by Richard Penn
‘Fuck off, Sørensen. Don’t try and butter me up. Talk to me again when this mess is dragged out of the toilet. Your little affair left this station with no fucking police force —’
‘OK, OK. I’ll shut up. Can we get under way?’
‘Yes, but both of you are coming down in civvies and cuffs. Bring uniforms in a bag, but don’t put them on. You’re both my prisoners until the judge announces the decision. It’s got to be him who does it, he’s the Captain.’
They took the short walk to the hall balcony, Lisa taking the ladder down and crossing sedately to the dais, where the judge and Angèle were already sitting. The doctor was also there, for added gravitas. The twelve people of the peace force were lined up to the side. Sou, Minah and Tommy were in front of the police office, behind the peacekeepers. Once more, nearly all the two hundred colonists of the station were present in the hall, with forty more surface colonists in a screen on the wall. There was a quiet buzz of speculation, but all the main players stood or sat silently. Martin and Gurit walked across to the Sheriff office, placing themselves in Sou’s custody.
All eyes were on Lisa, as she walked to the front and stood beside the judge. Remaining seated, Krawczyk raised a finger, and Lisa crouched down for a private chat. ‘I got a message from your inspector,’ he said, ‘suggesting how we go about this, and I’m inclined to run with it. Legally we still have martial law here, and I could just lock up all the suspects under that. However, people here are rattled enough, and I’d rather give them at least the illusion of control. A local trial with their own people will get them onside. It will mean listening to some rubbish, though.’
‘A local trial?’ Lisa asked, ‘but what if they let key suspects go? We still can’t trust everyone here. Our immediate suspects may be part of something broader.’
‘You are right, of course,’ the judge replied. ‘This proceeding will not have any real legal standing. If they come up with the wrong answers, the Inspector from Mars will come in and overrule them. If they do what we want, we quietly ratify it. If we can fix it so it is their decision, but also the right one, so much the better. You game? I can not order you to do this.’
‘Sure. Pawn to King’s three.’ She straightened up.
‘You may be a pawn, Lisa, but we’ll make a knight of you yet.
‘Phone broadcast hall,’ said the Judge quietly, then ‘Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I know many of you have items you wish to discuss, and questions you want answered, but before we proceed with a general discussion I have some legal matters which must take precedence.’
‘We presently have four members of our community in custody, arrested without an immediate hearing under martial law. Acting Sergeant Lisa Johansen,’ (there were some murmurs, and a rather loud comment asking if she would be president next), ‘also intends to arrest an additional seven men at this meeting. I must ask that nobody leaves. Deputy Bolton, please cover the exits.’
Some of Luke’s men moved to do so, but the three who were under suspicion had obviously been told, and they stayed in a huddle near the stage.
He paused, and the people in the hall looked about wondering who the others could be. The interviews had mostly been with lockhands and mechanics, and the crowd shuffled to create space around that group.
‘Two of those under arrest are present in this meeting. I wish to bring the other two into this hearing also, but they are commissioned officers in the belt Federation navy, and I can not do so without the permission of their senior officer. Acting Captain Fournier, do you waive your right to conduct this initial custody hearing on your colleagues?’
Angèle was clearly still in shock, standing limply at the side of the stage, apparently in a world of her own. ‘I... your honour... I agree, on the terms we have discussed. Yes.’
‘So ordered. Papadakis, Johansen, the prisoners, please.’
A blue-suited engineer stood up. ‘Just a minute, what’s going on here?’ It was Krystoff Nemecj, the one who usually spoke up for the people in the hold. Sou and Tommy did not pause in their climb to the balcony, they already had their orders.
‘What are these “terms” you’re talking about?’ asked Nemecj, ‘have you cooked up some kind of deal with the feds? This place is supposed to be a democracy!’
‘Thank you, Krystoff. Ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry if you feel you have been kept in the dark, but this is a sensitive area. I am sure you know that all our harbour controllers are also naval officers. Two of our controllers are suspected of extremely serious crimes, something far beyond our ability to try. All we can legally do is hear the grounds for arresting them, and hold them pending a federal trial. Are you willing to hear them?’
There was general assent, but Krystoff was still on his feet. ‘What about these seven you have been talking about? We all know you are talking about my people. When are you going —’
‘I am sorry, Engineer Nemecj, we have to deal with those who have been arrested first. I assure you we will deal with that as soon as we can. Sit down, please.’
Nemecj remained standing for a few seconds, trying to stare the judge down, but Krawczyk just held his confident gaze, and the engineer took his seat.
‘Sergeant Johansen,’ the judge continued, ‘let us proceed with the other two prisoners, while we wait for the officers to appear.’
‘Yes sir. You are all aware of the boy who was found dead in the hold, and the fact that Sergeant Sørensen was found to be the boy’s father. This led to suspicion that the Sergeant was involved in his death, so he was suspended pending enquiries and placed under house arrest. I am happy to announce that we have not found any evidence against him. You honour, we are withdrawing the arrest order on Sergeant Sørensen.’
‘Thank you Lisa. Please release the prisoner,’ said the judge. Minah, as the only remaining member of the crime team, cut the cuffs and shook Martin’s hand.
Lisa resumed. ‘The other prisoner is Corporal Gurit Gabai, who chose voluntarily to enter house arrest with Martin, compromising her position and abandoning her post at a critical time. As a disciplinary matter, she has been demoted to the ranks, and will remain a constable for at least an Earth year. I... Judge, should we be charging her with something?’ Lisa still felt betrayed by their casual abandonment of their posts, and wondered if the judge could do more.
‘Personally, I would like to have them both horse-whipped, but we gave up those punishments back on Earth. Whatever we do, we need them to work as our police force. Your team are going to be busy, and deputy Bolton does not have the training to police the station for long. Folks, any ideas?’ he spread his arms to include the whole hall.
Suggestions were called out across the floor, but when Nell Xu spoke up suggesting a modest fine of about a week’s wages, this seemed to go down well.
The judge banged the gavel for order. ‘Sergeant Sørensen, Constable Gabai, are you willing to accept the summary judgement of this assembly and plead guilty to conduct unbecoming of a public office, without further evidence being presented?’
They both replied ‘I do’ in firm voices, having seen this procedure a hundred times.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, it is proposed that Sergeant Martin Sørensen and Constable Gurit Gabai each be convicted and receive a fine of one hundred dollars. All those in favour raise a hand... those against... thank you. So ordered. Release them both.’
During this speech, Sou had brought in the prisoners from the control office, now in purple dress uniforms but without insignia. The judge signalled for another private chat. ‘Lisa, the proper form here would be for Angèle to make the charges, but the accused is David, and she is barely with us. Can I ask you to prosecute?’
‘Me? I haven’t been involved in this, how can I?’ Lisa would rather face an armed man in a spacesuit than make a presentation with no preparation.
‘The purple team left us a file. Can you bone up while I find a defender?’ The judge carried on, assuming that she would do as he’d asked.
‘Captain David Fournier and Lieutenant Kosaku Hara. You are jointly accused of the following offences. Aggravated Dereliction of Duty in Public Office, Reckless Endangerment of a Vessel in High Space, Damage to Station Safety Equipment. You are also jointly charged with conspiracy to commit the above offences. You are not required to enter a plea at this time, but you may do so. How do you plead?’
The judge waited ten seconds, but Fournier and Hara stood to attention without speaking.
‘As serving officers in the Federation Navy, you are entitled to a military trial with defence counsel drawn from serving officers. Your colleagues here at Terpsichore are not allowed to perform that duty. This hearing is simply to address the question of whether you are to be held prisoner until that trial. You are also entitled for this hearing to be conducted by a military court at Mars. Do you waive the right to a military custody hearing?’
Again, the two officers did not respond. ‘I am sorry, gentlemen, I will have to ask you to respond.’ The judge knew perfectly well that the accused had the right to stand mute, so he was on shaky ground. ‘Do you accept this court?’
The bluff worked, perhaps because they still thought of Krawczyk as their captain. ‘Yes, sir.’ they both replied.
‘Very well,’ the judge replied, returning his attention to the room as a whole. ‘The prisoners are also entitled to a defence attorney. Again, there is no military person able to take this role. Does anyone in the floor of this hall feel able to do so?’
Sørensen looked as if he was ready to step forward, but Krawczyk frowned and shook his head. A hand appeared near the back of the hall, and the judge looked that way.
‘Mrs Robinson, thank you. Are there any other volunteers?’ Sandra Robinson was in her late fifties, elegantly dressed in the nearest approximation to tweed that could be woven from the local flax, and had her golden retriever beside her as always. She had been blind for most of her adult life, and was always speaking in defence of some person or some cause. ‘If you could join us at the table, we will provide a briefing file.’
11 Purple Trials
Mrs Robinson was guided to the table by one of the many younger women who were always in attendance. She sat at the table, and the dog (there were several, Lisa thought this was Amber) lay down in front of her, looking bored. Lisa read out the file access code, so that Sandra could call up a transcript on her phone. As the rules required, they did not discuss the file. Lisa was grateful to have more time to study it herself. Someone found chairs for the prisoners.
When Mrs Robinson pronounced herself ready to proceed, Lisa stood up. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your attention. I am presenting information here which has been gathered by the Federal Police team in Phobos, based partly on interviews conducted here in Terpsichore Station.
‘We are in the difficult position of having two accused persons, with substantial circumstantial evidence proving,’ (Mrs Robinson started to object,) ‘correction, suggesting that one or the other of them is guilty of a serious offence, while presently having nothing to tell us which it is. Three offences are suspected.
‘Offence One. That on several occasions while on watch in the harbour control office, the accused allowed a boat to travel between the hold and the station without a record of it appearing in the log and without voice recordings or radio broadcasts permitting it to travel. In this case, the boat involved was believed to be carrying persons involved in smoking and high-stakes gambling in the hold.
‘Offence Two. That an illegal digital tap was attached to the harbour control computer, to allow its code to be modified and/or to modify data records, to prevent the movements of boats being recorded by radar or other remote sensing.
‘Offence Three. In addition to turning a blind eye to poker players and erasing their records, it is suspected that those same offences were committed to cover the movements of smugglers, boats from outside this colony. While the same actions were involved, this raises the bar, possibly to the level of High Treason —’
‘Objection,’ Mrs. Robinson said steadily. ‘High treason was not included in the charges read to the prisoners. Accusing the prisoners of such a crime may prejudice this hearing.’
‘Withdrawn. I apologise. I’m not used to this. May I proceed?’ said Lisa, looking at the judge, who gestured her to carry on.
‘Correction, raises the bar to the “aggravated” level of the crimes on the sheet. The evidence is summarised in a chart provided by the team on Mars.’ She put up the chart, which had a series of blue bars across a timeline. The timing of the poker game is revealed by a pattern in the appearance of the floating cat in the video records from the hold.’
Amber raised her head on hearing the word “cat” and looked at Lisa as if she was about to reveal one. ‘The bars marked in pale blue are thought to represent Henry or one of his wives floating about according to his whim. The bars in dark blue form a regular pattern, and probably represent deployment of the inflatable cat, to cover movements of the players to and from their boat. These occur on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 2030 to 2100, and from 0015 to 0130 the following mornings. It is thought that the later time window resulted from the participants taking showers and changing their clothes, to avoid bringing the smell of tobacco smoke back to the hold.
‘Suspicious boat movements would need to be covered, then, at 2030 to 2100 and 0100 to 0130. The time span from 2000 to 0600 is covered by a single shift in harbour control, as there is normally little night traffic. I now overlay another slide, showing the shift patterns of the controllers. As in the Police, there is no rotation of shifts; junior-most gets nights, next gets afternoons, and the most senior staff work days. Junior-most in the controllers office is Lieutenant Hara, and you can see that he was on duty on all the nights concerned.’
‘As supervisor, Captain Fournier was required to make random checks on the control office, on any shift. The logs indicate that he did so, including on several occasions when boat movements had occurred. In addition, the equipment cabinet with the computer was locked, and programmed to open only to the command of Captain Fournier’s phone.’
‘We therefore conclude that there is reasonable grounds to suspect both the prisoners of the above offences. Over. I mean, sorry, thank you your honour.’ Lisa was so used to talking by radio she had forgotten the form.
‘Mrs Robinson, are you ready to present a defence?’ the judge asked.
‘I am. I have spoken to my clients and they are not willing to speak in their own defence in case it prejudice any later trial. I will provide a number of concerns with the evidence. I suggest Lisa respond to each of them in turn.’ She and the judge had been orchestrating trials for years, and knew each other’s ways. The judge nodded for her to proceed.
‘Firstly, I would like to address the question of collective punishment,’ Sandra began. ‘Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which this colony and all others is signatory, every person has the right to freedom from imprisonment, and that may not be compromised based on the person belonging to a group, race, religion, sexuality, etcetera. You have presented evidence to this court which purports to show that one of these two fine men committed a crime, but says little or nothing about which one. Whichever is innocent, is being subjected to collective punishment.’
Lisa stared at her, like a deer caught in headlights. ‘Umm. Right. Judge?’
‘Corporal, you are not required to answer every point. You can leave it to the jury to assess later, if you have no answer. I will address this one, however. The colony as a whole has a right to security, under that very charter of which you love to remind us. Freeing an officer responsible for the safety of the colony may infringe all ou
r rights, even if the evidence against him is slim. I expect you’ll learn that for your sergeant’s exams, Lisa.’
‘Secondly,’ Mrs Robinson resumed, ‘I have a question for the prosecution. Where was the information about the officers’ shift patterns obtained?’
‘From the harbour control computer,’ Lisa replied.
‘That very computer which you have testified was compromised by some unspecified enemy of this station, is that correct?’
‘Yes, that is correct. But —’
‘You are telling us it is compromised, but then giving its records in evidence?’
‘Yes, but –’ this time Lisa did not let the older woman interrupt. ‘But, the information was backed up by the evidence of the other controllers, and is consistent with my own personal recollections. Harbour control is a regular part of my rounds at night.’
‘Thank you. That additional evidence should have been part of your presentation, but I concede the point.’ Sandra replied. ‘Finally, you will notice a discontinuity in the patterns for last November, when Hara was off sick for several nights and Captain Fournier took over. It is telling that the poker games, or at least the cat deployments, ceased that week. Does this not indicate that Hara was involved but Fournier was innocent?’
Lisa hesitated. She was chagrined that the blind woman had spotted a pattern in the data which she had missed. ‘Possibly. But we have the evidence of the random visits and of the access to the equipment cabinet. I would love to believe that Angèle’s husband —’
The gavel sounded. ‘Your beliefs are not evidence and should not be presented to this court, corporal,’ said the Judge. ‘Assuming the defence has now completed its testimony, and that the prosecution have no additional evidence, I now invite the Jury to ask any questions they wish, to clarify the case before you. In a case of this seriousness, all adults present in the hall comprise the Jury.’
There was a long pause, and some muttering, but nobody raised their hand or stood up. The gavel fell again, and the judge put the question. ‘Do you the Jury agree that the prisoners at the bar be held in custody for an indefinite time not to exceed eight weeks? All those in favour of holding Lieutenant Hara... those against?’ The vote was almost unanimous in favour. ‘So ordered.’