The Lost Colony, DM Arnold [ebook reader for laptop TXT] 📗

to do with them?”

“They can testify. They can help bring those that did this to justice. One of them knew of the plot days before we arrived.”

“Oh, that is wonderful. Days before talks began, this ... plot was uncovered ... by a novonid! One question -- why didn't this novonid tell someone?”

“She was about to tell me and then she was abducted. Please, Prefect -- we don't have much time.”

“Novonid testimony is not admissible in a Varadan court.”

“But it IS in a Floran one.”

“How could it be?”

“Because what they say will be tested against facts and cross examination. Prefect -- if they can help convict whoever is responsible on THIS end, we can cut a deal -- in exchange for a reduced sentence, those guilty can give information to help you on YOUR end. Don't you want convictions, too?” More silence. “Prefect?”

“Hold on... I'm accessing my media terminal.”

Nyk looked toward Andra. “Get something to write this down.”

“There's a pad of polysheets in the drawer,” Zane replied.

Andra brought the pad and a stylus.

“Novonid nutrient,” Ogan said. “...Protein and amino acids plus nitrates, phosphorus, calcium... potassium... a lesser amount of magnesium... other trace elements, including copper and zinc...”

“That's what goes into the nutrient?” Nyk asked.

“That's what it says here.”

“Thank you, Prefect. We will be in touch.” The call terminated. Nyk took the sheet and reviewed it. “Fertilizer!” He smacked his hand against his forehead. “I used a mixture like this with Earth plant cultures. Why didn't I think of it? Their chlorophyll chemistry must be based on Earth plants. What she needs is fertilizer. Let's get her some.”

15 -- Linguistic Feat

Nyk stood near Laida's pallet. An attendant brought in a syringe filled with a milky fluid. “This contains the minerals and salts you specified,” she said. “We also added soybean milk for some protein.” She fitted the syringe to the feeding tube and pressed the plunger. “Keep her on her side...”

“And, her face down.” He caressed Laida's back and shoulder blades.

“If she keeps that down, I'll bring another.”

“I hope she keeps it down.”

“So do I. It would be mighty unpleasant to throw up that mix.”

He sat, looked into her face and caressed her cheek. Her eyes were half-open and glassy, and she breathed shallow breaths through both her nose and mouth.

“Laida... I am so sorry. You deserve better than this...”

The attendant returned. “Well?”

“She kept it down.”

She hooked the syringe to the tube and injected another dose into Laida's stomach. “Those salts should absorb fast,” she said.

“Shall we try one more dose?”

“I don't know. That much would put a human into some real trouble.”

Laida rolled her head. “Nykkyo?”

“Laida!” He helped her roll onto her back. “Laida -- we're going to get you some sun. As soon as it's daylight, we're taking you out into the sunshine.”

“Sunshine?”

“Yes!”

“I'm feeling a little better.”

“We've been giving you minerals. You haven't had minerals in a while, have you?”

“No. Not since I was taken.”

“You rest and soak them up.” He sat beside her and caressed the back of her hand and her forearm.

“Nykkyo?”

“What, Laida.”

“Please don't leave me. Your company...”

“Agreeable?”

“Very.”

Nyk pushed a wheelchair to the lift and outside onto the street. “Here, Laida -- let me get rid of this...” He grabbed the feeding tube and pulled it out of her nostril; then looked at it. He scanned around for a trash receptacle, spotted one and tossed the tube into it. “Look, Laida -- sunshine!”

She smiled and lifted her face to the Floran orange sun. “I don't understand it -- I feel nothing. It's as if I'm in the dark. The sun's shining on me, but I don't feel it.” Tears streamed down her face. “I must be dying! I can't feel the sun, Nykkyo -- I've lost my ability to use sunlight. I'm dying ... I'm dying...”

Nyk looked at her, slack jawed. “Laida -- It's not you. It's this world. Our sun is not as intense as Varada's. We have the same problem with our Earth crops. The sun's not strong enough for them. We have to grow them under domes and with artificial...” He pulled his handheld from his sash and began placing calls.

Nyk sat, resting his head against the window as the train passed Tinam on its way to Sudal. Leaning against him was Laida. He could feel her tremble. “We're almost there.” He kissed the top of her head. “Almost there -- hold on.”

“I feel so sick,” she said. “Torpor is setting in.”

The train came to a halt. Nyk supported her and headed toward the groundcar lot. “Don't pay any attention to the stares. You'll be all right. Kronta told me we could do this. Neither of us will get into any trouble...”

He helped her to sit in a groundcar and specified an address north of the city as the destination. The car began to roll onto the highway.

“It's warmer here,” she said. “That feels good.”

Nyk watched the familiar landmarks as the car headed north.

“Everything's purple,” she said.

“That's the color of the vegetation here. You'd have to be purple to use the light of this world's sun.”

Laida giggled. “Purple people... What an odd concept.”

“Nearly as odd as green ones, don't you think? Or, white ones for that matter.”

“I suppose so.”

The car approached a wall three metres high and drove along it for several kilometres; then came to a stop. Nyk popped the cowl open. “Can you stand?”

“I don't think so.”

“I'll carry you, then. I'm sorry if this isn't dignified.” He scooped her up and slung her over his shoulder, holding her across the small of her back. “This is an agridome, Laida. Ten kilometres on a side. Inside are the fields where we grow our crops. Green crops, Laida... I'm taking you inside.”

He scanned his wrist and a door slid open. He escorted her into the airlock that held back the air pressure holding up the agridome roof. The door slid shut behind and another before them opened. He carried her into the artificial sunlight and shifted her so he was holding her in both arms. She gasped. “I feel it!” She held out her arms and lifted her face. “I feel it! Feels SO good...”

He set her onto the agridome floor. A middle-aged man approached him. “Nykkyo...”

“Dyoman,” Nyk replied. “Thank you for letting us use your dome.”

“Of course,” he replied. “I wanted to meet her in person.”

“Laida, this is Dyoman Hasse,” Nyk said using Old Floran. “He's in charge of the domes. He's letting you stay here as long as it takes for you to recover your strength.”

Laida looked toward him, smiling, with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“That,” Hasse said, “is a reply I'd understand in any language.”

Nyk looked skyward. Above him was the superstructure holding the giant lamps augmenting the weak Floran sun; and above that the reticulated, air pressure-supported dome roof. Through the roof he could see Floran's indigo daytime sky.

Dyoman produced a thin pad and laid it onto the dome floor near a hydroponic bed.

“Here,” Nyk said. “Just stretch out here and soak up as much as you want. I'll help you out of your tunic.”

“We like to be busy in the sun,” she said.

“You busy yourself recovering your strength,” Nyk replied. He grasped the hem of her orange confinement tunic and lifted it from her. She lay, nude, on her stomach. Nyk sat on the floor and caressed her back and shoulder blades. “Feel good?”

“Mmm... Delicious...”

“...so that's the story,” Nyk said.

Suki shook her head. “I don't know, Nykkyo, why you always must go looking for trouble.”

“I don't look for trouble. Trouble comes looking for me.”

“What is your status?”

“There's a hearing in a few days. Kronta expects we'll be exonerated, but it's by no means a done deal. If we're not -- we could be going up the proverbial river for a long time.”

“But -- you're free for now.”

“Both Andra and I are under electronic surveillance.”

“The fact they would do that means their case isn't too strong -- doesn't it?”

“Not necessarily.”

“I return from T-Delta in ten days,” Suki said.

“There's not much you can do from here or there,” Nyk replied.

“Keep me posted. This green girl -- is she another of your amften?”

He shook his head. “No. Right now she's recovering her strength in an agridome.”

“You want to make her an amfta, don't you?” Nyk looked away from the vidisplay. “I knew it.”

“I'm not doing anything with her,” he replied, “until our legal status is settled.”

“Thank you for dinner,” Nyk said.

“You're very welcome,” Daphne replied. “How did the first day of the hearing go?”

“About as expected,” said Illya. “We had opening arguments, statements of undisputed facts... That sort of thing.”

“How does one of these work? Is it a trial?”

“It's a sort of combination of preliminary hearing, grand jury and trial,” Nyk replied. “There's a referee and a five-judge panel who'll decide the case. Each sides gets a turn presenting evidence; however, each judge has a switch by his post that will illuminate a blue lamp. If he's heard enough, he can light his lamp. If all five lamps are lit, the trial stops.”

“Without hearing all the evidence?”

“Why turn it into a filibuster if the outcome won't change?”

“The referee has decided two questions remain to be arbitrated,” explained Kronta. “Whether or not the novonids are human, and whether or not the crew intended to break the law. The second hinges on the first. If the novonids are not human, then there was no law to break.”

“The supposedly broken law,” Nyk added, “is improper imprisonment and transport. Today's testimony made me very upset. I heard the opposition spouting the official party line from Varada -- how the novonids were made for a purpose, how they lack sentience, intelligence, free wills and so on.”

“Our counsel is quite comfortable we can win the first round,” Kronta replied. “If we do, the second one is a cinch.”

“If we don't,” Nyk said, “then I'm going up the river for unjustifiable mutiny.”

“It seems to me proving the crew's intent would be difficult,” Daphne observed.

“The prosecution seems to feel the same way,” said Illya. “I have it -- off the record -- they think both rounds are toss-ups, and the likely outcome is the novonids will be classed human and we won't be able to prove intent -- hence, a draw.”

“And, neither side is held accountable,” Nyk replied. “What does our consul think?”

“He thinks he has found an angle that will nail them on the second round.”

“But, only if we win the first round ... first.”

“Why don't they,” Daphne asked, “just pump everyone full of truth drug?”

“The admissibility of truth drug testimony in a Floran court is complicated,” Kronta explained. “It's much more useful as a forensic tool. We cherish two tenets of justice that date all the way back to the Floran Compact -- presumption of innocence and guarantee against self-incrimination. Truth drug runs contra to both.”

“Two legacies from the United States Constitution,” she replied.

“Yes -- and from among others.”

“I'm itching for a fight,” Nyk said to Kronta as he sat at a table in the hearing room. Beside him were Andra and Zane and a withered looking older man with unkempt grey hair. To his left was the table for the prosecution; ahead was the referee's bench and to the right sat the desks for the five judges. “I couldn't sleep thinking about yesterday's testimony. Our counsel didn't challenge a word of it.”

“Counsel Morsk is one of the best, Nyk. He's passionate about our cause, and he came out of retirement to take our case. His methods may be unorthodox, but his track record is exceptional.”

“Maybe he's lost some of his edge during retirement. I can't wait to sit in the box and tell them MY experiences with novonids.”

A chime sounded and Nyk stood. The referee entered -- a middle-aged woman in a white gown. Following her were the five judges, two men and three women in embroidered tunics and sashes. They took their seats at their desks. “Please be seated,” the referee announced. “Counsel Morsk...”

The old man stood and stepped to the front of