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Authors: Susan R. Matthews
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under the circumstances. But the Church was pitiless.
The Church and the Bench’s Protocols were well matched for that.
“Abbas Hakun, Sampfel Sector, Dorl and Yenzing, your Excellency.”
Familiar as the title was, it startled Andrej to hear it in this place. On his home-world his father was an Excellency, a prince not of the Autocrat’s lineage. And since all of a prince’s sons were princes — regardless of whether they would inherit, regardless of whether there was anything to inherit — Andrej had been an Excellency from his infancy. It only took him a moment to remember. Chonis had warned them that their prisoners were required to address them as if they were already commissioned.
“The crime to which I wish to confess is that of defrauding the Bench, your Excellency.”
It is my shame to be un-Reconciled, and if I cannot be relieved of fault by penance I must die nameless and unwept, never to stand in the presence of my Holy Mother beneath the Canopy.
His prisoner was Mizucash, tall, broad-shouldered, and imposing for all his bound hands and meek demeanor. The language of submission and confession sounded strangely in the Mizucash’s mouth, to Andrej’s ear.
“In what manner have you defrauded the Bench?”
Just like the confessional. The crime had to be quantified and categorized before the appropriate penance was assessed. And if the prisoner or child under Canopy did not have answers ready, the questions themselves would elicit information to complete the Record and define the penalty.
“My employment was in a Judicial Stores contract company, your Excellency. Our contract lay in the provision of the nine flours Standard for fast-meal menus of hominid categories eight, ten, eleven, and nineteen.”
Yes, my Mother’s servant, I have challenged my father’s will and my father’s wisdom, and not submitted instruction, as a filial child would not fail to do. I cannot accept my father’s will, though I am to do it. He cannot know what he requires of me.
“Describe the actions that you took, or failed to take, that resulted in the crime of defrauding the Bench.”
So easy, to pass from the neutral “crime to which you wish to confess” to the necessarily self-incrimination “crime of defrauding the Bench.” One hardly noticed the all-important shift in emphasis. Was this how Uncle Radu felt when he heard confession beneath the Canopy?
“I operated the sweeper in the packaging area of my plant. My instructions specified that flour sweepings were to be collected and weighed for use as wastage statistics for the development of the billing rates.”
What was the man talking about, anyway? “Explain how your actions vis-a-vis the floor sweepings defrauded the Bench.” He had to concentrate on the task before him and set aside his brooding. What could be so important about flour sweepings that they would send a man all the way out to Fleet Orientation Station Medical to confess about them? Or was that the point, that it was an unimportant crime, and therefore it was no matter if a Student Interrogator botched the job?
“Wastage statistics reduce the billing rates by the value of the sweepings in flour by weight. My wife and I, we’re in violation of the recommended reproduction levels, your Excellency, and rations only allow for two children. So instead of bringing the flour to be weighed, I took as much of the sweepings home as I could manage on each shift. In violation of my published procedure.”
So he was to take the confession of a man who had cheated the Bench out of a few eighths of flour. It had to be a joke. If he were in Uncle Radu’s place, he would have had so pathetic a sinner turned out of sanctuary and beaten for his presumption, or for the sin of aspiring to an excess of piety. One might as well beat the gardener for having chewed on a leaf of jessamine while cultivating the plantation. Could this be some sort of an initiation prank, like throwing the class’s best
The Church and the Bench’s Protocols were well matched for that.
“Abbas Hakun, Sampfel Sector, Dorl and Yenzing, your Excellency.”
Familiar as the title was, it startled Andrej to hear it in this place. On his home-world his father was an Excellency, a prince not of the Autocrat’s lineage. And since all of a prince’s sons were princes — regardless of whether they would inherit, regardless of whether there was anything to inherit — Andrej had been an Excellency from his infancy. It only took him a moment to remember. Chonis had warned them that their prisoners were required to address them as if they were already commissioned.
“The crime to which I wish to confess is that of defrauding the Bench, your Excellency.”
It is my shame to be un-Reconciled, and if I cannot be relieved of fault by penance I must die nameless and unwept, never to stand in the presence of my Holy Mother beneath the Canopy.
His prisoner was Mizucash, tall, broad-shouldered, and imposing for all his bound hands and meek demeanor. The language of submission and confession sounded strangely in the Mizucash’s mouth, to Andrej’s ear.
“In what manner have you defrauded the Bench?”
Just like the confessional. The crime had to be quantified and categorized before the appropriate penance was assessed. And if the prisoner or child under Canopy did not have answers ready, the questions themselves would elicit information to complete the Record and define the penalty.
“My employment was in a Judicial Stores contract company, your Excellency. Our contract lay in the provision of the nine flours Standard for fast-meal menus of hominid categories eight, ten, eleven, and nineteen.”
Yes, my Mother’s servant, I have challenged my father’s will and my father’s wisdom, and not submitted instruction, as a filial child would not fail to do. I cannot accept my father’s will, though I am to do it. He cannot know what he requires of me.
“Describe the actions that you took, or failed to take, that resulted in the crime of defrauding the Bench.”
So easy, to pass from the neutral “crime to which you wish to confess” to the necessarily self-incrimination “crime of defrauding the Bench.” One hardly noticed the all-important shift in emphasis. Was this how Uncle Radu felt when he heard confession beneath the Canopy?
“I operated the sweeper in the packaging area of my plant. My instructions specified that flour sweepings were to be collected and weighed for use as wastage statistics for the development of the billing rates.”
What was the man talking about, anyway? “Explain how your actions vis-a-vis the floor sweepings defrauded the Bench.” He had to concentrate on the task before him and set aside his brooding. What could be so important about flour sweepings that they would send a man all the way out to Fleet Orientation Station Medical to confess about them? Or was that the point, that it was an unimportant crime, and therefore it was no matter if a Student Interrogator botched the job?
“Wastage statistics reduce the billing rates by the value of the sweepings in flour by weight. My wife and I, we’re in violation of the recommended reproduction levels, your Excellency, and rations only allow for two children. So instead of bringing the flour to be weighed, I took as much of the sweepings home as I could manage on each shift. In violation of my published procedure.”
So he was to take the confession of a man who had cheated the Bench out of a few eighths of flour. It had to be a joke. If he were in Uncle Radu’s place, he would have had so pathetic a sinner turned out of sanctuary and beaten for his presumption, or for the sin of aspiring to an excess of piety. One might as well beat the gardener for having chewed on a leaf of jessamine while cultivating the plantation. Could this be some sort of an initiation prank, like throwing the class’s best
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