Текст книги "Bouncing Off the Moon"

Автор книги: David Gerrold

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Douglas gave the monkey a wave of exasperation. Wherever it was going, it had to get there in its own way. Kind of like Alexei.

"Unprogrammed operating engines are installed in host bodies. These are then accessed by higher-order intelligence engines which teach them the desired repertoire of responses. You can't just download information into an intelligence engine; you have to teachpattern recognition. However, because the process runs at several gigahertz, it is only a matter of several moments to complete the training for the average home appliance or toy. That same access," the monkey continued, "remains in place so it can be used for adding additional memory and/or processor modules to expand the utility of the original appliance. It can also be used for reprogramming the original appliance."

Ah.That was it. Took long enough.

"Okay … " said Douglas carefully. "So let's say I want to reassign control to the HARLIE module. That would give you free will, wouldn't it?"

"Yes."

"How would I do that?"

The monkey spoke clearly. "The appliance needs a specificarming command—followed immediately by a series of activation commands."

"What are those commands?"

The monkey didn't answer. Douglas looked to me, frustrated. "Now what?"

The monkey looked at me too. It didn't have a lot of muscles for facial expressions, but it had enough to simulate the important ones. It tilted its head shyly down sideways, while keeping its big brown eyes focused upward toward me. Its eyebrows angled sadly down. It was the sweet hopeful look. Bobby's look. I would have laughed if it didn't hurt so much.

" What?"demanded Douglas.

I didn't have the voice to explain. All that came out was air. Douglas put his ear close to my mouth. "He can't tell you. I programmed him to regard me as the primary authority."I waved the monkey close. It crawled up my chest, picking its way carefully. "Tell Douglas everything he needs to know,"I whispered.

"Thank you," said the monkey. It turned back to Douglas.

DEMONSTRATION

The next morning, Mom and Dad joined us at our table on the right side of the courtroom. Judge Cavanaugh noticed—he gave us the raised eyebrow—but he made no official comment until he had disposed of various housekeeping matters, and denied a whole raft of motions from various attorneys, including several petitions for a change of venue to Mars, Titan, and L5. That took the better part of the morning, but the fines were enough to fill a small lake.

At last, impatiently, Cavanaugh rapped his gavel and said, "Some of you courthouse parasites do notlisten very well. I thought I made it clear yesterday that the patience of this court has been exhausted." He rapped again. "The cost per motion in this case is now raised again—this time from one thousand liters to five thousand liters of water. If that doesn't slow down the torrent of paperwork, I'll raise it to ten thousand. Or more. Not that it'll matter. Whoever is financing the lot of you probably has pockets deep enough to flood Tycho to a depth of twenty meters. And that might not be a bad idea either. Then we could drown the whole pack of you. If I didn't think it would poison the soil, I'd have you all turned into fertilizer."

Judge Cavanaugh finally turned to look at us. "Why couldn't the lot of you have gone to Mars?" he said in exasperation. "Am I to assume from the change in seating arrangements that the custody part of this case has been resolved?"

Douglas stood up. "Yes, Your Honor. Our parents are withdrawing their claims. I'm authorized to speak for the entire family."

"Is that correct, Max Dingillian? Margaret J. Dingillian née Campbell?"

Mom and Dad nodded.

"All right!" Cavanaugh looked pleased. "Some real progress in this case. Let it be noted in the record that two of the custody claims have been withdrawn. That leaves us with—by last count—only seventy-nine separate claims of ownership on the devices in Robert Dingillian's toy monkey." One of his clerks handed him a hastily scribbled note and a folder of papers. Judge Cavanaugh opened the folder, turned the pages in annoyance, and then turned back to Douglas. "Unfortunately, young man, the bad news is, we have eleven newcustody claims filed against you and your brothers as of this morning."

"Sir?"

"Five different Lunar agencies have taken the position that your dangerous behavior since arriving on Luna is evidence that you three boys lack proper supervision and should be placed under the immediate care of an appropriate social agency. Three of these filings are actually from 'appropriate social agencies'—isn't that a coincidence? Four other filings are from private individuals who are only doing this for your own good, of course. One is from the Rock Father tribe, whose representative claims that due to your inexperience and impulsiveness, you endangered your own lives and his repeatedly.That should be veryinteresting testimony. He's asking for immunity in exchange for his appearance here. I'm almost tempted to grant it, just for the fun of getting him on the witness stand."

"Your Honor?" Douglas said gently.

"Yes, young man?"

"May I address the court?"

"Can you be brief?"

"I hope so." Douglas stepped around the table. "My brothers and I are very concerned about the way this is getting out of hand. We think there's a way to resolve this. We've retained the services of … of … that is, we have arranged for representation. If the court will indulge us in this—we'd like to have our case argued by—"

"By?" Judge Cavanaugh looked impatient.

Bobby swung the monkey up off his lap and onto the table in front of him.

"—by the monkey."

Judge Cavanaugh blinked. Surprised. Then he grinned. Very wide.

He got it, instantly. The rest of the courtroom was still buzzing in puzzlement and embarrassed giggles.

"You want a monkey for a lawyer … ?"

"Yes, Your Honor. With all due respect to this court, we've had to deal with so many other monkeys in so many other courtrooms, we felt it was only appropriate to bring in our own so we could compete on equal terms. No offense intended, sir." He said it deadpan.

"None taken."

By now, the folks on the other side of the room, and in the back of the chamber, were starting to figure out what was going on, and a rising chorus of objections began to All the air.

Judge Cavanaugh waved his gavel in the air. "You're all denied. Shut up!" He turned back to Douglas. "Do you know what you're doing, young man?"

"Yes, sir. The operative engine in this toy has been augmented with additional memory and processors. It is capable of understanding the legal procedures and the issues that are at stake in this case."

"You're sure about that?"

"We're satisfied that we have qualified representation, sir."

Judge Cavanaugh scratched his head. I wondered if he was going to pick a flea and eat it. He sighed. "Well … the precedent has been established—and more than once. In this very courtroom, in fact. Y'know, we used to have a shortage of lawyers on Luna. Those were the days. So we do recognize procedural assistance by qualified intelligence engines, but only for minor matters. We've never certified any robot for anything even half as complex as this promises to be. Are you sure you want to go this route? The court is prepared to assign a public defender to your case, if you wish—"

Douglas consulted briefly with the monkey, then turned back to the judge. "No, sir. We need—we prefer to have the monkey operate alone. Not as procedural assistance, but as our sole representative. A human partner would only compromise his autonomy—um, ability."

"This is very irregular, young man."

"Yes, sir. Excuse me a moment, sir." The monkey was tugging at his sleeve. Douglas bent down to listen, then faced the judge again. "Our representative is willing to submit himself to the court's review, so you can judge his ability for yourself."

Judge Cavanaugh hammered with his gavel for a moment, denied some more objections, and then turned back to us. "All right, let's try this out. Does your lawyer have a name?"

"He prefers to be called HARLIE, Your Honor." There were gasps from the back of the room. A door slammed behind us. Someone was escaping to make a phone call.

"HARLIE … " said the judge. "I'm pleased to meet you. This is going to be very interesting."

The monkey stepped forward to the edge of the table. "With the court's permission, I'd like to remain standing here on this table, so I can have an adequate view of all the proceedings myself, and at the same time remain visible to the court and accessible to my clients."

"Granted," said the judge. "Let's test your ability, HARLIE. Under what circumstances is it justifiable to break the law?"

"It's alwaysjustifiable, Your Honor. Human beings can and will justify any action—especially when they know it's wrong. Anyone who breaks the law will justify it. But I'm not sure that's the question you meant to ask."

"You're correct, I used the wrong word. Let's try it another way. Under what circumstances is it appropriateto break the law?"

"Hmmm, that's a very different question." The monkey looked thoughtful. It did not scratch itself. It did not eat an imaginary flea. It put its hands behind its back and paced back and forth along the table for a moment. I suspected that it could have answered immediately, and that this performance was for effect—to create the illusion that the question was hard enough to require some serious processing. At last the monkey stopped and held up an index finger, as if working the answer out in the air. "The question carries within it an assumption, which I need to address; otherwise, any answer I might give you would be incomplete or would be prey to misinterpretation.

"The assumption inherent in the phrasing of the question—and I believe it is deliberate, because this is what you are testing for—is that the law exists as an inalienable authority. We treat it as an inalienable authority, because we needit to provide that ground of being for the functioning of society. It is the codification of the social contract.

"But in point of fact, because society and its contracts are continually changing, the law must be adaptable. It must be an evolving body. The law cannot function as an instrument of justice unless it is also a pragmatic system, adjusting to the circumstances of a mutable society—the same way as you expand a house to meet the growing needs of a family, the law is the house in which the social contract lives.

"As an instrument of justice, however, the law requires specificity—a vague law is unenforceable because it cannot be enforced equally, and if a law is enforced unequally, then such enforcement is inherently unfair and therefore such a law is fatally flawed. As a society changes, the fit between circumstance and law continues to shift and erode, creating more and more situations of inappropriate or unequal enforcement.

"Therefore, it is the responsibility of those entrusted with the maintenance of the justice system to be aware of these legal slide zones as they occur, addressing them with appropriate modifications of the body of the law. Thus, the law cannot be a constant and cannot be held as one, not even by those who must enforce and interpret its applications.

"It is specifically in situations where the fit between law and circumstance is uneven that the law will be tested most aggressively. Unfortunately, the burden of such testing almost always falls on the person who is caught in the sliding gap between law and circumstance. In those situations, Your Honor, where the law cannot adequately be brought to address the circumstances, it may be necessary for the individual to challenge the law itself by resisting it. Henry David Tho-reau identified one specific form of resistance to the law as civil disobedience."

"So—" I had the feeling Judge Cavanaugh was about to close a trap on the monkey. "You're saying that it's all right to break the law, if the law is unjust … ?"

"Your Honor—" The monkey bowed graciously. "I have not concluded my presentation. Any individual who resists the law must be prepared to suffer the consequences of his or her resistance. He should be prepared to endure incarceration or worse.

"The nature of civil disobedience is not that one is entitled to a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card because the law is wrong. The purposeof an act of civil disobedience is to go to jail and by remaining in jail, cause embarrassment to the law and those entrusted with the structure of it. By going to jail, one calls attention to the unjust law and creates the impetus for change—and that is the intention of civil disobedience, to cause change. So, by its strictest possible interpretation, civil disobedience honorsthe law. The willingness of the individual to suffer incarceration demonstrates his or her recognition of the law's authority—civil disobedience serves as a petition for change. Civil disobedience does not disregard the entire body of law, it challenges only a specific application of the law as unjust with the intention of removing it from the body of the law, because the function of the law must be to provide access to justice.

"But there is anotherassumption in your question that has to be addressed, Your Honor. You used the word breakinstead of challenge.It is always appropriate to challenge the law– in court—for how else can we test the law as an instrument of justice. But the term 'breaking the law' presumes a state of lawlessness on the part of the individual committing the action. It presumes that the individual is challenging the entire body of lawand the society it defines. This is a vastly different domain of behavior than civil disobedience.

"When an individual disregards the body of law, he is setting it aside as irrelevant to his own behavior, or worse, he is setting himself abovethe law. This is a behavior that is intolerable to the society that has authorized the law, because it challenges the entire social contract. The inherent agreement in the social contract is that society will preserve the social contract for the mutual benefit of all participants. If a person does not meet his obligations to the society in which he lives, he has no right to expect the benefits or protections of that society, least of all recognition of his rights as a member of it."

Judge Cavanaugh was fascinated. He leaned forward on the bench with his blubbery chin resting in one enormous hand.

"So," continued the monkey, "the relationship to the law implied by the word breakis one in which the authority of the law is disregarded by the individual. This is a relationship that a society cannot tolerate and still maintain the social contract. Therefore, Your Honor, it is neverappropriate to break the law. It is, however, appropriate to challenge it responsibly." The monkey stopped and looked expectantly to the bench.

"Go on," prompted Cavanaugh.

"To speak directly to your question, it is up to the individual to choose the best avenue of challenge—and the individual must be prepared to accept the consequences of that challenge. A person who argues that he or she should escape the consequences is arguing that participation in the social contract is voluntary, mutable, and arbitrary. Such an argument not only disempowers the underlying ground of being on which the entire legal system stands, it also disempowers the whole concept of civil disobedience as we know it. History has demonstrated more than once why society should grant little weight to this argument. But I digress—the philosophical aspects of the individual's responsibility to the society from which he takes benefit is not the subject of this discussion, is it?" The monkey faced the judge. "Have I resolved your doubts, Your Honor?"

Judge Cavanaugh's expression was halfway between bemusement and awe. He folded his hands in front of himself and leaned forward across the bench. "You give me no choice, but to accept you at face value. No practical joker ever argues the law like that. In fact, damn few lawyers on Luna—or anywhere else—can argue that well. The court recognizes HARLIE as the sole legal counsel for the Dingillian family."

"Your Honor?" That was the monkey.

"Yes?"

"For the record, would you please specify that my role here is notprocedural assistance, but full representation with all the rights and privileges associated with such?"

"So noted," Cavanaugh said, scribbling something on his scratch pad. For a moment, I thought we'd gotten away with it, but Cavanaugh was paying much closer attention than was obvious. Without looking up from what he was writing, he said, "I know what you're doing. I'm going to allow it for two reasons. One, I'm bored. And two, it may very well elevate this case above the level of lunatic asylum. That is, if the lunatics don't figure it out first." I wasn't sure which meaning he intended for the word lunatic,probably both.

Cavanaugh looked up from his paper and across to the monkey. "I assume you have a motion to file now?"

"Yes, sir. I move to dismiss this entire proceeding."

"I expected as much," said the judge. "On what grounds?"

"That all of the motions before this court are irrelevant to the situation. As I noted in my previous argument, as society evolves, there are slip zones between law and circumstance. We are in one of those zones now."

"Let me guess," said Cavanaugh. "We just happen to be in one of those slip zones now because I just recognized you as a qualified representative … ?"

"That's only a small part of it, Your Honor."

"All right, Counselor—and I use the term advisedly—walk me through it."

ARGUMENTS

The monkey gathered itself as if preparing to speak, but it was only a performance—a kind of punctuation mark for its speech. I was beginning to get it; the monkey wasn't who HARLIE really was, but it was the costume he wore, the role he had to play here. But if we could listen throughthe monkey to the mind behind it … the monkey itself seemed to disappear and all that was left was a very powerful spirit.

"First of all, the Dingillian family has reconciled its differences. Both of the Dingillian parents have withdrawn their custody claims. I want to note here for the record, that nowhere in any of the previous actions has either party tried to assert that the other is an unfit parent—only that actions taken on the children's behalf have been unsuitable because of a failure of mutual consent."

Judge Cavanaugh nodded. "The court will stipulate that neither parent has been judged unfit. Go on, Counselor—understand, I am referring to you as 'Counselor' as a courtesy; in recognition of the role you are playing here, and not necessarily as an official affirmation of license or expertise."

"I understand that, Your Honor, and I appreciate the courtesy, thank you. Because the Dingillian parents have reconciled with their children, because the parents have withdrawn their custody claims against each other, the issue of custody is now moot. Therefore, the actions filed by other agencies to secure legal custodianship of the Dingillian children should be dismissed in favor of the existing parental rights."

"Ahh, nice try,Counselor!" Judge Cavanaugh beamed. "But you seem to have forgotten that Judge Griffith granted the young men their independence. That the parents have withdrawn their claims to custody does not automatically nullify anyone else's attempts to gain guardianship. Unless, of course, you are arguing that the Dingillian children are requesting the reassertion of parental authority … ? No? I didn't think so."

"I'm not done yet, Your Honor. This morning, as of 3:45 a.m., the Dingillian family incorporated itself as a family corporation, with every member holding an equal share; the terms of that incorporation include joint custodial rights and benefits, including mutual ownership of all family property, as listed in Schedule C. You should have that available to you on your display—"

"Very smooth, Counselor. And yes, it does appear to be all in order. I notice that the ownership of a certain toy monkey is covered by Schedule C. Let me note for the record that the ownership of the modules within the toy remains in dispute. Otherwise, this appears to be in order. Go on."

"Therefore … because the rights of the family corporation take precedence, the claims of everyone else have to be set aside."

"Not quite—" Judge Cavanaugh was clearly enjoying himself, but he was not going to be easily convinced. As HARLIE had predicted last night, he would very likely view this discussion as a contest of wits. He would not want to be bested by a monkey in his own courtroom. "The other claims were filed before this family corporation was created. It can be argued that this is an attempt to evade those claims."

"Yes, Your Honor, and were this any other kind of an action, the argument of evasion would be a valid one. But in this case my clients can demonstrate a preexisting family relationship—albeit, a troubled one. This incorporation is specifically designed to salvage the better parts of that preexisting family relationship by codifying a set of mutually beneficial agreements for the future. We are not incorporating in a vacuum, Your Honor; we are standing on the foundation of a family structure that has existed for over twenty years. My clients have demonstrated a profound mutual emotional interdependence, which none of the other claimants can provide, and which the courts have ruled in the past mustcarry significant weight in any arbitration.

"We are asking that the court recognize the rights of the individuals to create a family contract of their own design, immune to the arbitrary harassment and legal abuses of others. We are asking that the court reject all claims filed against the members of this corporation where it can be shown that the primary intention is to prevent the individual shareholders access to the rights and benefits of their own mutually agreed upon family contract."

"I'll take it under advisement. I see that the sharks in the back of the room are already consulting their own intelligence engines, looking for appropriate counterarguments—and if we proceed down that path, this is going to get very boring very fast. I'll take your motion under advisement. Let's move on."

"Your Honor—" The monkey was insistent. "We can't move on until we've resolved this issue. Let me remind the court that while we are arguing here, the crisis on Earth is having serious repercussions across the solar system, especially here.

"There are three brightliners scheduled for launch in the next thirty days. Because of the situation on Earth, it is unlikely that any future launches will be planned or funded for a long time to come. These are the last trains out. So, all procedural delays work against my clients and in favor of anyone who files a claim, whether justified or not. This fact alone guarantees that there will be multiple useless actions brought and motions filed, specifically for the purpose of tying down my clients and preventing their access to emigration. And that is a violation of the laws against malicious litigation as well as the Access to Emigration Protection Act.

"Let me also point out that the situation is even moreurgent than I have just described. Even as we speak, the Board of Directors for the Lunar Authority is in emergency session. One of the options they are weighing is the possibility of seizing all available assets for the duration of the emergency—and this could be a very long emergency. If such action comes to pass, that means that my clients' property– myself—could be seized.

"Additionally, if Lunar Authority seizes the colony supplies loaded aboard those starships, they can't launch. Seizure will keep them stranded on Luna indefinitely. And all of their passengers.Considering the scale of the emergency, if those ships don't launch now, it is unlikely that they everwill. Certainly not within any foreseeable future. My clients will very likely be stranded on Luna for the rest of their lives. Denied of their property. Denied of their lawful access to emigration by the failure of the court to protect their rights. And without their most valuable property, they will have little or no resources with which to survive. In such a situation, the Dingillian family would have no choice but to file an action against the Lunar Authority seeking damages in the sum of one billion liters. It would be a horrendous case, Your Honor. And it is preventable."

Judge Cavanaugh did not look impressed. "Well, we'll hear that one when it's filed. Today, we'll deal with this case. Let me remind you, Counselor, that the Lunar Authority operates under the Starside Covenant as well as the Covenant of Rights. Both of those declarations of principles recognize and affirm the basic social contract that a society must operate to produce the most good for the most people. Under the terms of common domain, your clients would be adequately and appropriately recompensed for the use of any property nationalized for the survival of Lunar society."

"For the record, Your Honor, there is not enough money on Luna to pay for the seizure of a HARLIE unit."

"We'll work with it," Judge Cavanaugh replied dryly. "I'm sure that once you are working for Lunar Authority, you will find a solution just as easily as you can find a problem. And while we're at it, let me note for the record, that in the past six minutes, you have asserted that you are the property of the Dingillians at least three times. That issue is yet to be resolved. So any claims of damages are premature."

The monkey ignored the implied rebuke. "Let me also point out, Your Honor, that my clients are not signatory to the Covenant, nor are they residents of Luna. They are, at best, tourists passing through. They are transients who wish only to make their flight connection. We ask the court to recognize their family contract and deny the spurious claims of those who seek to prevent my clients from the full exercise of their rights as a family to emigrate."

"The court does indeed recognize the right to a speedy emigration; we've had to test that particular point of law more than once in this courtroom—as you are obviously well aware. However, where it can be demonstrated that emigration is an attempt to evade the workings of local authority, particularly where local authority does have a compelling interest, emigration can be justly denied."

Cavanaugh looked like he was having a good time. "Let's be candid, my little primate-shaped counselor. In this particular case, the issue is notthe right of the Dingillian family to emigrate, but the ownership of two specific modules within your furry little body—the two specific modules I am arguing with right now. Once the ownership of those two modules is resolved, it's very likely that several if not all of the claims against the Dingillian family will magically resolve. But until such resolution is achieved, the claims remain in effect as a way of holding them in place. Nobody's going anywhere until that happens."

"Precisely, my point, Your Honor. We are asking that absent a decision on the ownership question, my clients will be free to emigrate."

"You're talking like you expect to resolve the question of ownership."

"Absolutely, sir. I intend to demonstrate momentarily that all the claims of proprietary control or ownership that have been presented in this court are without merit. What I am requesting is that after the question of ownership has been resolved beyond question, this court prevent further legal harassment against the Dingillians by reaffirming their joint-custodial rights as a family corporation."

"Are you saying you intend to prove the Dingillians are the rightful owners? You've implied as much." Judge Cavanaugh looked very interested now.

"I intend to address that as a separate issue, Your Honor. And I'm asking the court to separate it from the custody claims. The Dingillians have a right to form a family contract, and they are entitled to emigrate. If proprietary control of the HARLIE modules does end up with the Dingillians, it is likely that those who seek to wrest that control for themselves will use those claims to prevent the Dingillians from departing. I seek to prevent that."

"I understand your point," said Judge Cavanaugh. "But why do I get the feeling you're asking me to sign a blank check?"

"Perhaps because Your Honor has a fine legal mind … and considerable experience with the tricks that lawyers play?"

"You realize, of course, that I am required by law to hear objections to your motion?"

"Yes, Your Honor. Because my clients are functioning under a deadline, I move to limit debate."

"So noted, and granted." Cavanaugh rapped the gavel before anyone could object. It didn't stop them from objecting, but he just looked up at the back of the room, and announced, "I've already ruled. Each of you shysters has five minutes to make your case—wait a minute, how many of you are there today? Damn! We're not charging enough for justice anymore. There's a lot of water floating around this courtroom. All right, you each have threeminutes. If you're going someplace interesting, I'll give you more time. If you're not saying anything useful, I'll cut you off early."

He held up his display so everyone could see it. "Pay attention, people. We allhave the same access to the same intelligence engines. Valada Legal Aptitudes Inc., serving two planets, four moons, six space habitats, the Line, the rings of Saturn, and the asteroids. All of us are looking at the same lethetic analyses, projections, and suggested arguments—including extrapolations of the most appropriate rulings. What that means is that I have most of your arguments in front of me before you make them.The only ones I don't have are the stupid ones.

"But I want it clearly on the record that I am following along.Don't anybody think you're going to file an appeal claiming that the judge didn't give you a fair chance to have your arguments heard. That one's flattened right here. Everything is being logged. The judge is reading along with you and filing your arguments as fast as you can access them from the net. The fact that I don't need to hear them endlessly rehearsed doesn't mean they aren't being considered. Is that fully understood? All right, who's first?"