Reflections: A Star Wars Fan Fiction Novella

Chapter 13

What is a man supposed to do when faced with evil that believes itself to be good? Do you condemn it, hoping that it simply had never been told the word no? Do you condemn yourself, betting that it will open its eyes to the deceit and repent? Do you fight it, verifying its own fears and hatred against you? Do you kneel before it, authorizing it to abuse you? Do you mate with it, planning on converting it? If you don't, the only thing left is to refuse it.

I was brought before the court to be 'judged in the presence of my peers.' Not that anyone here was my peer, in that their life experiences were anything similar to mine. No, they were my peers because they were civilians, the one thing we had in common was that our voice and our actions were irrelevant.

It was the first time I had seen the sun in weeks, I was lucky to have a trial during the daytime. The Senate had tried to reduce the amount of judicial gridlock by implementing a lottery system for all prisoners. So far it worked, if a prisoner was held for more than a month without trial, they were automatically acquitted. If they had held me one more week, that would have been the case for me.

I hadn't seen Fyra since the day she fled the room in tears. It was a small comfort knowing that I wasn't the reason for those tears. If she saw injustice, that was her, that wasn't me poisoning her mind or any of that psychological trash.

The chamber of my trial was constructed out of a strange marriage between duracrete and glass. Glass, not transparisteel, I guessed that this change was supposed to be symbolic of the New Republic's commitment to transparency.

The room's windows were lined with chromium. The justices sat on their platform at one end of the rectangular room, and the jury sat at the other end. A jury composed of upright New Republic citizens that hated the Empire with a passion.

I thought of escaping multiple times during my transfer. At one point, I could easily have overpowered a guard and flung him to his death over the balcony. I didn't.

Now, here I was, in a justice hall full of life, silent as a corpse. A droid's mechanical voice pierced the silence. "All rise for the honorable justices."

Everyone rose, even I was prodded to my feet by the guards sitting, now standing, beside me. Three justices entered the courtroom. The first was a tall and slender female Lasat, announced as the Honorable Justice Kemi Durat. The second was a Mon Calamari, which was announced to be the Honorable Justice Treak Resri. The third and final one was the Honorable Justice Spuwrrhuarfyyychu, a black haired Wookiee. The New Republic really was going full throttle on this pro-alien image. Each one of these species had a reason to hate the Empire, and that was why they were selected for my hearing.

Once everyone was seated and proceedings began, I wondered where my legal counsel was. I came to realize that I wasn't going to be provided with any. I was told to approach the bench. All three of the justices' eyes were locked onto me as I stumbled forward. They were enjoying this.

The Lasat spoke first. Her green irises had tiny black beads suspended inside of them, as if the iris was her sclera and the solid green eyes only had pupils. "Baron Cryus Reu, you are hereby charged with multiple crimes against the New Republic. Numerous crimes against sentience, treason against the Republic, and violation of the Galactic Concordance." She paused to review the datascreen in front of her, her black braids glowing in the light of the sun. She sharply raised her head, ruining the effect, staring daggers at me.

"You are also being charged with multiple criminal charges. Kidnapping, torture, assault and battery, aggravated assault, and sexual assault." She looked back down at her datascreen, blinking her eyes as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "How do you plead?"