the four of them sat up half the night poring over the books in their room. they gleaned nothing except from the "history" phil had been reading the night before. unfortunately, it was not a general history, but the flowery story of a high military family. the sort of references they found were, "after the jovian invaders had been driven from earth" and "second sarge vesix participated in the bombardment that destroyed the jovian tyrants." no details.
what did emerge from their study was a picture of the rise of a military aristocracy on the ashes of an earlier civilization which had been ground to pieces under the heels of alien rulers.
there was good news from the starship at dawn.
"we're orbiting," said commander wallace with quiet pride. "shortly after i talked with you last night, they called on us to surrender or be blasted. i asked time for a conference of officers and promised to fire a rocket from the nose if we decided to surrender.
"i fired the rocket all right, but it was an instantaneous smoke screen rocket. i still don't know whether their guns are manned or robot-controlled, but i gambled that their firing was keyed to the sight of the ship blasting off instead of to vibration. we were half a mile up before they could swing into action, and we didn't get a scratch."
a rescue mission with one of the scout rockets was too risky against the strong forces of the earthmen. tom mentioned that fast planes had followed them into the stratosphere. but one thing was done for the imprisoned four.
soon after breakfast, they were taken under guard to a spartan courtroom, presided over by third sarge elfor.
"we have received a warning from your colleagues," elfor said grimly. "they broadcast to us a short time ago that if harm came to you, this city and others will be destroyed before they leave the solar system. in case you knew of this and it has in any way raised your hopes, i wish to remind you that earth's cities have been destroyed before. this threat will not affect our decision to mete strict justice to you.
"you are charged with being enemies of the people of earth, and with having landed on earth under false colors with the intent of sabotage and espionage. your prosecutor will be fifth tech jatoo, representing the nations of earth. you will be permitted to speak in your own defense."
jatoo was a slender, thin-faced man with the air of an experienced attorney.
"the governments of earth make these charges against the joint defendants," he began matter-of-factly: "that they are members of a rebellious and traitorous group who are allied with the jovians and maintain an illegal, secret base on some planet or moon of the solar system; that they came here under the guise of strangers, with the specific intent of espionage and sabotage of earth's defense against the jovian enemy; and that they actually began such operations.
"we shall present the following major evidence in support of these charges:
"first, that the defendants did travel from the numex spaceport to the military town of pebbro in a vehicle, the motive power of which is still unknown but which obviously must utilize fuel, in violation of the conservation laws;
"second, that the defendants' colleagues did not approach the peoples of earth in peace, but remained enfortressed in an armed space vessel;
"third, that the defendants phil alcorn and fran golden did throw the switches activating the electrical system and powered water system of the military town of pebbro, that the above-named two defendants did utilize a military power vehicle for pleasure purposes and that all the defendants did unnecessarily destroy glass drinking vessels, all in violation of the conservation laws;
"and, fourth, that the starship discovery, listed in ancient records as having departed on a colonizing mission to the third planet of the star deneb, was not scheduled to return to earth for another seventy-five years and therefore could not be the ship in which the defendants arrived, as claimed."
elfor inclined his head toward the quartet from the starship, who sat behind a long table on the side of the room opposite jatoo.
"you may state what your defense will be," he said.
"our defense to the first three items of evidence," answered john, who had been taking notes, "is that we have been absent from earth for more than 250 earth-years and that we were, and are, ignorant of your laws and customs. thus, we are innocent of intent to violate them. our defense to the fourth item of evidence is that certain improvements were made in the engines of the starship discovery while colonization of deneb iii was in progress, making it possible for us to return to earth ahead of schedule. our defense to all three charges made against us is that they are false."
it was a monotonous trial, with a parade of witnesses brought to the stand by jatoo, all of whom testified to seeing the defendants perform one or more acts of "unconservation."
"in the courts of earth, a case can be decided only on the evidence presented," said third sarge elfor when john had offered his brief defense for the quartet. "the defendants have presented no evidence, only argument. the fact that the defendants' clothing corresponds to that in use two and a half centuries ago cannot be considered competent, as it could be copied easily.
"for the safety of earth, the defendants are found guilty and remanded for immediate execution. in view of the existence of doubt as to their treasonable intent and their previous status as deevs, they are accorded the honor of death by power weapons. conserve!"
