III. Court-Martialled
"All rise!"
Diana stood in the middle of a large room, before an empty bench that was now gradually being filled with earnestly looking elderly men in feldgrau uniforms. She stood in between two members of the military police, ramrod straight in their black-and-white attire, the one to her right holding Ares's chain that ran around her waist and kept her manacled wrists tied together before her body. She didn't understand why, but she felt she could not just simply free herself from her restraints. They had taken away her gear but, luckily, allowed her to keep her bracelets and costume — at least something she knew she could rely on. She could hear people waddle into the seats behind her; there was a vivid buzz of excited and amazed voices commenting on what they saw — her. It was cold in the room and she shivered.
Once seated, the president of the court started to whisper energetically to the registrar. They didn't seem to agree on some important point; everybody was awaiting the result of their deliberations. Finally, they beckoned a younger officer of considerable rank to come closer. They spoke to him for a short while, then everybody nodded while reaching an agreement. The younger man approached Diana, nodded curtly and took a seat in the small bench that was installed to her left, in front of the court. They had spoken each other before once; he had interrogated her while she was in the castle's dungeon, awaiting trial.
Diana had easely followed the ongoing discussion, but while she knew German very well she didn't know what to make of it. It was about a "counsel" for the "defendant", both unknown concepts to her. She looked slowly around. She felt uneasy and was impressed by the gravity of the situation. She was in the great Chateau at Morbecque, were the gala took place before, and so at the seat of German High Command, that much she knew. The room in which the court assembled had a high ceiling and soldiers lined up along the wooden walls. The panel of officers seated in front of her had severe expressions on their faces. They all wore heavily decorated military uniforms and some had weird pointed helmets on their heads. It bemused her again to see how very fond men were of hair on their faces; she had noticed it in England before. "Moustache" Steve called the funny furs under their noses. Diana did not really understand what exactly was going to happen — "courts" did not exist on Themyscira. If an Amazon sister transgressed, she would be brought at first before the Queen, who would speak to her as a mother. If need be, the Senate, the Council of Elders, would convene and they again would speak to the culprit and find a solution. The idea was never to "punish", and people would never be imprisoned, let alone be dragged before their judges in chains.
The prosecutor, a colonel with short gray hair and a sharp, emotionless face, stood up and walked in between the bench of the court and the place of the accused. He turned to the eager public that had gathered — rumours of the exceptional prisoner and the trial ahead had spread like a fire. Even though only mates and officers were allowed in, the room was packed. The prosecutor gestured dramatically in Diana's direction, saying,
"Gentlemen, this court-martial has to deal with a very unusual but at the same time very clear case. The woman in front of you, known as Diana Prince, is accused of being a British agent. She was captured behind the frontlines after she, according to many witnesses, destroyed the arms factory at Hazebrouck. She is seen to have killed general Erich Ludendorff, our deputy field marshall, who was in command of that facility, in cold blood by stabbing him through by means of a sword —,"
An audible gasp followed these words, but he continued imperturbably,
— this happened after she and her accomplices supposedly sabotaged our military operations at Veld, and caused the British to breach our lines there. Finally, the group is charged with the gaz attack on a meeting of our chiefs-of-staff shortly before the attack on Hazebrouck took place — a particularly mean attempt given that we were preparing the armistice with the British; our field marshall general von Hindenburg barely got away with his life. So in sum, this woman here came close to decapitating the German army, while incapacitating its major arms supply. I do not think there should be any doubt about the punishement she deserves."
Diana opened her mouth, but the man besides her signalled her briskly with a move of his hand to shut up. The president of the court sighed deeply as if to highlight the hopelessness of her case, and then addressed her directly:
"Impressive. Young lady, you are known to us as Diana Prince, but we have all reasons to believe that this is a cover. You can start by telling the court your real name. Who are you? Where do you come from? Who do you work for?"
Diana looked confused while retorting hesitantly,
"What do you mean by 'a cover'?"
An embarassed silence fell. They all watched each other, stunned. The prosecutor's sharp voiced cut harshly through the silence.
"Don't play games on us, Ms. Prince. We prefer to keep it civilised, but we do have other means at our disposal to get the truth out of you if need be."
The man in the bench near her raised his hand. "Objection, your honour. I questioned this woman before — there are good reasons to believe that she is not aware of, well, many to us common things. Let her at least first speak before threatening her with torture."
"Objection accepted, counsel."
He adressed her again, waving with his hand,
"Continue."
Diana took a deep breath.
"I am no 'British agent', whatever that may be. I am Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Hyppolita, Queen of the Amazons. And I am here to kill Ares and stop this gruesome war."
Another awkward silence fell. The prosecutor, irritated, lashed out to her with his horsewip; she easely avoided him, but the MP holding her chain jerked her roughly back into place. The young woman was visibly offended.
"Why are you hurting me? I'm speaking the truth!"
The officer serving as Diana's counsel interfered again.
"We do have a witness to confirm this, Sir. The captain of the warship that followed Steve Trevor's plane. They failed to retrieve him from the island on which he crashed. A substantial loss of lives was reported after a battle against a bunch of apparently female warriors on its beach."
"Well, then get me this captain!" — the court's president was ostensibly irritated. This was supposed to be a neat trial of one of Germany's enemies that could be used to set an example, not some kind of freak show — you couldn't advertise such a thing. The propaganda department would get nuts if they caught wind of this.
The captain came forward to the witness bench.
"This woman," — he pointed at Diana — "has indeed rescued the pilot from the wreckage and dragged him to the beach when my men breached the hull that withheld the Amazon Island from sight. My men disembarked under a cloud of arrows and were attacked by dozens of fierce women warriors on foot and horseback. They tried everything possible to retrieve the target but due to the supremacy in numbers of the enemy they were killed or driven back into the sea — "
"Due to the supremacy in numbers,— yeah right!" Diana's condescending tone was unmistakable.
The whip of the prosecutor landed hard this time. Kept at a short leash, the female warrior could do nothing to avoid it from hitting its mark. A thickening red weal ran along her cheek.
"Silence! You shall only speak when spoken to, do you understand?!"
Her dark eyes glowed with anger. Diana's counsel stood in front of her, trying his best to cool her inflamed spirits down.
"The 'Amazon Island'? Is that what you said, captain?" — again the incredulous voice of the presiding judge, trying to keep the situation in check.
"Forgive me, general, but based on what I saw and my knowledge of history that is the only name I can give to that place."
"Do we have any information about her accomplices, prosecutor?"
"According to our own intel, she landed on Belgian shore five days ago in the company of the American intelligence officer captain Steve Trevor, the pilot already mentioned and the one that stole Dr. Maru's notebook, whom she apparently saved. Moreover, two other accomplices the identity of whom remains to be exposed."
The president of the court watched Diana intently for a long while. He seemed to be making up his mind on his next move.
"Prosecutor, would you mind keeping your reactions in check during the remainder of the proceedings? And you, Diana of Themyscira, tell us exactly how you came to know Steve Trevor, and what happened after our soldiers left your island."
Diana, touched by his sudden kindness and uncapable of lying to them anyhow, looked back at him with an open, confident gaze. She told the court exactly everything that happened from the moment Trevor was brought before the Amazon Queen until the arrival of the little fellowship at the Belgian frontlines.
Another deadly silence fell, but now awe was at its root.
"So, let me make this clear. You mean to say you were present at a session of the British War Council at some point? While they were discussing the armistice?"
"Yes, of course. I went in there with Steve. They asked me to translate Dr. Maru's notebook. When I saw their leading general's reaction to its horrible content, I reprimanded him for his indifference and cruelty."
Gasps in the public were audible. The presiding judge had visibly trouble to keep an impassive face, but he continued interrogating her with that smooth, level voice.
"So you spoke to field marshall Haig and afterwards to the Chancellor of the Exchequer — do I get that right?"
"The what — ?"
"To Sir Patrick Morgan, " her counsel offered willingly. She nodded affirmatively.
The prosecutor couldn't withhold himself any longer. He turned in a theatrical gesture to face his colleagues in the public.
"But she has nothing to do with British war interests!"
Hilarious laughter broke out on all benches. Even the judges lay flat over their desks.
Many of the hardened field officers in the public who had seen much bloodshed at the front smirked approvingly. They couldn't help being touched by the courage and the honesty of this young woman, whomever or whatever she might be. Many of them had witnessed the slaughter at Ypres. They weren't precisely crybabies, but the negligence with which British High Command was known to throw the lives of their soldiers into the furnace was appalling even to them.
The presiding judge desparatedly tried to regain some control over the proceedings. He smacked his wooden hammer forcefully on the table in front of him repeatedly. After a long while, silence finally returned.
"Let's talk about your — ehm —, performance at the ammunitions factory. The court wants to know what weapon systems you were provided with, and how precisely the British and American secret services contributed to your preparation and equipment."
Diana lifted a questioning eyebrow.
"My weapons are my sword, my shield and my lasso, nothing else. But I did feel Zeus's strength in me when fighting Ares at the arms plant. He turned out not to be Ludendorff, after all; it was Sir Patrick. Ares succeeded in corrupting you all — Germans, English, all of you! I still wonder whether what I did was worth it. I still wonder why Steve had to die in that horrible airplane — "
She fell prey to vehement emotions. The MP to her left unsheated his pistol, unsure of what she was up to, but the only thing she wanted was to wipe away the tears that run down her cheeks, visible for everybody. Diana felt exposed and vulnerable like she never had before in her long young life.
"So you don't have anything to do with the gaz attack on our General Staff? But you do confess not only to have destroyed the plant, but also to have murdered general Ludendorff? Because you thought he was 'Ares, God of War'?"
The presiding judge sensed his opportunity and pressed his psychological advantage. Bewildered and emotionally confused, Diana looked up, then down, not knowing what to do. It was true what they said, but then again it was not true at all. She wasn't there to serve British or American interests, not at all. But she wanted to kill Ares to end the war, and so she did kill that general, who turned out not to be him. She shrugged and hung her head.
"Yes, it's true. I killed him."