Titan's Plague: The Trial

Outside the rings of Saturn, Pati Lynch commands a prison ship mining ice. Her crew mutinied, they tried to kill her, and she was the last one left standing. Now, she stands trial for their murder.

Nancy Tate, Pati’s defense attorney, thinks she’ll walk this time because the records of the event were either damaged or erased, and without the records, the legal decision will be based on Pati’s testimony. However, and Nancy repeats this often, she cannot mention the aliens that instigated the revolt. Pati knows she didn’t dream the apparition that appeared on her ship and claimed to be the ex-husband she accidentally killed and wanted revenge. However, Pati decides Nancy knows her business, and it’d be best to follow her directions if she didn’t want to be sentenced to a solitary, thirty-year trip back to Earth.

Then the dreams started. They weren’t normal, even though they started in her hometown fishing village back in Ireland. Soon, she was flying throughout the Saturnian system, and into caverns on Titan, all while in great ecstasy. Waking up gave her a suicidal depression that took most of the morning to recover from.

The trial at least was going well, if not easy. The prosecutor dragged every proceeding to its legal limit and made only superficial attempts at settling. This while the computer judge kept lowering the guilty score in each hearing. Pati tried to be patient and took a job working outside on Titan, which nearly cost her life when her rebreather was sabotaged.

At least the dreams were a source of solace, until, she was forced to decide… And, it all went downhill from there.