Chapter 13

Solomon and Robert walked side by side into the courtroom. Extremely plain in appearance, it was quite impressive in size. Because the system was open to all citizens, the court rooms had been built to accommodate large crowds in case anyone wished to attend popular cases in person. As the family system had methodically been broken down, it was now only the spectacular cases that attracted any kind of crowd. Being one of the few ‘capital’ crimes in the past two decades, and that involving a Level 4 citizen, the two were astounded to see how many people were already in the audience. Solomon and Robert felt like they were entering the set of one of the more popular live TotalVid productions. They didn’t realize how close they were in equating the trial with just another form of popular entertainment in the lives of the average bored citizen. Solomon barely found a seat in the upper tier.

A court attendant who was sitting on one side of the main floor stood as Robert walked down the center aisle. Two seats faced a grid area on the far wall, which was the ‘judgment’ panel. The man motioned Robert toward those. As soon as Robert sat down in one of the seats, the attendant attached metal bands around his wrists and adjusted a halo-like device on the top part of his seat to rest about ten centimeters above Robert’s head.

The man returned to his own seat. Without fanfare, the trial commenced.

“Robert Winston Wood, Level 4, Advanced Transportations Programmer,” stated a voice from the wall panel. Clearly a computer, the voice sounded vaguely feminine, though without any sympathetic overtones. “You are aware of the procedures of this court?”

“I am,” Robert replied.

The heart of the court system was a neural scanner, or the ‘halo’ above his head. Along with an EKG and other monitoring equipment, some of which were in the back of the chair and some in the metal bands around his wrists, the truth or falsehood of his statements would be evaluated by the computer. Because most cases involved either minor violence or some sort of theft, there were normally two people seated in the chairs. Both accused and accuser were tested. The one deemed to be most likely to have committed a crime, which might include the false accusation of the other person, was punished.

In this case, the ‘State’ was the accuser, so no human was required to face Robert. The Zaibatsu had already programmed all of its evidence into the computer, and it would be up to Robert to refute the evidence if he could. His other alternative was to plead guilty and accept the sentence of the court.

“You are charged with being a Radical Element in our society. Specifically, you are accused of willfully flaunting the desires of your employer, ignoring and disobeying proper work directives, and embezzlement and theft of corporate assets by directing those assets, including finances, materials, and the work efforts of your subordinates, toward personally desired pursuits and not in research and development efforts required by your Assignment. Robert Winston Wood, how do you plead?”

There was a low but obviously angry murmuring from the crowd. Most thieves stole small personal items from someone else. Embezzlement, in effect, was the same as stealing from every other person in the Region.

“Not guilty.”

“You may state your reasons for such a claim.”

“I’m a research scientist at a research institute. I took nothing out of the Institute. What I did was conduct research, and used the assets I normally would to do the job to which I was Assigned. I stole nothing. I misused no assets.”

“Let us begin with the first charge, then,” said that calm voice. “You are accused of willfully flaunting the desires of your employer, ignoring and disobeying proper work directives. What is your response?”

“Well, she told me not to do it, but I knew it was very important research. I guess it’s true to some extent, but what I did was certainly for the benefit of society.”

“Please identify the ambiguous pronoun referred to.”

“The Director of the Institute.”

“Your direct superior at your Assigned place of work, correct?”

“Yes.”

“You requested of the Director permission to pursue a specific line of research.”

“Yes. I asked her if I could work on –”

“Robert Winston Wood!” the voice this time rang out in commanding tones. “You will volunteer no information you are not specifically asked for. You will not refer to this line of research, which is irrelevant to this trial, unless specifically directed to do so. You will answer a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to questions allowing for such. Is that clear?”

“No, not really. What’s the matter with talking about –”

“Robert Winston Wood! If you do not follow the directives of this court, you will immediately be found guilty and sentenced. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” he said slowly. “I think I’m beginning to understand.”

Solomon, however, was totally puzzled. Why wouldn’t the court even allow Robert to say what he had been working on? Obviously, the Zaibatsu had programmed the computer to suppress any mention of it. As they knew, and Robert and he knew, it could only be the members of the general public they were wanting to keep the knowledge from. But why? It was all very confusing. And very disturbing.

“Very well. You requested of the Director permission to pursue a specific line of research, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“And that request was denied by your direct superior, is that correct?”