"Thirty two thousand missing."
The refugee count from the rescue ships that came to Fort Unity's help was complete. That sentence was the only thing that has broken the eerie silence in about half an hour.
"Thirty two thousand missing."
I repeated it in regular intervals, making sure that nobody's mind drifted off into thoughts about other things. I looked at Mei and Tachibana in the middle of the room, and then towards the passengers encircling them at a distance.
"Thirty two thousand missing." I repeated again. "That's three, two, and three zeroes. You know, most of those are dead, not missing. It is just that it happens to be easier to count the living than to count and confirm the dead ones in this situation."
"Please." said Tachibana. "This is torture."
"I know." I replied. "Now, repeat it to me. How many people are still missing?"
"Kagan…"
"REPEAT!"
"Thirty two thousand!" Tachibana cried. "Thirty two thousand people. Three, two, and three zeroes."
"You may have killed up to thirty two thousand people, and left the rest of the one hundred fifty thousand of them homeless." I said. "That's your accomplishment, Tachibana. All those innocent people going about their lives, doing absolutely nothing to hurt you, and you had to take it away from them."
"Kagan…" Mei spoke softly. "Stop. This will not fix anything."
"You shut the hell up!" I yelled. "Your unhealthy loyalty to cold-blooded self-preserving logic has put you into this situation and yet you are still adhering to that!"
"You know I'm right." said Mei, remaining as calm as ever against my outrage, as expected of her.
"Your heart is made of stainless steel, and I will make it a museum piece for later generations to look at in hatred."
Apparently, that caused Mei to burst into tears all of a sudden.
"But, regretfully…" I said, after pausing for a moment. "You are right. We are not fixing anything, so let's do the next best thing by improving the future."
I looked around at the passengers, trying to estimate their numbers. Frankly, not a lot of people could fit into this "common hall" in Delta Rubycon.
"You are nearly all Fort Unity citizens, but we are not a lot of people here." I said. "Besides, I don't think that enough of us has studied law… Actually, give me a count. How many of you have studied law?"
Three people raised hands, with one of them lowering it back quickly.
"Three? Two?" I asked to confirm.
"I'm just a student." said the woman who had lowered their hand.
"That's two then." I said. "Not enough. Unfortunately for us, we can't go to court on Fort Unity either, since the city has been rendered out-of-order."
"We could bring the issue to the capital." someone from the crowd said.
"The capital…" I said. "Seems like the only good option we can use. Unless someone has a better idea, of course."
There was a five second silence.
"It is decided then." I said. "These two will be tried in court at the current capital of the Solar Republic, which is the Pheonix Celestial. They will be held responsible for 32,000 missing people most of whom are likely dead, at least 118,000 people left homeless, destruction of Fort Unity, illegal experimentation, abandoning command during emergency, insufficient response to emergency, theft of private spacecraft…"
"Hold it." Mei said, trying to wipe away her tears. "Why will I also be on the court? I did not perform any experiments, I wasn't even a part of Unity command crew, I was just a citizen who was merely going to be in the vicinity when-"
"Mei, you sold me out back when we crash-landed, now you are selling out your partner in crime. I don't see your game plan here." I said. "You piloted a spacecraft into crash-landing, and then you left the passengers to their own fate to save yourself. Tell me if I'm recalling anything incorrectly."
Mei went quiet again. Tachibana, on the other hand, has been crying the whole time. He tried to talk.
"Kagan… and dear Unity citizens, I just want you all to know, that none of this has been-"
A spit from the crowd of passengers that was well-aimed at Tachibana shut him up.
"I will tell the pilots to take us to Phoenix, then." I told the passengers. "Speaking of that, you people no longer have a government to look after you. Fort Unity is no longer a home for any of you. You will have to decide on a place to take refuge, and potentially a new celestial to be a citizen of – that is, if you wish to continue your usual old way of living."
"I heard that Phoenix is actually a decent place." someone from the crowd said. "Since we are going that way anyway, I thought I'd mention."
"I assume a transit to Phoenix will take a couple of days at least. You will have time to think about it." I replied.
I left the common hall and went to the bridge to talk to the pilots. When I stepped inside, I saw that both had a discomforted look on their faces.
"Down in the common hall, a decision was made." I said. "We are going to Phoenix."
"We are going to Istanbul Celestial." said the copilot. "The company said so."
"No." I said. "The people of Fort Unity have decided that the criminals must be tried in a court in the capital."
"Man…" said the copilot. "You just don't give up, do you? Who put you in charge? Look, we played this game for long enough. We are not taking orders from you. You are not our employer. In addition, those passengers aren't our customers, they are refugees. During the rescue, we took orders from local authorities. Now, we take orders from the company. So, please don't come back to the bridge with your ridiculous ideas."
"I will fight your company over this." I said. "Let me talk to your employer. This is important."
"Go away."
"Oh, you are damn stubborn." I said. "If it comes to that, I will also fight over the direct command of this vessel.
"Be careful, or you will end up in the sorry side of a court." replied the copilot. "Your threats are tending towards dangerous legal territory."
"If you refuse to listen to me, I will assume you are assisting known criminals escape the law." I said. "Which would put, not me, but you on the sorry side of a court."
"Just get off the bridge, sir."
"Guys!" the pilot in command said with great excitement. "Guys, stop fighting for a moment. Look! Look over to the right!"