PART V:

The Trial

Chief Justice Pendarvis, demonstrating his characteristic independence, made several decisions that shaped the unusual trial. First, he ruled that given the widespread public interest and the difficulty of obtaining an impartial jury, the case would be heard by a panel of three judges rather than a jury. Second, he ordered both cases—the charge against Holloway for killing Borch, and the charge against Kellogg for killing the Fuzzy—to be tried together. Third, and most extraordinarily, he appointed Leslie Coombes to prosecute Holloway while appointing Gus Brannhard to prosecute Kellogg.

This unusual arrangement essentially transformed the trial into a civil proceeding: Friends of Little Fuzzy versus the Chartered Zarathustra Company. The entire case would hinge on a single question: Were Fuzzies sapient beings?

The Company's legal strategy was straightforward: demonstrate through rigorous scientific testimony that while Fuzzies were remarkably intelligent animals, they did not meet the threshold of sapience as properly defined. Leslie Coombes, one of the finest legal minds in the colonial system, would present the Company's scientific evidence and cross-examine opposition witnesses to expose the emotional reasoning and wishful thinking underlying the sapience claims.

The Hearing Aid Revelation

The trial took a dramatic turn when Captain Greibenfeld of Naval Intelligence introduced a demonstration. His people had discovered that Fuzzies communicated primarily through ultrasonic vocalizations, beyond the range of human hearing. When the court was equipped with modified hearing aids that could detect these frequencies, suddenly the Fuzzies' constant "yeeking" resolved into recognizable speech patterns.

The Fuzzies were talking. They had been talking all along. They had vocabularies. They used symbolic language. They called Jack Holloway "Pappy Jack" in their own tongue. This revelation fundamentally undermined the Company's position. One of the key markers of sapience—symbolic communication through language—was now undeniably present. The Company had argued that the Fuzzies' sounds were mere emotional responses, not true speech. That position was no longer tenable.

Mallin's Testimony

The critical moment came when Dr. Ernst Mallin took the witness stand under veridication. Mallin had been the Company's chief scientific witness, the man who had developed the theoretical framework for denying Fuzzy sapience. His testimony should have provided the scientific foundation for the Company's case. Instead, Mallin's testimony destroyed it.

Under veridication, Mallin could not maintain the positions he had been advocating. When asked directly whether he believed the Fuzzies' use of "Pappy Jack" represented symbolic thought, the veridicator showed him struggling to deny it. When the Chief Justice pressed him, threatening contempt charges if he continued attempting to lie under veridication, Mallin admitted the truth.

Yes, "Pappy Jack" was a symbol in the Fuzzies' minds representing Jack Holloway. Yes, the Fuzzies thought consciously. Yes, their encephalographic patterns showed mentation comparable to intelligent human children. Yes, they demonstrated ability to learn, to solve problems, to plan ahead, to create tools and to generalize from specific experiences.

The veridicator showed calm blue throughout this testimony. Mallin believed every word he was saying. He had always believed it, even while arguing the opposite. The Company's own chief scientist had been convinced of Fuzzy sapience from the beginning but had been trying to deny it to support Company interests.

The damage was catastrophic and irreversible. If the Company's own psychologist, under oath and veridication, testified that Fuzzies were sapient, the case was over.