I woke up early. My friend had spent the night watching over me, at the foot of the bed. I showered, made some coffee, fed Paul’s friend, and got dressed, in the sober and professional garb I wore for work at the university. Then the two of us started walking toward the Court’s building. I notice a small sphere, about the size of a cricket ball, pale blue, hovering next to us as we made our way through the small wood. The air was clear and sharp, the sky a deep violet. I wondered again, was this an artificial world, specially made for the trial?
As we approached the Court’s building I saw the array of communication devices and satellite dishes in front of the court. A group of about a dozen people, wearing the Court’s robes, were waiting for the building to open. Soon, out of that group, Inga joined us and hugged me in a very human way. She was smiling, said she had submitted my confession and plea, and said the morning would be boring and a long list of questions by the Prosecutor, once the president – she mentioned her name – had read an introduction.
We waited in silence, Paul’s friend showing me his affection by rubbing his nuzzle to my knees. The small sphere had disappeared. Slowly the air got warmer. Then the door opened, the group moved slowly inside, followed by us three. Paul’s friend made me understand he would wait for me outside, and took position near the door. Inga took my arm, and led me to the Court room, near a small table and two chairs that would be ours for the duration of the trial. Benches stood in an elevated position along a wall in front of us, I assumed for the jury, while a longer table was, Inga explained, for the Prosecutor, the Arcturian representative, the Earth’s representative and a bigger sphere for the celestial bodies representative. There were cameras of various types, as well as microphones, around the room. We stood, again in silence.
The room’s door was shut. I noticed four human-shaped guards – were they human? – standing in front of the door, together with yet another sphere. The president, a handsome lady with short auburn hair and wearing the traditional purple robe of trans-dimensional law officials, declared the trial open, and asked my attorney to decline my identity. Inga read a short statement, listing my name and identity tags, my academic credentials, and a short biographical summary of who I was. The President thanked Inga, said before she handed over to the Prosecutor that she wanted me to swear an oath on the Trans-dimensional Constitution, which I knew was the treaty that established the basis for all the legislation this Court’s proceedings were based on. Another blue sphere floated toward me, as I stood, and I read aloud the text of the oath appearing in bright characters on the sphere:
“I, Paul Atreides, swear to uphold the intergalactic and inter-dimensional laws, abide by the same, and shall only stand by the rights granted to me by Earth’s and Arcturus constitutions.”
There was a short pause. Everyone sat down, bar the Prosecutor who now stood facing the jury. She was a stunningly beautiful young woman in her human form, with blond undulated hair and a fine thoughtful face. The Prosecutor read the case against me as Inga and I sat in silence, Inga occasionally making notes on a small pad. I was listening in English, the language I had chosen to follow the proceedings. The Prosecutor’s voice was thus probably reaching me through a simultaneous translation, a pleasant female voice that sounded entirely natural. The accusation was long and comprehensive. The prosecutor explained how Melissa and I had met, the University’s circumstances, the shared interests.
In the first part, I was accused of undue influence on my Arcturian lover Melissa, taking advantage of our common academic interests, of the empathy shown toward me by Melissa, and, eventually, of the physical attraction we may have felt for each other when Melissa assumed her human form. The second part was a description of how I had ignored the ethical problems raised by our growing intimacy, and the danger I had exposed my lover to, despite my background in psycho-history. The Prosecutor was implying a lack of care on my part, as well as a degree of naivety on Melissa’s part, which, she claimed, I had unscrupulously exploited.
The Prosecutor asked the President for a pause, before resuming with the third part of the accusation. I had a chance to hear Inga’s low voice explaining her take so far. She thought the beginning was not damning, and hypothesised my admission of guilt of cowardice had somewhat mellowed the prosecutor’s statement.
The proceedings resumed. The third part of the accusation was about the child. The Prosecutor’s tone changed to show the gravity of the fact that we, Melissa and I, had openly planned to break the law on inter-dimensional conception. I had admitted not having the courage to even attempt to stop my lover in her insane decision to give up her native form, in order to have a child with me. Thus I had made my own decision on not only breaking the law myself, but assisting her in breaking the law of her own species, and so, to ensure the loss of her freedom, and premature death, and had we succeeded, the fate of the small being thus created. Whereas this trial was about Paul, law breaker in both worlds, the Prosecutor alluded to a trial to come of the said Melissa.
The room was totally silent. The prosecutor then continued, her face showing an intense concentration, to her conclusion. It was the first time in history, she said, when the balanced social and ethical equilibrium, between Arcturus and Earth, achieved through a careful approach adopted by both parties in the early stage of communication, and patient negotiations, supported by psycho-historical science, leading to a stable basis for law making, and coexistence, had been directly challenged, and this by intelligent individual in full knowledge of the possible consequences, not only for themselves by for the future of both species. Both Melissa and I were psycho-history practitioners, and this made my crime unforgivable. The Prosecutor promptly concluded that I had cynically broken the 14th dimensional law, and requested the maximum penalty of exile to a penal colony, a perpetual ban in any communication with Melissa, and other constraints to be ordered by an Earth Court.
The Prosecutor sat down. The president declared a recess. Inga and I retired to a small room adjacent to the courtroom. I felt drained and tearful. Inga said we should go and walk with Paul’s friend, have some food, before coming back to the court. We had time. At the door Paul’s friend welcome us back exuberantly, and licked my face.
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