Heritage (Under Revision)

Chapter 60: Ethan

The guards walk me through the same large wooden doors as before, putting me on display for all of the onlookers in the courtroom. Not a single pair of eyes bears any kind of compassion for me.

They hate me.

No doubt it’s due to the UEDF’s influence.

The greatest thing about Earth is also its greatest flaw: Absolute unity. Earth maintains the idea of a freedom, so long as it’s what they say.

I can’t say that everyone is bad in this flawed system. I’ve met a lot of genuinely goodhearted people over the years. They’re simply ignorant of the truth.

The guards haul me up to a table, placed just in front of the audience seats; Peter is already standing there, waiting for me. The guards leave the restraints on me as they walk to the left side of the courthouse so that they can keep an eye on me. The special counsel handling my case enters the room and takes their respective seats.

“All be seated,” The bailiff says and we all sit down as well.

The judge begins to speak “Good morning everybody and thank you for attending. Today, we will be commencing the court case of General Ethan Blake. Though this is a high-profile case, I would request that everyone remain quiet during the proceedings. If I am forced to call order to the court too often, I will remove everyone from the courtroom and conduct this case privately,”

The crowd stays silent at his request.

“That being said, let’s get started. This case will begin with opening statements from both the prosecution and defense. Prosecution, you have the floor first,”

A tall, thin, young man with too much oil slicking back his hair stands up and steps to the center of area.

He turns to the jury “Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, General Blake,” He starts, pointing a bladed hand towards me.

“General Ethan Blake has been accused of espionage, treason, hacking into government secrets, and the cold-blooded murder of a government defense agent just trying to do his job and stop these mad acts against our great establishment. I intend to prove just that today. This once great, applauded General, decided to fall from grace and join our enemies. I also aim to prove that; his egregious acts start with the fall of the great Poseidon academy ship. A ship that held thousands of blossoming military officers whose lives were cut short from an attack by Sekrid soldiers. I ask all of you to please, set aside your celebrity wonder towards this man, and see him as just that: a man. Thank you, your honor,” The prosecutor finishes, taking his seat.

The judge motions a hand towards Peter and he stands up, moving to the same position as the prosecutor.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the prosecution asks that you see my client, General Ethan Blake as simply a man. It seems to me that this is the furthest from the truth given everything they’ve stated. You see, the prosecution wants you to put my client on a pedestal; that gigantic pedestal with which we judge all men and women of his status. With this pedestal come all of the benefits and all of the consequences of being recognized as a hero. Those consequences being that my client is to be judged harsher than anyone else would be judged normally. Because when you’re on that pedestal, you’re suddenly not allowed to make mistakes. But, as the prosecutor has stated, General Ethan Blake is just a man. He is a man who has seen many horrific things in his great service to our establishment. He is a man who was taught that when you recognize a threat, you remove it. General Ethan Blake did just that. He saw a man threaten his family with death and decided his best course of action was to remove that threat, regardless of the consequences, just as his training has wired him to do. I plan to prove that fact today and disprove any wild accusations against my client are untrue. For that, I have no need to wow you ladies and gentlemen. Just show you the truth. Thank you, your honor,”

Peter takes a seat next to me as the Judge begins to speak again.

“With our opening statements concluded, it is time for us to move on to the examination phase of our trial. I turn the floor over to the prosecution for presentation of their evidence,”

Without hesitation the prosecutor stands up, grabbing a small device from his table and walking to the center of the courtroom. A bailiff rolls a small table over to his position. He places the device on the table and presses a button, causing a holographic image to appear in the air.

“As I stated before, I intend to prove that the defendant, General Ethan Blake, was colluding with the enemy this entire time, and that the Poseidon was just one in a series of events of which he helped orchestrate. This photo here, if you look closely your honor, is a zoomed in satellite image of the planet in which the Poseidon crashed down on,”

I can feel my expression turn to disbelief. I had never known there was anything more placed in orbit of the planet, let alone something that could capture high quality photos of the surface. The prosecutor catches on to the look on my face and immediately uses it as ammunition.

“That’s right, General Blake; this satellite caught you in the act while talking to this Sekrid here. Those of you who are caught up with the big names of the Sekrid Empire will notice that this is none other than Rin’Gal, The Sekrid Warchief who attacked and decimated the Poseidon, killing all of those innocent kids on board. If you look at the time stamp, you’ll see that it is dated just a day after this tragic incident occurred,”

There’s a large number of gasps and whispers among the crowd behind us. The judge bangs his gavel a few times, calling for order.

“Do you have any other evidence to speak to this accusation?” The judge asks.

“I do, Your Honor,” The prosecutor then presses another button on the device, which then reels passed a few photos, leaving enough time in between each one so that they can be seen.

“These photos show the General, as well as his son and wife getting into a long abandoned military project with Rin’Gal as well,”

“And who are the others in these photos prosecutor?” The judge interjects.

“We have identified the others as the General’s brother, Damien Blake, an officer of our military who went MIA, Anika Tetrarch, and one of the only surviving teenagers of the Poseidon, Stella Lancaster. Your Honor, the government has also given me permission to present information about this experimental ship. Codenamed project Nutcracker, this ship was intended for a rather dangerous purpose. This ship in question was meant to be used to detect and ultimately, reopen singularities in order to discover what has been pulled inside of them. The UEDF decided that this project was too dangerous and thus, made it inoperable and abandoned it on this planet. However, during this time, the planet faced frequent skirmishes and the transport ship that was taking it to be dropped in one the planet’s oceans had been shot down, leaving the device repairable given the necessary assets. Ms. Tetrarch was a part of the crew on that transport ship and given the hostility of the area in that time, it was difficult to search for her. The important thing to note here, is that after these events, General Blake and his companions leave the planet and disappear for a much longer time than it should take for them to return to Earth for debriefing as protocol states. The reason for this is that The General repaired this device, and handed it over to our enemy, the Sekrid Empire. This is precisely why Ethan Blake wanted to have the Poseidon placed above this planet. So that he could eventually take this forgotten technology and give it to our enemies. I have nothing further for this piece of evidence, your honor,”

The prosecutor gives a smug smirk at me as he steps to his side of the emblem placed in the floor.

“Mr. Hall, do you intend to cross-examine this evidence,”

Peter stands up and walks over to his own respective side of the emblem.

It’s now that I finally see just how one-sided these trials are. The entire thing is constructed in the favor of the prosecution. The defense is allowed to present no evidence what so ever, unless it’s to counter the accusations of the prosecution. It makes it extremely difficult to defend yourself at all. It’s almost like you have to know what the prosecution is going to present and plan accordingly, I hope that’s exactly what Peter has done.

I watch as Peter silently siphons through the photos stored on the device. He studies them for a long five minutes and it feels almost intentional.

“Mr. Hall, I think you’ve had enough time to study these photos. Please, begin your examination,” The Judge requests impatiently.

Peter turns to the prosecutor. “Prosecutor Downs, have you ever served in the military?” He asks with intent.

The prosecutor raises an eyebrow “I don’t see what this has to do with the case,”

“Yes, Mr. Hall, I don’t quite see the point of such a question,” The judge parrots.

“My question has a point you honor,”

The prosecutor looks to the judge for a moment. Judge Tomlin shrugs, giving a silent ‘answer the question’ to Downs.

“I have not Mr. Hall. My family provided the necessary means to allow for me to be passed over for mandatory service,”

“So, you parents provided the necessary donation amount to remove you from the list?”

“Correct,”

Peter gives a nod.

“Well prosecutor, if you had served, you would have learned about a well-known, less practiced clause in the UEDF’s articles of combat titled: Courtesies of War,”

Peter pulls a TAPs device from his pocket and lays it on top of the initial holographic device. The image changes to a set of glowing text, describing the article Peter spoke of.

“Now, if we scroll down to point five on this article, you will see the required information. Point five states that: Any enemy combatant who is found injured after a battle has taken place, shall be given equal rights to survive by being given medical attention, food, and water. General Blake provided all of these things,”

“How exactly do we know that Rin’Gal was injured?” The prosecution retorts.

“To answer that question, I have here the formal debriefing of the General himself,” Peter says as another set of texts pops up.

“I refer to the event in which General Blake had engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Rin’Gal. More specifically, the part of the confrontation where he states, and I quote: ‘I was left open to attack at this point by Rin’Gal and before he was able to strike me with a killing blow, my son, Leon Blake, stepped into the fight and severed Rin’Gal’s hand’ end quote. Couple this with the fact that directly after this event, the ship had begun to be pulled down into the planet’s gravitational field, and I would say it’s safe to assume that Rin’Gal was injured. Now, to also attest to the honesty of General Blake, I refer further down the debriefing, which details the acquisition of the confidential device in question. To avoid any elongation of this piece of evidence, I will simply paraphrase this section and have the bailiff give you a copy of the document your honor. General Blake details the fact that there was no viable transportation option at the given time and considered it a boon that they stumbled upon the ship housing the device. Being that General Blake is privy to the knowledge of it, he immediately recognized its purpose. To make the point as to the fact that General Blake made no effort to give this technology to the Sekrid, I refer to the section where the General states that out of selfishness he decided to use the device to travel to the place of origin of the XR-3 Zeus. For those who do not know, that is the place where General Blake encountered a strange virus that overtook the ship that he survived, along with a group of companions. General Blake details that he used the device where a singularity missile had engulfed the Zeus in order to extract someone who sacrificed himself so that they could escape. This man is my brother, Dante Hall, famed pilot of the UEDF Air Corps. While this act was very irresponsible on the General’s part, it was certainly not illegal. The project had been abandoned, and therefore, cannot be construed as thievery of government property. The debriefing also confirms that after this event, General Blake turned in the equipment to UEDF personnel, where it was ultimately disposed of safely, in a controlled environment. Your honor, I think the facts I have provided are adequate enough to disprove that my client had any dealings with Rin’Gal and the Sekrid what so ever and I digress from my cross-examination at this time,” Peter finishes as he confidently walks back to our table.

I notice the prosecutor staring at Peter so intently with frustration that he may well just burn holes in the back of his head.

“The examination of this evidence has concluded. Prosecutor, what is your next piece of evidence?” The judge speaks, but the prosecutor can’t bring himself to listen, he just continues to stare at Peter, furious.

“Prosecutor...Prosecutor!” The judge finally yells before Prosecutor Downs snaps out of his anger.

“Ri...Right your honor,”

Prosecutor Downs steps back to the hologram device, removing Peter’s TAPs and placing his own.

“The next piece of evidence I would like to bring to the attention of the court is the charge of hacking into government secrets. This document shown, explains, in detail, the usage data on the terminal General Blake used to access restricted, more specifically, level five restricted documents. The document here shows the various key manual commands General Blake put into the computer in order to access the information through a back door in the system. It’s clear that one can only know such knowledge if they intend to hack into government databases and furth--,”

“Interjection,” Peter says loudly, cutting off the prosecutor.

Downs clenches his jaw hard as Peter stands up from the table and moves to his respective position.

“Mr. Hall, you do realize the repercussions of unsuccessfully justifying your interjection, correct?”

“Yes, your honor, I do. And I plan to justify it wholeheartedly. I did not see the sense of dragging out this evidence examination any further on the grounds that it is quite easily disproved,”

The judge raises an eyebrow and thinks for a moment.

“Very well, Mr. Hall, just as long as you succeed in your cross-examination,”

Peter gives a smirk and nod before beginning.

“Another question for you Prosecutor Down: Do you know what security clearance a Delta Four General starts with?”

“A restricted level three clearance, which is not high enough to access the documents the General accessed,”

Peter gives a sarcastic smile “That’s correct prosecutor. I would like to request that you do something for me. I’d like you to walk over to General Blake, look at his military uniform ranks and tell me what you see,”

“Your honor, this is ridiculous, I don’t see the point--,”

“No, I agree prosecutor, I think you should go look,” The judge says.

Downs sighs with resentment and walks over to me. He bends down and stares at my ranks, four hollow, silver delta symbols, with gold stars in the center of them.

Downs’s face scrunches up “These aren’t the ranks of a Delta Four General. What are they?” He asks befuddled.

“Well Prosecutor Downs, let me enlighten you. So, as we know, a Delta Four General is the highest rank achieved in the UEDF. However, there is a set of ranks higher than that of a Delta Four. There the Delta Four with endorsement ranks. Each star you see there represents an endorsement from the President of Earth himself. Not many people know they exist because usually these endorsements are given privately, in a closed ceremony. To get to my point, after two endorsements, the General jumped up to restricted level four status. After the last two endorsements, the General then upgraded to--,”

“Level...five...clearance,” The prosecutor interjects as he begins to sweat bullets.

“So, you see Prosecutor, General Blake was well within his rights to access that information. The problem here is the terminal in which he accessed it from. General Blake was, at the time of accessing this information, placed on a space station for refueling and maintenance. This particular station is not normally used for those purposes and in instances of peace time, is used as an academy for young cadets,”

Peter walks over to the display showing the terminal’s usage and zooms in on a portion of it with a quick motion of his hands.

“If you look at the name here, you will see that it’s not Ethan Blake at the top of this page. General Blake was using a student terminal, which, for anyone who has attended a cadet academy will know that no matter who logs in to the terminal, it will always register as that specific cadet. This was implemented so as to eliminate the guessing game of tracking an IP address when a student wanders on to content they are not authorized to. This right here, is the ultimate reason for General Blake becoming locked out of the terminal and the information he requested to view. I have nothing else to add your honor,”

Peter silently walks back to our table and sits down, allowing for the prosecutor to bask in his second defeat of the day. I notice at this point that Downs starts to clench a fist so hard it shakes, making his knuckles go white.

He immediately moves on to his next point of accusation, setting his TAPs device on to the projector with an audible thud and swiping hard through the pieces of evidence. He finally stops on a military photo of a familiar face. The man whose name I do not know, yet still shot in the chest. Prosecutor Downs lets the man’s face linger for a moment before swiping to another photo that shows his lifeless body.

“Ladies and gentlemen. The one thing in this case that is irrefutably fact, is that General Blake shot this man. As you can see, he didn’t just shoot him in the chest, but instead made the extra effort to shoot this man in the face...point blank. How much would it shock each and every one of you to know that General Blake didn’t even know this man’s name. Well, General Blake, allow me to do that for you. This man is John Howell. Beloved father, son, and a dedicated member of this great society. At an early age Mr. Howell decided that he wanted to join one of the most prestigious military academies of the time. After growing up he enlisted as an officer and led men into many battles selflessly. In interviewing his former charges, I found that they had nothing but positive things to say, using words like hero to describe him. After his term of service in the military he decided to help our society in other ways by becoming a Defense Agent for our intelligence bureau. It’s in this position that Mr. Howell was simply doing his job and responding to a breach of information from a less than secure terminal when that man,”

Downs points a hard finger at me to emphasize his point.

“Decided it best to kill him in order to keep his treachery under wraps. I have here a recording from a microphone worn by Mr. Howell during the time of the incident that contains the shocking confession of General Blake,”

Prosecutor Down plays the clip from the incident. It starts with the loud bang from my pistol. And then two more You can hear the slight sounds of Mr. Angel’s quiet groans in pain. There’s a loud thud as his face bounces off the table he was sitting at. The words between Elena and I in that moment play back to me. Taken out of context, they’re the exact type of words you’d hear from someone who actually committed a crime like murder. Downs smirks at me, thinking he’s all but one. But in turning to look at Peter, he’s as calm as ever, leaning back in his chair with his glossy, metal arms crossed.

“It’s clear here that Ethan Blake is admitting to his crimes in this recording. Not only that, but it also proves that his wife, Commander Elena Blake is an accomplice to the things he’s done. I have nothing further your honor,”

“Mr. Hall, you are free to cross-examine,” The judge states.

Peter calmly stands once again from his chair and walks back to the projector, placing his TAPs back on it. He scrolls through a few files before landing on an audio recording.

“I’d like to play a clip of my own,” Peter says.

With a motion of his hand the recording plays back the first conversation I had with Mr. Angel. The crowd gasps at the sounds of him threatening Leon and everything that I love. The gasps turn to murmurs and the murmurs turn to conversations at the judge bangs his gavel louder and louder.

“I said order in my court room!”

“That recording is a lie!” Downs yells, slamming a fist on to his table.

Peter maintains his composure.

“Oh, it’s real alright Mr. Downs. I’ll even let you have test its authenticity. Just remember that the law states I must be present for the test to ensure no tampering or lying occurs,”

“You arrogant bastard!” Downs screams, finally losing his nerve.

“That is quite enough prosecutor! I do not see a need to check the authenticity of that recording. I will overrule any such motion to do so. Jury, are you ready to deliberate on this case?” The judge asks in a commanding voice.

A lot of quiet nods come from the jury and they are dismissed to their deliberation room. For the better part of three hours we all sit there in anxious anticipation. As the jury returns to the courtroom the entire population on the defense, prosecution, and audience perk up in unison. One jury member remains standing as the rest take their seats.

“Has the jury reached a verdict?” The judge asks simply.

“We have your honor. Deliberating on such a high profile and controversial case has been admittedly hard for the jury your honor. General Blake was a man that many of the younger members on this jury have looked up to since childhood. In reviewing the extensive amount of evidence against him, and the counter evidence presented by Mr. Hall, it has become evident to the jury that we cannot in all good conscience convict the General of any of the crimes he is being accused of and thus have decided to vote not guilty on all counts of murder, espionage, hacking, and treason,” The jurywoman finishes and to my surprise I hear applause within the crowd.

The judge bangs his gavel a few more times and it dies down.

“Mr. Hall. General Blake. It is evident to me that the people of this great society have chosen to retain their faith in you. What was a very bad situation for you became a very fortunate one. General, my only suggestion to you is that if you find yourself in a situation like this again, you use the proper channels. There’s more than just being a soldier in this day and age,” The judge says to me, trying to pass down some knowledge.

I give a silent nod in agreement as the judge motions for the bailiff to take the cuffs off of me. I stand up and reach my arms out to him.

“General Blake, you are a free man. You may walk out of this court room as such,” The judge says giving a final word.

I smile wide as I turn for the door, Peter right beside me as we exit the courtroom, walk the long hallway down to the entrance and break through the doors into a bright sunshine, a perfect symbol of my newly found freedom.

That’s when the pain hit me. The bullet was so hot when it entered my chest that it felt cold. I felt it go in through my chest and exit through my back. I feel my body turn to jelly as I start to fall into shock. I feel the cold metal of Peter’s arms grab me and hoist me on to his shoulders as he rushes down the court steps. I hear the screams of people as my vision fades to black and I pass out.