Chapter Twenty-Two

Home // Titles // Title 92, “A Bill To Ensure Justice is Served on a Victim of Crime’s Home Planet” // Decisions // All // Chronological

Kouris, Marcia (Lady), Herald:

I am, as you must imagine, disappointed to see the title I nominated fail to pass the chamber. It was my hope that this matter could be resolved quickly, considering the urgency of the matter with regard to our present situation. I am certain that there are no delegates who would wish that the individual responsible for the crime that inspired this bill stay on this station any longer than necessary. This station is our home, and now more than ever we must ensure that it remains safe. And yet, they seem more than content to shoot down this bill, which would have provided an appropriate means of justice as well as a swift exit for the offender.

President Sai made their intentions clear when introducing this title that, should it fail, a second title would be introduced to provide our colleagues from Earth: Garden an opportunity to send the offender there instead. This dichotomy has dominated our Parliament for the entirety of this debate, and I believe Title 92 being brought forward first (in contradiction to the original schedule as I understand it) hobbled its chances in the eyes of the Parliament, many of whom voted it down simply because they anticipated a “better” title coming soon. Perhaps a week ago I would have thought twice before claiming foul play on the part of our new presidential team. However, while many of my colleagues seem to have forgotten the scandalous and illegal use of unauthorised machines aboard this station, I will not soon forget that Earth: Carmen are just as capable of hiding secrets as the rest of us.

I urge my colleagues (at least, those with the diligence to have read these decisions) to consider the consequences of those actions as they pertain not to some nebulous future title, but to this title. We have decided that it is not the right of the aggrieved to receive compensation for a crime. We have agreed, by a narrow margin, that it is not the right of those who are stolen from or subject to violence to seek justice in their own legal system. These are the very foundations of justice, at least on my own planet. To strip victims of these rights is a dramatic violation of laws that any civilised society ought to hold sacred. I disagree in the strongest possible terms with this vote, and I shall petition President Sai for an opportunity to revisit this issue before the so-spoken “Garden Justice Bill” comes to the vote.

Hase, Manfred (Mr., Esquire), Edo:

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Welcome to Manny’s Decision Corner, everyone! I know that these decisions are going to be publicly available, and I know there’s a lot of curiosity about the whole process, so live from the Audacity space station I’m going to be giving you the real, unfiltered truth about what happens up here. As well as being a distinguished delegate (no, really!) I’m also the owner and proprietor of Luna, the multiverse’s first interdimensional bar! In that capacity I get to hear a lot of gossip, and I mean a lot. That’s how I first heard two delegates discussing the very bill that we’re going to discuss today, and I think what they said will be of interest to all of you too. I’ve removed their names, but you should know that both of them are from the Earth we call Garden.

Now, these Garden types, if you haven’t met them before (and why would you?), they’re special people. They’re like toddlers who have only just begun to learn the concepts of sharing, only with high-level tactical information and extensive weapons training. They’re not all bad – I even have one of them working behind the bar with me! – but it takes a little while to warm to them. Or maybe a long while. (For any Garden folk that read this – kidding!)

You all know about the tragic incident that took place aboard the station, where some asshole stowed away on a shuttle and killed the President. It was a huge deal, and of course it’s all anyone’s been able to talk about. Everyone agrees that this guy did it, right, but there’s kind of a split on how he should be punished. Because, you know, if this sort of thing happened back home, there’d be a trial and a jury and all that due process stuff. I’m no lawyer, but even I know the basics of contract law, and whichever of-age contract this guy had signed would have had a provision for murder. We haul him into court and we do evidence and all that. But we don’t have a court up here, or an Audacity contract. So now there’s a problem.

(Sidenote! You might have heard of a court that we do have up here, called the Constitutional Court. But they’re not that kind of court – they just make sure that titles we submit to vote on don’t clash with the Audacity Constitution. And oddly enough, that document doesn’t say anything about poisoning the President!)

Anyway, back to this conversation. These two Garden guys are trying to work out what they should do. And one of them says well, you know, we’ve got to take the killer back to Garden (actually he says Earth, but you get it). He belongs to us – he’s one of ours, we’ve got to handle him. And that’s what most of the Garden people have been saying. Because the killer was from Garden (but not from the same group as these delegates – it’s complicated), that’s where he should be tried and probably convicted.

But then, the other Garden guy in the bar looks at his friend and goes, but if we take him back, isn’t there a chance he could escape, and cause even more havoc? I mean, we’re taking him back to his home, and he’s apparently a powerful operative, so there’s gonna be people there who would want to keep him free. And we could lose even more in the process. The second he sets foot on the planet again, all hell will break loose, I’m sure of it. That’s what he says, this second guy.

And I swear to whatever deity is hip back home these days, the first guy lowers his drink, looks him dead in the eye, and he says: who says he ever has to survive the trip home?

I tell you that story because I want you to know the calibre of the people we’re dealing with. They’re not going to hesitate to plot your murder if they think it’s safer for them, because they’ve all lived their whole lives and then some fighting a deadly battle against strange, unknown forces. Seriously, I know we give Nano Dex a lot of shit for thinking that these guys were aliens initially, but having met them I’ve gotta say they’re not so far off the mark.

All that is to say, I voted for this title. It would have sent the killer back to Earth: Herald, where the President was from (trivia: he was actually King of the planet!), where he could have stood trial. I voted for it because I thought it was more humane, and whatever you think of this piece of crap who killed the President, he’s still a person who deserves a trial. Now, some of my colleagues will say, how do you know that the Herald trial would be fairer than a Garden execution? After all, Herald has their fair share of brutality in their not-so-distant past, too. And to that I say, I don’t know. I can’t know that Herald would have been a better choice, because I’ve never been there.

But my job here is to represent all of you. Yes, I’m here on the grace of the fabulous Iridesoft and their suite of incredible products, but above all I’m supposed to do what I think you would want me to do. I think if any of you were in my situation you would have voted the same way, and even though it failed I’m still proud of my choice. Got that?

Thanks for reading this decision – I can’t promise they’ll all be as sensational as this one but stay tuned for more in the near future! Ciao!

Muñoz, Cristian (Dr., Vice President), Carmen:

This title is, of course, the less crucial of the two we are scheduled to vote on this week. The upcoming Title 93, which we believe will be called “A Bill to Extradite Criminal Offenders to Their Planets of Origin”, is likely to pass now that the Parliament has elected to vote against this one. Nevertheless, I am pleased that some delegates have taken this opportunity to begin writing decisions on these titles, and I hope that they maintain the practice in the future. This system was suggested to me by Hej of my Earth, Carmen, and I thank her for her efforts in assisting the Service with set-up. It is my hope that this system will provide delegates with more opportunities to explain their votes to other delegates as well as to the general public.

To that end, I note that certain delegates have taken the opportunity to provide “sponsored content” as part of their decision. While there is no rule against this per se, I do ask that delegates remain considerate of one another’s feelings, particularly when discussing sensitive issues. I hope to not have to bring this up again.

Hanmer, Mairin (Ms.), Garden:

I’m not used to writing like this, so you’ll have to forgive me if I make a mistake. But the guidance I got said that I should just tell you how I voted and why, how I feel about the result, and what consequences I foresee. So: I voted against the bill because I thought it was a waste of time. I know that Lady Kouris, from Earth: Herald, would have you believe that this is a travesty, a blatant miscarriage of justice, and the inevitable cause of our imminent doom. I don’t believe that’s true. I think that the Lady and many of her pack want to see this killer taken back to their planet so they can exact their ideas of justice on him, despite the fact that he doesn’t even speak their language much less understand their legal system. How is he to know what rights he should or should not be afforded?

We know this killer’s identity – perhaps not his name, but we know his faction and his goals, and we have shared that information in the spirit of good faith. Even as he sits in a dormitory while I type this, he must know that on some level his mission to destabilise the station has succeeded. Perhaps it is not an attack in the traditional sense, but it is one that people of my planet are used to weathering. We must fight it by presenting a unified front, something that these decisions are already harming. I hope that now that this title is out of the way, we can move to real action against this harmful attack.

Ariti, Lars (Scion), Herald:

It was hard for me to vote against this title, not only because it meant voting against my colleagues from Earth: Herald but because I’m still not certain it was the right thing to do. It has been a long time since I was certain of anything at all, really, but one thing I’ve learned in my time aboard Audacity is that sometimes you don’t need to be certain – you just need to make a decision.

When I was making my decision I recalled the advice of Speaker Evanson (whom I would like to briefly praise for his handling of this situation, including his stint as Acting President). He had told us that any titles we made to answer the question of what should be done with the individual aboard this station would also apply to any future criminal issues, should they occur. Such a thing might seem unbelievable to anyone reading this, but it has already happened once, so we must be ready in the event that anything similar (tragic as it might be to think of) happens again.

Taking that advice to heart, and considering other events over the past few weeks, I found myself wondering what might happen if someone was found to steal secrets from another delegate or group of delegates. I know that such things are illegal on my own Earth, but I understand that on Earth: Carmen, for example, there are no considerations for espionage under the law of Control. Does that mean that a Carmen delegate has the right to steal secrets from a Herald delegate and cannot be punished for it?

Ultimately, I was persuaded by a friend of mine that such cases ought to be handled separately, as they impact the running of Audacity directly. It is my hope that eventually we can set up a full legal system aboard the station that gives it legal jurisdiction. I am fully aware that such a hope is a tall order, but it seems to me the only sensible way to deal with issues like this. In the meantime, I have to take into account the practical considerations raised by my colleagues from Earth: Garden – the killer does not speak H-Greek or any other H-originated language, and nobody on my planet speaks G-Reian (as I understand it, that is his mother tongue), so there is no practical way to try and convict him on Earth: Herald. Therefore, he ought to be taken back to Earth: Garden, where I am certain he will receive the appropriate punishment.

Jenkins, Leo (Private), Garden:

Having now talked with the prisoner multiple times, I am in no doubt that he is a creature of malice, a being whose sole purpose is to destroy our way of life. Earth: Herald’s too good for him.

Mellakos, Peter (Sir, Dr.), Herald:

Much time is spent aboard Audacity arguing about our myriad cultural differences, or, as has become the fashion more recently, attempting to reconcile those differences into a unified narrative of a single multiverse. The folly of such attempts is not the subject of this decision, but I nevertheless highlight them in order to illustrate another point. For all this time spent putting our differences under a microscope, we spend almost no time at all celebrating our similarities.

This approach may seem unusual to my fellow delegates, who are evidently unpractised in such particulars, but in order to ‘get the ball rolling’ (as the Edoans might say), I should like to ruminate on the timely subject of funerary arrangements. As far as I can gather, every culture on every planet has its own version of a funeral ceremony. The instinct to commemorate the recently passed is, if not inherent to human nature, at least a very short walk from it. The funeral of a King on Earth: Herald is a grand affair, and all well-to-do citizens have a special outfit for just such an occasion. Following the ceremony and a global week of mourning, the King’s body will be laid to rest in the tomb underneath the Alexandrian Glory Palace, alongside all his dynastic ancestors. This standard process has been somewhat disrupted by the fact that King Aenos 5 was the first King not to die on Earth. He will therefore be the first King not to receive a timely burial since King Makedon II in the year 109, whose body was stolen by Norwegian raiders.

Earth: Carmen’s cremations are as utilitarian as you might expect from that planet, but do not think them as cold or emotionless. Indeed, it is my hypothesis that Carmen residents use these events as a kind of pressure valve, to let out feelings that would normally not be considered socially acceptable.

Delegates from Earth: Edo have provided conflicting accounts of their own funeral traditions, but a consistent element that they share with Earth: Garden is the utilisation of music as a form of remembrance. One Edo resident shared a memorable anecdote of a famous musician who lost the rights to their own songs, but nevertheless requested that one of those songs be played at their funeral. The request cost their family hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, proving beyond doubt that there is nothing that an Earth: Edoan won’t sue over.

I was surprised to learn that Earth: Garden’s funerals are not so different from your average Herald ceremony, with the notable exception that there are rather a lot more of them. Of some note to me was that the Commander of Novus Ordo Seculorum (their closest analogue to a King) is not necessarily given any special treatment on the occasion of their death. They may well have more attendees, but beyond that the Commander is treated no differently than a Private. To readers of this decision at home, this may seem unthinkable, but having spent some time with the fine people of Earth: Garden during my term here I am confident that they mean no disrespect to their leaders by doing things the way they do.

Ultimately, death is a unifying force, bringing together as it does not only the attendees of these ceremonies, but also the traditions of various disparate cultures. In all these customs, one common thread shines through, confirming what I have believed for a long time. The purpose of a funeral is to tell the story of a life, from beginning to end. Lives are not stories, as we know – stories have logic and structure, and while they may have twists their endings are always a natural consequence of what came before. The same cannot be said of a life like the King’s, cut down without sense or reason before his time. But through remembrance ceremonies on all planets, we can pretend, for just a short period, that life is a little like a story.

Evanson, Geraint (Speaker):

I urge all delegates to keep their decisions concise and relevant to the motion at hand.

Meridian, Arthur (Mr.), Edo:

I have been asked by the executives of Nano Dex to provide readers back home with an account of the recent events aboard Audacity. I will do my best to offer a clear and unbiased retelling, as well as some information on this most recent vote.

As you no doubt know, King Aenos 5’s assassination shook the foundation of the Parliament. For those who were in the room at the time (not myself, but two of my Nano Dex colleagues) it was a deeply traumatic event, made worse by the efforts of Security to trap them in place while they scrambled to control the situation. I have great respect and admiration for the Service, and all the people who work to make what we do possible, but I think even they would agree that in this instance they dropped the ball. Audacity is simply not set up to deal with problems like this, which I think is exactly why the assassin’s faction were able to get to the King in the first place.

There are other considerations in this matter – you may have heard the excitement surrounding the “quantum clone” theory, which posits that each Earth may have certain individuals whose genetic makeup matches other people on different planets. I want to take the opportunity to clear up two misconceptions about this theory. The first is this: the theory does not imply that every individual has a clone on every planet, or even on any of them. The vast majority of us will not have twins on other planets, and we are even less likely to live at the same time as them – of the two pairs we have identified, one of them lived several decades apart. Not to mention that environmental factors don’t seem to play a significant role in this theory – if there is indeed a parallel Arthur on Earth: Carmen, he will have led a very different life than me.

The second misconception is that the individual who killed the King was able to stroll into the chamber simply because he resembled a member of the Service. The truth is that the group who sent him there did months of research and disguise work – which, we must not forget, is vastly more sophisticated on Earth: Garden than any of us are used to – and the individual had to also hide in ventilation ducts, steal an access pass, and bluff his way through a language that he does not speak. The fact that he was able to do all of this speaks not just to a blind spot in the security systems aboard Audacity, but also to a formidable power that opposes us and uses its years of experience and training to destroy us.

In short, I do not believe that this is the last attack our enemies will try to launch. I therefore voted against this bill in the belief that the assassin ought to be sent to his planet of origin, where I understand Novus Ordo Seculorum intend to make an example of him. Perhaps that sounds barbaric, but again, we are dealing with an enemy who does not understand our language or any of our cultures, and has chosen to burn it all down rather than attempt to cooperate. We must punish such attempts in order to deter any future destruction.

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Sai (President), Carmen:

First of all, please allow me to thank the Service for providing us with this wonderful system, as well as being considerate enough to supply me with an assistant to help dictate my decisions. This was my first title introduced as President, and while I would have preferred a less controversial topic to kick off my term I recognise the urgency of this matter. Of course, this title has another in direct opposition to be introduced later in the week, and I expect that it will succeed where this one has failed.

I personally voted for this bill, as a gesture of good faith towards the Herald faction who spearheaded its passage. I understand that there are those within that faction who view me with suspicion due to my non-organic nature, and I understand their concerns. What essentially amounts to a new life form is a lot to accept, and decades of paranoia in media and fiction around the idea of artificial intelligence and machines generally seems to be a historical fact congruent on any Earth. I am also aware that the recent controversy around our use of an unauthorised chassis has led to distrust of our planet. But in order to help put those fears to rest I pledged to support at least one title nominated by each faction in my first month in office. The Edo group have yet to settle on a title to receive my support, but the Herald and Garden factions have each decided to ask for my support with this week’s titles. As it stands, I will also be voting for the Garden bill that will have the assassin sent to his home. I explain this now so the apparent contradiction is clear. I voted (and will be voting) for two seemingly opposing bills because their supporters asked me to.

With that explained, then, I should use the remainder of this decision to explain my true feelings on the subject, with the obvious caveat that in accordance with my deal with Earths: Herald and Garden, I will not debate or support this point in the chamber itself. It is my view that the assassin should be transported to Earth: Carmen. While my own Earth does not hold a personal stake in the crime, being the origin of neither the perpetrator nor the victim, we do have considerable experience in treating crime and punishment appropriately. It may surprise you to learn that crime still exists on Earth: Carmen, given the utopian view we have often projected (though never with the intent to deceive). Indeed, our criminals are perhaps fewer and far between, but their crimes are far more destructive or impactful. This often stems from fundamental disagreements about Control’s decision-making or the nature of utopia itself. The most memorable such disagreement in recent years was the case of Dr. Rosianna Lucis, a doctor of chemistry at the University of Valencia who illegally tampered with essential resources in eight metropolitan centres, sterilising between 2,000 and 10,000 individuals before she was caught. In court, she provided the majority of the evidence that eventually convicted her, and declared that her goal was to reduce the Earth’s overall population through the most humane and safe methods possible. Other worlds have a phrase for this, which I recently learned – “the ends justify the means.” Following her admission of guilt, she also asked that she be put to death rather than have further social resources spent on her incarceration. Her request was eventually denied, and she now has a variable term inside a secure facility. It is expected that Control will not Recommend her release.

I tell you this story to illustrate that on Earth: Carmen we are used to dealing with a stronger and stranger variety of criminal than you might expect. An assassin who doesn’t speak our language bent on killing the President to destabilise the multidimensional community is not necessarily outside our wheelhouse, and we have the means to provide an appropriate punishment if (as is likely) Control Recommends we find him guilty.

I know that given the political nature of the victim and the close ties that Novus Ordo Seculorum have to the enemy faction who committed the crime, Earth: Carmen is almost guaranteed to not receive a look-in on the issue. Nevertheless, I hope that by putting my thoughts in the open here, I can perhaps convince other delegates of their rationality.

Wake, Tomas (Colonel), Garden:

In our conversations with the assassin, we have been able to determine that he views his actions as revenge for an operation our own faction executed against one of his “brothers”. I hesitate to share this information publicly, as I know that the fine people of Earth: Herald may wish to point fingers our way as responsible parties for their King’s death. I pre-emptively refute that accusation thusly – our enemies believe that cause and effect are inextricably linked, and that every action’s reactions are predictable and inevitable. This is how they rationalise mass murder and extermination of our people over the centuries; they say it was always going to happen.

We have proven them wrong aboard this station. Señorita Castillo’s theories on convergence are the scientific proof that effect does not always follow cause – sometimes, when affected by multiversal probability, it precedes it. The Clock are wrong, and by using a quantum clone to perform their operation, they have implicitly admitted it. With all due respect to señorita Castillo, she cannot have been the first to discover this theory, even if she was the first to explain it so eloquently. I believe the Clock realise the extent to which this fact of reality undermines their sham philosophy and wish to scare us all away in order to shield the fact that it ever happened.

Despite our political differences on this issue, and despite the fact that I voted it down, I sympathise with my colleagues from Earth: Herald. They have been wronged, in the deepest and most fundamental way. I do not know what it is like to have a King, but I do have a General, and a Commander above her, and if either of them were subject to an attack like this I would want my revenge too. The only solace I can offer is that your revenge will come, one way or another.