Drago: Into The Fire

THREE

3/5

The ground was still wet from intermittent rain showers, but for now it settled into a lighter mist. Ben and Drago walked down the isles between large exhibits watching depressed animals sleep their captive lives away. The enclosures had trees, fake grass, and plenty of fresh water, but the animals knew they weren't home.
Ben watched a creature that resembled a monkey, but with blue hair and only one central eye, swinging from artificial trees. Ben put his hand on the glass. The young primate named Eddie, climbed down to investigate Ben through the glass. He laid his wrinkled leathery three-digit palm against the glass where Ben's hand was.
"The sign says his mother was killed by poachers when he was a baby. He was rescued and brought here," Ben said, reading the digital card in front of the enclosure. "He looks sad," Ben watched the primate climb back into his fake tree to sit alone. "Maybe he misses his mother. I don't remember mine, if I ever had one."
Drago could relate. He had a good upbringing as far as parental figures, but they were not his parents.
"I never knew mine either," Drago said. The three of them seemed to share the same sentiment at that moment.
"I wonder if Eddie remembers his mother," Ben said as they looked at the sad animal swinging slowly on his tree.
Eddie was the monkey's name. It said it on the sign. Drago had missed that part.
"I don't know. I don't think you have to truly remember someone to miss them," Drago said with heaviness in his own heart for many people he missed.
In that moment, Ben hugged Drago briefly. Drago didn't move. He wasn't used to being hugged but he didn't push the boy away. It only lasted for a second, but it forever changed the way Drago thought of this kid. He was going to be one of the few clients Drago would remember long after this case was over.
After more sad animals in cages, they went to the deserted outdoor cafeteria. Ben wasn't interested in any of the souvenirs. None of the gift shop trinkets, other kids were throwing fits over, held any interest for Ben. He stayed quiet as they sat over a steaming tube meat on a bread bun and a can of fizzy fruit juice. Drago stayed quiet thinking over Ben's case while sipping a paper cup of cheap coffee.
"Don't you eat?" Ben asked. He figured out a way to pick up one side of his large tube meat and take a bite.
"I do. Just not often," Drago said. He took another sip of his coffee.
"You like coffee a lot," Ben said.
Drago didn't know what to say. He knew a lot was going on inside that little mind. He had quite the battle in front of him. It wasn't going to be easy, but he also knew that Ben was a brave kid.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Drago asked to attempt to cheer Ben up.
It was something Ben had never thought about before. It was assumed he would continue working in the factories of his world. He looked around at the people in the outdoor café, and the city park just beyond.
"Maybe a policeman," Ben said. He wasn't sure if that was a correct answer. Maybe there were things he wasn't supposed to want to be.
"That's a good thing to aspire to," Drago said reassuring him. "Why do you want to be a policeman?"
Ben thought about it for a moment.
"So, I can catch bad guys and help people," Ben said.
"You can help people in anything you do, as long as you're doing it for the right reasons," Drago said. He never really felt hot or cold. His systems perfectly regulated his core temperature, but he tried to gage what was appropriate for his company. He could see Ben starting to huddle down inside his coat, so he prepared to leave collecting the stray trash around the table. Walking slowly through the rain back to their waiting shuttle seemed to warm Ben up a little.
"Can I ask you something?" Ben said as they walked the zoo path entering the shuttle landing pad area.
"I suppose," Drago said.
"Why did you tell them my name was Zayne at the parliament building?" Ben asked. Drago hadn't even thought about it until now.
"It was easiest thing to do at the moment," Drago said. They reached the waiting shuttle on the platform. Drago slid the doors open, they entered and took their respective seats.
"Is it okay if I keep using your last name? I like it," Ben stated so quiet he didn't even know if Drago heard him. He flipped the switches and readied the co-pilot side, keeping his attention focused on his tasks. Before he put the headset on Drago turned to him.
"I would be honored to share my name with you."
Days passed as they waited for the first phase of the trial to begin. Drago had more investigative work to do. He had his assistant, Cyrus, a trained child psychologist as well as a legal assistant, take Ben for the day when he went to Ben's former work camp to investigate the fire. It took days, mountains of paper work and arguments with authorities to obtain permits to visit the site.
A unit of police escorted Drago onto the property from his shuttle. Drago walked up to the adults at the security gate with his police escort.
"I have a court order allowing me to investigate what's left of the dormitories on the property, including the one involved in the incident," Drago said to the security guard. After more hesitation, the police readied to arrest the guard. He finally pressed a button to open the gate.
"Stop them," Drago ordered seeing a large hover-dozer zipping between the old factory buildings. They ran after the crew of demolition machines as they zipped effortlessly in between the tall old warehouses. The police called on their radios for someone to halt the demolition of the burned dorms.
With no time to lose, Drago grabbed a large metal pole and stuck it in the ground to stop the arm of the machine from ramming into the charred remains of the burned building. It crunched into the pole bending it almost to the ground before it stopped. The police surrounded the vehicles and ordered the workers to shut them down.
With the destruction of evidence halted, Drago stepped into the burned-out buildings with his visual recorder in hand. Sadness washed over him like he hadn't felt in a long time. Children had suffered in here. Two had died. He had to stop himself from being overcome with emotion, wishing he had been there to rescue them, so he could conduct a thorough search. The best thing he could do for their memory, was to bring them justice.
Taking numerous pictures and video footage of the area, Drago took time to assess the overall conditions of the place. Walking around the different buildings and getting a feel of the atmosphere. There were no kids in sight. He did find stacked boxes of products ready for shipment. Kids making weapons. How absurd. Many planets had absurd practices. It never ceased to amaze Drago how something as serious as child labor could be normalized even celebrated by humans.
Drago got the owners, Mister and Misses Glass, to allow him into an occupied work area. The kids looked up at him then quickly back down at their work. They were filthy and sad looking, much like Eddie had that day at the zoo. They were not home.
It took every ounce of strength in Drago not to pick every child up and carry them out, forcing these people to close their shop. But as their laws stood, this was completely legal. The Glass's were providing food and shelter for the kids.
Drago left with an even heavier heart than the steel could weigh. Watching children that ought to be in school, playing and growing, but working in a cold, dirty factory, it was almost too much. Drago wondered why he even thought his decades of work mattered when injustice was so vast and normalized.
These kids were the lucky ones by most standards. There were those who were sold for terrible things. Forced labor was one of the milder things a child might be used for in this system.
He flew back to his ship, thinking deeply, wondering if he ever made any difference in this small collection of stars and planets they called their home.
When he arrived back at his ship, he was still deep in thought, troubled and feeling that maybe he wasn't doing enough. Cyrus handed him one of his communicators he'd left on his desk. Someone was always desperately trying to reach him.
Drago took it and opened the screen.
The image of someone familiar popped up.
"This is the last straw," A middle aged woman said. She was dressed in a work suit with an ugly scowl on her face "Cessina has been involved in gang activity. I'm not saying to what degree she participated but this is too far."
Drago grumbled as he walked briskly to his office and closed the door.
"Where is she?" He asked as he sat down at his desk.
"Who knows. Downtown somewhere. Probably at the docks. They were arrested last night for a large fight where one kid went to the hospital needing stitches," The caseworker said to him.
"She's a kid. Can't you cut her some slack," Drago said as images of Cessina popped up in little thumbnails below that of the caller.
"I have been. I can't be her caseworker anymore. She's gone too far now, I have to hand her over to the authorities," The woman said throwing her hands up.
"Please, I'm in the middle of a case. Just try to hang on for a little while longer. As soon as this is over, I will come there," Drago said checking his tablet calendar.
She was right. Cessina's birthday had come and gone. She was fifteen now. He hadn't seen her since the last picture, a year ago. Even that picture lied. She wasn't smiling, she was giving him a sarcastic grin. They never really got along. Even as a child, Cessina was headstrong. Her mother, Kerry, had been one of the best legal partners he'd ever worked with. That was before she married a jerk and left. The husband was out of her life as soon as things got serious, leaving her alone with a kid to support.
Now Kerry was gone and her daughter became increasingly rebellious, turning to gangs and crime, the very thing Drago was fighting against.
Drago turned off his communicator after they were finished with the conversation. He tossed it down on his desk rubbing his face deep in thought to how he was going to deal with all of this.
Why did he feel responsible for that girl? He wasn't her father. She came to him during a time, a year ago, when she needed help. That birthday photo was the time she was in the custody of her neglectful, deadbeat father. Drago helped her get a legal separation from his authority. She was supposed to live at a boarding school after. A couple of months was all she could take. She complained that she didn't fit in with rigid rules and ran away. She was in and out of juvenile detention ever since.
Drago remained the only consistent person in her life. She should have been grateful, but she seemed to hate him the more involved he got. He had to let Cessi go for now. She was getting too old for him to constantly bail her out every time she got in trouble. It was time for her to start making better choices.
As he went through his chore of getting ready to rest for the night, his mind turning with all the facts of the case at hand. What would happen to Ben after this trial was over? He couldn't let him go back to that work camp or to anything like it. Yet he couldn't take on every kid that passed through his firm. Maybe a boarding school or something would be a good place to send him. He had connections he could pull to get Ben into a good school. He would see to it that Ben didn't turn out like Cessi.
Drago hardly ever felt tired the way he had before he gained these mechanical parts. He relaxed each night if there was time. The images of vectors and lines, that he assumed were his circuits, raced by his vision in that he assumed was sleep. Funny after forty years of this it was all still so new to him. When his lights came back on, it was morning. Drago felt recharged after staying awake for two days straight working.
Ben was not as chatty this morning. Drago knew why: they were heading to court. Th boy would see those horrible people there. He may even see some of his former co-workers.
"You might want to eat something now," Drago advised. "It will be a long session until lunch break."
Ben knew he should eat. He would regret it later, but his stomach just couldn't handle food right now.
"How long will I have to be there?" Ben asked.
Drago took a moment to let things settle.
"I don't know. These things can take all day, into the night," Drago said. "They will give us breaks. They provide lunch and a late session break if we go into the evening."
"I'm not worried about food," Ben said. Cyrus came out with a tie for him. He smiled as he tied it around his neck.
"There, now you look all sharp and ready to go," Cyrus said to him. He watched Ben's serious face. He took hold the boy's shoulders. "Don't you worry about a thing. You will be right with us the whole time." Cyrus waited. Ben nodded. He felt slightly better.
"You can do this, Ben," Drago said to him from the kitchen area.
The three of them walked into the courthouse together. Last time Ben was here, he lost his case. He was about to be taken back and beaten. Now he had two cool guys walking in with him. He didn't look at the people watching but he felt it. He felt the jaw drops when they saw his new clothes and his fancy haircut. They saw him walk in with his powerful attorney, Drago and his assistant. Ben felt better than he imagined in this moment.
They took their seats and the court began.
Drago didn't speak this time. It was all learning who was who and the details of the case. A panel of seven judges sat with the one in the middle being the highest. He assumed this was the head judge. They talked over the events of that night. They discussed the fire investigators' report. They put hospital records up on a giant screen and talked about what had happened to the two kids that died. Ben felt the emotions of his loss creep back in but kept them in check.
Whenever he felt he might be cracking, Ben looked up at Drago. He always seemed to know when Ben was needing reassurance. He nodded to Ben that he was doing just fine.
When Ben was asked to speak. He had to go up to the stand alone and face the crowd. There he saw his former bosses. The Glass's, glaring at him like he was doing something terrible to them. They brought two of his co-workers. Freddy and Annie. He felt fear like never before. Without words he knew that this was a threat. If he didn't lie, something bad would happen to these two.
Ben choked up and had to leave the stand before he was finished. Drago followed him to the hallway.
He didn't say a word as Ben stood outside the room, not knowing what to do or where to go.
"If I do it, they will hurt the other kids. I know it," Ben said tears welling up. He ran his hands through his hair. "Just like Gin and Yuma."
Drago remained calm letting Ben get everything he wanted to say out first. The boy blamed himself. It was a heavy weight on him.
"Do you remember when you first came to the ship and I asked you if you were one-hundred percent committed?" Drago said to the boy. Ben raise his arm and wiped his tears on his sleeve. "Yes, they are making threats because that's what bad people do. You can't let them intimidate you. I know you're scared but I also know how brave you are. You can do this."
"What if they hurt them because of me?" Ben said with tears running down his face.
"Then they will pay for it," Drago reassured him. "You have all the power here. You can win this battle."
The judges were hoping to end early, so they could go to lunch. They collectively sighed when the two came back in. Ben wiped his last tears away.
"I wish to continue," Ben said after some deep breaths.
The head judge held her hand out to the seat on the stand. Ben walked down that long isle and reclaimed his seat in the witness box.
He finished his story. The room went silent. The judges thanked him and let him go back to his seat with Drago and Cyrus.
He noticed that Freddy and Annie were no longer sitting with the Glass's. That threat obviously wasn't working.
The worst was yet to come. Mr. Glass took the stand to tell his side of the story. He made Ben out to be a rebellious brat who was always making trouble and hurting others. He even tried to pin the fire on Ben saying that it was a little suspicious that he and Yuma had an argument earlier that day and he was the first one to die in the fire.
Drago stayed silent the entire time. He had a lot to say but he was civil enough to know it wasn't his turn to speak yet. Instead he took extensive notes on his tablet waiting for his turn to come. It didn't come that day. The judges dismissed after a busy day of hearing testimonies.
The first session had been exhausting. Drago's little team was tired and ready for some rest. Court would resume early the next morning. Instead of going all the way back to the ship which would take much longer, Cyrus rented a two-bedroom hotel suit close to the courthouse. Drago took one room, he would have slept on the sofa but the requirements to maintain his mechanical parts made a private room necessary. Cyrus happily took the sofa in the front room, leaving the other bedroom to Ben.