Robert Sawyer - Illegal Alien

The courtroom buzzed with excitement. Reporters leaned forward in their chairs.

“Just a second,” said Judge Pringle. “Hask, you are aware that you have an absolute constitutional right not to testify? No one can compel you to do so, if it is not your wish?”

Hask had already arisen from his special chair at the defense table. “I understand, Your Honor.”

“And no one has coerced you into testifying?”

“No one. In fact—” He fell silent.

Dale kept an expressionless face, but was relieved. At least he’d taught Hask something . He’d closed his mouth before he’d said “In fact, my lawyer advised me against testifying,” thank God.

“All right,” said Pringle. “Mr. Ortiz, please swear the witness in.” Hask made his way to the witness stand. As he did so, a court worker removed the human chair and replaced it with a Tosok one.

“Place your front hand on the Bible, please.” Hask did so. “You do solemnly swear or affirm,” said the clerk, “that the testimony you may give in the cause now pending before this Court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

“I do so affirm,” said Hask.

“Thank you. Be seated, and please state and spell your name for the record.”

“Hask, which I guess is H-A-S-K.”

“Mr. Rice,” said Judge Pringle, “you may proceed.”

“Thank you, Your Honor,” said Dale, slowly getting to his feet and making his way to the lectern. “Mr. Hask, what is your position aboard the Tosok starship?”

“My title was First.”

“ ‘First’—is that like ‘first officer’?”

“No. The First is the person who comes out of hibernation first. It was my job to deal with any in-flight emergencies, and also to be the first revived upon arrival at our destination, in order to determine if it was safe to revive the others.”

“So you are a very important member of the crew?”

“On the contrary, I am the most expendable.”

“The prosecution has suggested you had the opportunity to kill Dr. Calhoun. Did you have that opportunity?”

“I was not alone with him at the time he died.”

“But you can’t account for your presence during the entire window of opportunity for this crime.”

“I can account for it. I simply cannot prove the truth of the account. And there are others who had equal opportunity.”

“The prosecution has also suggested that you had the means to kill Dr. Calhoun. Specifically, that you used a monofilament carving tool to sever his leg. Would such a tool work for that purpose?”

“I suspect so, yes.”

“But a murder conviction requires more than just opportunity and means. It—”

“Objection. Mr. Rice is arguing his case.”

“Sustained.”

“What about motive, Hask? Did you have any reason to want to see Dr. Calhoun dead?”

Ziegler was on her feet. “Objection, Your Honor. CALJIC 2.51: ‘Motive is not an element of the crime charged and need not be shown.’ ”

“Overruled. I’ll present the jury instructions, counselor.”

“Hask, did you have any motive for wanting to see Dr. Calhoun dead?”

“None.”

“Is there any Tosok religious ritual that involves dissection or dismemberment?”

“No.”

“We humans have some rather bloody sports. Some humans like to hunt animals. Do your people hunt for sport?”

“Define ‘for sport,’ please.”

“For fun. For recreation. As a way of passing the time.”

“No.”

“But you are carnivores.”

“We are omnivores.”

“Sorry. But you do eat meat.”

“Yes. But we do not hunt. Our ancestors did, certainly, but that was centuries ago. As the Court has seen, we now grow meat that has no central nervous system.”

“So you’ve never had the urge to kill something with your own hands?”

“Certainly not.”

“The tape we saw of you and Dr. Calhoun talking aboard the mothership implies differently.”

“I was engaging in idle speculation. I said something to the effect that perhaps we had given up too much in no longer hunting our own food, but I have no more desire to slaughter something to eat than you do, Mr. Rice.”

“In general, is there any reason at all you’d want to kill something?”

“No.”

“In particular, is there any reason you’d want to kill Dr. Calhoun?”

“None whatsoever.”

“What did you think of Dr. Calhoun?”

“I liked him. He was my friend.”

“How did you feel when you learned he was dead?”

“I was sad.”

“Reports say you didn’t look sad.”

“I am physically incapable of shedding tears, Mr. Rice. But I expressed it in my own way. Clete was my friend, and I wish more than anything that he was not dead.”

“Thank you, Mr. Hask.” Dale sat down. “Your witness, counselor.”

“Hask,” said Ziegler, rising to her feet.

“Your Honor,” said Dale, “objection! Mr. Hask is entitled to common courtesy. Ms. Ziegler should surely precede his name with an honorific.”

Ziegler looked miffed, but apparently realized that any argument would just make her look even more rude.

“Sustained,” said Pringle. “Ms. Ziegler, you will address the defendant as ‘Mr. Hask’ or ‘sir.’ ”

“Of course, Your Honor,” said Ziegler. “My apologies. Mr. Hask, you said you weren’t alone with Dr. Calhoun at the time of his murder.”

“Correct.”

“But you had been alone with him on other occasions?”

“Certainly. We took the trip up to the mothership together.”

“Yes, yes. But, beyond that, hadn’t you and he spent time alone at the USC residence?”

“From time to time he and I happened to be the only people present in a given room.”

“It was more than that, wasn’t it? Is it not true that you often spent time alone with Dr. Calhoun—sometimes in his room at Valcour Hall, sometimes in your own?”

“We talked often, yes. Friends do that.”

“So it would not be at all unusual for him to admit you to his room?”

“Clete had singular tastes in music. No one else would join him there when he was using his CD player.”

“Singular tastes?”

Hask made a sound very much like human throat-clearing, then sang, “ ‘Swing your partner, do-si-do—’ ”

The jury erupted into laughter.

“Thank you for that recital,” said Ziegler coldly. “Mr. Hask, if you were often a guest of the deceased in his room, then why should we believe that you were not in his room when he was killed?”

“You should believe it because of the presumption of innocence, which is supposed to be the underpinning of your system of jurisprudence.”

“Move to strike as nonresponsive,” snapped Ziegler.

But Judge Pringle was smiling. “It seemed an excellent response to me, Ms. Ziegler. Overruled.”

Ziegler turned back to Hask. “You admit, though, that you were frequently alone with Dr. Calhoun.”

“ ‘Occasionally’ would be a more correct word.”

“Fine. You were occasionally alone with him. And on the night that he died, you chose not to go see Stephen Jay Gould.”

“That is correct.”

“Why is that?”

“I knew that I would likely shed my skin that evening.”

“And you wanted privacy for that?”

“Not at all. But I have observed the incredible attention you humans give to us Tosoks, even under the most banal circumstances. I felt it would be rude to create a distraction during Professor Gould’s lecture by shedding my skin in public.”

“Very considerate,” said Ziegler sarcastically. “Yet you were not due to shed that day. How could you possibly know it was going to happen?”