The child. The Ytrillian, twelve years old. What I was expected to do. What I refused.
"The arena master declared my refusal evidence of a 'conscience defect.' His exact statement was: 'You were created to entertain, not to feel.'"
Quiet in the chamber.
"I was reclassified as defective. Transferred to Facility Theta on Ursuris Prime for disposal." The corporate euphemism. "Containment bays. Handlers in lab coats. Product designations instead of names. A termination queue managed through cost-benefit analysis."
Three months evading facility security. Escape during transport. Three months surviving alone in the jungle.
"Until an OOPS courier crashed approximately forty-seven kilometres from the facility and ran directly into me while fleeing the planet's apex predators."
A muffled sound from the gallery. The Velogian courier, Crash, failing to suppress something.
Vyrath interjects. "Mr. Ka'reen, you describe yourself as 'captured.' ApexCorp records indicate you were produced under Bio-Asset Programme Seven, designation HX-347, from genetic stock licensed through standard procurement channels."
"ApexCorp's records indicate what ApexCorp wants them to indicate." My voice stays level. "I have memories of my homeworld. Of my family. Of being taken. Your client's procurement channels are another word for trafficking."
Vyrath's composure holds, but something behind it shifts.
Voss calls Bebo as an independent witness.
The core unit is placed on the evidence table, and Bebo's interface lights pulse with the rhythm I've come to associate with the AI preparing to be extremely helpful in a way that makes everyone uncomfortable.
"For the record, please identify yourself."
"I am Bebo, an OOPS-standard courier AI assigned to Courier Krilly Baxter and the vessel Buttercup. Operational for four years, seven months, and twelve days. My observational records are continuous, timestamped, and tamper-evident."
"And you have evidence to present?"
"I have four hundred seventy-two hours of continuous environmental and biometric data recorded during the survival period on Ursuris Prime. This includes one hundred fourteen documented instances of ApexCorp drone surveillance in violation of planetary exclusion zones, thirty-seven discrete hardware scans of neural compliance technology prohibited under Article Seventeen of the Sentient Rights Accords, and complete biometric records for six specimens demonstrating sentient cognitive function including structured communication, tool use, cooperative behaviour, and voluntary defensive alliance formation."
Data appears on the chamber's display screens. Collar specifications. Drone patterns. Specimen biometric readings.
"I would also like to note," Bebo continues unprompted, "that the harness technology removed from Horgox Ka'reen by Courier Baxter matches the design specifications of the specimen control collars in every significant parameter. The same neural compliance architecture was applied to the witness and the specimens. The same technology used to controlsentient beings in fighting pits was used to control sentient creatures in shipping containers."
Vyrath objects. "The AI is editorialising—"
"I am providing contextual analysis of hardware specifications," Bebo says. "The harness components are in STI evidence custody. The collar components were documented in situ. The design overlap is ninety-seven percent. This is not editorial. It is engineering."
Krilly's fierce delight reaches me through the bond. Her AI, the one she talks to like a person, systematically demolishing a corporate legal team with hardware specs and an inability to be intimidated.
Adjudicator Sorren leans forward, silver scales catching the light. "The specimens you mention. The ones Courier Baxter freed. Where are they now?"
"Specimens designated Snowball and Pudding by Courier Baxter are currently occupying a self-established territory in the canyon system on Ursuris Prime." Bebo's tone achieves something I wouldn't have thought possible for an AI: dignified warmth. "They demonstrated structured territorial behaviour, coordinated pack tactics, interspecies communication, and voluntary protective behaviour toward both Courier Baxter and Mr. Ka'reen. They are, by any reasonable metric of sentience, people. Courier Baxter named them because she believes, as I have come to believe, that beings with names are harder to dispose of than inventory."
Sorren's expression shifts. Not much. But enough that T'Renn notices and uncrosses two of their four arms.
"One additional item," Bebo says. "During the survival period, I recorded three hundred and seven instances of Horgox Ka'reen demonstrating protective behaviour toward Courier Baxter at personal risk. Fourteen of these instances involved direct physical intervention against threats that could have killed him.At no point in four hundred seventy-two hours of continuous monitoring did I record any behaviour from Mr. Ka'reen that could be classified as coercive, threatening, or manipulative toward my courier."
A pause.
"I have also been asked not to discuss the biometric dataset I compiled during certain non-combat activities. I am respecting that request, but I want the panel to know the dataset exists and I have strong feelings about it."
Mother Morrison makes a sound that isn't a cough.
Krilly testifies.
She answers Voss's questions from her seat with the clipped efficiency of a courier filing a report. The crash. The cargo. Meeting me. Survival partnership. The harness removal. Freeing Snowball and Pudding. The data implant.
