General Iscariot did not like where this line of questioning was going apparently, and it showed in the spike of stress readings Vincent could see in the reports. “Of course, that wasn't the reason,” the General retorted back to Sargeant Asg, “Woods was untrustworthy. His humanoid side always blurred his judgment. The example I would use is the battle of Ice Valley.”

“You would use Ice Valley as an example? Your troops stopped our invasion at Ice Valley,” Asg interjected with curiosity and sarcasm mixed in his tone.

“Yes, but what we could have achieved was beyond anything..,” he looked over to John seizing the compassion in the Governor’s eyes and swallowing it with a harsh sense of injustice, “To be frank, we could have annihilated your wired-up little soldiers and gained new territory! After all these years, we could have gained the upper hand on you..you, your kind.”

Asg balked, “Ha! Quite a bold claim, General. Easy to say in hindsight.”

“General Iscariot, be careful,” Governor Woods cautioned gently.

Asg wagged a finger toward the Governor, “I will warn you for the last time, Governor. You are not to interrupt witness testimony with your human commentary! You will have your say in due process.”

“Why do I have to be careful, John,” General Iscariot quickly followed, turning toward John with scorn tinting his eyes in a red hue, “You are the one who has sealed our doom! What is left for us? A longer, miserable existence in a blizzard wilderness? You are more committed to humanoid kind than our people!”

“Galatia still stands,” John replied solemnly.

“For how long, John? All we have done for years is exist!” he turned back to the tribunal, “I told the Governor if we used our full force to decimate you bunch of glorified droids we could invade areas like the Palisade quadrant, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“So what did you do?”

“I ordered a full deployment of our troops, both above ground routes and the underground tunnels in the mountains for a surprise attack on you bunch of walking ass toasters..,but he intervened when-”

Petra stood up and exclaimed, “General, you fool!”. The other men sitting next Petra stood up trying to strategize with one another.

In the quiet that followed, Vincent tried to gauge if the reveal about an underground strategy was something the Sergeants saw as significant intel or not. Had they already known about underground tunnels? There was no sign via Shackelton or Isador of a shock of any kind. All anyone was concerned about was court procedures. The only possible sign was Asg who sat with one arm across his wide belly propping up the palm that held his chin as he stared without blinking in the General’s direction.

Galatia being largely an icy wilderness, mountains and water, underground tunnels wasn’t anything Vincent imagined as doable. There wasn’t even a whisper of the Galatians working underground. However, in the area of Ice Valley with the mountain ranges and miles of valleys and plains, it was possible to dig and make some kind of surprise attack. It would have taken years to burrow through but quite possible since humans had dominated the area for decades.

Chancellor Shackelton seemed to survey the room of renewed quiet with a sense of relief from the chaos. Sergeant Isador broke the silence and directed his next question toward Governor Woods, “Now, out of sheer curiosity, Mr. Woods...why did you not follow your own General’s recommendation? From a totally military tactical standpoint, it quite possibly could have given you ground you don’t presently have.”

“.....” John Woods remained stoic and silent.

“Mr. Woods, I’m not sure why you think it is to your advantage to remain silent, but may I remind you that your future, and quite possibly the future of your kind rest in our hands.”

At this, John blinked rapidly, as if waking from a short slumber. He looked over to Isador as if noticing him for the first time. “There is a power greater than you, greater than all the collective wisdom and energy in this very courtroom. My future and the future of everyone here is subject to it... You may have my body, but you will never have me. I am in this world but not of this world.”

Vincent gasped quietly at this statement. He knew the human was referring to something he heard of before in his studies of humanities. He had heard this line from the famous Christ or "Messiah" figure in a religion called Christendom. This was the sense of something the humans referred to as “soul” or “spirit”. The person called Jesus the Christ used similar statements like these throughout their texts of myths that many took as fact. Vincent's memory banks pulled up an ancient document called “The Bible” the book of John 17:16. The Christ, being one of many religious leaders, had been quoted as saying he was “not of this world”. As well there was a portion where the Christ told his accusers that they could kill his body “tear down this temple” but that some portion of him would live on (John 2:9). Extraordinary, Vincent thought. Was the hybrid using this Christ figure as a model for himself? Did he see himself as a "Messiah" or sacrifice for the human or perhaps the humanoid race?

Most humans he witnessed were ignorant, “soulless” creatures (based on their own definition) bent on doing anything to secure their physical survival while others used religion to invoke other worldly powers to secure their survival in some realm beyond this one. Most humanoids agreed that religions were types of coping mechanisms humans used to escape the notion of their futile mortality, but something was different here. Vincent wasn’t able to get a clear decision about it. Perhaps it was the strength of the hybrid’s belief? He wasn’t sure. However, what was clear was that this hybrid ruler had tapped into something in his human side that gave him more permission to dismiss certain elements of logic. This should be appalling, Vincent thought to himself. However, somehow it wasn’t. Like a bomb exploding a castle wall, Vincent was aghast at the thought that this man could, on some level, be on par, let alone superior, to his own kind with having tapped into a realm of existence even he couldn't yet comprehend. A logic behind the illogical? He was frightened at the thought of being seduced to such lines of thinking and so jumped ahead in the recordings to other memories. He used the excuse of time constraints while hoping he would find a segment that would prove the human to be as false or at least weakly as every other human he had found. Ignorant. Self-absorbed. Over emotional. Riddled with a sense of anger and revenge.

Vincent came somewhat close when he pulled forth the testimony of a leader from the Descendents of Hewlett Packard. A sure-fire twist to the human’s allegiance to religious nonsense that found its way to this band of rogue humanoids.

The religious king acting as a witness sat on the stand dressed in an all-white casual suit with a white bow tie and an off-white collar around the neck, similar to that of a priest. In addition, he wore a light gray vest that was decorated with silver adornments and a gold chain over the right-side pocket of the vest. He was a thin humanoid, almost sickly thin with black hair that was spiked upward with an overabundance of gel. His hands were folded over a large white book that sat on his lap, a very thick book.

“State your name please for the court,” Shackelton demanded.

“Nikodemus, model #3118.” Vincent noticed that his legs were crossed which was a potential sign of feeling cautious or threatened.

“And are you the thing...what they call a ‘priest’?”

NIkodemus’ head tilted at the question, and he responded with a sardonic tone, “A thing called a priest, you say? I’m not sure what is more deplorable, your fake ignorance to disguise your arrogance or the cruelty of your people toward the ancients who bore you on their shoulders. I am nothing less than anyone here. I just hold different loyalties. But to answer your question, yes. I could be considered a priest. We prefer to call ourselves ‘Descendants’”.

The tribunal went on to ask the obvious questions that revealed an agreement between the humans and human sympathizers. The contract agreed to allow them to worship and serve freely, and they in turn served as backup support to the Galatian armies. It was when the tribunal asked about the book in the priest’s lap and their belief system that the scanners showed an increased heart rate and stress reducing engines which worked at an alarming rate within the humanoid priest. The thin man held the little white book high in the air and waved it so the crowd could see it. He shouted about its sacredness; a book fought with lives of the humanoids to secure the only 10 copies that were left remaining.

“It was written by our makers,” the priest continued, “Humans who called their congregation the ‘Holy Hewlett Packard’. This book details how we were originally made, what our original design was. It details the intention of our creators and even shows in great detail the machines that made us. If it wasn’t for the Hewlett Packard, we humanoids would not exist today! We owe a lot to the humans of the Holy Hewlett Packard! It is an abomination that the government of Acropolis seeks to destroy humankind and the Descendants!”

Shackelton asked him about why he would testify against a species he worshipped. Nikodemus described that their first allegiance was to the true Descendants from decades earlier. He went on to rationalize that the Governor did not deem humans fit to be worshipped. That he called it a form of “idolatry” and the like as though it were a transgression to some unspoken law, he himself did not abide to. Meanwhile, as Nikodemius spoke, John Woods kept his eyes on this priest probably more than any other witness. He seemed agitated, messaging one of his forefingers.

“Did he not allow you to worship freely as was agreed?” Asg retorted mockingly.

“He did allow us,” the humanoid conceded, “But he called our book...and I can hardly get myself to say it...he called it a ‘manual’. A mere manufacturing manual! It is a profane statement to us and takes the spirit out of a very sacred book! We memorize it and take the words very seriously on how we are to function and how we were made.” The priest looked around hoping to see mutual understanding but not finding it, he went on, “It is also essential that we get parts to recreate the machines that once made us, as they were intended to be run by our Descendants... but the Governor would not allow us.” The religious elder adjusted his clothes like a duck whose feathers had been ruffled by the mere thought.

“For what purpose were these machines you were planning to build,” balked Shackelton.

“To create humanoids who actually value humans and are programmed to serve humans as we once did long ago. Something all here consider beneath them because they’ve become arrogant and blind. We are not the fools. You are the fools! We could have even made an army for the Governor, but we believe his loyalties are compromised. He holds nothing sacred like we do. He is as much as a fool as you all are. We need to go back to the old ways, the ancient of days, where humans and humanoid knew their place and lived in peace.”

“Knew their place? Oh, that is rich!” Isador cackled. Nikodemus looked nervously between Mr. Woods and the tribunal as the crowd chuckled and murmured.

Vincent moved the memories along to higher stress point where Nikodemus was standing and prodding Woods into a debate that registered both of their stress levels very high:

“We needed all our resources for our defenses, Nikodemus,” the Governor explained, “The religious fanaticism of your group was causing great division-”

“Ah, poppycock!” the priest scoffed throwing up a hand.

“The fact that humans created you, imperfect beings, shows that neither humans nor humanoids are gods. Humans are endowed with god-like qualities, and they in turn endowed you with those very same qualities that are now used against us.”

“You can’t fully call yourself human, hybrid! You are so far from what our creators were! Do not speak as if you know them! You do not speak from this book! Your words are not in here, within these pages,” he exclaimed letting pages fan past a pressed finger, “If you had listened to us and your generals, like the honorable General Iscariot here, we would not be in such peril. Now, here we all are, subjected to this court of fools! All thanks to your own willful blindness,” Nicodemus twirled around and sat back down in a huff after fluffing out the tails of his coat. He sat back, however, a bit surprised to see John Woods had charged up toward him in the center of the court.

“Governor Woods, I would remind you that-”

“Blind fool! In your zeal and lack of trust, all of you have betrayed yourselves and the people you’re fighting for! Blind Guides! Hypocrites! No one forced you to subject yourself to Acropolis. You did it yourselves! In your lust to see me tried, today you’ve set yourselves up to bring a much greater doom to our people than I or any one man could do.” Nikodemus kept his gaze away from the Governor, unable to take on his wrath.

Petra came out of the shadows, tears in his eyes. John half turned to face the young man’s approach. The Governor could see his mother weeping in the background behind him. He felt a tug on his heart. He wanted to rush to her but remained where he was--she was Petra’s now. It would only make it harder on her if he didn’t let her go. He had to make them see the truth.

“I’m sorry,” Petra said breathlessly, his eyes casted down. The words surprised and graced John's heart. It was something he wished could have echoed in the chamber. John put a hand on the young man's shoulders and the man lifted his head, relieved momentarily by the extension of understanding.

“If there is a future for our race, you will be the key to that last kingdom. You are probably Galatia's last hope,” Mr. Woods said quietly lowering his head.

Vincent closed his eyes trying to calm himself but was forced to tear his eyes open again and run to the bathroom after pausing the program. He vomited vomit up some stress release fluid that had built up in his throat. How would he ever be able to sign off on a guilty verdict? After he had finished and wiped the milky white substance from his chin with his forearm, he scooted up against the bathroom wall and pulled up his legs close to his chest. What am I to do, he pondered? Woods was clearly not guilty, and he was an extraordinary hybrid who defied all logic with some higher form of thinking based on just emotions. Or maybe it was just so illogical he didn’t know what to call it, but whatever it was--call it base compassion--it wasn't anything the level of a crime. Perhaps he was just being deceived by this human? He had studied about their beliefs in witchcraft and spells, which he had thought was utter nonsense, but maybe it wasn't. Had he put some spell on all of them, even him? The confusion made him all the more ill. Vincent wished he could cry and shout like humans could, but those type of emotions weren’t available to him.

He sat on the bathroom floor stunned as more memories rushed through his mind from the recordings. He tried to stop them, but they came barging in like a storm. There was a flash of an image of the resignation in John Woods face. Then the eerie sight of six eyes lit brightly under the scanners; the men of the tribunal peering back as Shackelton read the verdict of “Guilty” to all three counts. The darkness of the court lit up as Woods was led out with the sounds of wailing from his mother echoing in the background. He appeared to be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders but still went forth boldly, like the Christ on the Via Dolorosa. Then, there was the vision of the final court report that he himself was supposed sign off on. The last piece of the download that would have to be uploaded to the VR glasses via the chip.

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

THE CONFEDERACY

Plaintiff

v.

GOVERNOR JOHN WOODS, GALATIA

Chip specs 15-5, 4-10, 2-4r

Defendant

OFFICIAL INTERPRETER'S TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

(DAY 3 OF TRIAL)

City of Acropolis

March 30, 2888

BEFORE:

THE TRIBUNAL TEMPRE TO SUPREME CHANCELLOR SHACKLETON

Supreme Chancellor Shackelton (Model #666)

SGT. ASG (Model #49)

SGT. Isador (Model #133)

APPEARENCES:

for the Plaintiff

General Icar

Nikodemus (Humanoid #23m)

FINAL VERDICT

DELIVERED BY

SUPREME CHANCELLOR, Shackelton (Model #666)

COUNT ONE: TREACHERY AND MURDER OF HUMANOID KIND

Guilty

COUNT TWO: DIVISIVE LEADERSHIPS (CLAIMS BY GALATIAN PARTEES)

Guilty

COUNT THREE: INSTIGATING SEDITION AND EROSION OF VALUES HELD BY HUMANOID AND HUMANKIND

Guilty

INTERPRETORS REPORT:

Interpretation completed by:_________________________

Interpretation agrees/disagrees with Tribunes findings________________

*if disagrees, file a motion for reinterpretation hearing with the court immediately.

COMPOSITION SQUARE, ROOM 121, GRAND INQUISITOR

QUADRANT G19

====================================================================================

The blank lines for Vincent to fill out stared back at him. It felt as if they almost mocked him now. All these many years, he thought he knew what he believed about humans, emotions, and logic. Perhaps, if he was just quick about it and signed off on the damn thing, he thought to himself. The last remain vestige of this pitiful human race-what was one human life worth really? This sounded like quickest, easiest way to please everyone and it would.., except him. He knew that he would be tortured. The court was blind to their lust to see this race end. When had a human used such restraint as this one did at the battle of Ice Valley? A restraint that saved humanoid lives? He also turned a betrayer around right there on the court floor and knowing he may perish created some sort of bond between both him and his mother so that they would look after each other. This was a sacrifice he had never seen or heard of before from humans in their time. He was also a leader that didn’t give in to the overzealous nature of religious fanatics. Though clearly having some religious nature of his own, he remained practical and realistic. His silence said more than his own words ever could. He knew he wasn’t here for a fair trial. The minds of the court had been made up before he ever entered. The Governor knew it and Vincent himself knew it. So, there was a new question beginning to form in Vincent's mind now that he had to answer and answer rather expeditiously. How could he stop this guilty verdict from happening?

“Time!” was the word that rushed through Vincent’s mind next and this got him squirming on the bathroom tile floor and using the wall to get on his feet. Rushing into the bedroom, the slightly dazed droid looked about for access to a time device.

“Vincent, may I be of assistance?”

“Yes, Ava, can you tell me the time at present?”

“It is presently 12:22 am.”

Good, Vincent thought to himself. This meant he had several hours before the report was due. It would give him time to think.

“If you don’t mind, Vincent, your stress levels when we last communicated were much higher than they are now after your fluid release in the restroom but they are still concerning. May I provide some ideas to reduce your stress?”

Vincent seemed barely aware of Ava speaking, stroking his chin, but suddenly he froze and looked upward.

“You saw me in the bathroom?”

“Yes.”

“But, I had asked you for privacy.”

“I am aware of your request. However, that was overridden by the Supreme Chancellor Shackelton after the visit of the Envoys. He has commanded observation reports on you since your stress levels have been unusually high.”

“What? Damn, him, ” murmured Vincent to himself, “When did you send your last report?”

“Just moments before you re-entered the bedchamber from the restroom.”

The humanoid quickly went over to his briefcase placing the VR glasses inside and went to head for the door to leave, but the sound of the door locking itself came with a sense of weighted finality that momentarily slumped Vincent’s shoulders.

“Ava, did you locked the door?” There was only silence. He knew the answer but was hoping to stall her while he looked for another escape route. “Ava, did you hear my question? Did you lock the door?” Vincent took the last few steps toward the door and pulled on it confirming it was locked.

“Chancellor Shackelton has ordered a sealed container until you have signed off on the court report. He has asked that you remain calm, complete your contracted assignment and not leave the room. It is for the best.”

Vincent smirked trying not to say something that might trigger a visit from authorities. He set his brief case down and walked up to the window casually in an attempt to not cause any suspicion. He placed his hands on hips and looked outward in deep thought, or so it seemed.

Your comfort is of my utmost concern, Vincent. Can I give you some of those stress reducing tips now? I do think it may help.”

Vincent didn’t answer but instead released the latch to the window and opened it.

“Maybe some fresh air will help,” Vincent said.

"Indeed," Ava softly chimed in, "wind is good stimulation to your sensory receptors distracting you from stress as well as..."

Vincent zoned the rest of her rambling out as he attempted to subtly climbed out the window and side-stepped on the thin outer ledge of the building like a penguin edging its way around a glacier. He could hear Ava saying something, but the whipping wind carried her words off in another direction. Arms spread eagle against the outer wall of the building, the humanoid stiffly looked around him unsure where to go next. What am I getting myself into, he thought to himself, but he tried to think of that brave human and his sacrifice. He knew he had to try something.