The Orthogonal Galaxy (12 page)

Obviously, he needed all
twelve to be able to acquit his client, and that was the ultimate
goal. However, success could also be measured with a single “not
guilty” verdict, since a hung jury would reset the entire legal
cycle, which favored his client in two ways. First, it gave Warron
even more time to build a better case through the learning he had
acquired during the first trial. Second, lengthy legal proceedings
would stretch the resources of the district attorney’s office,
causing the state-appointed counsel to weary of the
case.

“
Ladies and gentlemen of
the jury,” he began. “You will recall that when you were selected a
little over two weeks ago, Judge Etherton shared with you some
instructions that you must apply during your tenure as a juror in
this court. First, he mentioned that the defendent must be presumed
innocent until proven guilty. As you look over at Mr. Joonter, I
trust that none of you have looked at him as a guilty man during
the course of this trial. When you walk into your room to
deliberate, you must then decide whether there is ample evidence to
convict this man of the serious crimes with which he is charged.
Because my client is innocent of any wrong-doing, you hold the fate
of his future in your hand.

“
Second,” the lawyer
started pacing slowly along the jury in order to make direct eye
contact with each of its fourteen members, “the judge instructed
that you do not need to determine his guilt beyond a shadow of a
doubt, but instead, you must determine whether there is ‘reasonable
doubt’ in the evidence presented to you by the prosecution. With
that said, it is my duty to convince you that there is most
certainly reasonable doubt in this case. In talking with my client,
in reviewing the details of this case, in hearing the arguments put
forward by the district attorney, I can certainly assure you of
that fact.

“
Take a look at the
character of Mr. Joonter. He was born into the most unfortunate of
circumstances. His parents, murdered by a carjacker, left him
orphaned at the age of two. A kind couple adopted him and gave him
a chance to succeed in life. As an adolescent, he admits that he
was grateful to his adoptive family, and yet always felt that he
didn’t quite fit in, being the only athlete in a family of cultured
artists and intellects. We have learned how devastated he was when
his athletic ambitions ended prematurely from an unfortunate injury
that he incurred while playing freshman football. And even in that
time of tremendous depression and soul searching, he was reached
out to and befriended by his football coach, who saw great
potential in him. Stunned that his coach would take such a personal
interest in the life of a youngster who could no longer play for
him, Paol grew curious about the life of this good man. Finding out
that he was a devout Christian, he sought religion in his life, and
has become an admired member in his congregation today.

“
I have brought before you
many of the acquaintances of this fine man: neighbors, fellow
parishioners, co-workers. All have vouched for his character. All
have confirmed that the crimes committed are not only inconsistent
with his character, they are simply inconceivable. Consider that
while this business deal turned out very unprofitable for his
high-tech company, we have shown convincingly that there have been
other deals which he has championed that have even gone worse. Yet,
nobody associated with that deal mentioned that it angered or
embittered him to any degree. He simply learned from his
experience, and capitalized on his mistakes to improve the quality
of business.

“
Now let’s review some of
the details of the case. The district attorney has reminded us that
fingerprints leapt off of the gun, yet surveillance video shows
that he wore latex gloves during the incident. Why would my client
buy a gun, smear his fingerprints all over it, and then wear gloves
during the shooting?

“
And what of the discovery
of the murder weapon? It was found in a dumpster of the Atlanta
Airport, where four different eye-witnesses claimed they saw Mr.
Joonter in the airport terminal in the late night hours of the 28th
of March. Yet, his itinerary showed that his flight was not until
the 30th, because he had yet another day of meetings on the 29th.
Why, then, would he go through the trouble of driving to the
airport just so he could discard the weapon there, and then show
his face in such a crowded public location, only to drive back to
his hotel and surrender to local authorities in his hotel
room?

“
But then we must ask
ourselves, what of the audio and video? As for video, we know that
it is too easy these days to create very realistic masks of
anybody. Halloween shops are able to receive portrait and profile
photos of an individual and create a very personalized mask that
will fit a specific person used to masquerade as somebody else.
Several suspects have been acquitted in other cases where this
technology was utilized in order to frame the suspect of a crime he
or she did not commit.

“
As for the audio, experts
have said that—and I quote—‘the quality of the speech waveforms
implicated Mr. Joonter, although they did not match his voice
perfectly.’ Under oath, they pointed out that the voice was
slightly deeper than that of my client, even though the shape of
the waveforms were sufficient to give ‘a high degree of confidence’
that the voice recorded at the scene of the crime was that of Mr.
Joonter.

“
I now ask you jury
members, how confident are you? Experts did not say that they knew
‘beyond reasonable doubt’. They said, ‘with a high degree of
confidence.’ There are many questions that remain unanswered in
this case. Does that not give you ‘reasonable doubt’?

“
Finally, let me remind
you that one of your peers has already been removed from their
service by the court for suspicious interactions, leaving two
alternates left here today. We do not know exactly what these
interactions entail, but we believe that they were approached by an
unscrupulous individual seeking a verdict against Mr. Joonter. It
was a very odd development in the case which only left this
courtroom filled with more questions, and fewer jurors.”

Warron paused to take a
deep breath and looked earnestly over at his client. “This man,
Paol Joonter, is a good, hard-working businessman, whose
award-winning accomplishments as CTO of LifeTech, Incorporated are
widely-known in his industry, and are widely-appreciated in our
homes and lives. I implore you to know what I know—that this man is
innocent of the crimes for which he is being charged, and to return
a verdict of not guilty. Thank you.”

With his case closed, he
nodded to the judge as he took his seat. Without fanfare, the judge
gave final instructions to the jury, and adjourned them for
deliberations. Paol Joonter watched as the jury was led out of the
courtroom by the court clerk. As the door closed, he knew that the
fate of his future—and that of his family—was left in the hands of
this group of people who certainly did not know who the real
murderer was any better than he did. He was completely powerless in
the matter now. The jury now contained full discretion over his
future.

8

Joram Anders looked at his
watch as the helicopter touched down on Palomar Mountain. 12:50 AM.
He did not feel the exhaustion of his studies of the day, his meal
with Kath that evening, the surprise summon to meet Professor
Zimmer at the Burbank Airport, or the relaxing helicopter ride,
where Kath rested on his shoulder during the entire flight.
Instead, adrenaline was flowing from the excitement and fortune of
being at an astronomical observatory at the invite of his boyhood
idol. Attempting to orient himself to his surroundings, his eyes
searched the darkness without success. The CalTech observatory was
strategically located as far away from light pollution as Southern
California would allow. As he stepped onto the helipad, all he
could see were the flashing lights of the helicopter, a rim of
lights circling the pad, the canopy of stars overhead, and a dimly
lighted path.

“
Please follow me,” the
professor instructed as he set out for the path. His trio of
blurry-eyed graduate students followed with a quickened pace, as if
Zimmer had not been the least fatigued by his day of instruction in
the planetarium, the flight to and from Johnson Space Center, the
intense focus and study on the troublesome data from Mars, and now,
the helicopter ride to Palomar.

During the hike from the
helipad, the darkness was met with silence. The stunned students
did not know what to say, or if anything should be said at all. At
last, they arrived at a white dome-topped cylindrical structure.
Joram suspected that this wasn’t the structure which housed the
200-inch Hale telescope, famed as the largest telescope in the
world for several decades of the twentieth century.

“
Students,” Zimmer
announced, “this is our very modern and accurate 26-inch telescope.
It is one of our very best for studying near-earth objects, such as
our very own solar system. With this, I believe we will obtain the
best possible quality images to help us with our study surrounding
the events which have transpired on Mars. Please follow me to the
control room, where you will be performing all of your data
collection and studies this evening.”

As they entered the
control room, aptly stacked with computers, monitors and control
equipment, Zimmer oriented them as quickly as possible to their
workstations. He began with instructions to Kath.

“
Kath, you will work
here.” He gestured to a workstation. “Your first task will be to
get on the phone for a conference call to Israel to discuss Martian
atmospheric and meteorological conditions with experts there.
According to our observatory administrator, there should be a sheet
instructing you on the headset and the contact information of the
individual who has been studying the situation.

“
Joram, Reyd will acquaint
you with the equipment over here.” Zimmer pointed out a large panel
of instruments and controls, equipped with several large
flat-screen monitors, already containing a set of initial data on
Mars.

“
I will be up on that
platform over there, fine-tuning the controls of the telescope as
needed in an effort to obtain the necessary images. Camp Mars is
currently in view from Earth, and will be so for the next 4 hours.
My first effort will be an attempt to get as many visual clues as
to conditions in the vicinity of the camp. Once Earthset has
occurred—that is, when Earth will not be visible to the
astronauts—I will then search for clues surrounding the missing
satellites and shuttle, as well as to lock a visual on the lone
signaling satellite, which we know to still be functional. I would
like to give you a much better briefing and overview of the
equipment and task on hand, but time is critical. Are there any
questions?”

Reyd was familiar with
Professor Zimmer’s terse manner of instructing research students in
their duty, and shook his head knowingly. Joram and Kath, on the
other hand, returned glassy-eyed stares to the professor, still in
shock over this sudden change of activity in their lives. Zimmer
drew closer to them in a gesture of understanding.

“
Joram, Kath,” his voice
softened. “Any questions?”

“
Well, not yet,” Kath was
the first to answer. “I’ll just head over there, peruse my
instructions, and get on the phone with the team in
Israel.”

Zimmer smiled and nodded.
“Thank you.”

“
Joram?” Zimmer prompted,
staring at the individual whose potential the professor was eager
to explore and develop.

Joram did have a question,
but he was hesitant to ask why on earth the professor had chosen
him for this trip. Reyd, of course, had the expertise on the
equipment. Kath had credentials from her studies of meteorology. He
was just a star-gazer from Kansas. Prudence took control of his
curiosity, and he realized that the professor could not be bothered
with a question of such a trivial nature, when the lives of
astronauts were at stake. “No, sir. I’m sure Reyd will bring me
up-to-speed quickly.”

“
Great!” Zimmer clapped
his hands together, wheeled himself around, and was the first to
reach his station. Kath filed off next in the opposite direction,
while Reyd took his seat at the console. Joram remained rooted for
just a moment as he watched the professor begin his work. Then
excitement and adrenaline took over. With an excited spring in his
step, he caught up to Reyd and took a seat next to him, ready,
willing, and eager to learn the controls of the observatory, with
which he hoped to become intimately familiar.

…

“
Ok… yes, I do see that
now… Aha… Yep,” Kath’s tired yet pleasant voice spoke into the
headset. “Yes, I’m starting to figure the system out, Ravid. I’m
sorry about this… you don’t really have the time to be helping me
ramp up on this computer, while there is important research to be
done on the weather…. Well, thanks for your encouragement. I hope I
can be of some help as well.”

The sound of Kath’s voice
filled the room, but was occasionally interrupted by an exchange
between Reyd and Zimmer. “Is that any clearer, Reyd.”

“
I still can’t make
anything out, Professor. The features just aren’t coming through
that clearly. Even the common areas of varying light intensity
aren’t coming through as expected.”