By
Einar Petersen
Copyright and all rights reserved
NOTICE: This is a first draft - When final editing is done it is expected that this text will be released under a CC license so please refrain from copying and sharing on your own by any means till this is in place. Thank you.
This short has been turned into a hilarious comic book by Ped Hedman the creator of the Far Dark SideFrom a distance the Solar system looks very similar to the billions other type G Stars with a bunch of rocks circling around it around the galaxies.
The presence of water is not that uncommon either.
The third planet though harbors life of a certain level of intelligence for this backwaters part of the galaxy, but again nothing of significance if seen on a galactic scale.
…
Outside the courthouse reporters were falling across each other, they were having a field day as he walked through the crowd he caught fragments of their ranting.
…“The president of the European Union, Thulesen Dahl has sharply condemned the United States for their treatment of their foreign guests, in a retort to this the President of The United States of America, President Wilcox, has said “It is not up to the Europeans or the United Nations to opinionate regarding the goings on in a domestic matter. What takes place in America is an American matter and not a matter….”
…“IF you ask me, I say let them go, this is all a big misunderstanding. Also what if they get pissed, you never know what those types might do…”
…“The Prosecution lead by Sam…”, They were lead through the crowd, covered in hoodies and cordoned off by a massive security detail, as if they were dangerous criminals and quickly ushered into the courthouse, without so much as an opportunity to talk to the crowd gathered outside consisting of everything from brimstone preaching individuals, to dressed geeks, to average citizen all gathered at the courthouse, now the seat of the American High Court, with one common interest, the Captain and his crew.
…
You do understand the charges?
Abduction?
Yes off course!
And the penalty if found guilty?
“This is absurd, I… we have committed no such crime!”
Prosecutor
“The Authorities will beyond any reasonable doubt prove that the persons filing these very serious charges were not in doubt about being abducted”, Prosecutor Samuel L. Adams droned on to the Captains big dismay.
The Captain slammed a fist in the bench and stood up, but before he managed to speak a thunderous hammering stopped him dead.
“Will defense council please have your client sitting down and refraining from any further outbursts”, Judge James von Oosterwind of the 4th circuit of New Las Vegas, the country's highest legal venue, said in a stern voice.
The Captain sat back down into the witness chair. The all seeing cameras whirred bringing to the spectators online the latest and best bits from the trial all sponsored by the premiere brands of America.
“Thank you”, the judge said and sighed.
The Public Defender took a deep breath, the case had been deemed too important for the private sector to be allowed in, though a slew of star lawyers all wanted a shot at defending the Captain and his gang of 12, but how could the private sector be trusted with an issue like this, no too important had been the magistrates decision and they were backed by the President himself, not that anyone took him seriously anymore.
So the trial went ahead and the questions hailed down over the Captain, the prosecution sure were not going to go easy on him or his crew, that much was clear to the Public Defender Barry Morrison.
The Captain looked ominously at the Prosecutor who felt a bit uneasy being stared down this way, but nevertheless was hellbent on proving his point, this one he was going to win.
“I am telling you there were no abductions!” the Captain answered furiously.
“Oh really”, the prosecutor said “So Mr. and Mrs. Hill were imagining entering your vessel?”
“No they did enter”
“Aha”, the prosecutor said “So you do admit they were indeed inside”
“Off course, by their own free will”
“Oh so you pointing guns at them had nothing to do with them entering?”
“Off course”
“So you were pointing guns at them”
“Translator guns, not weapons”
“Did you tell them this”
“Any idiot can see the difference between a weapon and a translator, why should we have to explain? the sound coming from the device in their own language should be explanation enough”
Oh really, the prosecutor said looking at the defense council who was rubbing his head as the Captain dug himself deeper and deeper into the quicksand by adamantly sticking to the truth.
Barry Morisson the Public Defender had suggested silence to the Captain and well not exactly lying but bending the truth in such a way that the Captain and his crew could get off the hook.
When he did that the Captain had had one of his rage fits and nearly choked the Public Defender in his office and it was merely by his crewmates interveening that Morrison was still here today.
Not that Morrison held it against the Captain, he fully understood the stress of the situation. He did not want to be in the Captains shoes especially not at the hands of Samuel L. Adams.
“I bring forth Exhibits A and B”, Adams said triumphantly holding up something fiendishly similar to an Uzi with a round speaker like device on the top of the barrel.
A murmur went through the crowd gathered for the trial, the prosecution had a point.
“And I present to you Exhibit B”, the prosecutor brought forth an Uzi “Do not worry it is not loaded”, he was careful to hold the weapon with both hands. “A standard issue Uzi, may I ask the jury to notice how these two devices look almost identical”
“Are you insane?”, “They look nothing alike, one has a muzzle, the other none, the button configuration for opreation is different and the difference in colour is immense”
The judge slammed his hammer and Morrison sighed, he was certain that not many more of these outbursts would be allowed before the Captain and crew would be trialed in absentia, perhaps this was what the prosecution was aiming for.
“Captain if you please in your own words describe what happened when you met Mr. and Mrs. Hill a year ago”, prosecutor Adams slyly said knowing, that what the Captain would say next, would almost pin another coffin in his casket and additionally in the caskets of all his crew mates, he couldn´t wait for it, this was almost too easy.
Well we were near what I believe you call the Harold A. King Town Forest close to coolidge Rd in Massachussets the one close to Highland Ave leading to Salem.
The judge noted something on his pad it seemed he must have been impressed by the Captains accuracy, that the judge simply deferred his dental appointment to the following day as the trial had been somewhat delayed would never have entered the Captains mind as he knew magistrates and politicians were men of great responsibility and thus would never allow themselves to be disturbed by such trivialities so he continued his very detailed explanation of how they had flagged the couple down pointed their translator guns at the couple and courteously invited them onboard in the name of peace and friendship. Had even taken them for a spin around the solar system using the point to point jump drive that does have the slight side effect that it makes you feel like you are turned inside out for the briefest of moments, something any intelligence ought to manage to cope with, he had heard about no problems from other Captains who had followed exactly the same procedures but when he found that Mr. and Mrs. Hill had taken great discomfort from the trip and experience naturally he ordered their memory wiped.
The prosecutor had listened to the explanation just waiting for the opportunity.
“So you are telling us, that you altered the brains of Mr. and Mrs. Hill, in effect performed a surgical procedure?”
“When you put it like that, yes, but it is merely the rearrangement of a few atoms to cause the neurons to fire differently, it is not a big deal”.
“Well to Mr. and Mrs. Hill it is a big deal and had it not been for the serendipitous encounter with Blue Squadron out of Cape Cod AFS, MA that had tracked your craft landing and gone to inspect we might have been none the wiser”
The Captain swore to himself, had it not been for that damn crap arse engine stalling on them this circus had never become reality.
“So you see Captain, not only did you abduct but you also ordered illegal unconcented medical procedures performed on the Hill couple, you have already confessed to this”
“Objection”, Morrison tried “The prosecution is using a giant cultural misunderstanding to twist events into an actual case”
“Overruled”, the Judge said “The jury will be instructed to disregard defenses comments, the altering of brain structure as described by the Captain can indeed be likened to brain surgery and hence unless in the case of an emergency such may not be performed under curent law.”
Morrison sat down again, there was nothing he could do.
When the prosecution had finished with the captain it moved on to the crew members, one by one they corroborated the captains words all of them adamantly sticking to his precise words, Morrision had tried to convince them to try and save their Captain but they said they were under strict orders and could not go against the Captain in any way whatsoever.
The jury was out for less than 10 minutes, ther verdict was unanimous, guilty on charges of abduction and illegal medical practises, it was a clear cut case.
The media had a field day, the first proof of extra terrestrial visitors had ended in a US courtroom with the Aliens being found guilty to serve a 120 years imprisonment for their crimes of abduction and illegal surgery and single file they were escorted from the courtroom in specially tailored red jumpsuits to the county jail and then transported to a maximum security compound.
Prosecutor Adams had expected he would be hailed a hero after pinning down these damn aliens for their crimes, but interestingly enough people were more fascinated in the plight of these, “ambassadors” as they had been dubbed.
Would mankind learn wonderful secrets and find solutions to problems that had plagued them for so long. The answer it turned out was no.
Adams soon found himself unable to function as a public prosecutor and with private law firms not exactly welcoming the man who had shut them out he became an embittered man drifting from job to job wondering where he had gone wrong.
As for the alien ship, it sealed itself off, after expelling each and every of the scientists trying to examine it and then took off.
After serving their time a ship came by and picked up the Captain and his crew - attempts at contacting the inhabitants of the ship were in vain and the Captain and his crew, who had served out their time is total silence, without responding to any attempts at communication, finally said something in their own language, that probably wasn´t particularly nice if you coupled the hand gesture they were making and humanity as we know it, never again saw any other extra terrestrial species during it's entire existence, even though during the trial the Captain had indicated the universe teemed with intelligent life.
The End