Time had passed, and those present now stood as the Judge returned from deliberation... -- SBR: Court

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Date Posted: 00:55:23 04/07/02 Sun
Author: Judge Nores
Subject: Time had passed, and those present now stood as the Judge returned from deliberation...

He looked out across the faces before him. The jury. The officers and friends of those lost in the defendant's rampage. The "sharkticon attorney", Barristro, his grin not as confident before Nores' hard, unreadable gaze. Masonite and Anakin, looking equally apprehensive. The Rugby attorney and the Omicron officer had actually made a pretty good team, and the testimony from Major Charr had gone a long way towards establishing the character of Dinotron, immoblized in his cell. The problem was that he was being judged for what he and his sister had done on Rugby, and Barristro had been quick to point that out.

Nores looked out at those faces and sighed. The judicial system was not perfect on Rugby. It was slow. It was an incomplete hybrid of Cybertronian law and human law. Independent of both Earth and Cybertron, some rules were more easily bent than others. Some threats were dispatched without benefit of a trial. With such a variety of lifeforms passing through the Starbase on a daily basis, one had to keep an open mind and discern dangerous lifeform from misunderstood lifeform. It was not an easy distinction.

It would be hard for any to feel sympathy for Dinotron, given the human element and the Rugbyian predispostion toward any associated with Rampage. Some said the sparks of the crab Predacon's victims still roamed the darkened and derelict corridors of Rugby late at night. What was night on a starbase? Nores shivered....even the most rational man gave some consideration to the echoes of a mass murderer.

There were many questionable tactics Nores wanted to change, and Rotor would have to answer for the removal of the defendant's engine. Perhaps there was no other choice under those circumstances, but the fact that such a protocol existed within Alcatraz's department, unchecked by any of Rugby's bylaws? Howitzer perhaps allowed some of his subcommanders too much license in how they ran their sections. If Rugby would remain independent of Cybertron some fixed rules would have to be passed and applied. But such changes take time and require precedent, the precedent of decisions such as the one Nores was about to pass today.

At one point in the trial the life support had failed and medics rushed to Dinotron's cell. The guards held their ground much to the doctor's chagrin, but mere moments later the lights flickered and his life signs stabilized. Even unconscious, the omnileech's energy draining capabilities kicked in as a form of self-preservation. The special containment unit provided by the Dracans would be the answer. Within, Dinotron could exist for eternity, feeding on his own looping energy patterns, cut off from the rest of the SPUniverse. Nores could not--would not--establish precedent for a death penalty. The Judge's heart went out to the young girl orphaned, the officers who had lost comrades, and the Warden who had almost died not even knowing his wife was pregnant with their first child. As much as he sympathized, as much as Dinotron deserved death, the first execution would open the door for more down the line, a legal precedent Nores could not have on his conscience. Before coming to Rugby, he had questioned the guilt of more than one of his clients during his lawyer years. Killing Dinotron was a risk. Exiling him was a risk. Releasing him was absolutely out of the question.

* * * * *

In the end he was strapped into the chamber, its settings checked and rechecked by both Rugby Engineers and the Dracans who had supplied it. Escorted by a large security force, one whose size Barristro protested even though his client had already been sentenced, the capsule was taken from the brig to the Docking Bay, where it was launched into the Outer Perimeter. All of this was observed from the confines of the courtroom, where the Judge had ordered all gathered remain for their own safety. Tracking devices within the capsule would allow both Rugby and Omicron II to track Dinotron's location, until he was well beyond the bounds of travelled spacelanes.

Nores sighed and hoped he had done the right thing; maintaining the prisoner within the Brig would have been too much of a drain on the Starbase, and risky. He felt some shame for the decision that had been released, and a sense of things unresolved. Dinotron would now be someone else's problem should the unthinkable ever occur, and should he return. It was not the Judge's way to make a decision that would avoid other, harder decisions. He thought now of the wording he had used when he passed his sentence, even as he granted the courtroom assemblange permission to disperse: "....someplace barren, someplace safe."

He took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose, wondering how mistakes could recur even when those making them were aware of history. It was never easy. He looked at the electronic warrant awaiting his signature; Lieutenant Rotor had left early and had not been present for the final decision, nor had permission to roam. There were potential charges for him now, charges which if pursued, could ruin his career. Nores considered whether or not to make yet another hard decision, or to take some time to recover from this one....

"When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty."
-Norm Crosby

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