Page 38 of Breaking Point
There had to besomethinghe could do that would let him feel human once more.
He took a deep breath.And another one, while Zana and Lakewood watched him, both wearing smiles.
“You are an odious example of a human being, Zana,” Brice told her.“You and Lakewood deserve each other.”
He stormed down the passage, rammed the door against the wall and slammed it shut.
It didn’t help.
Chapter Fifteen
FOR THE NEXT THREE DAYS, Luciana barely slept.Instead, she reached out to everyone she knew who might be able to advise her on how to combat the horrible mutiny charges.Her request for an appointment with the captain was denied.Anyone with status on the Bridge also turned down her requests.
She instead worked her contacts.Anyone she knew who might know the captain, and could leverage that contact and win her even five minutes with Travers.No one seemed to know about the death penalty escalation of the charges, and one old contact suggested that she was being hysterical.Perfectly understandable, sweetheart, but it’s distorting your perspective.Call me back when this is all over.Lunch is on me.
Luciana came to understand that everyone else thought Devar was guilty.They were distancing themselves from her because he was her son.
On the third day, the Bridge released the full and final report on the arena tragedy, alongside an announcement of the charges against Devar.
Luciana read every word.Her heart was a block of ice.She felt nothing.
Her door panel dinged barely twenty minutes after the report was released and Luciana opened the door automatically, and only thought afterward that opening the door when she didn’t know who was on the other side was probably a stupid thing to do, these days.
Caelen stood there, her jacket pulled in tight around her.Tears spilled down Caelen’s face as Luciana opened the door.
Luciana sighed, pulled her into the house and held her while Caelen wept against Luciana’s shoulder.
Caelen stayed on the couch for the next week.
?
The Forum became a hot pool of fury and vitriol, once the final report was released, which shocked both Luciana and Caelen.
They read the Forum compulsively each day, and gave each other notice when new posts appeared.Anything to do with the arena, with Devar, and the charges, they read carefully and tried to analyze with their numb, traumatized minds.
The first time someone suggested that executing Devar was too extreme, they both read the short entry over and over.
Swiftly, the poster was drowned in replies that shouted them down, and called for a swift trial, and a swifter execution.Let’s wrap this up and move on, one comment said.
As if Devar was a pebble in a shoe, to be shook out and forgotten.
It wasn’t until the next day that a second person had the courage to state that they thought the mutiny classification was outrageous.We don’t kill each other on theEndurance.That’s what the ancient humans did to each other.Wewantto revert to the ways of our ancestors?Not only is the mutiny charge ridiculous, but it is also immoral, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a flawed human being.Go back to Earth, if you feel that way.
And the commentor had signed their name.
“Do you know this Temple Bear?”Caelen asked.
“I know the name.Never met them,” Luciana admitted.
Caelen bit her lip.“I wonder if many other people feel the way he does?”And she returned to rereading the post.“Maybe we should comment,” she murmured a few minutes later.
“No,” Luciana said swiftly.“They would just say we’re biased.And we are.It would weaken any arguments against the charges.Donotcomment, Caelen.Stay out of it.Let it work itself out.”
Caelen had nodded.
It took only a half-day more for another commenter to support Temple Bear’s position.Their post was a lot longer, pulling on examples demonstrating how useless capital punishment had proved to be throughout man’s history.
The pro-mutiny people tore the argument apart, just as they had tried to shred Temple Bear’s immoral claim, too.
