Alternicam
I looked at the jury hoping they were listening to what I had been saying. “Alternicam Digital Playback shows what happened in the past.” I clicked the remote and a half sphere halo came up green, then blue, then red. “Clearly the accused you see here in this room with you today is shown with the weapon that shot Senator Jack Kaygen. Here he is pulling the trigger.”
“Objection,” said the prosecution.
“To what?” said the Judge.
Flustered and unable to genuinely object to the defenses tactic of proving guilt, the prosecution shook his head and sat back.
The defense lawyer motioned me to continue.
I lead the jury through the steps leading up to the dart finding its target. Then I rewound it for them, because I felt they needed to know everything surrounding the event and what followed.
I changed the device settings to some minutes on the same date, but from my viewpoint. I decided to start with Kaygen at the podium.
---
"Ladies and Gentlemen," Kaygen began his speech. "We all know how this works." His was tone condescending, as he added exaggerated hand movements that indicated words coming from his mouth. To emphasize the exercise, he included rolled eyes while briskly shaking his head. It was effective. The crowd screamed, and cheered. His speech had barely begun, and they obviously couldn't help themselves. I remember thinking at the time how the masses were so easily duped in Texas.
Kaygen raised his hands to plead for a little quiet. It was about drama, we all knew, but he had a message to get across. "The competition doesn't have your interests at heart. She has only self interest. Mrs. Numan will never be the kind of President that I can be."
More cheers interrupted Kaygen and drowned out his next few words. Not unexpected, but nonetheless staggering when a stadium full of fanatics pour their energy all in one direction.
What was supposed to be a short speaking engagement turned a college campus rally into a full forum stage performance. We scrambled at the last minute to take care of the details; Security, public safety, power requirements, campus and city approval. It wasn't difficult, but the rushed time left us all exhausted to one degree or another. It left us lax in our duty, in my opinion.
In the end I take full responsibility for the laps in security. I should have see this coming. We had no advertising for this event, except for a flier placed in the cafeteria. I thought our campaign needed a break, and we had to slow ourselves down or bust. Traveling to each state for countless speaking engagements wore us like tread. A small event, such as this was going to be, promised a welcome respite from the constant hustle.
The crowd was enormous compared to what we originally expected, a monster to be sure. We moved the stage to the football field to accommodate the masses we newly expected, and it was a good thing we had. At least, that was what we believed. What I believed.
I should have known better, and I blame it on exhaustion. The assassin played us like fools. He single handedly pulled in the crowds, but we didn't find out until later.
The entire stadium, field and bleachers, were spilling over with fans. Not just supporters, these folks were fanatics for Kaygen. He had become legend in the short year they had known him. That's marketing for you. And we had the best marketing team out there. Above all Kaygen was a performer. He could sing, dance, and quip with the best.
I stood well to the side of the stage, because Kaygen like to have a wide birth. I could see the crowd well enough. There were only a few blind spots, but I had agents covering the entire area. Still, that wasn't good enough. The assassin was already in.
The crowd hadn't settled down any. Kaygen kept his hands up and pulsed them outward asking them to, "wait, wait. Hold on a minute. Fellow Americans, I have something to show you." They quieted down but only in stages of loudness that diminished enough to hear Kaygen's amplified voice through the speakers. The stadium settled to a gentle roar, as they were not ready to give up their enthusiasm.
I noticed the crowd outside the stadium was getting bigger. Word had gotten out, and I didn't know how. Word of mouth was one thing, but this had gotten ridiculous.
Kaygen pointed behind himself, and the fifteen foot digital screen lit up bright gray, then white, and then adjusted as pixels flashed about until an image resolved into a woman. The crowd knew her then has Mrs. Barbara Numan.
She had charisma, was articulate, and gentile to look upon, but now that I think about it, there had always been a sense of fear about Numan. She scared me back then. If it were not for the assassin, she would have been tough to beat on election day. A female running for President was a risk the other party had taken, a risk that paid off. Regardless, our man would have won. We know that now.
Kaygen had decided to show this little clip in place of repeating the same regurgitated rhetoric. Nothing fresh and worthwhile had come along in a more than a week, but earlier in the day Numan had slipped with a short series of curses. We had it recorded. We thought a little embarrassing moment shown to loyalists wouldn't hurt. It would then leak out to the press, and they'd do the dirty work for us.
Her captured candid moment wasn't incriminating enough to win any significant number votes away from her. Even so, we did it, mostly, to save our candidate's voice from another horse night. He had begun to get a frogs throat toward the end of his speeches of late. I figured pictures worked better at explaining things. Especially, when it's your competitor that is making the mistakes.
“It was time these eight years were put behind us,” said woman on screen. She then proceeded to profane a little, thinking recorders were turned off. I had been listening to the video, when I should have been listening to the crowd. My attention wasn't right, and I knew it was from too much effort on making everything go right. She continued with, “blah, blah, blah, and now it's time we showed the world what a woman can do for this country.”
“Yes,” I thought, “but we are not ready for a woman.” I knew this race was going to prove to the world that men still had the power in this country. I was dead set on that ideal.
To my dismay, the polls were marginal, but still in Kaygen's favor. It wasn't over for us, and we felt the need to have the edge ahead of the game. We still wanted to run a good race.
A year prior, trouble dogged us for months before we found Kaygen. The man we originally planned to put in the white house had died, and we had to get someone in that was as close as a clone of the the President as we could find. We found him tucked away in Maine, a younger version of the President. Kaygen was going to be it. He was going to be elected. We knew it then. Only, as you all know now, it didn't turn out quite like we had planned.
During Numan's on camera blathering Kaygen's mannerism changed. It happened so quickly, we could not tell anything had gone wrong.
There Kaygen was, on stage, looking back at the screen, and pointing, ready to fire off words. He took a deep breath, pulled his hand back, and grabbing his chest. His microphone muted for the short take. We didn't want anything he said turning into off camera bloopers in the news. That has happened too many times in the past.
At first, I thought it was Kaygen improvising a heart wrenching moment showing emotional dramatization. He did that from time to time to keep us on our toes. However, his clinched fist was for the sharp pain he must have felt burning through his chest. His microphone had turned on at the last moment and short breath of “ack” was all that came before he hit the platform.
Kaygen was in good shape. I couldn't believe he had hit the floor. I half expected him to spring back up in surprise. I kept thinking, “perhaps he was showing everyone 'she is killing me.'”
---
“The dart used to induce the cardiac arrest was tiny and had been overlooked for a few hours,” I let the jury know. “Here you see him pulling the trigger. We've switched to dual view and you can see the dart has impacted in the small of Kaygen's back. We even have the confession here in the playback.”
I switched the Alternicam to the bereaved family and fans. “Now, the following event did happen shortly after. These things are significant in showing the result of Darwin's actions. Not only has he terminated the life of Kaygen, but he also forever altered the lives of those closest to Kaygen, and indeed the entire world.”
“However,” I cleared my throat. “I have playback to show you that may convince the court that Darwin's actions were in the best interest of humanity.”
I altered some settings on the device and began the presentation. “If the dart had not found it's target and simply burst into the platform, as you can see no one would have been the wiser. Life would have proceeded as normal.” I fast forwarded the scenes, displaying the cascading events following Kaygen's election and the war that followed. I slowed during what would have been considered important events.
“As I fast forward through effect of this one change in the time line, you can see the ultimate result of Kaygen's continued existence. His would have meant death for millions within a month of his taking office.”
---
The accused, Trent Herne, pleaded innocent on the grounds that he had done the world a favor. I agreed with him. The facts and Herne's own admissions point to what would normally be considered a guilty verdict. It was proven that he had shot the dart that killed Kaygen.
We were so sure Kaygen would be the next President, but we could not predict the future back then. If we had known then what we know now, I might have shot the guy myself.
Trent was a college student, physics major, and inventor of the device that proved to be critical in his acquittal. He saw the events unfold using the Alternicam, and he chose to do something about it. He chose right course.
