Luna IV - Part I

Part 1, Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Zenobia Andari sat in the courtroom awaiting her guilt verdict and sentence. Nothing had been declared, but there was no point in hoping because the trial was a joke. She sat in her light grey one piece form fitting space flight suit which contrasted her mocha skin and accentuated the soft and toned curves of her athletic body. Her dark thick hair was pulled back from her oval face into a ponytail that fell to the small of her back in a V, revealing dark eyes and high cheekbones that gave her face a hard look that she'd been practicing and using as she stared ahead.

"I have done my best for you," her attorney Mr. Brent nodded as he clicked off his hologram accounts of the case and closed his briefcase.

"Right," Zenobia nodded, not sparing the man a direct look. On Luna III, everyone knew the ultimate law: women had no power here. She looked around the courtroom at the angry men who watched her. Women averted their eyes from her. She didn't have any friends here, and she didn't want any of them. "Whatever."

"Why can't you understand the depth of what you've done?"

"Why can't you understand the depth of what he tried to do?" Zen hissed, snapping her head in Mr. Brent's direction. She watched his face began to flush, making his hair look whiter than it did. "Do you think I'd just let him—"

"Sebastian Marette paid a bridal offer."

"Not to me, to that stupid Planetary Matrimony Commission!" She didn't care if her voice rose.

"When your father and betrothed died in the accident, you had a year to marry or lose your property and freedom according to law--"

"My father stipulated I didn't have to—"

"Law is law!" Mr. Brent slammed his fist on the table, anger in his angular features, his glasses almost coming off his nose.

She mimicked his action, bringing gasps and other sounds of outrage from people around them. "And bull is bull!" She found herself being handcuffed by guards for her outburst within seconds, but she didn't care.

Mr. Brent quieted himself, taking a deep breath. "I tried to extend your time-"

"By admitting me to the Women's Galactic Psychiatric Institute to analyze my anger outbursts?" She made sure her words had not lost their heat, though she kept her voice just above a whisper. She sat back in her chair a little, unable to fully recline with her hands bound behind her. She turned her head away from him again. "No thanks--"

"All rise!"

Zen was the first to rise to the officer's call, made sure of it. She would be defiant to the end. She raised her chin, and looked over the magistrate's head to the clock, remembering everything her father taught her, all the love he'd given her. It would keep her sane. It had to.

"Zenobia Andari," the grim-faced judge said. "You are guilty of the man slaughter of Sebastian Marette." He allowed time for reaction; there was none. "Women like you are a terrible example and threat to our society. The need to make an example of you is clear. You are hereby sentenced to Luna IV until you reform or for five years—" The crowd gasped and began to chatter; even Zen's mouth dropped, causing the judge to continue loudly, "whichever comes first!"

"She won't make it out alive!" Someone behind her yelled above the noise.

"If she does, I'm buying her!" The retort was half chortled.

Zen turned a deaf ear to the outbursts and laughter. She kept her composure and swallowed the tears that threatened to fall, burying her fear. She tilted her chin defiantly again. No woman had ever gotten a sentence like that. She chose her words carefully and deliberately and then said them like a declaration of her spirit. "Go to hell!"