55. Who was never there

“How did you get those in…”

Giant of the Stars — concept by Greg

“How did you get those in…”
“Take it. And I will show what is going to happen. We have to protect the jurors.” — in her another hand a small screen played a few seconds of video on repeat.

John could not believe his eyes. The video showed a moon, he could not recognize which one, wasn’t Earth’s neither the one they spent so much time on. The half of the moon on the screen was fractured and drifting in the darkness. He could only tell by a star appearing in one of the cracks as the camera moves a bit.

“This was taken by a freighter almost a year ago. A month before this video, that moon was in one piece.”
“How the hell do you know that?”
“One of my analysts found astrometric observations by drones, the moon is near a frequented commercial route. You recognize what caused this?”
“Yes, of course, those damned warheads.”
“The manifest described a dozen of those were smuggled by the Giant. This is a result of one of those warheads.”
“A year, and so many years. They would have used it by now. Probably just sold on black market for parts.”
“You don’t believe that just as me. Especially after what all three of us witnessed.”
“Okey, Victoria, what comes next?”
“Everything in order, my dear. Michael and team just removed one piece from the board. More will move soon.”
“You are too damn cryptic.” — still unable to look away from the screen, John put the gun with the safety on at the back of his suit pants.

Same time he noticed Victoria and Michael both look more bulky than they should. As Victoria’s leaned still forward, he saw a metallic armor plating. He never saw a small enough exo-skeleton to hide under a jacket.

“Knock. Knock.” — heavy wooden thumps brought John back, the judge at her pulpit already, the screen coming alive with Dan’s face and last juror sit down.
“Oh, excuse us, no public.”
“Actually, I would need Mr. Sotomayor to provide additional testimony if needed. Provided we need more foundations in light a tech glitch.”
“Prosecution, do not try my patience too much, but I will allow this time. Mr. Sotomayor, the navy offered us temporary boost for security, by oversight of Captain Sebes on your left. Which I gracefully accepted in light of recent events.”
“Objection, the bailiffs are more than adequate to…”
“Overruled. And this is my final word. Test me if you want to be in contempt of court…”
“No, your honor, withdrawn my objections.”
“Good. So, let’s try again with your toy, prosecution, go ahead.”

Prosecution asked and asked questions for an hour, precisely avoiding any hooks in their prompts around the manifest file. The defense did the same during an hour long cross examination. Not even the unscrupulous past of Dan was questioned.

When finished even with the redirect, prosecutor asked if they can approach the well. Judge approved and both lawyers walked up to discuss process details. Took a few minutes, defending lawyer especially looked agitated during the exchange.

“Prosecution calls Ms. Sebes to the witness stand.”
“Objection. Conflict of interest.”
“Your objection noted, enter to records as is. Still allowing prosecution to continue but get to the point quickly. Jury, the following exchange will be classified as state secret, while you can use it during deliberation, a 25 years top secret seal applies to marked parts of the transcript. Breaking this counts as capital offense. Am I clear? Anyone who has moral issues with this, leave the room now.” — judge looked around, waiting for a few seconds. No-one stood up to leave.
“Understood, thank you, your honor. Ms. Sebes. You were the captain of the Irondome, the first navy capital ship at scene then governed the sector until the cleanup finished, is it true?”
“Yes, I am still captain of the Irondome.”
“How did you recovered the memory fragment?”
“We escorted Mr. Sotomayor with a squadron of elite commando as previously he was attacked while investigating on the Giant. We were attacked by unidentified group and during the struggle I fell a few decks. Was lucky, I knew about the memory fragment from Mr. Pier, and was a good opportunity to recover it.”
“What did you find on the fragment when examined?”
“That a high level navy personnel, possibly an admiral encrypted a manifest file. It was decrypted without the proper keys, and the data showed smuggled weaponry. Most probably it was transferred to the pirate ship that caused the destruction of the Bendeghuse, the Perseus Train and many other civilian ships.”
“Why do you bring this evidence and info here, on a civil lawsuit instead of a court marshal?”
“The key showed a powerful person responsible internally. A court marshal would be shut down before it started.”
“So you decided to be a whistleblower?”
“Something like that.”

John tried to pull up his chin from the floor. Defense lawyer hanged his head down staring on his shoes. Soon the judge closed the day off, ordering again the secrecy on this part of the trial.

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