Delivered by the Defender (Kindred Tales)

“I am here to defend Selena Bates, your Justness,” he said.

“Very well, Defender Valen, you may try to change my mind.” Magistrate Harsher glared down at him. “Though unless you have some really compelling new evidence, I don’t see how that is to be achieved. The heinous crime of robbing our beloved Royalty and attempting to lessen the mass of our planet must be punished!”

“Your Justness, I submit that my client, Selena Bates, is innocent of both these crimes,” Valen said. “And I have evidence to prove it.”

“Evidence, eh?” The Magistrate crossed his arms over his chest and gave Valen a skeptical glare. “Let’s see it then, Defender. And I hope it comes from a credible source.”

“It comes from the security camera at the spaceport gate where my client was wrongly apprehended, your Justness,” Valen said.

“Hmm, I see.” The judge nodded reluctantly but Valen knew very well that since the spaceport was a neutral area controlled by male authorities, Harsher couldn’t discount it. “Very well, let’s have it then,” he said, making a “go on” gesture with one hand.

“Thank you, your Justness.”

Valen pointed his communications device and cast the security camera vid-image of the two guards coming up to Selena at the spaceport. At the point where Yorbus took her violin and dropped Empress the Third’s diamond into it, he made certain to rotate the image so that the Magistrate couldn’t miss the fact that the guard was planting the evidence. However, he didn’t say anything about it until the vid finished playing as the guards dragged Selena away.

“As you can see, your Justness, my client was waiting to board a shuttle back to the Kindred Mother Ship, carrying a delicate and expensive musical instrument which she brought with her to play at the express request of the Emperor himself. She was the toast of his Royal Gala and then she was on her way home,” he said, phrasing his words carefully. “However, these two palace guards—by the names of Yorbus and Gonadal, who are present as witnesses today…” He nodded at the two sullen guards, who were sitting on the Prosecution’s side. “These two went to the spaceport and slipped the supposedly stolen jewelry into my client’s instrument. They then proceeded to ‘find’ it by smashing her private property and then hauled her into your courtroom where they lied about her to your Justness, causing you to accidentally perform a grave miscarriage of justice.”

Valen took a breath, waiting to see what Harsher would say. He knew how much the Magistrate hated to be wrong—but hopefully putting the blame on Gonadal and Yorbus would allow him to reverse his decision without losing face.

At least, that was what he hoped. He waited, heart pounding, to hear what the Magistrate would say. He had one more piece of evidence, but using it was risky. It would be better if Harsher would simply reverse his ruling.

“I don’t know…” the Magistrate said at last, knitting his brows under the floppy purple judicial hat which all Magistrates on Ma’shorka Centra wore. “It’s difficult to believe our fine, upstanding palace guards would lie! What would be their motive for such a falsehood?”

“Another good question, your Justness, is could this vid not have been tampered with in order to show things that were not true?” the Prosecutor asked. He was an oily bastard named Borchu, who Valen knew was not above taking bribes.

“You know, Prosecutor, that is a very good question,” Harsher remarked. He looked at Valen. “Well? Could it have been tampered with?”

Valen lifted his chin.

“No, your Justness. The Head of Security at the spaceport himself sent me this footage,” he said steadily. “His reputation is unimpeachable—he has never been sited for any offences. I do not know any reason why he would wish to tamper with evidence.”

“But that would mean that the palace guards were guilty of a crime while this…this female client of yours is innocent!” Magistrate Harsher sputtered. Clearly the idea didn’t sit well with him at all.

“That is exactly what it means, your Justness,” Valen said blandly. “My client is guilty of nothing except being female and being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Untrue, untrue!” the Prosecutor exclaimed. “You can see by the evidence the Defender brought himself that this female is guilty of public indecency. Look at her—her breasts are completely covered in that vid!” He gestured to the image which was frozen at the point where the guards had dragged Selena away.

“She was about to board a shuttle for the Kindred Mother Ships where it is considered indecent for females to show their breasts,” Valen argued. He had expected that this might be a problem. “She was trying to comply with the law as best she could. Your Justness can clearly see that the other females in the crowd have their breasts covered.”