If it please the Galactic Court

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.” The words rang out and echoed against the polymer walls of the Courtroom.

“Lieutenant Galt, once again, please confirm that while being questioned by Galactic Detector, Yen Mon, he stated, and I quote, “Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space,” and you then said, and once again I am quoting, “Or so they say.” Is that correct?”

“Yes,” Lieutenant Galt answered.

“If it please the galactic court, just to put it in context…. while being questioned by the Galactic Detector, Lieutenant Galt testified that while repairing the shuttle’s solar gen disk she heard Captain London scream. She stated that she turned to determine the cause of the distress and saw that there was a tear in Captain London’s space wrap, but the captain’s visor was already clouded, and she was not able to see the captains face. Further, she saw that the captain had appeared to be in an unconscious state. Is that correct Lieutenant?

“Yes, that’s what happened.”

The Citizens Prosecutor nodded and continued. “You then jetted to the captain and hooked yourself to Captain London’s wrap and then jetted to the shuttle hatch. It took approximately sixteen time quantas before you both were able to enter the hatch and then approximately four additional time quantas before the c-path reached full safety compat with standard normalization levels. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

And by that time the captain remained unconscious and despite efforts from Lieutenant Sharp, who had remained inside the shuttle, and yourself, the captain could not be revived and was pronounced and recorded as ‘life termed’ at an E time of 1911. Lieutenant, please state your answer. Nodding is not accepted.

“Sorry, yes. That is what occurred.”

“Alright,” the Citizen’s Prosecutor continued, “You realize that since that tragic event occurred, your space wrap was inspected and it was determined that the wave communicator component was not operational, and Captain London’s wrap did not have a wave communication component installed at all since it had been removed for repairs a full solar-time-unit before. And that you both, you and Captain London, knew that there would be no ability to communicate between each other yet you both decided to carry on with the repair of the solar gen disk, as neither of you felt that inter wrap communication would be needed. Is that correct?”

The Lieutenant stared off, fixating beyond the twelve Citizen Deciders that were paying rapt attention to this part of the testimony. “Yes,” she said. “We knew that the communication component was not operational in mine and the captain’s was removed for repair and therefore we would not be able to communicate.”

The Citizen’s Prosecutor waited briefly, making sure that the Lieutenant had nothing else to add but also for this chance for a dramatic pause. This prosecutor had a flair for theatrics. “Then why did you say…. or so they say?”

With that he turned and ambled slowly towards his seat, his back to the Lieutenant. Another practiced move designed to impart a specific image to the beings that will decide her fate.

The Lieutenant took a short pause and responded. “I’m not sure why I used those exact words but what I meant was it doesn’t matter that what I heard was impossible. All I know is that I know what I heard.”

The Citizen’s Prosecutor had reached his seat by then and was once again facing the Lieutenant. “And by that you are sticking to your story that despite the laws of fundamental physics that makes it impossible to hear a scream in the vacuum of space without using space wrap communication devices, you expect the citizens seated here to believe that somehow it happened and that is what made you turn towards the captain.”

“Yes, I realize that it doesn’t make sense but I’m not lying. I know what I heard.”

The Citizen’s Prosecutor remembered to raise his voice levels precisely by 3 octaves as he had practiced and pointed his finger at the Lieutenant. “We know that you and the captain had a heated dispute earlier that solar-time-unit and the captain had threatened to have you reassigned. You were angry, very angry. In fact, Lieutenant Sharp has already stated that she had never seen you exhibiting this type of emotional outburst before. What was the argument about?”

“It was nothing. A stupid argument that we would have both gotten over. It was about a report that I had been putting off.”

The Citizen’s Prosecutor glanced at the Citizen Deciders with a conspiratorial look that was intended to create a collective feeling that they were a team now, on the same side, with the same goal. Hoping he had achieved that objective, he continued. “The tool that you were using to repair the gen disk was exactly the same size that matched the tear in the captain’s wrap, and it has been tested and confirmed by a texto expert that the tool that you had in your possession was of a sharpness and strength to be able to penetrate the dual layers of the captain’s space wrap.” Again, he looked over at the Citizen Deciders now almost expecting that they were rooting for him. Failing to hear any applause he then announced, “I have no further interrogative comments at this time.”

The Major Judge asked if the Defense Proponent had any questions.

The Defense Proponent was already walking towards the Lieutenant’s seat and with an air of confidence she quickly asked if the Lieutenant knew the planet of origin of the captain.

Lieutenant Galt took a quick inhale and answered, “I thought it was Earth, but not very long ago I was told that she was from the planet Kresko.”

“Do you know much about that planet, Lieutenant?”

“Not really, I didn’t even know of its existence until nine or ten Earth annuals ago. I had never met any other Kreskonians beforehand.”

“So, you would not have heard that the Kreskonians only developed innate biological vocal capabilities approximately a dozen gens ago.”

Before the accused could answer, the Citizen’s Prosecutor jumped up and shouted, “I interrupt, Major Judge! What has this to do with the occurrences of this case?”

The Major Judge waived a seven-digit hand gesture towards the Defense Proponent, which meant that she was given the opportunity to refute the presumption.

The Defense Proponent quickly took her position in the Appeal Square in front of the two rows of Citizen Deciders. “It has been noted that the only ways that the Kreskonians could communicate before their biological vocal capabilities were fully formed was through cerebral telepathy and …..”

“I denounce this response-argument!” the Citizen’s Prosecutor interrupted.

“On what basis?” The Major Judge calmly asked.

“There is no Certified fact-proof that the Kreskonians still have the capacity for cerebral telepathy. Also, there has never been any documented evidential circumstances that when Kreskonians did rely on telepathy it ever occurred between Kreskonians and any other planetary beings. They alone had the unique projecting and accepting regions developed in their neural systems for telepathy transmission to function and that evolutional compatibility was based on specific genetic mutations that was only available within the Kreskonian planetary race. In short, that means that no other race could ever be able to telepathically communicate with a Kreskonian. Whether that telepathic message was a word, a sentence or……………… a scream.”

The court went perfectly quiet. The judge looked at the Defense Proponent and again gave her the seven-digit wave.

The Defense Proponent turned back to the Citizen Deciders and looked at each of the twelve. There was confidence in her demeanor………..or was it a clever act to hide her desperation? After all, the Citizen’s Prosecutor’s rebuttal seemed irrefutable. It was already stated that Lieutenant Gatz was an Earth being. What could the Defense Proponent possibly say?

The Defense Proponent’s demeanor didn’t faulter in the least, but the silence continued. Finally, after a pause that seemed like a multi-stance, she said the words that everyone was already thinking. “Yes… It is known that Lieutenant Gatz is not Kreskonian. In fact, she was not even aware that the planet Kresko existed until fairly recently so she could not have heard a telepathic scream from Captain London.”

She then took a deep breath. The makeup of the Citizen Deciders was extremely varied, not just from different planets but also a few from different Galaxies and therefore they all possessed very different facial formations, however one thing that united them all at that moment was the expression that each of them exhibited…………a look of confusion but anxious expectation of what would come next.

That was what the Defense Proponent was waiting for. She continued. “And while that it is true that Lieutenant Gatz was not Kreskonian I must remind everyone that there were three beings that were traveling on that shuttle. Captain London, Lieutenant Gatz and ……..Lieutenant Sharp.”

The Citizen’s Prosecutor jumped up again and shouted, “What bearing does this have. It has no relevance……..”

This time the Defense Proponent interrupted. “Major Judge and Citizen Deciders, I would like to introduce this birth cert of Lieutenant Sharp into Citizen’s Evidence. You will see that it has the planetary notarization seal and clearly shows that Lieutenant Sharp’s birth mother was Kreskonian! And I submit that while it would be impossible for Lieutenant Galt to receive a telepathic message, a scream as it were from Captain London, it would be very possible for that telepathic scream to have been received by Lieutenant Sharp since she is genetically half Kreskonian!’’

The galactic courtroom erupted, and the Citizen’s Prosecutor quickly began levitating and then started to spin which was common for males from his planet when they became emotional, but it was behavior rarely seen in a galactic courtroom. He began sputtering that it didn’t matter since Earth beings were not telepathic, so it made no difference and…

The Major Judge banged his short sledge onto the desk anvil and called for order. “Citizen’s Prosecutor,” he called out, “Please stop the spinning and return to the floor before I charge you for contemptable behavior under section nine. Then you may continue your interruption.”

The Citizen’s Prosecutor apologized and after composing himself he said, “Major Judge, I can see where the Defense Proponent is going and it’s unacceptable to the Citizens. We do not care whether the captain was somehow able to telepathically project her scream to Lieutenant Sharp, She is not being charged here. It is Lieutenant Galt who is being charged. It is Lieutenant Galt who is claiming that she heard the captain scream, so I see no relevance in bringing Lieutenant Sharp into this.”

The Major Judge flashed the seven-digit wave again and the Defense Proponent who had remained in the Appeal Square, turned back to face the Citizen Deciders. “The Citizen’s Prosecutor must also come from Kresko since he evidently has the ability to telepathically know what I was about to say before I said it.” This had a few of the Citizen Deciders chuckle, which was actually a cacophony of rhythmic clicks. “But he would have made a very poor Kreskonian since he was wrong…….again. The Defense was about to state that Lieutenant Sharp, being half Kreskonian, ‘may’ have been able to hear a telepathic scream, and whether she knew where it came from or not, it would at least establish that the captain did in fact scream. Wouldn’t that be of interest and relevant to you? I believe it would. At that point we could then determine if or how that scream could have been transmitted to Lieutenant Galt. But we don’t have that option.” She then turned towards the Citizen’s Prosecutor. “Do we?”

All eyes turned towards the Citizen’s Prosecutor. He made no reply, and his discomfort was obvious. The Defense Proponent shook her head and looked back at the Citizen Deciders. “The Citizen’s Prosecutor won’t answer that. Why would that be? I’ll tell you. It’s because Lieutenant Sharp cannot be found. After providing her initial testimony she vanished…” The impact of this statement had a palpable impact on the Citizen Deciders who began looking at each other. “But there’s an additional fact that he doesn’t want you to know.” She paused, enjoying the shift in the momentum. “Captain London’s body cannot be found either!”

The Citizen Deciders broke decorum and a few began swaying to show their irritation. The Citizen’s Prosecutor jumped up again and even though he was able to remain grounded and did not spin he started his latest Interruption. It was then that the Major Judge repeatedly banged his short sledge and announced an immediate recess. But before dismissing the Citizen Deciders he looked directly at the Defense Proponent and in a clear and stern voice said, “After this galactic court reconvenes you had better be able to show why the facts that both Lieutenant Sharp and Captain London’s body cannot be located is of relevance to the facts of this case and not just an attempt to introduce meaningless information and doubt!”

The Defense Proponent smiled, confidence color-leaking from her upper orb and said, “Of course Major Judge. We look forward to it.”

Chapter Two