“What I mean, Madam President, is that if those citizens had done that, not all of them would have been responsible. The leaders would have given the orders, and some might have followed them, but others might have thought those orders wrong and not participated in the destruction of the HuK at all.”
“And what does that have to do with anything?” What is Marphissa driving at?
“The entire group would have been punished, Madam President, regardless of their individual actions.”
“And what would you have preferred I do differently if that had been the case?” Iceni asked. She could easily use her tone as a whip to indicate displeasure or disagreement, but she kept her voice composed out of curiosity to learn Marphissa’s reasoning.
“A trial, Madam President,” Marphissa said.
“A trial?” That again? “To produce a finding of guilty that has already been determined? What’s the point of that? You sound like those citizens I heard about before we left, the ones who think our justice system needs to be fixed.”
Marphissa paused once more before answering. “Do you believe the justice system that we have inherited from the Syndicate Worlds needs to be fixed, Madam President?”
“Offhand, no,” Iceni said. “It delivers punishment quickly and surely. The guilty do not escape. What would I fix?”
“The purpose of a justice system isn’t to punish the guilty, Madam President. Punishment is easily administered. The reason a justice system exists is to protect the innocent.”
Iceni stared at Marphissa in astonishment. “Where did you learn that?”
“The Syndicate Worlds tried to eliminate every document, every book, that didn’t match their own beliefs, but it is very hard to destroy every thought that humans have committed to writing.”
“The underground library?” No one officially knew such a thing existed, but unofficially everyone had heard of it, and many found ways to access it. Rather than being a single building or process, Iceni had heard the underground library compared by the ISS to an infestation of electronic vermin, springing up in every star system, wriggling into every possible access, popping up someplace else as fast as one way in was sealed off. “You can’t believe everything you read. Punishing the guilty is necessary for any system to survive, for anyone to be able to feel safe. That must be our priority.”
“The guilty?” Marphissa asked, her breathing getting deeper and faster. “And if an innocent person is instead punished?”
Iceni shook her head. “There are no innocent persons. We are all guilty of something. It’s merely a matter of the degree of guilt and the seriousness of our crimes.”
“That is what we have been told, Madam President! What if there is another truth?”
“How can we compromise security and say that we are protecting the people?” Iceni demanded.
“Protecting the people? Madam President, the legal system of the Syndicate Worlds protects only those with power and wealth and punishes only those too weak to save themselves! If the goal is to protect the people, then why are the crimes of those who rule us never punished?” Marphissa stood rigidly straight now, her eyes registering defiance and perhaps some fear.
No matter how many thought it, no one was ever supposed to say it. Not to anyone superior in position. It was one of the first rules that everyone in the Syndicate Worlds learned, or they became early casualties of their own lack of discretion. “You presume much based upon our short working relationship,” Iceni said in her coldest voice.
“I presume much based upon who I think you are,” Marphissa replied. “Madam President, no matter your own motives, no matter how you act, what of the others in authority? You may protect us from injustice and punish only those who deserve it, but what of the others who control our destinies? What controls them?”
Iceni sat watching her silently for a long time, unable to think of an adequate response. The traditional reaction of a CEO to her words would have been to have Marphissa arrested and turned over to the snakes. Unless Marphissa knew something about Iceni that she didn’t want the snakes to know, in which case the prisoner would unfortunately die in an accident prior to the snakes’ gaining custody. The snakes were gone, but someone else could easily be found to fill the same role if Iceni were the sort to do such a thing to someone who had served her well and shown no disloyalty otherwise. It rankled Iceni that Marphissa had correctly judged that she would not take an action like that. “Kommodor, you should return to your duties,” she finally said.
“Yes, Madam President.”
“Kommodor.”
Marphissa paused in the hatch, turning to face Iceni and stand at attention, lacking only a blindfold to look like someone already facing a firing squad.
Until she spoke, Iceni wasn’t sure what she would say. “I much prefer those who speak their thoughts to my face to those who speak them behind my back. I will think on what you have said.”
Wise enough not to offer a reply, Marphissa saluted and left.
Iceni ensured that the hatch was sealed again and all security active, then sat and closed her eyes. Does that fool think that I’ve never suffered from the Syndicate so-called justice system? I know its flaws as well as anyone.
She had never sold her body, but she had been forced to yield it twice, each time to men who were far enough above her in the corporate hierarchy to know that they were safe against any penalty for their actions. Even as young and inexperienced as she had been then, Iceni had known that if she had tried to charge them with crimes she would have been the one convicted of “unjustly defaming” Syndicate officers. She had instead turned her desire for revenge into a climb for power, so she could get into a position to strike back, but both men had died before she could do so, one in an industrial accident and the other during a battle with the Alliance.
How many others had suffered the same way that she had? She would not be a victim. She would find a means for revenge. But revenge had been denied her by chance.
Marphissa had avenged herself for the death of her brother. A death brought about only by an allegation of wrongdoing. Should only the strongest have a means to justice? And that form of justice had only been vengeance. Nothing that Marphissa, or anyone else, did could have brought her brother back to life after he was executed for the crime of being accused of wrongdoing by someone who profited from that accusation.
Did punishment truly serve a purpose when all knew it was a weapon with no guidance, mowing down low-level criminals but also anyone unfortunate enough to fall under suspicion or to have something someone more powerful desired?
That’s the question, isn’t it? We talk about the need for safety and security, but how many citizens of the Syndicate Worlds have ever slept feeling safe and secure? No. We spent every day, every night, wondering when the heavy knocks would come on the door, when the door would be broken open, when one of us would be hauled off to answer for crimes whether or not we ever committed those acts. I’m the most powerful person in the Midway Star System, and I hide behind locked doors and security systems even when I have bodyguards on call. Safety and security, hell.
Iceni sighed, leaning back again, her eyes still closed. How do I fix that and still keep myself, and others, safe? Capturing that battleship may turn out to be one of the easiest things I’ve had to deal with.
I hope General Drakon is having an easier time. I ought to be worried about what he’s doing, but for some reason I don’t understand, I feel safer knowing that he’s watching things at Midway. Hopefully he can handle anything that comes up before I get back.