Titan's Plague: The Trial by Tom Briggs (story reading .txt) 📕

answer. I never really knew him because he lived on Picus most of the time I was married to Richard.”

“Maybe he has business here today? And he’s only a spectator?” Nancy said.

“He’s never been a spectator,” Pati said. “If it’s business hours, he’s all about business. He used to send Richard nasty messages for not being at work, and…” Pati noticed she no longer had Nancy’s attention. She turned and looked at Jack Reagan, who had a disgusted look on his face. She returned her attention to Nancy, who seemed pleased that Jack Reagan was so discomforted.

“We’re done,” Nancy said to Jack Reagan.

Jack Reagan returned his attention to his tablet. Pati looked back at Nancy. “So, we’re good?” she asked.

“I’m comfortable,” she said. “The arguments I uploaded contradict every assertion he’s made and negate anything he’s tried to allege. It’s all about smoke and mirrors for them, and I just shot a laser beam right through it. They’ll be lucky they don’t get carted off for this.”

Pati nodded. She sat back in her chair facing the JJ screen. A few moments later, Jack Reagan stood up.

“The state will proceed with the final ruling,” he said. Pati then heard the courtroom door open behind her. She didn’t turn, even though she saw it caught Jack Reagan’s attention. It was enough to stop him from talking, and he continued to stare at who walked in, so Pati looked.

It was the engineer who had been working on her mining ship’s records, and he held in his left hand a black container that was just large enough to contain a data storage disk. She felt a chill as he walked directly to Jack Reagan.

He turned to greet the engineer, and they spoke words Pati couldn’t make out. She hoped Jack Reagan would be thinking about cutting his losses by now, but the changed look on his face displayed the same level of determination as she saw in their first meeting.

“I don’t like this,” Nancy said. She stood up, “The state needs to wrap up this trial,” she said aloud to the courtroom.

Jack Reagan ignored her and continued to talk to the engineer. After a few more sentences, he took the black container from the engineer. Then, he looked at Nancy, “The state has evidence to introduce,” he said.

“The time is over for that,” Nancy replied. “This trial has dragged out long enough. Will the state choose to retry this case if it does not find the result to its liking?”

Jack Reagan’s face tightened in anger. He looked down and took a breath. He then looked back at Nancy and held up the black container. “These are the restored records from the mining ship. It should verify everything your client has alleged in this case. I can upload them now, and if what your client has alleged is true, then it should be favorable to your case.”

Pati about jumped out of her chair. Proof of everything she’d witnessed was in that black container. Everyone could see she had to kill Bruno, had to pull the plug on the twins, and had faced an extraterrestrial who might be somewhere in Karakorum. It was her ace card, and it made certain she’d be going home on the next ship back to Earth.

“The Defense contests admission of this evidence,” Nancy declared.

Pati held her breath. She held her hands, too, because she wanted to shake some sense into her attorney. However, she’d spent a good deal of time trusting Nancy, now wasn’t the best time to argue, at least not yet.

“This evidence was already allowed,” Jack Reagan said. “The ship’s records were a part of this trial from the beginning, except they weren’t immediately available. Because they’re available now, it would be an injustice not to present them because they’re an absolute presentation of the facts.”

“Then the Defense must have sufficient time to review those records before they are uploaded for consideration,” Nancy said.

“How long?” Jack Reagan asked.

“At least one month,” she replied.

Pati did not catch most of the conversation other than the one-month extension. While Nancy and Jack Reagan were going back and forth, there were two teenagers with their parents behind her. Two girls, and Pati could not understand why they would be here because they weren’t part of Bruno’s family. What really got her, though, was one of them called her “alien-lady” during the legal haggling. It reminded her of how she’d been treated since yesterday, and what she might have to face here on Karakorum when she was released. She couldn’t handle one more month.

“No, Nancy, I can’t wait that long,” Pati whispered to her.

“You’ve got no choice,” Nancy said, also in a whisper. “You don’t know what’s on that disk, and no lawyer would let you face a JJ decision without knowing all the state’s evidence. Maybe it’s all good, and you’ll be fine, but I won’t let it happen because I would rightfully be thrown out of the legal profession.”

“This isn’t about you, it’s about me,” Pati said.

“Right, and you can wait another month.”

“The trial will go on after you review the records and probably last until after the next ship out of here. If you can’t work faster, we need to take the chance.”

“That’s not enough time for me to review the records.”

“It’s my life, Nancy.”

Nancy sat back in her chair. Pati recognized the look her mother would give her if she was about to get into trouble, and that looked pissed her off.

“Yes, it’s your life,” she said. “But as your representative before the law, the subject matter expert who is here to see that you do not make bad decisions based on ignorance of that law, I’m telling you, that you must wait.”

“I’m not waiting.”

“You’re not going to do anything else while I’m your attorney,” Nancy said out loud.

Pati stood and turned to Jack Reagan. “Can I overrule my counsel?” she asked.

Jack Reagan’s eyes got wide and then looked to the side. He put his right hand to his chin, seemed to think, and then looked back at Pati. “Yes, you have that right, Ms. Lynch. However, the state doesn’t advise you to overrule your counsel during a hearing, especially since we see no reason why the one-month recess cannot be granted for a review of the records.”

“I know what happened on that ship,” she said. “Everyone, and especially, ‘the state,’ has called me a liar about what that happened that day. Now, I have proof to back me up and I want everyone to see it.” Pati sat back down without breaking eye contact with Jack Reagan.

Jack Reagan took a deep breath. He looked back at Pati, “Ms. Lynch, I’m suggesting, and warning, that you follow your counsel’s advice. If you do not, the state will contest any effort to appeal the decision.”

“I expect an appeal is your plan after the decision,” Pati said. She looked at Nancy, who also looked at Jack Reagan. Apparently, she did not want to fight being overruled, which was fine.

Jack Reagan shrugged, stood up, and walked to the podium. He had the black container in his hand, and once there, he pulled a disk out of it. A minute later, he returned to his seat. He worked with his tablet for a minute and then stood up. “Please display evidence just uploaded,” he said to the courtroom.

Pati sat back. The room darkened slightly and the JJ screen illuminated. The next frame she saw was the bridge on her mining ship, with Bruno and her working at his station. It was the camera behind her command station, and it showed her standing behind him.

She heard Bruno’s mother let out a low sob behind her. Hopefully, after this viewing, she might at least understand what happened, although forgiveness was probably asking too much. Then again, what was there to forgive?

Jack Reagan spoke. “What these recordings will present is the moments of the actual incident. What happened leading up to the incident is not in dispute; however, what you will see could be contradictory to testimony provided by the Defense.”

“What?” Pati mumbled. She saw the time displayed at the upper right of the screen, and that was exactly the time before the apparition appeared. She was behind Bruno, watching him as he manipulated the life-support controls when she watched herself slapping Bruno in the back of the head.

“You bitch!” Bruno’s mom said behind her, loud enough for the whole courtroom to hear. Pati ignored it and watched the action on-screen.

“If you don’t stop hitting me, I will hit back, and I don’t mean with just my fists,” Bruno yelled.

“You threatening me,” Pati on-screen yelled back.

“I’m saying I’m going to defend myself,” he yelled back.

Pati in her seat didn’t like it. This happened weeks before, which wasn’t the date listed on the screen. Something wasn’t right.

“You better watch your mouth, Bruno. I don’t have to endorse your parole when we get back, you know.”

“Yeah, you always say that. But I won’t let you get away with hitting me all the time. So, shove your endorsement up your ass!”

Pati, in her chair, recognized this wasn’t one of her better moments. Maybe the state was showing this scene before the actual event to trash her. She couldn’t understand why they’d still want to do that, when the actual event would prove them wrong, anyway. Then she saw on-screen Pati push Bruno. And that, she remembered for a fact, did not happen.

It didn’t stop there. It showed her wrestling with him on the ground after the attempted push. For a time, like the real thing, it showed Bruno on top of her, punching her in the back of the head. Then, he got to his feet and stood a few paces from her. On-screen Pati got up, she walked the two paces, and punched Bruno in the throat, while he did nothing to defend himself.