CROSS-CULTURAL EFFECTS / CH. 4:CONDEMNATION
ATLANTIS COUNCIL, 9.AM, WEDNESDAY 19TH DECEMBER.
“What was said next?” the elder asked.
“Yelena began weeping, eventually she said that something she'd done for Yuri had probably made her shark-food no matter what she said or did. Anastasia asked why, and Yelena told her to read our law herself. Ten minutes later, Anastasia then named someone, and Yelena said 'yes.' There was no more conversation after that before I went off duty.”
“So, you wish to share the gospel with them?”
“Yes, elder.”
“Good. We will deal with the others. All at once, I think.
“Certainly, elder.”
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ATLANTIS COUNCIL, 9.10.AM, WEDNESDAY 19TH DECEMBER.
“This is not your trial,” the elder said, once more. “This is a pre-trial discussion, seeking to consider things which might affect the trial. We warn you that lying to the council is a serious crime. You all trade in weapons?”
“Yes,” the taller woman said, “I don't suppose you have some you'd like to sell? Or buy of course. A missile defence system, perhaps?”
“No, I don't think so. You sell smaller weapons too?”
“Everything from hand guns and personal survival gear up. But a missile defence system might have been a bit tricky,” the taller man said.
“Who do you sell to?”
“Whoever we trust to pay. Hardware is not cheap.”
“You would sell to your competitors, even?”
“We would not trust them to pay,” the shorter man said, “they might not live that long.”
“What did you think of raising the battle flag of the Inner Mer?”
“Sounded like a good idea to find someone who wasn't happy with some laws.” the taller man said.
“Did any of you know that by raising it you were calling for the reopening of a civil war?”
“No.” three of them said quickly.
“No,” the taller man said, a little slower.
“You have just lied to the council,” the elder said, “a serious offence.”
He shrugged, “So sorry. War is good for trade. Our Mer-woman hostess seemed happy though, very happy. Feel free to ask her why.”
“She has told us why,”
“And what's happened to her?” he said, thinking to deflect their attention from him.
“So far? Nothing.”
“What will happen to her?”
“We will now begin your trial-propper.” The elder said. “You will hold onto the metal bar in front of you.”
“Where is our lawyer?”
“You have no need for a lawyer. Our laws are simple: an oath must be kept, because an oath-breaker is shark or sharkfood. Did you know that raising that flag would be breaking an oath had a Mer done it?” they asked the second man.
“Yes, but I'm not a Mer.”
“Our third law upholds the right to personal property. Was the flag yours?”
“No,” all stated in turn.
“Was it given to any of you?”
“No,” all stated in turn.
“Was it in any way made available to you to use as you did?”
“Yes,” the shorter woman said.
“Explain.”
“She showed us where it was, and did not lock the cupboard.”
“Why did she not lock the cupboard?”
“He asked her not to,” the taller woman said, indicating the taller man.
“He did?” the shorter asked, surprised.
“Under what pretext?” the elder asked.
“So we could look at it some more,” the taller woman replied.
“Where was it in the cupboard?”
“On the floor.”
“Did you ask why?”
“She said she did not want to be accused of flying it.” the shorter woman said.
“Did she say why not?”
“Because there was an oath,” she answered.
“Did she allow you to pick it up?” they asked the taller woman.
“No. But when she saw it flying, she laughed. She laughed and laughed.”
“Did she say why she didn't want you to pick it up?” a council member asked the taller man.
“Because of the oath. But I never swore an oath about any stupid flag.”
“Who picked it up?”
“I did,” the taller woman said.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Who attached it to the pole?”
“I did,” the shorter woman said. “I wish I hadn't, but I won't lie and say I had any thoughts about not doing it at the time.”
“Your actions convinced her that you had broken the first great oath on her property, with her property, and that pushed her over the edge into insanity. Let any who wish to question further raise their voice.” There was silence. “There were four charges against each of you:
1. That you used your landlady's property against her will;
2. That you so doing, you broke your oaths as guests;
3. That you knew you would be acting against an oath;
4. That you knowingly incited war between the Mer;
The first, you have admitted.” the elder said, pointing to the two women, “The second is implicit in the first. The third most of you have admitted. And I think there's no doubt you all knew it. The fourth you “, he focussed on the taller man “denied falsely before the trial, and then implicitly acknowledged you lied to the council.”
“Let any council member who wishes to question a guilty verdict or raise motives for leniency state them in thought,” there was a silent conversation.
“Each of you are guilty of breaking your guest-oaths, you are oathbreakers; sharks or shark-food.
"You are each guilty of misappropriating the property of your landlady. You may not enter any mer home or vessel undarted.
"You are each one guilty of intentionally breaking the first great oath, hoping to entice others to your wrong ways. You are dangerous sharks." The leader focussed his attention on the taller man. “You, dangerous shark, attempted to start a war between Merfolk. You are a dangerous shark of a sort that has not been before this council for many many centuries. This dangerous shark must be darted immediately. The law allows no other sentence: the warmonger shall be stoned.”
When he had been darted and dragged away, the elder turned to the shorter woman. He said, “You, dangerous shark, have spoken something of remorse. We will not sentence you immediately. Nor will we sentence these other two, as there is the possibility they also will reconsider their actions.”
“What of the other two?”
“What of them?”
“They were just as involved.”
“They will face justice, but they do not sell the tools of war.”
“If we are to die, I want to die with my husband,” the taller woman said, grabbing his hand and holding it close.
“Husband?” the shorter woman asked. “When did you two get married?”
“Last month,” the man replied.
“You hypocrites! You were still on about marriage being slavery last week!” she accused her colleagues.
“We decided a little hypocrisy was better than a big row or a fatherless child.” the tall woman said, shrugging.
“You carry this man's child?” a woman member of the council asked her.
“Yes,” she replied, uncertain what would come next.
The elder of the council stood and stated “Then we do sentence you now, dangerous sharks. Thank the baby, for it has saved your lives. We sentence you to permanent expulsion from our city. Begone from our city and our seas. You will have the mark of one expelled from Atlantis tattooed upon you. We will now discuss where and how you will be left.”
After some discussion, the elder once more stood. “You will be taken, darted and bound, to the pacific coast of Russia. There you will be left. For the sake of allowing your unborn child a chance of growing up with both parents, we will not tell the authorities where. Perhaps if you avoid causing trouble they will look the other way.”
“Then, you will alert our friends?”
“Of course not. We hope you will start new lives, not return to your old ones. Nor will we return your false documents, as they are lies, or your communication devices, as we do not know what plans or plots against this city that you might have on them. We will leave you with your steel knives and perhaps a stick if there are none near. We will leave you near fresh water. As dealers in death and violence we hope that you will thus learn to value life.”
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ATLANTIS COUNCIL, 9.30 AM, WEDNESDAY 19TH DECEMBER.
“Mr Ambassador, I don't particularly pretend to understand why you absented yourself from the trials of your compatriots this morning, but verdicts have been reached,” the elder of the Council said.
“At no time was a request for consular presence made by the prisoners, elder.”
“Ah. So it was their choice? “.
“Exactly. May I ask about the verdicts?”
“One clearly knew he was trying to start a civil war, and showed no remorse. He goes to his death.” The elder passed his picture to the ambassador. “One showed some remorse for her part, the other woman is pregnant and so we protect the innocent life along with both parents. These three will be tattooed with a mark of expulsion, and we will return them to the territory of the Russian Empire.” Three more pictures were passed across.
“I will inform my government to expect them.”
“You may do that, of course. But we wished to give them a chance to repent. They will be left with basic supplies on your pacific coast. Perhaps they will decide to fish rather than take up their old trade.”
“Which was?”
“Weapons. These four we have convicted traded in arms for an anarchist black-market trader called Yuri. You will have their wrist units and any other information we can supply.”
“And the last two?” The ambassador indicated the two pictures still on the table.
“The last two are not as dangerous.” He tapped Anastasia's picture, and continued, “This one, named Anastasia, was a maker of contacts in the black market medicine trade. Yuri's organisation is happy to sell all kinds of drugs, but apparently she is not. Instead she regularly denounced pharmacists who also corrupted your youth with illegal drugs. Apparently with Yuri's approval.”
“She's the one with the knife, yes?”
“Yes. She probably does not realise it yet, but the laws surrounding that ancient blade mean we must treat her much as we would an ambassador.”
“An ambassador? Who's?”
“Each peace-knife was unique, but the descriptions are not a hundred percent certain after all these centuries, some records have been lost. Our archivists believe she might carry the peace-knife of the king of Troy, or perhaps of Knossos. But it is the knife which offers her the protection, not the one to whom it was first given.”
“So if someone stole it from her...”
“Her father bought it honestly, she is his heir. If any took it from her by force, their life would be instantly forfeit. Whatever she is found guilty of, she will not be returned to your soil unless she asks it.”
“And the other?”
“This other one would not deal in any kind of drugs or weapons, though false paperwork seemed to be acceptable to her. Now, she plans to leave her life of crime entirely. She did not consent to the raising of the flag.”
“A paragon of virtue, then?” The ambassador asked, looking at Yelena's picture. Something about it grabbed his attention far more than the others. She, like he, was in her mid-thirties, and he was still unsure why he'd been made ambassador. Why had he thought of that? She had an attractive face. And a familiar one too. Intelligent-looking and attractive. He wondered why she looked so familiar, but he couldn't bring a name to mind. It was going to bug him.
“Hardly a paragon of virtue,” the Elder said, “but I think this Yelena is not a dangerous shark.” The name finally kicked the ambassador's synapses into firing.
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ATLANTIS-2, 9.30.AM, WEDNESDAY 19TH DECEMBER.
“Pay attention everyone!” Zelda called to the assorted teenagers, “No, I mean really pay attention.”
Eventually they calmed down, “This afternoon, as you know, we were supposed to be going on a tour of the city's engines.”
There were groans from several boys at the thought that the anticipated tour of mega-engineering was going to be cancelled.
“At about noon, the engines will be started, because Atlantis is moving. There's a reason for that: the city is currently fairly close to a small island, we're moving away from it. So we're going for the tour now.”
The boys who'd groaned cheared.
“Why are we leaving the island?” one of the children asked.
“Because at low tide, an oath-breaker who knew what the green flag meant but still chose to fly it will be left there to drown.”
“But... that's horrible.” Mia said.
“He wanted to break a great oath, one that would condemn all Mer as oath-breakers. He didn't care if he re-started the war between the Inner and Outer Mer. The reason? He wanted to find people to sell him rock-cutters so that he could sell them to criminal gangs. We expect they would use them to rob banks, free murderers, steal whole arsenals of guns and even tanks, and terrorise innocent people. Basically, he wanted to bring about an end to law and order for hundreds of thousands of people. That is horrible.”
“But to leave him to drown...”
“He has time to dwell on the lives he wanted to ruin and has ruined,” Zelda said, “perhaps he will repent, but he knew he was breaking laws and did not care. Get ready to go, young people, you will soon see the world's biggest Sterling-engine, and as long as you promise not to put your heads or any other bits of your anatomy anywhere they might get crushed, you might get to help start it too.”