Chapter 24 Chapter 24 The Impossible Witness
"Enough!" cried Thornton. "Mr. Holloway, come to the bench, at once."
Holloway stepped forward.Janice Meyer herself followed suit.
"You're in contempt of court, Holloway," said Thorden harshly.
"Because I called witnesses, Your Honor?" asked Holloway.
"Because you took me for a fool," said Soden.
"I didn't intend to take you for a fool," said Holloway.
"Really?" Soden said, "because from my point of view, what you're doing is absolutely playing with me. Otherwise you wouldn't be trying to force these animals into court anyway."
"They're not animals," Holloway corrected.
"Don't lecture me now, Mr. Holloway," Thorden warned. "I'm really not in the mood."
"I didn't force these animals in," Holloway continued, risking further angering Soden, and continued to defend. "The video of the attack and the body of Mao Mao who was attacked are substantial material evidence for the relevant allegations in this case."
"But you don't hesitate to use these creatures to play the emotional card and affect our emotions, do you?" Meyer said.
"I'm not going to take special care of your emotions, Meyer," Holloway said.
"I don't intend to take special care of you and let you affect my emotions." Soden said to Holloway, "We are discussing the facts of the case in court, Mr. Holloway. I let you go It's because I thought you were going to tell the truth, but this kind of trick—" Thorden nodded in the direction of Papa Fluffy with a face of disapproval, and Papa Fluffy had already walked to the center of the court, looking at them curiously Three people, "—clearly stated that you did not intend to restore the truth, but for other purposes. It is bad enough that you brought a corpse of these creatures to court. I will not let you bring another live You went to court to fool me. I let you go, but you don't know how to stop the horse from the precipice, and you insist on falling headlong."
"This creature is my witness, Your Honor," said Holloway, smiling. "If you really want to know the truth as you say, you should let me ask it to testify."
"What are you going to do?" Meyer said. "Are you suddenly an expert on furry communication, Holloway? Or are you going to have Dr. Chen translate? Get someone who will become famous as soon as the language of these creatures is established." There must be no conflict of interest at all for the exo-linguist to testify."
"I find it intriguing that you care so much about my potential witnesses, and the Zara Group have done everything they can to make sure I don't get anyone to testify," Holloway said.
"He cannot call Dr. Chan, Ms. Meyer," said Soden. "He cannot call any witnesses, and I repeat, Mr. Holloway. You are in contempt of court. I adjourn until you find a New substantive legal evidence about the case. When the trial resumes, you will be in court and you will be able to communicate with your new attorney, but that is all. After the preliminary hearing, you will be held for contempt of court."
"Are you going to hand me over to the benevolent sheriffs of the Zara Group?" Holloway said. "You're really going to push me off a cliff."
"That's enough, Mr. Holloway," said Thornton, rising to his feet.
"I have a witness, Your Honor," Holloway protested loudly. "You must let my witness speak."
"Don't waste my time, Mr. Holloway," said Thorden. "My answer is no."
"So I can't talk?" Papa Fluffy asked in a thin but distinctive voice, "I'm here to talk. I'm here to tell my story. I can't talk now?"
Holloway counted the seconds silently in his heart, and it took a few seconds before someone reacted to break the silence.He counted to nine. "Tell me, I really heard what I thought I heard." Judge Soden was still standing, muttering in his mouth. "I've been meaning to tell you this, Your Honor." Holloway began to explain quickly, "I have a witness, and it's ready to testify." He turned to Mayer. "It doesn't need a translator, either." He He made eye contact with Papa Momo again, and Papa looked at him curiously, "Say hello to Judge Soden." Holloway gestured to Papa. Maomao turned around and stood up, looked back at the judge, and said slowly: "Hello, Judge Soden." Judge Soden sat down. "He just taught the animal to recite a few words," Meyer said eagerly to salvage the situation. "It only proves that it can learn tongues like a parrot." "Mr. Holloway." Thorden turned to Holloway. "Talk to it, Your Honor," said Holloway. "If you think I'm tricking you, talk to this furry. Ask it questions, any questions. But I suggest you keep your words simple. It Don't know much vocabulary." "This is ridiculous, Your Honor," Meyer said. "Your Honor, I may be putting on a show, but I'm not stupid," Holloway said. "If I just teach this creature to parrot, do you really think I'm going to take it to testify before you? Such tricks can last. How long does it last? One round of questions, two rounds at most, all questions are impromptu. I can't predict in advance all the questions you want to say and ask. And then? I tricked you into accusing Driss of me and me Is there any good in the case?" Holloway pointed at Dries. "If I lie to you, I will end up in the security detention room with special attention from his cronies." He continued, "So, it's not a trick. Ask whatever you want, for as long as you want, until you believe it." "That doesn't prove anything!" Meyer was still protesting. "That thing probably has a microphone on it, and it does what it says." "Examine it as you like," Holloway said. "Examine its body with any scanner, you're just wasting your time. But if you insist, I'll do as you please." "Your Honor, this blatant mockery must stop immediately." Meyer turned on Thorden. "Quiet, Ms. Meyer." Soden got angry.Meyer shut his mouth and shot Holloway a nasty look.Holloway scowled, his expression blank.Soden sat silently before the bench, still digesting the series of developments. "Your Honor," Holloway urged her after a minute, "you have to tell us what to do next. I wonder if I'm still held in contempt of court." Soden glanced at Holloway. "Mr. Holloway, if I discover even the slightest bit of evidence that this witness contradicts what you have said, you will have far more to worry about than contempt of court punishment." "I'm fine with that," Holloway said, "but try talking to Momo." He and Meyer went back to their table. Soden lowered his eyes to look at Mao Mao, who was still standing there, looking at her expressionlessly.Thorden opened his mouth to speak and closed it again with a look on his face that seemed to say: I can't believe I did this.She looked up at Holloway again. "Does it have a name, Mr Holloway?" asked Thorden. "Why don't you ask Fluffy herself?" said Holloway. Soden looked back at Mao Mao. "Do you have a name?" she asked slowly. "Yes." Maomao said. After a long pause, Thorden realized that she had to be more direct and specific. "Please tell me your name." "My name is—" There was a silent pause, "Jack Holloway called me 'Daddy Fluffy', but that's not my name. My name is—" Soden looked up again, confused. "I didn't hear its name," she said. "You can't hear," Holloway said, "Momomo's language is outside our audible frequencies. Remember, when it's talking to you in English, it's already using the lowest frequency it can make." Soden nodded. "Can I call you Papa Fluffy?" she asked Fluffy. "Jack Holloway called me Papa Fluffy, you can call me Papa Fluffy," said Papa Fluffy. "How do you feel, Papa Fluffy?" Thorden asked. "I feel it with my hands," said Papa Fluffy. "Your question could have been more direct," Holloway said. "Okay," Thorden said, "Papa Fluffy, how do you speak our language?" "Say it with my mouth." Papa Mao Mao replied, looking at Thorden with a puzzled expression on his face, as if he was puzzled that she didn't even know such a thing, and asked him how he felt. "No," said Thorden, "who taught you our language? Did Jack Holloway teach you?" "I knew your language before I met Jack Holloway," Momo said. "No one taught me your language. Andy Apacka taught us to speak your language. Andy Apacka from speaking teach us in the great slab of stone." "These words don't make sense," Meyer said. "It doesn't make any sense." "What's the talking slate?" Thorden asked. Papa Fluffy turned and pointed to Holloway's message board. "That's the talking slate," he said. "You call it different." "It was a message board," Soden said. "That's right." Papa Fluffy said, "Humans and monkeys fell from the sky, and people were eaten by—" Papa Fluffy used a Mao Mao word, "We looked inside the spaceship and found the big talking stone. It taught us your language." Thorden looked at Holloway. "Translate," she said. "There was a surveyor named Sam Hamilton," Holloway said, "and he had a pet monkey. His ship crashed. He got eaten by Zara Velociraptor. I found his information board inside. Sam is almost illiterate, so he installed software that teaches children to read and write. This software will adjust the difficulty and learning progress according to the user's comprehension ability and their own level." "Are you saying that these little things have learned to hear and hear human language with a piece of high-tech product?" Meyer asked. "Yeah, like a human baby," Holloway said. "It's amazing." "Young children, unlike these creatures, are in a language environment where humans are speaking to them 24/7," Meyer said. "These creatures are not the same as young children. The furs who come into contact with the information board are adults and have enough intelligence to understand what is displayed on the information board," Holloway said. "You are still under the premise that these creatures are just ordinary animals. Think. They are not ordinary animals. They are as smart as you and me." "Why didn't you bring this up before?" Soden asked. "You tried to prove in court last week that the furs have their own language. If you had let the furs speak English in the morning, your case would be much easier." Holloway nodded to Papa Fluffy. "Let Papa Fluffy answer that question," he said. Thorden looked at Papa Fluffy. "You knew our language before you met Jack Holloway," she said. "Yes." Papa Fluffy replied. "And you didn't speak our language to Jack Holloway when you met him," Thorden added. "No." Maomao replied. "Why?" Soden asked. "I don't want Jack Holloway to know," said Papa Fluffy. "We don't know if Jack Holloway is a good guy or a bad guy. You've got a lot of bad guys. The bad guys took our homes and our food and made us go away—" Inaudible pause, "We don't know if there are any good people left. Everyone we've seen is bad. After we left home, we found Jack Holloway's house. I wanted to see it, so I did." . Jack Holloway and Carl came and I was scared. But Jack Holloway was a good man and he fed me. I went back and told my mates and I said I found a good man." Janice Meyer snorted disdainfully. "I want to go to Jack again, but my companions are very scared." Papa Mao Mao said, "I told them about Carl. Carl is just like the monkey following us, a kind of animal that is not very smart but human beings like it. I Said I would go again, but I don't speak, see what Jack Holloway and humans are like. I don't speak your language. I don't let Jack Holloway know that I speak your language. I Wonder what Jack Holloway will do to me who can't speak, and then see what he will do to me who is smart. If Jack Holloway is a good guy, we can let him know what we are, and we are smart. If Jack Holloway is the bad guy, we hide and go away, like we used to." Holloway listened to Papa Fluffy explain all this to Thorden, marveling again at the creature's intelligence.Papa Fluffy's vocabulary is simple - the software installed on Sam's message board, even at its highest setting, has no more complex concepts and vocabulary for adults, and the English that Papa Fluffy learns is limited by the software - yet Fluffy speaks Confident and fluent at the time, he didn't know much English, but what he did know was good enough for this interrogation. Papa Fluffy turned to Holloway. "I have a sore throat," it said. "Of course it hurts," Holloway reassured. "You keep talking under your breath." Soden's attention also turned to Holloway at this time. "He means that he has been undercover by your side," Soden said, "pretending to be a pet undercover." "Yeah," said Holloway, "but not quite like a pet. Papa Fluffy is smart, obviously, I just didn't know at first that his level of intelligence had reached the level of intelligent beings. Also, no' He', Mao Mao has no gender." Thorn frowned. "You called him 'Papa,'" she said. "Biological blunders," Holloway said. "I took it for granted. What could I do about it?" "Well, never mind." Soden turned his attention back to Papa Fluffy. "Can all your companions speak our language?" she asked. "No," said Papa Fluffy, "I can speak, and there are others who can. Not many of them can. Your language is hard to learn. Only me and the others with Jack Holloway have learned it." "Why do you want to learn our language?" Soden asked. "We want to know why you do those things," said Papa Fluffy. "We found the talking slate, and we know we can learn how to talk to humans. We learn, and we find people to talk to. We can't find good people. We just Find the bad guy." "Who are the bad guys?" Soden asked. "You said there were a lot of bad guys." "Yes," said Pa, "the bad guys have machines that dig up the ground and pull up the trees and the air stinks. The trees are our home and our food is on them. When the bad guys come we leave. They They couldn't see us because we saw animals approaching them and they killed the animals and we hid." Thorden listened and glanced at Holloway: "I guess you haven't told your friends what you do for a living, Mr. Holloway." Holloway looked embarrassed: "We haven't talked about it." "There's a lot of irony in that," Soden said. "True," said Holloway, "but when you think about how they live and where they eat, it's easy to understand why they think of surveyors and workers as bad guys. They've come to me for the same reason, Sam. ·Hamilton's old survey site was next to mine. Not long ago, new surveyors found copper deposits on the edge of our survey site, and the Zara Group came and dug up. Papa Mao Mao's The Mao Mao people must have lost their habitat because of this and have been migrating up the trees ever since, looking for a new home. If you want a funny and sad story, ask Papa Mao Mao why he thought it was a good idea to live in my house." Soden looked at Maomao. "Why do you want to live with Jack Holloway?" she asked. "I don't think human beings will dig up the place where they live, nor will they cut down trees." Papa Mao Mao said. "Think about it, Your Honor," said Holloway, "and despite the irony of the statement itself, the idea of constructing a cognitive model is remarkable. Knowing what we know, we speculated about our behavior patterns, and also thought of how to use our behavior patterns to seek benefits for itself and its people." "If that's the case, then this little thing has been using you, Mr. Holloway," said Soden. "Confirmed again that they are intelligent beings, Your Honor," said Holloway. "You don't mind?" Soden was a little curious. "Never mind, Your Honor," said Holloway. "Mr. Holloway, I'm not surprised at all." Thorden deliberately said ironically. "Well, your honor," Holloway said, "may I remind you that, as instructive as it is for all of us at the moment, I brought Papa Fluffy to testify at this preliminary hearing. If you, your honor, have believed that it was not a sleight of hand, not a parrot, I hope it can stand on the witness stand and testify." "My honor, I strongly disagree," Meyer said. "This creature has not been identified as an intelligent being. Its testimony should not be admissible in any court under the official jurisdiction of the colony or on Earth." .. and by allowing it to testify, you are indulging in the absurdity which you have tried so hard to avoid." Soden winked at Meyer. "Ms. Meyer, haven't you been in the same courtroom as I have been in the last few minutes?" she asked. It's still longer and deeper. My question now is no longer whether these creatures are intelligent beings. That question was satisfactorily answered a few minutes ago. The only question now is whether this particular creature is a Credible witness. So I'm going to hear it, Ms. Meyer, and then judge." "Then I'm going to request a thirty-minute adjournment to prepare," Meyer said. "Another adjournment," Soden said. "Why not?" She turned and went into her office. Meyer jumped to his feet and rushed out of the courtroom like a gust of wind.Driss stared at her leaving, mouth shut for a long time.He caught Holloway sizing him up and stared back hard. "It appears your lawyer is no longer prioritizing your interests, Joe," said Holloway. "If I were you, I should be worried." Dries crossed his arms and stared straight ahead, ignoring Holloway.
Holloway counted the seconds silently in his heart, and it took a few seconds before someone reacted to break the silence.He counted to nine. "Tell me, I really heard what I thought I heard." Judge Soden was still standing, muttering in his mouth. "I've been meaning to tell you this, Your Honor." Holloway began to explain quickly, "I have a witness, and it's ready to testify." He turned to Mayer. "It doesn't need a translator, either." He He made eye contact with Papa Momo again, and Papa looked at him curiously, "Say hello to Judge Soden." Holloway gestured to Papa. Maomao turned around and stood up, looked back at the judge, and said slowly: "Hello, Judge Soden." Judge Soden sat down. "He just taught the animal to recite a few words," Meyer said eagerly to salvage the situation. "It only proves that it can learn tongues like a parrot." "Mr. Holloway." Thorden turned to Holloway. "Talk to it, Your Honor," said Holloway. "If you think I'm tricking you, talk to this furry. Ask it questions, any questions. But I suggest you keep your words simple. It Don't know much vocabulary." "This is ridiculous, Your Honor," Meyer said. "Your Honor, I may be putting on a show, but I'm not stupid," Holloway said. "If I just teach this creature to parrot, do you really think I'm going to take it to testify before you? Such tricks can last. How long does it last? One round of questions, two rounds at most, all questions are impromptu. I can't predict in advance all the questions you want to say and ask. And then? I tricked you into accusing Driss of me and me Is there any good in the case?" Holloway pointed at Dries. "If I lie to you, I will end up in the security detention room with special attention from his cronies." He continued, "So, it's not a trick. Ask whatever you want, for as long as you want, until you believe it." "That doesn't prove anything!" Meyer was still protesting. "That thing probably has a microphone on it, and it does what it says." "Examine it as you like," Holloway said. "Examine its body with any scanner, you're just wasting your time. But if you insist, I'll do as you please." "Your Honor, this blatant mockery must stop immediately." Meyer turned on Thorden. "Quiet, Ms. Meyer." Soden got angry.Meyer shut his mouth and shot Holloway a nasty look.Holloway scowled, his expression blank.Soden sat silently before the bench, still digesting the series of developments. "Your Honor," Holloway urged her after a minute, "you have to tell us what to do next. I wonder if I'm still held in contempt of court." Soden glanced at Holloway. "Mr. Holloway, if I discover even the slightest bit of evidence that this witness contradicts what you have said, you will have far more to worry about than contempt of court punishment." "I'm fine with that," Holloway said, "but try talking to Momo." He and Meyer went back to their table. Soden lowered his eyes to look at Mao Mao, who was still standing there, looking at her expressionlessly.Thorden opened his mouth to speak and closed it again with a look on his face that seemed to say: I can't believe I did this.She looked up at Holloway again. "Does it have a name, Mr Holloway?" asked Thorden. "Why don't you ask Fluffy herself?" said Holloway. Soden looked back at Mao Mao. "Do you have a name?" she asked slowly. "Yes." Maomao said. After a long pause, Thorden realized that she had to be more direct and specific. "Please tell me your name." "My name is—" There was a silent pause, "Jack Holloway called me 'Daddy Fluffy', but that's not my name. My name is—" Soden looked up again, confused. "I didn't hear its name," she said. "You can't hear," Holloway said, "Momomo's language is outside our audible frequencies. Remember, when it's talking to you in English, it's already using the lowest frequency it can make." Soden nodded. "Can I call you Papa Fluffy?" she asked Fluffy. "Jack Holloway called me Papa Fluffy, you can call me Papa Fluffy," said Papa Fluffy. "How do you feel, Papa Fluffy?" Thorden asked. "I feel it with my hands," said Papa Fluffy. "Your question could have been more direct," Holloway said. "Okay," Thorden said, "Papa Fluffy, how do you speak our language?" "Say it with my mouth." Papa Mao Mao replied, looking at Thorden with a puzzled expression on his face, as if he was puzzled that she didn't even know such a thing, and asked him how he felt. "No," said Thorden, "who taught you our language? Did Jack Holloway teach you?" "I knew your language before I met Jack Holloway," Momo said. "No one taught me your language. Andy Apacka taught us to speak your language. Andy Apacka from speaking teach us in the great slab of stone." "These words don't make sense," Meyer said. "It doesn't make any sense." "What's the talking slate?" Thorden asked. Papa Fluffy turned and pointed to Holloway's message board. "That's the talking slate," he said. "You call it different." "It was a message board," Soden said. "That's right." Papa Fluffy said, "Humans and monkeys fell from the sky, and people were eaten by—" Papa Fluffy used a Mao Mao word, "We looked inside the spaceship and found the big talking stone. It taught us your language." Thorden looked at Holloway. "Translate," she said. "There was a surveyor named Sam Hamilton," Holloway said, "and he had a pet monkey. His ship crashed. He got eaten by Zara Velociraptor. I found his information board inside. Sam is almost illiterate, so he installed software that teaches children to read and write. This software will adjust the difficulty and learning progress according to the user's comprehension ability and their own level." "Are you saying that these little things have learned to hear and hear human language with a piece of high-tech product?" Meyer asked. "Yeah, like a human baby," Holloway said. "It's amazing." "Young children, unlike these creatures, are in a language environment where humans are speaking to them 24/7," Meyer said. "These creatures are not the same as young children. The furs who come into contact with the information board are adults and have enough intelligence to understand what is displayed on the information board," Holloway said. "You are still under the premise that these creatures are just ordinary animals. Think. They are not ordinary animals. They are as smart as you and me." "Why didn't you bring this up before?" Soden asked. "You tried to prove in court last week that the furs have their own language. If you had let the furs speak English in the morning, your case would be much easier." Holloway nodded to Papa Fluffy. "Let Papa Fluffy answer that question," he said. Thorden looked at Papa Fluffy. "You knew our language before you met Jack Holloway," she said. "Yes." Papa Fluffy replied. "And you didn't speak our language to Jack Holloway when you met him," Thorden added. "No." Maomao replied. "Why?" Soden asked. "I don't want Jack Holloway to know," said Papa Fluffy. "We don't know if Jack Holloway is a good guy or a bad guy. You've got a lot of bad guys. The bad guys took our homes and our food and made us go away—" Inaudible pause, "We don't know if there are any good people left. Everyone we've seen is bad. After we left home, we found Jack Holloway's house. I wanted to see it, so I did." . Jack Holloway and Carl came and I was scared. But Jack Holloway was a good man and he fed me. I went back and told my mates and I said I found a good man." Janice Meyer snorted disdainfully. "I want to go to Jack again, but my companions are very scared." Papa Mao Mao said, "I told them about Carl. Carl is just like the monkey following us, a kind of animal that is not very smart but human beings like it. I Said I would go again, but I don't speak, see what Jack Holloway and humans are like. I don't speak your language. I don't let Jack Holloway know that I speak your language. I Wonder what Jack Holloway will do to me who can't speak, and then see what he will do to me who is smart. If Jack Holloway is a good guy, we can let him know what we are, and we are smart. If Jack Holloway is the bad guy, we hide and go away, like we used to." Holloway listened to Papa Fluffy explain all this to Thorden, marveling again at the creature's intelligence.Papa Fluffy's vocabulary is simple - the software installed on Sam's message board, even at its highest setting, has no more complex concepts and vocabulary for adults, and the English that Papa Fluffy learns is limited by the software - yet Fluffy speaks Confident and fluent at the time, he didn't know much English, but what he did know was good enough for this interrogation. Papa Fluffy turned to Holloway. "I have a sore throat," it said. "Of course it hurts," Holloway reassured. "You keep talking under your breath." Soden's attention also turned to Holloway at this time. "He means that he has been undercover by your side," Soden said, "pretending to be a pet undercover." "Yeah," said Holloway, "but not quite like a pet. Papa Fluffy is smart, obviously, I just didn't know at first that his level of intelligence had reached the level of intelligent beings. Also, no' He', Mao Mao has no gender." Thorn frowned. "You called him 'Papa,'" she said. "Biological blunders," Holloway said. "I took it for granted. What could I do about it?" "Well, never mind." Soden turned his attention back to Papa Fluffy. "Can all your companions speak our language?" she asked. "No," said Papa Fluffy, "I can speak, and there are others who can. Not many of them can. Your language is hard to learn. Only me and the others with Jack Holloway have learned it." "Why do you want to learn our language?" Soden asked. "We want to know why you do those things," said Papa Fluffy. "We found the talking slate, and we know we can learn how to talk to humans. We learn, and we find people to talk to. We can't find good people. We just Find the bad guy." "Who are the bad guys?" Soden asked. "You said there were a lot of bad guys." "Yes," said Pa, "the bad guys have machines that dig up the ground and pull up the trees and the air stinks. The trees are our home and our food is on them. When the bad guys come we leave. They They couldn't see us because we saw animals approaching them and they killed the animals and we hid." Thorden listened and glanced at Holloway: "I guess you haven't told your friends what you do for a living, Mr. Holloway." Holloway looked embarrassed: "We haven't talked about it." "There's a lot of irony in that," Soden said. "True," said Holloway, "but when you think about how they live and where they eat, it's easy to understand why they think of surveyors and workers as bad guys. They've come to me for the same reason, Sam. ·Hamilton's old survey site was next to mine. Not long ago, new surveyors found copper deposits on the edge of our survey site, and the Zara Group came and dug up. Papa Mao Mao's The Mao Mao people must have lost their habitat because of this and have been migrating up the trees ever since, looking for a new home. If you want a funny and sad story, ask Papa Mao Mao why he thought it was a good idea to live in my house." Soden looked at Maomao. "Why do you want to live with Jack Holloway?" she asked. "I don't think human beings will dig up the place where they live, nor will they cut down trees." Papa Mao Mao said. "Think about it, Your Honor," said Holloway, "and despite the irony of the statement itself, the idea of constructing a cognitive model is remarkable. Knowing what we know, we speculated about our behavior patterns, and also thought of how to use our behavior patterns to seek benefits for itself and its people." "If that's the case, then this little thing has been using you, Mr. Holloway," said Soden. "Confirmed again that they are intelligent beings, Your Honor," said Holloway. "You don't mind?" Soden was a little curious. "Never mind, Your Honor," said Holloway. "Mr. Holloway, I'm not surprised at all." Thorden deliberately said ironically. "Well, your honor," Holloway said, "may I remind you that, as instructive as it is for all of us at the moment, I brought Papa Fluffy to testify at this preliminary hearing. If you, your honor, have believed that it was not a sleight of hand, not a parrot, I hope it can stand on the witness stand and testify." "My honor, I strongly disagree," Meyer said. "This creature has not been identified as an intelligent being. Its testimony should not be admissible in any court under the official jurisdiction of the colony or on Earth." .. and by allowing it to testify, you are indulging in the absurdity which you have tried so hard to avoid." Soden winked at Meyer. "Ms. Meyer, haven't you been in the same courtroom as I have been in the last few minutes?" she asked. It's still longer and deeper. My question now is no longer whether these creatures are intelligent beings. That question was satisfactorily answered a few minutes ago. The only question now is whether this particular creature is a Credible witness. So I'm going to hear it, Ms. Meyer, and then judge." "Then I'm going to request a thirty-minute adjournment to prepare," Meyer said. "Another adjournment," Soden said. "Why not?" She turned and went into her office. Meyer jumped to his feet and rushed out of the courtroom like a gust of wind.Driss stared at her leaving, mouth shut for a long time.He caught Holloway sizing him up and stared back hard. "It appears your lawyer is no longer prioritizing your interests, Joe," said Holloway. "If I were you, I should be worried." Dries crossed his arms and stared straight ahead, ignoring Holloway.