If.
No, I was being stupid. They weren’t going to execute a human over something like this, and any other punishment would be over someday. I’d just have to tough it out somehow.
Unless they decided I wasn’t human.
That stunner had completely scrambled my brain, just like it was supposed to. But it hadn’t slowed me down at all, because apparently the human-looking brain in my skull was just camouflage. The real me must be hidden somewhere else. An AI running on a network of nanocomputers, or something weird like that.
Something nonhuman. Worse, something more than human.
Humans with sensory enhancements have to switch views from one sensor to another, because their brains can’t handle processing three or four different kinds of vision at the same time. I could. I had enhanced versions of all the normal human senses, but that was only scratching the surface. I could see the radio spectrum, a ghostly world of translucent objects lit by the flickering glow of a million transmitters. My passive sonar looked similar, with less range but better resolution. The whole surface of my skin reported light, heat and radiation levels with enough precision to give me a blurry sense of my immediate surroundings. I could see the electrical fields radiating from the wiring in the walls of my cell, and the magnetic fields the little electric motors in the camera mounts gave off.
All at the same time, all perfectly integrated, without even thinking about it. That had to be, what, a hundred times more processing power than a human brain? More?
On Felicity they taught us that transhuman entities are always insane monsters who want to wipe out humanity. Space Nazis at best, or paperclip maximizers at worst. I’d been afraid to look at what other colonies thought about that, and now I couldn’t access the datanet. If they figured it out would the local police just shrug it off? Or would they decide today’s incident was just the start of a mad killing spree, and get rid of me while they had the chance?
I didn’t know, and all I could do was sit and worry.
It didn’t get any better when the guards showed up to escort me to the hearing. They sat me on a low bench in the middle of the room, where I had to look up at everyone else. In front of me there was a tall box where a harried-looking older man sat, reading something I couldn’t see. To each side there was a lower box with room for several people in it. The captain was there, in the box to my right, but he looked really mad. In the box to my left there was a man in a fancy uniform I didn’t recognize, who didn’t look any happier than the captain.
As soon as the guards stepped away from me a big field emitter buried in the floor came on, throwing up a deflector shield between me and the rest of the room. It was strong enough to stop heavy mass driver rounds, which made the tractor field holding me to the bench complete overkill. Well, that wasn’t a good sign.
The guards retreated to positions flanking the door behind me, which closed. There was a very long moment of silence, that was finally broken by the disembodied voice of an AI.
“The Merchant’s Association mediation court for Takeo Station is now in session, with the Honorable Representative Stanley Finwell presiding. The court meets on this the seventeenth day of May, 2486, to hear a complaint brought by the Takeo Station Security Directorate, represented by Captain Goro Minami, against Apprentice Spacer Alice Long of the free trader Square Deal, represented by Captain Dan Sokol. Let the hearing commence.”
Representative Finwell looked down at me disapprovingly. “So this is the young lady at the center of today’s commotion? Well, let’s hear the charge, Captain Minami.”
“Your Honor, Takeo Station brings complaint of vandalism, destruction of property, arson, obstruction of traffic, reckless deployment of robotic weapons, thirty-seven counts of injury or maiming of serfs, eight counts of serficide, unlicensed possession of military enhancements, trespassing, conspiracy to commit grand theft and aggravated elf torture. In light of the severity of her offenses we demand that she be remanded into station custody for proper trial and sentencing under Hoshidan law.”
I cringed at that, but Representative Finwell just cocked his head curiously. “Really? On what basis? Nothing in your list of complaints rises to the level of high crimes. Unless you’re claiming that the damages exceed fifty million credits?”
“No,” Captain Minami grudgingly admitted. “We’re estimating twelve thousand credits, including medical care of the injured serfs. But staging a pitched battle in the middle of a busy expressway smacks of terrorism.”
Captain Sokol snorted. The Representative turned to him. “Yes, Captain? You have a response to the station’s demand?”
“It’s absurd,” he said shortly. “The high crimes provision is meant for cases like aggravated piracy, or nuclear sabotage. As you noted, nothing in the list of charges even vaguely approaches that level of severity. Square Deal opposes the station’s motion.”
“Very well, gentlemen. The motion is denied. You’ll have to make your case here, Captain Minami.”
“Fine,” he growled. “Takeo Station offers certified security recordings of the expressway incident.”
A hologram projector hummed to life in the middle of the room, showing a view of the expressway.
“Ah, good,” the Representative said. “I’ve been wanting to see how this happened.”
Captain Sokol leaned back, and watched with narrow eyes.
There were a few seconds of random traffic, before my truck lumbered into view. Floating labels helpfully pointed out my location in the truck’s cab, as well as Smoke and Ash clinging to the roof. Then came the car full of trolls, the rocket launcher, the giant pileup, and finally the reappearance of the car and my final ploy with the loading bot.
I was surprised at how fast it all went. It had felt like forever when it was happening, but the whole recording was barely two minutes long. When it was done the image froze.
“Well, that was exciting,” Representative Finwell said mildly. “Let’s work through this. Replay from the beginning. Stop.”
The image froze with the troll raising that rocket launcher, and Smoke swooping towards the back of the truck.
“Miss Long, do you know why these trolls were motivated to attack you with a rocket launcher? They seem a bit perturbed.”
“I don’t know why they went so crazy, Your Honor,” I said. “I was afraid they might try to kill me, or at least catch me again. But I have no idea why they started firing heavy weapons in the middle of an expressway.”
“Hah! We have the house footage too, you little elf beater,” Captain Minami scoffed. “Does the name Lilia ring a bell?”
“You mean the con artist who tried to brainjack me? What does she have to do with the trolls going crazy?” I asked.