Hostiles (The Galactic Mage series) (12 page)

But there was no hate in his relating of the story. The man was as efficient in giving his version of events as he was brutal in his interpretation of the facts. And worse, young Angela couldn’t even put a dent in his version of how the whole Prosperion-Hostile debacle came about. How could she? Everything he’d said was true. The Prosperions, and Altin, had helped save Blue Fire from fleet attack. Blue Fire was the party responsible for the annihilation of the Andalians. Blue Fire was responsible for the death of most of the
Aspect
’s crew. Blue Fire was responsible for the destruction of more than half of the ships that had been sent out those twelve long years ago. All the Hostiles in the air above Earth that very moment had appeared during the heated exchange following the Prosperion intervention that had saved Blue Fire’s world, and right after Altin Meade had been taken out of the
Aspect
’s brig. With Orli’s help.

There was nothing in any of that that wasn’t spot-on true.

Captain Asad now sat next to a JAG officer of roughly the same age, Commander Adair. From the familiar way they whispered back and forth, she was pretty sure they’d known each other for years. The jury had been dismissed. Orli’s young attorney had requested it when Orli pointed out that Captain Metumbe and Captain Putin, two of the three jurors present when they’d come in, were confidants of Captain Asad. So she’d waived her right to a jury. Which meant it was up to the judge. Based on what Angela had told her, she was pretty sure she already knew how that was going to go.

Asad’s crony finally rose after Orli swore to tell the truth and came to stand before her. “Ensign Pewter, thank you for being here today and cooperating with this investigation.” He did not wait for a reply. “I’d like to cut to the quick if possible, so let me start by asking simply: how much did you know about the intended attack on planet Earth?”

“I thought you guys already picked my brain while I was under?”

He repeated the question in a patient, patronizing voice.

“Nothing. There was never a plan to attack Earth. Ever.”

“It seems that’s not quite true, Ensign. I believe you are familiar with what is happening above our planet right now, are you not?”

She nodded.

“So, I’ll ask you again. What did you know about this attack?”

She repeated her answer. “Nothing.”

He turned to the judge seated nearby. “You can see how this is going to go.” The judge motioned for him to continue.

“Ensign Pewter, were you or were you not in a romantic relationship with the Prosperion called Altin Meade?”

“I was.”

“Do you still have feelings for him now?”

“I do.”

“And it was Altin Meade that you were attempting to help escape from the
Aspect
’s brig, was it not? And remember, we have sworn affidavits from three Marines on duty at the time, not to mention the testimony of the Prosperion, Annison, and, of course, video.”

“Yes. I was trying to get him out.” Orli’s attorney cringed visibly.

“Records indicate that Mr. Meade was taken from the
Aspect
at sixteen hundred twenty-eight hours on the day of October nineteenth, less than three days ago. The first of the Hostiles arrived exactly seven minutes and nineteen seconds afterward. Don’t you think that seems a remarkable bit of timing, Ensign Pewter?”

“Objection,” Angela said from her place at the defendant’s table. “Ensign Pewter’s opinion of the timing is irrelevant.”

“Withdrawn,” said the JAG officer before the judge even spoke. He put his hands on the railing at the front of the witness stand. “Ensign Pewter, you are reported to have also had some form of relationship with the leader of the Hostile world, an entity described in the reports as Blue Fire. Is this correct?”

“Yes.”

“What form of relationship would you say you had with her?”

“An honest one,” Orli replied.

“Ah, well that is always a good thing, isn’t it?”

Orli made a “no shit” face at him, which he ignored.

“So, Ensign Pewter, being honest, as we all want to be here, what can you tell us regarding this Blue Fire’s relationship with Mr. Meade.”

“I was unaware that he had a relationship with her.”

“But surely you were in communication with him, and with her. At some point one of them must have mentioned the other.”

“The last time I spoke to Altin about her, he didn’t believe she existed. I told him I could only speak to her in dreams, and he didn’t believe it.”

“And what about Blue Fire? Did she … did she believe in Altin?”

“Yes.”

“And you have never once had any communication about either from the other, no conversations about plans or cooperation between them?”

“No. Never.”

“And you expect we should simply trust you on that, Ensign?”

“Objection,” came the call from Angela.

“Sustained,” said the judge.

“Have you been in communication with Blue Fire since returning to Earth?”

“No.”

“She hasn’t contacted you to ask you for information about our defenses, looking for any aid or advice?”

“No.”

“How about Mr. Meade? Have you been in contact with him?”

“No.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes. I have no way to contact him.”

“What about him. Does he have a way of contacting you?”

“No. He doesn’t know where I am. He has to know where I am to communicate with me.”

“And would you tell us if he did have a way of doing so, Ensign?”

“Objection.”

“Overruled. Answer the question.”

“Probably not,” Orli said. “But he doesn’t, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, I think he does,” said the prosecutor.

He went to a long table against the far wall and lifted a pair of sealed plastic bags, which he brought back and presented first to the judge, then to the court in general, and last to Orli. He brought them near enough for her to see, raising one up nearly to the level of her face. Orli’s intake of breath was audible for everyone to hear.

“I see you recognize this creature,” he said, referencing the spotted lizard in the bag. Its body was flattened near the head, and its front limbs were broken and bent akimbo from when it had obviously been crushed. “Can you explain to the court what it is?”

“It’s …,” she looked to Angela who sighed visibly, if not audibly, and nodded to indicate Orli had to answer. But still Orli couldn’t speak. Her eyes flicked to Roberto, whose response nearly mirrored Angela’s. She felt trapped and manipulated, anger burning in the pit of her stomach. She’d forgotten about the homing lizards. And why had they killed it? What was wrong with these barbarians? That poor wonderful thing of Prosperion, ruined by the boot of some brute. Seeing it there, so mangled in that bag, nearly set her off. She looked back to Roberto again, and he could see it in her face, the way her body tensed. He shook his head, his wide brown eyes silently pleading with her to keep her cool.

“Answer the question, Ensign,” said the judge sternly, obviously misreading her reluctance as a sign of guilt.

The smug look on Captain Asad’s face helped her find herself again, if only barely. She drew composure from her unwillingness to be beaten by that man. She gritted her teeth and answered. “It’s called a homing lizard. It’s a Prosperion communication device. Like a carrier pigeon that jumps across space.”

“Thank you, Ensign,” said Commander Adair. “That is an excellent analogy. So it will not surprise you then if I tell you that this note was tied to the animal?”

She didn’t look at the note. “No, it will not surprise me. That is what they do.”

“So who sent you this note, Ensign?”

That made her look. “I didn’t know the note was sent to me. What does it say?”

“It says:
Where are you? I will come for you
. That is translated into English of course. So who sent it?”

Orli started to answer, but her attorney cut her off once again. “Objection,” Angela called. “Conjecture. Ensign Pewter’s guess as to its origin is no more relevant than anyone else’s.”

“Your honor, Ensign Pewter may well be able to recognize the handwriting.”

“Your honor, my client has no training in the forensic analysis of documents,” countered the young defense attorney.

“Surely her opinion, were this handwriting to belong to her lover, would have some value in these proceedings,” said Commander Adair to that.

“I’ll allow it,” said the judge, “seeing as I’m deciding this thing anyway.” He looked impatient, though, or perhaps made a show of it for the cameras.

Asad’s old friend brought the second plastic envelope close enough for Orli to see the strip of parchment in it. She recognized the handwriting immediately and had to force herself not to show any expression that might make that recognition obvious.

“So, Ensign, do you recognize the handwriting on this note?” Commander Adair asked.

She glanced down at her lap for a moment. She didn’t want to look at her attorney, because her attorney was going give her that faith-in-truth face that Orli didn’t want to deal with right then. In her heart she knew this was a great place for perjury. She looked up at the JAG officer and gave her best vacant look, shaking her head. “No clue whose handwriting that is,” she said.

“Ensign Pewter, please. You have already tried to tell us that Altin Meade had no way to contact you without knowing where you are, and in the next breath you admit to us that the Prosperions have these creatures called homing lizards. Surely you don’t expect us to believe this message came to you randomly from any other Prosperion than your lover, Altin Meade.”

“Objection.”

“The witness will answer the question.”

“I said I don’t recognize it.”

There followed a long silence as the prosecutor glared at her. He turned back to the judge. “Clearly the witness has no intention of being honest with us here today, your honor.”

“Objection,” put in Angela again.

“That will be for me to decide,” agreed the judge.

“I can prove that this is the handwriting of Altin Meade,” went on the commander.

“Please do,” said the judge.

The commander went back to the evidence table and brought forth several more plastic bags. In each of them was a strip of parchment, and upon all of them were written notes. “We found these in Ensign Pewter’s quarters, stored with her private things.” Once again he showed them to the court and to the judge and then to Orli. “Do you recognize these?” he asked her after she’d looked at them.

The way she winced when she saw them was obvious to everyone in the courtroom.

“Yes,” she said reluctantly. There was no way she could lie her way out of that. They were notes she’d exchanged with Altin during his convalescence two years ago, their romantic exchanges made via homing lizard while the
Aspect
and the other ships were first making their way to Prosperion.

“Can you tell the court what they are?”

“They are notes.”

“Yes, we can see that, Ensign. Notes exchanged between who and whom?”

She looked up at Angela who was shaking her head. Roberto clearly sighed again by the way his broad shoulders moved. “Between Altin and myself.”

He handed her the note they’d taken off the smashed homing lizard. “Now do you recognize the handwriting on this more recent note?”

“Objection,” tried Angela again.

“Overruled. Answer the question, Ensign.”

“No. I don’t recognize it.”

Commander Adair turned, rolling his head in an annoyed way, overly dramatic, and appealed to the judge impatiently. “Your honor. The defendant clearly has no interest in cooperating. I move that we end this now and carry out the sentencing before the Prosperion magicians have time to locate her and effect her escape or, worse, send some sort of device to her location that will further compromise this fort and the security of planet Earth.”

“Objection,” barked Angela, leaping from her seat. “I repeat that my client is not a handwriting specialist, and her inability to match two documents is in no way proof that my client is unwilling to cooperate, much less reason to convict.”

The judge looked past her, Orli couldn’t be sure if at the clock on the wall above the door or at the camera above the clock. “Sustained.” He set an irritated gaze down upon Commander Adair.

“I have a handwriting expert,” the commander said. “You have his sworn affidavit there in your files. He ran the file comparisons, and they came back a perfect match. Perfect.”

The judge thumbed through a few screens on a tablet set before him on his desk. He found the affidavit and saw that it was in order. He turned to Orli and shook his head. “Ensign Pewter, playing games with this court is not in your best interest.”

“Then what is in my best interest, your honor?” Anger smoldered in her icy blue eyes as she glared up at him. What had she ever done that hadn’t been in the best interest of planet Earth? “Is it in my best interest to sit here while these people, while you, all play games and do your stupid meticulous questioning, claiming the intent of finding truth, but not showing any real interest in it? If you want the truth, I’ll give it to you. The truth is that Blue Fire didn’t do it. None of it. Not the way you think. Not the way it sounds. Neither did the Prosperions. You have the facts but not the context. Without the context you won’t find truth.”