Judgment at Proteus

be, but the radiated heat was welcome. Besides, I could hardly feel his hard pineapple hide through the blanket.

Emikai and a pair of Jumpsuits arrived precisely at nine o’clock the next morning. Bayta and I were ready, and together we headed off through the station’s labyrinth of corridors, glideways, elevators, and bullet trains. I tried to keep track of the twists and turns, but within the first ten minutes I was thoroughly lost. If for some reason Emikai refused to guide us back home, we would likely be sleeping in somebody’s doorway tonight.

I’d seen dozens of courtrooms over the years, and the Proteus version was right up there with the best of them. Tall double doors led into a chamber that was large and imposing, with a high and long judge’s bench at the far end and only marginally less grand places for the prosecution and defense. Unlike the usual high-class wood- paneled Human courtroom, though, this one was done completely in dressed stone, from floor to ceiling, extending even to the seats and tables. Fortunately, the seats had been furnished with cushions and back rests.

Hchchu was waiting, seated at the prosecutor’s table with no fewer than four readers spread out on the table in front of him. Either he was planning to refer to four separate versions of Filly law or else he didn’t trust bookmarks for retrieving the relevant pages. Minnario was also there, peering at his reader as he hovered in his chair at one end of the defense table.

More interestingly, at least to me, the judges also were already seated, a marked departure from the Human custom in these matters. There were four of them, each dressed in an identical outfit of layered gray and dark blue with elaborate shoulder points and collar and sleeve tucks, the whole ensemble topped by a floppy hat. I’d never seen such garb on Fillies before, not even in pictures, and as Emikai ushered Bayta and me to the defense table I wondered if the clothing was something out of the Slisst Protocols. Something I might want to ask about later.

“You will sit with your attorney,” Emikai murmured to me as I started forward. “But your assistant must wait back here with us.”

I looked at Bayta. “I’ll be all right,” she assured me. “Go on.”

I nodded to her and crossed the expanse of stone toward my seat. Way too much empty space, I knew, for the kind of economy of scale demanded by anything built in space. The open area probably served as a visitors’ gallery during high-profile cases.

[You’re late,] Minnario chided quietly as I sat down on the stone bench beside him. There was a scuffling noise, and I looked down as Doug and Ty settled themselves comfortably on the floor beside my seat. Apparently, whatever order or mistaken assumption had briefly kept Ty with Bayta last night was all over now.

“I make it three minutes till,” I told Minnario.

[The guardlaws and your opponent are already here,] Minnario countered. [By arriving last you’ve given up any challenge to the high ground.]

I was opening my mouth to ask what the hell that was supposed to mean when the Filly at the far end of the judges’ bench gave a startlingly bird-like trilling whinny. {The groundstage is begun,} he announced in a loud voice. A loud and familiar voice.

I took a second, closer look. I was right. The judge was none other than Usantra Wandek.

Minnario nudged me and pointed to the table in front me. I looked away from Wandek, to see that a section of the table had lit up with an English translation of the Fili. It made a nice counterpoint to the Nemuspee translation running on Minnario’s chair display. {You of the adversaries are met to seek truth, divide honor, and find justice,} Wandek continued. {We of the guardlaws are met to hone the sword and guide the spear.}

I grimaced. Not exactly the conversational direction a defendant liked to hear from his judges. “Is this standard courtroom procedure?” I murmured to Minnario.

The Nemut twitched his fingers in a shushing motion. {If any here has words of confession or remorse, let him speak now,} Wandek continued. His eyes were steady on me, but that might have been because he’d spotted me talking over his speech. I held his gaze, and after another couple of seconds he shifted his attention to Minnario. {You speak for this adversary?}

[I do,] Minnario replied. Now that the proceedings had begun, I noted that the table was also running a translation of his Nemuspee.

{And you have studied the rules and precedents of the Slisst Protocols?}

[I have.]

{Then you should already be aware that adversaries’ companions are not permitted on this ground,} Wandek said, giving a sharp nod toward Bayta.

[She is not merely a companion, but a witness,] Minnario pointed out.

{This is the groundstage,} Wandek said, his tone the annoyance of a teacher trying to deal with a slightly dim student who keeps making the same mistake over and over. {Witnesses are not yet to be examined.}

[I understand,] Minnario said calmly. [But Mr. Compton is on trial for a crime that can carry the death penalty. In such a case, Protocol Fifty-seven states his life partner may be present for all proceedings.]

I sat up a little straighter on the stone bench. My life partner? That was stretching reality a bit far.

Wandek wasn’t buying it, either. {I see no ring, mark, or sash,} he said pointedly.

[No such indicators are necessary,] Minnario said. [They are Humans, and Human custom provides for what is called common-law life partnership. All that is required is a period of cohabitation and a commitment to one another.]

Wandek looked at me, and I worked hard to keep my face expressionless. Minnario was definitely playing fast and loose with this one, especially the cohabiting bit. But sifting through Human legal terms was tricky enough for Humans, let alone Fillies. And if it kept Bayta and me together through this mess, I was willing to play along.

{Very well,} Wandek said at last. I could tell he still wasn’t buying it, but at the moment he didn’t have anything solid to hang his suspicions on. {Until the court has had an opportunity to assess the validity of your claim, she may remain.}

He looked down the table at his fellow judges. But none of them seemed inclined to go any further out on this particular limb, and after a moment he straightened up and nodded to Hchchu. {Proceed,} he ordered.

Hchchu nodded back. {Proper form states that a list of charges be the first item under consideration,} he said. {But in this case, we must first establish who, in fact, my opponent truly is.}

He lifted one of the readers and tapped a button. Beside the running translation on our table, a repeater display lit up with an image of my diamond-edged first-class Quadrail pass. {His Quadrail pass identifies him as Frank Compton of New York City, Western Alliance, Earth, Terran Confederation,} he continued. {Yet this document—}

{Which sector?} the judge beside Wandek interrupted.

{The Terran Confederation has only one sector,} Wandek told him.

The judge gave me an odd look, probably wondering how Humans dared even show their faces around the galaxy with such a pathetically small tract of real estate to call our own. {Proceed,} he said.

{This document, in contrast—} Hchchu tapped the button again, and my Quadrail pass was replaced by my fake Hardin Industries ID card {—names him as Frank Abram Donaldson. This speaks of duplicity and fraud.}

Wandek turned to our table. {Does Chinzro Hchchu’s opponent have a parry?} he asked.

[We do,] Minnario said. [At heart is our opponent’s contention that having two names is an intent to deceive this court.]

{Do you take us for fools?} the judge in the fourth position demanded. {Humans are not Cimmaheem, who randomly take different names at different lifepoints.}

[I did not imply that they were,] Minnario assured him. [To repeat: Mr. Compton’s intent was not to deceive this court. As a security agent of the cross-galaxy corporation Hardin Industries, it is necessary at times for him to conceal his true identity from his opponents.]

{No Human corporation can be considered truly cross-galaxy,} the third judge said disdainfully. But he nevertheless nodded and made a note on his reader.

{Parry accepted,} Wandek said. {Riposte?}

[Yes,] Minnario said, turning toward Hchchu. [I claim that from the evidence thus presented, Chinzro Hchchu had no reason to suspect my client of the crimes for which he is accused.