San Damien and the Red Daggers

by Brian Yapko

Table of Contents

Chapter 6: Devon Quindes

U. TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH DEVON QUINDES (August 1, 2990)
Administered at Juvenile Hall, NuPerth, Xanthe commencing at 13:05

ADRIAN MARLOW: Your name is Devon Quindes, is that correct?

QUINDES: Yia.

MARLOW: You understand you’ve just taken an oath to tell the truth under penalty of perjury?

QUINDES: No reason for me to lie.

MARLOW: Fine. What’s your birthdate?

QUINDES: 11 Oktobra, NY 746.

MARLOW: Can you give me that according to the O.E. Trad calendar? [No response] Devon, you need to respond. I’m asking if...

QUINDES: Go to hell.

MARLOW: Listen, you don’t get to speak to me that way. I simply told you...

QUINDES: To do what? I’m answering your questions. Why does every hauna thing we do have to cater to you Prim! You have a working hawk, right? Use it and lolo figure the Trad date for yourself!

[Subsequent discussion held off the record]

FIRESPEAK: The witness has apologized to counsel for his rudeness and has agreed not to use inappropriate language during this statement. Isn’t that correct, Devon?

QUINDES: Yia, Clementba. Sure.

FIRESPEAK: And, for the record, the Numen date stated by Sar Quindes corresponds to an OE calendar date of October 11, 2974. The witness is 15 Earth years old.

MARLOW: Where do you live, Devon?

QUINDES: When I’m not in this jailhouse?

MARLOW: This is a juvenile detention facility, not a jail. But, yes, before you got here.

QUINDES: Burroughs. The Percival Catacombs. In Numen territory. You should know. You were there. You got to see the hauna pit I live in.

FIRESPEAK: Devon...

QUINDES: Sorry, Clementba. No more cussing. Amberoath. [the witness gestures]

MARLOW: Your parents are no longer alive?

QUINDES: Nia. The makuae died over a year ago. By your Prim reckoning, two Old Earth years.

MARLOW: Why do you use the term “Prim”?

QUINDES: Do I have to answer that?

FIRESPEAK: Yes, Devon.

QUINDES: As far as the Tribe is concerned, you’re a bunch of weak primitives, Marlowba. You can’t live outside your little metakrylic fishtanks. You were never meant for Mars. We live on a rough planet. Rough since before the pioneer days. That’s why the Tribe was birthed.

MARLOW: The Tribe?

FIRESPEAK: For the record, that’s what the Numen call themselves.

QUINDES: Clementba and me... we’re members of the same tribe, Marlowba. But you...?

MARLOW: What about me?

QUINDES: Look in the mirror, Sar. A weasel chest with lungs so tiny you can’t breathe once you leave your fishtank. What’s that over in the corner right now? A breather. In case you hyperventilate while you question me. Look at your skin. Soft, ice-white. Your kind soaks up cancer out in the open like a sponge. You have no earflaps so your open ears suck in dust. My Tribe is built for this planet, Marlowba. You Prim are not. You’re air-soft. You were made for a hot water-fat world.

MARLOW: A world which no longer exists.

QUINDES: Well... yia.

MARLOW: Devon, do you think co-existence between the Numen and Trads is impossible?

QUINDES: It doesn’t have to be that way. But you take the resources needed for terraforming and build metakrylic fishtanks for Trads only, leaving us to choke to death. It’s you Prim who should go underground and give the planet a chance. Go colonize the Valle.

MARLOW: The Valle Marineris is off-limits for settlement. It was designated an international park for the benefit of all Martians centuries ago.

QUINDES: That’s you Prim again. No one asked us! You keep ignoring our right to control lands that are ours under the original charter! You tie our hands, then bitch about how shiftless we are, how dependent we are on you Prim.

MARLOW: Is that why you blew up the dome at San Damien?

FIRESPEAK: Objection, Marlow! Argumentative, leading and assumes facts not in evidence. I’m instructing the witness not to answer.

MARLOW: Let me ask it this way. Are you a member of The Red Daggers?

QUINDES: Yia.

MARLOW: And who are the Red Daggers?

QUINDES: We’re the Tribe, a Numen brotherhood. We organized last year after we got fed up with traditional Numen leadership. If the Confederation couldn’t step up, someone had to. To get you Prim to stop building domes on Numen land. To restart the terraforming.

MARLOW: The Red Daggers has expressed, as part of its manifesto, the willingness to do violence.

QUINDES: To property, Marlowba. Graffiti, bricks in windows. That kind of stuff.

MARLOW: What about murder?

QUINDES: We never wanted to hurt anybody! There’s a big difference between graffiti and killing people. What happened isn’t what we intended. We... Clementba, what about the letter?

FIRESPEAK: The witness is referring to a letter which was located hidden in the wall of his underground flat in Burroughs.

MARLOW: Devon, we’ll get to that letter momentarily. So after the trial was over and the court sentenced your colleagues...

QUINDES: They’re my friends, Sar. You know? Friends?

MARLOW: Fine. The court sentenced your friends to death by hanging on July 21, 2990 — just ten days ago. Is that when you told your advocate about the existence of this letter?

QUINDES: Yia.

FIRESPEAK: That’s when I notified you, Advocate Marlow, that my client had informed me of the existence of this new evidence.

MARLOW: For the record, Advocate Firespeak and I received instructions concerning how to find a satchel hidden in the wall of a flat formerly occupied by the witness at 43 Under-the Boulder in Burroughs, in the Numen Confederation. We performed a site inspection of the flat pursuant to court order and accessed a chamber within the flat’s wall in which a satchel was hidden. In that satchel were a number of documents, including the hand-printed letter we are here to discuss. Devon, have you seen this letter before?

QUINDES: Yia.

MARLOW: It’s addressed to Esau Lund, leader of the Red Daggers. Is the reason this letter was written out by hand so there would be no electronic or jinn record of it?

FIRESPEAK: Calls for speculation.

QUINDES: I don’t know, Marlowba.

MARLOW: Devon, can you read this handwriting?

QUINDES: Yia.

MARLOW: Would you please read this letter out loud?

QUINDES: [reads]

To Esau Lund and the Red Daggers, we salute you. We share your dream of Martian rivers filled with fish, of deep seas in which leviathan dwells, of wooded forests and bucolic farms, all under a turquoise oxygen-rich sky. We who serve the cause of life praise your valor and thank you for your commitment to our common cause.

We have delivered the Device to your safehouse in San Damien without incident. Enclosed with this letter are schematics and instructions for placement within the dome for maximum message-effect. Once the Device is activated, the flow of time within the dome will be dilated by a factor of 1000 percent for 20 minutes. After this 20-minute period (as measured from outside the dome) all of Mars will see that our cause is backed by a technology of astounding power. The nation-states of Mars will have no choice but to reclaim our ancient goals.

Red Daggers, the date is set. We march hand in hand into the future knowing that a better Mars will spring forth from our efforts. To those who oppose us, we say go to hell. To you, our allies: Kali tychi.

MARLOW: That’s quite a letter.

QUINDES: I know, Sar.

MARLOW: This letter is unsigned.

QUINDES: Yia.

MARLOW: As we sit here today, do you have any idea who it’s from?

QUINDES: Nia, Marlowba. I wish I did. It would help my friends. None of them are killers. We were framed. All we knew was that this bomb was supposed to go off in a strategic section of the dome, and only for visual effect, like it says.

MARLOW: But this “visual effect” caused the death of over 700 people.

QUINDES: I didn’t know this would happen, Marlowba. None of us did. We thought this device would make time inside the dome slow down. That’s what we were told.

MARLOW: By who?

QUINDES: It was just a voice on Esau’s hawk a week before the explosion; and then a second conversation the sol before. Some man. Esau called him Koa.

MARLOW: Is that his name?

QUINDES: Nia. Koa means “warrior.”

MARLOW: Did you ever meet this Koa?

QUINDES: I only heard him on Esau’s hawk. He explained about the bomb. One of the other sars asked him about it. He was very clear that this bomb wouldn’t literally explode.

MARLOW: How was it supposed to work?

QUINDES: Over my head, Marlowba. Esau said it was based on some type of research from scientists who supported us.

MARLOW: What scientists? Where?

QUINDES: They didn’t let me in those meetings. I don’t know.

MARLOW: If you weren’t allowed into critical meetings, why were you were even accepted as a member of the Red Daggers?

QUINDES: My family’s one of the oldest on Mars, Marlowba. Makuae Quindes were among the first Tribe pioneers. They built Corelli. Esau thought if one of the old names was attached to this project, they might get more support. And I wanted the terraforming to resume.

MARLOW: Tell me about the intended demonstration.

QUINDES: For the people inside the dome, it would have seemed like time was normal. Twenty minutes. But outside the dome twenty hours would pass. The people in San Damien would have been cut off from the rest of Mars. And your government would have known that we had a powerful, but peaceful weapon on our side.

MARLOW: But, Devon, all ballistic reports confirm that the bomb you planted — though unique — was nothing but a conventional — and very powerful — explosive.

QUINDES: Someone switched devices. How were we to know? We thought Koa was a peaceful warrior. And powerful. He funded research for putting up new field satellites. We didn’t expect him to betray us! He lied and left us out for you Xantheans to hang.

MARLOW: Can you help us identify Koa?

QUINDES: I never met him. But I know he wasn’t Tribe.

MARLOW: How could you tell?

QUINDES: You could hear it in the voice, Marlowba.

MARLOW: Is that all? What about an accent?

QUINDES: I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you where he was from.

MARLOW: This letter is in Martian Standard except for the final sentence. Read it for me.

QUINDES (reading): “Kali tychi.”

MARLOW: What does that mean?

QUINDES: “Good luck,” I guess. We all say it.

MARLOW: All Numen?

QUINDES: The Red Daggers.

MARLOW: It’s Hellenic, isn’t it? Like from Zantium? If Koa was from Zantium, would that help you identify him?

QUINDES: Already told you, I never spoke to nobody, Marlowba. I was just “the kid.”

MARLOW: Then why were you told to save this letter?

FIRESPEAK: Objection: Assumes facts not in evidence.

MARLOW: Devon, were you told to save this letter by anyone?

QUINDES: I... I did it on my own. I was told to destroy it, and I thought that maybe I shouldn’t.

MARLOW: Why? Did you suspect that something bad might happen because of this bomb?

QUINDES: I was told there was no way. But...

MARLOW: You had a feeling?

QUINDES: That’s all it was, Marlowba. A feeling something might happen. They said nothing could go wrong. But when I said I wanted to be there, that I wanted to see time slow for myself, they wouldn’t let me. That made me...

MARLOW: Suspicious?

QUINDES: [Nods head. Verbal response unintelligible]

FIRESPEAK: Are you getting close to wrapping this up, advocate?

MARLOW: I have one last question.

QUINDES: Yia. What is it?

MARLOW: Are you sorry for what happened?

FIRESPEAK: Advocate Marlow...

QUINDES: [unintelligible]

MARLOW: I’m sorry, Devon. Do you need to take a break?

FIRESPEAK: I think a short recess...

QUINDES: Nia! Give me a minute... I just... I want to talk about this. Goddammit, Clementba! Marlowba! Why do think I’m talking to you now? Just to save my friends? Just to save my own thick neck?

MARLOW: It’s okay, Devon. Take your time.

QUINDES: Do you think we’re animals, Marlowba? Goddamned animals? You think seven hundred people can die — a quarter of them my own Tribe — and I don’t lose it all the time? Lose sleep over it? Feel haunted by it?

MARLOW: It’s okay.

QUINDES: It’s not okay. I have ghosts around me every minute of every day.

MARLOW: Nobody is coming out of this unscarred.

QUINDES: And the worst of it is that all of us are in terrible danger! And no one’s doing anything about it!

MARLOW: What danger?

QUINDES: The time device is real, Marlowba. Koa and his people have it. And if they’re willing to betray us—

FIRESPEAK: Devon, you’ve said enough.

QUINDES: Marlowba, I never signed up for this! I didn’t want blood on my hands. I’m sorry for what happened. I’m sorry for the seven hundred. God, there were children and... I can’t get their faces out of my head... the ghosts won’t let me forget... Marlowba, I’m sorry! Can’t you... God, let me sleep at night! Please believe me!

MARLOW: Devon, I... Yes, I believe you. Are you alright?

QUINDES: [muffled sobbing]

MARLOW: Devon... son... Alright. I... have no further questions.

FIRESPEAK: I have no questions.

MARLOW: The witness is excused.

Proceedings concluded at 15:12.

* * *

V. ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT (dated August 25, 2990)

TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES:

In the case of In Re: San Damien, the Red Dagger defendants’ motion for new trial is DENIED.

The defendants have failed to produce sufficient new evidence to justify setting aside the July 15, 2990 verdict in this matter. Furthermore, the defendants have failed to adequately explain why their alleged new evidence could not have been previously offered to the Court.

The execution date of September 25, 2990 stands.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

* * *

Proceed to Chapter 7...

Copyright © 2023 by Brian Yapko

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