Skybound

by S. W. Gunn

  Almost on reflect Johnathan first flinched but then followed the crowd around him as they all stood up. He could barely see the man between those around him. The man shifted to move to the side and Johnathan spotted the door behind the man open. He heard some people enter but the first person he saw was the top of someone’s head. He recognized it immediately as Rose because her bright orange hair. She turned and walked towards the elevated tables. The man behind her was a dark skinned man with a closely shaven bald head and a neat black beard. He looked to be about the same age as Rose was. As Rose began to move onto the steps that lead into the elevated desk he could see the first person. She was a short Asian woman with black hair that was pulled into a tight bun. She had light tan skin, brown eyes, and was wearing a flowing black robe with a white frill on the chest below her neck. Rosemary was wearing the same robe, as was the black man who followed behind her. He guessed that it was the official outfit of the judges.

  Once Rose and the others took a seat the man announced loudly, “Be seated, court is now in session. Commander Rosemary Yarden, Honorable Bao Cheng, and Honorable Gezan Naidoo are presiding.”

  As Rose sat down Johnathan saw her examining the courtroom and after a few moments their eyes caught. She smiled widely at him, which he returned with a grin. She had pulled her hair into a tight bun but even in the boring robe she looked like a vision of beauty to him. She gave him a little wink.

  The black gentleman on the bench, who Johnathan guessed was named Gezan Naidoo, asked, “What’s first on our docket Manuel?”

  The large man standing nearby replied, “Your Honor our first case is Ms. Melissa Gomez versus Mr. David Wemhaner.”

  The judge nodded at Manuel before asking, “Ms. Gomez and Mr. Wemhaner are you both present?”

  The first to stand was a good looking tall light skinned man with long blonde hair. He had blue eyes and was wearing a nicely made green tunic and a pair of black trousers. Johnathan guessed that since he was so good looking he was probably quite popular with the female members of the crew, although if he were honest Johnathan had to admit that he was not entire sure what his fellow crew members did or did not like. He had been secluded for so long that outside of his random interactions and the time with Rose that he had no idea what they really were like. It was something that he decided he would change. Next to stand was a tan skinned woman who was approximately the same age as the man. She had black hair, which was trimmed to just above her shoulders, and dark brown eyes. She was wearing a close fitting green dress with white trimming. There was a secondary pattern in the green that was a darker green threading but he could not tell what the pattern was in the shape of from this distance.

  The woman who Johnathan guessed was the person named as ‘Honorable Bao Cheng’ was the first to speak, “So tell us what this is all about.”

  Almost immediately both the man and woman began speaking loudly, each attempting to drown out the other.

  Johnathan saw a subtle shift in the facial expression of Rose. He recognized the expression as irritation.

  The third judge, Gesan Naidoo, said in a stern loud voice, “One at a time.”

  Both of them looked at each other. He guessed that they were trying to decide who should speak first.

  Rose then said, “Ms. Gomez you brought this case before us. Please lay out your claims first.”

  The woman immediately began to speak very rapidly. She was just far enough away and talking fast enough that he could not understand most of what she was saying. He did hear the words ‘promised’ and ‘relationship’. It led him to believe that the issue between the two of them was on a personal level. Johnathan was very surprised by this because he did not think that a court case was the place to resolve personal relationships.

  Once she finished speaking the man simply said, “I promised no such thing.”

  Gesan Naidoo asked, “What do you expect us to do Ms. Gomez?”

  “Obviously there is no relationship but I want him to give me the ring that he promised.”

  The man named David laughed heartily in response before saying, “Right. I’m not giving you anything. This whole thing is made up. I was merely nice to her one time and she drags me through this embarrassment.”

  Bao Cheng then asked, “What exactly did he promise and expect to think he should give you a ring?”

  The woman replied, “He wanted a physical relationship with me. He said that we would be together forever but not very long after we had sex he simply stopped replying to my messages and disappeared.”

  For some reason Johnathan found this whole thing quite petty. He had never been in a relationship before but it seemed unusual to think that someone would offer something like a ring for sex. He could only guess that maybe the man offered something as a token of a relationship but then changed his mind. Johnathan was unsure.

  “Not quite.” The man retorted.

  Rose then asked, “How so Mr. Wemhaner?”

  “I initially did think that we were going to be in a normal relationship but she went insane on me. She messaged me every hour, showed up at my quarters at odd hours, and came to my place of duty during work shifts. I decided that I had enough so I stopped seeing her.”

  “That isn’t true at all. You promised me so much for sex and once you got it you stopped talking to me.” The woman almost yelled out.

  The man said something back but the woman again yelled. She repeated her previous statement.

  “ENOUGH!” Rose bellowed loudly.

  Her voice echoed for a moment before the entire room dropped in stone silence.

  Rose turned to look at the female judge and then the male one. They both gave her a slight nod.

  In a stern tone she said, “Personal relationships like this are not the issue of this court. Mr. Wemhaner is not obligated to give you his possessions even if he said he would, no matter what you do in order to achieve those gifts. If you have a personal issue with him then you should seek out counseling, not legal adjudication. Anyone else who decides that personal matters and not legal ones belong in my court will spend a month in the brig. Case dismissed.”

  She banged a small wooden hammer on the table she was sitting at. Johnathan was not surprised by her response. Of all of the things he thought of Rose, he knew that she was straightforward. This whole case seemed silly to him and it was clear that all three judges felt the same way. Johnathan watched cautiously as he saw Ms. Gomez stomp her way out of the courtroom. Mr. Wemhaner followed soon after and he was smiling. Johnathan thought to himself that he may have been a lot happier than he should be. No doubt that even though she did not win the case Ms. Gomez would be telling anyone and everyone she could talk to about their relationship, whatever it really was. He suspected that might cause Mr. Wemhaner issues with other women later. Johnathan shrugged. It was definitely not his problem. It did shine a light on things that were going on throughout the eco-ship that he was totally unaware of.

  The man named Manuel spoke next, “Your honors it seems that several of the other cases we had planned for the docket have been withdrawn.”

  Rose nodded grimly at him. Johnathan was confused at first. He did not understand why cases were being withdrawn but then it hit him. Most likely these other cases were the sort of personal issues that Rose had just angrily declared not part of what the court was to deal with.

  “What is our next case Manuel?” The female judge named Bao asked.

  Manuel examined his datapad for a moment as he fiddled with the screen before saying, “That would be Ms. Jessica Kravitz vs. Ms. Louisa Anderson.”

  Johnathan sat quietly as two women that he did not recognize stood up and approached the large desk Rose was sitting at.

  Gesan Naidoo spoke first, “Ms. Kravitz you have brought this case to us. Please explain your reasons.”

  The woman he was looking at was a short thin black haired woman with dark brown skin. She was wearing an intricately designed yellow dress that was form fitting and went all the wa
y down to the floor. Her tightly curled black hair was pinned back into a loose fitting bun. She had brown eyes and her lips were decorated with red lipstick.

  She started to speak, “About three weeks ago I brought a family heirloom to a tailor to have it slightly adjusted to fit me. It disappeared from their shop. About a week ago I saw her wearing it.”

  She pointed at the other woman who Johnathan guessed was Louisa Anderson.

  Her face shifted to utter outrage before she said loudly, “I did not steal your dress you liar. This dress is mine and has been for a long time. My mother gave it to me.”

  Ms. Kravitz became visibly angry before she called out, “And you’d lie about it right here in front of judges too. That dress is plainly my family heirloom.”

  Bao Cheng interrupted to ask, “Ms. Kravitz where is this tailor at?”

  “Your Honor it is Josephine Cheng’s shop located on deck three.”

  Johnathan knew which shop she was talking about. It was located next to the hydroponics bay that many of the high humidity produce such as rice and pineapples was grown. It had been his personal nightmare zone due to the high humidity constantly messing with the technology in the bay.

  Rose asked, “Have you had the security technicians pull the video recordings during the time frame you had your dress there?”

  Ms. Kravitz nodded, “Yes Commander. Unfortunately the security recordings in that area were intermittent and no one could see who the culprit was.”

  Rose’s face shifted to a look that Johnathan guessed was confusion.

  “Did they say why?” She asked the woman.

  “No.”

  Johnathan knew immediately why. The video recording equipment all around that bay was under constant attack from the humidity. He had replaced and rewired them dozens of times and it was again on his to-do list. In fact he suspected that he would end up having to rebuild the entire video recording system for that area to fix the issue. He raised his hand to get Rose’s attention.

  She paused in confusion before asking, “Technician Fischer do you have something to add to the proceedings?”

  Everyone in the courtroom turned to look at him, which caused him to freeze slightly.

  Rose must have realized his sudden nervousness because she said patiently, “Technician?”

  Standing up Johnathan said, “Sorry, yes Commander. Those video cameras suffer from the frequent malfunction from the high humidity hydroponics bays nearby. Unfortunately all of the engineering staff’s attempts to permanently resolve the issue have not yet been successful.”

  Rose nodded at him as she said, “Thank you for the information Technician.”

  Johnathan sat down when she announced, “Well let’s see this dress.”

  Ms. Anderson strolled back to where she was sitting before she began playing with a large case that was sitting near the benches. After a few moments she pulled out a full length white dress. It looked to be made of a delicate lace. As she turned around Johnathan caught the look on Rose’s face when she saw the dress. It was at first a moment of shock followed by a look of recognition. Rose knew what was special about this dress. It was something that he would have to ask her about later tonight. It took her only a brief moment for her face to shift back to a neutral expression.

  “That’s my grandmother’s dress!” Ms. Kravitz said in a loud voice.

  Ms. Anderson gave her a hard stare before declaring, “No it isn’t. You are plainly confused about my dress.”

  Gesan Naidoo then announced, “We are in quite a quandary. We have two people claiming ownership of the dress with one in possession of it. Neither side has evidence of their claims. Do either of you ladies have a suggestion of what we should do?”

  Speaking quickly Ms. Anderson said, “I have the dress which proves its mine. There is no evidence of me taking it because I didn’t take it from anyone. It was given to me by my mother.”

  Almost yelling out Ms. Kravitz declared, “You lying witch. That’s my grandmother’s dress. It’s obvious that you stole it. You work in that hydroponics bay. I bet you knew about the cameras being an issue and used that to take advantage of the problem to steal my dress.”

  Johnathan had to admit that her claim made sense but even he knew it would be hard to prove without evidence.

  “I didn’t know about the stupid cameras. I’m just a botanist. What would I know about cameras?”

  Thinking about it Johnathan knew that he did not tell anyone except the Lead Engineer and Gregory about the problems with the cameras. That of course does not mean that Gregory did not tell anyone. He was much more socially outgoing that Johnathan was. Johnathan watched Rose closely. He could tell that she was thinking about something.

  After a moment she announced, “Manuel take possession of the dress.”

  “Yes Commander.” Manuel said before walking up to Ms. Anderson and taking the dress from her.

  After he moved back to his position Rose announced, “Since there is no obvious resolution to this issue I’m going to order this dress destroyed. Both parties can go to a tailor and get a new dress made.”

  Johnathan looked at Ms. Anderson and then Ms. Kravitz. Ms. Anderson nodded smugly which was a sharp contrast from Ms. Kravitz’s reaction. She first appeared shocked and then dejected.

  “Yes Commander.” Manuel said before he started to walk towards a side door with the dress.

  In what sounded like desperation Ms. Kravitz called out loudly, “Wait stop!”

  “Yes Ms. Kravitz?” Rose said hesitantly.

  “Please don’t destroy it. Let her keep it. I’d rather she have it than it be destroyed.”

  Manuel stopped walking and looked up at Rose. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully before first leaning towards the judge Bao Cheng and whispering to her. She then leaned towards Gesan Naidoo and whispered to him. He responded softly to her. Johnathan could not hear anything they were saying.

  After they talked for a moment Rose straightened back into her said before announcing, “Manuel please return Ms. Kravitz her dress.”

  “Yes Commander.” He said.

  Ms. Anderson called out, “What? That is my dress!”

  The look on Ms. Kravitz’s face was pure joy.

  Rose turned towards Ms. Anderson and said in a firm tone, “No Ms. Anderson. You have been exposed for a thief and a liar. If that dress was truly an heirloom as you claimed you would have never been so willing to let Manuel destroy it. Ms. Kravitz clearly is the real owner. She was so unwilling to see her dress destroyed that she was willing to let you have it.”

  “That’s not true.”

  Gesan Naidoo then said, “It is true. Ms. Anderson we sentence you to three weeks in the stockades during your off work hours. If we see or hear of any more issues with you and other people’s possessions again you will be dealing with a much longer sentence. Manuel, please return the dress to Ms. Kravitz and then take Ms. Anderson into custody.”

  Manuel walked the dress over to Ms. Kravitz and passed it to her. She took the dress and started crying. Johnathan was unsure why she was crying but he guessed that she was happy. Manuel approached Ms. Anderson and out from what seemed like nowhere two other men moved behind her. They spoke to her in soft tones that Johnathan could not hear before they escorted her out of the room. Manuel walked back over to his normal position.

  Speaking in a loud voice Rose stated, “This concludes our session.”

  Rose and the two other judges stood up at the same time. The people in the courtroom stood as well. Johnathan responded to the group by standing as well. Rose and the other judges turned and left through the door they had entered the room from. The people around him began to leave. He had no idea where to wait for Rose so he just stayed in place. After a brief wait the room was fully empty and he heard the door Rose had left from open again. Rose appeared wearing her normal work uniform. She gave him a broad smile which he returned with a grin.

  “Okay let’s go home.” She stated.

  Reaching
out to hold her hand he replied to her, “Alright.”

  She took his hand and they walked through the main entrance of the courtroom. Everyone that had been there was long gone and the only people in the halls of the eco-ship were the normal crowds found in the later evening.

  As they made it to the nearest elevator Rose asked, “So what did you think?”

  Pausing to think for a brief moment Johnathan replied, “It really exposed me to a lot more than what I thought was going on aboard.”

  She chuckled for a moment before asking, “You’ve been living in a bubble haven’t you?”

  He could only nod at her. Since she approached him he had learned a lot about both himself and others around him. They continued walking through the halls and onto the elevator that would take them to her quarters. As they entered her quarters Johnathan remembered his question about the dress from the last court case.

  “Rose I have a question.” He said as he slipped off his boots.

  “What’s that?”

  “Well during the last court case you had a usual reaction when Ms. Anderson brought out the dress.”

  Rose immediately flushed a dark red color before asking with what Johnathan could tell was a very shocked voice, “You noticed?”

  “Yes.”

  After she slipped off her boots she grabbed his hand and instructed, “Follow me.”

  He followed her to the bedroom. She patted on the bed, a hint for him to sit down, so he took a seat and watched her as she walked into the walk-in closet. After a few moments she returned to the room carrying what looked like a very similar dress. This one was clearly much older than Ms. Kravitz’s because it was not pure white but an off white color, which he guessed was due to age. It was made of a very similar lace material and instead of being sleeveless it had full length sleeves. The neck of the dress came all the way up the wearer’s neck just below where their neck met their head, or at least this is what Johnathan guessed from looking at it. This dress also appeared to be made of much less material. The dress in the courtroom looked as though it would drag along behind the wearer but this one seemed to be more like a normal dress in this regard.