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“What’s that?” The Head of the Tribunal looked at her with something like surprise. Clearly they weren’t used to the “criminal” defending himself—or in Lili’s case, herself. Though at the moment, they all still clearly thought she was male.
“I said, LJ-91 is lying,” Lili responded, raising her voice even more. “He was the one who enjoyed that nasty garn—he was raving over the seasoning and saying how good it was and how I was just going to love it!”
“LJ-91—is this true?” The Tribunal Master demanded.
“What? No! By no means.” LJ-91 protested. “I only bring suspected criminals to the place I spoke of because it exposes their Feel Crime.”
“Right. And that’s why you slurped down your whole bowl of garn and half a shaker of salt—I mean ‘seasoning’—while I only ate two bites! You enjoyed that stuff a lot more than I did—you even abused the poor robot waiter to make him bring it to us so you wouldn’t have to wait for it!”
Lili actually felt like she might be winning here. It seemed like a good strategy to turn the accusation of Feel Crime around and point it at her accuser. And the Dark Kindred Tribunal definitely seemed interested in what she was saying.
The part of LJ-91’s face that was visible around his enhancements began to grow noticeably red.
“You are lying!” he growled at Lili. “I would never commit Feel Crime!”
“You’re committing it right now!” she challenged him. “Look at him—look at his face—look at how red he’s getting!” she exclaimed, pointing at LJ-91. “He’s feeling very upset and angry right now. You don’t need a sniffer to know that!”
“I am not feeling!” LJ-91 shouted, his metal hands clenched into fists at his sides. He took a deep breath, making a visible effort to calm down. “If I was, my sniffer would react,” he added in a quieter tone.
“Unless you trained him not to react to your pheromones!” Lili challenged. “And to only go after other, uh, ‘Feel Criminals.’”
“LJ-91, the suspect makes a reasonable case.” The Tribunal Master raised his eyebrow again. “Have you had your emotion damper checked lately?”
“My damper is fine,” LJ-91 protested. “Besides, I am not the one on trial here—he is.” He pointed at Lili. “This so called XR-17 who is not even a real Dark Kindred!”
He reached for her and before Lili could react, he had torn off her dented chest plate.
Unfortunately, the chest plate was anchored in the black body stocking she was wearing. Ripping it off tore a huge hole in the stocking. Lili gasped as her large, bare breasts came tumbling out, her nipples tight with fear and pointing directly at the Tribunal.
There was a collective sound that was almost a gasp and she had the distracted thought that she was probably straining the capacity of every single emotion damper in the room. Then the Tribunal Master broke the silence.
“A female!” he said, his single eye narrowing. “A female has invaded Z4!”
“What—are women against the law here too?” Lili demanded. She was blushing with embarrassment and trying to cover her chest with both arms, but she would be damned if she’d stop speaking up for herself!
“Females cause emotion,” one of the other Tribunal members said. “As such, they are expressly forbidden on the surface of Z4.”
Lili stared at them in disbelief.
“What kind of incel crap is that? You’re all supposed to be these ‘emotionless robots’ but you can’t even stand to have a woman around because she might make you break your code and ‘feel’ something?” She glared at the Tribunal accusingly. “If you’re really that fragile, it sounds to me like you’re all a lot more emotional than you want to let on!”
But this time it seemed she had gone too far. The Tribunal Master narrowed his eye at her and pounded his fist on the table.
“Assemble the sniffers! This female shall be tried as a Feel Criminal and a trespasser!”
At once all the guards with sniffers came to the front of the room and formed a semi-circle around Lili.
Lili tried not to be frightened—didn’t they say that dogs could smell fear? And these metal dogs were specially trained to do exactly that. But she couldn’t help herself. It was like her childhood trauma times a thousand. All she could see were rows of glowing red eyes and sharp metal teeth, all bared to rip her apart!
“Look—I’m sorry!” she exclaimed, appealing to the Tribunal Master. “I shouldn’t have said that about you having emotions. I know I’m not supposed to be here, but I only came because I was looking for some Dark Kindred—Treads Lightly and Fights Darkness. They were on the Kindred Mother Ship for a while and that was where I met them. I didn’t know them long—less than a week. But, well, we formed an attachment—I need to find them!”
“You expect us to believe that you invaded our world and put yourself in mortal danger just to find two warriors you knew for less than a week?” the Tribunal Master demanded.
“Yes, I do!” Lili exclaimed. “And I don’t care if that’s a crime!” she went on recklessly. “I came to rescue them and bring them back to a place where they could feel. Where they could love and be loved in return—because they deserve better than this cold, dead world where everything is gray and bland and awful all the time!”
Her impassioned speech caused murmurs among the crowd and the sniffers were all growling angrily. Probably because she was feeling so much and so “loudly” Lili speculated.
She was crying now—she couldn’t help it. She was about to die—she was sure of it. But she couldn’t regret her decision to come to Zeaga Four. She’d been trying to save the men she loved from a terrible fate…the fate of feeling nothing for the rest of their lives. If only she could have seen them one last time before the end…
