"Nothing could go wrong, you said." D'Argo spoke. "Nothing."
They were back in the purple cell, where everything was covered in pink tapestry and pink carpets.
Everything was dusty and smelled like puke.
"All right!" John said. "Nothing could have gone wrong, except for some mysterious assassin lurking in the audience trying to kill Kabaah! How the frell should I have known about that?"
"Perhaps they were after him all along!" Chiana said.
"In the complex, when those men attacked us, they weren't after us. They were after the Hanji!"
John knew she was right.
"Frell!" John shouted.
He kicked against the wall.
"Why won't anything go to plan?" John said.
"No doubt that Fe'Tor's sister is responsible for all this." D'Argo said.
"Well, do you have evidence to support that claim?" Jool said.
"Well, no..." D'Argo answered.
"Then I suggest that you keep those accusations to yourself." Jool continued. "It's one thing to murder a respected industrialist, but it's another thing to accuse his sister of conspiring to murder!"
"But this isn't just about us!" John said. "This is about Fe'Tor's entire company, his entire syndicate of freslin-manufacturers and dealers. If the judge had been able to see what the Hanji had witnessed happening in those places, then dozens, maybe hundreds of people would be arrested! Including Fe'Tor's sister!"
"The Hanji was more important then I thought." D'Argo said.
"And without the Hanji, we have nothing to support our claims." John said. "Nothing. Raxil will call us liars and everyone else will call us murderers."
"And the only thing we can do is wait for our execution." Jool said as she curled herself up against the wall.
"I just realised..." Chiana said slowly as she looked at Crichton.
"Without the Hanji, I'm stuck with...I'm stuck with Harvey!"
Chiana freaked out slightly.
"You can get him out right?" Chiana said. "There is another way, right? Tell me!"
But Crichton looked at her, without saying anything. Because he had no answers.
"I don't know." he simply said to her.
He was honest and felt slightly sorry for Chiana at that point.
He felt partly responsible for Harvey's actions. He didn't know why he felt that.
"There has to be some way we can prove our innocence." D'Argo said.
"We can't!" John said. "You know why? Because we're not innocent! That's our problem!"
He stood up and started pacing around the cell.
"We have to show the jury why we did it. Prove them that our motives were noble."
"How do we do that?" D'Argo said.
"Don't interrupt me." John said. "Let me think."
His pace quickened.
"We have to convince them that what we did was necessary to save our friends. They would've died if we had not rescued them! We must be honest and true. We must say it to them. Face to face. We have to take the stand. We have to take the stand!"
The look on John's face was that of a blessed man, who just created gold out of garbage.
"Court is in session!" the judge spoke as he hit the table with his mallet.
John, D'Argo, Chiana and Jool sat down on their seats in the centre of the hall again.
"Because of an assassination right here in this very courtroom only one hour ago, the security of this complex has been tightened."
The judge spoke the truth. Every door and window was covered by at least three guards, wearing armour and holding fierce weaponry in their arms.
D'Argo yawned.
It was not that he wasn't impressed with the weaponry, but it was just that it was very late and it had been quite some time since he had any sleep.
"But this assassination does not make frighten us. It only makes us more determined to do our duty!"
The judge winked at Chiana as he said it. He was obviously trying to show off.
Chiana smiled at him, before he went on with his speech.
"Look at the jury." Crichton said. "Look at their faces. They're blaming us for what happened!"
"You can't blame them for thinking that." Jool said. "I mean, ever since our arrival we've brought death and destruction."
"Hey! It wasn't me who knocked over that aquarium in the bar!" John said.
"That was you?" Chiana asked D'Argo.
"Well, at least it wasn't me who stood naked in that window."
"I WASN'T NAKED!" John said. "Besides, I thought we agreed we would NOT mention the window!"
"Well, you mentioned the aquarium..." D'Argo replied.
"Gentlemen!" the judge hollered as he slammed with his golden mallet on the table.
"Will you please be silent! This is my courtroom, and I do NOT appreciate you interrupting either me, or the trial! Any more of this and I will consider it an official sign of disrespect towards the judge and I'll throw you out! Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, your honour." John and D'Argo said in chorus, like two good little schoolchildren.
"Very well." The judge said. "Then let's proceed. Councillors for the prosecution! I believe it is your turn to send in a witness!"
"It is, your honour." the lawyer for the prosecution said.
He used his cane to support his weight as he stood up.
"And I would like to call upon mister Kemp!"
As the doors opened a small man with a large moustache walked in.
He was definitely Sebacean.
"Tell us who you are, mister Kemp." the lawyer asked as he took the witness stand.
"I am mister Dorian Kemp." Kemp said. "I used to work for the Peacekeepers as an Intelligence-officer."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Then tell us all about Mister Crichton and his friends..."
As mister Kemp started talking, Crichton turned to D'Argo.
"They're trying to give us a bad name!" John said.
"That would be impossible." D'Argo joked. "Our reputation is so bad, we can give it a knife and call it a killer."
"You know, that's not funny. Not at all."
"I think it's funny." Jool said.
D'Argo looked at her for a split second before turning his head to John again.
"Look." John said. "They're trying to make us seem unbelievable thugs who would not hesitate to kill someone!"
Chiana noticed that John's eyes kept wandering into her direction.
"If they succeed, then they won't believe any word we're saying, and they'll execute us for being a whoopsy!"
And John was proven to be right.
The only thing Kemp seemed to say was that Crichton and his friends were a menace to the universe, and that everyone on Lo'Mo should get their pitchforks and torches and throw them into a volcano.
As the lawyer was done interrogating, Crichton stepped up and walked casually towards Kemp.
"Mister Kemp." John said. "Mister Kemp."
He just kept walking and smiling.
"Mister Dorian Kemp."
John kept on saying his name and kept on looking in Kemp's eyes.
John knew he was scaring the hell out of him right now.
John figured that, if Kemp saw him as the biggest threat and menace to the galaxy, and the devil incarnate or something, then he would be frelling scared if John would come very close to him.
Which he did.
"Mister Dorian Kemp." John repeated.
"What the frell is he doing?" Jool asked.
"He's showing off." D'Argo said. "As usual."
"You said you USED to work for Peacekeeper Intelligence." John said to Kemp.
"Yes, I did." Kemp answered nervously.
"Then tell me...why don't you work for them anymore?"
"OBJECTION, your honour!" the lawyer for the prosecution shouted.
"What does this have to do with the accused?"
"Counsellor?" the judge asked Crichton.
"I'm only questioning this man's believability as a specialist." John answered.
John hoped that this would be the same as on Earth. Or he would be screwed.
"Overruled." the judge said. "You may proceed."
"Thank you, your honour." John said. "Well. Answer the question, mister Kemp."
"I-I got fired." Kemp said softly and embarrassed.
John shook his head.
"I'm sorry, but I can't hear you."
"I got fired!" Kemp said.
John smiled.
"I didn't think Peacekeepers fired their personnel."
Kemp swallowed.
"They-they don't."
"Then why are you saying that you got fired?" John said.
"I was demoted, okay?" Kemp said.
"To what position?" John asked.
"C-cook." Kemp said nervously.
"Cook?" John shouted. "You're a frelling cook?"
"Yes, I was."
"So what you're telling me..." John said. "You USED to work for Peacekeeper Intelligence, then you got SACKED, and now you're a COOK, who's TRYING to tell us that I should be EXECUTED? I don't think so."
He walked back to his seat, leaving a trembling Kemp behind at the witness stand.
His spirit was broken, and the jury was left thinking whether they're missing something important.
"I should win a frelling Oscar for this." John said to his friends.
"A what?" Chiana asked.
"Never mind." John added.
"She's back." Chiana said.
"Who is?" D'Argo asked.
As they both looked around, they saw Fe'Tor's sister sitting upright and strong in the audience. She was almost an entire different person from what they saw only an hour ago.
An hour ago she was a crying wreck, and now, after the most important piece of evidence in the case, the Hanji, had been killed, she seemed perfectly well.
"She knows that we are nothing without the Hanji." D'Argo said. "We are dead, if we don't find a way to convince the jury of our innocence."
"Well then, let's do some convincing?" John said as he stood up from his chair.
"Mister Crichton!" the judge said. "Do you have another witness to examine?"
"Yes, I have, your honour." John said to him.
"Well, then call him."
"I am the next witness, your honour." Crichton said.
People began whispering and the lawyer for the prosecution began objecting.
"You want to call upon yourself, the counsellor for the defence, as a witness?" the judge asked.
"Yes, your honour." Crichton said.
"One of my friends will act as a interrogator on my behalf."
The judge did not know any reason to stop Crichton from doing this.
"All right, mister Crichton." the judge said as he looked upon Chiana. "I will allow this. But don't try anything foolish."
"I won't, your honour." Crichton said as he sat down in the witness stand.
D'Argo looked at Crichton.
He had to interrogate him, but had no clue what to ask him.
"You swear to tell the truth?" the judge asked Crichton.
"I swear to tell the truth, your honour." Crichton said.
"Let's go." D'Argo said to Jool.
"What?" Jool asked. "What do you mean? I'm not going to do this!"
"Yes you are." D'Argo said. "You're smart, right?"
"Well, yes, I mean yes...no! I mean no!" Jool desperately tried to say but D'Argo pushed her towards Crichton.
"I can't do this!" Jool said to D'Argo as she stepped back.
"You can!" D'Argo said. "You are the smartest of us all!"
"You really think so?" Jool said to D'Argo.
"Yes, I do." D'Argo said.
Chiana saw how D'Argo touched Jool's hand.
She didn't like it.
Jool walked towards Crichton, not knowing what to say.
"What are you waiting for, counsellor?" the judge asked Jool.
The nervous and speechless Jool looked at Crichton.
The look on his face urged her to say something.
"Say something!" D'Argo whispered behind her.
"Where are you from?" Jool suddenly asked Crichton.
It was the only question which popped in her mind at that point.
Chiana covered her eyes in embarrasment.