TIME OUT
by
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The old judge just sat there staring at me. I stared back. We had nothing more to say. I thought I had done pretty well. I had explained exactly what had happened, told them that as Spender must have seen everything, everything could be confirmed. So all I had to do was wait for the judgement. I would be free to go. Or atomised.
Alternatively, of course, I could escape from the magnetic field, get out of the cylinder, evade the guards and the static fire points, survive the gas saturation, prize open the bomb-gas-fire proof doors and get out of the courtroom only to find myself in the centre of the most heavily guarded penal colony on the asteroid. And then escape.
Just when I thought I was going to win the staring game, the old judge slowly raised his hand.
"For the record: Penal Colony, Asteroid Belt, Earth date..." he paused to consult some readout, "...01.04.2095. Time 11.45 eastern." He seemed to be smiling. "E. S. Boise. On the charge of murder - five counts - GUILTY.
On the charge of the deliberate loss of the Deep Space Vehicle Discover - GUILTY. On the charge of industrial espionage - GUILTY.
On the charge of Treason against the Deep Space Exploration Company - GUILTY."
He then produced the single most devastating word in the known universe, "Atomise."
'Atomise' was not the word I wanted to hear. 'Not Guilty' or 'Free To Go' would have sounded a whole lot better than 'atomise'. I didn't realise that my heart could beat so fast.
A couple of guards perked up a bit and the old judge sat back with a smug look while the meaning of the word melted into my brain.
"Anything to say?" he enquired as he reached over, flipped up the cover and reached for the switch.
Now I had seen the trick on holo-recordings, The Chamber takes on a bluish glow, whatever is inside takes on a bluish glow and if it is human, he or she gets a very worried expression on their face. Then without so much as a flash or a bang, whatever was inside simply disappears.
Trapped in the field with about five seconds to go I thought 'trick' was perhaps not exactly the right word to describe the transformation of a living body to an atomised state, especially when the to-be-atomised body was me. His hand started for the switch. Well, I thought. Time to go.
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Book Details
About the Book
Anyone looking at the Great Cygnus Loop for the first, second or even the twentieth time could not fail to be impressed.
Anyone looking a bit closer could not fail to see a little black hole.
Then they would go away, as far away as possible.
And anyone wondering if there was something else out there, something that could 'eat' two perfectly good spaceships and their crews, would be perfectly correct.
And anyone thinking that The Company boss, a confused girl, an overconfident pilot, a master of time and a couple of particularly clever robots could find out what happened, would be wrong.
And everyone should be advised:
Do not call them robots... and do not annoy the dragons.
About the Author
Easy Boise will be born in 2075. She will graduate from the Human Resources Facility (1) in 2093 as a bit of a failure.
That year she will produce a rather clever and quite good looking (and almost sentient) holo-projection that some misguided people just might call a 'robot'.
That same year she will create two large and extremely protective dragons which most people will not have time to call anything at all because they will be running away as fast as possible.
In the same year, apart from several other things, she will be tried for the murder of three people and two 'robots'.
She will be found guilty.
Which is where the dragons come in. (Or in this case, out).
Which is when the shooting starts.
It will be a busy year.