BeyHop Chpt 53

==Beyond Hope- Chapter 53 - Greed==
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===Trial in Hue===
City of Hue - Hue County Justice BuildingKowloon, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)3063
The first arraignment was in the Hue County Justice Building, and the 'courtroom' was in a converted basement.
"All rise, court is now in session." Janet noticed that the bailiff wasn't in city or county police uniform, but instead, was outfitted in a narrowly specific security uniform like the guards outside the Justice Building.
Civics classes noted that civilian courts had to maintain their own, separate, budget for security as the courts were ostensibly supposed to act as a neutral third party, even in cases where one of the participants in a case is the government.
"Siddown." The woman who took the central position was late middle aged, and didn't bother with a robe or wig, instead she wore a rather outdated formal suit jacket and blouse. "I'm Giao Pham, I'll be your judge and mediator for this hearing, so you may call me 'Mediator', 'Judge', or 'Madame Giao'. Mister Prosecutor, is the State, as Plaintiff, prepared not to waste the court's time?"
“We are, Judge.”
"I see that for the defense, we have both a Judge Advocate's officer, and a civilian attorney representing… huh, Active Duty. Commander Haugen, Ms. Adams, are you prepared in the defense of your client?"
“We are, Madame Giao,” Cecelia answered.
"For the record, the reading of the charges against the defendant, will then be followed by a statement from the prosecutor outlining the evidence behind those charges. The Defense will then present their rebuttal. The Jurors may ask questions at any time, and no jury question is disallowed." She shot the Prosecuting Attorney a harsh look, "Even if it is gross or offensive. Everything goes into the record, because if the Juror's in the room, they're going to hear it anyway. There are three possible outcomes in a case of this nature. The first, is a ruling of not-guilty, the second, is a ruling that the State has failed to prove their case, and the third, is guilty. I am not favorably disposed toward the practice of the Plea Bargain, and such deals will be ruled invalid, am I understood by both the Defense, and the Prosecution?"
“Yes, Judge.”
“Yes, Judge,” Cecilia answered a moment later.
"The charges are Solicitation, Conspiracy, and Premeditated Manslaughter. How does the defendant plea?"
“Not guilty on all counts, Madame Giao.” Janet answered.
"Works for me." She reached up, and struck a small bronze bell. "Court is now in session. Mister Peng, you may begin."
“We have eye witness testimony, surveillance recordings, all that show the Defendant approached Mister Meier, then when rebuffed went into the drinking establishment Pho and Foams, where she then conspired with the defendant in the case proceeding in another courtroom where she exchanged sexual favors or promises thereof, to secure his cooperation in luring Mister Meier into a physical confrontation.”
One of the jurors raised her hand. "I have a question?"
"Go ahead, Juror Six.”
"The Defendant's got a military lawyer… so she's paid really pretty well. Why would she need to sell sex when she's in a position to afford to buy it?"
Peng's reserve cracked for a moment. "That's not a legitimate question!!!"
"Didn't listen when I laid out the rules, did you?" Giao cracked. "Court will permit the question, so answer it."
Peng thought for a moment. “The compensation was not for money, but for favors. Favors that if one used money for, would create a trail to be traced.”
Another juror raised his hand. By his clothing, he was from one of the more isolationist Jewish settlements on the Plateau.
"Can you specify the favors?" he asked. "And describe how you know of them? And can you prove such favors exist?"
“Mister Meier… Er… It is well known that the Defendant has a reputation as a loose woman. That she engages in frequent casual sex. We intend to prove she has used this to curry favor, and her current standing in the Coast Guard, and when she attempted this with Mister Meier it did not go as planned.”
A third juror, a slim looking young woman dressed… inappropriately for court, raised her hand. "Um, question?"
"Go ahead." Giao seemed to be growing impatient herself.
"So the prosecution's evidence is that she's a slut? Madame Giao, a slut does for free what a whore does for money. She doesn't look like someone who needs the money, and if she's a slut… so what? How’s that proof of anything?"
“She is a former enemy combatant. Are we to really believe she has attained her current position through honest means?” Peng was clearly on the verge of losing it.
Another juror raised his hand, an old man. "Question."
"Go ahead."
"The Prosecutor is basing this on her ethnic origin? Isn't that against the law??"
“Many women have traded sex for promotion and access,” Peng was still nearly frantic.
Yet ANOTHER juror, this one a businessman by appearance, asked, "But Mister Meier is a civilian, and a boxer, not someone with access to power. How's that supposed to work?"
“His father is of political importance.”
"Wouldn't she be better off trying to ****** the father then?" the businessman commented. "Or seducing a prosecutor? Or an official? Seems kind of ineffective, even questionable…. And Madame Judge, the Prosecutor's changed his story three times now. Is there even anything there to justify my losing time at my business to sit in on this?"
Several other jurors nodded and exchanged looks.
“I move for a mistrial. The jury is clearly biased due to the Duchess’ interference in this case.”
"I told you, you get three options. 'Mistrial' isn't one of those options. This is a criminal court- not a lawsuit, you don't get a 'do over'," Giao snapped. "Present your goddam case, you don't get to give up."
“But I have clearly been sabotaged and the jury is putting words in my mouth as a result!”
"No, they're responding to your assertions, YOU are creating your impression, unless you think that the Damn Duchess can somehow influence so many people. Juries are selected by blind lottery from the civilian population, randomly. Now present your case, Mister Peng, and quit being a whiner."
“It is influence by tortious interference. She ordered the defendant out of the custody of civilian law enforcement, kicked this trial out of its normal jurisdiction. How the hell am I supposed to fairly present my case at this point?”
A Juror who hadn't spoken yet, shook her head. "Madame Giao? Why are we here? I've been arrested multiple times as a prostitute and it never went past a fine for soliciting! This is absurd."
“Because the defendant’s actions resulted in a criminal conspiracy and premeditated manslaughter. If it were simple solicitation and the Duchess not interfered, I would be in the process of presenting evidence by now. But due to the completely botched nature of what has happened in this case I feel I no longer have a fair and reasonable chance to do so.”
"Can we see proof of that conspiracy, pretty please? And who died?" Juror Seven, a housewife, asked.
"Yeah, who died?"
"ORDER!" Giao barked. "Mister Peng, you do have a dead victim, right?"
“The charge is premeditated manslaughter, not premeditated murder.”
Giao gestured to her clerk. "Reinhardt, fetch the law dictionary, we need to educate a Jury!"
"That won't be necessary!!" Peng barked.
Giao glowered at him, "Yes, it is, because a conviction obtained under false pretenses, such as deception of the Jurors, can and does result in the prosecution being tried for felony misconduct. You can either let the Jurors read the definition for themselves, or you can submit to arrest by the bailiff, your choice. If necessary, I'll post a full copy of Articles Three, Six, and Eight of the Constitutional Charter, if you feel the need to supplement YOUR education, Mister Peng."
“The defendant planned to commit a crime, one with lethal consequences. It is only because there were so many witnesses that she and her co-conspirator did not carry it out!”
“Intent? Really? Mister Peng…” Giao felt her temples throb. "Are you prepared to submit ANY evidence of intent? Or do you have a secret telepathic psychic who can read minds?"
“I have the testimony of Mister Meier who survived the incident, the surveillance recordings of the establishment where the incident took place, the testimony of several of Mister Meier’s associates.”
'You'd better not have edited that," Cecilia spoke out of turn, Giao shot a glare at her, but several jurors were nodding agreement.
“There’s no need. The recording clearly has Eddie Vanh proclaiming the defendant performed oral sex with him.”
"Roll the video. Everyone pay close attention," Giao almost barked. 
A few minutes later…
"The guy in the video implies SHE turned Meier down," CeeCee was in her element here. "Which doesn't support the claim of solicitation at all."
“Clearly a part of the staged theater for our benefit according to the testimony of Mister Meier and his companions.”
"Madame Giao, the clip played does not include anything but evidence that Mister Meier couldn't stand to take 'no' for an answer." She looked to the Jury. "How many ladies in the Jury have run into a man who could not, or would not, accept 'no' for an offer of sexual favors on a night out, at a social spot?"
Several women in the jury, and one man, raised their hands.
"Yes, because it's common. How many of you men have been turned down, only to have someone else score with a gal they thought they wanted? Be honest?"
Most of the men, except for the first guy.
"RIGHT… the Prosecutor's done a bang-up job of showing us a plaintiff who couldn't take a hint. Madame Judge, Jurors, I agree, this is absurd."
“And what of Mister Meier’s statements? In that clip he makes it clear he isn’t interested in sex and that the defendant was soliciting and we have a pattern of behavior on the defendant’s part to back it up!”
CeeCee began to chuckle, as she brought out a stack. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Joshua Meier's criminal record. Nothing major, but I'll direct you all to note the highlighted sections, in which he was admonished for, and in several instances, punished, for lying to a court. It goes back quite a ways. There are also at least eleven instances where he's defaulted on legal agreements. His word…" she crossed her arms, "is worthless. His 'witnesses' in the list provided by the Prosecution, consist of employees of himself or family members, and many of those, have a similar record of habitual perfidy-that is, lying in official, legal terms."
“And rather than let the normal course of due process commence as it should, the Duchess interfered with this case. So now we may never know the truth.”
"Due process requires that the Prosecution bear the burden of evidence, Subsection Two, Article Two," CeeCee countered. "The prosecution entered this courtroom presuming the defendant is guilty, and with the assumption that they would not have to have hard evidence. Under the definition of the Rule of Law, the burden of evidence was on the Prosecutor. You relied on a proven liar, and attempted to edit the surveillance footage. You've presented not only no case, but you also presented no evidence a crime even happened, a violation of Section ONE of Article Two of the Charter Constitution."
“We made no such edits! This is now in the realm of defamation of character!”
"Roll the full record, Bailiff. It's under Defense Exhibit One, in which Mister Meier threatened violence against the Defendant, and a bystander intervened."
The displayed record wasn't much longer, but it was longer.
"Your chief witness, your claimed 'victim' initiated hostilities, threatened the Defendant with grievous bodily harm, and did so, as you can see in the record, without due cause. Peng, you've got the wrong defendant here, the wrong charges… the injuries came about…" she gestured, "...after Mister Meier and your 'witnesses' entered with the means and aggression indicative of seeking to initiate gang-style violence and possible grievous crimes. People don't normally walk around with a chain, or attempt to threaten with firearms. The bar owner is on MY witness list, she saw everything you refused to show… and she has a record supporting her honesty and proof her word's good."
Peng sat down, slumping in his chair.
"Madame Giao?" 
"Foremean of the Jury?"
"We're ready to go vote, if everyone's done here?"
"Alright. In recess until the Jury comes back," she struck the bell.
“Mister Peng, for what it is worth, I believe you were a victim in this too,” Janet said as she poured herself a glass of water. “Someone clearly had an objective and jumped on convenient circumstances.”
“Janet, you shouldn’t speak to opposing counsel even if we’re in recess,” CeeCee scolded lightly.
Five minutes later, the Jury came back.
"Do we have a verdict?"
"The State has failed to prove their case, in all allegations save the solicitation, in which the Jury finds the Defendant Innocent."
"There you have it, the defendant is free to go. Next Case," Giao rang the bell.
“Now, we’ll let Eddie’s attorney know if they need you to, you can testify, but I suspect it may not come to that,” CeeCee smiled.
"They'll probably push the assault," Haugen noted.
"Well, it's not like it's his first time," CeeCee said.
"Exactly.'
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===Judgement===
Kowloon, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)3063
"...on the charges of grievous assault with intent to bodily harm, the Jury finds the defendant not guilty by reason of defense of self and others." 
Eddie's trial was less… abrupt. The charges were clearer, the prosecutor more focused, and the judge much more permissive in how the prosecution could and did act.
But…
The jury was drawn randomly, and while he didn't have the BEST lawyers, he did have one of the most expensive… and you pay for performance.
"On the charge of Disruptive Conduct, the jury finds the Defendant not guilty by reason of defense of self and others."
The prosecutor, a hold-over from the Lyran days, buried his face in his hands in frustration.
"On the charge of Attempted Murder, the Jury finds the defendant not guilty, the Foreman notes that the defendant immediately called for medical aid when his opponent was down, and did not aggravate the situation once the victim was unable to fight back."
"On the charge of Public Drunkenness, the jury finds the defendant not guilty by reason that his actions are considered within acceptable norms."
"And the other charges?"
"The state has failed to prove their case, Your Honor."
"So ruled. Mister Vanh, you are free to go."
It turns out, basing your prosecution on the fear of 'unstable veterans' doesn't work so well, when so many Kowloonese either are close to a combat veteran, or are one themselves.
Janet sat smiling in the back row.
"You know, Eddie, you should ask her out," Ox said. "You two are cute together."
“Nah. She might be fun for a while but I’m not letting you off the hook that easy. She made you a promise. And I think she intends to keep it,” Eddie shook his head.
“Aff. I have been given temporary leave due to this incident,” Janet smiled at Eddie. “Thank you. I owe you a debt of gratitude. Do not worry, I will not offer to repay it that way. Besides, I think Nikki is interested in a second date next time she gets a chance.”
===Echoes of a shadow war===
New Avalon, Federated Commonwealth (Federated Suns State Capital)3063
"It's shut down this time?" Victor Steiner-Davion demanded. 
Curiatis nodded, "Shut down, the officers behind this have been relieved and their financial trail's being cleaned up."
"So what did we miss?" the Archon-Prince asked. "Because you damned well know if this happened it's the rat in the granary-you see this one, what did we miss?"
"Department of Military Intelligence, LIC, Loki, Lohengrin, MIIO, the MI-number series, Victor. We got lucky we saw this one. We have intel agencies spying on our intel agencies. Things are that complicated. I don't know… and I'm not sure I can know, how many rogue operations are going on in the realm. I'm not sure I could guess. There's a story from the early twenty-first century, one of the major earth-based empires…. they had one agency smuggling drugs to fund foreign operations, and another agency trying to stem the flow of those drugs simultaneously, neither really knew what the other was doing, both thought they were serving their nation to the best of their ability… And that was after both agencies were under the same umbrella of oversight."
"Your point?"
"The United States of America only covered most of one continent, and only had around half a billion citizens, Victor. The combined realms of the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth represent trillions of subjects. We're lucky to be efficient enough to function at all over as much distance as we're dealing with, with as many ethnic, religious, political and cultural differences as we are dealing with. There's going to be operations going that I won't know about and neither will you. That's the reality of our situation."
“So how do we stop all this counterproductive nonsense?”
“I hate to make the analogy but it is accurate…”
“Do it.”
“We have to approach it like major urban center police forces approach crime. Especially organized crime. You can never stop all of it and what you do stop just leaves a vacancy for someone else to take over. So you prioritize the worst cases. The people that clearly need to be stopped. And just like the major urban centers it will be a never ending battle.”
"It's going to get worse… isn't it?" Victor asked.
Curiatis shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not. Here's the real problem-all of them think they're serving, not themselves, but the Realm. And it's going to get worse as the two halves of the realm combine, because all those agencies will have justifications, excuses, rationalizations and actual reasons for what they're doing, and why you don't understand."
“Then to at least slow it down and give us a fighting chance, I should make it require my authorization to perform such destabilization efforts,” Victor nodded.
"You're going to need a whole agency just to process the requests and reports, Victor. We've got one, and they still miss things, or misunderstand what's going on. So did the Lyran State, and that's scale. Your father kept a lid on things by giving directives, or by looking to the side when it got dirty enough. But we know what happens there: we almost had a war with the Free Worlds over one of those."
“So what I really need is a clear direction for where they should put their efforts.”
"Yeah, something challenging, perpetual, and urgent," his spymaster confirmed. "Something they can grasp. It can't be something they're not going to believe in. And these are some extraordinary cynics. Though every man-jack one of them will insist on his or her idealism."
“Well my options are the Clans, who seem to be honoring the truce which might give them cause to break the truce and alienating allies.”
Victor looked at the complaint from Arthur that set this off, and then at his spymaster.
"I don't have an easy answer, boss, that's why I work for you," Curiatis said simply. "They're still operating like it's wartime, because that's what they started at. Where they started, what they've done for generations."
“Which makes it all the more difficult. I’m not sure we can afford going back to a peacetime footing.”
"What you could really use, is an intractable secret enemy," Curiatis mused. "Someone who can't be struck at openly, somebody pervasive, wide-spread and wide-ranging, extremely powerful, and with lots of dangerous potential, who isn't moving openly enough to pawn it off on the military directly."
“The only people that come close to meeting that definition are the Word of Blake and their little shadow war with Focht’s Comstar.”
"So pick a side," Curiatis told him. "Direct these agencies to support the side you like in the Comstar civil war. It'll feed their need for secrecy and secrets, for action, for significant threats and for all the dirty things they've schooled themselves in and learned over generations… Pick a side, and back it, and you might be able to get our competing, entrenched security agencies to stop sabotaging your real goals in the name of 'security'."
“Picking a side in that is easy. I guess I was just hoping we wouldn’t have to play king maker to keep things clean and not create issues down the road.”
"Your sister-in-law would say that turnabout is fair play, Victor," Curiatis noted. "Lizzie suspects everything out of Terra except Helena Cameron like it's poison. It's part of why LIC and MIIO were okay with running this op… but that redirect means I don't have to disappear some top-shelf agency personnel. We can put them to work fighting shadows instead of sabotaging your initiatives."
His Majesty, the Archon-Prince of the Federated Commonwealth, began drafting a top-secret, codename-clearance, eyes-only memo.
The Federated Suns would support the reformed Comstar against their breakaway cousins in the Word of Blake.
No stone in the landslide voted for it, but a stone dropped on a steep gravel mountain.
===Reverberations of a hidden conflict===
"Ms. Whyte, report." Elizabeth wasn't in-system 24 hours. "What the hell really happened?"
"Your Grace, the turnaround on the verdicts-"
"You mean, my judges and civil servants obeying the law and the juries acting like juries?" Liz commented acidly.
"Yes, was preceded by a number of reliefs at MIIO and LIC, and a realignment of resources. We don't know where, or who, but my agents were able to confirm that the operation backing the current scandal was de-funded and de-authorized, and it has Victor's fingerprints all over it."
"******… He's supposed to be smarter than that…" Liz sighed. "Okay, so what are we doing to make this harder to pull off?"
"You think they'll try it again?"
"Someone will." Liz said, "What are the plans to prevent it?"
"We're working on that," Ms. Whyte confirmed. "Working around your policies is going to make that task… complex."
"Fine. Let it be complicated," Liz stated. "No great art ever came without some challenge and suffering, but we need to be in front of it next time... Because there will always be a next time."
“Put out one fire, another will simply grow somewhere else.”
'Yep, which is why I keep paying you the big bucks, Ms. Whyte. And why your successor will still have a job, and hers, and hers. OCB needs to keep a low profile, and grow."
"I want to try recruiting someone special, but she's really special," Ms. Whyte said.
"Talk to Helena if you think you've got a pitch Jane will accept. Those two come as a package," Liz stated. "Which means you better have a damned good pitch because I won't pressure either of them to say 'yes' to you, savvy?"
"I savvy."
"Don't tell me about it unless she says yes, the less I know the happier I'll be."
"I thought ignorance was dangerous?"
"It is, but it's also blissful," Liz countered. "I'd like to hang on to some illusions, even if deep down I know they're false, it helps keep me sane… If she says 'no', and I expect she will, we're still going to be funding the AI research at the University, because we need that capability, and we need to not-be-importing-it from the Earthers."
“And a little operational security never hurt anyone. Can’t blab what you don’t know after all.”
"I'll be side-financing a covert program to replicate the results. Try to work angles the main university team is avoiding," Elizabeth told her. "That way, we have some basis for comparison and can add failures to the 'do not try this again' list."
"The side program?"
"Through The Firm," Liz told her. "Ngo Enterprises, so we can keep it under Corporate security… but one ownership step removed via a cutout-we're going to be giving business loans to a computer research group on Winter. Pick one other subsidiary and use the rainy day fund to float them."
"How do we communicate?" Ms. Whyte asked. "I mean, we can't completely avoid the HPG network…"
Her Grace reached to the side. "Remember these books?"
"The Star Cadet series? Yeah…you loved those-"
"I still do. Find writers, create a new publishing house: books for kids. Include real science and information in the stories, and publish them. Nobody looks at children's books for hard information, but the original authors of the series managed to preserve tons of KF theory information in these youth novels, it's where Arthur and I both got our start, and the novels predicted a lot of our 'discoveries'...so someone was sneaking out the information from under the Terran Alliance's nose, and it survived. Emulate that. Media, speculative fiction, and potboiler dramas. The cheesier the better. Make sure your encryption techs can write a good story… because I want that publisher to make money while doing this."
“And for more pressing situations where we need something faster?”
"Rehearsals and fan forums,” Liz suggested. "Maybe also tap into the wealth of conspiracy theorists out there and their forums. I'm willing to bet intel agencies will dismiss it as white noise at best, or absolute bullshit if it looks like it's the province of Nerds, Nuts, and Shut-Ins or Kids dipping into fantasy."
“Samantha Anderson also has an interesting take on the old World War Two Enigma code combined with code talkers of the American Marine units.”
"Do it," Liz urged. "Do all of it, but not all at once, or on the same topics. Our best security is convincing everyone the same trick the Devil did… Convince them that some things are just fictional, or silly."
“Yes Ma’am.”
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"...it's amazing what you can say in public, when nobody takes you seriously."-Doctor Mechbender, Wild Tales of the Periphery!! issue 1, volume 1, 3062.
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