-gray tartan design. “Who are you?” Pati asked.
The little girl with brownish-red hair replied, “I’m someone very important to you, Patricia.”
“Are you from my family?” Pati asked.
The girl slowly shook her head before she answered. “Patricia, I can be more important to you than your family.”
“How?”
“I can give you what you want.”
“What do I want?”
“Let me show you,” she said. She raised both her arms into the air and disappeared. Then the sun became stronger. Not oppressive, just enough for Pati to feel the heat on her skin. Surprisingly, the docks remained as gray as before, but the sky was almost blue, and she could see the sun in its brilliant yellow. Pati felt warm, comfortable, and back where she belonged. The only problem was that nagging buzzer sound, which wouldn’t stop.
She opened her eyes. The time to wake up was projected on the ceiling, and it couldn’t be right.
“I just went to bed,” she said to herself.
Pati had never seen a courtroom till she landed on Titan. And for some reason, she expected most courtrooms on Earth looked the same.
Except, there was nowhere for a judge to sit. Instead, there was a screen whose primary purpose was to display the “score” of the trial. She avoided a trial for Richard’s death because Keebler settled the case with them. This time, she had to deal with Jack Reagan. Nancy said he was reasonable, but Pati had seen nothing to make her agree. He seemed like a tough bastard who only cared about winning cases and putting people in jail, a metric she learned the prosecutors were judged on. Too bad they weren't judged on getting it right. Nancy seemed confident, though, and Pati didn’t worry too much.
Nancy stood at the podium in front of the screen, facing Pati, the prosecutors who sat to Pati’s right, and a small crowd of people behind her. The crowd was here to watch a preliminary hearing of a trial that would not take place for a week, if at all. She could think of better ways to waste one’s time.
The screen displayed the words “Defense Statements.” That meant Nancy completed uploading data and was ready to start the defense. In dramatic portrayals, Pati was accustomed to the prosecutors leading. In today’s hearing, it didn’t matter because the score was calculated regardless of who went first.
“I’ve finished uploading preliminary statements for the defense,” Nancy said to the room. “We still need to conduct an inspection of the mining ship, at which time we can discuss our findings with the prosecution.” Nancy left the podium and sat down next to Pati.
Jack Reagan stood up and took his turn up front. He uploaded the prosecutor’s information, which took about five minutes. He then stood at the podium as the screen displayed, “Prosecutor’s Statement.”
“The state does not, at this time, dispute the information provided by the defendant. The state will only maintain that this trial is far from complete. And, given the gravity of the charges, must be followed to a complete conclusion which requires, no demands, admission of all pertinent facts no matter how difficult those facts are to obtain. The murder of a human being, let alone three, requires a complete and comprehensive investigation. The defendant has a previous record of deadly assault, and to dismiss this case at this time is unacceptable. Even to put a time limit on the trial could easily prevent justice being done.”
“Is he always this long-winded?” Pati whispered to Nancy.
“Yeah, I wish the JJ would get bored with him and give more points in our favor,” Nancy said.
Five minutes later, Jack Reagan left the podium. The screen flashed, “Opening Statements Complete?” Nancy and Jack both replied, “Yes,” at the same time. The screen went blank.
“Okay, let’s see what we get,” Nancy whispered to Pati.
As much as Pati wanted the trial to be finished, at the moment, she was glad this was preliminary. The machine rendering the judgment over her could do anything at the moment. The score would be from one to a hundred. While realistically, the score would not be at either of those extremes, anything could still happen.
If it came back in single digits, that would be the end. Jack Reagan would be taken out of the decision, and Pati would have to be released. Despite this being a preliminary judgment, it would become binding since the accused had a stronger right to their freedom than the state had to incarcerate, to use Nancy’s words.
On the flip side, a score over ninety, and Pati would return to her cell and wait for the final judgment. The reason to detain her was that historically the accused was expected to be sentenced to a long trip back to Earth and likely would become scarce before the final judgment. Pati wouldn’t think twice about going into hiding if that happened.
A score between meant both sides had more work to do. Either obtain additional evidence to strengthen their case, or settle, or both. The bottom line being this preliminary judgment was an official statement on where the case was at with, for the first time, both sides presenting evidence and arguments—the result providing direction on how to proceed.
The screen had not changed in the last minute, and Pati clenched her fists. The crowd had gone quiet, although a few voices were heard. Bailiffs were around the room, carrying tranquilizer guns like the ones the constables carried. Two protected the door, and another two stood equidistant from the podium. Pati felt the security was a bit overkill for a preliminary hearing.
“There,” Nancy said.
Pati saw the screen display a 35.
“Noooo!” a lady screeched.
Pati turned and saw a middle-aged, red-headed lady standing. She looked at Pati, and the look was someone who wanted to kill. Then, her body language softened, and she looked at the ground. “She killed my baby,” she whimpered out loud.
Pati turned back to look at Nancy.
“It’s Bruno Redden’s family there.”
Pati looked again and saw individuals who were probably a father, a brother, a brother’s wife, and maybe a sister. Nobody looked at Pati with sympathy.
“Let’s get back to my office and discuss.”
Pati didn’t need to be told twice. She followed Nancy out of the courtroom.
* * *
“I believe that was a good score?” Pati said. They were back in
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