The judge listened to the witness statement, as did the Jury. The gallery was full of spectators, both changed and unchanged people. Though silent, they were very interested in this case. Some took it as the first humans vs changed trial, but the court was quick to point it it was an assault charge and nothing more. The idea of law being equal to all was still maintained. still, it was a very tense proceeding.
Anderson glanced at Jay, but his look gave away very little. it could be seen he was sweating... nervous. Nervous as hell. There was something about that little fox form he found intimidating and he didn't know why. All this despite her being so small... A human instinct maybe? God why did she have to be here...
Jay noticed that look, but she instead looked to the changed prosecution person. Her form was...interesting. She appeared to be a kind of Lamia or snake changed. Her tail was curious though, a mix of white and black, much like a zebra pattern.
"Defence...your witness," said the judge.
Harris got up, they had practised this routine carefully. Anderson however had a tendency to get too emotional, and he advised his client to keep to short simple answers.
"Anderson, please explain to the court, why you think you were blackmailed?"
"I was under a lot of pressure to maintain a human presence in our news team. I could only go so far though, and some people just didn't like that."
Jay frowned. That... dog! He was going to try and kill two birds with one stone! A lot in the gallery looked at each other as if trying to decide if that is plausible. The jury themselves looked quite stunned at this statement. The Jury had to be filtered to be those that didn't watch the reports, to give Anderson as fair a trial as possible, but this was quite a difficult endeavour.
Harris nodded. This was good. "Things have been said to you in the media, do you feel then you were unjustly branded a bigot?"
Anderson looked shaken, and it was hard to tell if something in there was genuine remorse, or calculated lying. The glance at Jay had really shaken him. "I... am uneasy, with the changed."
Harris inwardly winced. Damn it why did he say that!
Anderson looked to his lawyer. "I want to be honest about that. It's not a crime is it? But I'm not a bigot. Even after this trial is over, I'll never work in the industry again. Its a black spot that will never go away. I've lost my company, and everything that mattered to me." He glanced at those in the court. "T-thats why... I capitulated to the demands of the blackmailer. I just didn't want any trouble. Not like this..."
"The defence has no further questions," Harris said. He had to end this quickly or Anderson was going to shoot himself in the foot. Still he had played well with the sympathy, judging by the expressions in the Jury. He had not said anything no other unchanged person felt... this might be advantageous.
"Any further remarks?" Asked the judge.
"Yes your honour..." said Harris. "I wish to bring into evidence, the pictures taken of Toby after the transformation."
The pictures were shown onto the desk.
"Now... we lack CCTV pictures, so all we have are the statements of the witness, and these pictures. We can see a small bruise that has been bandaged... I wish the prosecution to explain, why would an assailant bandage their victim?"
There was a pause in the trial at this latest revelation.
"Such action seems odd if the desire was to hurt someone. Would you not agree?" Harris pressed.
"Prosecution?" The judged asked.
The lawyer looked surprised at being caught with this unexpected line of question. "There is... currently no evidence. However, it must have been done by the assailant."
"Objection," Harris said. "Speculation. The bandage could have been applied by Toby himself."
The judge looked thoughtfully. "Sustained... this mystery must be explored."
The prosecution was now in a very tough spot... she could see exactly where the defence was heading.
"The defence can see only one of two possibilities. Either the bandage was placed by the assailant, or it was done by the victim. If it was done by the assailant, the wound might have been unintentional. If it was done by the victim, it could only be done after the wound was placed, signifying that the victim was 'conscious' during these events."
The prosecution lawyer glanced at the defence again. This was such a chess game, and he was winning... for the moment. In both scenarios, the defence takes a gain. It would look like either her client was lying, or that the assailant did not wish to cause physical harm to Toby. It still left the trauma induced by the sunlight, but she really didn't want to get into that argument.
"What does the prosecution say to this?" Judge Brown asked
She sighed. "Prosecution is adamant, that the bandage was placed by the assailant... based on the victims statements," it was the lesser of two evils.
Harris nodded, again inside his head beaming a great big smile. That could not have gone better.
"Prosecution requests a recess while we consider this," She said carefully.
"Granted... Recess of one hour. Dismissed." The judge banged the gavel.
Anderson was looking very hopeful, although he noticed his lawyer was barely emotional in appearance. "It's looking good," he ventured.
"We have a plausible scenario, enough to give reasonable doubt. However there are still a number of threads that if pulled, will destroy our argument."
"Such as?"
"The whereabouts of the assailant. His disappearance made this easy, and right now he's the only one that could destroy all doubts. He owes you no favours for exposing him to this. Can you tell me honestly, you don't know where he is?"
"I really don't know.. hes gone. disappeared. I don't even know his name" Said Anderson. In truth it was a great relief, he had not considered what to do if he confronted him on this situation. The trial was making news, so in the end he would find out... if he's out there, somewhere.
"Pray then, that he never returns..." Said Harris.
"What's next?"
"The prosecution might try to go for accidental vs intentional damage to Toby. It shifts some responsibility away from you if we start to argue about the actions of one who is not even present. The jury might decide they can not punish you for these actions, or at least lessen your involvement in it." Harris explained.
Anderson nodded his understanding.
"The second attack will be the sunlight aspect to this... it is currently not considered an 'assault' if someone is in the sunlight. Politically, it would change things a great deal... there will be massive compensation claims by people who were forced into the sunlight by employers, or even the general public. Anyone would be up to being sued, if they felt they could make some money off it..."
Changed people never stopped being people, Harris had realised.
"But there's a chance they might push that argument?" Asked anderson.
"I believe it entirely possible. However, I understand Toby is not 'unhappy' with her situation. If they use this argument, they will have to show how Toby is unable to work, or live, or is in some way traumatised by these events... but that is simply, not the case. You are quite fortunate Anderson."
Anderson looked down on the ground. "I'm glad I have someone on my side," He said in the end.
Harris looked at him. "You paid me to be... I am certainly not your friend, Anderson. I don't believe you have any friends."
Anderson felt his anger rise but nodded. He paid this man.. its true. He might even get off free from this, but what would it matter? He was honest about what he said on the stand. He had nothing left, no job, nothing. His name was blighted for an act of petty revenge. Prison might not even be so bad, if it would avoid getting spat at in the streets by these sub humans.
Harris looked at his client with a cold eye. Yes, he knew he was guilty. This aspect of the job always made him uneasy. However he could not yield and summarily punish Anderson by inaction. It was his duty to protect him. It was not just the money, nor was this ego on his part. He enjoyed his work, true... he had helped a number of criminals get away with lesser punishments or even got them off on the odd technicality... was this right? Harris didn't know. He wanted to be a lawyer to defend the innocent.
How foolishly idealistic he was, in those days. The only people that wanted a defence lawer as good as him tended to be well off, and guilty. People like Anderson...
But he will defend him, as best he can.
Cyberspace was strange, Effie realised.
She wasn't really sure what to call this world. The internet? Data world? E-space maybe? When they physically walked, what were they really doing? Sending a signal through? And what about their connection to Mikey? Did they still exist inside her head now even though they travelled across other computers?
Just how did all this work?
And why the hell was she a girl!
It was distressing. She thought maybe others had also changed, but from what Dennis said he was mostly the same. Looking at the new girl, Nadine, it was obvious she had not actually changed that much. Unless the sun had completely overwritten her memories, but she somehow sensed that was unlikely.
What use were things like hands and feet in this world?
Why did they have human form at all? She expected this place to be as different as the real world. Maybe there were digital fairies in the shape of exotic creatures... windows ME fairies were rare, according to that first AI. However she didn't think it made her special, she just had a form that most people automatically associated with that operating system. Did all fairies have a human form?
But it didn't explain why she had such a detailed, feminine body. The constant breeze on her legs fluttering her dress, reminding her every second of the way she was female... where did that breeze come from? Was it part of her program? It tickled her long hair along her back, as she walked.
"I hope my mum and dad arn't too worried about me," Said Nadine. She was very happy to be going back.
"We're almost to the IP address..." Said Dennis. Slowly the walls of the data corridor they had entered started to narrow.
"Theres not much bandwidth here," said Effie.
"I know, go in single file." Dennis advised, as he took position in the front while Effie was in the far back. They sandwiched the Wii fairy protectively.
"I... think we're here," said Dennis as they expanded into a 'room'.
Effie glanced around seeing nothing but dotted lights, and strange patterns. "I don't see anything-"
Dennis pointed to a central plexus. "That's the CPU of the nintendo Wii she came from."
"So... your saying this is all the circuitry of the console?" Effie asked looking in some awe.
"Yes," Said Dennis. "We are using compression algorithms to exist here"
"But... how do I get home?" Asked Nadine looking tearful.
"You... well... are home. Kind of.. we're inside your console. in your house." Dennis tried to explain.
"But I want to be in my house!" Nadine said almost crying.
"Maybe we can access the console... turn on the television maybe? Get a message out?" asked Effie.
Dennis glanced around at the setup. "It looks like a standard connection... The wake up LAN system is running. We tripped it as soon as we entered, so right now the Wii would be flashing. I can't see any way we can turn on the television from here though..." he glanced around looking for anything else that might be connected to the internet, but found nothing in the local area.
Nadine started to cry, and Effie placed an arm on her shoulder to comfort her. "I-its okay," She said a little hesitantly. She wasn't at all good with kids, but her heart went out to this girl. Just trying to see her parents...
"If we wait, maybe someone will see the flashing console and look... we might be able to access the graphics chip and render ourselves on the system in some way. I'll set the disc to spin constantly as well... that will get some attention." Dennis took out his editor and started sending out the various commands. As long as Nadine's parents didn't decide to just shut off the wii that is... but even if they did, they would probably just start it back up again, and they could all escape once out of hibernation.
Effie nodded. "Let's wait a bit then... and see what happens.
