3R

Hauled up in front of the chambers three judges, Demi remains in a subdued state. If she could she would protest her innocence, but she cannot. The collar has removed all her capabilities. Instead, she is forced to watch and listen from inside herself as false accusations, testimonies and evidence are presented to the three.

If they are a part of this deception, this treachery, this betrayal against her they show no hint of it for they gasp and decry with genuine disbelief as the fictional events are presented to them.

It’s crushing to witness such an injustice be permitted to be spoken in a place that is meant to represent SolLaw in physical form for all the citizens of Mars and wider human civilization.

No longer wishing to listen to the lies being told about her as the web is spun to assassinate her character as meticulously and cruelly as it is, Demi turns towards considerations of how long the judiciary might’ve been a lie. Immediately, she feels the exertion of the collars programming upon her. She, unlike citizens, resists it. It would be impossible to say she does so with ease but unlike a citizen she has been trained to resist all forms of interrogation. If she were not able to she would not have been granted permission to become a Judicor in the first place.

At the mere mention of the word a searing pain tears into her mind. It’s agonising. A scream escapes her. Not in the physical world but absolutely in her mind. There the scream echoes and rumbles, all around. It refuses to fade. Demi is aware it is a punishment doled out by the collar. She holds fast against it as though she is a warrior armed with only a shield. Still, it takes effort to withstand its picking at her fringes.

There is no doubt in her mind that the collar is seeking a weakness, a thread upon which it can pull. If it finds one it will not stop until she is unravelled. What citizens do not know is that the force of the collar has no limits. It will push and push until the wearer finally submits. If that means they are mindbroken, then so be it. Never previously had Demi considered it cruel. Now she is aware that the system is being subverted from within she can call it nothing else.

One of the blue her mind falls upon the most recent specimen that proclaimed their innocence. That had been earlier this day, when she had been accompanying Haymenous, the bastard. It strikes her now the exclamations of innocence may well have been truthful and not an old lie overused. Ripples of discomfort run up and down her spine. They are like shivers, though she is not cold. Still, she wishes they would abate. An attempt to shudder, to shiver and expel them from her body does naught. Perhaps that is because…

You are guilty! You are wrong. Deceiver, betrayer, liar, murderer! The exclamations shout loudly in her head. The voice, which had been hers previously isn’t quite now. It has changed. The will of the collar is… She cannot say. Part of her would like to hope that it is struggling. That she is far too strong for it, but that would be hubris another part of her assures.

Realising this indecision, this back and forth tug of war is but part of the collars methods to exert itself and replace her will with its own, she empties her mind. In doing so she once more hears what is unfolding in the chamber. She had been drawn so deep into thoughts and her resistance against the subjugation that she had forgotten what had brought her here.

Her eyes, the only things respondent to her demands, move around. They search and seek until they lock on Haymenous. He is grinning murderously. More than anything she wishes they were on equal footing. Trial by combat she thinks it was called; an ancient method of settling disputes. Yet, she had not had a dispute with Haymenous until he came for her.

Why me? What did I do?

Murder! Is the reply, the exclamation. It hurts. Burrows deep. Demi resists it, shoves the pain aside. Focuses everything on what is happening in the chamber. It is a struggle. One that gets immensely more troublesome when she catches the doctored footage of her killing Ceres with a slash of the throat and a series of brutal torso stabs. All delivered from behind, like only a coward would do.

Nevertheless, her reaction to the footage is nothing compared to the accusation that she did this because she was blackmailing Ceres and mating with him against his will; using him until he could take the shame no more and wanted to expose her and her actions. That is suggested to be the apparent reason for his need to be silenced by her hand.

Captain Velfarha is the one espousing all these lies. Regrettably, Demi can only surmise that he is involved. He has to be. There is no way Haymenous could do this alone. He would need a partner. Maybe even an entire network. There is no way for her to know how far this corruption truly goes.

These revelations are soul crushing and force her to confront the prospect that the station, the institution she has believed and followed her entire life might be a rotten lie.

That’s it. Submit! The voice, the collar, demands. It’s tone is very different now. In it there is no hint of hers. But what is speaking is not what it should be either and so Demi focuses in on it. There is no doubt in the Chamber the lies will continue, as will the shocked reactions from the judges. Beyond doubt, the accused Judicor, believes them to be oblivious to the lies. No one is that good at acting without over acting, making it obvious, clear.

The voice! Her own reminds, annoyed.

In a breath she returns to her focusing. All the while the collar continues to speak and the more she resists the more it rabbits on, as she expected it would. After all, it is but a simple piece of technology, far older than her or any other serving Judicial Guard. Its origins date back several centuries, at the least. Sadly, there can be no definitive given as records have grown murky, inconsistent. Such is the way of time, it corrupts. There is little that can stand against its weathering affects.  

It does not take long for Demi to worm to the root of the voice and once she has her outrage could not be greater for under the layers is Haymenous. The bastard! 

Suddenly, Demi hears the room again. It wasn’t her decision. Rather, it was as though it was forced upon her. Surely, the collar cannot achieve such a…

“We, unanimously, declare Judicor Demi Urlanium guilty on all counts for the breaching of seven SolLaws…”

The dark haired woman with grey eyes roars in anger at the sentencing. Her body erupting into a flail right after as she makes efforts to fight against this injustice. Sadly, her efforts are solely in her mind. The collar has control of her body. It is not something she can conquer for the body cannot offer formidable resistance like the mind is capable of.

“…we hereby deliver the former Judicor’s sentence, exile to the prison planet, 3R.”

With the decision signed, sealed and delivered, so to speak, Haymenous takes great pleasure in beginning his escort of Demi out the chamber and down the hall which all those condemned must walk.

Throughout everything to continues to smile cruelly, ignoring the looks from his fellow Judicor’s who at first see his expression and then who it is he is escorting to their doom.

They cannot believe it is one of their own and wonder how this will be handled. Truthfully, Demi Urlanium will be expunged from Judicial Guard records. It will be as though she never existed. At least in terms of her service to the institution as they cannot wipe her from all other records as that could result in, if anyone were to notice, difficult questions.

The judiciary knows this well as Demi is not the first Judicor to be convicted. Though it is a highly seldom occurrence, it has happened previously.

Unbeknownst to the chamber judges the damned Judicor’s were betrayed by the same group that Haymenous and Captain Velfarha are a part. A group which ensures the status quo is maintained and that control resides within the hands of those who are capable of guiding. After all, humanity has proved too many times it is incapable of making the tough decisions which keep it away from a continuous flirting with ruin.

This group, Hvarfalmenturin, was created in the wake of the destruction of Phobos by those who commanded the weapons which achieved the miracle; thus saving humanity in its darkest hour. But that origin is a secret, known only to those who count themselves as members. It is not the only secret either. There are others; many, in fact. A few are older than their founding, many are more recent.

Clear of the twin lines of Judicial Guards, Haymenous admits, “Nothing personal. You were simply an easy out because you were stationed next to Ceres.”

Fucking bastard! I’m going to get you for this! You will not win! I won’t allow it! I won’t submit! I will stop you! Mark my words! Mark them well! I will enforce SolLaw!

None of these exclamations are heard by Haymenous for none are said aloud. Though, he does note the flickering of Demi’s collar. Somehow, though it shouldn’t be possible, she is exerting her will back upon the thing around her neck. At this rate the collar will not hold for very long. He has never seen such a display but the order has made mention of it. Never did he expect to witness such an event however. Yet, he cannot prevent himself from feeding her more details for she won’t be alive for long and will have no way of seeking retribution, regardless of how fiercely it burns in her eyes.

“Ceres was too curious. Liked to learn and had learned too much. We would’ve pieced it together; he’d started to we think. We, the Captain and I, couldn’t allow that. If we were discovered everything might unravel. You won’t believe this but this is bigger than any of us who are a part of it, the stakes I mean. Because without hands to guide and keep on course the institution would crumble, fall to ruin and humanity would go right along with it. Spiralling back into the abyss we clawed our way out of.”

To Demi these are the ramblings of a madman desperate to excuse his actions, his vile villainy.

Alas, her continued efforts to break free from that which is infallible have proven, as should’ve been expected, fruitless. That doesn’t mean she intends to stop or give in, however.

Regrettably, by the time the flicker on the collar is so rapid it is extinguished more than not, Demi has been shoved into a waiting Prison Pod, one of three. The hatch sealed from the outside.

A countdown begins. Haymenous ignores it, sure that time is spent, that Demi might have conquered the collar, and so fires the pod early via an override. A blaring of alarms signals danger inside the pod. Demi swears, the collar fails and falls away. Desperate the former Judicor hammers at every panel around her. She is desperate to gain control of the pod, but she cannot.

She rockets through the thick night cloud cover, turbulence thrashing her from one claustrophobic bulkhead to the other until the forces upon her are so great that, with the pod spinning, she slips into unconsciousness.