Acquittal

[Rhean t'Valae 0]

April 20, 2006

“Acquittal”

 

They were free, all of them -- mostly. She glanced back at the closed doors where the tribunal still met over t'Rexan's fate. But the rest of the crew was absolved, and walked back towards the Talon acknowledged citizens once more. Hopefully the accusation would not linger around them like a bad odor.

 

Rhean wondered how she could ask more of the Galae that she did of herself. For it was certain that her suspicions were not all relieved; the nebulous doubts raised by the tribunal still hovered over her, casting her crewmates into shadow. She wished she could know the truth of those strange days, but it was a fool's hope; freed, the incident would be put behind them.

 

This was why she had chosen science as a profession. Science had answers -- strange and confusing, but real and provable. There were no such certainties where people were involved. Even the sciences of the mind were hedged about with guesswork and probabilities. Politics was a seething mass of chaos; not even operating under the same laws that explained the random interaction of molecules or the energy patterns of a star.

 

She knew she could not avoid it entirely. Even in a "pure" research lab, there would be the games to play. She'd heard a saying, once: 'Politics exists wherever decisions are not autocratic.' But Rhean had thought -- had hoped -- than in the Galae, in the sciences, where her work would have clear answers and the chain of command was straightforward, she would have a reprieve, time to learn to play the game -- or at least to fake it. It seemed she would have to be a quick study.