This is a legal record of THE JUDICIAL HALLS OF THE COURT OF THE CONTINUUM specified as hearing document #0013007 from the Privy Council Chief Clerk. The wide-reaching scope of the accusations in this document calls into order The Tribunal of Seven representing the Realms of the Continuum, including the three Kingdoms, three Levels of the Inferno and Meru.
Realms outside of the Continuum may submit requests to review these findings from the Privy Council Chief Clerk. (For complete immersive real-time playback and perspective variations, please indicate specific formatting to your specific sensory input when making your initial request submission).
It is the intent of this court to assess damages and address procedures to determine the restoration balance if it is so required.
This subset document #0013007’A’ contains the testimony of the ACCUSED.
Those present during testimony given in front of the Seven were as follows: witnesses for The Court; Nova Antinov and Brock Mapstone, the Accused Darius ‘Pony’ Stormcloud and representative Barrister Hermes Mercury esq.
This previously transcribed format extracted from direct testimony and historical scene reconstructions begins as follows:
Darius glanced to his friends on either side of him, Nova and Brock, and then back to the large floating clouds far across the pitch-dark room. The one cloud out of seven that glowed just a touch brighter than the others was directly in the middle, right across from Darius. Even though it was only a swirl in the darkness, it gave off the weight of a heavy stare. Something or someone that could wield great power, was studying him.
“We really didn’t know what to do,” Darius said, his hands splayed across the wooden table.
A cloud to the right pulsed with light.
“Your ignorance doesn’t matter. Your own laws in your own realm uphold this fact. It is evident in all your documentation. I draw your attention to the earliest establishment of this in your Leviticus 5:17.”
“We thank the respected Tribune for the clarification, but we still need to proceed in the same manner.” Said the cloud to the center, “Just tell us what you did do, then, son.”
Brock leaned over and whispered,
“Start right before Nova shot you.”
Darius looked at Nova, and she rolled her eyes.
Mercury’s voice came from behind them;
“Yes. That should be about right. Tribune, Mr. Stormcloud will begin his testimony at that point. The previous statement of facts submitted by the Agency should cover events up to that point. If you require other information to fill in any gaps, those can be provided once we see how thoroughly this testimony covers everything. Will that suit?”
“Yes, Barrister. Thank you. As agreed, please begin testimony from the situation when Miss Antinov shot you.” The cloud said. Nova rolled her eyes even harder.
“Ok. Well. She didn’t actually ‘shoot’ me; she, well, we were finally in the tower. Or, I guess, the top of the fallen tower, and we couldn’t figure out how to get into the memories. The stored data of the memory in the data chips. Zern had the storm boiling outside the curved glass windows of the space station, and the green android, his brother, who we all started calling Adam at some point, was inside with us. Brock and I were asking the android…, Adam, questions, and well, Nova was distracted, or she seemed distracted, but that turned out not to be the case…”
Immersive scene reconstruction of Document #0013007 will begin at this point;
A single bird glided across the open expanse of the empty space station as a storm raged silently outside its curved, clear walls. The deck of the station was canted away from the level having settled onto the desert floor. The bird glided through the shadowy interior and landed awkwardly on the top rail of a balcony. With a flutter and a flap of wings, it was able to settle and perch there.
“See! That time I do it not problem. Flying is easy. You say I can not land on pipe! I do land on pipe!” Nova’s voice called down to the three figures below on the tilted space station floor.
“None of us said you couldn’t land on the pipe!” The ostrich called up to it with Brock’s voice.
“No, You say, Nova, don’t try to fly. I can’t do. Well, see? Nova fly. I do!”
One of the figures was a round sphere—not much larger than a basketball—a metal sphere that was dented and scraped and painted with a ‘zero’ in the style of an athletic jersey. This drone hovered along the expanse of the curved window with the black storm boiling outside.
“Come on mate. There’s gotta be a way. Concentrate like when Badrik had us hold hands and go into the dream. We sat in the circle. Back at the Grandmother’s. We drifted through that camp like it was a movie or something.” Brock's voice came from the heavy harness around the ostrich’s neck.
“I’m tired of looking at those stupid data chips. Nothing is helping. I can’t concentrate my way into them. I’ve never done this before.” Darius’ voice spoke, highlighted with little muted light pulses from the drone. “First of all, I can’t hold hands. And we were back at Grandmother’s. That place is different. It’s a place to daydream.” The drone spun away from the window and back to the giant bird and the green droid standing beside it.
“How long have we been trying this? I think it’s been more than a day now, but I can’t really tell. I can’t just stare at these stupid storage chips for a day and just ‘hope’ my way into them somehow. We have searched everywhere for some type of connection. Adam, you are totally sure there is no way for this drone to connect, like a computer would, to those memory storage chips?”
“I am certain young Sir.” The android replied.
“I wish Badrik was here. I could ask him, or he could hypnotize me.”
“Could hypnotize a drone?” The tall ostrich asked. Beside it the staff of the Wayfinder stood now in its docking port below an array of black crystal chips. Combined, the memory storage looked like a black sunflower. The android studied the black crystals with one large eye, appearing like a deeply recessed camera optic high on its forehead. Its face was blank of any other features and transitioned from a narrow jaw to a broad, flat-topped skull. All its features were soft and curved—a smooth green humanoid.
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The secretary bird released the railing and glided down with wings wide and steady. It landed gracefully, folded its wings against its body and skipped across the decking to join them. “This take too long. This bird body get hungry.” It said, looking up at them.
“I have already indicated there are plenty of resources available…” the green droid, Adam, began. The secretary bird held up a skeletal hand built of delicate gleaming metal.
“Yes. I know. But as I say. Bird poo then. And I not poo as bird.”
“I have also indicated that there are appropriate operational facilities where you may defecate…”
“AH!” The hand came up even quicker to be thrust into the android’s face this time. “Do not say that word! We stop talking about this thing now. I will go. Darius. You figure this out now. I am tired. We been here forever. It is time to move on.”
“Well, thanks, Nova. Ya, it's no problem. I’ll have it all figured out in a jiffy.” The drone pulsed as the secretary bird strode away towards a bank of cabinets in a far wall.
“What if you pretended…, concentrated on being back in the water tower again?” Brock asked. The ostrich was pacing back and forth around the crystals, its heavy crane arms suspended from the heavy yolk crossed in front of it in a posture of concentration.
“I’ve already tried that. It was the first thing I tried, and it is easy to do. I can kinda ‘withdraw’ back away from what I can see, like my vision is narrowing, and it feels like I’m back in the warm water floating again. You can’t believe how easy it is, actually. Especially the way my legs used to go numb on me all the time. Being in this drone is kinda easy, acutally, But that’s as far as I can get. I don’t know how to go any further, to go ‘out’ of this thing to anywhere else.”
“Ok. Let’s think about this. If Badrik was here, what would Badrik do?”
“He’d have us sit in a circle. Maybe he’d know how I’m supposed to hold hands if I don’t have any arms. But even then, with you guys, in those birds, with those metal arms of yours. How would any of that work? Back at the hospital, when this all began, he hypnotized me, when he showed me the dream. Adam’s dream to save his garden. To save the human race.” The green-hued droid bowed slightly, “The dream of the Vietnam war medic helping Joan of Arc. And we’re here now. Here to help, like the medic was, but we can’t get any further.” Darius’ voice was frustrated.
“Adam. Can you hypnotize someone?” Brock asked.
“No. That is one of the things I don’t understand how to do. I comprehend, but I cannot execute. That is one of the areas I need your help with.” The droid spoke in a soft, melodious neutral human sound that had a touch of synthesis.
At the sound of a loud metal clunk and a hiss of depressurization, the three of them turned. The secretary bird was studying a bank of now-open metal cabinets built into the station wall.
“Wow!” Nova said. “Look at all these things!”
“That area is not designed for deficatio…” Adam began.
“Don’t! Don’t even say it!” The bird held a hand up again, halting the droid’s speech. “You will not talk about that anymore. I am just explore. And see what I find? All these weapons. Hitting sticks. Space pistols. Long blinking guns. You show us empty station, why you not show us wall filled with guns?”
“Ah, I didn’t think there was a requirement…” The droid began.
“That wall does say ‘Weapons Lockers’ above it, Nova.” The ostrich said, shaking its head and turning back to the drone. “Well, what if I tried to hypnotize you?”
“You? I didn’t know you could hypnotize people, Brock. Why didn’t you say this earlier?” Darius said.
“Well because I can’t, I mean, I’ve never tried, but how hard can it be?” Brock asked
“Are you serious?” The drone asked.
“Come on. It can’t be so hard. What is the problem with trying? I’ve seen it done in old movies and other stuff. They use an old gold pocket watch, a nut, or something like that.”
“A nut. What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Adam. What this do?” Nova called. The secretary bird was holding a smooth, blue, delicate pistol in its metal hands. The pistol was pointed in their general direction.
“Ah, please remove your finger from the trigger. The weapon does have a slight chance of firing.”
“Don’t worry. I not pull trigger. What it do?” She spun the pistol barrel into a ‘come on’ gesture.
“It is a needler pistol. It fires individual projectiles it has selected once its specific target has been scanned and assessed for weakness. It can…”
“Never mind.” Nova said, and clicked the pistol back to its mount in a row of identical pistols.
“But what about a coin?” Darius asked Brock, his voice hesitant.
“Ya. See? Now you’re getting into the spirit of it.”
“Gentlemen,” Adam said, “Where are you going to get a coin from? Or an old pocket watch?”
The ostrich stapped a set of blocky yellow crane fingers together, “I’ve got it! A bullet. I saw a guy hypnotized in a movie once and they used this bullet from a gun.” Brock called out, “Hey, Nova! You see any bullets over there?” The right arm of the ostrich lifted, its hand still and flat to the ground and began moving its fingers in a slow wave. “The guy ran the bullet along the back of his hand like this...”
“Bullet?” Nova’s voice rang out from the secretary bird. " Like old-fashioned metal. Round nose? Flat bottom? Made of brass and lead?”
“Ya. Exactly.”
“No. Of course not, you dumb giant bird. This all future weapons.” With another ‘click,’ she pulled a long staff out of a bank of identical weapons.
“Adam. This war stick. What it do?”
“Ah. It is what the surface dwellers call a charge staff, initially called a tower javelin.”
“Yes. What it do?”
“You don’t have to get mean about this, Nova. We’re just trying to figure out…”
“You idiots don’t know about hypnotize. Time to think another way. You talk hypnotize waste time. Stupid. This bird getting hungry. Adam. What this staff ‘Do’?”
“Surface dwellers can only get it to emit a touch charge of electricity as long as it is charged. Initially, they were designed to also defend with a repulser charge, use the stun charge, and emit a ranged stun area effect like the charge rifles, the' long blinking guns,’ as you refer to them. The tower javelin, along with a mantis shield drone, was…”
“So you say this stick can now make a touch of electric?”
“Well, yes, it is the simplest attack and all those staffs are charged. Some of the charge staffs are a shorter configuration, and only emmit a stun charge on touch, called a batton. Some can be fixed to a longer second staff to create a lance. The tower javelin was a combination…”
“Darius. Come on man. What else is there?” the ostrich asked the drone. “Why don’t we try it? If hypnosis doesn’t work, what is the harm? So, you, like, don’t go to sleep or something. It’s not like nothing bad can happen.”
The secretary bird grasped the long staff in its delicate arms and, with the steady sound of metal on metal, dragged it across the metal decking to join the others.
“I want to have one of these,” Nova said. How do I turn on?
“You don’t need that thing, Nova. Put it back.” Brock said. “It’s way too big for you anyways.”
“We have no requirement to arm ourselves. We are safe here. My brother Zurn protects us outside.” Adam added.
“Don’t bug me Brock. I am curious. How to I make stick electric?” She asked Adam.
“I don’t think that thing is safe, Nova.” The ostrich continued, towering over the secretary bird as it walked closer. “Maybe it can damage some of the electronics in here.” It continued.
“Is true, Adam? Can hurt computer and stuff?”
“Well, yes. For example, it has enough power to force me into a reset. I do wish you would not bring it any closer.”
“Would it hurt?”
“I would feel what you would consider pain, but it would not permanently damage me. But I do not wish to reset right now, even if it were accidental. As you continue to draw closer I am calculating that a possible reset may be in my future.”
“A computer? Would it kill a computer? Hurt it? Or turn it off like turn you off?”
“Yes. The same. It could shut down any non-bio organism.”
“And people? Or bird people…, or whatever? Just stun them. Not kill.”
“Yes. That is right. Some would be stunned. Others are tougher. The bioengineered for battle, for instance, it would cause them discomfort, but they could continue unhindered. There are historical records that you could review. I could provide them and they would be much safer to read at your leisure if you are interested in the station weapons. I would suggest that you return that weapon to its receptacle.
“No thank you. It does not matter. I promise I will not touch you. How do turn on? It look like words on staff; and two arrows come together. I twist?”
“Yes. You would just…”
Blue electric fire jumped to life on the upraised end of the staff. The ostrich flinched away from the snap and crackle of the electricity in the air.
“Jeeze, Nova, watch it with that thing, will ya?”
“Darius?” Nova said.
“Yes?”
“I am going to be sorry later because this may hurt you, but for now, I am hungry, and talk of hypnotizing is making me angry. Also, I may have to poo soon. I think drone is problem. I think you right about Grandmother house. If you don’t have drone to be in, then you be out. I think all back at Grandmother house.” And she tipped the tall end of the electrically charged staff and touched the drone.