Vincent was relieved when the wait and see game was over. Though the arrival of Envoys at any point was never all that comfortable, he was relieved to see they were in the form of two females. This meant that the Chancery was at least not full exerting all their pressure. The last two envoys to enter the room he was stationed at were in the form of two towering men.

Vincent stood up to greet the female envoys and as usual they didn’t respond but scanned the room as if eager to find violations. They wore the same colors but in opposing fashion; one wearing black pants and a white top and the other wearing white pants and a black top. One wore white lipstick, and the other black and same with the nail polish covering their unusually long nails. They were of equal height of him but had sharper features and piercing dark eyes. The one wearing the black lipstick called herself Cassandra and the one wearing white lipstick, Daedra. His belly quivered momentarily when Daedra approached him, a sensation he hadn’t felt in years. For an instant, he imagined this must be how those who had testified before may felt being scanned and analyzed. Ava was right. Perhaps he was feeling more stress than he had realized. He noticed Cassandra carrying a large briefcase that she sat down by the dresser while Daedra, after circling him a few times, immediately went to his own smaller briefcase and emptied it out without asking. It was part of their job to examine everything--there were to be no secrets, and nothing was to be out of place.

The other envoy examined his body language while asking the standard, routine questions. Are you secure? Is the case file safe? Have you read the file thoroughly? Blah, blah, blah. It was all the same routine data bytes from every envoy he ever encountered. At times, at night, he reorganized such routine conversations into musical scores out of sheer boredom. Then, something out of the ordinary happened. She circled him like a vulture might, stood in front of him and ran a finger down the side of his cheek to his chin and kept it there. Her look was one of a seductress as she puckered her lips that formed into a condescending smile.

“You have a question, a concern” Cassandra stated, “Ask it.”

Daedra chimed in, “Oh, yes, do tell us, what is it?”

“Um...I-uh, not really a concern, per say... While it is routine and a pleasure to have you both here today, it is highly unusual to have Envoys from the Chancery before open remarks. I just arrived, and surely the case isn’t over already.” Vincent smiled and then cleared his throat. The two women exchanged agreeing glances.

“Actually," Cassandra looked down at nails, "The trial is over, Vincent. It has been going on in secret for days out of public watch. We brought the trial files over for you to review via the Chancellor’s’ command.”

Vincent raised his eyebrows, “The trial over? Are we speaking of the same trial? Of Governor John Woods?” The women looked on, unmoved and silent. “How? What about the backlash from the public!?! Trials of such high-profile leaders are entertainment, the motivation to keep the public supportive of the war is it not?”

Cassandra interjected, “The war is almost over. Face it, dear Vincent, trials will soon become passe as the human species is quickly dying off."

Vincent stared blankly at the two. “So, just scrap the airing of the essential, last remaining hybrid?”

“Oh, we doubt he represents the very last but the public will see the highlights and the guilty verdict you will no doubt announce. Galatia will fall completely when their leader falls."

Daedra came away from the dresser and chimed in from the distance, “The governing body of the tribunal has the final say so in...“

“...in such matters,” Cassandra completed the thought.

They both then said in unison, “You of all citizens know this.”

Vincent stroked his cheekbone gingerly, “This is all very out of the ordinary...I suppose you are right to a degree. Who am I to question the Chancery? How long has the trial been going on without me?”

Cassandra cracked a smile as though he had said the right cue word. She came closer to him and handed him a black computer chip the size of a large crumb. Vincent let it rest in his open palm and she softly closed his hands around it.

“Three days of record,” she replied. Daedra stepped forward snuggling up to her twin like a cat and placed herself arm in arm. “The Supreme Chancellor expects the report with the guilty verdict no later than tomorrow evening.”

Vincent looked up from his cupped hand sensing some surprise which triggered the tension in his neck that had already been building. He tried to subtly stretch his next as he pressed his lips together, took in a breath through his nostrils, and exhaled. The envoys broke their entanglement and slowly began turning away toward the door in attempt to let the humanoid get himself in check. Vincent lowered his head in attempt to not say what he was about to say, but he could not restrain himself. It was not in him.

“I don’t take pre-determined verdicts,” Vincent insisted, “and how do you propose that I’m to report on three days of trials in 24hrs? This is an impossible request!” Vincent, unsure what to do with his arms, folded his arms tightly across his stomach knowing this meant he was experiencing some sense of discomfort. This was all so out of the routine he was used to. Daedra had already reached and opened the door, while Cassandra turned around carrying a snarl of disappointment. Vincent cleared his throat, “I’m sorry, but you must speak to the Supreme Chancellor. This is an impossible demand for any interpreter to carry out and...I won't do it.”

“And how do you think that will go over, my dear?” Daedra turned back and chimed in holding the door open.

Cassandra walked up upon like a model on a runway with a unfriendly smile. “No one expects you to cover three days in only 24 hours,” Cassandra grinned, "But Supreme Chancellor Shackelton does expect a guilty verdict in 24hrs. He trusts your ability to skim effectively and craft a report that represents the guilt this hybrid leader of the resistance deserves. If it bothers you," Cassandra stopped to catch herself because she had leaned so far in and was talking so furiously that she was nearly about ready to fall over on top of Vincent at this point.

Daedra finished her thought as Cassandra straightened herself back up, “-then consider it a favorable report toward the truth. It will be broadcast on Truth Media as soon as you announce it! You are just getting to the truth of the matter in a quicker time frame than you are used to. Skim, Vincent and get it done. We all know he is guilty.”

Vincent turned his head in disgust letting out a puff of air. Cassandra took a finger with her long black painted finer nails and turned his head back around by his chin, “You will do as Chancellor Shackelton orders or we can escort you to him right now and you can suffer a fate worse than the Governor, we can assure you of that.”

Vincent raised a hand as to assure her that wasn’t necessary. “I have no doubt the Governor will be found guilty as all humans are and-”

Cassandra started walking toward the door interrupting him, “Governor Woods is a critical component in the fight to extinguish not only the remaining hybrid contingency but the human one as well. The Chancellor will take no less from you than a guilty verdict. You’ve been given a high responsibility, don’t disappoint him.”

“Or it will be the last trial you ever report on,” Daedra winked handing the door to Cassandra as she started down the hall.

“Yes, what she said,” Cassandra grinned waving him off with a limp wristed wave as she let the door slam shut behind her. Vincent plopped down on the bed, chip in hand, suddenly unsure of himself. He was fairly sure that Governor Woods was guilty of many crimes, but never had the humanoid been coerced toward a verdict without having the fanfare, the entertainment, and the regulations played out in a rightful manner and with flare to show the bastards just how foul and lowly they were. This was uncalled for. What did the court have to hide? What was the rush?

Vincent examined the chip, turning it front and back. It was now his curse. It now held a weight outside its own boundaries--the weight of a world in waiting. Still, he would prove the human fool guilty, but he would do it the right way and uphold the law of a fair and just trial. He at times wrestled with the necessity of this rule of law for fair trials of humans as foolishness but now he took it on as a challenge. From looking at the time stamps on the chip, the trial went for three days of six hours each. If he skimmed through them, he may have extra time to go back as needed and still produce a report. But an accurate one? He had no choice in the matter. He would have to try. Vincent rebounded off the bed opened the large briefcase the envoys had brought in. The Virtual Reality glasses sat there alone daring him to put them on. Vincent winced knowing once he began the process, he couldn’t stop. He looked up to the ceiling for some miraculous relief and realizing that, of course, there wouldn’t be any, he dove in. Lifting up a patch of skin behind his ear, several plug-and-play slots were exposed. He placed in the first chip to the top slot and put the VR glasses on.

A jolt momentarily took ahold of him as the darkness from the VR lenses engulfed his vision. Projected in front view were the words “Downloading cover docket information...Please Wait...”. Then the cover pages began appearing before his eyes blocking out the darkness with the turning of white electronic pages until before his eyes rested the cover page of the report.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IN THE SUPREME CHANCERY FOR THE CONFEDERACY OF HUMANOID PEOPLES, ACROPOLIS

THE CONFEDERACY

the plaintiff

v.

chip specs 15-5. 4-10, 2-4r

GOVERNOR JOHN WOODS

Defendant

OFFICIAL INTERPRETERS' TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

(Tribunal Trial Day 1)

City of Acropolis

March 29, 2888

BEFORE:

THE TRIBUNAL TEMPRE TO SUPREME CHANCELLOR SHAKELTON

SUPREME CHANCELLOR SHAKELETON (model #49)

SGT. ASG. (model #s66)

SGT. ISADOR (model #133)

APPEARENCES

For the Plaintiff

Angela Woods, Acropolis Active-Duty Soldiers A-K, Petra or Peter (no other identifier given)

David Arcturus, Dalek Minkus, General Iscariot

For the Defendant

John Woods, representing the state of Galatia

Report Interpretated by:

Humanoid Model # G220: Vincent

Official Transcriber and Interpreter

Composition Square, Room 121

Quadrant G19

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vincent was tempted to go right to the ruling portion of the recording to hear their reasoning first, but, of course, that would be highly unethical, and he didn’t have time to get confused by jumping back and forth between recordings. Therefore, the humanoid let his eyes rest and focus on the words “The Opening Address of Charges” and gave a long blink. The words expanded and glowed in response to the blink, and then he was once again engulfed in darkness. This is it, the humanoid thought, the beginning of the end. He wanted to halt himself to examine why that particular thought came up but it was too late. His vision was overtaken. Entering the court scene through Virtual Reality software always came across to Vincent as though he had developed another set of eyes. The darkness split in half and a view from inside of the Chancery opened from a crack in the middle of his eyesight until it completely engulfed him and became exponentially bigger than the sense of his own self. He grew from giant to the size of a fly. His view was an all-encompassing one with angles from several smaller drones feeding into one main drone that gave him the closest thing to an omni-present view over the whole scene. Vincent never failed to gasp finding himself thrown above the large, courtroom, floating as though he had become the drone himself. Vincent knew he could zoom in and out but was frustrated because this was like being there live. He never particularly liked doing reports and interpretations this way. Without being tapped into the trial live, this meant he would have less control on his viewpoints than he would like.

Sitting across from each other were the two opposing parties under the scanners that emanated a prism of light. The scanners highlighted the two entities in the dark chamber making it appear as though this was some grand fight for a universal title bout. These scanners allowed Court Report Interpreters like himself to tap into what was going on inside those participating in the trial both physically, mentally and emotionally. An intimate portrait. Vincent immediately zoomed in on the governor who sat in his red prison jumpsuit—unusual for him to be in a prison uniform in that he wasn’t convicted yet. The Governor, at this point, should be dressed in the standard yellow uniform. Even so, Vincent surmised, it was fairly understandable in that he was in holding for a large crime and a danger to the community. Still, it was disconcerting for the interpreter because he knew the law, ate the law, and drank the law as much as any tribunal judge or persons of the court.

Governor Wood’s light chocolate colored hair was thick, flat and his bangs bent toward his right. The middle of his forehead, tops of his cheekbones and a spot on his chin were smooth and shiny as if they had been waxed, harkening to days of good living long gone. The rest of his exposed skin and face was unshaven, littered with atrophic scars no doubt from the conditions he lived in and the battles he fought. Vincent momentarily forgot that Chancellor Shackelton had begun speaking as he once again examined Woods face, lost by something emanating from the human’s eyes. Words escaped him but it was something he hadn’t seen before, not in any human he had met before.

I know I’ll get the word for it, Vincent thought.

The Chancellor had just then cleared his throat and Vincent immediately pulled back from the defendant. He was forced to rewind the video a little. Not a good start, Vincent thought, I can’t waste time. Vincent froze the feed as a feeling of overwhelm engulfed him. There was no way he would get through three days of interrogation and testimony in twenty-four hours. He should have taken the ladies up on their offer of seeing Shackelton but then where would it have gotten him? Shackelton was not one to back down from a decision. There certainly was no stopping the machine of justice at this point but what kind of justice would this be?

Vincent came to the only choice he had left: He would have to do a hyper-info dump into his system. This was not only very uncomfortable but risky. It had the potential of frying his system because he would be subjecting himself to a huge file size that required access to a number of his systems at one time. Still, the percentage of him escaping that fate was around seventy to eighty percent so he had decent odds. However, this would allow him to better move about the feed, get a deep read on what files and scenes to skip or to come back to later. As Vincent momentarily debated, he could almost feel Shackelton’s eyes piercing his procrastination even from afar, insisting he get this done.

The humanoid moved himself blindly back deeper into his bed. He pulled up the menu on the VR screen with rapid blinks, dropped down the settings menu, then dropped down the chip settings and selected “hyper-info dump” under the properties option. The screen went dark and in big white letters these words came scrolling across his view; “Are you sure you want to perform this action Model G220, “Vincent”?” Vincent paused, shook his hands free from a sense of invisible shackles around his wrists, took a deep breath, and then selected YES with his eyes.

Over the series of the next few moments all that Vincent heard was his body shaking the bed so that the headboard vibrated against the wall. He smelled the milky substance of his own fluids in his nose and a sense he may bleed out through his nostrils. His neck spasmed with enough frequency that he feared his chip may fly out his skull and across the room. The fear struck up the makings of a vision of Shackelton in his white cornrows, dark red robes, and on a high seat in court peering down at him, as if he was the one on trial. He saw the piercing brow of Chancellor Shackelton, right down to the seething pupils of his eyes that withdrew to a pin-point as he interrogated his subject. He saw Governor Woods shift in his seat uncomfortably, followed by an image of holding his head in despair. He also saw the tribunal in waiting. There was the protruding nose of Sergeant Asg, and the grimace of Sergeant Isador as he nodded to Shackelton at the approach of a human to the witness stand. Next came a flash of a woman clinging to a purse in her lap as to protect herself, and people making nervous adjustments to collars, sleeves and adornments.

Vincent swore for brief moments during this torrent of new memories that he could sense Governor Woods’ emotions like various voices coming from rooms down a hallway. There was the voice of determination, a voice burdened down by fear, and a zealous, voice speaking truth no matter the cost. There was an angry voice too. A voice of someone betrayed but oddly enough there was one voice that rose above the others which Vincent wasn’t expecting. The voice that held this man together was one of pervading peace. How could this hybrid want peace? It surely wasn’t the same peace he was thinking of...could it? He sensed the hybrids unshakeable foundation. He had never seen this so strongly in a hybrid before, and it struck Vincent in an odd fashion. It awakened something within him that had long since went asleep--his curiosity.

Just when Vincent thought he may be in the clear, there came more memories pouring through him; Flashes of accusing eyes, mouths moving in unrelenting fanaticism. Fingers pointing, and feet tapping. He wanted out. Would he drown in a never-ending torrent of memories? Would his systems be stuck in a cycle he wouldn’t be able to stop? Then came the most vivid vision of all--that of a humanoid on the stand raising a thick white book in the air and waving it fanatically. And finally, Vincent heard this word ringing loudly in his head with fervent repetition and resoluteness,” Guilty!”. Finally, everything went dark and silent.

Moments later, Vincent took off the VR glasses in relief. His body was still quivering and beads of sweat were layered across his forehead and dripped down the sides of his temples. He took in a breath as if he had been holding it for a long period. Perhaps he had. His chest felt somewhat heavier. He laid momentarily staring up at the ceiling, grateful he was still alive and conscious. Then, he got up and wiped his face with the corner of the bed sheet. The case of Governor John Woods was now a part of him and he could control how deep and far he went.

The things I will do for this job, he muttered to himself.

“Did you say something, sir,” Ava interjected, and the humanoid momentarily caught hold of his breath, “Are you alright, Vincent? It appears you just had a seizure of some sort while attempting to download some files from an unrecognized source. Should I request assistance for you?”

“Oh, no, Ava, I-I’m fine. That won’t be necessary.”

“Are you sure Vincent? Your comfort and safety is my utmost concern.”

Vincent rolled his eyes slightly while keeping his head lowered, “I appreciate your concern, Ava. I was conducting a hyper file dump. I’m fine.” There was a long uncomfortable silence. “Ava, could you give me some privacy for the rest of the evening. I won’t need you until morning. I will call you then or when I need you. I promise.”

“As you wish. Have a good evening.”

Vincent went to the bathroom, wiped his forehead with a towel, and pulled up a chair by the window out in the bedroom area once again. He looked out at the night sky finding some relief by the stars blinking back at him. He found himself suddenly wishing this case was behind him. The fame and glory had lost its luster in light of the tainted procedures he was now forced to do. To that end, the quicker the start the better. Vincent began reflecting on the case which felt like a distant memory just out of reach. It would take some effort for his mind to pull this forward since it was quite heavy laden data and involved emotional intelligence programs in his system that he never accessed much before. Vincent closed his eyes removing unnecessary files of the day and reached deeper within to pull the memories of the trial forward.

Before we were so rudely interrupted, Vincent thought to himself. He closed his eyes and fought against other images fighting for his attention. He saw the six-foot seven Governor Woods fight against the restraints of his wrists and ankles in an attempt to walk to his seat without falling. The prisoner was escorted by the two women envoys who had visited his room earlier. They were amazingly docile and calm. Their high heels were like pounding of hammers echoing through the large chamber as they collided with the hard, impenetrable floor. When seated, the women unlocked the governor’s restraints and quickly exited the arena.

The whispering conversations between the tribunal eventually ended. They pulled their chairs in from the dark shadows and into the soft, moving light of the scanners that beamed down upon their large table. Monitors from internal laptops embedded in the table rose to greet them. Chancellor Shackelton adjusted his cornrows that extended down from a white powdered wig. With a few touches to his screen, he gave half a smile to the defendant and leaned back in his chair studying him for a moment. Then with a heavy sigh, he began.

“For the sake of the record, I am Chancellor Shackelton, sitting alongside Sergeant Asg and Sergeant Isador, and we are the designated Tribunal Tempre assigned to this case. It is March 19, 2888 and this is the case of the city of Acropolis versus Governor John Woods. For the record, please state your name, Governor.”

“Governor John Woods”

“Thank you, Governor Woods, and you were Governor over the territory known as Galatia, is this correct?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you,” Chancellor Shackelton replied politely. He looked momentarily at his screen as if taking in a final note and then closed the monitor with confidence. “Mr. Woods-”

“John is fine,” the Governor interjected looking off to the side in total disinterest.

“Um, very well then...John, as a traitor to Acropolis and the surrounding quadrant-”

The young man of thirty turned his head slightly and locked eyes with Shackelton, “Isn’t that yet to be proven? Or am I sentenced already?”

The Chancellor smirked, breathed in through his nostrils like a dragon withholding its flames for a more suitable moment of attack, “John, you and I know why you are here. I have to run through the charges, but we all know them. And, in all honesty....”

Vincent took note of their emotional and stressed states. John Woods was showing little sign of stress and Shackelton’s stress regulators were a little elevated but nothing too out of the ordinary. Sergeant Isador later went to read the charges off his monitor as Shackelton observed Woods with a finger massaging his upper lip and the thumb supporting his jaw. Vincent knew from his nonverbal cue training that this meant the Chancellor was in both an introspective and anticipatory space. Sergeant Asg sat with arms folded, chin down and eyes wide open and not blinking as if to peer into the soul of Woods while the charges were announced The stress level in Woods had risen a little by this point and his hands were interlocked in prayer fashion with an unusual amount of pressure on the thumbs pressing inward. There was greater eye secretion from the tear ducts but not at a level anyone would notice except Vincent’s trained eye. Wood’s head was lowered and his eyes stared at a fix point on the ground, perhaps hoping some mystical phoenix would rise from the ground and save the day, Vincent pondered.

“The charges read as follows: The human referred to by his followers as Governor John Woods is hereby charged with treason against the Government of Acropolis by engaging in modes of illegal resistance, war mongering, conspiracy against the government of Acropolis, and violently holding territory that he nor his subjects have any rights to..,” and on Isador went reciting the litany of charges; belonging to a high risk species even beyond humans themselves called “hybrids”, propagation of the human species while training, defending and attempting to dismantle the humanoid way of life.

“Additionally,” Chancellor Shackelton interjected, “in the matter of humanoid sympathizers and humans within in his own ranks; Governor Woods is here today in large part because he has been turned over to us by his own kind. This is unprecedented in the court’s history. The reasons cited by the city of Galatia are for the causes of unrest, betrayal of trust and resistance to governance, regulations and the violation of sacred traditions of his own people. For the claim of division, untrustworthiness, and sabotage, the people of Galatia have found their own Governor so unfit for his duties and such a threat, that they now turn him over to the Supreme Chancery. This gesture is followed by a will for a peaceful alliance that the Chancery is still deciding on.” The Chancellor looked over to the direction where the young Petra and his team of betrayers sat and gave them a respectful nod.

Vincent rewound Shackelton’s words--something caught his attention. He replayed the line “resistance to rules, regulations and the violations of sacred traditions of his own people.” Very curious, Vincent thought to himself. What man-made laws was the Governor resisting? What “sacred traditions”? Did this not hint that the Governor may have more sense than his human counterparts? Humans were by and large dysfunctional, even their laws and especially their crazy “sacred traditions”. So, if he were in violation of them, was that entirely a bad thing? It would be something to watch.

The stocky Sergeant Asg unfolded his arms and set his palms opened faced on the table, and interjected in a sardonic tone, “So, Governor Woods, how do you respond to these charges?”

The room was more silent than ever. Vincent could almost hear the hum from the ultra-quiet scanning rays above them swirling around everyone's heads. By this time, Woods was holding his head with elbows on his knees looking down and saying nothing at all. He looked as though the weight of world rested on his shoulders. Vincent wondered if he had fallen asleep momentarily but of course his scanners showed the man very much awake with a slightly elevated heart rate. The firing of the synapses in his brain and shifting eye movements suggested that Woods was accessing memories. Perhaps he was caught up with them.

“Sir, I ask you again,” Asg spoke up leaning forward, “how would you respond to these charges?”

Shackelton, pulling down the synthetic skin of his cheekbones, released them and allowed a grin to lift them up again. Yet the scanners showed an increase in his stress regulating engines as well, even more so than the other two on the tribunal. Vincent fast forwarded as the silence went on for some time. The tribunal discussed what to do because nothing like this had ever happened before-- a defendant who had not responded to the opening charges. At one point, Chancellor Shackelton stood before the table leaning against it with his white cornrows draped down the front of his shoulders like garland. He looked poised for some mischievous or slightly aggressive approach toward the Governor. This did cause the Governor to sit up but he now looked forward with those amazing peace ridden eyes to some unseen fixed point out in the distance. He wasn’t even acknowledging that Shackelton was speaking to him except for a slight shifting in his seat.

“Is there something out there you see that we don’t?” Shackelton finally asked looking back in the dark and then back to the defendant again, feigning amusement.

“Yes..people.”

Shackelton walked back to his seat in contemplation. “Indeed. These are the people who have come to testify to the facts and charges in this case. Charges you don’t seem want to acknowledge.”

“Your charges are as you see them to be. They are not necessarily the truth of it.”

“So, then you deny the charges?” Asg interjected speedily. Shackleton looked back in disapproval.

“.....”

John Woods was silent once again.