Chapter 14

2076 a.d.

Judgment

Béla was back aboard the great ship, confined to unfamiliar, cramped quarters under house arrest after turning herself in for killing a landowner. The Bard Geoffrey and two of her sisters, Dawn and Jolene, were currently managing the estates that she'd acquired from Robert LaCrosse, whom she was accused of murdering with her mind.

Over the last month, the daughters of Sibilius had gone down to the surface and, following Béla's example of representing themselves as goddesses, successfully eradicated the wasting disease that had decimated over half the population of New Eden. The goddesses now represented authority on the inner surface and had the mundane duty of dispensing justice against any violators of the accepted civil codes, which they decided to leave unchanged to insure political stability.

Within a week of Béla's confessing her actions to the Praetor via mind-link, a freight platform had flown down from Southern to collect her. Béla was instructed to board it and return to Southern. She was then escorted on a personnel carrier back to the great ship.

Almost daily for the next three weeks, the Praetor relentlessly explored her mind, going over memories of her entire existence on Earth. During that period of time, Béla came to realize that she was not being judged for that one single act of violence, but for the consequences of her actions, many of which could be attributed to her generally reckless behavior and attitude, which may have caused harm to others.

Regarding punishment, the least that could happen was that the daily personal invasions into her mind by the Praetor would cease. The worse that could happen would be a complete mind wipe of her identity and all her memories. That terrified her more than anything she had ever faced before. What terrified her about that was her realization that she could actually become the violently murderous rogue her father had once believed she was. She hoped her father would kill her if she lost herself that way. She seriously doubted that he would be able to. After all, he failed, last time...

The Praetor had spent the last three sessions going over her memories of the massacre at Parson's Landing, where she had been accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. Béla was forced to relive that nightmare over and over as the Praetor reviewed and processed the images in her mind. The fact that she had spent the remainder of her life on Earth trying to atone for what she had done that night was not yet being considered.

At Parson's Landing, an early colony in Massachusetts, she had mercilessly and single-handedly hunted down and butchered twenty-three people. The Praetor carefully went over each act of violence she had committed until it was satisfied with what it knew. By the end of each session, Béla was nearly insane with grief and self-loathing.

Once a day, Béla was escorted to the communal baths. Her escort was equipped with a personal thought dampener so that she remained in isolation even in the corridors leading to the baths.

Elaine volunteered, as Béla's roommate, to return to the great ship and allow the Praetor to probe her mind as a kind of character witness. Elaine and Béla had mind-linked almost every night they had roomed together during the long journey to New Eden, and Elaine knew her sister better than anyone else ever had. The Praetor accepted her offer and spent several sessions with her, limiting its probing to what Elaine knew about Béla and not what Elaine herself had done. Elaine had already served almost eight hundred years in solitary confinement inside a Praetor for her vampiric crimes as a Mayan priestess.

Elaine lay in the Communal Bath letting the bubbles relax her. She was alone, feeling stressed and unable to concentrate, having just finished a session with the Praetor. At the end of her session, the Praetor informed her that it had collected all the information she had available regarding her older sister. When Elaine inquired, the Praetor informed her that the knowledge she had presented would be helpful to Béla's case.

The number of personnel aboard the great ship was minimal, currently. Most of the personnel were down on the inner surface, either preparing the ground for planting, or already planting the grain that had been harvested and brought from Earth. There was a small crew still unloading the cargo bay. It would take almost a year to finish the task of transporting, delivering, unloading and setting up the remaining equipment that was on board. After that, it would take another year to re-supply the great ship for its return to Deimos, and then, Earth.

Elaine felt the 'secure to quarters' in her head for her section of the ship. She knew that once this section was secure, her sister, Béla, would be escorted down the corridors for her daily visit to the communal baths. Desperate to see her sister and despite the fact that she would be severely reprimanded and confined to quarters if she was caught, Elaine hid in Béla's personal shower stall. She turned on the thought dampener so she couldn't be detected, and waited.

After about ten minutes, Elaine heard them arriving. Béla was being escorted across the floor. Elaine stifled a cry of distress as she watched her favorite sister cross the room. Béla was thin and anemic, wasted away. Her strong character, her certainty and pride that manifested in the carriage of her body was completely missing. She walked unseeing, her eyes cast down toward the floor immediately in front of her, like her spirit had finally been broken.

Béla stopped, surprising her escort, and straightened up slightly.

"I'd like to be alone while I bathe," she told him. "I have much to think about."

According to protocol, Béla was kept in isolation and continually surrounded by a thought-dampening field, with the exception of her daily bath and her sessions with the Praetor. Even during those times, she was not permitted to make conversation with her escort except for the most basic requests.

She stood and watched her escort until he was out of sight. He would remain at the entrance to the communal baths until she was finished and came out or until thirty minutes had passed. Béla looked toward her personal shower.

'She knows I'm here!' Elaine thought excitedly and stepped out, letting herself be seen.

As Béla and Elaine embraced, their minds merged into each other. Béla had been isolated from all physical and emotional contact for almost a month. As she touched her sister Elaine, she was no longer able to maintain the fragile structure that had been holding her emotions in check and released it all in one huge emotional broadcast.

Elaine was completely terrified by the flood of despair and loneliness that assaulted her as Béla came completely unglued. Béla had always been the strong one and now she was reduced to a quivering mass of raw emotion.

They knelt on the cold metal floor holding each other tightly, both crying so hard they couldn't even breathe. Neither was able to speak as the emotional flood slowly subsided. Then Béla's escort returned to take her back to her quarters. He glanced at Elaine briefly, his eyes full of sadness. Without a word of redress to her for violating Béla's enforced isolation, he helped Béla to her feet.

He carefully wiped Béla's face, though he knew he could be reprimanded for even that small personal interaction with his escort. Then, taking her by the hand, he silently led her away.

Elaine saw in the escort's mind that he dearly loved the princess in his charge and was tormented by her rapidly deteriorating condition. She sat on the cold floor for a few minutes thinking about what she could do, then decided to confront her father about it.

As her bare feet stomped down the metal passageway she determined that Father would either see reason or find out just how much Elaine had learned from her older sister about creating bedlam on board the great ship. She believed that all she had to do was broadcast that image of Béla's emotional barriers crashing down and father would have a ship-wide mutiny on his hands.

'Nobody can treat my sister like that and get away with it!'

When Elaine arrived at her father's lab, Béla's escort was already there.

Elaine saw in his mind that he had not come to report her security violation, but to resign his post and commission, if necessary, and go to the inner surface to take up farming.

Elaine saved him the trouble by angrily dropping an image of her last half-hour in the communal baths directly into her father's mind, full volume. Sibilius staggered under the onslaught. The Praetor, becoming interested in the emotional forces being slung around the room, centered its attention on Elaine, assuming that she had somehow attacked the Regent.

Sibilius, always in mental contact with the Praetor, ordered it to hold off, preventing it from attempting to electrocute Elaine. He then immediately dismissed both Béla's escort and Elaine from his presence.

Outside the lab door, Elaine and the junior officer looked at each other.

"Thank you," they both said at the same time.

They both laughed nervously. As Elaine walked away, she reviewed her short invasion of her father's mind. In the few seconds she had been in contact with him after delivering her emotional payload, she had picked up a single stray thought before he was able to catch himself and recover.

'I wonder what he meant by, "Oh, no! Not again"... ' Elaine thought to herself.

Dismissing the thought, Elaine returned to the temporary quarters that she had been assigned when she returned to the ship. Since she was now permanently transferred to the inner surface, she no longer had permanent quarters on board the ship. She sat down on her bed, unable to eat any of the fruit she'd brought over from the cooler, and brooded.

Her brief encounter with her older sister had been emotionally traumatic. She hoped she had done the right thing by going to her father and dumping it all on him.

'There's nothing more I can do, ' Elaine decided. 'If I stay here, I'm simply torturing myself. Tomorrow, I'd better go back to the surface.'

Elaine knew that leaving wasn't right, but she didn't know what else to do. When she didn't know what to do, she always fled.

'When Béla doesn't know what to do, she attacks!' Elaine thought. 'That's what I should do: Attack!'

She hopped off the bed, resolute in her decision. She had absolutely no idea what she was going to do when she got to her father's lab, but she wasn't going to back down. Her sister's condition was going to get changed, right now!

Elaine stormed into her father's lab and was immediately encased in a stasis field generated by the Praetor. She glared at her father.

'How dare you... ' she blasted into his mind.

Her father, the Regent, calmly held up his hand, silencing her.

'Now I remember why I always run away... ' she realized, much too late.

"It occurred to me that you might return," Sibilius stated, using formal speech. "It has been brought to my attention that you have violated security protocol. You are hereby remanded..."

Elaine radiated an angry blast of energy, interrupting her father. Sibilius held up his hand again, evaporating her anger into nothing.

"You are hereby confined to quarters. You are assigned new quarters in standing with your new status."

Elaine couldn't believe what was happening. Not only was her father going to ignore his eldest daughter's predicament, he was also reprimanding Elaine for trying to help her. She decided to fight.

'If you resist me on this, my daughter, you will be remanded to solitary confinement. I am doing what is best for you both, within the limits that I am allowed to operate. You will not be disappointed, ' Sibilius thought into Elaine's mind.

Verbally, for the record, he continued. "There is an officer outside waiting to escort you to your confinement quarters. Report to him, now."

The Praetor released the electrical field surrounding Elaine. She could move again. She turned toward the door, feeling numb and defeated. There was nothing she could do for her sister, after all.

'I hope I can make it up to you, someday, ' she thought dejectedly at her sister, knowing that Béla was shielded and couldn't hear her.

The officer acting as her escort took Elaine to a waiting area where, when the ship was fully manned, passengers and crew had mingled.

"Your quarters are not prepared yet, Princess," he informed her.

He was carrying a personal thought dampener so she couldn't feel his mind. Elaine realized that, not only had she failed to help Béla, but she had worsened her own situation, as well.

'Now I'm under solitary confinement, too, ' she supposed, sitting quietly across the table from her escort.

After ten minutes her escort got up and motioned for Elaine to follow. Elaine hadn't detected anything and wondered how her escort could have received any orders with his thought dampener operating. She followed him down an unfamiliar corridor in what had been officer's territory during the outward voyage.

'Assigned new quarters in standing with my new status?' Elaine wondered as she reviewed her father's sentencing. 'Officer's quarters? Are we stopping here? What is my status, anyway? I should have asked... '

Her escort, an officer himself, stopped at a door. The wall hummed with a thought-dampening field.

"Your new quarters, Princess," he told her. "Please be aware that you are not permitted to wander the ship alone."

He pressed the button, opening the door. Elaine entered and saw Béla standing in the middle of the room, looking around at her new quarters. The sisters stared at each other in disbelief.

"This is where you live now?" Béla asked her, incredulously.

Elaine nodded, tears of joy streaming down her face.

'Thank you, Father... ' she broadcast happily, then realized that the thought dampeners wouldn't allow anything to be heard outside the room. Somehow, though, she knew her father had received it.

"It is now," Elaine answered, her voice breaking with emotion.

They hugged each other, crying more joyfully than they had in the communal baths. They spent the night mind-linked and holding each other, not making love, but simply embracing. For the first time since she had returned to the great ship, Béla slept peacefully. Still mind-linked with her beloved sister, Elaine found herself sharing Béla's dreams.