| The next three days were were spent awaiting the trial, while James put the final touches on the ship. Finally, the trial arrived. The lawyers argued prosecution and defense, but the trial was a quick one. The jury adjourned, and quickly returned. Everyone knew the verdict before they stated it, "Guilty." As the judge was about to give the sentence, Amanda interrupted him, "Your honor, I know that I am out of order, but I ask you in the nicest and most humble way that I know of, to listen to me before you pass your sentence. I am not from your time, so I don't know your ways, but I would like to tell you how we did things in the twentieth century." Immediately, Connell grabbed her and pulled her aside, but the judge replied, "No, let her speak. This was a quick trial, and this may be an interesting historical experience." Amanda continued, "Thank you, your honor. I noticed that one of the three defendants was young, probably a minor. During the twentieth century, convicted minors were often put on probation, and placed in the custody of responsible guardians. This was often a good opportunity to remove someone from a criminal environment, and help him to change his life in order to become a productive member of society." The judge replied, "That is a very interesting idea, but I doubt anyone would want to risk being his guardian." Connell obviously did not like this, and quickly tried to stop her from offering our guardianship. I agreed with him, but did want to upset her, since I loved her. I requested a recess, and was granted five minutes. We gathered together in a nearby room to discuss this. Connell voiced his disapproval. Amanda replied, "It is true that it sounds risky, but we must remember a few things. First, he will be away from the criminal environment. All his life, crime was probably all he knew. We can teach him a new way to live his life, without crime. Second, two of his family members will be in prison. If he escapes, we might be able to use them as bait for a trap to find him. Third, we mustn't be prejudiced against him, simply because he is a ratling. He still has feelings, and might be able to change with some help." That last statement brought back memories from medical school. The memories were from my favorite professor, Dr. Merrill Bartlett. He would always tell me, "You must never discriminate against people because of race, social class, or ability to pay. Regardless of these factors, people still need medical care, and must be treated equally." Even though he was talking about patient care, his teachings still applied to this situation. I knew that I could not discriminate against this ratling. I said, "He might be useful to us. With the type of adventures we have, I'm sure that thieving skills would be a tremendous asset. I doubt he will cause many problems, since we can make arrangements to keep his family members hostage." Connell reluctantly agreed to help take custody of him. The judge agreed to give us guardianship, and I made arrangements with the Emperor to place his family members in a special cell, where escape would be nearly impossible. Now that this ordeal was over, I asked him his name, which consisted of a few squeaks. We obviously couldn't pronounce this, so we decided to use the name that the court had given him, Ordwin. Connell asked him, "I must admit, that was some very skilled flying out there. Not as good as mine, but still good. Who did that?" He replied in a squeaky voice, "That was my uncle. He is one of the best pilots around." Connell then asked, "Did he do the code breaking too? I have some very good protection systems around my system codes. Whoever did that must have been very skilled." Ordwin replied, "No, that was me. I can break any code. I'm one of the best." This was interesting. This ratling might prove to be a valuable asset after all. James decided to join the group too. The excitement was a nice change from his old job, and he also enjoyed being with a group that would accept him as an android. This will be a very unusual group: a magician/doctor, a twentieth century person, a human pilot, a rejected female Tartonian candidate, an android, and a ratling. What a motley crew! |