Today, Inga and I would prepare the defence statement she would present to the Court the following day. It had been arranged to use one of the rooms intended for client/attorney conversations, which was fitted with communication facilities via the devices we saw at the entrance of the Court’s building. I woke up, warmly welcome by Paul’s friend, and, as I was preparing breakfast for both of us, Inga knocked at the door. She wore a casual overall that fitted her to perfection, and carried a bag that appeared full of paper and some electronic devices I did not recognise. The three of us hugged, or rather, Inga hugged me, and got licked all over for her sins by our mutual friend, upon which we decided to rename him Paul’s and Inga’s friend.
Inga asked me how I was feeling. I smiled at her, and touch her hand. I was in mood to work, and would only later start wondering how I felt, I said. If today was ours to prepare, the day after was entirely for the Jury to start considering what verdict would ensue. Only then, would we know my fate, and possibly Melissa’s.
The three of us took the little path leading to the Court house, which appeared deserted. The small sphere accompanied us, in silence, and at times disappearing in the early mist. We got to the door of the Court building, it seemed that the sphere was there to open for us. Inga had, the day before after the recess, inspected the premises and the room we would work in today. We had taken with us a large thermos of coffee, Inga had brought some sandwiches and a few biscuits for our mutual friend, who was allowed indoors only today. There was in fact no-one else, it seemed, in the building.
We made ourselves comfortable at the long table, reserving one end for work, and the other for relaxing, eating and chatting. Inga installed her kit, and projected a high resolution hologram of a city.
“Paul, I will start by explaining what approach I would like us to adopt for your defence. The hologram you see there is Helicon, the birth place of the Great Hari Seldon, who came to the world in 79 years before the start of (first) Foundational Era. This is my introduction to counter the accusations of cynical behaviour presented by the Prosecutor. Helicon is in the Arcturus sector, which means that our common history goes millennia back to the Great Seldon and the First Foundation. My point here is to demonstrate though a series of short video clips that you are the rightful successor to the Great Seldon’s tradition.” Inga paused, giving me time to assimilate her proposal. I smiled and asked Inga if she planned to talk to these videos. She laughed, and said she would be very economical and let the documents speak to the Jury, with only few comments from her as necessary.
Inga continued to explain. We were now in the second millennium of the Third Foundational Era. The convulsions predicted by Seldon had long exhausted themselves, Arcturians and Humans were living in harmony, if not in symbiosis. At the sharp edge of Psychohistory, pioneers had started exploring what the next step may be, and you, Paul, are one of them. The rules agreed in the past two or three centuries were valid, to allow both our species, to bridge to the next development, and our common future. Inga said the demonstration of why this Court should absolve me, Paul, of the crimes imputed by the accusation, include:
- an abstract of a lecture I gave at the University two years ago to introduce the “path to symbiosis”,
- a public discussion under the governing committee of the Third Foundation and constitutional bodies, focused on the ethical dimension of symbiosis, attended by senior staff of my University and its twin on Arcturus
- a lecture by an Arcturian professor of Ethics on the implications and feasibilty of mixed Arcturian-Terran families
- a private discussion between you, Paul, and Melissa, filmed I believe on Melissa’s instructions, not so far shared with you, but put at my disposal by Melissa herself for the purpose of this Trial.
I was stunned. Inga said we ought to watch the videos, and then decide what to keep, what may be missing, and how to conduct ourselves the following day in the Court room.
The first lecture video made me smile. This was a couple of years after my doctorate. The audience was enthusiastic and demonstrated this noisily. My thread was that the future was opening for us on Earth, and our Arcturian cousins, to consider a closer relationship, inter-species and inter dimensional. We were literally cousins on the evolutionary timeline: both species had sexual reproduction, our metabolisms were compatible, as long as the Arcturian fifth dimension was inhibited, which had its cost, but was reversible. Both species were recognisable genetically as Human. It was as if the fifth dimension had been granted to Arcturians to take charge of space travel, in a way still eluding us, at least on the same scale. I sketched the possible steps to work out a way forward to symbiosis, meaning a framework for both species to interact, and reproduce. It would take experimentation, the suspension of some of the rules that currently prohibited such conduct – the 14th legal dimension – with volunteers willing and able to take the risks.
Inga moved silently to the public discussion, the second clip. Apart from the official committees there was a citizen panel made up of Arcturians and Terrans. Among them I recognised colleagues from my University and… Melissa. That was Melissa before we had met. The discussion was of a very high quality, as expected given the sponsorship. The public was enthusiastic about the prospect of inter-species reproduction. Many questions were raised. An Arcturian lawyer asked how the volunteers would be selected.
We stopped for drink and some food. Our mutual friend looked at us, as if concerned about the way our work was going. We reassured him. Inga pressed us to continue, there would be time for questions later. We moved to the Ethics lecture. The situation was clear according to the speaker: none of the Ethical questions arising from greater interaction, and possible procreation, could only be answered without enough practical experimentation by volunteers allowed and willing to risk the unknown. The speaker reminded the audience that the same dilemma had to be met at the very beginning of the First Foundation, as predicted by Seldon himself. Now too there was some urgency in resolving those fundamental questions, Ethical and then legal, as otherwise, both species may continue to live in relative peaceful separation, but never reach the next level of evolution, which eventually meant death.
Inga looked at me, and pressed my hand. She switched the device to project a four dimensional hologram. Melissa stood in the middle of a small room: my room at the University. Seeing her calmed me, the first time since the start of the Trial, although I knew this was a recording: her presence was, for me, real. We were talking about the consequences for us, for her, for me, and any volunteer who would follow us. We were animated, I argued we needed to know more before risking the experiment. My position was one of caution, she argued we had to start and others would follow, as had been the case since the days of the first Seldon’s followers. She’d spoken to a Biology professor on Arcturus who said there was no biological impossibility for us to procreate. She was confident about it. I protested, that the price was for her to renounce her fifth dimension, to abandon a return to Arcturus, or to Earth, dependent on where we would by then live. This process was not reversible in the state of our knowledge. She argued that the only reason it was not reversible was neither physical or biological, but merely the conventions that prevented us to proceed now. We were soon in each other’s arms, tears flowing on our cheeks and shoulders. She said she’d expected me to object, but support her. I said my family supported her, and wanted me to help you proceed. I finally said I did not have the courage to attempt to stop her. Indeed it was now my plea.
Inga turned off the hologram. She said she did not think she had to add much more. She was confident at least half the jurors would agree with her statement. I sat silent, still in the cloud of having seen my lover again. A dream. Inga asked me if I had any objection to this course of action when we were in the Court room, the day after.
I did not have any: the short exposé of what had happened , leading to Melissa’s decision, taken in full knowledge of the consequences, and with my, at first, hesitant support, was our best way to inspire the jury to action. Inga said she’d ask the president for her agreement to this approach. Then asked me if I wanted her to stay with me until tomorrow. I smiled and replied she needed to rest comfortably tonight: my hut was good enough for our mutual friend and me, but surely not the three of us. She laughed, wished me a good night, and we departed.
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