The Trial, Part 2b
Mal stands alone before the judge.
. . .
Mal recognized the magistrate immediately, and felt a flicker of hope. It was Sir Warwick Harrow, the same man who had hired him (through Badger) to smuggle cattle off-planet, and who had volunteered to be his second in that bizarre duel with swords that he'd fought with Atherton Wing. Harrow gave no sign of recognizing Mal. It was as if he had no memory at all of their last meeting. Harrow opened the proceedings with bureaucratic regularity, and Mal's flicker of hope died out. He stood alone before the bench.
"Are you Malcolm Reynolds?" Sir Warwick Harrow inquired, in official tones.
"I am."
"And do you understand the charges against you?"
"No, sir. I don't understand it at all," Mal answered. "Seems to me I've been arrested for something I didn't do."
"You will have an opportunity to enter a plea at your trial," Harrow replied unsympathetically. "The purpose of this hearing is to apprise you of the charges and to advise you of your rights." Mal was ready to reply, but Harrow powered on, "You stand accused of thirty-two counts of illegal trafficking of human beings across interplanetary borders, pursuant to Title Eight, Article Four, Section Twenty-Six of the criminal code, each count of which carries a maximum sentence of twenty-five years in prison. You stand accused of unlawful enslavement, again thirty-two counts, pursuant to Title Eight, Article Three, Section Eighteen, each of which carries a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison. You are also charged with kidnapping, thirty-two counts…"
"This is unbelievable," Mal said inaudibly.
Harrow continued with a regular litany of charges. Besides trafficking, enslavement, and kidnapping, he was accused of violating terms of indenture and aiding and abetting breach of indentures. Indentures! he objected, mentally. The gall they had, pretending that they'd extended to those slaves even the minimal benefits provided by a contract of indenture. He realized that someone must have prepared all manner of false documentation, and that it had preceded him to Persephone. Meanwhile, Harrow was droning on, naming the violations of law Mal had supposedly committed, along with the penalties—prison terms, and now, as they moved on to lesser charges, fines.
"…each count of which carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and maximum fine of 10,000 platinum. You stand accused of smuggling uncustomed goods across interplanetary borders—"
Mal snorted at the mention of smuggling. Not a gorram thing on 泥球 Ní Qiú worth smuggling. That was his professional assessment.
Harrow ignored his snort. "—pursuant to Title Eleven, Article Forty-Two, Section Eighty-Seven, maximum penalty, fine equal to assessed value of said goods plus additional fine not to exceed fifty percent penalty, and prison time not exceeding two years. You stand accused of tariff evasion, pursuant to Title Fourteen, Article Seventeen, Section Thirty-Four…"
"这是一场噩梦 Zhè shì yī cháng èmèng."
"…penalty of thirty days imprisonment and fine not to exceed five hundred percent of said tariff," Harrow continued. "Also, you are charged with illegal possession of firearms…"
非法的枪支吗Fēifǎ de qīangzhī ma? Guilty as charged, he thought, but kept a poker face.
"Do you understand the charges?" Harrow finished, and drew breath.
Mal tallied it up mentally. Near about two thousand years in prison and a fine of one million platinum. I understand, but I do not comprehend. Aloud he said, "Yes, sir."
"You have the right to counsel," Harrow proceeded, automatically. "In the event you are unable to afford it, the court will appoint counsel for you. Have you retained counsel?"
Mal was about to answer no when a voice from behind answered for him. "He has."
"He has?" Mal repeated.
The lawyer who had spoken handed him her business card. He read her name, and on the back, a handwritten scrawl, "Trust me" in Inara's hand, with the characters 射线光 shèxiàn guǎng, 宁静 Níngjìng and 提取 的计划 tíqǔ de jìhuà.
"Ah, Melissa!" Harrow exclaimed. "I see Captain Reynolds is in good hands." To the court recorder, he added, "Enter Ms Draper's credentials in the record." He then turned to the prosecutor.
"Your Honor," Melissa Draper spoke up, "I humbly submit a motion that this arraignment be postponed."
"Please state your grounds."
"Given the quantity and nature of the charges, inadequate time has been allowed to verify either their accuracy or applicability."
Harrow looked to the prosecutor for his reply.
"The arresting officers verified the presence of thirty-two persons besides crew on Captain Reynolds' ship," Prosecutor Ficker stated.
"And they further averred that these persons were enslaved by Captain Reynolds?" Harrow asked pointedly.
"No, your Honor, they stated that the—"
Harrow interrupted. "Could not these persons have been passengers?"
"There was no record of payment of passage—"
"There is ambiguity here. I uphold the motion of the defense," Harrow pronounced. "I grant a stay of four days to allow defense and prosecution adequate time to verify the accuracy and applicability of the charges. This arraignment will reconvene on Tuesday."
So far, his lawyer had won him four more days in jail, Mal thought, as the bailiff took him down to his cell. Still, he was somehow cheered by the sight of Harrow springing into action and laying into that weasel-faced prosecutor. Mal did not see him, but Ip Neumann left the courtroom's observer gallery, and headed back to Inara's shuttle.
. . .
"An army of researchers wouldn't hurt." Inara mulled over Melissa Draper's words as she scrolled through the client registry, searching through Companion requests on Persephone, screening the requests and assessing which ones were most likely to be fruitful. An army of researchers….Which of these clients, and which of their requests, might allow Inara to bring the most influence to bear on Mal's case? Could she deliver the equivalent of an army of researchers? She sorted the requests and investigated the backgrounds of some of the most likely candidates—house party at Judge Johannsen's country estate with Sir Mervyn Tang; evening at the Savoy Theatricals Company and overnight with Elliott Douglass, the State's Attorney; the Advocates' Society Dinner Dance with Judge Advocate Momsen, as dance partner and beta tester. Beta tester? Whatever did that mean? As she considered the requests, she balanced Mal's need for all the help he could get with how far she was willing to go to save him.
. . .
The next morning, Mal's new lawyer met with him in a room at the prison. "Ms Draper," Mal said, after the introductions were properly made, "that business card of yours is a high recommendation in and of itself. I don't know as how I can even afford a lawyer at all, but I figure maybe you can—" he broke off and waved vaguely in the air. Pull money out of a hat? Find a magic pot of platinum? He really had no idea how he could pay.
"Your friends on Persephone are concerned that you be represented in the best possible light," she answered.
"That's very generous of them. Don't know as how I deserve such generosity," Mal said, wondering exactly which friends were footing the bill, as he couldn't think of any as were friendly enough and had the money for it.
"Everyone deserves to have an advocate on his behalf in court. Do you have any questions for me?"
"Do you know if my crew is safe?" Mal asked. "Are they being charged as well?"
"Your crew is being held at this prison. None of them has been mistreated. Their jeopardy is entirely dependent on your case, Captain Reynolds. They are accused of aiding and abetting in the charges made against you. If we can get your case dismissed, the charges against your crew will likewise be dropped." She opened her briefcase and picked up her stylus to take notes. "Now, it would help if you told me how it was that you knew the people who arrived at Persephone aboard your ship were being held as slaves on 泥球 Ní Qiú."
Mal met her look full on. "I saw those people in shackles," he began, his indignation rising as he recalled what he had seen. "I saw them being taken to the slave pen and locked in. I saw them being served their mush without even the opportunity to wash the mud from their hands and faces. I saw them being loaded off the shuttles from the terraforming work site. Everybody on 泥球 Ní Qiú openly acknowledged that they were slaves, sayin' that it was just the way things were, that they couldn't do nothin' about it. Well I couldn't not do nothin' about it. And that's why I—"
"—and that's why you invited them aboard your ship," Melissa Draper interjected, cutting him off. She suspected that the release of the slaves might have involved illegal acts, and she did not want to know.
"Yeah, that's why I invited them aboard," Mal finished, carefully.
. . .
Inara and Ip Neumann met with Melissa Draper at her office.
"I'm quite taken with your Captain Reynolds, Inara," she said, smiling.
"He's not my—" Inara began, reflexively.
"He stood there and took it while they threw the proverbial book at him. Thirty-two counts each of illegal trafficking of human beings and unlawful enslavement as their first line offensive, with back-up charges of kidnapping, should they fail to prove enslavement. And then a fall-back of aiding and abetting breach of indentures. The prosecution will have to submit indenture contracts, and investigating the validity of those documents will be our first research project."
"How could they possibly come up with indenture contracts?" Ip asked.
"Someone on 泥球 Ní Qiú knew where the ship was headed and planned this reception for Captain Reynolds very carefully. The prosecution already has the indenture contracts in hand."
"I saw those people in the slave pen when Captain Reynolds and I delivered the cargo to the agent," Ip said. "They couldn't possibly have valid indentures."
"Then proving the documents to be invalid will be our first order of business."
"We can help with the research," Ip offered.
"That I like to hear—because researching the contractual status of thirty-two individuals is going to be a difficult task. The more we know about these people's individual cases, the stronger our case becomes."
Inara spoke up. "Captain Reynolds made a point of talking to each and every one of the people—he probably learned all their names, and a good deal more besides. Actually, it was amazing to see—they could have been left tired, filthy, miserable, and unsure of their future. He filled them with hope and confidence. They knew he cared."
Ip agreed. "I honestly don't know how he did it, since he was still recovering from his injury, and he was on short commons like the rest of us."
"Shorter commons," Inara inserted. "Did you see how he waited until every one else had their servings before eating? I know for a fact that one day he had nothing but half a mug of soup."
"The testimonials are all very fine," Melissa Draper said, "but it's time to get down to business. You're saying that the Captain himself would know the most information about the people?"
"Definitely," Inara replied.
"Then I'll ask him to provide all the details he can at the next interview."
"What's going to happen to those people?" Ip Neumann asked the lawyer.
"Well, they're all being held at the Immigration Services detention facility. They'll be given a limited time to make their case to stay on Persephone, and if they should fail in that, they'll be deported to their place of origin."
"But we don't know where most of them were caught…oh, you mean they'll be sent back to 泥球 Ní Qiú? But that just puts them back into slavery! That's outrageous."
"They have only two ways to avoid deportation to 泥球 Ní Qiú. If they can come up with Ident Cards or papers to prove who they are, they could return to their home worlds or apply for legal entry. If they can prove that a return to 泥球 Ní Qiú would result in their enslavement, they could make a case for asylum on Persephone."
"None of them has an Ident Card," Ip exclaimed, outraged. "Slaves don't have Ident Cards. How can they possibly prove…?"
"Dr Neumann, now you know what I'm up against every day," Melissa Draper replied.
. . .
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glossary
泥球 Ní Qiú [name of a world]
这是一场噩梦 Zhè shì yī cháng èmèng. [This is a nightmare.]
非法的枪支吗 Fēifǎ de qīangzhī ma? [Illegal firearms?]
射线光 shèxiàn guǎng [ray of light]
宁静 Níngjìng [Serenity]
提取 的计划 tíqǔ de jìhuà [extraction plan]
A/N: Reviews! Comments! Love to hear 'em.