Chapter 14: The Jury

'Ladies and gentlebeings, the court session is hereby reopened!'

Slightly nauseous from the excessive amount of half-dissolved biscuits, Ava woke up from her reveries.

'It is now the turn of the defendants to speak up.'

Since the spirit Elyizaahhrg hadn’t returned yet, Ava decided to open with questioning the members of the Jury.

'We would like to make sure that the Jury members are not partial in this court case, so please state your position regarding both Humanity and the Vegans.'

'Objection! We are not Vegans, but explorers from Vega. There is a distinct difference.'

'Objection granted. Explorers from Vega it is. Please proceed, Humanity.'

'Can we start with the dino?' Eddy exclaimed 'Pleaseohpleaseohpleeeeeeease!!! I love dinosaurs'

After some reshuffling on the Jury screen, Dean the dino appeared.

The round-eyed lizard had a pretty big smile with many razor-sharp teeth, but still seemed like a sympathetic creature if you got to know it better. With some delay, it started to speak in a surprisingly high pitched voice which reminded Ava of their neighbour's suicidal chickens.

'I clearly remember Humanity from when they were still some sort of scurrying insect eating rodents. They were quite nice back then, cute even, flying from tree to tree. We used to play hide and seek all the time. I have fond memories of the squeaky sound they made if I didn’t look where I put my feet. Wonderful! The explorers from Vega helped me out when I had that stomachache. They took rides with my food to help digest it better. That was real fun, though slightly ticklish at times'

Well, that one seemed OK, to start with...

Dean the dino’s image shrunk back into the corner to show the next member of the Jury.

Ava recognised the jar of Marmite from the breakfast table, with the label removed to show something emanating abject fury. It started in a polite but monotone bass voice though.

'My name is Zach and I can relate to the situation of the explorers from Vega. Humans tend to kill my kind on a regular basis by filtering, pressing, drying and salting. But since we are generally well fed and dead drunk at the time anyway, it doesn’t seem like such a bad way to go. Baer’s kind has also eaten a relative or two of mine though. Without anaesthetics, I might say.'

This last line had a nasty edge to it, giving Ava the impression that humanity was probably in a slightly better position with this member of the jury, if she could keep Eddy from pulling his "Gross!" face.

The Medusa then forcefully took the screen again, pushing the others off-screen by threatening them with her hissing snake hair.

'As long as they don’t try to cut my head off, humans don’t bother me that much. I can always use some more ornaments for in my garden. If only they wouldn’t keep taking these weird poses… How can you expect me to create a neat composition with all that rubbish? Those explorers are only good to pose as sand, which is way too much effort to get any useful amount. Looking them in the eye is also tricky. I never know their front end from their back end.'

Ava saw that during the Medusa's speech, Baer was starting to look agitated, taking a more and more tense position and gradually turning red again.

Eddy yawned theatrically. To Ava's surprise, it had already turned past ten pm. Ava yawned as well.

Eliyizaahhrg took this moment to reappear on her screen.

"Did I miss something?" She asked with an innocent sounding voice.

Caiman Raptor Elk