Moon 514- Blaze and the White Griffon

by Drew Briney

  In the end, that tactic would have worked all by itself – in their hearts, most of the crewmen were ready to acquit Blaze of any wrongdoing and to accept him as their new Captain – although lingering doubts made the decision disturbingly difficult.

  However, rather than closing his case and coasting to victory, Blaze naïvely called the “Master’s” follower as a final witness. Believing that his testimony – whatever it might be – would strengthen his case, Blaze called the gravelly voiced man to the stand. Very few people knew that anyone survived the skirmish from the day before – so calling him as a witness surprised nearly everyone – including the prosecution. However, the gravelly voiced man’s testimony threw a twist into Blaze’s defense that no one expected, including the Master himself.

  “PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME.”

  “Borris.”

  “Which Order did you come from Borris?” By now, Blaze had begun to learn to ask the boring questions that lawyers like to ask before getting to anything really important.

  “Four,” he grumbled. Still hogtied, the stocky fellow was not in a particularly good mood as he was being forced to give his testimony in that condition in front of the entire crew. Blaze continued to ask the boring questions, including Borris’ recollection of the events of the day before – just to test his honesty in front of the crew. For the most part, he confessed to speaking with Blaze about the master’s request for his allegiance and about his threat to kill Blaze and his companions. However, he cleverly covered up his indiscretions by pointing out his shock to see so many of his fellow crewmen (including some dear friends) dead and insisted that his harsh remarks were nothing more than hyperbole – exaggerations used in jest because Borris found himself quite distressed over the situation and was using coarse humor to deflate the situation a little. The testimony was not particularly helpful and verged on painting Blaze in a bad light.

  “So, if I told you that I had a recording of the skirmish with these other soldiers … if I told you that I had them also on record, threatening to kill me and congratulating the magic woman for her successful kill of Dr. Boyd, would that be hyperbole as well?”

  “I would imagine they might threaten to kill you if you were shooting …”

  “I am speaking about the time before any shots were fired,” Blaze interrupted.

  “Well, I don’t know why they would threaten you at all – sometimes, people act outside of their authority, you know? And for the same reason, I can understand why someone might’ve felt empathetic towards the magic woman’s cause in killing Dr. Boyd. A lot of people were really upset over what he’d done,” Borris answered.

  “What do you mean by ‘what he’d done’?” Blaze followed up, hoping that Borris’ changed portrayal of the magic woman’s involvement in the death of Dr. Boyd would be overlooked by the crewmen at this late point in the hearing.

  “Okay – I don’t know how much you know Blaze but it seems like you might be aware of a lot of things Dr. Boyd was doing,” Borris snapped back. He was becoming more hostile by the minute – he clearly had little concept of how to control his temper.

  “I am asking the question for the benefit of all of these people who may not know these things,” Blaze clarified. “What did Dr. Boyd do that may have upset this fellow who claimed that your ‘Master’ was pleased that Dr. Boyd had been killed?” Untrained in the sophistries of the legal system, Blaze didn’t know he was taking liberties in asking these types of questions and Borris was equally oblivious. Under the circumstances and the loose rules being followed for this hearing, the prosecution was unwilling to mount tons of objections so the questioning continued, uninterrupted.

  “Well, I’d say first off that Dr. Boyd caused people to go infertile by feedin’ ‘em tainted food and then, when someone found the cure, he refused to allow the treatment to be tried on real people. That didn’t sit too well with people who knew what was goin’ on. I mean … you know … when someone makes your friends and family go infertile so they can’t have any kids and they won’t let you help ‘em, you feel pretty upset over the situation. But that’s just for starters.”

  “Okay, thank you,” Blaze began. This wasn’t going so poorly anymore – the prosecution shifted in their seats wishing they hadn’t allowed this line of questioning to be presented without objection. “What else?”

  “Well, there was that explosion thing. I can’t prove it but I’m pretty sure that those natives never had no explosives. I talked to a lot o’ guys about that – soldiers – an’ they all said that they never heard of natives havin’ no explosives. And members of Order 4 who took off because Dr. Boyd was threatening to kill them – the gene splicing scientist as you newcomers call ‘em – they didn’t take any of that sort of technology with them – so you know, it seemed pretty clear that Dr. Boyd was behind that. Like I said, I can’t prove it but … it seems sort of obvious to me.”

  “Actually, before you came to testify, we heard testimony that Dr. Boyd admitted to being part of those explosions.”

  “See! … Like I said…” his gravelly voice sounded almost triumphant as he trailed off. Blaze felt like he was gaining ground so he continued pressing the issue.

  “What else?”

  “Hmmm. Well, Dr. Boyd was threatening to kill members of Order 4 who opposed what he was doing. Imagine if someone made it so your girlfriend couldn’t have any children and you really wanted to have a son – you know? So you end up marrying someone else and then she ends up going infertile. Then, after you spend years searching for a cure and you find it, that person says – hey … stop that … we’re not gonna allow you to fix any of ‘em. All of a sudden, you’re not gonna have any children even though you could have … you know? And that made some people pretty upset but when they started talking about it, Dr. Boyd said ‘better shut up or else.’ It makes sense why they got upset. Now, most of those people from Order 4 who refused to quiet up are left behind – back home – and they didn’t do anything wrong. So it makes sense that some of their family members who were part of this crew would be happy if Dr. Boyd was gone. But I couldn’t say that Master is happy that Dr. Boyd is gone. I’d have to ask him about that. …”

  “Who is this ‘Master’ as you call him?” Blaze asked – this was the ten million dollar question.

  “I can’t say.”

  “Why not?”

  “His life would be endangered. You know? He’s getting blamed for stuff that he had nothin’ to do with. Here he still has the cure for the infertility problem of some of this crew and can help everybody out but he’s got to stay in hiding because people who were behind Dr. Boyd are still out to kill him. And I’m not gonna be part of a conspiracy to murder a good man so I just can’t say who he is … at least not now.”

  Between Borris’ bad grammar, his contractions, and his incomplete sentences, Blaze felt like a boxer who had to let his opponent slap him a hundred times but wasn’t allowed to do anything about it until the one hundred strikes were over. But to add to that deep, inner grammatical frustration, Borris was now painting the “Master” as a martyr – with something many crewmen wanted: people who had suffered fertility problems for decades were suddenly aware that there might yet be hope for them – and their only hope was this rogue “Master” whom they could not identify. Blaze needed to take back some control over this testimonial.

  “So, would your ‘Master’ be willing to share that cure with the existing biology department of this ship?” Blaze asked, hoping he wasn’t making a bad gamble in asking that question.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Could you ask?”

  “I gotta mouth you know? I’m sure I could ask if he was willing to give that information to Toka but I can’t …”

  “Toka?”

  “Yeah – he’s head of the biology and medical departments isn’t he? I thought I saw his name on the cube.”

  “I personally have no idea,” Blaze confessed, “but I am sure that many people would be grateful if yo
ur ‘Master’ would be gracious enough to share that information so we could help people who are suffering because of what Dr. Boyd did to them.”

  “You bet he did it to them. I’ll bet a lot of people from Order 4 could tell you about things they heard a long time ago …”

  “Okay,” Blaze interrupted, wanting to ask another very important question. “Isn’t it true that your ‘Master’ wants to take control over this ship and these crewmen?”

  “I couldn’t say,” came the bland, emotionally detached answer.

  “Why not?” Blaze all but demanded. He couldn’t explain it but he felt stirrings deep in his soul that were making it difficult for him to focus as well as he would like. Besides, his instincts were screaming that Borris couldn’t be trusted.

  “Because I’m not him,” Borris snapped in response. “You know? What I do know is that he didn’t want Dr. Boyd in power. He knew that if Dr. Boyd found out that he ended up on the ship, he would be executed – just like a lot of other people were executed back home. But if someone else is in charge, maybe he doesn’t care about that. Maybe he is happy to just keep peacefully doing his job, trying to help people … trying to undo some of the problems that Dr. Boyd caused, you know?”

  You know? Blaze painfully echoed in his mind. If Borris asked that rhetorical question one more time, Blaze was pretty sure that he was going to lose his temper. He didn’t “know” and if he did, he wouldn’t be asking the questions. Besides, here he was painting this treasonous man as an innocent martyr again. If Blaze knew who the “Master” was, he had every intention of trying him for treason with a lot shorter hearing than they were having today … this was becoming painful.

  “So, if I understand you correctly, your ‘Master’ is a generous and benevolent man who is bent on helping out members of this crew … correct?” Blaze inwardly applauded himself for asking this clever question, unaware that Evelia was the source behind the suggestion.

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “You have a lot of confidence in him?”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  “So, you have a lot of confidence that he really wants to help members of this crew in any way he can … is that correct?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Alright then, Borris, I’m going to represent to you that I, along with many other members of this crew, have been declared to have zero medical problems that would make us infertile but I’m going to ask you, on behalf of these crewmen, to ask your ‘Master’ if he is willing to share this cure with everyone who does suffer from those medical conditions. I would expect that he could deliver that information to you tomorrow sometime so that you could give it to Toka by the next day. That seems pretty reasonable doesn’t it?”

  “Uh…” the gravelly voice grated in surprise. Blaze didn’t really give him time to answer.

  “Will you do that Borris? Will you ask him to turn over the cure by tomorrow so that we can know what you are saying is true?”

  Borris paused. All of a sudden, he found himself wound up in a corner where he didn’t want to be. If his master agreed to share the technology, there was no real problem. However, Borris was pretty sure that his master wouldn’t really be willing to share that information and if he didn’t, Borris could look like a traitor without a cause and then he would be facing execution – just like Blaze.

  “Well … I gotta mouth so I can ask but …” he stumbled to get started with whatever answer might come to his mind. “I understand you done killed most everyone who had that condition yesterday,” he started with a hint of mischievousness in his voice, “so I don’t know that it would do any good …”

  That was all Blaze allowed Borris to say. Frustrations had mounted for too long. Too many bad turns in events overwhelmed the young warrior and his temper couldn’t entertain further restraint. Before most crewmen blinked twice, Blaze pulled his knife out and untied the prisoner with two quick but carefully placed cuts. As Borris stood up in complete shock, Blaze gently tossed the knife for Borris to catch. But as the hulky man caught the blade, Blaze jumped right on top of him and proceeded to break bones as he buried his fists into the hulky man’s face and collarbones. After five remarkably powerful strikes, Borris was both unconscious and suffering from the major medical trauma that comes from having a broken collarbone, a broken jaw, and a dislocated shoulder.

  Heart pumping, breathing surprisingly labored given the circumstances, and brain numb, Blaze stood up, backed away from Borris, and took a few deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down. As his heart rate slowed down, he heard the final surprise of the day.

  “Our time is out,” Aria began.

  You never mentioned a time limit, Blaze inwardly protested before he could gather any words to say anything out loud.

  Looking towards the unconscious body of Borris, Aria continued, “The proceedings have been most instructive. I hope everyone understands the issues and that everyone has enough information to make a well informed decision. We will take a fifteen minute break while our assistants pass out strips of paper to each of you … Blaze excepted … and then we will begin the vote. We will ask everyone to make a line over here,” Aria’s elegant hands gestured towards her left with stylish and refined movements, “so that we can be sure that everyone got a chance to vote and then when we are finished, we will openly count the votes while all of you watch. If there are no further questions …”

  Blaze burned inside, noticing that no one was given any opportunity to ask questions … and with the quizzical look on his face, coupled with his expressive body language, it was obvious that he had a question. But he wouldn’t push his luck – he had already made a fool of himself once – he didn’t need to worsen the situation any further. Trained his whole life to govern his temper, Blaze was realizing that he still had plenty of room for improvement.

  “We will proceed as described. Thank you.”

  With that, crewmen began shifting around the room while assistants passed out strips of paper. For several moments, no one did anything to help Borris sit up – he was simply left in his disfigured condition for everyone to see. Large hematoma bubbled his skin where he suffered broken bones as one might expect. Blaze nearly moved the man himself so that this vestige of his violent outbreak might not be so visibly displayed – it was undoubtedly prejudicial to his case … But the gravelly voiced man was eventually transported to a side room where he would receive medical treatment and the votes were cast one person at a time.

  One way or the other, Blaze reconciled himself, we will have a new Captain within the hour.

  It will be you, Evelia encouraged.

  But Blaze looked doubtful as his eyes glided towards the door where Borris had disappeared.

  AS ARIA REMOVED THE COVERING of the ballot box, no one could have been more surprised than Blaze. It would have been one thing had the strips of paper been heavily speckled but the clear box revealed a sea of white with only a few grey strips peppering the ballots. Initially, Blaze couldn’t discern a single black strip but as the votes were counted, Aria did announce guilty verdicts from a half dozen individuals.

  Initially, the votes puzzled Blaze. However, as he sat nearly dumbfounded behind the podium and listened to the overwhelming majority of votes exonerating him from any wrongdoing, he began to remember the very different life he had been living only a very few weeks ago – a life where he trusted the people around him, a life where he believed that people were mostly good and trustworthy, a life where he could predict what was going to happen next, a life void of treachery and violence. These were people dedicated to a good cause and who wanted to strengthen those around them. Everything they had heard that morning was completely foreign to them and undoubtedly shocked them to their heart’s core.

  As Aria announced the last vote, she gave the formal, final tally, thanked everyone for their participation, and asked Blaze if there was anything further that he wanted to say.

  Of course, he inwardly answered but really had no idea what he sh
ould say. He was elated. He felt relieved. But he also felt a little heavy with a new burden of overseeing the activities of the entire ship. And he felt another new feeling as well: as he walked up to the podium where Aria was stepping down, he felt a very strong urge to give her a big hug. Following this instinctual urge was nearly compulsory but he resisted the internal suggestion that he do so. In the midst of these proceedings, giving Aria a hug might have seemed a rather normal thing for someone in Blaze’s position to do – after all, this was going to be a celebratory occasion. However – somehow, he discerned that his motivation was not founded in spontaneous elation; it was founded in primeval attraction. So, despite his good excuse to give her an innocent-appearing embrace, he resisted the temptation and merely gave her a customary bow. Still, his continual and inexplicably strong attraction towards this relative stranger left him feeling somewhat uncomfortable – if not somewhat excited at the same time.

  Even after speaking most of the day, Blaze still felt like he had a lot to express to his fellow crewmen. Then again, he felt no small urge to go work out especially hard, fight some abnormally scary beast in the simulator, and then celebrate with a sumptuous, perhaps excessive meal. Perhaps he too was a creature of habit – a simple man who was not used to the extreme circumstances he had been experiencing. As he stepped up to the podium, he instinctively controlled his breathing and waited until he felt more relaxed before speaking. Once again, the crew saw into his heart as he failed to summon a flashy smile or some other mark of a true statesman who was accustomed to playing the emotions of a crowd.