The Diego Diaries: Cloudy With a Chance of Prison (dd7 403)
=0=Onward
Coln glanced over his lists, then Prowl. "I would like to call other witnesses now."
Prowl glanced at Sheldon. "Any further questions of the expert witnesses?"
Sheldon shook his helm. This was going to be awful. Data was data.
Venture joined Mettle and Jostle who was a government expert on business and a participant at the time in the Cybertronian government of Sentinel Prime in the audience.
Coln glanced at his assistant. "I would like to speak to Stem of Praxus please."
The assistant walked to the door and leaned out. When he stepped back a tall well made mech walked in, one who was old money. Most knew of him and his family. They made specialty parts for electronics and were branching out into personal communications devices before the Fall. They were an extremely fine company with a stellar reputation for quality, paid good wages to their employees who were experts at their work and were fierce competitors of Galaxy. The grudge he brought in with him was personal. He walked to the stand, took the oath, then stood quietly, avoiding Larken altogether.
"Stem of Praxus. Welcome. If you could give us a short biography of you and your business it will give us context to the questioning to come," Coln said.
Stem nodded. "I am Stem of Praxus. My family had a large company that created specialty electronics that were handmade and highly prized by those who understood quality." It was a dig at Galaxy who was known for less. "We were branching into personal communications devices when the Fall came and it disrupted everything. Our company was considered extremely high quality and the products that we made were artisan."
"You had a highly competitive relationship with Galaxy once upon a time. You were in some of the same markets," Coln said.
Stem nodded. "We were. We had the high end market sewn up. We were making headway into the secondary markets, the less upscale and those who were collectors. Many of our devices were designed for those who wanted the full experience and top of the line quality. Our GPS systems were unparalleled. It made us an artisan company under the guidelines of the commerce and trade laws of Cybertron. It was a very proud thing for us to fall into the same category of expertise as the oldest and most skilled companies around."
"You were classified in the same range as RTR Tools. Correct?" Coln asked.
Stem nodded. "We belonged to the same artisan guild and we were proud to be there. I hold their skills highly and it was a good thing for us to be on a par with each other."
"When the Senate passed the acquisitions laws relating to artisan classified businesses, did that apply to your own company?" Coln asked.
Stem's expression became as cold as ice as he stared at Coln. "That is correct."
"That made it possible for the bigger companies to come in and take over your own under the guise of protecting ancient, imperiled or extremely quality skills and arts, correct?" Coln asked.
Stem nodded. "It did. The biggest corporations had bribed the Senate to do just that."
"Objection." Sheldon stood. "I would like to see the proof of that. Allegations without proof should not be allowed to enter this trial."
"Lord Optimus, we have communications between Decimus and Stem detailing evidence to back up his statement," Coln said. "I would like to introduce it now."
"You should have introduced it during discovery, Coln," Sheldon said testily. "I would have liked to know about this. What else are you holding back?"
"We're discussing a line of inquiry about this event. It wasn't on the ticket that this witness would make that statement. I will introduce the evidence now because he made this statement. I'm not going to allow you to impeach my witness because he made an allegation. We have proof of his statement."
Orion and Prowl were discussing things off line, then Orion leaned slightly forward. "Stem," he asked, "I am not going to ask you if your comment was planned or not. I am very aware that sometimes allegations can be made in the heat of a moment. Is there evidence to back up your allegation? If not, I suggest that you retract it."
"Lord Optimus," Stem said as he bowed his helm in respect. "There is. I am aware that Coln has all my recovered communications with the Senate and Galaxy. I believe they will tell the story about my statement and uphold the truth of it."
"Very well," Orion said. "I would like to see it before ruling on the motion."
Coln brought the datapad to Orion, then stepped back as Optimus began to read through the lengthy messages stored on it in a file called /STEM/Bribery.147XT. It took a moment, then Orion glanced up. "This may be entered. I will caution you, counselor, if there are more hidden troves that need to be admitted and served to Sheldon, I hope that you consider that."
Coln bowed slightly. "I shall, Lord Optimus." He turned to Stem. "You do realize that you are noted here as having bribed Sentinel and Ratbat over a number of issues near and dear to your spark, Stem."
Stem nodded. "I am aware. It was the only way to do business in the corruption of our world then," he said as he turned a cold expression on Larken. "I am willing to accept the will of the court if necessary."
Coln's assistant handed a copy datapad to Sheldon who scanned them. He frowned, then sat. "Very well."
Coln turned to Stem. "Please explain why these messages support your allegation and the story and timeline concerning them as it pertains to the new laws."
"The law stated that all businesses on the list were eligible for hostile takeover by larger corporations without recourse for their owners and workers. It would mean that a company like Galaxy could come to my business, take it out of my ownership and put in its own management. They would take the profits under the guise of 'providing materials' for the creation of products. They would only give the most minimum profit to those who owned the companies and ran them. RTR Tools is a shining example of this wretched law. It was a bribed decision by Sentinel and his government to allow their 'owners' to steal. It was outright theft."
"What did you do about it?" Coln asked.
"I went to Sentinel and raged. Then I went to every senator that had voted for it and threatened to kill them," Stem said.
"You threatened to kill them over this law?" Coln asked.
"I spent my entire life building my business. It wasn't just a business, it was a … a symbol of effort, skill, devotion and mastery. My workers were artists. They deserved to be part of the business and draw its benefits as well. My ideas and designs were my own. How dare someone come in and try to steal what was mine, what I was going to leave for my daughter and sons. I threatened to kill them but not before I told the entire universe that all of them were thieves and murderers. I wasn't going to allow even one of them to live if they took my company."
It was silent in the room for a moment.
"What happened after all of this?" Coln asked quietly.
"They backed off. I have … had … I knew a lot of dodgy characters. None of us were the good guys. None of us were shrinking violets. Galaxy wasn't the first company to come try to burn me out. They were going to be the last or Larken and his family were going to be dead." Stem stared at Larken with contempt. "You can't always get what you want, slagger. I meant every slagging word."
Larken stared at him without expression or word.
"The guild was destroyed, I take it," Coln asked.
"It was. Galaxy stole most of the companies including RTR Tools. All of them were devoured by his insatiable maw. He ran them into the ground, most of them. Skills that were only known by them were lost forever. He had no class, no honor and no integrity. He didn't appreciate the skill it took to make something perfectly. He just bled all of the companies dry. He forced out anyone who complained and in the end only about five of us survived."
Coln checked his list of questions. He would ask more for about a joor, then Stem would step down. He would walk out of the courtroom like a king.
Coln glanced at Barron. "I suppose you want to have these messages, Barron?"
Barron nodded. "I would like to see them, Coln, please."
Coln gave them to Barron, then called his next witness. "I would like to call Sandras of Helex to the stand."
His assistant got the mech in question. He came in, a small nervous looking mech of a mid caste persuasion. He walked to the stand, gave the oath, then waited tensely for Coln.
Coln looked up at the mech. "Please tell us about yourself and your connection to this matter for background and context."
He glanced at Larken who stared coldly at him, then turned toward Coln. "I'm … I'm Sandras of Helex. Most call me Sandy. I was the expediter for Galaxy Industries, the Head of Shipping and Inventory. My family had worked for Galaxy for a long time and I was brought in to work on the different businesses to ensure shipping, inventories, acquisitions and various different enterprises were properly supported and running. I was good at it," he said with a slight shrug.
"I imagine that you had access to all of the kinds and types of shipments that Galaxy had and all of the places things went," Coln said.
Sandras nodded. "I did. I handled, in the end, everything. I knew where it all went, what it was, what it was used for, who used it, what they wanted with it and when it should be there. I kept supplies going, deliveries and all of it."
"Tell me about the shipments to the Decepticons," Coln asked.
Sheldon squirmed a moment considering an objection but he had the data before him and all the signatures, paperwork and conversations were on it. There was nothing to base an objection upon.
"When the revolution was going to really begin, when it became a shooting war, Galaxy was exclusively supplying weapons and other military hardware to the government. There were strict laws in place about who could have it and how they had to prove it up. That is, there were channels and paperwork. You were forbidden to sell to anyone but those approved by the government. Selling to terrorists like the Decepticons was treason and forbidden without caveat. No one wanted weapons shooting our own guys and civilians.
"Galaxy was selling arms and hardware to the Decepticons and it was used against the people during the revolution. I was in charge of sending things out. At first, Larken ordered that the manifests say other things than that they were sending guns, gas, bombs and ammo to the enemy of the state. To terrorists. They fixed the manifests so they'd pass inspection. Then they didn't care after a while. We had to push it out and meet deadlines. Larken authorized all of it. He was working with collaborators in the Senate."
"Objection. There's no evidence that this was true," Sheldon said.
"Lord Optimus, I intend to prove otherwise. This is the first step to doing so. I want to show the operation as it worked with Sandras," Coln said.
"I think that hard evidence of collusion should be presented now," Sheldon said.
"I'm building the path to eyewitness evidence, Lord Optimus. I don't want confusion to interfere with understanding of this, a very complex case," Coln replied.
"If you are going to reach a point, I would like that point made as swiftly as possible," Orion said.
"Thank you," Coln replied. "You said that you know about collusion between Larken and the Senate. How?"
"The supervisor of contracts had told me, Stasis of Mardon. He was the business agent and overseer of the arms division. It was highly technical, the requirements, so he worked on it himself. He wanted to make sure it was up to snuff. So when things changed and Larken ordered sales of arms to the 'Cons, he was distraught. He needed the job. His son was disabled and it was expensive to get him the treatment and schools he needed. But it hurt him to do this. He told me and we talked. We were both in the same straight jacket."
"Did you ever see these transactions yourself?" Coln asked.
Sandras glanced at Larken, then Coln. "Sentinel Prime would come from time to time and hole up with Larken in the office where Stasis worked. After that happened, big arms shipments would go out to the delivery fleet and taken to the same place, a huge warehouse complex in Tarn. Tarn was the base from which Megatron launched his offensive. I remember everyone being surprised he was so well armed."
Coln considered that. "Sentinel and Larken were in the office with Stasis."
Sandras nodded. "Yes."
"Who else would come and the same thing would result?" Coln asked.
"Ratbat, Contrail, Decimus … they came. The same burst of shipping would happen after it did. By then, it wasn't even blanked out that it was arms. It wasn't like Sentinel would have stopped it anyway," Sandras said. He glanced at Larken. "I don't know how you could be a traitor to our people. You killed people for money, you fragger."
That was when Larken leaped up at Sandras.
=0=TBC 10-13-2020 10-25-2020