"A trial?" demanded Rehder, glaring boldly up at the huge image of the Ormarr looming above them. "What gives you the authority to judge humanity? You're not even a real ... whatever you are. You're a machine, a hologram."

"Really?" the judge said mildly, though his neck-fins rustled ominously. "And what are you, little creature? I do not detect meat nor bone beneath those suits you are wearing. And some of you aren't really here at all, are you?"

The hologram looked directly at Micah, and it was all he could do not to cringe. He was already shaken from his guided tour through some of history's worse massacres, and he wasn't sure what defense he could muster. "As for what gives me the authority ... I believe humans call it 'the law of the jungle.'" It clacked its teeth together. "The weak exist to be governed by the strong."

"If you wanted interstellar war, there are less showy ways to declare your intention," Rei said, stepping forward. "This chamber resembles one of our own courtrooms. Do your people allow the accused to argue their case?"

"Of course; we are not savages," the Ormarr growled, in a matter that sounded oddly indulgent. "And it is not I myself that shall be judging you, in any case. I am simply what you might call, the prosecution."

"But ... you're the only one here," Rehder said, apparently not afraid to state the obvious.

"Except he's not," Rei said quietly, her whole frame tense. "Haven't you sensed it yet? The walls themselves are watching us. We're right in the middle of this thing's computer core."

"'This thing'?" the hologram snorted. "Please, you are in the body of our God. Show some respect, or this will be a brief trial indeed." The lighting seemed to flicker for a moment, and the walls, formerly bare of decoration, suddenly appeared covered in leering faces, grasping claws, and gnashing teeth.

In the center of the hemispherical chamber, a small, hexagonal panel opened up, and a pillar began to rise slowly up from the exposed hole. Atop the pillar was what appeared to be an egg made of elaborately filigreed gold, capped in sapphires and rubies that would be worth a fortune on Earth. When the pillar reached its zenith, the egg split in two and opened like a pair of gaping jaws.

Inside was a pair of scales, a trio of chains stretching down from each of the arms, and holding a golden dish upon which three stones were stacked, one side with black stones, the other with white ones.

"The God of Rok shall make its will known with this device," said the hologram, in a lecturing tone. "Every time the defense presents a convincing argument, the prosecution will lose one black stone. The same applies in reverse. If the scales balance at the end, or there are more white stones than black, then we shall pass through your system peacefully and continue our search elsewhere. If, on the other hand, you have more black stones in the end ..." The wizened creature snapped its jaws in its strange mockery of a smile. "Well, I assume you know what such an outcome means."

"And if we refuse to play this little game of yours?" challenged one of the Russians, Petrov by his nametag.

"Then you forfeit your right to argue your case before this court. If you wish to try the doors, I would remind you that the ... what did you call them, 'Von Neumann machines'? At any rate, should you open those doors, I think you will find that they are covering every inch of ground between here and the surface. If you wish to try and wade through several miles of creatures that can turn your entire body into jelly in less than ten seconds, then by all means, be my guest." Another malicious snap of the jaws.

Petrov stared back at the creature, his face betraying nothing. He and some of the other Russian cosmonauts exchanged a look, but none of them took so much as a step towards the door.

The Ormarr prosecutor drew himself up to his full height, towering above even the tallest of the explorers, and approached the scales. "As is customary, the prosecution shall take the first argument. The defense will then have its chance to respond, and we shall continue until one or both sides have no more stones remaining." None of the cosmonauts looked thrilled with this declaration, but nobody moved to object, either.

"As all of you have seen, humanity is a strange beast indeed. It claims to be a noble, thinking ape, relying on cunning and technological savvy to overcome its natural shortcomings, but time and again, mankind shows its foolish and greedy nature. Humans have no natural weapons to speak of, and they are all but helpless for more than a decade after being born. It is a wonder that any of the self-centered little beasts manage to survive to adulthood, in this council's humble opinion.

"Not that the adult version of the human is any less dangerously ignorant. In order to protect whatever group of people they consider to be 'their own', be it a tribe, a family, or a nation, they are willing to commit atrocities whose savagery is only matched by their senseless nature. There is not a one among them who would not put to death a million of their own kind, in order to save a single person of the group that they associate themselves with. Be it a child, a parent ... or even a lover."

The Ormarr withdrew, and with a flash of light, one of the white stones disappeared. The scales shifted alarmingly, but though the black stones now stood about an inch and a half below the white stones, they weren't completely unbalanced yet.

There was some shuffling among the cosmonauts, nobody entirely sure who should step up first, but in the end, it was Mia who strode up to the scales.

"Humanity has a complex nature," Mia said softly. "There is hate, yes, and greed, and sadistic glee at the pain of others. But there is much that is good in man, as well. There is community, family, love. There is the caretaking of the old and the sick, the celebrations of fond memories and the mourning of those who have passed. We have almost as many ways of honoring our dead as there are ways for us to meet that final end.

"There is charity, generosity, and a thousand small, unremarked upon kindnesses. I'll grant you that we've had more shameful moments than I care to enumerate; but for every one of us who goes mad with power or launches a crusade against those he hates, there are dozens who just want to get on with our lives, to be happy and healthy and be with those we care about. And slowly but surely, we're getting better at isolating and winnowing out the monsters, and making it possible for people to become as good as we all know we should be."

She stepped back, bowing to the little scales. With a flash of light, one of the black stones disappeared, and the scales swayed back into balance once again. Micah found himself breathing a sigh of relief, though all they had done was make up for the deficit they had already been put into. As long as there were some stones in the tray, it seemed like the scales wouldn't overbalance ... but if the last white stone disappeared with a black stone still in play, that could very well change.

Micah felt torn. Part of him wanted to stay and observe, as this could be the turning point for all of human history, when they either became part of an interstellar community of civilizations, or found themselves at war with an alien empire that was far more advanced than themselves. The rest of him wanted to run straight back to his room on the Moon and hide underneath his hammock, praying to whatever Gods there were that the alien world came no closer.

The only reason he hadn't pulled out yet was that Rei hadn't given him 'the look' yet. While Rei usually kept her face impassive, she could convey volumes when she needed to, and Micah was just waiting for her to tell him to get the hell out of Dodge. As of yet, that signal had not yet come through, but he knew it was only a matter of time.

Somehow, he couldn't imagine an outcome that ended in humanity's favor. Not after the horror show he had already seen.