Titan's Plague: The Trial, Tom Briggs [free ebook reader .TXT] 📗

They’d slept in separate rooms for most of the last year. The first time he hit her, she kept her temper and told him to get out. He must have had remorse that time because he walked out of the bedroom and took his shuttle up to Picus.

Pati didn’t think he suffered, since the home the McLears lived in on Picus dwarfed this place. When he came home the next day, he apologized. He never apologized again after that.

It’d been a long Monday for Pati. After feeding herself, she walked upstairs to her bedroom. She used the low-gravity toilet, which was nowhere near as difficult as zero-gravity toilets, and dressed for bed.

Her bedroom was done in bright colors, greens and oranges primarily. It reminded her of home. The emperor-size bed took up the center of the room, with another two meters around each side. She had a dressing table, which she only used when she needed to dress up.

“Turn down the bed,” she said.

The blankets were folded down by machinery under the mattress. Dressed in a brown nightshirt, she got in and pulled a single sheet over her body. The blankets were her favorite wool, except tonight she felt warm and needed to dissipate some heat from her body.

“Low lights,” she said. The lighting diminished to a level she had preset long ago.

It wasn’t long, and she could tell she would be asleep. Her thoughts drifted and made less sense. She rolled on to her left side and faced the wall. Someone was there.

Except, she wasn’t here, or she wasn’t in her bedroom anymore. She stood, downstairs in the great room, and Richard stood facing her, out of reach.

Pati thought nothing of seeing Richard. She was married to him, and he lived in this house too. Except, he was all gray, and his clothes were black. What did that mean? He stood in front of her, not moving. She wanted to walk to him, and yet, could not. She stayed in her position, somewhere in the great room.

“You should not have hit me,” he said.

She didn’t know what he meant, although she had a slight memory of a fight. Still, she couldn’t remember what happened, and why he would say that.

“You would have been able to join us,” Richard added. “Except, now, you’ve ruined everything.”

Pati wanted to tell him she didn’t care what he wanted. She stayed silent as if her body was detached from her mind. Then she saw herself standing next to Richard.

She wore all black, just like Richard. And she looked so short next to him, like all their pictures together. Unlike him, her hair was black and straight to her shoulders. Her cheekbones betrayed a Nordic ancestry that invaded Western Ireland many hundreds of years ago. Her frame seemed athletic, even though she never played sports. Her reflection did not move or show expression.

“We will exact payment for your intrusion,” Richard said. He put his hand on her shoulder, and she collapsed. Pati saw herself on the ground, next to a pillar and bleeding gray blood from her head.

She felt as if about to lose her breath. Pati ran to the door and opened it, seeing the expanse of space, including Saturn, Titan, and Picus. A sun that resembled a large star stood out.

Pati tried to stop, but she fell into a vortex sucking her down. She fought against the current without result. Around she went. She finally focused on the center of the vortex and saw a golden-red glow.

Her eyes opened, and she saw the ceiling of her bedroom. The time projected showed she’d been asleep less than forty-five minutes.

“Damn,” she said. Pati wanted to go back to sleep, except her breathing had yet to slow, and sweat filled her nightshirt. She pushed down the sheets and sat up. Her eyes adjusted to the low light, and she could see everything that was there and nothing that wasn’t supposed to be there. The colors were gone in the dim light, and it reminded her of the dream.

“Turn the lights up halfway,” she said. The lights responded, and she could see colors in her room again. Pati walked to the dressing table, then stared in the mirror.

She didn’t look different from the corpse she’d seen in the dream. What did it mean to see yourself dead in a dream? Was this her brain chastising her for not feeling more pain at Richard’s death?

Pati felt the bruise on her right eye that hadn’t yet healed. He hit her, and she hit him back. The steel pillar killed him, not her. She would do it differently if she had the chance; she just couldn’t feel hatred for herself for what happened. Richard took her from her family and became abusive when the honeymoon period of their life had ended. She’d lost her love for him months ago. There was nothing missing in her life with him gone. Maybe because he had already left months before she punched him.

* * *

Pati arrived at Nancy’s office at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. This was the earliest Nancy could get on the prosecuting attorney’s calendar for a settlement conference. They took Pati’s groundcar to the municipal buildings just past Grand Center. It was a large, metallic building with several smaller buildings attached. Even less extravagant in design than Nancy’s building, the construction crews had built identical floors. Like Nancy’s building, they walked in through the center, past a constable working security for the public facility.

Nancy didn’t ask for directions. She marched to the rear set of elevators. She activated the elevator, and the next car took them to the top floor.

“You know where you’re going?” Pati asked.

“All too well,” Nancy replied.

They turned right off the elevator and proceeded down the hallway. At least eight doors lined each side, and Nancy continued to the door at the end. She stopped.

“Nancy Tate and client,” she said.

The door slid open to the right. Nancy led Pati into a normal if well-furnished reception area. A young lady with blond hair like Nancy’s sat to their front, wearing a headset for communications.

“We’ve an appointment with Gavin Keebler,” Nancy said to her.

The receptionist nodded and held up a finger for patience. She did not match Nancy’s eye contact.

“Yes, I’ll take a message,” the receptionist said, “thank you, goodbye.” The receptionist looked at Nancy. “Ms. Tate?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know where his office is?”

“Been there a few times, so you need not get up.”

The receptionist nodded again, returning to the work on her desk. Nancy walked to the left and down a short hallway. She stopped on the first door to their left and knocked. The door opened.

Nancy strode in. Pati followed.

“Thanks for meeting on such short notice,” a man sitting at his desk said.

The office was longer than wide, and not much more room than could seat the occupant and two visitors. The seating matched the floorplan assessment, and Nancy took one of the two chairs across from the man.

“Hello, Gavin,” Nancy said to him while extending her hand across the desk.

He stood and shook her hand. “Thanks for being here on such short notice.”

Pati noticed he was serious about the short notice statement. She also noticed he was slightly taller than her and much older. He had the same European black hair and skin, with a bit more weight. She would have guessed him as an Earth-born, except he had no wrinkles in his face. Maybe he was a secgen who didn’t grow as tall as most. She could imagine how tiny he’d be on Earth.

“And this is Ms. McLear,” Gavin said. He went to shake her hand, which Pati reciprocated.

“Pati, this is Gavin Keebler, the state’s attorney for your case,” Nancy said.

“Please to meet you,” Pati said. Pati went to sit in the chair next to Nancy.

“No, please, let’s not discuss your case in here,” Gavin said. “Let’s go to the conference room.” He walked around his desk, led them out of the door, across the hallway, and through the door opposite his.

The conference room was blander than Gavin’s office. A metallic table, that had twelve, black, fabric-covered chairs surrounding. A large viewscreen covered the wall to the left, and a taller chair sat at the head of the table.

Gavin walked to the head chair and sat down. Nancy took the chair on his right and beckoned Pati to sit next to her. There was a smaller viewscreen before each seat in the table. Nancy didn’t touch hers, and Pati wasn’t sure what she’d find if she touched hers. Gavin immediately tapped his, stared at it for a few moments, and looked to Nancy. “Shall I go through the charges?”

“I know what the state has in mind, so condense it for my client.”

Gavin shrugged. “Okay, in simple talk, we’re looking at human slaughter, first degree.”

“Which is a bit overkill,” Nancy said.

“Except, she’s an Earth-born, and they have an added responsibility when physical violence is an issue.”

“Without