Array
by sacredlilac
The noise in the courtroom was rising as the cavernous chamber slowly filled up around Joe Williams.
His manacles clinked slightly when he shifted in his hard, plastic seat. He didn't dare complain about the growing ache in his rear-end ache though, because then they might take it away and he'd have to stand. He didn't think he'd last more than an hour standing.
The last three months in isolation they'd fed him just enough to keep him alive, which hadn't helped his already wasted muscles - muscles that had slowly atrophied from sitting and watching the Array. Now he was just a thin stalk waiting for a puff of wind to blow him away.
He hands twitched reflexively thinking of the Array. He ran his hands over his thighs recalling the smooth flexi-plas.
He shivered at how the goons who arrested him had ripped it right off the wall without even letting him show them, just show them. Because then they'd understand. When they asked him what it was, he'd just had time to reply, "The answer to everything!" before they'd crumpled it up, then knocked him out with one punch.
There was a small table off to the side of the judge's bench. Was his Array on it? He craned his neck to see, hope rising in him. Could he finally be in the same room with it again?
Was it really his, anyway? Could any one person claim ownership of such a thing?
He sighed and stared hard at the table, willing it to topple and show him what was on it.
Even if they did destroy the Array, if he somehow managed to get out of this and they gave him his old room back untouched, he could make a new one. It was highly unlikely anyone would have figured out the mad scribbles all over the walls of his room were the algorithm he'd used to program the flexi-plas in the first place.
Starting over at the beginning would suck, but then again, maybe not! It would make sense this time! All those early images to examine again... Would it start over at the same place? Or somewhere new?
A smile stretched across his face. That would be awesome.
"Ugh!" He clapped his hands to his face when his nose exploded in pain. He somehow managed to pinch his top lip between the manacles making it smart too.
Riotous laughter sounded from the second tier. "Good shot, Lund!"
"I didn't think I'd be able to hit him from way up here!" Lund, apparently, replied.
Joe kicked at the heavy chunk of plastic laying at his feet and took a good look around.
Reporters from all the channels had jostled for the best positions in the court rows lining either side of the main floor. They'd set up their heavy cameras on sturdy tripods ready to catch the courtroom drama. Some had trained the large unblinking eye on him for now while others were panning around the ten overhead tiers.
He imagined the commentators were having a heyday getting everyone watching at home riled up for this case. Judge Marjory Stephenson hadn't tried anyone in a dog's age.
Back during the Implementation, when Joe was a kid, she'd had to try multiple people at once. Her harsh punishments were part of the reason the populace fell into line so quickly. Now things ran so smoothly, she only had the occasional person like him who dared step out of line. If that's what they could really call what he'd done.
Surreptitiously, he examined the finery people wore for when the cameras swung up into the crowds to gauge their reactions. Circus dressing, because that's what this whole thing was. A great big circus.
When they lost - he might as well just accept it now - at best he could end up on a on a bicycle work detail powering the government buildings for the rest of his life. He grimaced. If he thought his butt hurt now...
His flabby muscles would eventually firm up, but it would take months of agonizing exercise to get there. At least he'd be assured of better food.
There was a time, it felt like aeons ago, when he used to make more power than his own little room needed just to be a good citizen. Taking a voluntary shift on the bikes to give the extra power to his neighbours made him feel good. The extra Virtue credits didn't hurt either.
Then he created the Array.
He sighed. Everything changed when he'd discovered it.
After that, there were no more shifts on the bike at all for him. He'd ended up needing to take any extra energy his neighbours provided, and that was just the barest amount to keep his lights running so he could watch. He hadn't minded raw food and cold water after a while.
It could be worse than the bikes.
He'd overheard the guards talking during shift change. Apparently the Judge had been bragging about how she was looking forward to sending him to the electric chair.
He shuddered.
Spending the rest of his life lying in a bed, fed through a straw and strapped to electrodes as part of the cities power grid. He'd heard the bed sores got really bad. Most prisoners died of sepsis. But they supplied electricity until all the way past their final breaths when their electrodes no longer fired.
Watching The Array was worth it though. He only regretted not having more time. There were so many more questions he wanted answers for.
A tattered satchel slapping on the table in front of him made him jump.
His lawyer, Sydney Carton, flopped into the seat beside him and wiped his sweaty brow. "Phew! I thought I would be late."
Joe turned in his seat. Sydney's wife, his cousin Lucy, smiled in encouragement and leaned forward to clasp his arm tightly.
"Sydney will do his very best." She leaned forward to whisper in his ear, "I told him I'd divorce him if he didn't defend you, and he can't live without my income since he's never actually won a case." She tittered and covered her mouth, then squeezed his arm and sat back in her seat, shooing him to turn around.
He tried to smile at his cousin's joke, but didn't quite make it. He cast an eye up to Sydney's badge of office, a scant inch of rainbow-hued fabric on his right-hand collar. What chance did he have when the worst lawyer of the worst didn't even want to defend him, and only did so under duress?
The bailiff stood fully erect, chest puffing out his lavender-hued uniform shirt. He put a hand on his gun belt before announcing in a loud clear voice to the packed courtroom, "All rise for the Honourable Judge Marjory Stephenson."
Joe began to sweat as Judge Stephenson swept into the court from the side door. The overhead sconces shimmered off the rainbow-colored hues in her swirling robes.She regally mounted the steps and sat behind her bench as if it was a throne, which for all intents and purposes it was.
Judge Stephenson banged her gavel and sternly said, "Court is now in session. We are here to try Citizen Joe Williams for acting against the State and The Religion of Regulation. Citizen Joe Williams, how do you plea?"
From the corner of his eye, Joe watched his lawyer stand up and nervously clear his throat. Sydney shuffled the papers on the desk in front of him, scratched his head and cleared his throat again.
"Your plea, Citizen Williams?" Judge Stephenson's lips pressed to a thin line.
Joe's heart fell. She wasn't known to have a lot of patience and Sydney was already annoying her.
"Uh, innocent, Your Honour, that would be innocent." Sydney quickly sat down and gave Joe a wobbly smile.
Joe's heart sped up when Judge Stephenson leaned forward on her bench and pinned him to his chair with her hawk-eyed stare.
"You know why you're here. You've been found directly transgressing against The State for not contributing for-" She flipped open a file and ran a finger down the page, then tipped down her head to look over her reading glasses at Joe. With incredulity she pronounced, "Eight months? You've been milking the system for eight months?
"But you ended up before me because of your crimes against the Religion of Regulation. Saying you've figured out where we come from? Pish posh! How dare you defy the Holy Book of Rules that our forefathers and foremothers wrote?"
She stabbed one bony finger in his direction. "You are a danger to society."
If she thought he was a danger, what would she think of the two bruisers who busted down his door and used actual violence when they hit him? Shouldn't she be trying them for such a major legal infraction?
Looking at her wobbling jowls and mean scowl, he didn't think she'd appreciate being counter-argued.
Judge Stephenson leaned forward. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
Silence rang out through the courtroom.
Sydney sat stupefied with his mouth hanging open and eyes wide in terror. There would be no help from him.
Joe took a chance and slowly stood up. His heart soared when he saw the Array was indeed on that little table. Maybe there was a slight chance to get out of this.
"Honourable Judge, there is that ancient saying that 'a picture is worth a thousand words'. May I show you the Array as a way of explaining that I haven't gone against the Holy Book?" He wasn't going to touch the charge of milking the system.
Judge Stephenson screwed up her face in thought. "I'll have you know your flexi-glas has been thoroughly examined. You haven't weaponised it apparently."
Joe bit his tongue to wait for her reply.
She sat back suddenly and flicked a finger at him. "Very well. Proceed."
Relief flooded him but he carefully kept his face neutral. He raised his manacled hands and pointed at the table. "May I pick up the Array? That way I can explain more easily."
Another pregnant silence.
"Very well."
The overhead tiers broke out into excited chatter.
"Silence!" Judge Stephenson yelled and banged her gavel. She squinted up at the bystanders who had frozen in place.
Joe's heart pounded. Only when the judge swivelled her eyes back to him did he get up and retrieve the Array. The cameras followed his every move.
The only place big enough to stick the large sheet was the front of the judge's bench, but she wouldn't be able to see it. There was no way he was asking her to move.
He went back to his own table and started to unfold it. He whispered, "Sydney, stand up. Hold the sides."
"Uh, uh," Sydney stammered.
"Now!" hissed Cousin Lucy and Sydney jumped up.
Joe stood to the side and held a hand as if presenting on a game show. "If your Honour will allow, I'll show how this Array will display a picture of every thing that has ever existed. I never said I knew more than the Religion of Regulation, just that everything we ever wanted to know will be shown here."
Judge Stephenson's lips tightened, but she finally gave a short, curt nod.
Joe ran his hands lovingly over the surface. He didn't know exactly where the inspiration had come from to put the sheets together. He was just playing around with how to redecorate his room and one thing lead to another. The algorithm to program the Array flowed into him and out his writing hand onto the walls.
He frowned. "Why isn't it on?" It was physically impossible for the flexi-glas to be broken. Maybe when those goons ripped it off the wall they'd accidentally turned it off?
After pressing the combination along the edges, he stood back and waited for the thousand squares in each of the thousand panels to flicker to life.
"By the Book," he sighed in relief when it came up blank white before flashing to black, the sequence it ran when one square in each panel changed to create a new arrangement.
A stunning black and white picture appeared.
A low "Ohhhhh" went up from the crowd.
"What is it?" Judge Stephenson's frown deepened.
Someone from the fifth tier called down, "It's a nebula!"
Several people called out, "How do you know?" "He's right!"
"Are you sure?" "I see it!"
"I'm an astrophysicist!" the man called in explanation.
After ten seconds the picture blanked to black again and the crowd began calling out guesses of what the new image was.
After several more images where everyone threw out wild guesses or correct answers of what the Array presented, Joe dragged his chair from behind the table to sit down in front and watch in more comfort. He'd ask for the manacles to be released in a bit.
When the next impression materialised on the screen, Judge Stephenson half-stood and shook a finger excitedly at the Array. "I know this one! It's an amoeba!"
There was an astonished gasp. Judge Stephenson preened. "I do microbiology in my spare time."
Joe smiled serenely. Now they understood. All they had to do was sit and watch. Everything would be revealed in time... from the beginning to the end.