"We do not recognize your authority."

I looked at Betty-John. "With your permission?" She nodded to me.

I walked over to Delandro. "I am acting as a friend of the court here. Do you understand?"

"We do not recognize the authority of this court."

"Yes, I understand that. I get your communication. You do not recognize the authority of this court. That's too bad, because you're here anyway."

"You do not have the authority to judge us."

"That issue is irrelevant. We've already begun the process, whether you think we have the authority or not."

Delandro didn't answer.

"Last night, I offered you a choice. Do you wish to accept it?" His face remained blank. I knew what he was doing. "Refusal to answer is still an answer, Delandro."

He answered by not answering.

So. We were going to act out the entire charade. Here is where it starts-and proceeds inexorably to its terrifyingly logical conclusion.

I spoke my line. "You realize, of course, that you are effectively signing your own death warrant?"

He looked up at me. At Betty-John. At all of us. "I'm not afraid of death," he said. He looked at me again. "If you put the gun in my mouth, James, and offer me life or death, I will not make the same choice you did. If I choose death, then there is nothing you can do to me, nothing you can threaten me with. I am the source of my own choices, I always will be. Any power you might have over me would be only the power that I give you. I give you nothing. We give you nothing."

Right.

I looked at the whole line of them. All of the prisoners were impassive. I'd have been disappointed if they hadn't been.

I looked to Betty-John. She looked to me. She was as annoyed as I was. I crossed to the bench.

"I told you this was going to happen. I know these people."

"A little too well," Betty-John remarked acidly. "All right." She picked up her notepad. I stepped back.

"Before we proceed, I want to make your options clear to you," she said to Jason and the others. "First of all, there is the nondiscriminatory option; for those of you who are smart enough to request the court's guidance, the question of guilt or innocence will be set aside in favor of social service.

"James McCarthy informs me that you all possess information about the nature of the Chtorran ecology, information that could prove valuable to the United States war effort. If any of you choose to make that information available, I am prepared to enroll any or all of you into an appropriate national service program.

"Let me make it very clear that a social welfare program is not a prison term, but neither is it an escape or a parole. These national service programs are intended to provide a way for those who are, for one reason or another, incapable of accepting the full responsibilities of citizenship to still meet their obligations to the society they live in. It is an entirely voluntary program.

"If that option is not acceptable to you, then this trial will continue and you will be tried for crimes against humanity. Unless any of you request otherwise, you will be tried as a group."

None of them spoke. I hadn't expected them too.

Betty-John asked, "Do any of you wish to accept the national service option."

She waited. We waited.

"I see," she said. She scribbled something on her pad and passed it sideways for Birdie to initial too. "Do any of you wish to be tried as individuals?"

Again, silence.

Betty-John ran her hand through her hair in annoyance. She knew what had to come next. She didn't like it either. She steepled her fingers in front of herself and pursed her lips and looked unhappy.

Finally, she picked up her gavel and said, "Let it be noted that the prisoners' silence has been interpreted as a refusal to both questions. Therefore, we must continue with the trial." To Jason, she said, "The court is prepared to provide you with the services of an attorney. "

Jason shook his head. "We do not recognize the authority of this court."

"Mr. Delandro, I'm going to give you one more chance. I strongly recommend that you take it. Do you wish the services of an attorney?"

Jason repeated his statement. "We do not recognize the authority of this court."

Betty-John looked frustrated and angry. "Let it be recorded that the prisoners refused to recognize the authority of the court." She looked at her notes. She found the place in the civil orders I had marked for her. "All right. The court recognizes James Edward McCarthy as an expert witness on the state of mind of the prisoners." She looked across to me. "In your opinion, are the prisoners capable of recognizing the authority of this court?"

I stood up. "No," I said. "In my opinion, they are not presently capable. The operative word is presently. Under other circumstances, perhaps."

"We are dealing with the present," Betty-John said.

"I concur. "

Betty-John moved her finger down the page, pursed her lips into a frown. But instead of reading the next passage, she motioned me over to the table. She lowered her voice, "You're certain?"

"It went exactly as I told you it would, B-Jay. They're not operating inside the parameters of what we recognize as responsibility and you can't proceed with the trial. And yes, they clearly know what's at stake. This is what they want."

"Do you think they're trying to force the issue-embarrass me into compassion?"

I shook my head. "On the contrary. I think they want to die."

"That's why I hate this law," B-Jay said. "It makes too many martyrs."

"There's no way that any of them are going to cooperate with the system."

B-Jay said, "Jim, let me remand them to the custody of the San Jose Authority."

I shook my head.

Birdie said warningly, "Jim . . . "

I cut her off. "They're too damned dangerous."

"That may be true, but this is too damned close to revenge."

"Birdie!" I forced myself to whisper again. "Is there a single person in this room who doesn't want revenge?"

"That's the point, Jim. B-Jay's right. We should send this whole thing to San Jose."

I shook my head. "No. Listen to me. Your authority ends at the point at which the prisoners refuse to cooperate. You have no choice. The responsibility for disposition passes to the acting officer in charge of the district. And I claim that authority."

"I'm not arguing that. I'm arguing about the humanity of it!"

"So am I. I say we need to complete this here. If it goes to San Jose, it'll go on for months-or worse, they'll kick it up to Oakland, and it'll go on for years. Delandro isn't stupid. He'll tie the legal system into knots. If he can stall his trial for three years-and he can-the odds get very very slim that he'll ever be brought to trial for his real crimes. They'll come up on reduced conspiracy charges. If it leaves this district, he'll be back in five years.

"Besides," I lowered my voice to add, "I'm not willing to have him be a notorious celebrity. The kind of garbage he's spreading is infectious. I know."

"Jim, I ask you one more time to reconsider. There may be another way."

"Birdie, I've given this a lot more consideration than you know already. Maybe I've seen too much. But that makes me the expert. You're the expert on medicine here. If you see a cancer, you cut it out. I'm the expert on Chtorrans. I see a cancer too."

Birdie sighed. "All right, Jim." She looked unhappy.

I looked to Betty-John. "Go on to the next page," I said. I stepped away from the table.

Betty-John read:

"After expert examination, this court finds that the accused are presently incapable of understanding or cooperating with the legal process. The accused will be remanded to the custody of the United States Army."

I was watching Delandro's face when Betty-John read that last. His eyes widened in surprise. Then he looked at me, and smiled in appreciation.