Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 487: Time to Get to Work

As he walked back into the courtroom the next day he was busily tapping away at his datapad. Making quick work of the security programs as he tracked down another smuggler. He would say he had gotten halfway done with finding all of the smugglers and the people connected to them.

Despite what the Victorium wants people to think, there is plenty of corruption hidden away. Fortunately it looked like most of the people doing smuggling realized there was a reason why the quarantine was up. He flagged them for later inspection and possibly using them. He was sure that Director Fenrir could find a use for them.

He slid into his seat without a word and glanced up at the first witness for only a moment before going back to his work and continued working on it. The witness ranged from an eyewitness to professional psychologists. All from different stages of Jace’s life from one of the survivors of the recent slaughter at Mountain Man’s tavern. To even the doctors he acquired variations of Ambrosia from. Although none of them were actually here.

Understandably they were all probably absolutely terrified of Jace. Or in some of their cases they were clearly busy. Like the doctors who were all in variations of scrubs or quarantine gear. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

As Jace was finishing up the last touches of his plan he heard a voice cut through his thoughts. "Colonel Jace..." Jace looked up at Speaker Ta’Maz and blinked in confusion.

"What? Sorry, I was not listening at all." Jace informed them.

"The other witnesses finished their testimonies and we finished interrogating them." Handsole began explaining. "But now it is your turn to be sent to the stand as a witness."

Jace nodded. "Okay," He then encrypted the datapad and stood up before walking over and climbing into the raised box that served as the witness box. "Now then who gets to start?" Jace asked in excitement as he glanced at the judges faces who looked like a mix of annoyance and confusion.

Speaker Ta’Maz looked at Prosecutor Skell after a second. "Prosecutor Skell. I believe the witness is yours to interrogate. Please keep your questions contained to relevant topics he is being charged with?"

Skell stood up and straightened his clothes. He then walked around and walked up to the front of the box. "Jace Hex, is it correct that you are the last Hex?"

"Objection!" Attorney Handsole stood up.

"Prosecutor, relevance to the case?" Speaker Ta’Maz held up a hand.

"Establishing a reason for the way that Jace Hex acts." Prosecutor Skell declared.

Speaker Ta’Maz looked between Jace and Skell for a moment before shrugging. "Very well. Keep it contained to a relevant topic. Colonel Jace, answer the question."

Jace shrugged, "probably not." All eyes in the room turned to him. He could feel the confusion in those looks.

"Explain." Speaker Ta’Maz demanded.

"Well..." Jace reached up and scratched the back of his head nervously while sheepishly grinning and winking at the recording device. "I am what many might consider promiscuous and never really bothered to check up on the woman after making a port call. So I might have one or two tykes out there that not even I know about. So there is no surefire way to say that there are no other Hexs out there. There are just not any that you or anyone else would know about."

He could almost hear the collective sigh and exasperation of several people. But what they were about to realize and what Skell was just realizing was that he just completely derailed whatever argument that Skell was about to make.

"Jace Hex, is it true that your blood holds the secret to gaining strength among the nanosystem users?" Skell asked next as he paced away. Hoping to get the interrogation back on track.

"Nope." Jace answered with a shake of his head.

"But do you-"

"Objection your honors!" Attorney Handsole stood up. "Skell is not keeping to the relevance of the case."

"Sustained. Prosecutor Skell, keep it relevant. Last warning." Speaker Ta’Maz demanded.

Skell nodded and looked at Jace again. "Colonel Jace Hex, what reason did you plead guilty to several of the crimes we are charging you with?"

"Because I can get away with it." Jace answered and a quiet murmur filled the room while the ruckus outside quieted down. The Judges exchanged looks of confusion. Then they whispered among themselves.

Speaker Ta’Maz looked at Prosecutor Skell who already knew and stepped back slightly as he looked on with excitement and glee. "Colonel Jace, please explain your last statement. What do you mean you can get away with it?"

"Well, what I should actually say is that the court cannot actually charge me with any of the crimes listed. I suppose we should start with the crimes from 1A to... 21AC. All of those are covered in the deal and contract between the Vexical Empire and the Victorium. I believe if you would like to look it up it is clause 2J." Jace informed them and watched the judges hastily pull up their datapads. Prosecutor Skell quickly ran back to his own table and pulled up the document on his personal datapad.

Jace watched them before Speaker Ta’Maz spoke up. "In summary, crimes convicted by Vexical Military personnel prior to the integration into the Victorium cannot be tried in a Victorium courtroom. Instead it has to be tried with at least one former Vexical Royal family member overseeing it." He set down his datapad and looked at Jace with amusement. "Well that explains those crimes but there are still about a dozen other crimes that you are still able to be charged with. A few of which are war crimes."

Jace nodded. "Indeed there are. But unfortunately the Victorium does not have any military laws that prohibit the crimes that I am being charged with. As I am military personnel and these crimes were all committed during my service then it would be up to the military to charge me. A civilian court by Victorium’s own laws cannot charge me. Honestly I am surprised it even got this far."

Speaker Ta’Maz frowned and then looked through his datapad. "He is right. Since this court that has been put together contains civilian personnel then it would be considered a civilian court. We are unable to charge him. We can put him on trial but then the right to charge Colonel Jace would be handed off to the military."

"What?" Prosecutor Skell asked in confusion. "Why...why has this never come up before?"

"Because it is a little known caveat of military and civilian law that clashes." Speaker Ta’Maz declared before leaning back. "Skell do you have any more questions?"

"No... your honor..." Skell walked back and sat down with a look of shock on his face.

"Attorney Handsole, I believe it is your turn with your client." Speaker Ta’Maz waved his hand and the Sima walked around.

"Colonel Jace, why do you think all of these crimes came up now when they could have come up previously?" Handsome asked.

"Multiple reasons but I would say it is likely because the name Hex, while not as well known in the Victorium, is well known in the human territories. A group in the Victorium believed they could use the name to leverage hovertech out of my hands." Jace explained. "Because you know... greed." Jace shrugged.

"BAHAHAHHAHA!" Speaker Ta’Maz burst into laughter. "Very well then regardless of the charges as the senior officer present I believe some community service hours and a pay dock is all that is in order." He stood abruptly, "now then, I have better things to deal with. Colonel Jace..." He looked at Jace who was smirking. "Get the hell out of here!"

"Yes sir." Jace nodded and stood up. Walking out of the witness box and shaking Attorney Handsole’s hand. "It was a pleasure Handsole. You know where to find me." The Attorney nodded before going back to packing his things.

Jace walked past a dumbstruck Prosecutor Skell and grabbed his own datapad before walking out into the bleacher aisle. Waving at Jacquette. "Come on. You are with me. I already verified your transfer. I will have someone collect your things and send them to the Princess’ Pride." Jace informed her as she stood up and blinked in confusion before following him out the court room and into the larger courthouse which had a high ceiling with multiple courtrooms. But most of them were unoccupied today on account of Jace’s trial.

"How? That was so quick." Jacquette pointed out as she noticed something. "That is the front door. Why are we going out that door?"

"Because I have a flair for being dramatic." Jace declared as he walked past the officers at the door and kicked them up. Opening them up to a wave of people of varying races and origins all celebrating and screaming.

"You have fans."

Jace smirked, "yes I do. Here is our ride." He pointed out as suddenly a ship appeared out of nowhere as the Nero Hawk powered down its stealth mode. The rear ramp lowered down as Jace held up a hand. "Do you need help or-"

He stopped as Jacquette scoffed and pulled off her hat before jumping up vertically ten feet and onto the ramp. Walking right into the ship. Jace smirked and then waved at the onlookers before kicking off the ground and landing up on the ramp on the ship. It was time to get back to work.