SEIA25

=Chapter 25=
==Silent enim inter arma: Tribunals==
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Unity City
North America, Terra
Sol Star System
Republic of the Sphere
3079
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[Trinh Nguoc's Pho shoppe, Unity City...]
"You feel like more of a beat cop." he said.
"I did a beat.  First surface tour on Kowloon with the Coast Guard was in the Camranh region, up the New Saigon Delta. Lots of back-woods types out there." she said, "That was...fifty-one through fifty three."
"Surface tour?" he asked
"Oh right, you guys don't have an equivalent agency." she said, "Imagine a job where you provide firefighting, mail delivery and law enforcement to a region that is mostly small villages and settlements.  Turns out there are a lot of freaks out there." she toyed with her soup. "There was this case...must have been in 3054?  Right, well, there was a case, and it started with some missing persons reports near the north branch of the Binh Kang branch, right in our area.  We thought it might be a broward beast."
"It wasn't?" he asked
She shook her head, "No.  An offworlder had moved in, are you sure you want to hear this?"
He shrugged, "Sure."
"Guy was something of a pickup artist for one use relationships." she said, "Thirteen girls. He figured it was the periphery, so nobody would notice."  she scooped, chewed and swallowed.  "He was wrong, but then, people always notice, funny he had that impression though.  I remember arresting him, he kept insisting we couldn't do that, not to a man of his Importance."
"What happened?"
"I presented evidence to the magistrates, argued with a high-priced lawyer from Inarcs, they appealed the conviction, and then appealed it again...but by the end of that year. I got to watch the son of a bitch hang.  It was intensely satisfying, a little talk with Miliz from Main Street, Winter, and Melissia and we closed forty seven cases on three worlds with that S.O.B. After that, I kept getting 'special' cases in adjoining districts until my surface tour was over and I could get back to the relative sanity of the outer belts where it's mostly Search and Rescue and emergency response instead of seeing how thoroughly depraved people can get."
"That sounds recited." he commented
"That's because the depravity doesn't just happen in the gravity well, it's just...It wears on your soul." she said.  "I got roped into War Crimes investigations during the civil war between the Steiner-Davion kids. However, it was always the same stuff I was dealing with in peacetime...when we weren't actually fighting the war.  In a sense, the fighting the war part is cleaner than dealing with the horrible things people do to each other when the shades are closed."
"So you were closest..why?" questioned Haskins.
"Dude, I was on my way to provide testimony and evidence of war crimes on worlds in the Federation of Skye." she told him, "It's probably on your docket. Rapes, murder, vivisections of living people.  It's  like they gathered all the psychopaths in the Solar system, gave them cybernetics and white robes, and turned them loose on the universe as follow-ons behind their shock troops." she sipped tea, "Or, and this is my thought-they found a way to burn the moral centers out of some people's brains, and sent them out to kill, maim and defile as much of the universe as they could reach."
''
"So we would have met anyway?" he asked.
"Probably. THIS way, I get to be evaluated in a courtroom against a gold standard law professor in a high profile case." she didn't smile.  
"You're Kowloonese, do you suppose that might have influenced the appointment?" he asked.
Seether nodded, "It did." she said, "We're supposed to lose gracefully."
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Haskins walked her back to the trial site, and focused the conversation on Unity City, a place he was personally quite proud to be from.
He didn't share his own estimation though.
The day this one loses gracefully, it's time to look for Saint Peter. He had a feeling about people. Had always had it, really, a sense of how to read them, their motivations, their manners, their base personality.
Linda Sithers was a fighter, tenacious and determined and sharp, she wouldn't just 'give up' or lie down gracefully and he damned well knew it.
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