The effect was incalculable. It was, as the Chairman had described it, unprecedented and humiliating. It was also particularly apt: Isis was famously obsessive about the beauty and fragrance of its cities, and of its people. The story spread rapidly over the other twenty-eight systems. Isis, and De Vere, would forever be known as the place where She had done this.
And the smell and stains absolutely would not go away. Sakhran faeces smelt many times worse than human faeces, and left stains on De Vere’s palladian facades and colonnades and piazzas which responded only gradually to even the most high-powered of hoses. The city’s renowned formal gardens also suffered; Sakhran faeces killed rather than fertilised.
It was the first thing She had ever done which might, just possibly, hint at a motive. Or maybe not; nobody knew anything about Her, and She had never made or answered any communication. And yet, it was said throughout the Commonwealth, how exquisitely judged! And how exquisitely executed! Until you remembered the five Isis ships and their crews.
“No, Mr Chairman.” Fourth Voice said. “That’s all right. Let her have that one, on us. Commander, I’m bound to say that your attitude towards this trial is at best questionable. You’ve refused to call witnesses in your defense, you’ve refused to cross-examine any witnesses we might call, you’ve refused to appoint a legal adviser or to accept our offer of one, you only answer our questions partially, and when you do it’s as if you’re doing us a favour. Either pull out of this trial altogether—and we advised you of your right to do that—or participate in it; but don’t insult us. That unidentified ship does enigmatic silences and hidden meanings much better than you do.”
“I’m sorry,” Ansah said, “if my attitude to the trial has offended you. Frankly, the trial isn’t going the way I wanted.”
“You’re not the first defendant to think that.”
“No, I mean the way I wanted. It’s been concerned too much with my personal guilt or innocence.”
“I rather thought that was the idea of a trial, Commander.”
“No. If you find me guilty, you’re wrong. If you find me innocent, you’re wrong.”
The hazy outlines behind the long curved table exchanged whispers and glances. Ansah could imagine their expressions, and remembered a phrase Foord sometimes used for such people: clitoris-faced and labial-lipped. She waited a while, calculating when best to speak, then said loudly “Forks.” She was gratified to see a couple of them, including Fourth Voice, actually jump.
“What was that, Commander?”
“Forks. A road with two forks. Sakhrans call them Binary Gates. Two alternatives, one for Guilty and one for Innocent. But I made earlier decisions at earlier forks. The fork I’m facing now, at this trial, is so far down the road that wherever I go, it won’t alter the main direction.”
“So you’re not Guilty and you’re not Innocent. What are you?”
“When I was sent to Isis I received sealed orders for this mission. When I decided to open them I knew that sooner or later that decision would kill me. As you know, those orders put my ship under the control of Isis Fleet if there was an engagement with Her. I could have refused to obey them, and died there and then. I could have accepted them, joined your Fleet and fought in a battle which I knew was already lost; and died then. Or I could have withdrawn my ship, knowing that I would have to stand trial; and die now.”
“Do you mean to tell this Court that—is something amusing you, Commander?”
Ansah had been smiling faintly. “I’m sorry. I had a bet with myself that if anyone used the phrase Do You Mean To Tell This Court, it would be you.”
“I’ll use it again,” Fourth Voice snapped. “Do you mean to tell this Court that when a Class 101 battleship and four Class 097 heavy cruisers—let’s leave your ship out of it, shall we, since that’s what you did—when those five ships engage a single opponent, far from having even a limited expectation of success they’re inevitably going to be defeated?”
“Yes. And they were.”
“Commander, listen to me carefully. You’re on trial for your life. Why did you leave those ships to Her?”
Ansah paused.
“They didn’t have a chance, and I told them. That’s on record. I asked them to get out of my way and let me engage Her alone, and they refused. That’s on record. They couldn’t accept that they were facing an invincible opponent. They couldn’t accept that giving way to an Outsider—something completely abhorrent to them—was their only chance of survival. So they lost; and that’s on record.”
There was a few seconds’ silence from the figures at the table. Then a new voice spoke; she called it Ninth Voice.
“Commander Ansah, I’d like to ask you about your ship. The Sirhan, as we’ve heard, is an Outsider Class cruiser. I understand that Outsiders are believed to be capable, on present documented evidence, of at least matching the performance and firepower of this unidentified ship. Is that correct?”
“On present documented evidence.”
“Then wouldn’t such a ship be decisive in the engagement, especially when added to those five others? Why should it be more likely to fail with those five than without?”
“You’ve heard me tell the Court there are nine Outsiders.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know how much each one is worth?”
“Probably something that sounds good when you recite it: the entire cost of Isis Fleet, or the entire annual gross product of Bast, or something similar.”
“That will do well enough. And do you know their political status?”
“I thought you’d already told us, Commander…and I believe that I’m supposed to be asking you questions.”
“Then please ask that one. It’s important.”
Pause.
“Commander, what is the political status of the nine Outsiders?”
“They’re Instruments of the Commonwealth, outside the normal command structures. They report directly to the Department of Administrative Affairs. They fight alone, not in a team.”
“Yes, we know all that, you already told us. Why is it important?”
“There are people…” Ansah paused, and began again. “There are people who say that if She can only be stopped by an Outsider, then maybe it’s better if She isn’t stopped at all.”
“And are you familiar with that attitude, Commander?”
“I see it wherever I go. It’s like we’re carrying a disease. Outsiders have a certain reputation. They’re accountable to nobody, at least nobody anyone would recognise, and they’re run on lines most miltary people wouldn’t understand. So people treat them as alien ships, crewed by aliens.”
“How do you mean, Crewed By Aliens?”
“People of unusual ability, otherwise they wouldn’t be there. But people who don’t fit into any conventional authority structure, because they’re too ambitious or unambitious, too political or apolitical, too stable or unstable. Most of them are sociopathic, many are psychopathic. Most of them have done terrible things.”
“Is that the real reason they’re called Outsiders?”
“Yes.”
Some of the figures facing her glanced at each other, but said nothing. To fill the silence, Ansah added “And there will never be any more than nine. They’re expensive, but the Commonwealth could easily afford to build fifty.”