54. Who has never had much

John couldn’t reach Victoria during the entire weekend. Leaving a dozen messages, none of them reaching her, at least no computer…

Giant of the Stars — concept by Greg

John couldn’t reach Victoria during the entire weekend. Leaving a dozen messages, none of them reaching her, at least no computer acknowledgement or receipt. By Monday morning, he started to be worried, she left a message him before every long term deployment.

He arrived in time for the nine am beginning and joined the line crossing metal detectors and scanners. Got a tap down before the guard let him pass. Judge and jurors already at their seats when he entered the familiar hall from last week. Cameras already rolling, not a single moment wasted by journalists.

He sat down in the first row right at the isle so he can get up easily when called. Scheduled to be the first to take the stand, he expected soon to be called. What he did not expect is the woman already sitting right next to him.

The wavy brown hair and the military uniform stretching on her bulky build combined with a pale poker face. Victoria just nodded as he took the seat next to her.

“Why are you here?”
“Not now.” — her eyes so thin, puncturing his soul.
“Mr. Sotomayor, to the stand, please.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s dive right into. Do you recognize this memory chip?”
“Yes. Based on the evidence number, this is the chip Ms. Sebes recovered from the wreckage of the Giant when we did an incursion for the data recorders.”
“How do you know this?”
“She filed official report and handed over to me as evidence related to the accident.”
“What does it contain in relation to the accident?” — John surprised by the unnecessary qualifier attached. Is he in on this charade too?
“It is the memory engram of a person, found dead at the ion drive control section. Mr. Pier confirmed his identity during our investigation as being the same person he worked with to restore ion drive capabilities.”
“Why did they do this restoration?”
“The Giant was pulled down to the moon by gravity and they needed the extra power from the main drives to stabilize its orbit.”
“How this memory engram was recorded?”
“It is a generic technology available today for most who want it. Using a combination of brain encephalogram, visual input copy from retina implants, same for hearing, the experiences of the person can be distilled and stored in a verifiable way. Augmented captains use similar tech to act as another backup black box too.”
“Your honor, request moving exhibit P-5432.1 to evidence.”
“Foundation adequate, accepted as evidence. However, this contains petabytes of data, how will we make sense of it? Forgive my ignorance in tech.”
“Actually we prepared a virtual person construct. Given the personal file with biometric data and the memory engram, we created an artificial intelligence to talk with. And we would like to call this artificial version of Mr. Daniel Loukas to the stand.”
“This is going to be interesting, haven’t had a witness like this yet. Go on.” — as she allowed it, John left the stand and a screen slipped into the place used for remote witness testimonies.

The screen coming alive with a white emptiness soon focusing Dan into the center.

“Mr. Loukas. Do you know what and who you are?”
“Yes. I am an artificial construct loaded with the memories of Daniel Loukas, deceased on Giant of the Stars when impacted the moon’s surface.”
“How do you know he is deceased?”
“The memory engram contains data until the last moment. Cause of death is unsurvivable deceleration.”
“How long does your memory go back to the past?”
“Only a few days before my demise.”
“Tell us, what can you recall from the earliest point?”
“I… I needed to decrypt a manifest file.” — as Dan’s avatar said this, the prosecutor’s usually calm face turned to almost silent scream. A low murmur started from the audience as one shape jumped up from his seat and walked out.
“Hm, hm.” — prosecutor wildly paging in his notes — “Your honor, please strike the last question and answer. Let me restart.”
“Wait, what manifest file?” — human curiosity overtaken any training to keep process in the judge and she blurted her question with an attentive generative artificial intelligence in the room.
“The one I was hired to deliver for a Swordfish agent trying to assassinate me.”
“Objection, irrelevant, unfounded, what the hell is…”
“Turn off the cameras!”
“Order! Order!” — the knocks of the gravel she used coincided with muffled thumbs outside of the courtroom. Victoria smiling contrasting John’s terrified look — “Mr. Loukas, limit yourself to the Giant of the Star’s topic. Seems there is a technical glitch.”
“Understood, your honor, however I kept myself to it. The manifest file describes smuggled cargo of the Giant at the time of the accident.” — replied the virtual construct without any emotions in his voice.
“Your honor, stop this madness, this wasn’t in the deposition. Not even close what is in the transcripts.” — tried to plea the defendant’s lawyer, sweating in panic.
“Our goal here is to find the truth, isn’t it?” — whipped back the judge — “Unusual, but this is still in procedure, both sides can ask and you can cross-examine the witness shortly.”
“Move to do it behind closed doors. No media and public for this witness until we work out the tech problems.”
“Prosecution agrees, move to private hearing in this matter.”
“Hm, highly unusual but if both sides agree, I don’t see a problem with. Mr. Daniel Loukas’ memory will be questioned after lunch without the cameras. Media can return tomorrow, we will do only this in the afternoon.”

Michael appeared next to John, silently and gently pushing him inside the bench where Victoria already moved as everyone else left hurriedly the room.

“I suppose you got him.”
“Yeah, neutralized. Alive though, sergeant will move him securely.”
“You mean Mr. Delaware?” — John turned between them like the most interesting and fast-paced table tennis was playing right in front of him.
“No, I haven’t seen him outside.” — Michael’s eyebrows pulled up to park on a higher elevation.
“But, he just left moments ago, the way you came in… And wait, the virtual construct should have not known or talked about the manifest…” — John turned toward the still gently smiling Victoria, like she knows more.
“Yeah, and how do you know that?”
“Well, I suppressed part of his memories with guardrails…”
“Hm, tampering with evidence, my dear?”
“Not, not really. Deemed irrelevant in the accident case. Wait. You know about it.”
“More like suspected.”
“What did you do, Victoria?”
“Nothing really, just replaced the memory chip with my original version.”
“All those years ago, you gave me a copy.” — John felt a real strong urge for a facepalm — “I can’t believe I trusted you.”
“Well, I did not trusted you either. All those years ago. That changed.”
“Then why lying? Should have discussed what you plan…”
“Could not risk tipping them off. But now, here…” — Victoria pulled a handgun out of her jacket, spun it with the handle toward John. — “Take it, you will need it.”

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