Mike Williams series: A courtroom drama in space
Mike Williams did not wish for much. Most people dreamed of being millionaires, big celebrity stars or famous artists but Mike never had,he simply could not see the point of it. He thought it must be absolutely awful to be a celebrity and not having a private life at all. Or at least, having to struggle to have one. No, Mike liked being able to enjoy his front garden without being attacked by paparazzi or to go to the garden centre without being tackled by crazy stalkers.
It wasn’t that Mike didn’t have dreams. He dreamed of owninga lawn tractor. And when he dreamed big, he dreamed of owning a big lawn tractor.
Garden centres and lawn tractors seemed astronomically faraway as Mike gazed around the courtroom. The prosecutor, Nai’zest Qalong, was on another rant about mankind and planet Earth. He seemed unstoppable, twisting and turning facts to make humans look as horrible as possible. Now he was talking about the criminal aliens again, the Pzankt-zu brothers, but he didn’t mention any trumpets.
“Human Williams.”
Mike realized he was drifting away again in his thoughts. He had to stay focused, the fate of the entire human species was at stake but now the lack of sleep was starting to get critical. It had been late when Mike was taken onboard, and he had no idea how much time had passed since then. It felt like days but was more likely hours. How long was it since he had last had anything to eat? He shook off the heavy threads strangling his mind and looked Nai’zest Qalong in the eye.
“Yes?”
“Is it true that the biggest and most powerful nation on your planet, freely selected -” he looked up the name in his notes”Mr. Trump as your leader?”
“Erh, yes, but-“
“And is it correct that another great leader on your planet is, let me just find the name in my notes, Putin? This man?”
Mike turned around to look at the big screen behind him. It no longer broadcasted his pale and sweaty face but showed a picture of Donald Trump angrily shouting into a microphone, his hair almost luminescent next to the rage red of his face. Now a picture of a man with eyes of steel and ice under a pair of invisible eyebrows slid in next to Trump.
“I wouldn’t call him great-“
“And this man.” A picture of Kim Jong-un was added. “He is a leader too?”
“Yes,” Mike answered as quiet as possible and turned away from the screen.
“The infamous Pzankt-zu brothers,” Nai’zest declared. “Disguised as humans but their maniac and cold killer eyes are the same. They are running this planet, leading these humans. If that is not evil, I don’t know what is.”
“We don’t even like them,” Mike tried but Nai’zest ignored him and proceeded.
The council members were whispering to one another, the facts about the Pzankt-zu brothers was clearly quite upsetting to them. Mike reminded himself of Lay’tek’s words. He mustn’t lose his temper. It was important. If he lost his temper, he would lose the case.
“Humans are a violent species that has chosen violent leaders. When humans were about to set foot in space we reached out to them and send a peace delegation to welcome them into our Intergalactic Democracy. And what did the humans do? They killed the delegation.”
A roar from thousands of creatures rose as the members jumped to their feet shouting in anger.
“It’s not true! It’s not true!” Mike yelled but no one could hear him among all the others.
It took the judges some time to calm down the crowd so Nai’zest could continue.
“You say it is not the case, human Williams,” Nai’zest said.
“It’s not, we don’t even know aliens exist!”
“What do you know about the incident at Roswell?”
Mike felt his heart sink.
“You don’t mean…”
“Yes, I do. Tell the council what you know about this.”
“There was a supposed alien observation. Conspiracy theorists believes an alien spaceship was shot down. That was *real*?”
Nai’zest turned around and looked at the stunned members.
“Shot down.” The silence was crushing. Members shook their heads, some made a final note. There was no coming back from this. “I don’t think I need to say more.”
Mike had had it. The injustice of it all filled him with an uncontrollable rage.
“But I do!” He shouted and every single being in the gigantic amphitheatre looked at him in surprise. “I have listened to you discredit my nature, my species and my home! You have twisted facts and manipulated everything to make us look as the villains you need us to be to win this. I don’t care about some stupid space court filled with aliens, who are you to come here and judge us? Why do *I* have to pay for all the bad decision every human have ever made? How can that be one person’s responsibility? Yes,there are some evil, stupid humans but I bet there’s stupid and evil whatever the hell you are, llama-octopus-thing. Until tonight I never knew aliens existed let alone the rules you live by! And don’t hold me accountable for the actions of any criminal leader because I sure didn’t vote for any of them.
I never wanted to come here! I don’t want to be here! I want to go home! I want to go home, call my mom and go out and have a beer with my best friend! I want to tend to my garden because my roses need to be watered! To hell with politics and aliens and especially alien politics!”
Just as quickly as the rage has set in, it vanished, and Mike felt his knees collapse under his weight. He’d lost. He’d lost his temper and the case.