Star Trek Hunter
Episode 12: Prisoner in the Ice Castle

Scene 16: Succession Without Representation

12.16

Succession Without Representation

Justice Minerva Irons stepped into the courtroom in Laikan. Commander David Pepper followed her, carrying an office chair. All the andorians in the courtroom were immediately outraged and a bedlam of complaints arose in which no particular voice could clearly be understood. “You cannot bring…” “…tradition and condition of…” “…mockery of this mediation…” “…do you think gives you the right…” “…insult to the empire…”

Irons stopped in the middle of the room. Pep planted the chair in a corner. This action alone caused the babble of complaints to die down, replaced with curiosity. Irons cleared her throat. That sound alone could be interpreted as a break in her silence, which would require mediation to begin within two hours. The courtroom became silent - everyone holding their breath as it became apparent that after 17 days of silence, Justice Irons was about to speak. Even the forest of antennae stood still. In more than two weeks of silence, this room had never been so silent.

Irons lifted her voice - deep, loud, cracking with disuse and age but still rich and powerful - almost deafening. She pointed at one group of Andorian representatives: “You no longer represent House Shav.” She turned to the three judges, pointed at one of them. “And neither do you. You must leave this place. Until House Shav is properly represented, this mediation is suspended.” 

Irons walked over to the chair in the corner and sat down.

“You cannot eject a family judge!” exclaimed the challenged judge.

Without moving from the chair, Irons said, “David, please eject the pretenders from this room.”

“I challenge this court’s ruling!” said one of the House Shav representatives. 

Irons laid her head back, then looked at the andorian. “You have no standing to issue a challenge. David, remove them.”

Members of the House Shav delegation stepped out from the area of the room they had been waiting in and swept out their Ushaan-Tor ice cutting blades. These blades, like those carried by many wealthy andorians, were customized for combat instead of ice-cutting. The House Shav judge also stepped out and drew his blade. He took a position behind the others.

“With prejudice,” Irons added.

The remainder of the andorians cleared the floor, moving to the edges of the room. Dr. Tali Shae took up a position next to her captain. 

Pep crouched as five armed andorians grouped to charge him. He also had an Ushaan-Tor at his belt, but did not bother with it as the blade would have been ridiculously small in his hand. As the group of andorians charged toward him, Pep ran toward them and broke to their left, causing the two farthest from him to turn sharply to their left, interfering with each other and the andorians next to them. The giant grasped the left arm of the leftmost andorian, carrying her away from the group, stopped abruptly and hurled her into the House Shav judge, who remained waiting with his Ushaan-Tor drawn but had not joined the group of representatives in their attack.

Pep started running again, running away from the four remaining andorians, who had regained their balance. He turned sharply to his right, running straight toward the two wounded on the floor. The judge and the woman whose left arm Pep had broken scrambled in terror to get out of the way. Pep leapt easily over them - the four andorians chasing him stumbled over them. 

The two on the right side of the line looked up in terror - each seeing a giant hand suddenly gripping their heads, crushing their antennae. Pep lifted these men by their heads and hurled them into the other two standing andorians, knocking one of them down. The other scrambled out of the way, only to find the giant had closed the distance between them with a leap. With a left jab, Pep sent this man flying. The remaining andorian had only managed to stand up and was still off balance when Pep’s right fist connected with the side of his head, sending him crashing, unconscious, to the floor. 

The entire horrifyingly violent spectacle had taken less than two minutes and left all six andorians alive, but completely incapacitated. Pep was bleeding from a couple of shallow cuts he had received during the fight.

Minerva Irons stood up. “A new delegation and a new judge from House Shav will arrive tomorrow. We will reconvene then.”

Imperial Guard medical personnel were summoned into the room to retrieve the former House Shav representatives.

12.16