“First Citizen, we may only have a few minutes, so listen closely,” the captain began. Commander Wabussie has given me a message for you. He said for you to provide honest answers to all the questions asked of you but to avoid revealing any information about the FSO unless you’re directly questioned about it. Both I and the two guards here are FSO, so don’t be shocked by our knowing about it. Leader Roritat will begin the session making accusations against you. He will no doubt be bringing sources to bear witness against you, and it may be late in the day before you will be asked any questions directly. Commander Wabussie, Senator Tonclin and Admiral Regeny will be providing testimony day after tomorrow that will reveal things that will clear you of any charges. Commander Wabussie has new information that will rock the Senate, so be prepared for chaos to ensue after his testimony. He will be the last, and after he presents his information, I doubt there will be anyone questioning you again. Commander Wabussie also said to tell you that First Citizen Kalana sends her love; Commander Wabussie and Senator Tonclin have both spoken with her. She wanted to be here, but both Commander Wabussie and the Admiral felt it safer for her to stay at the estate. Do you understand?”
“I understand what you are telling me, but I don’t understand what is happening or why.” I answered.
“You will soon enough. It’s probably best you don’t know in case they have you giving testimony with a truth detector; this way you can’t reveal what’s coming.”
“Thank you, Captain; I appreciate you telling me this.”
“It’s an honor, First Citizen. I’m sorry you have to go through this, but in the end it will all work out; you just need to have faith in Commander Wabussie , Senator Tonclin and the Admiral.”
“Can you tell me what will happen once I’m inside?” I asked.
“Normally the Senate and the Federation Legal Review Board do not mix, but for the occasions of Senate Hearing the senior most member of the FLRB presides over the session; his name is Justice Mastoeth. He has no say in the outcome of the Senate’s findings, but he can at times stop hearings if the rights of the person who is being questioned are violated. A list of persons testifying is presented to him before each session begins, and he is the one that will officiate the proceedings.
“We suspect Leader Roritat will make the accusations against you. He believes that his station will have great bearing on the thinking of many in the Senate. Senator Tonclin doesn’t think it will, but we don’t know all the accusations the Leader plans to make nor what details he plans to use against you beyond those he’s already made publicly."
“Why is he doing this?” I asked. “I’ve never even met the man. Why does he hate me so?”
“I think by the time the hearing is over, you will have all your questions answered.” The Captain said just as a light over the door to the Senate hearing chamber began to flash.
“It looks like it’s time for the show to begin, First Citizen. This way, please.” The Captain said as he led me through the doors.
Imagine the largest stadiums you have ever been in, now make that about eight times larger and you will have an idea of the size of the hearing chamber. The chamber itself is domed over with a huge transparent globe; I wondered how it was built and what supported it. With over a million planets in the Federation and all the senators needed to represent them, a space this large was required. Large viewing screens hung about the chamber so that everyone would be able to see who was speaking and what was going on around the Senate room.
I was escorted to a seat at the base of the podium where the eldest member of the senior representatives of the FLRB sat. He turned out to be a rather nondescript looking man of average height and dark-brown hair. If you had encountered him on the street, you would not have paid him any special attention. He sat calmly in his chair seeming to take no particular attention to anyone. Moments later, Leader Roritat entered with several men whose attire suggested that they were senators and they were escorted to a box-like area on the other side of the podium from me. The area was similar to the boxed area I was seated in, only the seats around me were conspicuously empty. Once the leader and senators had taken their seats, Justice Mastoeth rose and approached the podium, and all went silent within the vast chamber.
“Honored Senators and Leader Roritat, we are assembled here today under Federation law to determine if Federal charges are to be brought against one First Citizen Thibodaux James Renwalt for crimes against the Federation and humanity. These charges are of the gravest nature, and I ask all senators to weight carefully all information before rendering a decision.
“Crimes against the Federation are a most serious matter and to be charged with such, a person has to show willful disregard for Federation laws and have exhibited behavior that demonstrated intent or has resulted in harm to individuals in the Federation or the Federation itself. As for the charge of crimes against humanity, one must have demonstrated behavior that denies basic rights believed to be common to all sentient life forms with the intent to suppress and deny them those rights, or behavior predetermined to destroy, exterminate, enslave, or commit grave harm to any sentient species or race, regardless of if they are inside of, or outside of, the Federation.
“Today we will hear charges and evidence presented by the accusers and representatives of the Federation. After their accusations are made, First Citizen Thibodaux James Renwalt will take the stand in his defense and offer up testimony in denial, or defense of his actions. His testimony will be given while wearing a truth monitor and the readings of his reactions will be displayed on the vid screens for all to see. Upon completion of his testimony, his accusers will be given opportunity to question him regarding specific points of his evidence. If required, the questioning will be carried over to the next day until all the Senate has been provided sufficient details and information needed to determine if official charges against the accused are warranted. During the questioning period other witnesses may be called on by the Senate either in support of the accusations or in defense of the accused. Only after all testimony has been heard and all questions answered, the Senate will vote if the accused should be indicted. If the Senate votes in favor of indictment, the accused will be remanded into custody and held over for trial by the Federation Legal Review Board, who will hear the evidence and who will vote on his guilt or innocence based on the laws of the Federation and they will determine his fate. Their decision will be final.”
“I now call Leader Roritat to present his accusations against the accused.”
Leader Roritat rose from his chair and approached the podium as the senior justice took his seat.
“Thank you Justice Mastoeth,” Leader Roritat said with a beaming smile. “Senators,” he began looking at the assembly and giving a slight nod. “I am here today to present grievous accusations, and evidence, against Thibodaux James Renwalt, also known as First Citizen, a title which I shall demonstrate he does not deserve, and which was given him under misperceived actions and deeds. To support my claims I shall call forth individuals who will give testimony that will support the level of Tibby’s crimes and deceptions.
“While none of us can say for sure just how Thibodaux James Renwalt came into possession of the TRITYTE and the long missing solbidyum, there is no question to his appearance in the Federation with both, and the rights to the reward offered. Unfortunately, Commander Thimas on the DUSTEN and Corporal Lexmal, also of the DUSTEN were overwhelmed with greed by the tremendous value of the solbidyum and devised a plan to steal it before it could be delivered to the Capitol here at Megelleon. They devised a plan to make it appear that the Bunemnites were after the solbidyum, so there was a need to get it off the DUSTEN. This plan worked, and Captain Maxette and senior officers on the DUSTEN fell for the ruse and made a plan to get the solbidyum and the TRITYTE to Megelleon. Meanwhile the rest of the DUSTEN crew were in all the patrol ships, chasing after a GW pod emitting a fake signal. On hearing of the plans to get the TRITYTE to Megelleon, Tibby became frigh
tened that his treasure would get taken away from him. He convinced Captain Maxette he should not only be on the TRITYTE, but he should lead the mission, even though he was not a Federation officer.
“Meanwhile Commander Thimas and Corporal Lexmal contacted confederates of theirs, who just happened to be Bunemnites, to intercept the TRITYTE in route to Megelleon. We all know that the plan of Thimas and Lexmal nearly succeeded due to some trickery by some the DUSTEN crew on the TRITYTE. Tibby was thrilled with the glory of the event and was carried away with the power he had with all his wealth. He offered those on the ship with him immense amounts of wealth to concoct a story that he was the one responsible for the salvation of the TRITYTE and the solbidyum. With the tremendous wealth he had at his disposal to offer; we can hardly blame those of the crew for accepting it. Lexmal was arrested on arrival at the Capitol, and we all know what Thimas did when he discovered his plan had failed. This Senate bestowed on Tibby and his crew great honors for getting the solbidyum here, but these glories only wetted Tibby’s appetite for more. When Tibby heard both Thimas and Lexmal had once been members of the Brotherhood, he concocted a story saying it was the Brotherhood of Light that was trying to steal the solbidyum and not just Thimas and Lexmal. He convinced the admiralty of this deception, and they began a hunt to track down and destroy the Brotherhood of Light. In order to gain the acceptance of his claims against the Brotherhood, he devised plans to make it look that the admiralty was under attack by the Brotherhood. He convinced the admiralty that they were in danger and needed to be safe on the ship he had just purchased. Once they were aboard he had a confederate detonate a bomb in the admiralty and made it appear his claims were true. He then convinced the admiralty that the Brotherhood had a subsea base in the western ocean and that they needed to bomb it immediately. Unfortunately in his zeal, Tibby convinced them to use too much power; it resulted in a massive tidal wave that killed thousands of innocent Federation citizens and millions of credits in damages occurred. Of course, Tibby paid for all these damages to make him appear even more of a hero. After all, with all the wealth we had given him, it was nothing at all to him, but it did endear him to the citizens of the Federation who believed he had saved them from an enemy that didn’t really exist.
“This still left the Federation with Thimas on the DUSTEN to be dealt with. By now his few remaining loyal followers realized that he was quite insane; and when Tibby showed up, they didn’t alert Thimas to his arrival or activities. Tibby and a few of his extremely well paid followers boarded the DUSTEN, and like the barbarian leader he is, he ordered them to shoot anyone on sight. Many honest Brotherhood and other men, all loyal to the Federation, died in the assault he led, when in reality only two criminals existed on the ship, Commander Thimas and Corporal Lexmal.”
I was dumbfounded at how smoothly and convincingly Roritat spun his tale. Had I not been there I would have found myself believing what he was saying. The way he mixed truth with fiction was effective. He stuck to real events and only changed things that we hadn’t explained to the public for military security reasons. Without the general population knowing those details, Leader Roritat’s explanation sounded plausible-- even it if was false.
After his version of what happened on the DUSTEN, Leader Roritat progressed on to events at Alle Bamma.
“As most of you know, Admiral Regeny hosted an event at Plosaxen after the DUSTEN had been regained. Tibby insisted on both he and First Citizen Kalana would fight two fully armed troopers in hand to hand combat to show off the special skills he claims to have , skills that he claimed he was teaching to others. The event didn’t go as well as Tibby planned; the troopers he had selected at opponents were far better than he expected and both he and Kalana were wounded. Immediately Tibby’s men shot and killed the opponents and Tibby claimed that the seriously wounded and unconscious Kalana had been stabbed with a poisonous knife. Kalana was transported to Tibby’s ship, where she was given a transfusion and recovered. Somehow Tibby had heard of the planet Alle Bamma and that a pharmaceutical company was investigating various plants for use in healing drugs. For reasons of his own, he decided he wanted the planet. With his crew, he flew to Alle Bamma and arrived to find that there indeed was a large drug company operation to produce curative drugs. Tibby took a liking to the planet and ordered the drug company to leave; when they refused, he attacked their factories, killing many of their lab workers. When the workers tried to flee the planet, Tibby began shooting them down demanding they turn their ships over to him. Those who didn’t perished while those who did surrender were taken into custody and sent to the Federation to be tried as criminals.
With all the power and glory that the Federation has bestowed on Tibby his accusations were never challenged and innocent workers at the pharmaceutical facility at Alle Bamma were incarcerated. Tibby claimed they were Brotherhood members and enemies of the Federation. He turned them over to Admiral Regeny, who believed Tibby because he didn’t understand how the mind of this barbaric Earth man worked. The events on the DUSTEN and Alle Bamma convinced the admiralty that it was necessary for all Brotherhood members to be purged from the military, and thousands of otherwise loyal men and women lost their jobs and were expelled from the service.
“Tibby took over the planet of Alle Bamma declaring himself as their leader and isolating the planet from all others. He left behind a fleet of ships he had taken from the drug company and manned them with his own people to prevent others from going there. The benefit of any drugs that had been coming from the planet is now cut off from the Federation.
“We have here today one of the scientists working at the lab on Alle Bamma, who will give testimony as to what happened there. I’ll let the senior scientist Honstin tell you what happened.”
A rather distinguished man dressed in a white dignitary cut uniform took Leader Roritat’s place at the podium.
“Senior Justice,” he said addressing Justice Mastoeth and then turning toward the vast arena area, “honored members of the Senate. I was at Alle Bamma when Tibby attacked the laboratories there. We were testing flora and fauna for their viability as cures to many of the diseases facing parts of the Federation and were on the verge of a new discovery for curing Stagner’s Disease, a disease that has shown itself to be resistant to all known antibiotics and nano-biotic’s as well. Our presence on the planet was a peaceful one and we were unarmed and unprepared for the sudden attack that Tibby made with his ship the NEW ORLEANS. His first incursion took place when he, and a team of his men broke into our laboratories in an attempt to steal any samples of our work that he could. He was spotted by some of our workers; they tried to stop him, but he and his team were armed, and they fired on our team killing and injuring several, then they set fire to several of the buildings and fled. The next day they opened fire on all our bases from orbit, setting fire to them and destroying them. Our people began boarding ships to flee, but as we tried to get away Tibby, and his crew, began shooting us down and demanding we surrender. I was fortunate in that the ship that I was on escaped, but the others were either killed or captured and taken prisoners. They were later shipped back here to Megelleon where they were tried as traitors to the Federation, incarcerated, and are serving sentences now. They were only innocent civilian scientists trying to find needed cures for diseases.”
Honstin ended his testimony and nodded to Leader Roritat, who returned to the podium.
“Tibby’s lust for power didn’t end there; about a year later, he tried to steal a prototype ship that was being developed on the planet Gaimse. Gaimse is not a part of the Federation, but they have close ties with us and the ship they were working on is alleged to be faster than those we currently have and possess cloaking capability as well. The Gaimseian’s were hoping to market this ship to the Federation but Tibby desired it for himself apparently, and he tried to steal it from the shipyard on Gaimse. Not all the details are known of his attempt there as the entire shipyard was destroyed when his efforts were thwarted by the Gaims
eian’s military. As Tibby fled in the NEW ORLEANS, they targeted the ship yard, destroying the prototype ship, its plans, and the engineer responsible for developing it.
“From Gaimse, Tibby took his ship to Goo’Waddle, where he allied himself with two known enemies of the Federation; the Ruwallie Rasson, a group of renegade pirates and slavers that refused to join the Federation when the rest of their planet gave up slavery and aligned themselves to us, and the androids that once tried to kill off all humans in the universe. With the help of our sworn enemies Tibby disrupted commerce on the planet, destroying crops on the calgana and pirating merchandise traveling to and from the planet. Tibby and his pirate horde took over the planet; currently, the planet is being run by the androids while the pirates continue to extort local businesses. We also have information that the orphan children of the victims of Tibby’s raids on Goo’Waddle have been taken prisoners and are now sequestered on Tibby’s estate here on Megelleon. We can only imagine the use he is putting them to and the horrors they must be enduring.”
There was a sound like rushing wind throughout the assembly area as people gasped and whispered at Roritat’s last statement. I had to confess, he delivered a most convincing story with enough actual details to make the false statements appear real as well. I was getting a sinking feeling in my stomach that things were not going well at all, and for the first time I began to doubt that my telling the truth was going to get me out of this mess.
By now, we had reached noon and the assembly took a two-hour break for lunch. Where all the senators went and how so many were served was something that I still contemplate. I was escorted out by the same Senate guards who had brought me into the Senate chamber. Once we had passed through the door leading from the Senate hearing room, we made a right turn and went down a side corridor instead of through the opposite door where the troopers who had taken me into custody still waited, or so I assumed.
Solbidyum Wars Saga 4: Too Late for Earth Page 31