by M. D. Cooper
That didn’t happen the last time she was brought before a jury. He didn't hold out much hope it would happen this time, either.
The very reason Phantom Blade had been formed as a task force was because of corruption in the justice system. Combine that with the fact that too many partisan politicians were opposed to anything that would give AIs more power than they already had, and Jason was certain Victoria was going to end up a free woman.
He wiped off the scowl the thought had conjured and schooled it into careful neutrality as they slowed to a stop outside the dimly-lit courtroom. The doors opened to reveal walnut-lined walls that surrounded a dais on his left, and rows of seating on his right. Ahead of him stood the witness box, flanked by the court reporter and the grand jury foreman—the individual selected to represent the jury as a unit.
Floating in the center of the room was a large holotank; behind it was a holorecorder, stationed so that it could capture the statement of the witness seated within the box.
His eyes narrowed as he noted the barely concealed hostility emanating from the foreman as she took in the cat standing next to him. Her lips compressed in apparent distaste before she nodded to the court officer.
The man skirted the holotank and escorted him and the Tobys around to the witness box. A woman seated next to the foreman stood as they approached.
The registrar swore them in and then gestured for Jason to take a seat inside the box.
As he sat, the holotank sprang to life, and the feed from the holocam that Jason had been wearing the day they infiltrated the Sylvan two years before began to play.
He watched as he and Calista entered the ship’s cargo bay, heard his voice thank Tobias and Ashley over the combat net for silencing the warning klaxon.
The holotank showed the bay door parting to reveal the Enfield shuttle, Sable Wind. Hovering just beyond it was its sister fighter, the Valiant. As the holorecording played out, the ships came to rest inside the bay and disgorged Daniel.
The view shifted, and he heard Calista’s subdued voice say,
The view on the tank shifted as he, Calista and Daniel loaded the AIs onto the Sable Wind, and then he heard Tobias’s warning that Victoria North’s second was on his way down.
The image froze on the departing ships, as first Daniel, and then Calista had launched.
The foreman nodded, and the display above her station projected the token of one of the jurors, acknowledging the individual’s desire to begin questioning Jason.
“So you admit to breaking into a privately-held vessel not your own and removing crates—also not your own—without the owner’s knowledge or permission?”
Tobias sounded both aggravated and resigned.
* * * * *
Jason was steamed. That had been no hearing; it had been a joke. He realized shortly after the juror’s first question that there was little likelihood Victoria North would be brought to justice for the things she had done. He needed to get the hell out of there before he sent his hand through a wall. Or someone’s face.
He and Tobias were en route back to the room reserved for Phantom Blade, when they rounded a corner and came face to face with Victoria North. The gendarme escorting them paused as Jason came to an abrupt halt.
Out of his peripheral vision, he saw the door slide open, and Daniel and Calista emerged to stand silently behind Victoria. The gendarme escorting Jason gave them a warning look, and Daniel raised his hands, signaling they were just there to observe.
Dressed in prison coveralls, her hands bound by a set of magcuffs, Victoria paused to stare haughtily at him. Then she cocked her head as a slow smile spread across her face.
“Well, hello, pretty boy. I believe I owe you a bill for damages done to my engine room.” Her eyes raked down Jason’s body, then back up. “With interest.” She raised her brow and resisted the gendarme’s tug on her arm. “I believe I mentioned last time we met how I intend to collect.” She smirked as Jason scowled at her.
He knew precisely what she meant by that; she’d insinuated she would take him as collateral…right before he’d beat the shit out of her.
“The only thing you’ll be collecting is time in a jail cell,” he informed her, and she burst out laughing.
“Haven’t you heard?” she taunted him. “I’ve made a few new friends. George Stewart’s petitioning to have all charges dropped.” The gendarme gripped her elbow to prod her forward.
What? Stewart? The leader of Humanity First? Shock flooded Jason’s system and he took an involuntary step after the woman as she was led away. “Never going to happen,” he growled after her departing figure.
Landon stood waiting for them, his silent twin in tow. The two AIs, both former ESF, provided tactical support when Phantom Blade deployed on missions, although they preferred to wear humanoid frames when off duty.
They fell in with the group as they left the cool marbled entrance and emerged once again into the warmth of the ring’s sunny skies.
“I feel like I need a shower after that run-in,” Jason grumbled to no one in particular.
“I’ll settle for a stiff drink,” Daniel replied.
He nodded toward a group of reporters waiting to accost them at the foot of the courthouse’s steps.
“Great idea,” Calista said under her breath as she, too, caught sight of what awaited them below.
“Dammit.” Daniel sighed. “Have a few for me, then, folks. At least that gives me an excuse to extricate myself from those jokers,” he said as he began taking the stairs three at a time, his body language strongly discouraging all incomers.
With two other humans—and a few AIs—remaining for the news crews to accost, they let Daniel go without a fuss.
He was only half joking.
A LITTLE R&R
STELLAR DATE: 05.14.3189 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: The West Bottoms, Sonali
REGION: El Dorado Ring, Alpha Centauri System
Calista smiled at Ashley as the AI’s avatar winked out of existence, then gave Shannon a mental goodbye as the engineer left them to skip back through the nodes of the planetary net to her offices at Enfie
ld Aerospace.
Calista choked back a laugh at that, wondering if Gladys had any idea where that term had originated.
The AI obligingly sent her a pin, and Calista realized that Ben and Gladys were only one stop ahead of them. They must have left the moment we notified them that Jason had finished his testimony.
Calista admitted to herself that she was curious about the physical form Gladys had taken; she’d only ever seen the AI hacker in a holoprojection.
Jason tossed a pin up for a bar called the Bad Attitude, and Calista groaned. However, before she could veto Jason’s suggestion to head down the elevator to the bar based at the Tomlinson City airfield, Ben beat her to it.
When Jason shot her a hurt look, her snort turned into a laugh. “Don’t give me those puppy dog eyes,” she told him. “I agree with Ben. You’ve dragged me down to the Bad Attitude more times than I care to admit.”
The maglev pulled up to the platform where Gladys and Ben were waiting to board.
Calista said, broadcasting over the net for the benefit of the two that had yet to join them,
The trendy new champagne bar was one she’d been wanting to try, but Ben began vehemently shaking his head, and Landon told her it would threaten Jason’s manhood.
The doors slid open, and the few passengers that had ridden with them hastily exited as Jason attempted to wrestle Landon to the ground until he said uncle.
Ben and Gladys hopped on, skirting the two grappling figures. The remaining passengers waiting to board eyed the human crazy enough to attack an AI, and then sensibly opted to catch a ride on one of the other cars down the line.
“Uncle?” Logan uttered the single word, brow raised, as he turned to Ben for an explanation. Just then, the maglev’s NSAI sounded an alarm, warning that violence would not be tolerated, and the gendarmes would be notified in thirty seconds if they did not cease and desist.
Without breaking eye contact, Logan slapped the palm of his hand on the maglev’s frame—and the alarm abruptly stopped.
Logan just stood there, waiting expectantly.
“It’s, uh—” Ben began lamely, and then Jason yelled a muffled, “—weird human shit!” from where he was pinned underneath Landon’s frame.
Calista stifled a laugh as Logan continued to stare at Ben, apparently unconvinced. Ben just shrugged and pointed to the pile of man and AI, just as Jason managed to get both feet planted into Landon’s torso and the AI shot to the roof of the maglev with a resounding clang.
Jason flipped into a crouch, grinning maniacally as Landon rushed him, head bowed like a charging bull. He danced to the side using augmented reflexes, then grabbed the AI’s head and began knuckling the top of it. “Say uncle!” he chortled as Landon twisted and reached down to wrap a hand around each of Jason’s ankles. The AI straightened and then raised his hands high…still holding firmly onto Jason’s feet.
Jason was now dangling a good sixty centimeters off the floor—facing away from Landon.
“Uncle,” the AI said—and then dropped him.
Jason hit the floor in a controlled roll and with a loud oof.
Looking from Ben to his twin and back again, Logan crossed his arms. “Oh,” he said, then turned to take a seat.
Landon, Jason and Ben were busy congratulating themselves on their strategic win as they transitioned to a different maglev that sped them on their way to the biker bar the guys had chosen.
“You realize their idea of a good cocktail’s going to be a boilermaker,” she told Gladys, her voice laced with disgust.
“Oh come on, admit it. It was worth it just to see Jason’s muscles straining against Landon’s hold,” Gladys said in an undertone from where she sat next to Calista. The AI’s voice held a thread of mirth, her eyes glinting with impish humor.
Calista quirked a reluctant smile at her. “Well, there is that,” she admitted, “but stars, don’t let him know.”
The AI laughed and nodded. “It’s good to see them let loose a little. Stars know you all need it, after the day you had.”
Calista had been surprised when the AI said she’d join the group; the pilot didn’t know Gladys owned a humanoid frame. What hadn’t surprised her was that it had been modded in the same flamboyant fashion the AI adopted when in an expanse.
Gladys’s ability to infiltrate world nets and system nodes without any other AIs spotting her—sentient or otherwise—was legendary. As was her love of all things teal and glittery.
Her humanoid frame was testament to that. She fairly shimmered. Her synthetic skin gleamed a soft silver in the overhead lights of the maglev car and was offset by eyes and hair of a brilliant blue-green. When she fluffed her hair, clouds of teal glitter wafted around her.
And Gladys liked to fluff her hair. A lot.
I wonder how the bikers are going to like that, Calista thought. Guess we’ll find out soon enough. She stood as the maglev slowed to a stop, and they exited onto a section of the ring that had seen better days.
As their path took the group past small pockets of locals, something about them had her reaching instinctively to check the small, pocket pulse pistol she kept under her jacket.
The humans she could see were slouched against the dilapidated buildings or milling about aimlessly on street corners, their hooded eyes following the new arrivals as they progressed down the road.
The pulser wasn’t so much for the figures she could see as much as it was for the ones she couldn’t see, nor predict.
Calista hadn’t been to this part of Sonali since her academy days, but she could tell its rough edges hadn’t changed any. Signs for an eclectic array of establishments hung haphazardly along both sides of the street, some lit, others flickering on and off sporadically. They sported names like ‘Froggy’s’, ‘Liar’s Club’, and their destination, ‘The Handlebar’.
“Bet we wouldn’t be here if Terrance had come along,” she muttered under her breath. Gladys’s laugh sounded in her head.
Calista laughed aloud at the AI’s retort, as did Jason and Ben. Logan remained characteristically silent, though she spied the ghost of a smile play across his face.
Several voices protested the thought, and Gladys stuck out her mental tongue at them all as they ducked inside The Handlebar.
* * * * *
The first thing Jason noticed about The Handlebar’s interior was how rustic it was. Low lighting hid the dirty floors and the scuffs that marred the tabletops. A gaming pit was off to one side, and he could see the flicker of holos and hear the whoops of gamers as they raced virtual bikes along holographic terrain.
He nodded to the bouncer standing inside the entrance, just as Landon spied an open table and began to head toward it. Jason followed, automatically scanning the crowd, noting as he did so that Calista was doing the same.
Most of the patrons had glanced up when they entered and then looked away in disinterest. One table did not.
Jason hung back, letting the others pass in front of him as he wandered over to the bar. He made a show of looking at the beer labels on display as he surreptitiously deposited a microdrone monitor on the bar’s edge. Linking it into his HUD, Jason directed it to focus on the table that had caught his attention.
Maybe it’s nothing, he told himself. But his gut told him otherwise. For some reason, their undisguised glares reminded him of the protesters he’d seen at the courthouse.
Nodding to the bartender, Jason pushed off and wove through the tables to where the others sat. As he did so, he sent the microdrone’s feed to Calista and the twins.