Sentencing

<ooc>Bit of a back post, I'm afraid - there's more to come but I've had an annoyingly busy week, so I'm still working on it</ooc>


Who: Cass
Where: Courtroom
When: Around midnight, prison time


"Cassandra Jones!"
One of the huge, heavily armoured wardens thudded across to loom over Cass, making her shy away from the gently humming shock rod it held ready in one hand
She was the last one
"Move" the mechanoid snarled, motioning for her to get up with a jerk of its head
Struggling to her feet to the accompanying rattle and clink of her chains, Cass was escorted down into the shallow pit in the centre of the court to stand before the judges, where Lindstrom, still lounging in the spectator’s seats, eyed her appraisively
The judges, clad entirely in their long and flowing, black robes of office, were an ancient and decrepit trio; each sporting such a variety of different functionality and construction materials, that none of them were in any way identical
Having only heard them addressed collectively as “m’lud’s”, Cass had no idea whether any of them even had names, and so she had taken to privately thinking of them as: the thin wanker, the tall cretin and the fat fuck; although fat was probably something of a misnomer, given that the mechanoid in question was mounted atop six insectile legs, the drive mechanism for which, added considerably to its bulk
By this stage, the court had been in session for well over an hour, and as the ancient triumvirate had collectively passed their judgements, Lindstrom had heckled and jeered as many of the ridiculous sentences were handed down. From Cassandra's perspective, each of these interjections merely reinforced the impression that he was the one in power, and that the sole purpose of this charade was to provide him with the justification his fragile ego required to make use of servants and experimental subjects.
The one bright point in the proceedings had been Jay’s audacious attempt at escape, during which hope had briefly fluttered in her heart; but with his rapid subjugation and recapture, the optimism she had fleetingly felt, had withered and died, leaving Cass at a loss to see how they could extract themselves from this awful situation
The best thing to do, she reasoned, was not to fight like Jay had, but to bide her time and accept whatever ridiculous sentence she had coming, and after that, she could see what could be done once this idiotic pantomime was out of the way
She still had the Black Nebula in her pocket following Kenneth’s shockingly arbitrary execution, and it was possible that they weren’t the only temporal adventurers who had fallen foul of the time snare, so perhaps there were other inmates who had more information, or even the means to escape?
Keep your powder dry, as her father used to say... The fucking piece of shit
She wrinkled her nose and turned her attention to the three judges standing together in immobile silence, probably conferring amongst themselves via encrypted microwave or similar
“Get on with it!” Lindstrom bellowed, cheerfully settling back into his seat to place a heavily booted foot up on the back of the row of chairs in front of him
“Yes. Yes, of course Mr Lindstrom” the court clerk, a small ‘female’ mechanoid, bowed deferentially and turned to address the judges “My lords?”
For a moment, the three ancient judges surveyed her in a balefully contemplative silence before the tall one finally spoke
“It’s hard to know where to begin with you Miss Jones” it said, primly smoothing its robes with long dexterous hands, each of which had too many fingers and too many joints to ever appear natural
“Your crimes,” the thin one sneered in its high pitched voice “make everyone else’s pale in comparison”
“You inflicted Queen Brittany on the universe” the fat one rumbled, its legs moving, tic tic tac, in complicated dissatisfaction “Our previous data indicated only that she was responsible for upwards of several trillion deaths, and yet with the Trawl we performed on you today, we find that she’s the clandestine head of the STCP, and that you, no less, are than an exact copy of her!”
“I’m not her” Cass said with a vehement shake of her head “She became something that I’m not”
“She became the single most dangerous individual in the entire universe!” Lindstrom yelled, suddenly standing to point at her “What does that make you!?”
Cass regarded him warily, but said nothing
“Shall we proceed with the charges?” the clerk asked timidly
“Another two marks” Lindstrom sneered, apparently on a whim, as he retook his seat and watched in satisfaction as Cass collapsed to the floor with a strangled cry “Proceed!” he snapped his fingers at one of the guards and pointed towards her
“Cassandra Jones” the tall judge began as Cass, bubbling snot and with tears in her eyes, was hauled roughly to her feet “You stand accused of assisting Queen Brittany and facilitating the STCP; thereby enabling the genocide of an incalculable number of sentient species, and untold damage to the timelines”
“How do you plead?” the thin one asked
Cass sniffed and wiped away the snot and tears before she deigned to reply
“I’ve seen the way this farce works,” she said eventually “so let’s play it through to its conclusion”
She paused to take a deep breath
“I’m guilty” her lips curled in a defiant grin “Guilty as sin”
“In that case,” the fat judge growled “it is out most solemn duty to sentence you to indefinite incarceration and, on the recommendation of Mr Lindstrom, an immediate reduction in your IQ”
“What!?” the colour drained from Cassandra’s face almost as fast as her smile faded “How!? Y... You can’t!” she wheeled in a sudden panic to eye the mechanoid wardens moving in from all sides to halt about five metres from her
“Oh, do come on child,” Lindstrom smirked as he climbed to his feet to walk down the stair aisle between the seats “You’re far too dangerous to have aboard this station; but even I don’t want to risk incurring the wrath of the STCP by simply executing you for your crimes"
"So instead," he continued as he stepped down onto the floor in the pit "we have this"
He pulled a black, metal circlet out from within his coat, which he held up for Cassandra’s inspection
"What's that?" she asked warily
“It’s based on our standard neuro-control collars," Lindstrom replied "and while it’s still experimental to some degree, I’ve tested it thoroughly, so I've every confidence in its effectiveness as a solution”
“You didn’t answer my question”
“It’s the device that’s going to reduce you to merely average intelligence
“In fact,” he leered as he began walking towards her “once it has been activated, I’m quite looking forward to being able to study you more closely”
“You’ve no fucking right” Cass snapped, circling back and away from him, her eyes darting, looking for any way out of the situation “My mind is all I have”
“And, oh, what a mind it is” Lindstrom breathed, slowly shaking his head in admiration as he came to a halt a few paces from her “Had you the qualifications, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to have found you working with us on Charon”
“Don’t flatter yourself” Cass sneered “Qualification count is inversely proportional to talent; so why the fuck would I want to limit myself by working with a bunch of fucktards like you?”
“Why you little bitch!” Lindstrom snarled in response, his expression twisting in anger "How dare you impugn my intellect!? Five more marks!”
Cassandra’s screams filled the gloomy courtroom as she doubled over and collapsed to the floor to curl into the foetal position, her arms wrapped tightly around her head to try and contain the all-consuming pain
Lindstrom gave it a few minutes for her anguished cries to subside into low tortured moans before he snapped his fingers to direct a couple of the wardens to haul her up onto her feet, where she hung limply, restrained in their vice-like grasp, with barely the strength to lift her head, let alone to put up any struggle
Reaching out one of his cybernetic hands, Lindstrom somehow cracked Cassandra's control collar open and dragged it from around her neck it in one easy movement
“You should try to view this in a positive light,” he said as he discarded it “You get your marks reset to zero this way”
Twisting the new collar open, Lindstrom held it up in front of Cassandra’s eyes
“Any last words?” he asked lightly
“Go fuck yourself” her voice was barely a whisper

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