Facing another wall of silence from the human defendant, The Chancellor looked back at Asg with a grimace and Asg had to look away. The Chancellor blamed him for the interruption in his interrogation and he knew it, bringing them back to square one.

Isador interjected with a state of superiority that lifted him slightly taller in his seat, “I would remind you, Governor, we are not on trial here. You are. It would serve you well to address the charges brought against you.”

Woods said flatly, “Would you but hear the truth when it was spoken to you, then you would be free and without guilt.” Vincent noticed Wood's stress levels were down and wondered how the man was keeping himself so composed.

“Truth,” Chancellor Shackelton interjected in a loud enough tone that the word echoed, “What is truth?” He examined the silent Governor somberly for a moment. “There is only one truth to be sure of today, Mr. Woods: We are your only chance of getting back home to your family. What of your wife Sarah Woods, and your two children?” Mr. Woods let his eyes fall on Shackelton’s gaze and the older Chancellor ate up the moment of awareness. “You haven't forgotten about them already, have you? After all, if you are convicted, I hate to think what becomes of your family in the hands of the betrayers of your kind who turned in?”

Well played, Vincent thought. Score one for Chancellor Shackelton.

“In your city,” Woods responded with equal firmness,” the real truth of your origins has become irrelevant. You desire to murder the evidence before you because it convicts you. Yet, without humans you would not exist to even be threatening me right now. My life speaks for itself. See me for who I am, or you can make up stories about me. The choice is yours.”

Asg looked over to Shackelton raising an eyebrow. “And who do you say that you are?” asked Asg inquisitively.

“.....”

The governor once again remained silent and the three men on the tribunal converged for yet another private side conversation. Vincent blinked in rapid succession. This man was fearless when his life was hanging in the balance and the balance wasn’t even close in his favor. It was sheer heresy and ignorance but somehow Vincent felt a hint of admiration. He was brave for a few pounds of human flesh. Yes, brave was the word he had been trying to get to. Clearly the tribunal was more disturbed by his word play than the Governor was by theirs. The three judges returned to their places at the table.

“Well, I have to hand it to you Governor Woods, you have everyone’s wires crossed. I’m starting to see why your own kind may have found you so difficult to work with,” Shackelton held his chin held up examining the hybrid down the tip of nose, “I think we can move on. We the tribunal have decided that it’s clear the Governor denies the charges so let’s just go straight to the witnesses.” He leaned over toward Isador and whispered something in his ear causing the Sergeant to chuckle. Vincent stepped the memory back and issued a zoom command from the file in both vision and sound which revealed this little nugget: “I need a good fluid cleanse, so let’s just get the guilty verdict behind us.”

Something about the demeanor and the tone of voice of Shackelton deeply disturbed the humanoid interpreter. He couldn’t put his finger on it at the moment. Vincent, with a small bit of frustration, breezed through the implanted memory of Shackelton’s premature victory lap as the Chancellor went on to introducing the human sympathizers for the side of the prosecution. He called it “a moment of historical significance”, no doubt to further disturb the Governor’s disposition, and to some effect but not by much according to the scanners.

Vincent went back to the court report and suddenly became overwhelmed at the list of witnesses. It wasn’t the number of people that was large but rather the hours of testimony. There was no way for him to get through all the hours of testimony within the time constraints and do it all justice. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Getting up from the bed, he paced the room. How could they ask me to do this, he protested? Vincent secretly wished they had replaced him with some yes-man fake interpreter than put him through this crisis. No, they wanted the disguise of an authentic verdict.

I will just have to face Shackelton and tell him I can’t do this, the humanoid concluded lifting his hands up and letting them fall to his side with a sense of finality. He felt momentary relief. For bad or for good, he had made a decision. He put on his suit coat and went to put the VR glasses back in their case after taking the chip out of his skull. When the vision of himself standing before Shackelton came into his mind, with his furrowed brow and scouring face, It wasn’t long after that horror filled vision that the humanoid was back on the bed, coat off, with a new plan. He would follow the nonverbal data scans and go to the parts of testimony that had elevated spikes of stress levels within any of the participants. He could at least start there and if he needed more, he could backtrack.

The first chunk he passed through was testimony of various humanoid commanders in battle. But he got the overall gist of it: they lost soldiers and key figures in Acropolis’ army over several years in their attempts to penetrate Galatian defenses. The only stress spike in a series of three commander’s testimony was when one of them insisted that they “stop these theatrics and attack Galatia now since the humans were without an acting Governor”.

The first real spike in testimony started at the point of the testimony of Angela Woods for the side of the prosecution. Vincent had to keep checking that she was listed for the prosecution. By name, she appeared to be his mother, perhaps. How interesting, poor fool, Vincent thought, every card is stacked against him. Vincent enjoyed taking some of the human idioms and using them against them, when they were dire straights. Immediately he saw her ridged form on the stand placed in between the Governor and the Tribunal, facing outward toward both parties. Mrs. Woods clung tightly to a purse as if it were a shield to her heart. Her pulse rate, sweat glands, and level of adrenaline were concerning. She was hiding something, sitting on something that Vincent could already predict was bigger than the case alone.

Isador began his questioning, “Angela Woods, thank you for your bravery in appearing before us today.” The sergeant said with a smug look, distracted by his monitor as he made the introduction. It was only after this point that the governor lifted his head and locked eyes with the woman on the stand. This is when Mr. Wood’s own adrenaline began to rise and some activity in his tear ducts formed.

“What is your relation to the defendant, Mrs. Woods?” Isador with his squared off features leaned forward and took a quick glance at the Governor to make sure the defendant was listening.

“I’m his mother,” she replied, breathless, looking down.

A sense of awe fell upon the courtroom. Isador looked on in some amusement, and Asg swiveled repeatedly in a sing-song manner in his ergonomic seat.

“You are Governor Woods mother?” asked Isador in rote fashion.

“Yes,” she replied sniffing quietly.

“He is a hybrid...pre-birth or after-birth?”

The woman looked over with a sense of heaviness, “Pre-birth. I was kidnapped. It was not by choice-”

“That’s enough, Mrs. Woods. Now tell the court what you think about your son leading a traitorous cause that threatens the known world.” Vincent registered an accusatory tone and an elevation in the stress levels in the Governor. Mrs. Woods nervously fidgeted with her purse but looked up finally and when she did, Vincent noticed how her eyes held some similarity to that of Governor Woods. Behind the storm brewing in her eyes, there too was the same resolute peace covered now with a lenses of guilt and fear, but the remnants of peace still hinted that she had once enjoyed better days. Vincent swallowed hard. He could see the struggle in her face as she formulated a response.

“John,” Mrs. Woods remarked looking over to her son and then back at the tribunal, “John was raised with war all around him. He had always admired his father so much, not those machines...his real father, a great warrior. He was a boy but like a man beyond his years-”

“Mrs. Woods,” Asg cut her off with the finality of knife, “I understand you have some sort of misplaced mother’s pride you are wrestling with but stick to the question at hand. What do you feel about your son leading this traitor's rebellion?” Vincent saw the Governor shift in his seat and momentarily sympathized with his discomfort. This was quite an odd turn of events for the Governor, no doubt. His own mother would make the final turn of the knife in his back and having studied humanities Vincent knew the bond they had was primitive but strong. There would be no mercy here.

“I never wanted my son a part of this war,” she declared flatly and glared directly at Asg who sat back waiting for more, “what mother would want her son a part of a war let alone leading one,” she paused looking longingly on her son and then continued, “But, motherhood is something you humanoids wouldn’t understand...humanoids are generated not born. You disavowed the values of human emotion long ago. This war was something you started and there are many of our boys who are forced to become warriors before they are even men.”

There was the sound of scuffling of feet and mumbling in the crowd that sat in the round. Vincent then wondered how those leading this mutiny were taking this. Certainly, what she was saying was not something they had counted on. The five involved in turning in the Governor wore scruffy beards and other goatees that pulled down the features of their face and kept them in a certain shadow. Nevertheless, the light from the scanners illuminated their eyes so that they appeared possessed by some other-worldly energy as they sat in shadow. Men poised on the edge of a knife ready to leap on their prey as soon as he and now his mother could be cast down.

Chancellor Shackelton cleared his throat and rolled his chair forward closer to the table momentarily. “Mrs. Woods, let me show you some pictures and get your input about them,” he nodded in agreement to himself in absent of hers. Quickly drawing up the laptop from the table, large images were projected and floated in the center of the room, visible from any angle. Highlighted in a lime green border, the first image was that of a young man in thick tattered clothes, frazzled sweat drenched hair and a dirty face. He held the amputated arm of a humanoid up toward the sky. Its disjointed rotator cuff dangled on the end with loose, detached wires hanging like techy veins. Tubes were exposed coated in a white milky substance. The turn of another picture showed human soldiers standing over a snow bordered ditch that was filled with the expired bodies of humanoids from battle. More of these kinds of scenes came one after another which elicited moans from the crowds.

“What do you feel about your son leading a revolt that has produced carnage like these pictures I just displayed before this court, Mrs. Woods?” This is when Vincent caught a very quick glance exchanged by Isador toward Petra. Petra or Peter was the only name given. He was seated in the middle of all the rest of his team wearing military gear, and he nodded his head which then released Isador’s gaze who apparently had been waiting for it. It was clear to Vincent that they were expecting something. Vincent found himself outraged at the potential that somehow a Sergeant on a Tribunal had some kind of connection with those who would be giving testimony. There was to be no such communications by those on a tribunal between a witness. This was all highly irregular and only prompted Vincent’s curiosity even more. Meanwhile, Mrs. Woods remained silent.

“Mrs. Woods, did you hear the question?” Isador asked. She only sniffed in response and lifted her head to look over at her son. Through concerned, moist eyes, John nodded to her with the warmest expression that Vincent ever recognized. Woods was in a state of complete non-stress, and it translated in this look to his mother as her adrenals calmed in response.

“Mrs. Woods,” Chancellor Shackelton intervened, “I would remind you that you accepted the order of the prosecution to be here by your own free will and-”

Angela sat up stiffly, whipping her hair around as she faced the tribunal, “No,” she interjected firmly. “No?” Shackelton questioned back with an eyebrow raised. He then made a quick glance toward Petra and then back to the witness. Vincent gritted his teeth in anticipation.

“You want everyone here and no doubt some interpreter,” she looked up in the air to spy the drone and thus looking directly at Vincent,” to believe that I’m here of my own free will...I’m here because I was threatened...my family’s life was threatened if I didn’t testify.”

There was a stir in the crowd. Petra stood up and a man next to him rose keeping an arm on the young leader to hold him back from charging the scene. Chancellor Shackelton squinted his eyes studying her. Quick successive muscle spasms were noted in the Chancellor’s upper shoulders which he accommodated by lowering his chin toward his chest.

“This is a highly irregular charge, Mrs. Woods,” the Chancellor said flatly.

“Mother, it is okay,” Governor Woods interjected. Mrs. Woods’ anger turned into compassion as she looked over to her son.

“No, son, it is not okay,” she said. Mrs. Woods stood to her feet looking out to the tribunal and then directly at the two men in the crowd who had been part of turning her son in. “How dare you threaten me or even think I would testify against my own son so that you five can get in leagues with these bunch of maniacal robots! After all my son has done for you and your families... Petra, he welcomed you into his home when you lost your wife. His wife Mary helped raise your own children like they were her own!”. Tears streamed down her face. Petra lowered his head momentarily. “How could you!” Angela exclaimed.

“Mrs. Woods, get a hold of yourself. Petra, please gather your witness and-”

“I don’t want him touching me! Traitors! All of you!” Angela stepped off the stand and Vincent’s monitor readings of her went dark.

Sergeant Isador stood and urgently waved Petra over toward the woman. “This is highly uncalled for,” Isador said firmly with no compassion, “you are in contempt of this court and the charges you face could be as serious as your son's.”

Mrs. Woods lifted her arms in the sky and exclaimed, “Then charge me! Isn’t that what you will all ultimately do anyway?” She turned toward Petra, who was approaching slowly with another man at his back. He stopped when he faced her gaze from the distance. “You think you’re safe? You, all of you, will be eliminated. They are just using you to get rid of all of us! Don’t you see!?! Blind fools! You are leading Galatia over a cliff just because you can’t accept my son for who he is! His heartbeat likes yours! He bleeds your blood just like you do! Any mechanical parts he has doesn't make him less than you or less human.” She walked further in the middle of court distraught and crying. She turned back toward her son who rose to his feet.

“Oh John, I came here for you, not the damn prosecution. Let them see what it is like to be betrayed and now my words can be on the record...” she stopped realizing something sobering. “I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t let them do this to you,” she whimpered holding out her trembling hands. John’s adrenals were pumping, tear ducts full, breathing shorter as he stepped forward. When Angela’s knees buckled, almost simultaneously, Governor Woods and Petra ran to catch her. John from the front and Petra from the side.

“Oh John, I couldn’t save you,” she cried as John, bent on one knee, cradled her head toward his chest. When he did, he was able to see Petra looking on them with a new sense of compassion and guilt competing for expression and release. There was a connection that surprised Vincent. One he wasn’t expecting. Compassion between traitor and the person betrayed? It seemed their common bond was this woman. It was nothing like Vincent had ever seen displayed among dirty humans before. Was this more mere human stupidity?

“No mother, you did save me. Your bravery today saves all who see it. I could ask for no better mother.”

The three men on the tribunal broke from a pow-wow and Shackelton proclaimed, “Mr. Woods please return to the stand immediately or you will face your own trial and Petra please help is escorting her out of the court room now!" Petra looked back upon the tribunal blankly and then to the scene before him seemingly unsure what to do.

Vincent suddenly found himself confused on sudden sense of not knowing where his allegiance aligned in the matter. He gasped for breath. He didn’t know what he would do either if he had been Petra. He had never witnessed such a display that defied all his base understanding of human behavior. Then, something happened that took everything to a new level for the interpreter. Something he could not have guessed in a thousands years.

The Governor, while keeping a hold of his mother and calming her, extended his other hand toward Petra. The younger man looked at the hand behind his confused eyes as though the hand was a foreign object he didn't a first recognize. A grace that betwixt him. He was frozen until he locked eyes with the Governor. A mix of emotions that Vincent could only identify as passion busted through Petra’s brittle exterior like a hammer and busted it into pieces. Unsure of himself, as if hypnotized, the ego-battered man scuffled forward, cautiously placing his hand in the Governor’s. The two of them examined each other for several minutes that felt, to Vincent, like an hour. Vincent sat up in his bed without realizing it. Mrs. Woods took note of the quiet and peace around her and looked up to where son was looking. Her outrage at the sight of Petra so nearby only melted when she looked to her son, recognizing the transformation that took place and allowing it to transform her. The Governor and his betrayer embraced, and murmurs rumbled through the crowd.

John then gently ushered Petra to his own position of holding his mother, both submitting to each other because they were yoked by the loving, courageous energy of this one man. The two became like two swans on a lake cuddling. It was an exchange and a transformation of some kind that Vincent couldn’t see with his eyes, nor could the scanners pick up with them out of range. No eye could see, no ear could hear what was taking place between them and yet, something profound was taking place by their response. There was an energy in the room now that flushed the faces of the three of them so that they looked renewed as newborn babes. John Woods looked upon them both and they in turn looked up to him. This was a level of compassion Vincent used to mock. He had never seen the beauty of it before. He had only ever been taught it as a weakness. He felt his first experience of shame.

“Mother,” John proclaimed quietly, “meet your son. He will take care of you now more than I ever could. And son, meet your mother. She has seen too much suffering. Give her safety and peace.” Petra looked upon the woman with a warmth that Vincent could swear that for one moment he himself physically felt. This shook him to his core. How was this possible? What was this energy that had been emanating between them which he was now feeling within himself?

John turned and walked back to the stand. The quiet men of the Tribunal and the hushed crowd watched as Petra ushered the woman quietly back with him to his seat.

Asg called on security insisting they take ‘woman’ out. Petra stopped in his tracks and whipped around interrupting the man, “No! You will do nothing with this woman. You have enough other witnesses. Leave her alone or I will order everyone I brought with me to leave this courtroom and you will have no other witnesses to testify today."

“Who do you think you are? This is our court! We can have all of you-”

“Asg,” Shackelton interrupted holding up a hand to stop him, “Let her go. We have plenty of other witnesses and let's keep them.” Asg snorted in disbelief.

It took Vincent some time before he could move on to the other witnesses. This scene had affected him in a way he could not articulate and that was something he wasn’t used to. All humanoids prided themselves on their logic and ability to reason. He wasn’t programmed with a strong emotional base but even as an objective, highly intellectual observer, what he had seen jarred him. It wasn’t logical to suggest that somehow he had stepped inside the roles of mother, son, and betrayer. Yet, he felt a lasting imprint from this scene that suggested he had and this was confusing to him. Confusion wasn’t something he was used to having. One thing was for certain: These were not your ordinary humans.

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

Next up to testify, were a string of humanoid soldiers who had fought within the boundaries of Galatia that described scenes of torture and suffering at the hands of human soldiers. Particularly scathing was a humanoid who had been kept prisoner for a year and then escaped during an assault on the human’s outlying camp where he had been held. The humans forced him to watch executions at a ‘chop shop’, electrically shorting various parts of his circuits while he remained conscious in order to get top secret information, mocking him, and using various experimental drugs to get him to talk. All of it somewhat soured Vincent’s new thought that the Governor may be a man of higher regard than he thought--maybe even ‘not guilty’. However, he did take note of the comment the Governor made that when he became Governor, he dismantled the use of ‘chop-shops’ and did not condone the torture of humanoids in order to gather intel. When pressed on this particular chop-shop he responded that not all his Generals followed his will. Weak response but there it was.

Vincent was now into day two of testimony which included the accounts of the five men who turned the Governor in. First was the calling up of Petra. Short in time recording, Vincent skimmed through Petra’s testimony to find the point where the stress level readings were the highest, the highest out of the five of them that had testified.

Chancellor Shackelton tight lipped, grumbled, “You helped in leading the charge to arrest this hybrid leaders of yours, you bring him into our court, and now refuse to testify against him?”

Petra was with the others standing and still holding the hand of the Governor’s mother who remained seated next to him. He looked down at her and then back to the court.

“According to your own law, I am allowed to claim ‘externality’ when it directly affects the smooth conduct and unbiased function of a trial. Mrs. Woods is in a high state of stress that without me at her side, would interrupt the smooth conduct of the court.” He then looked over to John Woods and they exchanged glances with a sense of quiet understanding. “And I have changed my mind about the defendant...enough that it would now bias my original motive in testifying before this court for the side of the prosecution...unless you want me to be the first witness for the defense.” Petra looked at them with a severe look that could cut ice. Shackelton sat back in amazement. He let out a breath and for one rare moment, Vincent swore he saw a sense of admiration cross the Chancellor’s face but leave just as quick as it had come. Perhaps Shackelton was amazed for the same reason he was: No human in his twenty years of court interpretation had successfully quoted a law of Acropolis in an intelligent way, let alone used it in his own favor. This was actually a very clever use of the law of externality (though the human could have testified and damaged the prosecution severely).

Sergeant Asg leaned over and spoke into Shackelton’s ear who then nodded his head in response. Shackelton re-addressed the court.

“Very well, Petra. Your motion is accepted at this time.., but let me say, the court finds this highly irregular, and we reserve the right to revisit the validity of your motion as the trial continues.”

Vincent wanted to walk through the entirety of memory of the mutinous humans testimonies and examine their arguments closely. Nevertheless, the dense cloud of time pressed hard upon him so he skimmed through the next three testimonies since there were no notable scan readings beyond a slightly more depressed state in the Governor. Still, Vincent was still able to pick up on bits and pieces from skipping around. Such as, that Governor Woods was known to disappear “at times of most need” leaving those who they deemed less skilled to take the lead. This rattled their faith in their leader and caused divisions, the humans contended, as well as creating less than ideal situations in times of war. He did not honor seniority in rank as much as he honored those who used “weaker tenants of war”. The humans defined these weaker tenants of war as “compassion over legality”, “assertiveness over necessary more aggressive tactics”, “risk over what is ‘tried and true’”. After a brief pause to gather his bearings on sifting through all this information, Vincent moved to day three of testimony starting with one of the Governor’s very own generals.

“Why?” Shackelton asked the General Iscariot.

“Why what?” General Iscariot retorted. He was a tall, big boned man. The chair on the stand was hardly able to contain all his packed, muscular features making him look like he was sitting on dollhouse furniture. He had squared off chiseled features and a crew cut that glimmered with an aura of white and gray. These same colors were revealed in the stubble that outlined his elongated jaw. His square, intimidating features were balanced by a dimple in his chin. The General’s gray eyes held memories of a kindness that was no longer in full residence, diluted by war and a sense of betrayal.

“You stated earlier that you grew up with the Governor, trained with him from the days of your youth. If anything, humans are known for it is their strong allegiance to attachments. So, what is it that now brings you here, turning in your childhood compatriot over to our court? I think your kind term it as “the last straw”? Chancellor Shackelton gave a twisted smile.

“There was more than one reason-”

“Yes, we know,” interjected Asg sharply, “I would ask you move beyond the claims we already heard. Such as his hybrid nature, his random disappearances and what not-”

“To pray,” Governor Woods interjected resolutely. The entire chamber emptied of sound. No one had expected him to speak as he hadn't for quite some time, it even startled Vincent.

“To pray to whom, Mr. Woods,” Shackelton intervened with mild curiosity layered underneath his sarcasm.

“To God. I do nothing but what God works in me to do.”

“Oh, that’s rich,” Shackelton replied stroking his chin, “So you use religion as a motive?”

“Sorry you inquired now?” Isador interjected toward Shackelton smiling.

“No, Isador, actually it’s interesting. A man who is reluctantly worshipped by human sympathizers while at the same time chooses to worship an invisible being that doesn’t acknowledge him with any proof of its very own existence,” he turned his chair smirking at Isador who nodded in acknowledgement. “Back to you, General Iscariot. As asked earlier, what brought you here today?”

The General sat up placing his palms down on his thighs and his chin up slightly which meant to the interpreter that the General entered a sense of confidence and superiority.

“It was when he moved me off the front line of our defenses.”

“Tell us more about that. Had you become inept in your position? Maybe your commander had good reason to remove you,” asked Shackelton with eyes on John Woods as if waiting for a reaction. General Iscariot frowned defiantly as if he had heard a coarse joke.