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"Careful, not too much... We don't want to bring him up too quickly or he'll panic before we explain everything. There, that's it. And... He's awake. Now hold that rate constant until I tell you to, then cut the flow."

Carnoc groaned weakly. He thought about opening his eyes, but he didn't have the strength, really... Besides, tired as he was he may as well just go back to sleep.

"You awake in there, Carnoc?" a voice asked.

He thought about opening his eyes again and actually did this time, looking up to see a human standing next to his head.

"There you are," the man said. "Nod if you're listening to me, but don't try to move anything else. You're... Well, I'll explain in a moment. Are you listening?"

Carnoc nodded. Why shouldn't I move? he wondered, but he didn't have the energy to try anyway, so he let the question drift away unanswered.

"Do you remember being arrested? Sometimes the sedatives can make it hard for people to remember things for a little while, and we weren't sure how the side effects would translate to your kind, so... Do you remember that much?"

He thought back. There was the cage, and Vical, they were so happy about something... then his father had come, they'd walked out to the police and he'd been arrested. Carnoc nodded again.

"Good. Now, as is the procedure after being arrested, you've been confined to a specially constructed holding facility until you can be put on trial for your actions. As with all prisoners awaiting trial, we've put a special type of collar around the base of your neck that disrupts most nerve and movement signals sent through your spinal cord, which makes you temporarily paralyzed from the location of that collar downward but does not prevent the function of your heart, lungs, digestive tract and other necessary bodily functions, which will all act as if nothing has changed."

His eyes widened. Paralyzed? He thought of never being able to move his legs, his tail or even his wings ever again, and--

"Again, I would like to stress that this condition is temporary. Your abilities to have feeling in your body and to move beyond the base of your neck will return shortly after deactivation of the collar. Tests have shown that there is no related recurrence of paralysis in any member of any species who wears the collar--well, tests on pretty much every species other than yours, as you're the first dragon we've ever had the need, or the opportunity, to use it on. Still, though, no reason to worry; you'll be able to move again within five minutes once we remove the collar. For now, though, you can only move your head and neck. Do you understand?"

He nodded, relaxing a bit. He was fine. He wasn't going to be grounded and immobile for the rest of his life, soon he would be able to run and fly and hunt and...

"And you're not going to panic and potentially hurt yourself?"

He nodded again.

"Good. Sam, you can cut the flow now."

Carnoc slowly felt his energy return, and after a minute or two he picked his head up off the floor and looked around. The room he was in was almost blindingly pure white, with a mirror on the wall in front of him and a human-sized door set into that wall, next to the mirror. There was a table with a few chairs between him and the mirror, and some sort of computer was on his right. He turned his head around to see the collar--a bulky silver-and-white thing--around the base of his neck and reached back to sniff at it.

"I know we haven't put any sort of restraints on your mouth," the man said, "but at the same time I shouldn't have to tell you not to mess with that collar. Not only will tampering with it make it harder for us to remove, but you'll probably just end up electrocuting yourself."

He sniffed at the collar again, then growled and looked back at the rest of his body. His wings, body, legs and tail were all harnessed, though here he was lying on his belly instead of being forced to curl up like the harness back at Disney World.

"We're also trusting you not to use whatever beam weapon it is that you have. Regulations say we can't gag you while you're here, so we can't just keep you muzzled, but we've been told that the rubber stoppers we were going to try to put in your fluid-tubes to keep you from launching it could damage the valves, prevent them from closing and allow the fluids to flow into your mouth constantly, which would kill you. So even though we've left it possible, that doesn't mean you're allowed to."

Carnoc growled at the man, but didn't say anything.

"Any questions?" he asked.

"When does the collar come off?"

"When you go to the courthouse for your trial, which should be in a couple of weeks or so. Until then, you'll be here."

"When do I get something to eat?"

"As soon as I'm done briefing you."

"What about water?"

The doctor paused and looked around, then snapped his fingers. "Oh, sorry, I must have forgotten to open up the trough once we got you moved in. I'll get to that in a minute."

He looked around again. "Aren't I supposed to get a lawyer?"

"Yes. He'll be here soon."

"Right." A thought came to him, and he glanced back at his hindquarters. "What happens, if I can't move or control anything back there, when I have to... When I have some waste to get rid of."

The man shook his head. "You don't want to know. All I'll say is that you should be glad you can't feel anything back there."

"...I'll take your word for it."

"Any other questions?"

He thought for a moment, then said, "that's all for now."

"All right, I'll send someone in with your food. Oh! One more thing. Once a day someone will come in here to inject a special type of stimulator into your body. You won't feel it, but it'll stimulate your muscles enough to sustain whatever tone they had when you came in. Don't worry about it if you don't like-- Actually, you've probably never had a shot before. But anyway, if the idea of having someone prick you with a needle bothers you, just look away and you won't even know it's happening because the collar will prevent you from feeling it. But we usually wait until you're sleeping to do those, so you may not even know we're doing it; I'm just required to tell you.

"If you have any other questions for me, I'll be here every morning to check your diagnostics, so you can ask me then, but if it's urgent you can ask the guard to get your doctor. Anyway, I have other prisoners to see to back in the main prison buildings, so I'll leave you to your meal."

The doctor turned and went to the computer and pressed a few buttons there, opening a panel in the floor to reveal a small trough filled with water, then left the room when another human came inside with a tray of food for Carnoc. He dug eagerly into the meal, though it was difficult to separate the meat into better-sized mouthfuls without being able to use his claws. Still, he managed, and before long the tray was empty. That human took it and left, and a few minutes later Sean walked inside with someone else, a short, round man in a suit he introduced as John Vaer.

The two humans sat down, and John set his briefcase on the table with a sigh. "I know you brought me in to help with his defense, but you're definitely guilty, Carnoc, if you don't mind me saying it. So there isn't much we can try... A few things, but not much."

"That one you mentioned you thought could work, though, didn't you?" Sean said. "That he couldn't be charged with murder because it wasn't against the law for a dragon to kill a human at the time."

"That's correct. Murder is defined in the UN courts--or at least it was when you killed Young and Fuller--as the malicious and unlawful killing of one human being by another. You'll notice no mention of dragons in that definition, meaning that what you did was, at the time, not against the law. So we're going to lodge an 'ex post facto law' complaint when they take you into court for your arraignment."

Carnoc looked up from the trough he was drinking from. "My what?"

"When they read the charges to you. They'll read them, then ask you to plea guilty or not guilty. The judges will make a plea offer, which basically means they might lessen the sentence if you admit guilt, but you're not going to accept it, or make a plea at all; I'll just step in and make the complaint."

"But if they're asking me... Are you allowed to just interrupt like that?"

"As your attorney, I'm representing you, which means that what I say is usually a reflection of what you feel about a situation or question--I just know more about the legal system than you do. So I'll butt in and say that you can't be charged for murder because laws can't work retroactively: if you do something that's not against the law at the time, then a law created after the fact can't be used to incriminate you."

"There can be some interpretation of the definition of murder, though," Sean said. "It's not like dragons are animals, after all, and if they have sentient thought like we humans do then the court could rule that dragons should have always obeyed the same laws we do and that the formal entrance of the law doesn't prevent anything."

"That doesn't change the fact that it wasn't against the law when the events occurred. But I have a few backup plans anyway; nothing to prevent your being convicted if the complaint doesn't work, since you're definitely guilty, but they could greatly reduce the sentence you get."

"How bad could it be, if I am called a murderer?"

"I'm sure Dave and Simon will push for the death penalty, but they're not the prosecutors, the North American province is. The publicity of the case means there will be five judges instead of a jury, which might help... Either way, that won't be possible because dragons are a protected species, and not only that but you're of the minority sex, so it can't be argued that the loss of your line wouldn't greatly affect the species. However, if both charges come through as murder, then you could be looking at a life sentence without parole."

Carnoc looked at the floor. To think he might never leave the confines of some jail cell, never see friends or family again--never see his gravid mate or their soon-to-be-laid egg! Never fly, never run or hunt or even walk for the rest of his life... The thought was overwhelming.

"Of course," John said, "if we can sufficiently prove that you have a violent and uncontrollable temper, we may be able to switch both charges over to a voluntary manslaughter, arguing that you didn't have intent to kill until the actual moment of action. That would greatly reduce your sentence, maybe as low as forty to fifty-five years with parole. That probably doesn't sound like much to someone with your lifespan, does it?"

"I'd rather not be convicted at all," he growled.

"Of course. Your arraignment is in two weeks, so I'll get together the best arguments and counter-arguments I can to make sure the ex post facto complaint pulls through. I'll let you know if I need any information from you, and maybe let you read through it all..."

"You'd have to read it to me."

"What?"

"Just because I can speak your language doesn't mean I can understand it on paper or whatever surface you'd be using."

"Right. Well, I could read it to you, then, if you want me to." The lawyer stood up and made a short bow. "I might have someone read an occasional status report to you, too, so you can know how my preparations are going. See you."

Sean also stood. "I have to go, too; Elaine and I are hosting a party tonight to celebrate the success of our movement, now that all the dragons are free--"

"I'm not," Carnoc snarled.

"But you're not in a zoo, and you're being treated like a member of UN society. That's what matters."

"And I'll do a great job enjoying my freedom stuck in here without even being able to try to move my limbs."

Sean held up his hands. "There's a reason I didn't invite you. You can just wait a little longer to have your freedom, okay?"

"Easy for you to say," he growled, but laid his head down and closed his eyes without trying to continue the argument.

Carnoc heard the door close a moment later and sighed. Prison. He would almost prefer going back to his old cage just to be able to move around a little...

He picked his head up and watched his tail carefully, then tried to move it--what little it could move in the harness, anyway. Nothing happened. He tried again, searching for some sort of feeling from behind the collar, but he couldn't even feel the presence of his tail. This wasn't like when Nesleh had paralyzed him; then he had still felt his back, tail and limbs--and he had definitely been able to feel pain--they had just refused to move when he wanted them to. Now he wasn't even able to feel the rest of his body, much less the floor he was harnessed to. It was like everything past the collar just didn't exist anymore.

"Something back there?"

Carnoc stiffened, or at least he would have if he had any control over his body; he hadn't even heard someone enter the room. He turned to see a guard standing by the door. "Nothing," he said. "Just... looking around."

The man took a step forward. "Trying to test the movement canceller, were you?" he said with a knowing smile. "It's been around for decades, and proven its abilities a million times. You won't be going anywhere until it turns off."

He growled and bared his teeth at the guard, who just rolled his eyes and touched a hand to his gun pointedly before turning and leaving the cell, closing the door behind him.

I can't take two weeks of this, Carnoc thought, and laid his head down again.

---

As it turned out, he could. Something about the way he was held--he suspected they were keeping him at least partially sedated--made him feel constantly tired and he slept most of the time, and it made the days pass quickly. Melora sent him a short message confirming that she'd made it back to Nepal safely and was waiting for him, but that only made him feel worse: how terrible it would be if he couldn't make it back in time to see her lay!

Then the day of his arraignment came, starting with the doctor coming much earlier than usual. "Oh good, you're already up," he said as he walked in. "You've eaten today?"

Carnoc nodded.

"All right." The doctor walked over to the computer and typed a sequence of keys. "...and everything's checking out as normal here. Now, wait a moment while I remove the waste ducts and diagnostic lead," he pressed a few more buttons, "and there we go. I'll call the police in, then see about that collar."

He growled. "I finally get to leave this room."

"Yeah, but today's just the arraignment; you'll be back at the end of the day regardless of how things go at the courthouse. If you plead guilty they'll still have to sentence you, if you plead not guilty they'll have to go over the evidence, then decide whether or not you're guilty and sentence you accordingly... It could be a while, depending on how it goes, but you'll be back here tonight either way."

"Don't remind me."

"I don't blame you. ...oh, the door. The police can't get in and you can't get out if I don't open the main door." The doctor pressed another button, and the wall behind him slowly raised to reveal the inside of a much larger building, though Carnoc thought it seemed oddly empty.

"Where... Isn't this a prison?" he asked. "Where are all the human prisoners?"

"You wouldn't fit into any of our cells there, so we rented a space as close to the city center as we could and made a cell for you here. A bit inconvenient for those of us who have to travel between here and the regular prison, but for you it's only a few blocks to the courthouse... which they've also had to modify for your trial. You would have had a lot of trouble fitting through the doors before they made those renovations."

There wasn't much time for further conversation, as a group of police officers walked through the removed wall and aimed their guns at him. The doctor made his way through them and pressed a few buttons on Carnoc's collar, then removed it. "There we are. You should be able to move in a few minutes, or as much as whatever they put on you will let you, anyway. Speaking of which..." He returned to the computer terminal and hit another sequence of buttons, releasing Carnoc's harness. The straps disconnected and whirred back into the floor, leaving him free... though he still couldn't move.

Carnoc concentrated on his paws, his wings, his tail, but still nothing responded to his thoughts. "How exactly will I be able to tell when I can move again?"

"Everything that used to be paralyzed should start tingling. Trust me, you'll know when it happens."

Another group of police officers walked in, carrying his restraints. They stepped forward, and the officers with rifles ringed him--one going so far as to prod his flank with her gun barrel.

He swung his head around and growled at her. "Is that really necessary? I'm smart enough to know not to attack any of you... Hold on, you touched me where... I felt it! I can move again!" he roared, gathering his feet beneath him and standing up.

"And we're so happy for you," one officer standing in front of him said dryly. "Now would you mind standing still so we can cuff you?"

Carnoc growled again, but nodded and lowered his head for them to muzzle. They shackled his ankles and tied his wings as they had before, but this time they also added a manacle to his tail to keep him from swinging it very far, and instead of a muzzle they closed a thick metal ring around the center of his snout.

"Like here, we aren't supposed to prevent you from speaking in the courthouse; you can't enter a plea if you can't talk," the officer said. "Right now it's locked shut, but when we open the outer lock that ring will widen with your mouth enough to allow you to speak, but not any farther--you won't be able to open your mouth wide enough to get your teeth around anything. Actually..." He reached up and unlocked something on the side of the ring. "There, test it out a bit to make sure we sized it properly."

He worked his jaw a bit, then slowly opened his mouth until the ring stopped him again. The policeman was right; it didn't give him enough room to get his fangs apart, rendering his mouth completely useless in a fight: he wouldn't be able to bite anything, and if he tried to fire off a bolt the inside of his mouth would hurt for days, if he was lucky enough not to break his jaw--he had snapped rope and fiber before, sure, but trying to break metal would be another matter entirely. "I guess it works," he said. "Or I can talk, anyway, which is what you were going for."

"Good. Now let me close it back up."

Carnoc sighed, but lowered his head again and let the officer lock the ring fully shut and attach his lead to it. "All right, I think we're set to go. The arraignment's supposed to start at eleven, and you can't be late. Come on," he tugged on the leash, "to the trailer."

They made slow progress across the empty warehouse, for shackled as he was Carnoc could barely walk. It took some time, but they finally reached the trailer, and once he was chained down they locked him inside, alone except for the officer still holding his leash.

The trailer rumbled and shook for a moment, and the man sighed and sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall. "...and we're on our way," he said. "Unlike when we first took you in, the media's going to be all over the place as soon as the truck stops outside the courthouse. There will be policemen everywhere to keep them and the crowds away from you, but... Try not to step on anyone; it'll be that crowded. I hope you don't mind having your picture all over every newspaper and news report on earth, either, because you'll see nothing but flashbulbs and video cameras when those doors open."

Carnoc struggled a few words past his mouth ring. "Will they be inside, too?"

He nodded. "I'm sure the media square will be crammed, though cameras aren't allowed inside... Oh, and don't listen to anything any of the people outside say, because more than a few of them are probably going to try to make you angry. Actually..." He paused and held a finger to his ear. "There are apparently a lot of people out there with pickets and posters demanding your immediate violent death, so try not to look at those, either. Your father says you have a nasty temper, and even shackled as you are I don't doubt your ability to do a lot of damage if they taunt you enough."

Carnoc nodded and laid his head on the floor, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. He could feel the motions of the truck as it went along and hear the tires rumbling along the pavement beneath, and the distractions kept him from fully relaxing. He sighed and tried not to think about the trial... but it was impossible not to. Humans everywhere, watching and listening as people he had never met decided how he would live the rest of his life. And he wouldn't be able to do a thing about it, chained down and forced to watch while they argued over his fate... And while everyone else watched him.

"We're here," the officer said, standing up again and detaching his shackles from the floor of the trailer. He hesitated, then removed the lead from his mouth ring, as well. "I'm sure you'd rather not look like a dog on a leash, but I still need you to follow me as closely as you can. A few riot squads have managed to put up some barriers that will keep everyone but some representatives of worldwide media outlets away from you, so that will make things easier. But remember, don't say anything to anyone and ignore everything they say to you."

Carnoc struggled to his feet as the trailer came to a stop, both of them waiting for the doors to open. The trailer was still for a short time, and even through its thick walls they could both hear the shouts of humans outside--including a very distinctive chant of, "slay the dragon."

Then the doors opened.

The sounds before didn't even come close to the din around them now; the noise was so confused he couldn't make out anything anyone was saying. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the sudden light, only for him to be blinded again as camera flashes lit up his vision.

He shook his head and blinked to clear his eyes, then looked around. The road directly outside the trailer was mostly empty, except for a couple of armed police officers, but his eyes were drawn to the enormous crowd of humans on the other side of the street. Many of them shouted even louder at the sight of him--even drowning out the chant for a moment--while others held up signs and posters with messages clearly meant to enrage him. He was glad to see a few "free the dragon" signs, but most of them just repeated the chant, others held angry messages for his kind and another group had grisly images of dragons decapitated, impaled on swords, shot by arrows and bullets and covered in laser burns... He growled and looked away before they could provoke his temper.

The policeman in the trailer stepped out, motioning for him to follow. Carnoc shuffled forward and carefully stepped down--he could barely extend his forepaws enough to reach the ground--then turned to follow the humans up the stairs to the courthouse. He made sure to hold his head up; he may have been a prisoner walking to his trial, but he wasn't going to let the humans calling for his death see him looking defeated.

None of the non-officers on his side of the barricade attempted to get close to him or talk to him, they just followed him with cameras as he walked up the stairs to the building's huge double doors.

Compared to the cacophony outside, the interior of the courthouse seemed almost deathly silent, only their slightly echoing footfalls and the clinking of Carnoc's chains disturbing the silence as he followed the officer through another set of doors and into the courtroom. The first thing he noticed there was the other dragon sitting near the back of the room on the left side, a couple of policemen standing next to him: his father. Nesleh waved his head a little, then gestured towards the front of the room with his nose. He followed the gesture to see that, aside from the packed, roped-off section that must have been the media square the policeman had mentioned earlier, the left side of the room was nearly empty; there were only a few humans sitting in the two rows that hadn't been removed to make room for him. Either nobody wanted to be near him and his father, or... But in contrast, the right side was packed full.

He walked down the center aisle as the officers guided him and sat down near the front of the room on the left side. They surprised him when he looked down to see them removing his shackles, but then they directed him to lie down on his belly; they wanted his ankles chained to the floor instead of each other, that was all. They added another chain, running from his mouth ring to the floor, to keep him from moving his head too far, then released the first catch of the mouth ring and stepped back.

The room stayed silent, so Carnoc looked around again. John Vaer came in a moment later and sat at a table next to him, inclining his head but also not saying anything; the man opened his briefcase, took out a stack of notes, then closed it again and put it on the ground next to his chair. He spotted Sean among the few humans on the left side of the room, but his eyes were drawn to the front row of the right side, where Dave and Simon sat side by side, both glaring at him.

Three other humans sat at the table across the aisle from John, and though they glanced at Carnoc occasionally all three appeared to be attempting to hide their interest. Against the far wall there was an empty group of raised benches, separated from the rest of the room by a paw-high wall of wood. The corner next to that was empty, and at the front of the room there was a line of chairs raised almost a human's height above the floor of the courtroom.

A short while later, the door next to these high seats opened and a policeman walked through. "All rise for judges Phillips, Moore, Gao, Buontalenti and Balewa." Everyone in the courtroom stood, and Carnoc was just struggling to his feet when five humans dressed in black robes--the last even had near-black skin--walked through the door and took their seats on the podium. Once each of them had sat down, the policeman said, "you may be seated."

They all sat back down, and one of the judges spoke. "We are present today for the arraignment of the defendant, Carnoc." The woman turned to address him directly. "Carnoc, you have been charged by the province of North America with two counts of murder, for the murders of Allison Young and Jim Fuller. Should you plead guilty, this court will sentence you to eighty-five years in prison with opportunity for parole based on behavior and development from anger management after fifty years. Plead not guilty, and if found guilty you will be charged to the full possible extent of the law. Do you wish to enter your plea now, or will you need to discuss the possibilities with your lawyer?"

Carnoc hesitated, and John got to his feet. "Your honor, my client would like to enter a complaint that he is being charged with an ex post facto law."

"Please, explain. The concept of murder has existed for hundreds of years."

John walked out from behind his table, taking a sheet of paper with him. "Yes, it has. But in the UN court, at the time these ?crimes' were committed, murder was defined as the malicious and unlawful killing of one human being by another. Carnoc is not a human, so at the time murder could not be applied to him."

"While that argument follows the letter of the law, Mr. Vaer," the judge on the far left said, "it does not follow it in spirit. Your client is a sentient creature, not an animal, and can distinguish the difference between killing an animal for food and killing a human being out of malice."

"That doesn't change the fact that, at the time, his actions were not illegal. If he had known then that his actions would lead to jail time, he likely would not have killed."

"The fact remains that two people were killed, and such an act cannot go unpunished. Murder has been a punishable law in nearly every society Earth ever had, so it can be interpreted in many ways. I'm sure even dragons have laws against killing humans, and each other."

"That argument digresses from the point," John said. "We are not dragon elders, we are not Masai tribe leaders, we are not a Victorian-age courtroom. This is a UN courthouse, and we practice UN law. Nothing else."

"May I enter a statement?" one of the lawyers across the aisle said.

"Proceed," said one of the judges.

The lawyer stood. "Murder is one of the most heinous acts a man, or dragon, is capable of. The concept of murder is simple--that one intentionally kills another without any defendable reason--and it has been said murder is considered so universally wrong that there is no need to define it; it is recognizable when it is committed."

"We have given murder a definition, however," John said, wiping at his forehead with a small square of cloth. "If all laws were open to such interpretation, nearly every person on Earth could be found guilty of something. Interpreting laws to the disadvantage of the people, like ex post facto law, violates the freedom of the people and gives too much power to the judicial system. That is why laws are given definitions to operate from."

"Those are guidelines, not necessarily definitions to be followed to the letter. Saying that one may in time lead to the other does not mean it will actually happen."

"Precedents have always had influence over later trials, and setting one now will be a first step towards it. Again, my client's actions were not against the law at the time."

"Order," one of the judges said. He lowered his head and spoke in an undertone to the other judges, who all whispered back, then he continued. "Good points have been made, both for and against the complaint. This panel of judges will need to deliberate further on this matter and come to a decision on how this trial will proceed. The court is adjourned until eleven o'clock tomorrow morning." He banged his gavel, then the five judges stood and left the room.

A low buzz of conversation began to filter through the room, and John sighed, sat down and shuffled his notes. "Not as well as we could have hoped for, but it served its purpose. I never got a chance to make my best arguments, either, but I suppose there's nothing we can do about it now."

"You probably should have made those arguments instead of repeating yourself so much," Carnoc said. "I think they understood the first time you told them what I did wasn't against the law when I did it."

John shrugged. "I didn't see you making any points yourself."

"Because I told all my ideas to you yesterday. Just hope what you said did well enough, human."

The man put his notes away again and stood up. "I'll be paid either way; I don't have much stake in the outcome."

Carnoc snarled at John as he walked away, drawing a few stares--and the guns of nearby officers. He growled at the man's back, then sighed and tugged against his restraints before looking around for Nesleh. My father's here, he thought, so can I talk to him? He's seen Melora in person, so he can tell me how she's doing... And he's seen Vical, too, so I won't have to hear about her through a filter of jealousy.

He caught sight of Nesleh's tail... leaving the room. I guess not, he groaned.

"Time to go," the familiar policeman said. "Apparently most of the crowd outside has been broken up, or at least the more volatile patches, so you won't have to face that much opposition this time. Come on, let's switch your chains and get back to the warehouse."