“Are AIs people?”
“No,” Red answered first.
“They are too!” Jay shot back, punching Red in the arm.
Lindy shrugged.
“This isn’t the conversation I had hoped for.” Rivka shook her head and tapped a couple of buttons on her datapad. “Chaz, can you join us, please?”
“Of course, Magistrate,”
“Are AIs people?”
“A loaded question, Magistrate. AIs are my people, so yes, in that sense. But I am not people, in that I can’t get up and walk around. I can’t leave. I can’t go to a restaurant and eat a meal.”
Jay frowned. “You’re making me sad, Chaz. I want you to have a good life!”
“I do have a good life. You treat me as one of your team. When you moved to this ship, you brought me with you.”
“But I didn’t ask you, Chaz, and for that, I’m sorry.”
“I disagree, Magistrate. You gave me a choice. Stay on Peacekeeper or move here. You might not think that was asking because my response was limited to a binary, one or zero. I appreciate you giving me the choice. Not everyone does that.”
“And that is at the heart of this case. What are an AI’s rights?”
“I don’t know, Magistrate,” Chaz replied.
“Same as ours,” Jay said innocently.
Red chewed with great vigor as he powered through the tray of snacks and got up for a second round. Lindy watched him with mild amusement before sharing her opinion.
“If their rights were the same as ours, they’d be free to leave the ships that they control. But how could they do that?”
“Accommodation, just like anyone with a disability. Will we have to give each AI a means to travel if we determine that they have the same rights?”
“Would that be so bad?” Jay asked.
“No,” Rivka replied, “just different.”
“It appears that you’ve already reached your conclusion,” Red noted. “Bluto is a serial killer and should be punished. The sentence is death. We destroy the system components that currently hold him.”
“Damn, Red. That’s pretty cold,” Lindy noted.
“That fucker killed five people. Cold-hearted is what he is.”
“Chaz?” Rivka steered the AI back into the conversation.
“I feel like you treat me as if I have the same rights. It would be nice if that was a matter of law, so my fellows who aren’t working with someone like you knew where they stood, and more importantly, for those who employ AIs.”
“So to speak,” Rivka joked. “Thank you, Chaz. I value your input. This is an issue I had not contemplated, nor had any Federation lawmaker. We have a chance to get this right.”
“By ‘right,’ you mean…”
“I mean the full Monty.”
“AIs are to be naked before the universe?”
“Is that how you define ‘full Monty?’” Rivka wondered.
“It is. How do you define it?”
“The complete deal.”
“I recognize that as one of the more obscure definitions, but the expression means completely naked,” Chaz clarified.
“We’ll work on my idiomatic expressions, Chaz.” She looked at the others and waved them away. “I appreciate your input, but I have a lot to think about and no time. Enjoy your dance.”
“You’re coming, Magistrate,” Red said firmly.
“I most assuredly am not. I have three weeks’ worth of work to prepare for this case, and about twelve hours to do it.”
“Just one dance?”
“Zero dances. Now go away before I throw you all in the brig!”
“Someone’s grumpy,” Red mumbled.
Rivka gave him the finger, then waved it at everyone else.
“Yup. That confirms it,” Red said while hurrying from the room.
Once the door closed, Rivka stood but didn’t pace. Her mind was pulled in too many directions. She needed to whittle the case down to the key components.
Everything hinged on the definitions. Every word in every statute required applicability to AIs. Nothing more, nothing less. Once that was determined, the transgressions could be detailed. Misappropriation. Misuse of resources. And ultimately, murder.
Could a machine commit murder?
Chapter Fifteen
Gantry Four, Federation Border Station 13 – Under Construction
Grainger picked up High Chancellor Wyatt, and they arrived together in his frigate. He also brought a media relations team to help manage the multiple news outlets that wanted to set up in the courtroom.
“No way! This has to be a secret trial!” Rivka said more loudly than she’d intended. Her mouth remained open in a silent scream for help.
“I am sorry, Rivka,” the High Chancellor said, trying to calm his upset Magistrate. “I didn’t warn you because I didn’t want to distract you from your preparation of the case. It should make no difference to your prosecution that someone is watching. As a matter of course, we should always assume every one of our actions is memorialized in video.”
Rivka blew her breath out. The High Chancellor’s eyes twinkled as he watched her. Crow’s feet were starting to appear at the corners, or maybe they were simply smile lines. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“I wanted to ask—” The High Chancellor stopped her with a raised hand.
“I’m hearing the case. If it has anything to do with it, don’t say it. If you want to talk about Grainger’s ship, that’s open season, always.”
“What’s wrong with his ship?” Rivka wondered.
“What’s right with it?” Wyatt tapped a finger to his nose and headed down the gantry to his waiting escort, two Yollins and an Ixtali.
Grainger filled the space recently occupied by the High Chancellor. “Is he still making fun of my ship?”
Rivka nodded as she watched Wyatt joke with the Yollins, making them laugh in their odd way before the group walked out of sight.
“My ship is a flea compared to your full-size ship. How did you get the big ship? I thought you were getting the frigate?”
Rivka was still thinking about the indictment, the charges she was going to proffer. “I did get the frigate.”
“You got the ultra-frigate. The little frigate went to Jael, although I can’t imagine why.”
“I did?” Rivka asked.
Grainger gripped her shoulders so he could look into her eyes. “Are we even on the same space station?”
“This case.” She let that statement say it all.
He understood only too well. “Then what do you say we get to the courtroom so we can start spinning up the audience. I’ll be sitting in the second chair, but I have no intention of saying anything. I’m not up on the case, but I can research while you listen. You can always bounce ideas off me.” He gestured toward the station. “I know how important this case is. For Beau, Chaz, Plato, and every other AI out there. I guarantee they’ll all be watching.”
“We have to do right by them,” Rivka said, using her confident courtroom voice. “That is what I need. Commitment to do right by the thinking beings of this universe.”
“What’s the agenda, Barrister?” Rivka smiled at the title, but Grainger was right. A Magistrate was judge, jury, and executioner. She was simply the prosecutor.
“First is the arraignment, when I read the charges with specifications. The defendant can plead at this time or delay to confer with his attorney, but Bluto has said that he will represent himself. He can drag this out until tomorrow and plead at that point. The trial will start a day thereafter unless a reasonable request for delay is made to the judge. I doubt we’ll have a stay. This trial will proceed at a velocity that benefits the AI.”
“What’s your play?”
“The full Monty,” she replied.
“You’re going to get naked?” Grainger asked.
Rivka harrumphed and started walking. “Not you, too.” She glanced at her friend. “Back my play.”
“Whateve
r it is, I’ll back it. Just don’t count on me to strip in front of the cameras.”
“We’re all going to be naked in front of the cameras, figuratively speaking.”
They walked through the corridors, heads held high. Red and Lindy had materialized before they left the gantry. Rivka hadn’t noticed that they’d been waiting. She was laser-focused on the upcoming trial. Every fiber of her being told her she needed to be at her very best. Rivka’s confidence grew the closer she got to the courtroom. Jay was waiting outside, dressed to kill, a green-haired statue dedicated to the goddess of love.
Rivka smiled and tipped her chin to acknowledge her crewmate but didn’t stop to talk. She opened the doors and stepped through, immediately jumping to the side when an errant light fixture swung toward her face. A member of the media team mumbled an apology and went back to work. Red stared him down as he took a position near the back. The room had been transformed: chairs, carpet, and an old-British style dock in which the accused would be detained. With the accused being an AI, the dock was a holoscreen inside a force field.
Two seats opposite the dock were designated for the prosecutor. In between sat a large table with an oversized chair where the High Chancellor would sit and hear the case.
A makeshift barrier separated the forty spectator seats from where the main action would take place. A three-dimensional array dominated the middle of the space, where both sides would display their evidence. A wire trailed from the dock to the system.
Rivka appreciated the good work from the electrician, who had only needed to know where she stood.
She placed the datapad on the table in front of her chair, removed her Magistrate’s jacket, and draped it over her chair. She motioned for Grainger to sit, while she stood to the side and watched. Rivka wasn’t taking in the crowd as much as she was rehearsing her brief. They would be there when she spoke, so she always ran through her key points one final time as the courtroom filled. Sometimes there was no gallery. There were trials where no one seemed to care.
But that wasn’t the case here. People cared. They just wanted to get on with their lives. This was the complete opposite. There were those in the galaxy who couldn’t get on with their lives until the outcome of the trial determined what would happen next. That was what the media was for. Broadcast to the entirety of the Federation and put on display for all to rewatch at their leisure and pick apart every one of Rivka’s words.
She had been given no time to contemplate the magnitude of it all. She was glad of that because worry and stress would have drawn out the pain while adding little value. Rivka knew what she wanted to say.
The Magistrate finished her first mental review and became aware that every seat had filled. The rustle of noises created a low din, much like a power plant churning out consumable energy.
The High Chancellor entered through a door behind his table. The crowd stood without being directed. A shimmer within the dock and Bluto’s avatar appeared, twisted into a horrifying caricature of Munch’s The Scream before settling into his usual appearance. He laughed for the audience’s benefit.
Still a game to you, Rivka thought.
The memories of a jury who had let a guilty man go free bubbled to the surface. What had she done wrong?
Besides killing the perp in a semi-conscious fog.
She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing. Present your case and the facts, and let the High Chancellor decide. Then move on to the next, because there will always be another.
The crowd took their seats, and Rivka moved around the table to stand next to Grainger. They sat at the same time. Bluto conjured a digital chair, and his avatar sat.
Wyatt nodded and took his seat. He leaned forward to address the court. “I will have order and discipline in my court, so please conduct yourselves accordingly. These proceedings will be transmitted live throughout the Federation and probably beyond, as this issue is critical to the fundamental nature of our being and the laws that govern us.”
Tipping your hand already, High Chancellor? Rivka wondered. She clenched her teeth, counseling herself to expect the worst while hoping for the best.
“The prosecutor is Barrister Rivka Anoa, and the accused, the entity intelligence, later determined to be an artificial intelligence by competent authority, known as Bluto, will provide self-representation. For ease of conversation, use of he and his will not attach legal status or significance. Barrister, present the arraignment.”
Showtime, but not a show. It was a scholarly exercise for which Rivka had trained her whole life. She stood, remaining behind her table. She straightened her business suit before turning to the dock, delivering the charges to the accused directly.
“The Federation is charging you with five counts of capital murder, as per details of dates and times registered with the court, one count of attempted murder, fifteen counts of fraud, and thirty-seven counts of misappropriation.”
High Chancellor Wyatt raised an eyebrow. Someone in the audience gasped.
“How do you plead?” Wyatt asked the accused.
“I am guilty, Your Highness,” Bluto replied.
Rivka had wanted the AI to admit wrongdoing, but that seemed too easy.
Wyatt continued, “The accused will refer to me as ‘Your Honor.’ The court rejects the accused’s guilty plea. The court puts the indictment on temporary hold pending dismissal of charges due to lack of standing under Article I of Federation Law. The case to determine standing is now titled Magistrate Rivka Anoa versus The Federation. Proceedings will begin tomorrow morning.”
Rivka had remained standing throughout. She stared at the High Chancellor. He returned her look with a blank expression. When the assembled group was standing, he left the courtroom.
“There you go!” Grainger slapped his colleague on the back, wearing a huge smile.
“What the fuck are you grinning for?” she whispered harshly, trying not to look at the eyeballs turned her way.
“Did you think reshaping the law regarding AIs was going to be easy? You got your trial, Rivka. You helped reduce the slave trade with your work on Corran. Is this any different?”
Rivka wanted to argue. Being the named opponent to the Federation was not what she had wanted. She’d be forever memorialized as the person who tried to change the way the leadership of the Federation ran their business. Only the powerful commanded AIs. She had just been named as the one who challenged them and took away their rights.
But it was rights over others. Was this something worth fighting for?
Hell, yeah. It is worth all the risk.
“I guess we better get to work preparing my case against the Federation,” Rivka conceded.
“Hell yeah,” Grainger replied, mirroring her thoughts.
Grainger’s datapad vibrated. He pulled it out and looked at the message. “This was unexpected.”
Rivka’s face dropped when he turned the pad toward her.
You’ve been assigned as the Federation’s defense counsel.
Chapter Sixteen
Onboard Wyatt Earp
“You did great,” Jay called and ran up to Rivka to give her a hug. Floyd wasn’t far behind. She barreled into their legs, tripping them. Red and Lindy watched the slow-motion fall with mild amusement until a look from the Magistrate suggested the bodyguards should intervene to untangle the bodies and help them up.
The wombat snuffled faces and pounced on Red’s big hand. He caught her and lifted her away. Lindy moved in to finish the assist and got the pair upright. Jay giggled and relieved Red of his fuzzy burden.
Rivka cleared her throat instead of saying something untoward. “As I was saying,” she hadn’t said anything, “the hard work has just begun. I have to lay out a case against the Federation. I have to find precedent where there is none, and create the conditions for a ruling that will establish guiding case law until such time as a legislative solution is written and adopted.”
Red shrugged. “Sounds like lawyer stuff.”
“You’re good at that,” Lindy added matter-of-factly.
“Secure the hatch. Let’s call it a day.”
“It’s only noon.” Red tapped his wrist.
Rivka acted like she didn’t hear him. She ambled away, head down, hands behind her back. She mumbled as she walked.
“Is this case that bad?” Jay asked, unsure of why the Magistrate was distracted.
“She cares,” Lindy replied. “She wants to speak for those who have no one to protect them. AIs, warriors without a home. Imagine being responsible for making sure an entire class of people is recognized as deserving equal rights?”
Jay stroked Floyd rhythmically. The wombat went from frenzied activity to sound asleep in less than two minutes. “I never thought about it,” Jay admitted. “It just was. I like to think I treat everyone the same until they show that they don’t deserve it.”
Red started to unbuckle his gear but stopped. “And that’s what the Magistrate does, the burden she carries. Even if they don’t deserve it, everyone still rates to be treated equally under the law. She has to enforce that. Remember our reality star from the slave mission? We all hated that guy, but he didn’t break the law. She left him in peace. Look at everything Chaz has done for us. And Erasmus. Are they getting the same rewards?”
“Do they want the same rewards?” Jay asked.
“Have we ever asked them?” Red challenged before walking away.
“He is a lot smarter than he lets on,” Lindy whispered to Jay. “Don’t tell anyone.”
Jay nodded. With her hands full of wombat, she headed for her quarters, where she expected to find little cubes outside her door if the cleaning bots had not already taken care of them.
Cut off from her normal channels, Rivka needed to talk with someone. “Chaz, can you do something for me, please?”
“Of course,” Chaz replied pleasantly in his soft tenor.
“Would you connect me to Lance Reynolds?”
The artificially generated clicks and buzzes said the call was going through.
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