"Remember the first time we met, in Patrols HQ? The mask of efficiency didn't work for me; your eyes showed me that you were unhappy, and I wanted to know what that unhappiness was ... and what I could do about it."
She looked at his serious face and knew that he understood.
Judge Alote Jones took his seat at the bench and remained for a moment surveying the sparsely populated Edward Kennedy Ellington Concert Hall. Determined that there should be no repetition of previous disturbances, he had decreed that, although the entire solar system might watch the proceedings of the resumed inquiry through the medium of television, the number of persons physically present in the hall should be restricted.
There were differences, too, in the situation of those persons nearer to the centre of action. The exclusion of the public having removed the necessity for the protective isolation of the monitor room, Helen and Tom Bruce were seated one on either side of Paul Sharva, at his table on the edge of the central area. Seated at the opposing table, some ten meters to the right, was a massive, bald-headed man with a large hooked nose whom she recognized as Elkan Niebohr, the President of the Excelsior Corporation. As befitted his position, Niebohr was flanked by a corps of secretaries and assistants, but there was no sign of Alger Morton among these people.
Alote Jones began his opening remarks, speaking with measured solemnity. "We are met here this morning in order to make yet a further attempt to reach the truth in this matter. To this end, I understand that Lieutenant Sharva, speaking on behalf of the Space Corps, is now in a position to clarify certain points that were raised by the representative of the Excelsior Corporation. We will therefore call on Lieutenant Sharva."
"Your Honour!" Elkan Niebohr, the television lights glinting on his massive, bald head rose to his feet
"Mr. Niebohr, we had hoped that the absence of Mr. Morton indicated that the point of view of the Excelsior Corporation in this matter would be handled with greater consideration for public welfare," Alote Jones said severely.
"I beg your pardon, Your Honour," said Niebohr humbly. "But I rise to make a brief statement on behalf of my corporation. If I may be allowed just a few minutes of the court's time?"
"Here we go again!" growled Tom Bruce cynically as Judge Jones conferred with the members of his judiciary.
Paul Sharva darted a glance at him and shook his head, scowling. "Please, Commander!" he whispered urgently.
"Very well, Mr. Niebohr,". said Alote Jones. "But be brief."
"Thank you, Your Honour," Niebohr said. "There are two main points. One is that the Board of Directors of the Excelsior Corporation have asked me to offer their apologies to yourself and the judiciary of this inquiry for the manner in which the corporation's interest in this matter has been represented. They ask me to state further that they hold nothing but distaste for the methods used by our erstwhile legal representative, Mr. Alger Morton, and wish to disassociate themselves entirely from these methods, which were completely without consultation or permission."
There was a slight murmuring from the court as Judge Jones said: "Am I to understand, Mr. Niebohr, that the Excelsior Corporation wishes to withdraw all evidence that has been offered on its behalf throughout these proceedings?"
"Save where that evidence refers to matters of incontrovertible fact and is corroborated by the testimony of Space Corps experts, yes, Your Honour," Niebohr said. He turned slightly, his hawk face looking toward the table where Bruce, Sharva and Lindstrom sat. "Secondly, the Excelsior Corporation offers its apologies to the
Space Corps and the officer mainly concerned in the Athena affair, Lieutenant Commander Bruce, whose career has been placed in considerable jeopardy by certain allegations made in this courtroom, and elsewhere, by Mr. Morton. I refer particularly to the presentation of confidential Corps documents from the record of Commander Bruce, and obtained by the use of very dubious methods. These matters should never have been introduced into the present proceedings and should be regarded as completely irrelevant to any discussion of the loss of the ill-fated Athena."
"Mr. Niebohr, I accept your apology on behalf of the judiciary. It will be entered in the record, accordingly. However, I do not have the authority to speak for the Space Corps, or for Lieutenant Commander Bruce."
Sharva was on his feet. "Your Honour, do I take it that the Excelsior Corporation accepts without reservation our testimony that in destroying the Athena, Commander Bruce was acting in the best interests of the population of Earth, in complete and selfless accord with his avowed duty?"
Niebohr inclined his great, domed head. "The Excelsior Corporation accepts that testimony completely, Lieutenant Sharva."
For the first time during the entire proceedings, the solemn features of Judge Alote Jones melted into an expression of something approaching satisfaction. "Then, surely, apart from clearing up certain obscurities which still exist in an interpretation of the motives which caused Hendrik Persoons and his supporters to perform the original act of piracy, the parties concerned have no further testimony to offer?"
"Your Honour, I regret to say that this is not the case," said Paul Sharva grimly. "Although the Space Corps may be prepared to accept the apologies of Mr.
Niebohr on behalf of the Excelsior Corporation, certain irreversible processes have been placed in motion by the very nature of the allegations made by Mr. Morton, through his misguided interpretation of a confidential Corps document. These allegations referred to an incident heretofore classified as top secret in the interests of United Earth. However, it has now been decided that the time is ripe for a full and complete revelation of the facts before the largest possible audience. I have been entrusted with this task, and with your permission, I will proceed."
"I doubt the usefulness of these revelations to the purpose of this inquiry," Alote Jones said.
"That, you may well do, Your Honour," Sharva said with dignity. "But when you have heard and seen the testimony at my disposal, I doubt but that you will admit that it is relevant to the lives and futures of every human being in the known universe."
"A sweeping claim, Lieutenant Sharva."
"It will be substantiated, Your Honour."
Alote Jones conferred with the members of the judiciary while the court waited expectantly. At length, he turned to face the court again. "Very well, Lieutenant Sharva. You may proceed with your testimony."
"Thank you, Your Honour," Sharva said. He opened a file. "To begin, I will first read from a transcript of an official Corps report referring to certain incidents which took place on a Rim Planet known as Minos IV in March of the year 2156.1 quote: 'On March 1st, 2156, Lieutenant Bruce, CPO Panos and PO Dockridge were members of the crew of Venturer Ten (commanded by Captain Nakamura), which was at the time in orbit around Minos IV. They left the ship aboard a small scout with orders to land on the planetary surface and investigate conditions there. The reason for this expedition was the fact that, since the visit of Venturer Nine some eleven years previously, there had been a total absence of communication with the colonists on Minos IV. (At the time of the visit of Venturer Nine, the planet's colonist population numbered forty-eight thousand, six hundred human beings, at balanced agriculture and light industrial stage of development.)
" 'Landing first at Minos City, the investigating party found a total absence of life. There were no signs of violence, all the city's buildings were intact, water and electricity supplies, powered by cybernetically controlled atomics, were still working. Everything about the city was normal, except for the complete disappearance of its human inhabitants.
" 'After investigating without success, the party then reboarded the scout and circled the city, surveying carefully. In this way they discovered great scrape marks in the main road which led westward from the city toward the foothills of the mountains known as the Scarpia Range. Following these marks to their conclusion, they landed the scout again and searched on foot. Eventually they found a large cave in a mountainside, the entrance of which had been sealed w
ith a cementlike substance. On hearing noises, they broke down this barrier and discovered within some living creatures.
" 'Upon examination, they came to the conclusion that these creatures had once been human beings, and were, in fact, the total living remnants of the planet's colonist population. Lieutenant Bruce attempted to communicate with these creatures, but found that he could not do so. They had apparently been surgically adapted, altered from their original human form in preparation for a life on a planet where atmospheric and gravity conditions differed materially from those of Earth. Lieutenant Bruce suggested this as the only possible motivation the nonhuman surgeons could have had for performing such ghastly modifications, and it would seem to be a logical conclusion. Bruce further suggested that the forty-one creatures found in the cave were in fact the living remnants of unsuccessful attempts at modification. For this reason, he suggested that these unfortunates had not been considered worth the trouble of transportation along with the fifty thousand members of the human population, whose adaptation was presumably satisfactorily completed by the alien surgeons. They were, in a word, rejects.
" 'At length, one creature was found which could still make recognizably human sounds. From its one running eye—I repeat, its eye—it begged to be killed at once; it screamed and clawed with malformed limbs, attempting to take the officer's weapon with the unmistakable intention of killing itself. Faced with this situation, Lieutenant Bruce decided that he could best serve humanity by putting these unfortunate creatures out of their misery. This he did himself, not wishing to involve either of the non-commissioned officers in what he considered a personal decision. (It is understood that PO Dockridge, at least, would have been incapable of assisting in any such action, as he was completely overcome by his experiences in the cave, and CPO Panos was mainly occupied in caring for his needs.)' "
Lieutenant Sharva lowered the file and glanced around the courtroom, whose inhabitants maintained a shocked silence.
"A terrible story," he said grimly. "But its implications are even more terrible and far-reaching. By reading part of this document to you, I have made a beginning only. I am now permitted to show this court, and those who are watching its proceedings on television, totally authentic pictures of some of the creatures found by Lieutenant Bruce and his companions when they broke down the sealing of that cave on Minos IV. I should add that those lacking a strong stomach would be better not to watch what follows. Evidence programmer, may we have the first picture, please?"
There was a brief moment of waiting; it was a tense moment, as though the millions and millions of anxious watchers were making their presence felt in the courtroom. Then a picture appeared on the giant screen at the back of the stage. The watchers in the court gasped; an usher, unprepared, made a retching noise and hurried to a nearby doorway. After the first shocked intake of breath the great hall was silent save for the voice of a television cameraman who cried, totally without blasphemy, "Oh, Christ in heaven!"
Sharva remained dark and composed, as if knowing that the awful strength of his position would best be served by a deliberately unemotional approach. "I will now read to you a digest of information supplied by the Med/Psyche branch of Space Corps, who investigated fully the mutilated cadavers that were transported in deep freeze to Earth. 'There were two types of experimental adaptation. This first example is believed to be derived from a male member of the species Homo sapiens and produced by techniques of living surgery far superior to anything at present attempted or contemplated on Earth. It seems that this creature is designed as a kind of workhorse, and that detailed physical reorganization has been carried out with this end in view. The lung capacity has been doubled by grafting, the genitals have been removed, the eyes have been removed and replaced by one, the one being enlarged by some unknown process, and the constituent parts so reassembled that the creature would be able to see in very dim light. It will be observed that the arms are now triple-jointed, and the length of the fingers has been increased by about six centimetres, while the number of digits has been increased to eight. The musculature of the chest and back—which is where the alien surgeons failed in this instance—is an attempt to create a being with enormous lifting powers and great tactile strength.
" 'The second type of experimentation falls into two parts. One is a development of the human female for the purposes of the aliens.' This female, you will observe ..."
The picture on the screen changed. This time the sounds of revulsion from the people watching were more pronounced. There were some, who after a first glance, covered their eyes and turned away from the unbearable obscenity.
"This female, you will observe," continued Sharva, "has been so altered that she can best serve the function of a reproductive animal. I need say no more about this; the picture speaks for itself."
Sharva waited, and let them—and the millions of television watchers—look hard. Behind him he could hear Helen sobbing, but he did not turn. This was his time to be resolute, to forget his own humanity in the interest of a greater duty.
"And finally," Paul Sharva said, "we come to the third variety ..."
The picture appeared; Admiral Mariano covered his face, Elena Marx was weeping openly. And, to everyone's amazement, Judge Alote Jones lost his self control. Banging his gavel he called: "Take that picture off! Take it off, instantly!"
The evidence programmer obeyed the command and the picture disappeared. Paul Sharva waited. The humming of the electronic paraphernalia of the television technicians seemed to emphasize the numbed silence that enveloped the hall and its occupants.
"Your Honour, these pictures of the creatures from Minos IV—creatures which, I must emphasize, were once human—are not shown with any intention of sensationalism," said Sharva grimly. "But in order to show that somewhere in that vast blackness which every Corpsman fears and respects, no matter how great his or her personal bravery, there lies an extra danger, a new dimension of fear. We do not know what these aliens are, where we shall face them, or what their intentions are, but having seen the results of their handiwork on these few, pathetic grotesques left behind them on Minos IV, we can be sure that they are not human in any sense of the word. What happened to the other fifty thousand and more colonists, we can only surmise; and what plans these aliens may have for any other members of the human race they may meet must remain a mystery. Perhaps, with new and better communication techniques, better defences, such a tragedy may never happen to us again.
"However, one thing is clear. There used to be a saying: 'The stars are neutral.' In truth, had we known it, the stars ceased to be neutral long before the day that Lieutenant Bruce made his dreadful discovery on Minos IV. Since that time Space Corps ships have been tirelessly searching for the truth about these alien beings. Previously, nothing more than a half-serious legend, a stock Space Corps joke—the 'Kilroys'—they are now known to be a grim, if unseen, reality.
"Years ago, when nation warred against nation here on Earth, there were armed camps in many lands. Those days are long past, but now the entire empire of United Earth must be, in spirit, and in fact, one armed camp, looking up in apprehension toward skies which can no longer be regarded as ours exclusively, skies which we now know we share with an alien race whose motives and actions are, as yet, beyond our comprehension. We look upward, and for the first time we must in truth hear what the poet spoke of as 'the thunder of stars.'"
Sharva paused for a moment and looked squarely at Helen, as though gaining strength from the sight of her proud beauty and the love in her eyes.
"Your Honour," he continued. "I do not propose to take up much more of the court's time. You, and our great audience, have seen the pictures and heard the facts with which we must all learn to live from now on. With regard to the role of Lieutenant Commander Bruce in the Athena affair, I would merely say that this officer was confronted with a difficult decision in the face of which any lesser man would have hesitated; the price of such hesitation would have been the death of not fiv
e hundred people, but millions, when the Athena plunged, a man-made meteor, into the heartland of Northern America. As to his role on Minos IV ..." Sharva's voice now thundered from his gigantic chest, for the first time approaching something like its full power. "He made a decision there, too. And I ask you, which one of you, had he the necessary courage, would not have done exactly as Bruce did? In those terrible circumstances, you could surely not have done more, or less. And, it cannot be denied, when the implications of that dreadful discovery on Minos IV are considered, that men like Commander Bruce—the men of the Space Corps—are the ones who must constitute United Earth's first defence and shield against the day when we finally meet the alien enemy face to face. Thank your God today for the existence of such men, for tomorrow, or the next day, or many years from now, they will remain your protectors, your guardians of light!"
Lieutenant Paul Sharva bowed with dignity to the judiciary and resumed his seat amid a silence that held a special, charged quality of approval that was more expressive than any standing ovation. In front of their television screens, countless millions wept and felt a new glow of pride in the knowledge of their own humanity. Sharva had said all there was to be said.
Judge Alote Jones, in his wisdom, sensed this. Leaning forward close to the microphone, he spoke briefly to the evidence programmer.
A moment later a solid roll of drums issued from the stereo speakers which lined the interior of the concert hall.
The Judge and the entire court stood rigidly to attention as a recording of the massed bands of the Space Corps playing the anthem of United Earth filled the great building.
She rolled away from him.
"What is it?"
"Must light another stinkpot or we shall have the mosquitoes back." She picked up another of the fragrant little candles and put it to windward. Then she paused, looking out over the lake.
The inquiry was over for Helen and Paul. On Monday she would be back on duty at the shipyard, but tonight and tomorrow they were free—free to swim, cook food and make love on the little beach in the moonlight
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