Illegal Alien

*24*

The media excitement was slightly—but only slightly—less the next day, when the defense’s case-in-chief continued.

“The defense calls the Tosok named Rendo,” said Dale Rice.

Rendo strode to the witness stand and was sworn in.

Dale rose. “Mr. Rendo, what is your job title aboard the Tosok starship?”

“I am Sixth.”

“And what specialty did you perform?”

“I am chief engineer.”

“Prior to embarking on your starflight, where did you live?

“In the city known as Destalb‹pop› on the planet my people call home.”

“And that planet,” said Dale, “where is it located?”

“In the scheme of naming used by your species, it is part of the Alpha Centauri system.”

“Why did your people come to Earth?”

Rendo looked at the jurors. “In our skies, your sun appears in the constellation you call Cassiopeia. From Earth, Cassiopeia looks like your capital letter W. From our world, your sun forms an extra jag off the W. We call that constellation the serpent. Your sun is the bright eye of the serpent; the rest of what you call Cassiopeia makes up the fainter tail.” Rendo’s tuft parted in the center. “Every young Tosok has looked up at the eye of the serpent, knowing that, save for Orange and Red, it is the nearest star. It is only natural that we should wish to visit here.”

“Orange and Red?”

“Our names for Alpha Centauri B and C. We call Alpha Centauri A ‘Yellow’, B ‘Orange’, and C ‘Red’ ”

“What is the purpose of your mission?”

“We are explorers. We came in peace, and in friendship.”

“Your mission is, to quote an Earth TV show, to seek out new life and new civilizations?”

“Yes.”

“Something is wrong with your starship, the Ka‹click›tarsk, isn’t there?” Dale did a credible job of imitating the Tosok name.

“Yes.”

“What, exactly?”

“The ship has two engines. The main one is a large fusion engine, used for interstellar travel. The other, smaller one, is a standard rocket engine, used for maneuvering within a star system. Although this secondary one still operates, the main one was damaged and requires repair.”

“How was it damaged?”

“As we approached the orbit of your planet Neptune, a chunk of ice impacted the fusion engine.”

“Is the damage irreparable?”

“No. With the proper parts, it can be fixed.”

“Are you capable of manufacturing the proper parts aboard your mothership?”

“No.”

“Could humans manufacture the proper parts here on Earth?” asked Dale.

“With guidance from us, yes. In fact, they are doing that even as we speak.”

“Let me get this straight, Mr. Rendo. Without human goodwill, you and your crew are stranded here, unable to ever return home, is that right?”

“That is correct.”

“So the last thing you Tosoks would want to do is to make us humans angry, lest we be unwilling to help you?”

“Objection,” said Ziegler. “The witness can only speak on his own behalf.”

“Sustained.”

“Chief Engineer,” said Dale, “speaking personally, since you require our help to get home, is it not in your best interest to treat us well?”

“Absolutely.”

“Just so there’s no misunderstanding, killing someone would not be considered treating them well in Tosok society, would it?”

“Like Captain Kelkad, I wish for you humans to think well of Tosok society. I would like to be able to tell you that murder is unknown on my world, but it is not. But committing murder most certainly would not be the appropriate thing to do to one from whom we wanted help.”

“Thank you, Rendo. I’m sure the jury appreciates your candor and honesty. Your witness, Ms. Ziegler.”

Linda Ziegler stood up and moved to the lectern. “Hello, Mr. Rendo.”

“Hello, Ms. Ziegler.”

“I’m curious about the accident that befell your ship.”

“What would you like to know?”

“I wonder how it is that such advanced beings as yourselves would not have prepared for the possibility of collisions in space?”

“We were prepared for the possibility of micrometeoroid collisions in the inner solar system, by which point our crew would be revived from its long sleep and therefore able to deal with them. We had expected the outer solar system to be virtually empty, and so our ship was undertaking only the most cursory of automated monitoring. We knew about your Oort cloud, of course—the halo of cometary material that surrounds your sun at a distance of up to one hundred thousand times your planet’s orbital radius, but we had not known about the disk of cometary nuclei, ice, and other junk approximately forty times your orbital radius from the sun.”

Ziegler consulted her notes, refreshing herself on the briefing she’d had on this topic. “We call that region ‘the Kuiper belt.’ ” She looked at the jurors. “The jury may have heard of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but that is a different phenomenon; the Kuiper belt is much farther out, past the orbit of Neptune.” She turned back to Rendo. “Our theories of planetary formation suggest that any star with planets is likely to have such a region surrounding it.”

“And we have learned from that insight,” said Rendo. “Dr. Calhoun explained short-period comets to me, which, I understand are debris from the Kuiper belt that has fallen in toward the inner solar system. I suspect such comets are spectacular to behold, but my world has never seen one, at least not in all of Tosok recorded history.” Rendo paused, as if considering how best to make his point. “Alpha Centauri is a triple star system, Ms. Ziegler. Each of these three stars has a gravitational effect on matter orbiting beyond a certain distance from the others. From what I learned from Dr. Calhoun, I would say it was likely that Alpha Centauri A, B, and C did indeed have Kuiper belts left over after they coalesced out of primordial dust and gas, just as such a belt was left over after your sun did the same. But the gravitational dance of A and B long ago cleared out each other’s Kuiper belts. Without the clue of having seen short-period comets in our own sky, it never occurred to us that a disk of debris would ever have existed close in to our own sun, let alone around other suns. The accident did indeed occur as I described, we do indeed need human assistance, and as I told Mr. Rice, none of my people would have jeopardized that assistance by committing murder.”

Ziegler realized she wasn’t helping her cause. “No further questions,” she said.