Wednesday, February 15, 2012

WIP Wednesday - Alien Interludes: The Sentence

Were any of you curious as to what would happen to General Patrick Hamilton of Alien Conquest?  After all, he was the one person who could have stopped Armageddon, but he chose not to.  I thought it rather obvious he would have to face some sort of Judgment Day of his own, and he will.  Cassidy and her clan discuss what justice he might face:

    “What’s the likelihood of each of the three options?” she asked.
    “I think life imprisonment is out of the question,” Lidon answered.  “No matter where he’s incarcerated, General Hamilton will be killed by another inmate or a guard.  Given the number of assassination attempts already made, it’s only a matter of time.”
    Tranis agreed.  “He’s the most hated man around.  Some would like to feed him to the Tragooms.”
    “So execution or mind wipe.  Though if they erase his memories, there will still be those bent on killing him,” Cassidy guessed.
    “Well if it comes to a mind wipe, his features will be altered and he’ll be given a new name and background to keep him hidden.”  Degorsk snorted.  “The idea is that he can be a productive member of society with his past destroyed.”
    “Isn’t he kind of old to start his life over?” Cassidy asked.  “I mean, he’s healthy as a horse, but he’d be looking at retirement on Earth.” 
    “He’ll be eligible for the benefits accorded other senior Earthers.  If they go the mind wipe route, Hamilton will probably be placed on one of the colonies once he’s deemed ready.”
    “I doubt that will be his fate,” Tranis opined.  He rubbed Cassidy’s back and smiled at her with such love her pulse stuttered.  She suddenly wanted to skip lunch and go straight back to their guest quarters.
    “Don’t be so sure.  Kivokan is planning to push for the general to be remanded to his care.  He’s testifying in hopes of the mind wipe.”
    “As in Dramok Kivokan?  Isn’t he one of your bosses?”  Cassidy frowned.
    “The Galactic Council will not give Hamilton to Kalquor if he’s not to be executed,” Lidon snorted. 
    “They might if he can prove his case.  And trust me, Kivokan is very persuasive.”  Degorsk frowned.
    “Okay, back up and tell me this scenario from start to finish.”  Cassidy had a very bad feeling about the situation.
    Degorsk took a deep breath to compose his thoughts.  “Okay, you know about the psychiatric team on Kalquor dedicated to treating traumatized Earther Mataras.”
    “The same group you now intern for.  Dr. Govi heads that group.”  Cassidy liked Imdiko Govi, who had taken a special interest in her own emotional upheavals following her joining Tranis’ clan.  He had also become Degorsk’s sponsor when he’d decided to switch from being a military doctor to pursue psychology. 
     “Dramok Kivokan is second in charge of the team.  He’s a respected doctor himself, but he tends more towards administration and researching new treatment options.”
    “You’ve mentioned him in passing a few times, but I haven’t heard a lot about him.”
    Degorsk grimaced, a strange expression on his normally happy face.  “I’m not too fond of his practices, to be honest.  He gets results, but I can’t say I agree with all his methods.”
    Lidon raised an eyebrow.  “Given your opinion of mind wiping, I’m not surprised.”
    “He started that?” Cassidy asked.
    “No, but he – perfected it for use on Earthers.” 
    The way Degorsk spat out the word ‘perfected’ told Cassidy her clanmate was very much against it.  The information that someone had worked on the particulars to make mind wipes useful against her kind turned her cold.
    “Why would a psychiatrist want to be able to remove Earther memories?” she asked.
    Her three mates exchanged long looks with each other.  Degorsk blew out a mighty breath.  “Because so many Mataras were emotionally damaged by how they were treated on Earth.”
    Cassidy fought rising anger.  My clan would never allow that to happen to me, she thought, and there was little doubt of that in her mind.  Still, with what she had suffered at the hands of her own grandfather she might have been at risk without their protection.
    “I was damaged.  I suppose I still I am,” she said.  “Would he have wanted to mind wipe me?”
    Growls erupted from her clanmates.  “No one is touching you,” Tranis snarled.
    “But if you hadn’t clanned me?”
    “Govi’s in charge,” Degorsk said.  “He wouldn’t have allowed it.”
    “Has he allowed others to undergo the procedure?”
    “Only two.  Their circumstances were extreme.”
    “In what way?”
    “Both had been molested and raped repeatedly as children.  Their abusers were caught in these acts, and the girls were sentenced to life imprisonment under Earth’s morality laws.  Their youth was taken into account so they weren’t mutilated or placed in the work camps, where they would have died in a matter of months.”
    “By the ancestors,” Lidon swore.  “Innocent children being punished because of the actions of others!”
    Degorsk nodded.  “They continued to suffer terribly in detention.  They were seen as ‘ruined’ because of the rapes.  Once incarcerated, their guards apparently continued the abuse.”
    Cassidy blinked back tears.  She couldn’t imagine the horror those two girls, and who knew how many others, had suffered.  “So they were a real mess, I suppose?”
    Her Imdiko sighed.  “They’d never known any joy in living.  These young women grew to adulthood in a kind of hell I don’t even want to contemplate.  They’d both made multiple suicide attempts, and neither had anything close to sanity left to them.  So Govi allowed Kivokan to erase their entire identities, taking away all the memories of their pasts.”
    Cassidy swallowed.  “I guess in those cases, it was for the best,” she said. 
    “I suppose.”
    “You don’t sound terribly certain,” Tranis prodded gently. 
    “They’re certainly happy now,” Degorsk said slowly.  “Well adjusted with their new identities.  No sign of trauma whatsoever, and one has joined a clan.  She’s due to have her first child in the second quarter.  But when they first came out of the procedure, they were so … blank.  Soulless.”
    Cassidy felt him shudder next to her.  “And that’s what will happen to the general if Kivokan gets his way.”
    Degorsk nodded.  Tranis and Lidon looked as grim as he did.

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