He Without Sin (37 page)

“The defense will show that Master Brachus did indeed defy Commander Means’ general directive to return shipboard, and further that he did inappropriately use mission equipment and personnel for his own personal enrichment, and the enrichment of others,” says David’s counselor as he scans the gallery significantly, “at least one of whom is in this room.”

Another buzz rises in the crowd; the judge ignores it. Dylan is sworn; he is asked a few general questions to establish his identity, rank, duties and so forth. He is thanked for appearing, in consideration of his condition.

“Not at all. I may move slowly, but I feel fine.”

Then he is asked if he knows why Master Brachus may have stayed behind and what he may have been doing when the accident befell him.

“I believe I do.”

“First please tell us in your own words what you believe Master Brachus was doing outside of base camp just before his accident.”

“I believe he was retrieving a cache of highly valuable minerals and compounds, mostly gems.”

“And why do you think this?”

“Because he showed me some of the gems, and mentioned he had a lot more hidden in the mountains near our base camp.”

“Can you speculate why he would confide in you?”

“Because he was drunk.” When the murmurs arise this time, the judge calls for silence.

“Did he say anything about the gems; who they were for, for example?”

“Yes.”

“Yes? Go ahead. Again in your own words. What else did he say?”

“He repeated several times that he, Brachus, is ‘set for life’

and…”

“Yes, go on.”

“He said he was set for life even after ‘paying off that bastard Carson’.”

“Exact words?”

“Exact words, as best I can recall.”

Many eyes are upon the dean and yet he maintains a stoic visage and erect posture—no visible reaction.

“When you heard of Master Brachus’ accident, did you make any conclusions?”

“None, other than I was not surprised.”

“And now, to what or to whom would you assign blame for the accident?”

“I would blame greed. The greed of Wesley Brachus,” said Dylan in the same calm voice he has used from the start of his testimony. The judge again has to call for silence. I turn to see Carol—we are not in the same seats as before—and I give her a silent ‘wow’ expression. She nods.

The prosecutor is allowed to question the witness. “Mr. Waters, do you remember anything after your injury near the end of your stay during the mission, anything at all?”

“I do not.”

“Mr. Waters, are you certain your memory is working correctly now?”

“Yes. It is working fine.”

“Well, how could you know that? My understanding is that you suffered pretty severe injuries and that these injuries affected your brain. In fact, you are still recovering from your trauma, isn’t that the case?”

“Yes, that is true.”

“And yet, we are to accept your statements as true without question. Do you have any proof of any of this? Was someone else with you at the time, or…”

“Yes, there was one other there with us,”

“And who would that be?”

“Lester Glavin.”

There is a delay while the prosecutor reads something on the table near his seat. I can see Lester in the gallery. He is fidgeting and his usual smirk is gone.

“We have a sworn statement from Mr. Glavin; he mentions nothing that supports your testimony.”

Dylan looks pleasantly at the prosecutor but does not say anything.

“Do you have any proof of you statements?”

“No, I don’t have any proof.”

The prosecutor smiles at Dylan and turns to display the same smile to the rest of the court.

“But someone here does have proof,” adds Dylan, causing the prosecutor’s smile to disappear.

The prosecutor turns back to face the witness. “And who would that be?”

“Jason Shipley.”

I am shocked, to say the least, and try, but can’t think of what he means. I feel the eyes of those in the courtroom upon me. I can see only Dylan’s calm face, as if I have tunnel vision somehow, and he is looking back at me from the witness stand.

______

For the life of me I don’t know how I got to the witness stand, or how long it took to get here, but here I am! I look out to the gallery and can at first only find Carol. Some kind of blindness has gripped me. Now I see Dylan still in the courtroom and sitting way back, against the far wall, to one side of the double doors. I think that if those doors open inward, he’s going to get hit.

The sun has moved higher. There is only a single remaining beam of light passing thru one of the high windows. A bright flash attracts my attention. It’s Vanessa. She is in the gallery. I almost didn’t recognize her when I first saw her in her street clothes and jewelry as she is now.

The counsel for the defense asks me if I can confirm Dylan’s testimony. I stammer out something—I’m sure it’s nonsense. My mind wanders and I think about what I must look and sound like to the courtroom. Must focus. Then he asks me if I have any records of the mission unknown to the court.

All of a sudden it’s clear! They want my private archive! It contains a backup of Brachus’ group’s folders.

______

A recess gives me time to access the requested data. And it gives me time to recover my composure. I produce the entire media archive for the court without filtering; there is no choice and no time to do otherwise. Of interest to the court are the images that back up Dylan’s statements. The folders containing pictures and video of Brachus and his shenanigans in the field aren’t hard to find; there are quite a few. Some elicit rumblings and tittering from the gallery and it takes a while to find the important ones.

Just as Dylan said, there is a video of him and Brachus. You can tell it was taken by Lester because Brachus refers to him by name and you can see his, Lester’s, hand and arm sometimes in the frame. On the pinky of the hand is a silver ring with dark red stones. We watch the scene unfold. Brachus is drinking (one of Mark’s concoctions?) and rambling on about something. It’s not clear at the moment what he is saying. Suddenly he seems to achieve a bit more clarity than was evident up until then, grins at Dylan, winks at Lester behind the cam, and offers to show Dylan ‘something.’ That something turns out to be a box of stones that Brachus describes as ‘rocks of a special nature,’ and he follows this comment with his biggest grin. I hear someone on the gallery laugh quietly. During the showing off of his box of loot he does indeed say, just as Dylan testified, that he, Brachus that is, will be ‘set for life’ after settling up with Carson.

My attention drifts from the media presentation to the various people in attendance. Dean Carson remains emotionless in the gallery but this time his posture is not so erect and his eyes are cast downwards, not forward as before. The video, incidentally, shows two native girls—it’s easy to see that they are not crew members—nearly naked, one delivering what looks like fruit to the table at which Brachus sits with the rocks, the other refilling his cup; Dylan’s cup remains untouched during the entire sequence. The girls, however, do not remain untouched by Brachus. The video shows him rudely pawing at one as she tries to pull away.

The video is stopped when the cam zooms in and follows the movements of the girls as they exit the crude hut in what looks like a tropical setting. I can’t place the location; I’m quite sure I was never there. The judge has to call for order more than once as the gallery erupts into pockets of chatter. The defense attorney talks to David; David looks relieved but also dazed; the prosecutor objects to the use of a video that he had not been privy to; Lester twists his ring to try to remove and pocket it without attracting attention—he fails in that attempt.

The dean continues to sit quietly, staring down. I see people around him whispering and talking, but not to him. In the crowded gallery he looks, for all intents and purposes, alone.

The judge calls both attorneys to the bench, along with the bailiff and an attendant officer. I think they are working out what to do next.

Several things seemed to happen all at once after
the video. I could not tell you what all took place—
it’s a blur. David caught my eye at the end. We didn’t speak and I never got close enough to talk to
him. Several of the crew got together after
adjournment, Carol and I among them. For once, I
enjoyed letting the small talk wash over me and
even threw in a couple inane comments of my own
for good measure. It was a good feeling. The
overarching emotion? Relief.

Mark was Mark. He had exactly two of his favorite
drinks and disappeared. Grigor was in a positive
mood, told a joke or two, and gave me a ‘well-done’ toast. Vanessa flashed in and out; Tracy
stayed and held her own for the time I was there. She said she wanted to “check out local talent of
the male persuasion.” There were handshakes all
around. It felt at last that we had proper closure for
the mission. Doc never showed through any of this;
don’t know why. GlassHeart indeed.

Funny about Craig. He never said much to me but
was clearly part of the group and enjoyed himself. He has changed a little too. I saw it then for the
first time. A future commander no doubt. We
parted after a warm handshake.

Carol and I said our goodbyes to the group and left
together. The transition to peace and quiet was
sudden and complete as we stepped outside. The
sun was down, the sky was clear, and the
temperature just perfect for a still evening. We
strolled in silence for a time until we came to a
large greenspace in the city. In the relative darkness we found a place to sit and watch the
stars wheel slowly and majestically overhead.

Just in Case

The Academy is searching for a new dean, the charges against David have been dropped, and Lester had to do some fast talking to explain his part in the scandal. The Academy as a whole, I understand, has undergone scrutiny to weed out whatever corruption may be left. It’s for the best.

The inquest into responsibility for Dylan’s injuries has come to nothing, mostly because of Dylan himself. He takes full responsibility for the ‘accident’ and explains that, look, he feels fine. He is fine. No harm no foul. It’s a relief to get all the legal stuff behind.

“Jason, I’m so proud of you and how you handled yourself up there.”

“Handled myself? Up in court? You’re kidding! I think I blacked out for most of it. I can only imagine what I must’ve looked like and said.”

Carol and I have gotten together at my mom’s place. We’ve both been relaxing after the tension of the trial. We’re out on the balcony.

“It’s nice out here. It’s a little small, but it works; it’s nice. Say, isn’t it something about Dylan?” she asks. “He’s a new person. You know, physically he looks great, all in one piece, but there’s something about him. A maturity now, I guess.”

“Not to mention the hair. I didn’t recognize him at first.”

“Yes the hair, but more than that. It’s hard to explain; maybe more time is needed for him to return to his old self.”

“Actually, I like the new Dylan. Really, it’s just more of the same. Remember? He was very impressive at the end of the mission.”

“You got a delivery, Jay,” Mom calls from inside.

“Ok, thanks, we’ll be in later.”

“They’re putting it in your room. It looks official.”

“Ok, thanks. What? My room? No, mom, tell them the storage room for now. I’ll get it later.” To Carol I say, “So, what do you think? Do you want to stay in the program, try for another mission, or what? They told me at the end that I will be eligible only for short duration missions now, the same for you?”

“One at a time, chatty. No, I wasn’t told that. But, no matter, I don’t want to do another mission. It’s too long, too alien, too much drama. It’s draining. Besides, if I do decide to continue my career, my real love is astrophysics, and I don’t have to sign up for any kind of mission to work in that field. Remember what you said about opting out?” She pauses as if to give me time to digest her thoughts. “Truthfully, I was hoping for a new focus for my life.”

“And that would be?” I say, even though I dimly realize that there is something she’s hinting at.

In response, Carol just looks at me, then turns to gaze out over the balcony railing at the view beyond. She waits long enough for me to figure it out on my own.

“But would that work? What if I… what if we forget about missions and the Academy? We could find positions somewhere, save up and have plenty of time together. To start a family I mean.”

At that last statement Carol turns her gaze back to me and smiles. “Oh, Jason, that’s what I would like. But how long before it’s possible?”

“It’s hard to say. We need to put down some goals, some numbers…”

“Oh dear, always the romantic,” she chides softly. “I keep thinking about our time out there,” she says, and I understand her meaning even before she continues, “at the bluffs, in the forest… It would be nice to find something like that. Don’t get me wrong, I understand about economics, I know we can’t afford a planetful of beautiful locations. But something… some small part of that would be delicious.”

“There are nearby populated worlds. I know one that’s relatively undeveloped. If we could swing something there, I know you’d like it.”

Her mood changes as she stands and leans with her hands against the railing, looking out. The sun is going down but is obscured by a band of clouds near the horizon. The clouds are themselves shades of gray, but the sun’s rays cause their upper edges to shine bright white, yellow, and pink. “For now, let’s look into the possibilities. We have a waiting period before active status resumes and we have to make a decision; let’s use that time to see what’s possible and what’s not.” She turns now and leans casually back against the railing. “We are both qualified for ground duty. That’s always a possibility if we do stay with the Academy or one of the other departments.”