Chapter 16 - Justice in Progress

The spirit Elyizaahhrg had some serious explaining to do, but in the end, she could persuade Ava to understand that the alternative outcomes of this court session could be devastating for Humanity. In the meantime, Eddy had fallen asleep under the desk by the electron microscope. Ava felt a pang of jealousy because of that, but decided to let him sleep. For now.

After getting a fleece blanket to cover Eddy, Wolfgang the handywolf managed to get the judiciary up and running again. This involved some awkward muzzle and paw interaction with a human laptop computer keyboard and eventually a request to Ava to enter the meeting keyword in his stead.

The trademark pushing and shoving on-screen took some time, but then the victorious Medusa started speaking.

'As self-appointed chair-deity, I would like to lay out the results of the Jury deliberations.'

'Given the complicated nature of this issue, we are considering a compromise solution, rather than assigning dominance to the plaintiff.'

'Yeah…What if I told you that some of those dumb rock-sucking microbes you mentioned were family, you know?' Jury member Zach interjected. 'Superiority…? Kiss my Vacuole!!'

'Now, now. Mind your language, Jury member Zach!'

'Kizzz vacuum,' echoed a sleepy voice from under the desk, before reverting to snoring mode.

'Can we get back to the Jury report, please?'. The Medusa said in a rather more annoyed voice. 'After careful consideration the Jury has decided on the following points.'

The Medusa vaguely gestured in the direction of another screen. (all snake heads moved their attention in that direction, giving the Medusa a hurricane swept hairdo). The other screen showed a slide with a list of bullet points.

• Humanity has to immediately cease the speciecide on the explorers from Vega and their kin.
• Unless registered at a patent office, claims regarding intellectual property of a specific shape will not hold, so the Chesterfield issue is dismissed.
• A rescue mission has to be mounted to the dark side of the moon, either organised or paid for by Humanity.
• The claim to dominance will not be granted. The best we can do is some form of equality.

'Equality? Just because you are still changing all the time doesn't make you better than the dust you evolved from. Our evolution took place long before we even got here, so maybe you should consider we were just perfect from our start on Earth? Opposable thumbs? Don't make me laugh! We'll see who rules this planet come the next ice age or impacting space rock. You weren't around when we first came to this place. You weren't even around when I woke up two cycles ago! How can we be equal? '

'ORDER!! OOOORDER!!!' The duck was struggling on screen with a wooden hammer in its bill but managed to hit the dedicated polished mahogany circle on the third try, before it went down clattering.

'Thank you, your honour,' said the Medusa.

'As I said… Those are our decisions'

'Furthermore… To promote equality, we intend to follow the earlier proposal to provide the required proteins to Humanity in an experimental basis… No Dean, you can't have them. That would alter your future and our history way too much.'

Ava finally got over her general bafflement to cry out: 'How are we supposed to communicate this to the rest of Humanity? We are kids, not adults!'

'Not yet, but you will be.' Answered the Duck. 'As we understand it, the relevance of time is a lot less important to our plaintiff than to you.'

'Yes, we can sleep while we wait for you to get your act together. We may even be able to help you get to where you need to be in your community. As long as you can get started with the utmost priority on disabling the 'science' that is currently killing my kin, we can make arrangements for the rest of the issues.'

A mighty gonging sound reverberated through the lab as the three dimensional SHC logo rotated across the screens, accompanied by the words FINAL VERDICT.

The Duck ruffled its feathers and continued: 'Well, that's settled then. I hereby close the session. We will be in contact for further details. Have a nice day… ehhrm night.'

With that the screens went black, the electron microscope stopped humming and the roof lighting went into the ultra-bright 'now-would-be-a-good-time-to-go-home'-mode employed by loads of cafes around closing time, though lacking the trademark 'We-know-you-hate-this-song-so-go-home'-song that usually goes with it.

Ava covered her eyes while Eddy crawled from under the desk and asked, 'What did I miss?'

Caiman Raptor Elk

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