representatives informed me on the first day, is a sign of assent.
“This is our home. Our children were born here,’ the John Graf is saying.
I am leaning toward the conversation, even though I hear it more clearly than the “whispering.” The MugwL watch me as if they expect me to do something about this exchange.
At least the MugwL are smart enough to know that I will not interfere.
“Leaving is not an option/’ the John Graf says. “We must peacefully coexist.”
“Even if they kill our kids/’ the vocal human states. Although the words sound like a question, they are not.
“That’s what we’re here to determine,’ the John Graf says. “Whether it was intentional or not. Right?”
At this last, he turns to me. He seems to be expecting a Judgment again, but I do not give it to him.
Instead, I do as I have done before. I recite the law and the history. “The MugwL have requested our presence because they believe an injustice may have occurred.”
“Hell, yes, an injustice occurred,” says the vocal human. “They murdered our children. That’s an injustice.”
“But you did not request the proceeding,” I say. “They did.”
The vocal human starts to answer, but the John Graf steps in front of it. [Him? The genders are difficult to determine. I shall cease trying until I am told with certainty which of the six known genders I am dealing with.]
“Because of us,” the John Graf says. He looks over his shoulder at the MugwL.
The two of them stand, hands together, heads bowed, as is proper procedure. Emotion does not cross their faces. Only the slight change in their peppery odor tells me that they are reacting to this at all.
“We went to them!’ the John Graf is saying to me, “right after the deaths. My people wanted an arrest, some kind of charges, sanctions—a few, like Victor here, wanted to take matters into their own hands. But we want to peacefully coexist. 5o I want to handle this by the book. I go to MegrP, their leader, and I say just that, we need to handle this properly so that we stay allies. Me listens, then asks if I think an injustice has occurred. And I say, “Well, yes. Our kids are dead. He nods, and says he will contact you.”
I let him speak, even though the history of the request is not relevant. That, too, was explained in the first two days, and apparently not conveyed to all of the humans.
“Nonetheless,” I say when it becomes clear that the John Graf is done speaking. “They are the Requesting Party, and it is by their aegis that I am here.”
“So?” the John Graf asks.
“So you must let the proceeding continue.”
“What so they can tell you their side of the story without us saying ours? Mow fair is that?” His voice has risen to nearly intolerable levels. “It’s our kids that’re dead, us that’ve suffered here, and it sounds like we’ll suffer some more when fall—however you people define your seasons—eventually shows up and washes our homes away.
“This is not a Judgment,” I say yet again. “This is a Justice/Injustice proceeding.”
“Yeah,” the John Graf says, “and I thought that meant a finding of fact. You know, the truth will out and all that. Some impartial person would investigate, maybe even go to the crime scene, interview some MugwLs and the surviving kids and find out what happened. But if I understand your rules right, you’re just going to let this guy talk— and he wasn’t even there. Then you’ll make some kind of judgment, and we’re done. That’s not Justice, Mr. Collector. That’s just plain wrong.”
The bag is a darker shade of purple. I use my middle arm to check the knot. The knot is tight. The bag will not get loose.
‘This Proceeding was Requested,” I say. “It must continue. When it is finished, you may seek this ‘investigation’ and ‘judgment,’ perhaps from your own people. This Proceeding is what it is, and I cannot make it anything else.”
“We have spent more than Eight Cycles here,” I say. “If we continue at this pace, we will be here until fall. The Requesting Party must complete his testimony. If there are no further objections, I shall send my staff for the Bystanding Party, and we shall—”
“But there are objections,” the John Graf says. “The very objection that started me. Children can’t be here without their parents’ permission. And no parent is going to allow a child to take part in this force.”
Again with the unexplained words. I chose to ignore them.
“What your people want now does not matter,” I say. “All that matters now is the Proceeding itself. These ‘children’ are, at the request of the Requesting Party, the Bystanding Party, and by our regulations, required to be here. You cannot change centuries of law simply because you do not agree to it.”
“What’ll happen to the children?” the John Graf asks.
I am at the end of my patience. “We discussed Bystanding Parties on the first day. Consult with your representatives. We shall indulge you no longer.”
The John Graf clenches his hands into fists and does not step away from the Decision Desk. The vocal human moves its head from side to side.
“Told you we should’ve blasted them!’ it “whispers.” Its gaze is on mine as it speaks, and I know the comment is somehow directed toward me.
“Proceed,’ I say to the MugwL representative, and he does, with obvious relief.
Record of Proceeding
Injustice Collector 0080 Presiding
As I said more than Eight Cycles ago now, the humans trusted us with their children. This was not a trust we asked for or even understood. We had no desire to interact with the humans, but their intrusiveness forced us into relations.
They asked questions; they tried our food (and complained when it made them ill); they even came into the village during Privacy Cycles, demanding attention. All of that, we accommodated. We listened, we spoke, we spent time with them at their request.
We did not ask them questions, knowing that our lack of interest would show them they were not wanted. Yet they seemed to ignore that message.
Part of the problem, we assumed, was that they always sent new representation. The early Elders vanished, replaced by other Elders, and now we are being introduced to yet a new set of Elders. Even though the shiny silver ships the humans arrived in seemed small, they carried a multitude of beings, so many that we often found ourselves confused.
We did not even note the presence of “children” until late in the days of the first set of Elders. Then the Elders brought small creatures to us, and showed us the “children” proudly. We believed they had been sent in another mission, that the humans, in their folly, thought they could add their native creatures to our environment.
We did not know that these creatures were the young or that they were somehow created without waterbaths and the freezings of six winters. We did not know that the young could be created off the world the humans call Earth.
Interruption in the Proceeding
This interruption is one I had requested when I insisted the Requesting Party continue with its Testimony without all Requested members present. The “children”—some thirty of them of various sizes and shapes—have been brought in by two Collectors-in-Training and five robotic helpers.
Like the other humans, the “children” do not seem to understand the proceedings. since explanation did not
