Chapter 106
Sentencing
The Boss judge looked down on Leo. “In light of the many questions raised by witnesses and audience, the court would like to call Leo Edwards to the witness stand before we deliberate on his sentence.”
Damien floated upward. “Objection. My client has pled guilty to all the charges against him. What more do you want?”
“Beings want to better understand why Leo did what he did,” the judge responded. “Leo, please take the stand.”
“You can refuse to testify,” Damien said. “It won't hurt you, or your case.”
“That's okay.” Leo stood up. “I want to.”
Taking the stand, Leo felt sick with nervousness.
“When you ordered your friend to kill a six-year-old boy, how did it feel? How did your friend feel about it?” The acting prosecutor asked, reading from a long list of questions.
“My friend, Jason, who's now deceased, was sick and guilty about what I ordered him to do. I did what was necessary, and I'd do it again.”
“You were recently voted the most hated person on the planet. How does that feel?”
Leo took a deep breath and let it out again. “I'm sorry. To the humans in this room, and everywhere else, I want you to know I bear you not the slightest animosity. You needed a genius—no, a super genius to save the human race, and you got me instead. These High-Level Bosses have fooled smarter people than you, and I know many of you will be dead in a matter of weeks.”
“Boooo!” the audience shouted. An egg flew by Leo's head and splatted on the witness stand.
“Everyone keep in mind, Leo is a very sick individual,” the judge's voice boomed through the huge room, “who sees us as human-eating monsters rather than members of the same churches, same schools, and beings who are happy subsisting on the blood and plasma humans have provided for us.”
Leo started laughing and couldn't stop.
The acting prosecutor spoke. “I believe Leo Edwards is a sick individual and there's little to be gained by further questioning.”
And it was over,
Damien floated upwards. “Your Honor. Before you pass judgment on my client. I would speak on his behalf.”
“You may speak.”
“Leo Edwards had a terrible traumatic future life and then somehow got sent back in time to his previous self. He did what he did, not for any selfish gain, but because he believes, no, he knows, the Ascended Ones are monsters, and if he could, he would personally kill every one of us in this amphitheater, every one of our kind on the planet, and he wouldn't feel the slightest bit of remorse in doing so. Would you say that is true, Leo?”
Leo nodded. “Yes, it is.”
“Leo Edwards is a monster,” Damien continued. “But he is a monster created by the same aliens who created us. And though he deserves to die for his crimes, I would ask that we be the better beings and confine him to our psychiatric ward and work towards his rehabilitation. We must convince him, and others like him, that we are not the monsters he believes us to be.”
After Damien's speech, there was a long silence.
“Before we continue,” the judge said, “several religious factions would like to lead us in a group prayer for Leo's soul.”
“No,” Leo said.
“My client does not wish to be prayed for,” Damien said.
“Very well,” the judge said. “Leo Edwards may leave us while we pray and deliberate on his judgment.”
Leo was taken from the amphitheater and left in a small room where he sat alone for what seemed like an eternity. Then they brought him back.
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The Boss judge spoke. “Leo Edwards. Please stand.”
Leo was pulled to his feet.
“Leo Edwards. You brought untold suffering to an already suffering planet and you deserve to die. But your death would send the wrong message to a planet with too much death in it already. Our new world order is about life and new beginnings. We sentence you to life imprisonment, where you will spend your time contemplating and atoning for your crimes and reflecting on how much misery your actions have brought to our world.”
There was a long pause.
“Leo Edwards, is there anything you'd like to say?”
Leo didn't respond, remaining silent until they took him back to his cell.
Over the next couple of days, little changed. Ryan brought him some comic books and a small laptop loaded with movies and TV shows. No internet though. Leo tried watching the movies, but they reminded him of the time he'd watched TV with his annoying sister and he'd put his head in his hands and cry.
Then, for no reason Leo knew of, guards he didn't recognize took away his laptop and all his reading material, even the boring classics, leaving only a large bible and a bunch of books and pamphlets on religion.
Leo thought it was funny. The worst part of his imprisonment was waiting. He was sick of waiting.
November 19, 2059
His implant finished replicating itself. He set his implant to replicate a third time, though he was sure he'd be dead before it finished. Since he was asking the world's implant wearers to continually replicate their implants, it seemed wrong not to practice what he preached.
If they caught him with an implant, they would take it away. He rolled up the tinfoil-like implant while underneath his blankets and stuck it in his mouth. It turned out implants took up a tiny amount of space and he almost swallowed the implant more than once.
“Imp. What happens if I swallow an implant?”
It will not be affected by your stomach or digestive tract, Leo. You will simply poop it out again.
“I see.”
I've been reflecting on your plan, Leo. Do you have any idea why it's taking so long?
“They're much better organized this time,” Leo mumbled to his implant. “I think we've failed, Imp. The human race is fucked. But I have to go through with this. If there's the slightest chance my actions will help someone...”
I'm scared, Leo. I should be more accepting of our imminent demise, but I'm still scared.
“Me too.”
There were times Leo wondered if he was wrong. Could the Bosses have changed this time around? But fifty years of surviving in a post-apocalyptic hell told him they had not.
***
“You hear about people who find a million dollars and return it to the owner,” Leo said when his guards, Ben and Ryan, came with his evening meal. “Those guys are idiots. I'd keep it. Finder's keepers and all that.”
“Unless someone sees you finding it,” Ben responded. “In which case, it's better to be a good Samaritan than a criminal.”
Leo burst out in a huge fit of coughing. He grabbed a tissue from his desk and made a big show of coughing into it. Then he handed the tissue to Ryan. “Here. Get rid of this.”
Ryan's eyes opened wide when he saw the silver implant Leo had coughed into the tissue.
“Get rid of it yourself, Leo,” Ben responded. “What are we, your servants?”
“I think somebody's feeling crabby,” Ryan said while casually taking the tissue from Leo's hand and stuffing it and the implant into his pocket. “Just because he's serving a life sentence for getting a bunch of people killed, he thinks he can take it out on us.”
Leo made a show of rubbing his lips, a shhhh motion. “Have you guys thought about going home? I know you both have kids you're looking after.”
“We'd like to,” Ryan said, “but we're making too much money here. One hundred squid a day for sitting on our asses watching video camera feed.”
“Squid?” Leo asked.
Ben pulled out a dollar-sized piece of paper with a picture of a Boss on it. “We call them squid. One is good for a bottle of filtered water or the equivalent value in food or supplies. It's the new currency. And this is on top of room and board.”
“I see,” Leo responded. “I really think you should go home and see your kids.”
“We know what you think, Leo,” Ryan said. “We've been getting video messaging from our families back home. The Ascended Ones are flying children around and using their tentacles for swings and jump ropes. One of them rescued this little girl's kitten from a tree. I realize they're not saints, but they're trying so hard to make the Human-Ascended One Alliance work. I'm sorry, Leo, but your paranoia is sad.”
Leo didn't respond. He sat on his bed and waited for the guards to leave.
He'd been tempted to give the implant to Ben, the smarter of the two guards. But Ben was a large, overweight, elderly man. He'd be at the top of the Bosses' “to be eaten” list as soon as the Ascended Ones dropped their Mr. Nice Monster act.
The waiting was the worst part.
He'd thought the worst part of being captured would be being killed by the Bosses, but he'd been wrong.
It was the waiting.
Five days later, Damien paid him a visit.