“But Seltar died during repairs?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She was working in the engineering compartment. A containment plate ruptured and blew out toward her. The impact killed her instantly.”
“Was her body severely damaged?”
“No. The injury was to her head.”
“And so what did you do with the body?”
“As per the standard procedures of my ship, I dissected it to harvest her organs, in case they might be needed for transplant.”
“And didn’t you find yourself aroused by the process of doing so?”
“No.”
“Didn’t you find the cutting of flesh pleasurable?”
“No.”
“You didn’t feel compelled to experience the same sensation again?”
“No.”
“And once you arrived at Earth, weren’t you curious about human anatomy?”
“No. Such curiosity would be prurient.”
“Come now, Hask! You’re an explorer, and you’re on what is, to you, an alien world. Weren’t you curious about the lifeforms you found here?”
“When you put it that way…”
“So you lied a moment ago when you said no.”
“I misspoke.”
“How many other times have you misspoken?”
“Objection!” said Dale. “Argumentative.”
“Sustained,” said Pringle.
“So you admit that you had recently experienced the opening up of a body, and that you were fascinated by human anatomy—even if such fascination was not polite by the standards of your race.”
“You are overstating my curiosity.”
“On December twenty-second, you found yourself with Dr. Calhoun while almost everyone else was away. Did your urge to see human in-wards get the best of you?”
“No.”
“Did you pull out your cutting device and sever his leg?”
“No.”
“And did you then slit open his belly and carve out his organs—just is you had carved out Seltar’s organs?”
“No. No. None of what you say is true.”
“You’re a monster, aren’t you, Mister Hask? A killer, and, even by the standards of your own people, a deviant.”
“Objection!” said Dale.
“That is not true,” said Hask. His topknot was flailing wildly.
“The one inescapable truth, though,” said Ziegler, “is that Cletus Calhoun is dead.”
Hask was quiet for several seconds. His topknot slowly calmed down.
“That,” agreed Hask, at last, “is the one inescapable truth.”
*24*
The media excitement was slightly—but only slightly—less the next day, when the defense’s case-in-chief continued.
“The defense calls the Tosok named Rendo,” said Dale Rice.
Rendo strode to the witness stand and was sworn in.
Dale rose. “Mr. Rendo, what is your job title aboard the Tosok starship?”
“I am Sixth.”
“And what specialty did you perform?”
“I am chief engineer.”
“Prior to embarking on your starflight, where did you live?
“In the city known as Destalb‹pop› on the planet my people call home.”
“And that planet,” said Dale, “where is it located?”
“In the scheme of naming used by your species, it is part of the Alpha Centauri system.”
“Why did your people come to Earth?”
Rendo looked at the jurors. “In our skies, your sun appears in the constellation you call Cassiopeia. From Earth, Cassiopeia looks like your capital letter W. From our world, your sun forms an extra jag off the W. We call that constellation the serpent. Your sun is the bright eye of the serpent; the rest of what you call Cassiopeia makes up the fainter tail.” Rendo’s tuft parted in the center. “Every young Tosok has looked up at the eye of the serpent, knowing that, save for Orange and Red, it is the nearest star. It is only natural that we should wish to visit here.”
“Orange and Red?”
“Our names for Alpha Centauri B and C. We call Alpha Centauri A ‘Yellow’, B ‘Orange’, and C ‘Red’ ”
“What is the purpose of your mission?”
“We are explorers. We came in peace, and in friendship.”
“Your mission is, to quote an Earth TV show, to seek out new life and new civilizations?”
“Yes.”
“Something is wrong with your starship, the Ka‹click›tarsk, isn’t there?” Dale did a credible job of imitating the Tosok name.
“Yes.”
“What, exactly?”
“The ship has two engines. The main one is a large fusion engine, used for interstellar travel. The other, smaller one, is a standard rocket engine, used for maneuvering within a star system. Although this secondary one still operates, the main one was damaged and requires repair.”
“How was it damaged?”
“As we approached the orbit of your planet Neptune, a chunk of ice impacted the fusion engine.”
“Is the damage irreparable?”
“No. With the proper parts, it can be fixed.”
“Are you capable of manufacturing the proper parts aboard your mothership?”
“No.”
“Could humans manufacture the proper parts here on Earth?” asked Dale.
“With guidance from us, yes. In fact, they are doing that even as we speak.”
“Let me get this straight, Mr. Rendo. Without human goodwill, you and your crew are stranded here, unable to ever return home, is that right?”
“That is correct.”
“So the last thing you Tosoks would want to do is to make us humans angry, lest we be unwilling to help you?”
“Objection,” said Ziegler. “The witness can only speak on his own behalf.”
“Sustained.”
“Chief Engineer,” said Dale, “speaking personally, since you require our help to get home, is it not in your best interest to treat us well?”
“Absolutely.”
“Just so there’s no misunderstanding, killing someone would not be considered treating them well in Tosok society, would it?”
“Like Captain Kelkad, I wish for you humans to think well of Tosok society. I would like to be able to tell you that murder is unknown on my world, but it is not. But committing murder most certainly would not be the appropriate thing to do to one from whom we wanted help.”
“Thank you, Rendo. I’m sure the jury appreciates your candor and honesty. Your witness, Ms. Ziegler.”
Linda Ziegler stood up and moved to the lectern. “Hello, Mr. Rendo.”
“Hello, Ms. Ziegler.”
“I’m curious about the accident that befell your ship.”
“What would you like to know?”
“I wonder how it is that such advanced beings as yourselves would not have prepared for the possibility of collisions in space?”
“We were prepared for the possibility of micrometeoroid collisions in the inner solar system, by which point our crew would be revived from its long sleep and therefore able to deal with them. We had expected the outer solar system to be virtually empty, and so our ship was undertaking only the most cursory of automated monitoring. We knew about your Oort cloud, of course—the halo of cometary material that surrounds your sun at a distance of up to one hundred thousand times your planet’s orbital radius, but we had not known about the disk of cometary nuclei, ice, and other junk approximately forty times your orbital radius from the sun.”
Ziegler consulted her notes, refreshing herself on the briefing she’d had on this topic. “We call that region ‘the Kuiper belt.’ ” She looked at the jurors. “The jury may have heard of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but that is a different phenomenon; the Kuiper belt is much farther out, past the orbit of Neptune.” She turned back to Rendo. “Our theories of planetary formation suggest that any star with planets is likely to have such a region surrounding it.”