Lottery
Chapter 15
By Mark J. Silva Jr
The first sign that Mark was awake, was the blood curdling scream from the back half of the shuttle's cabin. Di left the co-pilot's seat, and went back into the passenger cabin to see what she could do.
“How is it, back there?” Lisa asked.
“I have him, now. He is burning up, dear,” said Di as she held Mark tightly in her lap.
“It's just ten more minutes 'till we land at Olive's place. Can you handle him until then?” Lisa hollered back from the pilot's seat.
The Sprite Class Shuttle was an inter-system planet jumper, with a short range hyperspace drive. It was able to land just about anywhere there was a fifty foot diameter clearing. It could be flown by just a lone pilot, but had provisions for a pilot and co-pilot. In the passenger cabin, it had lots of room for six to sit comfortably, and for two to be on the rear bunks, sleeping. Behind the sleeping area was the cargo deck, which could carry forty tons of cargo.
While the Sprite could use a hyperspace jump and make the trip from planet side to the moon in under forty minutes; the trip back had taken four hours, due to the fact that Mark cannot travel in hyperspace without wetware. For most of the trip, Mark had slept. But, once he woke up and found himself staring out a side port at the clouds below them, he freaked out.
Di moved as quickly as she could and lifted Mark from his bed and sat down in one of the inner row seats and held him in her lap. Penny followed them closely and gave Di a blanket to keep Mark covered up with while Tina grabbed Mark a drink.
“You're safe, little guy. Just close your eyes and go back to sleep,” Di said softly as she kept Mark's head covered.
“Too high,” Mark said softly
“We are just fine, close your eyes and sleep,”
“But we are,”
“Shh, you need your sleep, no more arguing,” answered Di.
The next answer Di got from Mark was him softly snoring. Di stayed back in the seat, holding Mark while he slept. Lisa informed them that she was on final approach, and that they should be on the ground in five more minutes.
Di carried Mark off the shuttle while Tina and Penny grabbed up Mark's personal items and Lisa did her final ground checks, making sure the shuttle she borrowed is still in good shape, and noting any items that need attention.
Back in his own bed, Mark closed his eyes after Dr. Izzi checked him over once more.
“Well it's not the best of news, but he does have Kartanion Flu. He needs a lot of sleep. Then, no less than twice a day, you will have to wake him to feed, bathe, and administrator the medications I'm prescribing. But I am telling you, this is going to be rough on all of you. I highly suggest you get a nurse to visit daily, if not to stay. If he develops pneumonia, he will have to be hospitalized and put into ICU.”
“I see. Do you have any idea how he got it?” Lisa asked.
“Most likely from his tether trips. The tether is enclosed and lots of people use it, daily. As to who? We may never know who the carrier is,” Dr. Izzi explained.
“Doctor, is there some way to prevent this from happening again?” Di asked as she tucked Mark in a little better.
Dr. Izzi stood there and thought about the problem for a few minutes, “We could do vaccinations. It's a yearly treatment, and would help prevent this from happening again; while it is not one hundred percent effective, it would reduced his chances of reinfection greatly.”
* * * *
Mark opened his eyes and felt someone lifting him into a sitting position. A straw was placed to his lips. Mark blinked a few time bring his eyes into focus and found someone he hasn’t seen in some time. Brent, Older, wiser and free was sitting on the edge of Mark's bed supporting his back, and holding a drink for him to sip.
“Brent?” Mark asked cautiously.
“Hiya, Mark! It's been a long time,” Brent said with a smile.
Since Brent had begged and borrowed money to buy his freedom, he has completed five short term contracts, and nursing school. After seeing the request posted on the local forum board, looking for a part time nurse to look after a sick Male; he realized it was General Bradly making the request, and he knew it had to be Mark. Brent took the job at half the standard pay. Mark had been a good friend back in the labs, and had never been mean to him, unlike Johnny. He had been so relieved to see Johnny sold off!
Mark's throat hurt and his body hurt, his nose was stuffed and he just felt like shit, in general.
“What are you doing here?” asked Mark with a scratchy voice.
“I work at the Holdenville hospital as a nurse, now. When I heard you needed a nurse, I applied for the job,” Brent answered with a smile.
Mark sneezed, and Brent was right there wiping his nose off.
“Will you be okay long enough so I can get one of your pets to give you a bath?”
Mark held the drink and sipped, while he nodded his head 'yes.'
Brent got up and headed out of the room, a few minutes later Lisa came in, with Tina and Penny in tow.
Lisa looked at Mark and couldn't believe he was even whiter now, than normally. He badly needed some sun. “You ready for a bath?”
Mark wasn't ready for anything, but he knew there was no choice. Once a day someone would wake him and drag him off for a bath, and then force feed him a tasteless soup.
Lisa pulled the covers away, and lifted Mark right up and out of the bed. She carried him to the bathroom, while Tina stripped the bed and Penny went down the hall to retrieve clean bedding.
Mark was more like a rag doll than a human. He was so weak and sick he couldn't hold up his own head. Lisa walked into the bathroom and placed Mark down on a heavy towel that had been laid out before hand. Even tho Mark had had a bath in the morning, less than eight hours ago, he was now sticky with sweat, and stank from bad body odor. Mark was still running a hundred and one temperature from the flu. Lisa started drawing the bath as Tina entered the room holding a small tray with his medications on it.
As the tub filled with water, Lisa got a glass of water and helped Mark take the pills. Mark listened to the tub fill. He had started to doze off again, when Brent entered the bathroom.
“Mrs. Bradly, I have the injections ready. Would you like me to administer them here, or wait till after the bath?”
“If you have them ready, Brent, you can do them now,” Lisa answered as she checked the water.
Brent walked over to Mark, and sat down at his side. Taking a sterile wipe, Brent cleaned a spot on Mark's shoulder. Then he doubled checked his auto-injector.
The Auto-injector was needle-less. It used high-pressure to shoot the medication through the skin and into the underlying muscle mass. While it didn't need a needle, it was not painless.
Brent pressed the auto-injector to Mark's shoulder, and watched him flinch as he injected the medication.
Mark said a weak, “Ow.”
Then Brent clipped a small scanner to one of Mark's fingers, and took a quick reading, checking oxygen levels and blood pressure. After making a note of the results, Brent then swiped a scanner over Mark forehead, and took his temperature.
“You done?” Lisa asked.
“Yes, Madam. There has been no change,” answered Brent.
After the third day, no one bothered to dress Mark, anymore. It was a waste of time and clothing. Mark was constantly sweating through his clothing. He was so helpless that he couldn't dress himself, or get undressed. Lisa pulled the towel off of Mark, and lifted him up. She placed Mark into a hot tub of bubbling water.
First Lisa washed out his hair and then pulled it all out of the water, and placed it over the edge of the tub. There Penny waited with a hair brush and started brushing out his wet hair. Lisa then worked to clean Mark up, all over the rest of his body. The bath took some time, but Mark just lay there like a limp noodle.
After the bath Lisa carried Mark back into the bedroom, to find Brent setting up an IV drip. He had a tray laid out with the tubing and catheter needed to deliver the medications.
“Brent, what's all that for?” Lisa asked.
“Mark isn't getting better, at all. This will deliver more medication and fluids. Dr. Izzi also said this should help reduce his temperature. Besides that, the fact is that his kidney output has been almost nothing, because he been sweating so much,” Brent explained as he set up a small computer that would handle the flow rate and medication levels.
Lisa lay Mark onto the freshly made bed, and covered him up.
“Don't tuck him in, yet, I also need to put this on him,” Brent said holding up a large diaper.
After fitting Mark with the diaper and the IV, Brent carefully covered Mark up.
Looking at Penny, Brent smiled and said, “You keep an eye on him, now.”
Penny stayed where she was, curled up at Marks feet, and nodded her head.
“Are you staying tonight?” Lisa asked Brent.
“I can't, the agency will be sending over a new girl for tonight, I have to get back home and get some sleep,” replied Brent.
A few hours later Brent called into the main office, and let them know he was leaving, and that the new nurse has not shown up just yet. The secretary informed his she was on the way, and not to worry about it.
Thirty minutes later, Lisa greeted Sasha at the door and showed her to Mark's room. Sasha checked over the IV set up, and reviewed the notes Brent left behind. The night shift was basically 'stand by and make sure the IV is changed out.'
Brent had been thorough, and had taped a scanner to the underside of Mark's wrist. It sent data on his his blood pressure, body temperature, and oxygen levels to the computer. Sasha would just have to check the monitors, and make notes throughout the night.
The one thing Sasha quickly took note of, was the 'dog' at the foot of the bed, and how it's yellow eyes followed her around the room. A few times, a bunnygirl would come in the room and check on Mark. A few short conversations, and Sasha learned that Tina was Mark's pet. So was Penny, the wolfgirl at the foot of the bed.
It was now three in the morning and the whole house was house quiet. Sasha pulled a vial out of her bag and took an auto-injector from the tray. Quietly she removed the covers from Mark's shoulder and pressed the auto-injector into his shoulder. With the loudest hiss she'd ever heard in such a quiet room, she injected the virus into Mark and leaned down to his ear as Mark moaned.
“Die, motherfucker,” Sasha snarled.
Sixty five pounds of wolfgirl slammed into Sasha, and tore into her arm! Penny's razor sharp fangs cut into Sasha's arm, and ripped out a chunk. Penny then went for the throat when Lisa screamed for her to stop. Penny snapped her jaws shut an inch from Sasha face, and bared her fangs. Penny may have stopped; but she was just waiting for Sasha to do something, anything, to give her reason to rip out Sasha throat.
Di enter the room followed closely by Tina, “Whats going on here!”
Lisa was checking Mark over and found were the auto-injector had sliced Mark with its injection.
“What did you do!?” Lisa demanded.
Sasha held her injured arm and said, “Merxinal!”
Di looked horrified, but Lisa started laughing.
Merxinal was a toxic poison, which targeted and killed off wetware. It was used medically in cases where wetware had gone bad, and was usually injected in tiny amounts directly into the wetware, to kill off the bad parts (such as in cases of a cancer). Injected in large amounts, it would kill off all of someone's wetware. In doing so, it would kill them, because the body became dependent upon the wetware.
“I don't know who you are, but you're a damned fool! Mark has no wetware to kill off!” Lisa said as sirens came blaring down the road and stopped in front of the house.
* * * *
Lisa walked into the courtroom with Tina. They walked over to behind the prosecutor's bench and sat down. A few minutes later, Sasha was led into the courtroom and sat in the defendant's seat, with her court appointed attorney.
A few minutes later, three Judges entered the court room. Everyone stood, silently, while they took their seats. Then the bailiff took a step forward.
“All may be seated! The Honorable Judges will now hear complaints, and set injustices aright!”
Everyone sat down, and then the defense attorney stood up and bowed.
“Your honors, my client would like to enter a pre-defense plea.”
Judge Judy Arlition was the first to answer, “We have reviewed the complaints, and unless your client plans on saving us all the time of a trial, she may NOT entered a pre-defense plea.”
Then the prosecutor stood up and stepped into the speaker's area. “I shall read off the offenses for your honors to enter into record: On thirteenth of Maya, Ms. Sasha Rollin exposed Tether lift five and all of its occupants to the Kartanion Flu. We know this to be fact because of the discovery of the live virus found in her residence, and the record of her fare paid for the Tether lift on the same day that Mr. Howland also rode the lift and subsequently became infected by exactly the same strain of Kartanion Flu.”
The judges looked over at Sasha.
“Then on the ninth of Apra, Ms. Sasha Rollin attacked Nurse Roxanne Tsutsuji and assumed her place as an overnight care nurse. Once she had entered the residence of retired High-General Lisa Bradly, Ms. Sasha Rollin then proceeded to fool the residents into allowing her access to Mr. Howland. Now mind you, Ms. Sasha Rollin has a lifetime restraining order, issued by the Grand Courts of Onyx, barring her from ever having contact with Mr. Howland. This order is the result of an incident involving her drugging and abusing her authority over him, by reselling his 'overnight stud service contract' to a known slave trader. She then proceeded to inject Mr. Howland with Merxinal, in a dosage five time higher than that needed to kill off all wetware.”
“Excuse me, prosecutor, but why would she have not known Mr. Howland had no wetware if she knowingly used a virus that would only effect people without wetware?” Judge Mary Brown asked.
The prosecutor tapped a few commands into her tablet.
“Ms. Sasha Rollin had the Kartanion Flu virus modified so it would attack a certain DNA profile. It would have infected anyone who was directly related to Mr. Howland, regardless of wetware. She had created a bio-warfare virus.”
The judges could clearly be seen making notes.
“After her attempt to kill with the Kartanion Flu virus hadn't worked fast enough for her taste, she then attempted to kill Mr. Howland with an over dose of Merxinal. Your honors we ask the courts in your wisdom to grant us the maximum punishment allowed under the law.”
Judge Judy stood up for a moment, “We have received official memory recording from everyone involved, except from the defense, Ms. Sasha Rollin, do you wish to add your memories to the record?”
Sasha spat at the judges, “Fuck you!”
The Judges made even more notes.
The the defense attorney took his place in the speaker's pit.
“Your honors, my client here has been wronged by the grand courts. When she was a young lady, she made a simple mistake by not understanding that Mr. Howland was hers for only that fateful night. This was further compounded by her addictions to drugs and a biased court looking to make an example out of her. She received eight years in forced servitude as a fixed slave. She was forced to remember her time served, and to suffer the removal of her Lambda Commutations Device, because of its Terms Of Service contract, and ownership of patents by Mr. Howland. With all the stress of her punishments and the loss of the LCD, Ms. Sasha Rollin had a breakdown in judgment, and took the only course she believed would alleviate her painful memories.”
Judge Faira looked over her display, “Are you saying that her previous punishments led her to commit these crimes?”
“I am saying your honor that her past punishments were excessive. If she had not been used to set an example, she would not be in the same mind set she is today.”
Judge Mary Brown looked at her files, “So you are blaming another court's handling of her past transgressions, as an attempt to justify her present transgressions to this court?”
“Excuse me. Ms. Robbins, I was wondering, what is Mr. Howland current status?”
The prosecutor stood back up and said, “Mr. Howland is still recovering from the Kartanion Flu virus. While he, fortunately, had no wetware to kill off; the overdose of Merxinal has suppressed his immune system to the point that he is now in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), at Holdenville hospital. The doctors do not know if he will survive.”
“How is it, back there?” Lisa asked.
“I have him, now. He is burning up, dear,” said Di as she held Mark tightly in her lap.
“It's just ten more minutes 'till we land at Olive's place. Can you handle him until then?” Lisa hollered back from the pilot's seat.
The Sprite Class Shuttle was an inter-system planet jumper, with a short range hyperspace drive. It was able to land just about anywhere there was a fifty foot diameter clearing. It could be flown by just a lone pilot, but had provisions for a pilot and co-pilot. In the passenger cabin, it had lots of room for six to sit comfortably, and for two to be on the rear bunks, sleeping. Behind the sleeping area was the cargo deck, which could carry forty tons of cargo.
While the Sprite could use a hyperspace jump and make the trip from planet side to the moon in under forty minutes; the trip back had taken four hours, due to the fact that Mark cannot travel in hyperspace without wetware. For most of the trip, Mark had slept. But, once he woke up and found himself staring out a side port at the clouds below them, he freaked out.
Di moved as quickly as she could and lifted Mark from his bed and sat down in one of the inner row seats and held him in her lap. Penny followed them closely and gave Di a blanket to keep Mark covered up with while Tina grabbed Mark a drink.
“You're safe, little guy. Just close your eyes and go back to sleep,” Di said softly as she kept Mark's head covered.
“Too high,” Mark said softly
“We are just fine, close your eyes and sleep,”
“But we are,”
“Shh, you need your sleep, no more arguing,” answered Di.
The next answer Di got from Mark was him softly snoring. Di stayed back in the seat, holding Mark while he slept. Lisa informed them that she was on final approach, and that they should be on the ground in five more minutes.
Di carried Mark off the shuttle while Tina and Penny grabbed up Mark's personal items and Lisa did her final ground checks, making sure the shuttle she borrowed is still in good shape, and noting any items that need attention.
Back in his own bed, Mark closed his eyes after Dr. Izzi checked him over once more.
“Well it's not the best of news, but he does have Kartanion Flu. He needs a lot of sleep. Then, no less than twice a day, you will have to wake him to feed, bathe, and administrator the medications I'm prescribing. But I am telling you, this is going to be rough on all of you. I highly suggest you get a nurse to visit daily, if not to stay. If he develops pneumonia, he will have to be hospitalized and put into ICU.”
“I see. Do you have any idea how he got it?” Lisa asked.
“Most likely from his tether trips. The tether is enclosed and lots of people use it, daily. As to who? We may never know who the carrier is,” Dr. Izzi explained.
“Doctor, is there some way to prevent this from happening again?” Di asked as she tucked Mark in a little better.
Dr. Izzi stood there and thought about the problem for a few minutes, “We could do vaccinations. It's a yearly treatment, and would help prevent this from happening again; while it is not one hundred percent effective, it would reduced his chances of reinfection greatly.”
* * * *
Mark opened his eyes and felt someone lifting him into a sitting position. A straw was placed to his lips. Mark blinked a few time bring his eyes into focus and found someone he hasn’t seen in some time. Brent, Older, wiser and free was sitting on the edge of Mark's bed supporting his back, and holding a drink for him to sip.
“Brent?” Mark asked cautiously.
“Hiya, Mark! It's been a long time,” Brent said with a smile.
Since Brent had begged and borrowed money to buy his freedom, he has completed five short term contracts, and nursing school. After seeing the request posted on the local forum board, looking for a part time nurse to look after a sick Male; he realized it was General Bradly making the request, and he knew it had to be Mark. Brent took the job at half the standard pay. Mark had been a good friend back in the labs, and had never been mean to him, unlike Johnny. He had been so relieved to see Johnny sold off!
Mark's throat hurt and his body hurt, his nose was stuffed and he just felt like shit, in general.
“What are you doing here?” asked Mark with a scratchy voice.
“I work at the Holdenville hospital as a nurse, now. When I heard you needed a nurse, I applied for the job,” Brent answered with a smile.
Mark sneezed, and Brent was right there wiping his nose off.
“Will you be okay long enough so I can get one of your pets to give you a bath?”
Mark held the drink and sipped, while he nodded his head 'yes.'
Brent got up and headed out of the room, a few minutes later Lisa came in, with Tina and Penny in tow.
Lisa looked at Mark and couldn't believe he was even whiter now, than normally. He badly needed some sun. “You ready for a bath?”
Mark wasn't ready for anything, but he knew there was no choice. Once a day someone would wake him and drag him off for a bath, and then force feed him a tasteless soup.
Lisa pulled the covers away, and lifted Mark right up and out of the bed. She carried him to the bathroom, while Tina stripped the bed and Penny went down the hall to retrieve clean bedding.
Mark was more like a rag doll than a human. He was so weak and sick he couldn't hold up his own head. Lisa walked into the bathroom and placed Mark down on a heavy towel that had been laid out before hand. Even tho Mark had had a bath in the morning, less than eight hours ago, he was now sticky with sweat, and stank from bad body odor. Mark was still running a hundred and one temperature from the flu. Lisa started drawing the bath as Tina entered the room holding a small tray with his medications on it.
As the tub filled with water, Lisa got a glass of water and helped Mark take the pills. Mark listened to the tub fill. He had started to doze off again, when Brent entered the bathroom.
“Mrs. Bradly, I have the injections ready. Would you like me to administer them here, or wait till after the bath?”
“If you have them ready, Brent, you can do them now,” Lisa answered as she checked the water.
Brent walked over to Mark, and sat down at his side. Taking a sterile wipe, Brent cleaned a spot on Mark's shoulder. Then he doubled checked his auto-injector.
The Auto-injector was needle-less. It used high-pressure to shoot the medication through the skin and into the underlying muscle mass. While it didn't need a needle, it was not painless.
Brent pressed the auto-injector to Mark's shoulder, and watched him flinch as he injected the medication.
Mark said a weak, “Ow.”
Then Brent clipped a small scanner to one of Mark's fingers, and took a quick reading, checking oxygen levels and blood pressure. After making a note of the results, Brent then swiped a scanner over Mark forehead, and took his temperature.
“You done?” Lisa asked.
“Yes, Madam. There has been no change,” answered Brent.
After the third day, no one bothered to dress Mark, anymore. It was a waste of time and clothing. Mark was constantly sweating through his clothing. He was so helpless that he couldn't dress himself, or get undressed. Lisa pulled the towel off of Mark, and lifted him up. She placed Mark into a hot tub of bubbling water.
First Lisa washed out his hair and then pulled it all out of the water, and placed it over the edge of the tub. There Penny waited with a hair brush and started brushing out his wet hair. Lisa then worked to clean Mark up, all over the rest of his body. The bath took some time, but Mark just lay there like a limp noodle.
After the bath Lisa carried Mark back into the bedroom, to find Brent setting up an IV drip. He had a tray laid out with the tubing and catheter needed to deliver the medications.
“Brent, what's all that for?” Lisa asked.
“Mark isn't getting better, at all. This will deliver more medication and fluids. Dr. Izzi also said this should help reduce his temperature. Besides that, the fact is that his kidney output has been almost nothing, because he been sweating so much,” Brent explained as he set up a small computer that would handle the flow rate and medication levels.
Lisa lay Mark onto the freshly made bed, and covered him up.
“Don't tuck him in, yet, I also need to put this on him,” Brent said holding up a large diaper.
After fitting Mark with the diaper and the IV, Brent carefully covered Mark up.
Looking at Penny, Brent smiled and said, “You keep an eye on him, now.”
Penny stayed where she was, curled up at Marks feet, and nodded her head.
“Are you staying tonight?” Lisa asked Brent.
“I can't, the agency will be sending over a new girl for tonight, I have to get back home and get some sleep,” replied Brent.
A few hours later Brent called into the main office, and let them know he was leaving, and that the new nurse has not shown up just yet. The secretary informed his she was on the way, and not to worry about it.
Thirty minutes later, Lisa greeted Sasha at the door and showed her to Mark's room. Sasha checked over the IV set up, and reviewed the notes Brent left behind. The night shift was basically 'stand by and make sure the IV is changed out.'
Brent had been thorough, and had taped a scanner to the underside of Mark's wrist. It sent data on his his blood pressure, body temperature, and oxygen levels to the computer. Sasha would just have to check the monitors, and make notes throughout the night.
The one thing Sasha quickly took note of, was the 'dog' at the foot of the bed, and how it's yellow eyes followed her around the room. A few times, a bunnygirl would come in the room and check on Mark. A few short conversations, and Sasha learned that Tina was Mark's pet. So was Penny, the wolfgirl at the foot of the bed.
It was now three in the morning and the whole house was house quiet. Sasha pulled a vial out of her bag and took an auto-injector from the tray. Quietly she removed the covers from Mark's shoulder and pressed the auto-injector into his shoulder. With the loudest hiss she'd ever heard in such a quiet room, she injected the virus into Mark and leaned down to his ear as Mark moaned.
“Die, motherfucker,” Sasha snarled.
Sixty five pounds of wolfgirl slammed into Sasha, and tore into her arm! Penny's razor sharp fangs cut into Sasha's arm, and ripped out a chunk. Penny then went for the throat when Lisa screamed for her to stop. Penny snapped her jaws shut an inch from Sasha face, and bared her fangs. Penny may have stopped; but she was just waiting for Sasha to do something, anything, to give her reason to rip out Sasha throat.
Di enter the room followed closely by Tina, “Whats going on here!”
Lisa was checking Mark over and found were the auto-injector had sliced Mark with its injection.
“What did you do!?” Lisa demanded.
Sasha held her injured arm and said, “Merxinal!”
Di looked horrified, but Lisa started laughing.
Merxinal was a toxic poison, which targeted and killed off wetware. It was used medically in cases where wetware had gone bad, and was usually injected in tiny amounts directly into the wetware, to kill off the bad parts (such as in cases of a cancer). Injected in large amounts, it would kill off all of someone's wetware. In doing so, it would kill them, because the body became dependent upon the wetware.
“I don't know who you are, but you're a damned fool! Mark has no wetware to kill off!” Lisa said as sirens came blaring down the road and stopped in front of the house.
* * * *
Lisa walked into the courtroom with Tina. They walked over to behind the prosecutor's bench and sat down. A few minutes later, Sasha was led into the courtroom and sat in the defendant's seat, with her court appointed attorney.
A few minutes later, three Judges entered the court room. Everyone stood, silently, while they took their seats. Then the bailiff took a step forward.
“All may be seated! The Honorable Judges will now hear complaints, and set injustices aright!”
Everyone sat down, and then the defense attorney stood up and bowed.
“Your honors, my client would like to enter a pre-defense plea.”
Judge Judy Arlition was the first to answer, “We have reviewed the complaints, and unless your client plans on saving us all the time of a trial, she may NOT entered a pre-defense plea.”
Then the prosecutor stood up and stepped into the speaker's area. “I shall read off the offenses for your honors to enter into record: On thirteenth of Maya, Ms. Sasha Rollin exposed Tether lift five and all of its occupants to the Kartanion Flu. We know this to be fact because of the discovery of the live virus found in her residence, and the record of her fare paid for the Tether lift on the same day that Mr. Howland also rode the lift and subsequently became infected by exactly the same strain of Kartanion Flu.”
The judges looked over at Sasha.
“Then on the ninth of Apra, Ms. Sasha Rollin attacked Nurse Roxanne Tsutsuji and assumed her place as an overnight care nurse. Once she had entered the residence of retired High-General Lisa Bradly, Ms. Sasha Rollin then proceeded to fool the residents into allowing her access to Mr. Howland. Now mind you, Ms. Sasha Rollin has a lifetime restraining order, issued by the Grand Courts of Onyx, barring her from ever having contact with Mr. Howland. This order is the result of an incident involving her drugging and abusing her authority over him, by reselling his 'overnight stud service contract' to a known slave trader. She then proceeded to inject Mr. Howland with Merxinal, in a dosage five time higher than that needed to kill off all wetware.”
“Excuse me, prosecutor, but why would she have not known Mr. Howland had no wetware if she knowingly used a virus that would only effect people without wetware?” Judge Mary Brown asked.
The prosecutor tapped a few commands into her tablet.
“Ms. Sasha Rollin had the Kartanion Flu virus modified so it would attack a certain DNA profile. It would have infected anyone who was directly related to Mr. Howland, regardless of wetware. She had created a bio-warfare virus.”
The judges could clearly be seen making notes.
“After her attempt to kill with the Kartanion Flu virus hadn't worked fast enough for her taste, she then attempted to kill Mr. Howland with an over dose of Merxinal. Your honors we ask the courts in your wisdom to grant us the maximum punishment allowed under the law.”
Judge Judy stood up for a moment, “We have received official memory recording from everyone involved, except from the defense, Ms. Sasha Rollin, do you wish to add your memories to the record?”
Sasha spat at the judges, “Fuck you!”
The Judges made even more notes.
The the defense attorney took his place in the speaker's pit.
“Your honors, my client here has been wronged by the grand courts. When she was a young lady, she made a simple mistake by not understanding that Mr. Howland was hers for only that fateful night. This was further compounded by her addictions to drugs and a biased court looking to make an example out of her. She received eight years in forced servitude as a fixed slave. She was forced to remember her time served, and to suffer the removal of her Lambda Commutations Device, because of its Terms Of Service contract, and ownership of patents by Mr. Howland. With all the stress of her punishments and the loss of the LCD, Ms. Sasha Rollin had a breakdown in judgment, and took the only course she believed would alleviate her painful memories.”
Judge Faira looked over her display, “Are you saying that her previous punishments led her to commit these crimes?”
“I am saying your honor that her past punishments were excessive. If she had not been used to set an example, she would not be in the same mind set she is today.”
Judge Mary Brown looked at her files, “So you are blaming another court's handling of her past transgressions, as an attempt to justify her present transgressions to this court?”
“Excuse me. Ms. Robbins, I was wondering, what is Mr. Howland current status?”
The prosecutor stood back up and said, “Mr. Howland is still recovering from the Kartanion Flu virus. While he, fortunately, had no wetware to kill off; the overdose of Merxinal has suppressed his immune system to the point that he is now in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), at Holdenville hospital. The doctors do not know if he will survive.”