Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

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COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION: CAPTAIN CHRIST: .IUDGEMENT COMPUTER: CAPTAIN CHRIST: 20 had left behind had been so changed that they were useless, and, as I said before, the people were relying on the wrong 'sung' the 'son' of their faith, where this existed, was of no use to them in their overcrowded, polluted, food- scarce planet. When I saw all this my first reaction was to leave the people alone and let them find their own way to success or to self-destruction. Then I discovered that they had developed an elementary interplanetary transport system. Doesn't that contradict your earlier statement that space travel could only be achieved through the two-fold way of total cooperation and solar power? I don't think so. What l said was that in- tergalactic travel could only be achieved through the principles you mentioned. There is a great difference between the two kinds of travel . . . and yet it was just this thought that finally drove me to act. I reasoned that if the people of Sol 3 had developed a method for some sort of space travel then it was possible that they would be able to improve this until they might even make contact with other life forms in the galaxies . . . and spread their non-cooperative ways, ways which they had learnt from their original Romulan teachers. It seemed to me that these people would be a new source of infection in the galaxies and so I acted. I knew that G.O.D. would never give permission for the destruction of a type M planet . . . Type M planet: a planet whose technology has advanced far enough to include minimal space travel, elementary data processing and some knowledge of D.N.A. manipulation. Yes. Well, I took the situation into my own hands as I had done when I visited Sol 3 so long ago. I took my star cruiser to Sol 3 and, from near space, I destroyed several cities with laser fire. The people thought that one of their warlike races had started a war and they finished what I had started. All life on Sol 3 ceased in a nuclear holocaust. I maintain that my action was the surgical removal of a galactic cancer, done for the benefit of all rational life forms. It could even be regarded as a kind of mercy killing for the COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENSE: COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION: JUDGEMENT COMPUTER: THE PRESIDENT: people of Sol 3 had nothing but pain and famine and misery ahead of them. My second coming was a kind of release for them. My job is easy: I really need to say nothing. It is clear from what we have heard that Captain Christ should be congratulated not crititised. Well it's not clear to me. I suggest that we have here an arrogant starship captain who thinks he knows best. Of course he should have checked with G.O.D. before acting: he is obviously guilty as charged and we do not need a bunch of transistors to tell us that this is so. Fortunately our justice does not depend on Counsel's opinion. We have a justice system based on logic with no emotions. My circuits output 'Not Guilty.' Captain Jesus Christ, your action destroyed an inhabited planet but most of the intelligent life forms were corrupt and deserved to perish. The few individuals who had not earned destruction were just unlucky: they had to go with the rest. There are so many other life forms on other planets that the destruction of Sol 3 is of little im- portance. Oh, and by the way Captain, when you write a sequel to your original book, please remember that my name, Y R U B4 Me, ends with a smaller letter 'e.' Captain Christ, you have been found not guilty and you are free to go. Let's get together some time soon and talk about this 'sun' 'son' mix up. End of courtmartial report. .. .Chris Honey tFirst Prize Short Story, Gavin Ince Langmuir Writing Competitionl

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.IUDGEMENT COMPUTER: COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION: .IUDGEMENT COMPUTER: CAPTAIN CHRIST: COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION: CAPTAIN CHRIST: We all know how valuable time is to the excellent Judgement Computer. I thank Counsel for the Defense: it is good to be appreciated and so often I am treated as just a box of electronic circuits. Counsel for the Prosecution will stop inferring things about the defendant. If you mean 'impIying,' then I shall be glad to comply. It would help matters if someone could check the speech-grammar circuits on all series Y R U B4 Me computers before a trial begins. After all, words are important! And time is also important. Can the defendant continue to answer the question? I-Ie was explaining why he returned to Sol 3. As I was saying, the drone satellite reported on the technological developement of the planet and soon it became clear that there had been a terrible mistake: a confusion of nomenclature. I had, as I said, established a faith which included worship of the local star called 'sun.' Unfortunately the inhabitants of Sol 3 use that same word, with a minor difference in spelling, to mean the male offspring of a mated couple. The people had been worshipping the wrong sun. All this is most interesting, and it will doubtless be part of any sequel to your original book. You still have not explained why you returned and why you destroyed the planet. I went back to try to change things. In my second coming I hoped I would be able to redirect the course of their history. 1 could not. Matters had gone too far. Without the directing force of a faith based on total cooperation and solar power, the people had concentrated on competition and local energy sources . . . many of which were highly destructive to their environment. They had some form of thermal energy and elementary nuclear energy, but both of these are very destructive to the environment. Cooperation between races was nonexistant. The ideas I

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Malaproplsm of Modern Llfe The adolescent boy hes sllently awake Closes his eyes ponders the last day Remembers sunlrght schoolmg envy of frrends Remembers the mocklng and baltlng Drxvmg hlm to 1nev1table eruptlon A constant chant dr1 ng htm to destruction Sulcldal su1c1dal He arose and walked to the bathroom Slowly but steadlly he stroked each wrrst LlSICI1lI1g to the retarded sllence of l1fe He fell to the floor head splnmng Blackness descended contentness arose Nlrvana mrvana In death he found cold beauty An atmosphere of amorphous sounds Approachmg he felt embedded and enclosed Yet the nothmgness offered relref In eternal darkness The sounds reflected shapes of the past' Relxvmg rel1v1ng Ron Rnley Second Prrze Poem Gavln Ince Langmulr Wflllng Competttron I I 9 3 9 9 .vi . . H . . . . ,, , . 7 Knife in hand. . . . . , , . , : , . 1 9 2 2 , .