Goddess of the Galacticide Episode 8 - They Followed Orders

Episode 8

Cha Dzeeny was hoping for the firing squad. He could die on his feet, in his prime, facing his peers who would transfer him out of this world. The Aloo Dashaad did not believe in an afterlife, instead strived to make the one they got count.

Cha thought he had succeeded. In the little time they had after Shaajis Linuka’s return, she assured him the spirits were safe. He doubted she met the spirits in person, but it was a clear statement about mission success. The mission had been securing victory over the Dark Ones. That much was clear by now. And he—Cha Dzeeny—helped to win the final battle.

Not bad for a periphery dweller, born and raised far from the core worlds of the former Ancestrate, shunned for the sins of his father, an inquisitor for Vnaas the Cruel. His only regret: failing to find a mate, have children, continue the ancestral line.

“Detachment Leader Cha Dzeeny, please rise and stand before the Joint Tribunal.”

Again? He had testified four times, was found guilty and sentenced to death. His execution lacked only time, place, and method. What does this vrroa mak want from him now? Cha’s body had already jumped up, taken several long strides to the marked box on the floor, and stiffened to attention. He was a machine, just like those Isonomih AIs, dormant until activated. The AI core, Me-Ruu, had never shown up for the hearings, and neither did the Traaz. Nor the Shaajis. Word was she had left the Assembly World already, but marines love gossip, and Cha gave little credit to the rumors.

“Please state that you yield to the tribunal.”

“I yield.”

This court was a strange mix of military court-martial and civilian tribunal. Two admirals sat behind the tribunal desk, but so did two appointed civilian legislators. The presiding judge was some senior magistrate appointed by the Assembly. Cha didn’t understand why they went through the motions of the much slower civilian proceedings. The absence of the civilian co-conspirators meant Cha had been chosen to take the fall, and everyone else would go free or get away with some slap on the wrist. A military court would have found him guilty much faster. Why bother with this show?

“Detachment Leader Cha Dzeeny, could you please tell the court the names of all the marines from the Ṭawːtfé̃ detachment who took part in the mutiny?” asked prosecutor Nyezh Dvol, a sickish shadow of a man, sleep deprivation adding dark rings to his eyes, betraying his youth.

Cha Dzeeny was no judicial expert, but the prosecutor was his junior, and not who one expected handling a high-profile mutiny case, a rare crime on the Levy Fleet. Cha turned his head, seeing the men and women who helped him take control of the battle cruiser.

“Joint Judges,” he said, “they’re all here.”

“That is not what I asked,” said Dvol. “State their names.”

He saw several of his fellow marines shrug, then fixated back on the presiding judge, rattling down their ranks and names. He had not once looked Dvol in the eye. Despite his youth, the slimy mak had managed what many enemies failed to do—kill Cha Dzeeny. He would not honor him with a gaze.

“Thank you. These are all Ancestrate names, are they not?”

“They are Aloo Dashaad names. The Ancestrate does not exist anymore.”

“Oh, yes, thank you for clarifying. So, the entire marine detachment on board the Ṭawːtfé̃ hails from the former Ancestrate of Aloo Dash?”

“Yes.”

“Why is that, Detachment Leader? Aren’t we supposed to have mixed crews? To integrate former adversaries? To build bridges?”

“Objection, Joint Judges.” Cha was surprised to hear his defense counsel speak up. The fleet advocate looked just as incompetent as the prosecutor, but his looks did not deceive. He had turned out to be useless. “The prosecutor wants the witness to speculate.”

“Overruled,” said the presiding judge. “The witness might have knowledge of the reasons. Detachment Commander, answer the question.”

Why do they want to hear about crew compositions? So far, all the questions had an obvious goal: pinning the responsibility on Cha. He took another glance at his unit. All their eyes rested on him. Relying on him to know what to do next. Have them survive another day.

Nreedz. Cha Dzeeny understood. Sacrificing him was not enough. The tribunal was going after his detachment next. Showing the marines were a close-knit group, sharing dialects, traditions, beliefs. Maybe shared an Aloo Dashaad conspiracy against the Assembly, too. But nothing regarding the conspiracy charges had been brought up by the judges or the prosecutor. And although Dvol referred to them as mutineers often, the mutiny charges have been stated during the initial hearings, but not been a topic during everyone’s testimony at all. These were military charges. They carried severe punishment, but not the death penalty. The only charge that did was treason. A civilian charge. That’s why the court was a mixed court. They couldn’t get rid of him so easily if the military justice system had a hold of him first. They wanted to send him straight to execution, and only a ‘guilty’ for treason would do this. Now, they planned to kill the entire unit! This was not only a show trial, not only a swift justice demonstration with a hapless fall guy, this tribunal’s goal was to eliminate witnesses. All of them.

Cha Dzeeny cleared his throat. “Mixed crews? Yes.” He shook his head. “It sounds good on some memorandum. It sounds smart when it’s proclaimed in the Assembly.”

The presiding judge raised an eyebrow. Cha had avoided mentioning the galactic government so far, had played along toward the assumed end goal: maximum sentence for him, and permanent marks on their service records plus reassignment for everyone else. The situation had shifted. The marines had become a target. And like Cha would draw enemy fire away from the younger, less experienced marines, he would do so here, in this dirty firefight of politics and lies.

“Out there,” he continued, “in cold space, we want crews to follow orders. Crews, who work well together, not get at each other’s throat about every little cultural misunderstanding, each stupid mistranslation. Aloo Dashaad crews will always follow orders coming from an officer from Aloo Dash. It’s just that simple.”

Following orders. They followed orders. That’s the message he wanted to be on court records. The worst they could do to his marines was ‘negligent dereliction of duty’ for failure to question unlawful orders. Cha had never faced any charges, neither as a civilian nor as a professional soldier. But his father had been charged with every article of the military code, and he remembered them all, in order of severity. He never thought the painful spectacle of his father’s demise would be helpful at some point.

One of the civilian judges spoke up. The tribunal’s heads turned to him with furrowed brows. “The witness is clearly speculating. I apologize, but I have to call for revisiting the defense counsel’s objection.”

“This is outrageous,” said the presiding judge.

“Given the severity of the charges, we need to maintain clean procedural conduct,” the civilian judge continued, undeterred. “I call for a vote, re-examining the objection.”

The judges pressed voting buttons on top of the tribunal desk, and the presiding judge slammed his hand on one, too.

The civilian judge read out the result: “Let the record show a four to one vote in favor of sustaining the objection. The speculative response of the Detachment Commander will be stricken from the record.”

Cha Dzeeny closed his eyes. No truth was being examined here. No one cared about their testimony, circumstances, facts. The tribunal, and whoever gave them their marching orders, were out for blood. And they would get it. It was supposed to be his. He had gladly helped the Shaajis, and would do so again without hesitation.

But he also killed his unit. And that was unforgivable.

Click here for next episode

---

Copyright © 2025 Bert Oliver Boehmer. All rights reserved. No part of this serialized novel may be reproduced, reposted, or distributed in any form without the prior written permission of the author. The creation of any derivative works (including translations, adaptations, or other transformations) is likewise prohibited without permission. The use of any portion of this material for training or developing artificial intelligence or other machine learning models is strictly forbidden.