James Axler – Exile to Hell

But it was effective.

The serene, musical voice wafted from the speaker at the bottom of the screen, sounding as if it were echoing from the black gulfs between the stars. “Citizen Baptiste, you stand accused of dissent, sedition and treason against the ville. You are further accused of illegal possession of ville property. If you have anything to say before sentence is pronounced, speak now.”

Forcing herself to stare into the vid lens on the wall beside the screen, Brigid replied, “I am innocent of these charges, Lord Baron. Save that I did have in my possession the said piece of Ville property. Here is my defense”

Brigid told her story straightforwardly, without faltering or groping for words. She had only been engaged in following a line of inquiry ordered by the Magistrate Division. She had no idea the orders had not been sanctioned by Kane’s superior officer.

The baron said, “You were aware the information you accessed was restricted. You used an authorization code that was not your own.”

“Curiosity and fear, Lord Baron,” Brigid responded crisply. “Magistrate Kane had piqued my interest, and I feared for my safety if I disobeyed him.”

The baron didn’t speak. He waited and Brigid was encouraged slightly. So far, Baron Cobalt hadn’t mentioned that Kane was acting as an undercover op to expose a suspected Preservationist.

“And to the charges of sedition and treason,” Brigid went on, “I plead innocent. As for the computer, I plead guilty and I throw myself on the mercy of the baron. I claim I meant no wrong.”

Golden waves shimmered across the screen, and a ripple of genuinely amused laughter came from the speaker. “You are a clever dissembler. Very well, I will dismiss the charges of possessing the computer. I grant you mercy. However, the other charges remain intact and, as you know, are punishable by death.”

It was what she expected. Brigid bowed her head.

The baron said, “BrigidI will call you that since this is such an intimate moment between us”

“There’s nothing I can do about it, is there?” Brigid’s voice was dull and flat.

“No, there isn’t. You must understand I’m not sentencing you to death for these arbitrary reasons. Even if you are a Preservationist, that’s not what brought you here before me.”

“What did, then?”

“Knowledge,” Baron Cobalt answered. “It can lead to wisdom and thus to humility, true enough. But in this tortured period of humankind’s existence on earth, knowledge beyond what is needed must also bring death.”

Lifting her head, she asked, “Why is that so?”

The baron’s reply was soft, almost regretful. “Humanity stands on the threshold of a new genesis. It cannot pass over that threshold if collective knowledge expands.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That is the entire point. If you understood, if humankind as a whole understood, the mad rush to mass destruction would begin again.” Baron Cobalt’s voice dropped to a half whisper. “Humanity lives inside its head. That is the seat of the soul. This is true subjectively, as well as objectively. If you control the soul, you control humanity.”

Brigid said nothing. Frozen, she only stared at the shifting pattern of light on the screen.

“The course of execution is set by expedience and custom,” the baron declared. “You will die quickly and painlessly, if that is of any comfort to you.”

As if responding to an invisible cue, the door opened. The baron said, “The sentence is to be carried out forthwith.”

The monitor screen dimmed immediately. The Magistrate prodded Brigid to her feet and removed her from the room. Only the one Mag accompanied her down the corridor, his Sin Eater drawn and aimed at her head. As she marched, she was desperately contemplating some outburst of violence, some assertion of the will to live, even knowing that it would never succeed.

They entered an elevator, and the car dropped swiftly. She was too numb to count the levels. The descent halted, the door rolled aside and she and her guard were met by three armored Mags. The trio surrounded her and conducted her down a long corridor, toward a square archway covered by a metal slab. One of the four Magistrates increased his pace and reached for a lever jutting out from the frame of the arch. He pulled it up, and the slab hissed upward, operated by a combination of hydraulics and pneumatics.