What do you do when the old law conflicts with the new needs? Devon isn't sure. (Prompt: 016 Criminal)

Earth 2 is the copyrighted property of Amblin Entertainment and Universal Studios. This fiction item is intended for entertainment purposes only. No compensation has been received or will be accepted for it, and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended or should be implied.

Relativity

"Yale, may I see your arm? I want to look at the command conditioning module."

He frowned, but Devon knew the electronics wired into his nervous system wouldn't let him easily refuse such a request if it came from her. Releasing a contract usually required a trip to the Central Authority office, and that was precisely the problem: there was no C.A. office here.

Running a fingertip across the sensors to identify herself, she opened the module and then laid a stripped wire across the contacts.

He winced at the sudden arc of electricity. "Devon!"

"I'm sorry," she said. "But it's the only way I could think of to disable it." She gently fitted the cover back into place. "You're not a criminal, and I don't want you treated like one anymore, not in the slightest. You should be allowed to make all of your own decisions."

Taking the arm back, he cradled it against his chest. "You might have warned me."

Her face warmed, but she risked a smile anyway. "I didn't know if you would let me, if I told you first."

"You said it yourself: I'm not a criminal." There was a lingering echo of pain in his voice. "I would have let you."

The mildly guilty feeling that had come from hurting him morphed into full-fledged remorse. "Then I'm really sorry."

"What's done is done, and I appreciate it. But I think I shall visit Julia for an analgesic."

She watched him go, sighing. That had been mostly done on impulse, and she hadn't thought the execution through first. If she had, she'd have realized she should have taken him to the med-tent and asked for the pain blocker first.

"Stop beating yourself up, Adair." Danziger dropped into a chair beside her. "You did the right thing."

"I just wish I hadn't had to hurt him to do it. But he's not a criminal. It needed to be done."

He looked at her for a long moment. "You realize that he actually is still a criminal, right? He disobeyed direct orders when he let those scientists go."

"Those orders were unlawful! He wasn't bound to obey them."

"He didn't have to obey the kill order. But an order to detain would've been legit, and I'll bet that's what the paperwork actually said." He grimaced. "The army's good at keeping the official records all legal. Either way, he wouldn't have been authorized to just let those folks go."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing, or who she was hearing it from. "Their crime was purely political!"

He shook his head. "A crime's a crime. Doesn't always mean it should be, but that's the way it is when the citizens decide they don't like something. Sit down — and calm down before you stroke out."

She took several breaths to do that while she considered him. "It doesn't sound like you have a whole lot of faith in the system."

"I'm not a citizen." He shrugged. "I agree with you, actually. But I don't have any say about it."

Devon found herself wincing, as much at his casual, matter-of-fact tone as she did at the words themselves. Yale wasn't the only person on Eden Advance who had suffered. "You have a say in what's a crime here."

"Really? Drones' opinions count? You do realize that's saying we don't have to follow Station law? That's a pretty big jump, Adair."

She thought about that for a while, during which he took off his tool belt and got them something to drink. As she took her cup from him, she nodded thanks, but her eyes stared over the rim for a minute more. "We've already been making our own decisions about right and wrong anyway. We abandoned Julia even though she didn't break any laws."

"But you just did," he pointed out. "It's not legal to set a Yale free without getting approval from the Central Authority."

"Does that make me a criminal?" That seemed awfully harsh.

"I already told you I agreed with it. I don't think anyone in this camp would disagree. Does that turn us all into criminals?"

"No. But we need some sense of right and wrong. I used to think it was cut-and-dried, and that our legal system functioned as a guide, but now…" she trailed off.

"Now you're not so sure," he finished, not without empathy. "So I guess it seems right and wrong aren't so cut-and-dried after all, are they? The situation really is relative." It was an old argument between them, though before, it had always been theoretical. Station Law could be draconian, yes, but not to the point of being oppressive.

Devon made a face at herself, disgusted with that line of thought. She'd just seen ample evidence that Station Law was oppressive. That concept very definitely was relative.

"Hey," he said after a moment. "Don't stress about it. Even on the Stations, laws were always changing. They'll need to do that here, too. We'll figure it out."

"Will we?" she asked.

"We've made it this far, haven't we? Despite the odds being stacked against us?"

"Yeah." She took another sip of her drink. "I suppose we have."