by Chloe Garner
“Enough,” the judge said. “Move on.”
“Yes, sir,” Gary said. “Lieutenant Peterson, you are an expert on various kinds of foreign terrestrial technology, is that correct?”
“As much as anyone this side of a jump,” Slav answered. Cassie let her face slide frozen. Jesse was right. They were a pack of know-it-all six-year-olds. Expert.
“We’ve had long conversations about how to verify the evidence we have against Lieutenant du Charme,” Gary said. “You’ve had an opportunity to review it?”
“I have,” Slav said. Cassie sat up slightly. What evidence?
“And you believe it’s authentic?” Gary asked.
“I would like to get it back to continue investigating the technology, but I see no signs of manipulation or falsification,” Slav said.
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Gary said, going back to his table and returning with a black disc the size of a serving platter. “Will you show us how it works?”
“Where did they get that?” Cassie whispered to Grace.
“Don’t know and not allowed to ask,” Grace growled quietly back.
Cassie squinted at it. She’d never seen anything like it. Slav waved his hand over it and for a moment there were just flickers of light between the disc and the ceiling, streaks and blips, and then an image solidified in the space. Cassie’s back froze tight. She recognized the hotel from Xhrahk-ni.
“You can get showered and get something to eat, if you want,” the Jesse in the image said. “I need to go see if I can find someone.”
“Why are you leaving me here?” Cassie’s image asked. Where had they gotten this? Why was there film of what had happened at the hotel?
Wasn’t that a serious invasion of privacy for tourists?
Why would Jesse go back and get it? Had he brought it with them? Why?
“Underground,” Jesse’s image said. “Just wait here. I’ll be back soon.”
He left, and Cassie watched herself disappear into the next room, coming back showered. She wandered for a bit, looking out the windows, then ate. She remembered those moments. She remembered what she’d been thinking, about how Mab had ruined a place just because Jesse loved it.
“Right,” the image finally said, then stood and left.
The courtroom was silent for a few moments as Slav shut off the device.
“Lieutenant Peterson,” Gary said. “Understanding the limitations of our knowledge of foreign terrestrial technology, can you give us a brief explanation of why you believe that this has not been manipulated?”
“Mostly because of how hard that would be,” Slav said, turning the disc between his palms. “Certainly there are people, somewhere, who know how to do that, video editors and the like, but they have no reason to, here. The only people who care about this recording are us, and we certainly don’t have the technology to alter it. Or even understand how it works, at present.”
There was an awe in his voice that Cassie could at least sympathize with. It was pretty impressive.
“And from your historical working with Lieutenant du Charme, you believe that what we’ve seen is in character for her?”
“I do,” he said. He was elsewhere, in that moment. Looking at the disc. He wanted to understand it. He wanted to take it apart, to risk destroying it in the interest of digging out its secrets.
Cassie knew that feeling.
Slav could throw her under the bus distracted with one hand tied behind his back, it appeared. Cassie focused on her breathing, keeping the flow of air in and out of her lungs slow and even. Her face was frozen, calm. She would not let them beat her into showing alarm. Or shame. Or whatever it was they wanted from her.
“Lieutenant, how many people would you say have worked more closely with Lieutenant du Charme than you have?” Gary asked.
“A handful, maybe,” Slav said. It was pretty accurate. They’d been stuffed together for almost a year in a tiny little shelter on a god-forsaken planet that had a fetish-level obsession with horse hair that made some farm in Saskatchewan pig-filthy rich. They’d both been busy the whole time, and went out of their way to avoid each other, but depending on your definition of close, he wasn’t exaggerating.
“Four? Five?”
Slav glanced at her.
“I don’t think she keeps much of a social calendar. It might not be that many.”
“So, as far as people who know her, you’re probably about as much of an expert as anyone?”
“Probably.”
“And more reliable than Captain Rutger?”
“She and Troy are thick as thieves. They’d kill for each other.”
“Judge,” Grace said, annoyed.
“I expect more decorum from my witness stand,” the judge said. Slav ducked his head.
“Sorry, sir.”
Cassie frowned internally. That wasn’t like the Slav she knew. It was like he was going out of his way to make her look bad, even if it meant tarring Troy at the same time, and Slav was at least more loyal than that.
“So you would say that Captain Rutger’s opinion of Lieutenant du Charme’s conduct may be shaded in the light of his relationship with her.
“Without question,” Slav said.
“How did the Lieutenant take being dismissed from the Jumper program?” Gary asked.
“Not well,” Slav said. “I was on mission a lot of that time, but she clearly resented it. Thought she was too good to be an analyst. No one in the pit likes her, really. Too good for us.”
Cassie didn’t think that was fair, but it was hardly a surprise to hear him say it.
“Do you think she ever considered taking a private security position?” Gary asked.
“Speculation,” Grace said.
“Did you ever hear her talk about taking a private security position?” Gary rephrased.
“Sure,” Slav said. “All the time, at first. I don’t think that she could stand to be out of the game like that, though. She wants to be the center of everything.”
“Your honor,” Grace said.
“Can you give us an example?” Gary asked.
“She snipes projects,” Slav said. “Hears the rest of us talking about what we’re doing, then swoops in and comes up with that one thing that you can take to the commander. Steals the credit for the find, like that.”
“She’s done this to you?” Gary asked.
“Couple of times.”
Bristle as she might, Cassie had to admit it wasn’t untrue. She’d hear the rest of the analysts get stuck, from time to time. They’d have been working on something for weeks and stall out completely, and it would just tick in the back of her mind until she had to look at it. She’d put in a bunch of hours and find what they’d missed, then put in the report. She tried to cite any previous research correctly, but mostly it was her own, and the way they gossiped, she was never really sure who was working on what, anyway, when they talked.
“So you wouldn’t consider her to be that loyal to her role or her coworkers?” Gary asked.
“No, but she’s probably the most loyal person I’ve ever worked with to the rules and her responsibilities,” Slav said. Gary had been drawing breath for his next question.
“What?”
“She takes it all so seriously,” Slav said. “It’s why a lot of us can’t stand her. She loves her job and she loves her country, and she would be the last person to betray either one of them.”
Cassie was stunned.
So was Gary.
“Haven’t you previously said that she would be the first one to jump at an opportunity like the one offered to her by the Jalnian?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Slav said. “All of us want to get back onto the other side of jumps, most of all her, but she would never have done it if her CO hadn’t asked her to.”
Gary looked down at his notes and back up at Slav.
“Haven’t you previously said that she would do virtually anything to be able to regain access to the portal?”
&nbs
p; “I did,” Slav said. “She signed that awful contract and is doing unplanned jumps with a foreign terrestrial, risking her life at it, by all indications. But that contract. Honestly, if she didn’t see all of this coming, she’s an idiot.”
Gary stood for a moment then looked at the judge.
“That’s all for this witness,” he said.
“See what coming?” Grace asked, standing. Slav shrugged and motioned to the panel of officers.
“The inquisition, ma’am,” he said. “They handed her an iron-clad contract that says that she can’t talk about what she sees on her jumps with the Jalnian, and then they want her to break it as soon as she gets back. Our own covenants say that she should keep her mouth shut, but they fired General Thompson for not being able to get her to talk.”
“Speculation,” Gary said from behind his table.
“Common knowledge, sir,” Slav said. Cassie had to control the reflex to let her jaw drop.
“Your honor,” Gary said.
“We’ve talked about this,” the judge said to Grace.
“His witness,” Grace answered. “Answering his questions.”
“That she has obviously coached,” Gary said.
“And you didn’t?” Grace asked. They glared at each other for a moment.
Slav’s fingers were steepled in front of his lips as he watched the lawyers argue.
“She should have seen what kind of an asset she was making herself into,” Slav said quietly. “That someone, somewhere was going to realize just how valuable the knowledge that she has is, and was going to come after it. We all say there are these great big barriers to knowledge within the program, that no one but the operators know how the portal works, and no one but the analysts have access to the collected information from the agents, but everything is logged. It’s all written down somewhere that someone with the right password and the right access can get to it.” He paused as Grace turned back around. “Cassie’s keeping all of it in her head, and it’s driving them crazy.”
“Are you speculating that this trial is retribution for Lieutenant du Charme keeping to the terms of the contract that she signed with General Thompson and the Jalnian called Jesse?”
“Your honor!” Gary roared.
“I am,” Slav said.
There was chaos for a few minutes as the lawyers flocked to the judge’s table and the panel of officers murmured to each other. Cassie knew enough about them to know that they were hardly surprised at what Slav had said - probably less surprised than she was that he’d said it - but it was on the record, now. After a few minutes of angry whispering, the judge leaned back and looked over at Slav.
“You’re dismissed for today,” he said. “You should make yourself available tomorrow morning, should you be recalled.”
Slav nodded and stood, walking past Cassie. He paused as he got just past her. No one was paying much attention to him, as the lawyers at the judge’s desk started making larger motions and whispering more emphatically.
“Get her to call the Jalnian,” Slav said. “Don’t care how she does it, just make her do it.”
He kept walking and Cassie turned to look at him. He turned his back to the doors to push them open and winked at her.
Now she’d seen everything.
“I can’t, Cassie. You think I haven’t tried?”
“Why not?” Cassie asked, frustrated. Grace had told her before that there was no way to get Jesse on the stand, and at the time Cassie had accepted it; it was like taking the stand, herself, really. He could only confirm what had happened, after all. Now it didn’t matter, though. They had a video that proved she’d done what they were accusing her of, and…
Slav had quoted Gary. The only way he would have been able to do it was if Troy had told him to say it. Troy was in on it, whatever it was, and it involved Jesse.
“Do you really want to know?” Grace asked.
“What?” Cassie asked.
“Why not?” Grace said, leaning over her notes.
“Yes,” Cassie said, going to sit next to Grace. “Make me understand.”
“He isn’t human,” Grace said, not looking up. Cassie blinked.
“So?”
“There’s no precedent for non-human testimony in a trial,” Grace said.
“So they can use video from a classified planet of a non-human giving me an order and that’s enough to get me discharged or worse, but the guy who gave me the order can’t testify, himself, at my trial?”
“Yes,” Grace said, then looked over, her face tight. “This is my last trial, Lieutenant. Even if it hadn’t been a risk to begin with, this isn’t law. It isn’t justice. It’s extortion and a power play from levels I can’t even see. I’m going private, after this.”
Cassie licked her lips.
“I’m sorry.”
“The law is always dealing with new questions. How do you define what a person is? How do you control privacy in a digital age? How do you manage property rights for a non-terrestrial landmass? We’ve always gotten through. It was inevitable that foreign terrestrial persons and technologies were going to end up in the court system, but the precedents we’re setting here…” She sighed. “It’s dangerous, what they’re doing. I know it, Judge Weaver knows it, Gary knows it. They’re making up law to get their verdict, and it’s ruining centuries of legal evolution that… It scares me that we won’t ever be able to recover it.”
“We need Jesse,” Cassie said.
“They won’t even let me interview him,” Grace said.
“Probably can’t find him,” Cassie said darkly.
“Mmm,” Grace murmured, digging in her bag for a book. Cassie had teased her about carrying around real books, at one point, and Grace had told her that the paper under her fingers calmed her. Cassie found that strangely reassuring.
“Wait, what?” Grace said after a minute.
“What?”
“What did you just say?”
“I don’t know. That they can’t find him, and that’s why they won’t let you talk to him?”
“That might work,” Grace said. “I need to go call someone.”
She started throwing all of her notes into her bag, standing as she threw the messenger bag over her shoulder.
“You forgot your book,” Cassie said.
“I’ll see you in court tomorrow,” Grace said as the door closed behind her.
The shouting from the judge’s office might have been louder, this morning. Slav sat across from her, legs crossed at the ankles, placidly ignoring her. Cassie wished she’d brought a book.
The arguments didn’t last quite so long, this morning, and the lawyers eventually emerged. Gary looked stormy. Cassie tried not to smile. Grace stopped next to her for a moment.
“Are you ready?” she asked. Cassie swallowed and nodded.
“Do you need me today, ma’am?” Slav asked,
“I have two questions for you, and then you can go,” Grace said. Cassie glanced at him and Slav gave her a phantom of a smile - even that was enough to annoy her - and then she followed her lawyer into the sparse room.
“Defense would like to recall Lieutenant Peterson,” Grace said. The court bailiff left and returned with Slav, who looked more openly amused. He took his seat and went through the ritualistic questions to get settled, then Grace stood.
“Lieutenant Peterson,” Grace started. “As far as you are aware, into whose custody has Jesse been taken?”
“After he torched his apartment, we all assumed the high brass took him.”
“He what?” Cassie asked involuntarily. Slav’s eyes never left Grace.
“And has anyone you know of seen him since that time?” Grace asked. Now Slav did look at Cassie.
“No.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Grace said, turning to face the judge. “At this time, I’d like to ask that the court require the prosecution to produce the foreign terrestrial in question.”
There was a pause while everyone looked at Gary
and the rest of the table to Cassie’s right. None of them said anything.
“If he won’t ask, I will,” the judge said. “Why?”
“Because their case for misconduct turns on the fact that she did not make an honest effort to regulate his behavior. I’d like to see them prove that they’ve found someone who can do better.”
The judge nodded.
“So ordered.”
Gary stood up to speak as the door behind them slid open and closed, just the mild noise from the outside hallway calling attention to it. Cassie turned to watch a skinny airman as he sidled up to Gary and handed him a slip of paper, then left. Gary examined the note, then stood straighter, putting it down on the desk in front of him.
“We’d be happy to, sir.”
He turned and the doors opened, revealing Jesse and another man Cassie didn’t recognize. Jesse looked like a recently-escaped inmate from a mental hospital. He was in a straight-jacket and very short ankle chains, and the second man led him toward the front of the courtroom by a chain that was padlocked at his waist. He wore a face mask that Cassie assumed was a gag of some kind.
Gary looked livid.
“What’s the meaning of this?” he hissed as the man went by.
The man on the leading end of the chain let forth a string of blasphemies amidst which Cassie only caught ‘slippery’ and ‘do it yourself’ in printable English. His creativity was impressive. Cassie glanced at Jesse, feeling a momentary stab of pity for the leading man. What had the Palta put them through?
Jesse needed a haircut. His wild curly hair, unkempt as it was, only made a farce of the equipment they were using to constrain him, like a Labrador puppy in a spiked collar. His eyes sparkled at her and she shook her head. Of course he was having fun.
Gary turned stiffly to face the rest of the court again.
“As requested,” he said, his face stony.
“Can we let this one go?” the judge asked, motioning to Slav.
“Yes, I am done with this witness,” Grace said. Cassie looked up at her to find the woman dumbfounded, staring at Jesse. “Sir, I believe this deserves an explanation.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” the judge said. “Sergeant, if you could seat the wild beast you’ve captured for us, we’d like to talk to him.”