Chapter 1 Full Disclosure I didn't know what was going to be worse.
The tribunal itself,
Or the journeys there and back.
I was dreading the trip over land to get there,
And having to take the tubeway,
Especially when I could do the journey in a fraction of the time in my tet.
I thought it best not to turn up with the technology that had led to the calamity,
Especially as I had been responsible for finding it in the first place.
As I was the only surviving one of the 12 heptopods left,
It was naturally going to be me who took the flak for all my deceased colleagues.
I had no word on whether I would be allowed to regenerate any of them,
Or whether I would be allowed to ever regenerate myself again.
So on the way over,
I was running over the whole history that led to the abortive mission.
Actually I was simultaneously running over the detail of the disaster in my main brain while two of my other five brains were reliving past events that led up to it.
I'd allocated the task of planning the three possible futures that had occurred to me to my remaining three brains.
One possible future was that I would be terminated,
And that would be the end of the heptopod experiment.
In some respects this was a good option,
As I wouldn't be tormented by the loss of my team.
The second outcome from the tribunal was being banished back to my sealed ocean world.
In this event I was hoping they would at least give me something interesting to do for the rest of my days.
I gave my remaining brain the task of coming up with a third future of my own design that might be acceptable to the triad,
For how I could pick up on the pieces of the terraformation project and apply what we'd learned to Maya.
What I didn't know was that the triad had already made their decision.
I was to be banished.
What they didn't know was that my future had actually been mapped out by higher authority,
The Council of the Light no less.
None of my brains had any inkling or knowledge of the existence of this high power at that time.
My sixth brain did murmur something as I disembarked from the tubeway at the transfer station at the end of the many valleys of Noctis Labyrinthus.
No need to worry I heard.
Tell them the truth and leave nothing out,
Apart from telling them about your fossil collection.
Full disclosure was one strategy that my main brain had considered,
But it was the one that would lead the triad to pinning everything on me.
If my research had not led to the discovery of the crashed interplanetary tet,
There is no way that Tristan would have ever mounted the audacious mission to re-terraform Earth.
My main brain had already done some pre-preparation in regards to the truth-telling.
We had been engineered so it was impossible to lie without our colours changing.
So my chromatophores were a very obvious exterior sign of my internal moods and feelings.
So I'd sent through a lie in advance.
It related to the last regeneration my fellow heptapods went through before embarking on the mission.
I tinkered with their DNA so they could breathe oxygen for an unlimited period of time.
This led to a vast reduction in weight for the interplanetary craft as heavy aquanine filled pods were not needed.
They were also able to breathe nitrogen dioxide too,
Which meant they could step out unhelmeted onto the Earth's surface.
I'd taken both these DNA implants too.
I'd lied to the triad in advance and told them that I would need to go back to my accommodation every three hours to my aquanine pod as my breathing would become laboured.
I knew this respite would give me time to think between grillings.
When I feigned breathlessness they would put the colour change down to that.
I was picked up in a chauffeured Leviton from the Tubeway and whisked down the canyon a few hundred kilometres to Malas Kazma.
The Leviton could have been piloted automatically but I was obviously not trusted and the driver was more of a guard.
The chamber was unmissable from quite a distance,
Towering over the main enclave of Malas.
Its gleaming tower,
Capped in gold,
Conferred a sense of importance on it and its goings on.
If only they knew of how small and enclosed their canyon world had become.
They had power for sure,
But not over anything of real significance in a cosmic sense.
My driver said nothing,
Apart from later,
After I asked her when I would be shown to my overnight accommodation.
The tribunal was to spread over three days.
I was deposited at the chamber where my fate would be sealed,
Just when Sol was right overhead.
I slid over the huge atrium,
On my ambulatory tentacles,
A door slid back and I entered.
The silence was interrupted by Caleb,
Who announced,
Welcome back Sian.
I'd like to say it's good to see you again,
But I think we all agree that I can't.
His two sidekicks,
Who I mistrusted from the last time I was here,
Sniggered.
Adol was the one who gave the go-ahead to all major projects,
From a resource and finance perspective.
He was the one who was most keen on the project,
As it would give access to unlimited mineral resources.
Obera was only persuaded to give her sanction,
Because she had an unconscious longing to set her feet on Mother Earth.
She didn't know that she spent many past lives as a shamanka on her very original home planet.
The three who would decide my fate sat on a dais,
Surrounded by a full auditorium of members of the populace.
It seemed everyone wanted to hear what had happened for themselves.
I wondered though,
How many were just really there to hear of my fate.
We heptopods were never trusted.
We looked different,
Acted differently,
Thought differently,
And saw the world differently.
After all,
Unlike any of the Mayans in the chamber,
Thanks to my front and rear eyes,
I could see everyone at the same time,
Without moving a muscle in my head.
I knew what was planned for the next three days.
This first half day was mainly for the benefit of the populace.
In addition to the few hundred in the chamber,
Every single Mayan would be watching this live.
This was the biggest news on the planet for centuries.
There had been quite an interest on the mission itself since its inception.
When it went wrong,
Everyone wanted to know why.
Some were still fearful that Maya might be somehow infected.
This was just pure fear-mongering,
Seeded by Adol,
I suspected.
So Sian,
Said Caleb calmly,
Tomorrow we'll go into detail on the landing and cross-contamination of the Mother Tet and the moon base.
Let me hand over to Adol for this afternoon,
To review your role in the project.
I was dreading this,
As Adol was less sympathetic than Caleb,
And had none of Ubera's empathy.
I readied myself to soak up a tirade from his perspective.
