01 - You Have Been Judged

Ages - Age of Expansion - Judge, Jury, & Executioner

    Rivka Anoa has a gift and a galactic mandate. She's a lawyer accused of a murder she did commit. She stands ready to accept her fate, even though her victim was a murderer. A second chance appears. Become more than a lawyer. Be one who judges and punishes the guilty. Could she look herself in the mirror after meting out justice? She's about to find out. Rivka heads to space to be the Judge, Jury, & Executioner. Criminals have nowhere to go.

Introduction:Meet Rivka Anoa

Prologue

Char and Terry are about to sign the papers to obtain a franchise for an All Guns Blazing Bar on Onyz Station. The legality of all of this will be handled by Rivka Aboa, an intern, recommended by Nathan Lowell as "something that's more than meets the eye". He has nicknamed her the "Queen's Barrister". Rivka takes them to the Bar for an inspection before they sign the papers, and they all meet a group (nine) of the Bad Company's crew, who were letting off steam. Char and Terry handle them, sending them back to the War Ax, because they had behaved badly. Terry and Char then inspect, and are happy with what they find. They all sign the franchise papers, and Rivka became a Barrister.

Chapter One

Rivka awakens from her hangover, to find a bloody knife in her hand, and a body by her feet. She remembers. She saw herself follow him. He’d led her into an alley where he’d confronted her; asked her if she knew what it was like to make love to a winner. The rage had taken over. The knife was his. He had tried to defend himself with it. And failed. Her mind raced. Actus reus, the act of committing the crime, had been completed. Mens rea, her mental state, was irrelevant. Prima facie, “on the face of it,” as the Latin would describe, she was guilty as sin. When the authorities came, she’d stay silent. The burden of proof was on them. They had stunned her, and locked her up. She awakened in a cell, a Federation holding cell, gray and cramped and silent, in the intergalactic quarter, which meant they were taking her into space—which was well outside the norm for an open-and-shut case. Custer came in and told her that she was to see the High Chancellor Maybe she would be allowed to live. Who knew?

Chapter Two

Three guards take her to see the High Chancellor, who asks her about her actions. She admits to killing the man, but knows, in her mind, he was guilty. “You hear things in your mind, you say? Feelings and thoughts?” “No. I mean, yes, High Chancellor. It hasn’t happened before, at least not as intensely as this. And not proper thoughts, in the sense of words and sentences. More like random emotions and images.” She struggled to find the words. “I can feel each distinct individual and sense their emotions, but it all blurs together. It’s such a storm I can hardly tell one person from the next, let alone pick out what they are thinking. The High Chancellor discusses the disbanding of the Queen’s Rangers. “The Queen’s Rangers were deemed a hazard and a liability to Federation integrity. They were too obvious a violation of the universal accountability we hope to maintain over our constituency. There were numerous complaints. Talk of convictions made without the law, of action without oversight and nonexistent consequences. The title ‘Rangers,’ it seems, spoke far too much of vigilantes in the night.” The Queen’s Rangers had acted completely without oversight and left in their wake both chaos and peace, a storm of bureaucratic destruction which had been torturous for Rivka’s branch to remedy. “And the Rangers were punished accordingly, High Chancellor?” Of course. She should have seen it coming. “No.” He smiled unnervingly. “The Rangers themselves claimed they enacted ‘Justice without the twisting of the law,’ so we changed their names. We formally disbanded them, retrained them, and reassigned those people. They are now called ‘Magistrates.’” She was taken back to a different cell. When she finally fell asleep, it was to the constant thrum of Rangers stealing through the night wearing the robes of a Magistrate.

Chapter Three

She awakened again, and was to a motorized waiting cart, to a transport hanger. They took her to a tiny intraorbital shuttle, nothing more than a cockpit and a single passenger’s seat into which she was manacled, facing aft. She was taken to a small room on board a ship. The door slid smoothly open, and a man walked in. A soldier, Rivka judged, taking in the toned lines of his body and the hardness of his face. His barrister’s uniform was crisp and well-cut. You’re not a barrister,” Rivka told him evenly. You’re a Ranger.” He raised a finger to his lips. “We don’t say that word anymore, Barrister. Nobody does, and one day we hope it will be forgotten. There are two possible outcomes here. One is completely in my control. The other is outside it.” “If you wish to keep your position as Queen’s Barrister, you will join us. You will learn how to handle yourself in a fight, and how to use a variety of weapons.” He chuckled ever so slightly. “You’ll become the sort of person I’m guessing your type usually curses as the spawn of chaos. When you see the filth that’s out there you’ll understand why we need proper killers, not just anointed executioners.” “Option two. You face your fate as a prisoner of the Federation, convicted of capital murder. You and I part ways. Your life becomes little more than a document in our legal system, ferried from one desk to the next until the right authority finds an excuse to stamp it out. “If you choose to join there will be a test, of course, but I think you will pass. You’ll have to interrogate three prisoners to show us how you think. You’ll determine the veracity of the charges against them, and enact the appropriate punishment. “Let’s get those tests done, Barrister.” He extended a calloused hand. “And then I’ll welcome you to the team. If you’re still with us, that is.”

Chapter Four

Grainger offered her clothes – a dress and a Magistrate’s jacket. She opened the door to find the corridor beyond empty. “What the hell?” “Is everything I do going to be some kind of test?” “Maybe. Maybe not. Not as far as you know, anyway.” “Will I see any materials regarding these cases before I interview the suspects?” “No written materials, just a verbal brief. Here’s your brief, counselor. Perp number one is accused of capital theft of a piece of artwork. There is a datapad you can access to ask specific questions regarding procedural issues and such, but your focus must be on the perp. “The second case involves assault and battery. Open and closed case since the man has confessed.” Rivka held up one finger to interrupt the briefing. “Not so open and shut. I will be the final arbiter of Justice in his case.” “The third case is capital murder. A Yollin. There’s video,” Grainger ended abruptly. “Here we are. Good luck. If you need anything… Well, don’t need anything. This is your test, not mine.” Three interrogations. Three separate determinations of Justice, and then deliver the appropriate punishment. He opened the door and a man within hastily rose from behind the table. He couldn’t stand up straight because of his shackles. Grainger touched Rivka’s arm, stopping her. She turned to find a key dangling between his fingers. “Your call about removing the shackles before, after, or never.” “I took it,” the man admitted softly. “Didn’t think it were worth that much. No way, Jose!” he blurted. His eyes were wild, like a trapped animal’s. She looked at him without blinking, making him think she was peering into his soul. She successfully and correctly judged him guilty of a misdemeanor only, and indicted the owner of the painting for insurance fraud.

Chapter Five

Rivka investigates the second case, extreme anger and a beating, and sentenced the man to anger management classes, rehab, and probation. Basically innocent, and helping him. A shackled two-legged Yollin appeared in the doorway. He was taller than her and had a carapace. Mandibles extended from the sides of his head. Rivka grabbed his wrist, was almost overwhelmed by the evil in him, and killed him. She passed.

Chapter Six

She had become a Magistrate. Beyond a barrister, more than one who argued the law. She was judge, jury, and executioner, and she’d already carried out her first execution with extreme prejudice. She awoke early again, dressed in a better-fitting wardrobe, including her Magistrate’s jacket (she liked the feel of it), and headed out the door to learn more about the station that would apparently be her training ground. Time to meet Grainger. Inside the room, she found a cross between a weight room and a dojo. “Get dressed. It’s workout time. If we don’t train in here, we won’t be ready for what’s out there. You have to be smarter, faster, and stronger than any person or creature you come up against. And most of the time, criminals run in gangs. You get to fight the whole fucking mob of them.” Grainger showed her his scars. “A gang that got the smart idea that we were vulnerable to silver, so they silver-plated all their shit.” “Are you?” “Yes. Silver cuts through the nanocytes that course through our blood. Hurts like a motherfucker and leaves one hell of a mark. You’ll get yours once the nanos are in place. Silver. Avoid that shit at all costs. Anyone carrying a silver weapon? That’s cause for arrest and on-the-spot judgment.” “Why silver?” “Some things just are. We don’t need to know why, just that they are, and then we flex our existence to reality instead of hoping reality changes.” She and Grainger have a slight tussle, ending in Grainger dropping her to the deck with one punch, which sent her to the pod-doc. The AI started to work its magic. It sampled her DNA and started to program the nanocytes to make Rivka’s body stronger and heal itself faster; help her do all the things she could do already, but orders of magnitude better. “Did she want to be taller?” “Sure. Plus her up a little. ” The Magistrate reached the door spoke over his shoulder. “Give her something fantastic to change how she sees herself. Maybe the eyes. Give her eyes like no one else’s.” The technician browsed the database. Then there they were, simple yet exotic: a golden-blue hazel with oversized irises. He input the settings for those, and also added a greatly improved ability to see in the dark. “Pretty eyes that are functional, although they are like someone else’s. They’ll never find out about Midnight Sass.” Grainger wants to hire Vered as a bodyguard for Rivka, until she gets up to speed with her own training. It’ll probably be a month before she goes out on her own. Between now and then you’ll partake of all the physical training she does, and you’ll watch out for her while she’s on this station. There’s probably going to be a bit more hands-on than you would expect. As Magistrates we not only defend clients, we mete out Justice. You’ll need to worry about getting killed. As of right now, you need to bring your “A” game.” “That’s the only game I got, Mister.”

Chapter Seven

Rivka meet Red, her personal bodyguard. Because you need to focus on the law. He’ll make sure no one sneaks up behind you.” Get it into your head that the entire law-breaking universe is better off if you’re dead.” Rivka started working out, lifting weights (snapped a tendon), then sparring. Gave her her daily schedule. AMs, physical. Afternoons, legal. Red watched her too closely as she changed, so Grainger laid him out. “I’m training both of you. He needs to watch for threats, no matter how much skin you flash. You two will be working closely together. He has his job, and that’s to protect you; nothing more. He’ll be a good member of your team. “ We aren’t sending Magistrates to the frontier with a gun and a prayer. You’re going to get a state-of-the-art combat ship with an Entity Intelligence, an EI.”