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“No, he seemed perfectly controlled.”

“No further questions.”

“Mr. Ross, redirect?”

“No, Your Honor.”

“The witness is excused. You may step down, Dr. Singler.”

“Your Honor,” Ross said, “our next witness will be Dr. Dorothy Italiano, who as you know cannot be present. It will take some time to set up the holo link and our demonstration equipment for this witness, and therefore I ask for a half-hour recess.”

Llewellyn rose. “Your Honor, the prosecution objects to the introduction of this witness. If we are having a recess, perhaps this would be an appropriate time to discuss our objection in chambers.”

“I think so, Mr. Llewellyn. The court will be in recess until three-thirty-five.”

Judge Van Winkle’s “chambers” consisted of a single large comer room, decorated with postmodern paintings and plants in ceramic pots. Behind his polished desk, the judge said, “Sit down, gentlemen, and let’s get to it. You first, Mr. Llewellyn.”

“Your Honor, we know that the defense intends to introduce Dr. Italiano as an expert witness in order to validate the testimony of another witness, not a human being but a so-called McNulty’s symbiont. Since that testimony is obviously inadmissible, there’s no point in qualifying Dr. Italiano.”

“Mr. Ross?”

“We intend to call a witness who is a host to a McNulty’s symbiont. We don’t agree that his testimony will be inadmissible.”

“Your Honor, forgive me, but that’s ridiculous. Dr. Italiano claims to be able to communicate with these invisible parasites through the host, but there is no scientific proof that these communications have any validity whatever—they could be, probably are, fantasy on the part of the human host. If this testimony is admitted, it will set a dangerous precedent. We could put a criminal defendant on the stand, infect him with a parasite, and take testimony from the parasite as to whether or not he committed the crime. That would be the nearest thing to self-incrimination.”

“The courts would strike that down, Your Honor, but that’s not what we intend here. We intend to show extenuating circumstances, as Mr. Llewellyn is aware, but also we want to address a larger issue. As you know, this is the first capital murder case that has actually come to trial in this state in the laist eleven months. Just a week ago, James Hilbert, accused of murdering his wife, was found dead in his cell the morning after arrest—”

“I’m aware of that, Mr. Ross.”

“Yes, Your Honor, and in other cases the accused didn’t even get as far as being apprehended. In seven murder cases that we know about, the perpetrator dropped dead at the scene or shortly thereafter, and in four more, after menacing someone with a weapon, they dropped dead before they could pull the trigger. This has profound implications for the criminal justice system. For the good of the public, this testimony must be admitted.”

“Are you appearing as a friend of the court, Mr. Ross?” the judge asked drily.

“No, Your Honor, I’m defending my client, but there are larger issues that should be addressed.”

The judge rocked back and forth gently in his chair. “I think I see the thrust of your argument, Mr. Ross. Are you suggesting that our murderers are being killed by the parasites, or symbionts, who can read their minds and therefore know they’re guilty?”

“Yes, Your Honor, and that will appear in the testimony.”

“Then are you further suggesting that if the parasites didn’t kill your client, he must be innocent?”

“No, Your Honor, that would be to turn over the whole justice system to the symbionts, and that would be intolerable. Just because my client is still alive, we have an opportunity to determine guilt or innocence for ourselves, and that’s very important.”

“I’ll admit Dr. Italiano as an expert witness,” the judge said. “Mr. Llewellyn, you’ll have an opportunity to object again to the next witness.”

“I certainly intend to, Your Honor.”

When the jurors filed in again, they saw that two holophones and a large screen had been set up in the front of the courtroom. Another phone was on the judge’s bench, and the bailiff had a fourth.

“Call your next witness, Mr. Ross,” the judge said.

“Thank you, Your Honor. The defense calls Dr. Dorothy Italiano. Because Dr. Italiano is a resident scientist aboard Sea Venture, now in the Pacific five hundred miles from land, the court has consented to allow her to testify by holophone, and she is standing by.”

He approached one of the phones on its pedestal. “Dr. Italiano?”

In one half of the split screen the face of a dark-haired woman appeared; in the other the jurors could see the bailiff, greatly magnified. When she had sworn the witness, the bailiff retired; Ross appeared on the screen.

“Dr. Italiano, what is your profession?” he asked.

“I’m a hypnotherapist.”

“A hypnotherapist. What does that mean, exactly?”

“I use hypnotic suggestion to alleviate certain symptoms, or to help people avoid certain behaviors—to quit smoking, for example.”

“I see. And does a person have to have a medical degree to practice this profession?”

“No. I’m not a medical doctor, I have a Ph.D. in psychology.”

“And what is your current employment, Doctor?”

“I’m employed by the Emergency Civil Control Administration aboard Sea Venture, where I specialize in communicating with McNulty’s symbionts.”

Ross picked up a device from the table. “Is this the apparatus you use in these experiments?”

“Yes.”

“Will you explain to the jury how it works?”

“Yes. It’s a skin potentiometer, that is, it measures the electrical potential of a person’s skin, usually the palms, where electric potential varies with changes in perspiration. Although the symbiont is unable to communicate directly, it can signal by means of these potential changes, which are too small even to be noticed by the host.”

“By the host you mean the human being who is infected by the symbiont?”

“Yes.”

“All right. Now, as I understand it, Doctor, these changes in skin potential give you a sort of on-off signal, or a yes-no. But you can obtain precise information from the symbiont by using an alphabet chart similar to the one we have here in the courtroom?”

A second holoscreen lit up, displaying a chart on which the letters of the alphabet, the numbers from 0 to 9, and the words YES, NO, and END appeared.

“That’s right, and we use a computer program that advances the cursor across the chart, registers the incoming signals, and displays the sentence to the operator as it forms.”

“In fact, it is true, is it not, that this is your own apparatus, lent to us for the purpose of this trial?”

“Yes.”

“All right. Now, have you ever received communications in this way on matters which the host could not have known about?”

“Yes, many times.”

“How do you explain that?”

“Objection, speculative.”

The judge’s face appeared in the screen, replacing that of the defense attorney. “I’ll allow it,” he said. “The witness may answer.”

“The symbiont has been in other hosts, and it remembers,” Italiano said. “Also, it appears that the symbionts can communicate with each other when more than one of them is present in the same host, and they exchange information that way.”

“And after these communications, have you subsequently found that the information given you by the symbionts was true and accurate?”

“Yes, in every case where we could check it.”

“No further questions.”

Llewellyn rose and went to the holophone. “Dr. Italiano, you’ve told us that this interesting device registers changes in the skin potential of the palms. Does that mean it’s similar to a lie detector?”