"Is there anyone present with a relationship to this piece of shit?" Holstering the pistol with a sneer, Donovan addressed the astonished crowd in a stern yet somber tone. He needed to make it clear that nobody else would face consequences for this person's crimes, however he also wanted to ensure an appropriate air of severity was maintained. Though this execution was performed without the standard degree of composure Donovan would have preferred he hadn't lacked confidence or conviction - stuttering over his words to assure them of their safety would contradict that sureness. "Personal belongings are to be given to kin, divided however they so agree. Failing that, those with a relationship may lay claim. Should nobody step forward with a veritable claim within three days, the property is to be forfeited to a central authority to be liquidated or dispersed to persons and projects and need arises. The family of the deceased is to select the method of disposal."
Sparing one last look towards the corpse still tied to the stilt of the shanty with a nasty sneer, Donovan made for the door once more.
"E-excuse me, milord." He paused, somewhat surprised there was a person willing to speak up after the shock of the execution. Sure, they might have been aiming for his head, however they hadn't imagined it would be done with such speed.
"Speak." His position as autocrat needed constant reminding, both for the people and himself.
"I-I would not say I had an amicable relationship with him, only assigned the bunk beneath him, but my understanding is that he hasn't any family, and I doubt he would have made friends with his attitude."
"In that case I will determine the method of disposal, however the rules for dispersing his personal belongings remain. So long as one can provide evidence of a relationship, they may keep them. Leno, please have the body wrapped up and placed in the back of the rover."
"Yes sir."
Donovan did not want anything to do with the corpse, but as much of a monster as he may have been in life there were purposes he could fulfill in death - primarily as a specimen to be dissected by Arc and have important differences in vital organs more carefully examined. After that he could be chucked out the back of the Pegasus into Ambrosia or decomposed into organic matter for Arc to play with. It didn't seem like he had family to remember him, and he didn't deserve to be spared desecration.
"Pardon me." Once more inside, Donovan knocked on the nearby wall to get the people's attention. "I'd like to ask everyone except those sleeping and the guardian of the victim to leave the building for a few minutes while I speak with them."
- - - - -
Donovan took a seat on the bunk opposite the cowering child, doing his best to loosen up and present a figure free of tension. He wouldn't smile - it didn't feel appropriate in this situation - but there would be an effort to show sympathy and reassuring strength where possible.
"Your relation is?" He addressed the young woman who stayed behind, a bit young to be her mother.
"Our village evacuated together, so by way of blood probably fourth or fifth cousins of some variety." She had black hair and amber ears much like Petunia, which he understood to be the signifier of the 'Candled Ears' clan, while the child had markings consistent with the 'Red Striped' clan. He had come to understand that the patterns of clan traits were by no means guaranteed to be inherited genealogically, some children being born to a clan not seen in a bloodline through several generations, however it was difficult for him to reconcile that information with the expectation that relatives should share physical similarities in such traits as height, shape, and the color of their hair and eyes. "I was asked to watch over her while her father went off to work."
"I see. Might I inquire what happened leading up to the event?"
"I, um, left her here while I went to fetch supper so she wouldn't need to get wet, and when I got back I found that man forcing himself upon her, so I called for help. I'm afraid I don't know more than that."
Donovan scanned her once more. The faint stain of some sort of soup remained on her clothing despite the rain's attempt to wash it away, and he could make out a small lump on her shoulder thanks to the wet fabric clinging close to her body. If he had to guess, she'd done more than just call for help.
"Mm. In any case, I would like to take her back to the Pegasus to get a check up and treatment for her injuries. Would it be alright if I took a look at her right now?" The woman nodded, standing up into the gap and shimmying away give Donovan the space he needed. It was into this space that Donovan sank to his knees and leaned into the bunk gap, getting closer to the girl while leaving enough distance to avoid provocation. This would require a gentle touch, both literally and figuratively. "How are you doing?"
Donovan could not imagine a universe where the response to such a question by a child that had been recently violated would be anything but 'awful', but he asked it anyways. He felt it important to gauge her current state of mind - whether or not she was coherent enough to formulate a response - and break the ice. Unfortunately he did not receive an answer, only a terrified stare and shivers.
"I want you to know that man will never be able to hurt you again, okay? I made sure of it." He once more unholstered his pistol, engaging the safety before removing the magazine and racking the slide to eject the bullet in the chamber. The now harmless gun and magazine were placed gently onto the mattress between them in a bid to evoke some sort of curiosity in the child, bait to draw her out of the shell she had drawn around herself. The bullet remained in his fingers though. "This is what I used to, ah, cure him. It's a tool my people have used to handle men like him for centuries. It's really simple, too! All you do is put one of these in, point it at their head, and bam. Just like that. They never bother anyone again."
In the wake of the incident where one of the shepherds died, Donovan had done some reading about dealing with children in traumatic situations. None of those covered best practices for the victims of rape, so he could only operate on an application of best principles, which involved drawing the focus of the child to something else, assuring them they were not to blame or in trouble, and telling them the truth in a manner they could contend with - at the very least not lying. This method of support, while feeling somewhat unethical as it pertained to the summary execution of her abuser, appeared to have some positive effect on the child. The shivering lessened, as did her panicked breathing, and her ears perked up slightly. If nothing else, he'd managed to inspire interest, opening the door for further engagement upon which trust could be established.
"I only wish I could have come sooner." While largely true, part of Donovan wished he'd shown up later. That bastard would have had to suffer for a few more minutes instead of getting the easy way out. "I was busy helping another person, and I couldn't stop what I was doing without bringing even more suffering to her."
"What -hm- were you doing?" Though she still shook, she'd worked up the courage to speak. Raspy and strained, no doubt due to the damage to her neck and desperate screaming during the incident.
"I was delivering a baby. Your queen's nephew, in fact. His little head was a bit too big to get out the normal way, so I needed to cut through Miss Petunia's belly and get him out." Her eyes widened in shock. "Don't worry, they are both perfectly safe. Just like this little tool here, we have tools to make that sort of thing painless and safe. She just won't be able to walk around for a few weeks, which I think is much better than the alternative, right?"
"Mm." She nodded a little.
"So, knowing that, can you forgive me for not arriving sooner?" He would play the martyr, taking fault for prolonging her suffering so neither her nor her close would assume blame in her mind, but also posit an avenue for resolution. If she didn't forgive him for this invisible transgression, so be it - he could live with being a secondary target of a random child's ire.
"Mkay."
"Thank you." He nodded his head slowly, the closest thing to a grateful bow he was capable of in this position. "Now, I know it might hurt, and I know you might be afraid, but I need to take a look at your injuries so I can try to fix them. After that, I'd like to take you to the Pegasus for a checkup. It's much more comfortable than here, and if you are lucky you might be able to meet little Boromir. Would you like that?"
- - - - -
"I'm not seeing it." Donovan whispered to Leno as the rover crawled up the road to the Pegasus. The little girl was laid down, wrapped in a damp blanket and sleeping on the rearmost seat, and he did not want to disturb her any more than necessary. He'd already burned through some of that precious goodwill built up with her when he relocated her arm, and it was imperative that he kept her from associating him with that pain if trust was to be maintained. The damage to her went far beyond a simple dislocation. "You said it was around here, right?"
"Yeah."
"Do you think it might have been rescued by someone else?"
"Maybe. We did get bogged down on the side of the road though, not on the main path. We were avoiding a truck coming down."
"How far off the beaten path?"
"Not far. An arm's length at most."
"Then let's just assume it's been taken care of already. We should be able to see something that close anyways."
"Yes sir."
Donovan pressed a little harder on the accelerator, glancing nervously as the roaring stream of water forming to the side of the roadway berm. At a glance it was difficult to tell how deep that flow really was, and without frequent culverts it lacked a method of escaping to the downhill on the other side of the road. Without armoring, erosion of the roadway was an inevitability - whether it stripped the dirt by running across its length or blew out a section of road by flowing across the top at a low point. Either way, this would become an expensive hazard.
He'd need to prepare himself for reports of missing and deceased in the wake of this storm.
- - - - -
"-and so you executed him?"
"On the spot, yeah."
"Without a trial?" Diana could not believe her ears. "Did you at least interrogate him?"
"No."
"Donovan, you really should have done some investigating before taking the nuclear option."
"Why?" Titanyana, nervously swaying in the doorway, seemed to take offense to that proposition.
"Because he might not have been the person responsible! Who knows if the crowd got the wrong guy!" She didn't want to break into a rant about judicial best practices and the philosophy behind presumed innocence, but it was tempting at this point in time. "I mean, Donovan, seriously? You should know better than anyone else what a problem extrajudicial executions are!"
"It wasn't extrajudicial." Diana recoiled in shock at the proposition, begging without words for an explanation for this afront to her sensibilities. "Without a written constitution or convention to establish a governmental apparatus, I - the recognized monarch and supreme authority - possess the right to establish, enact, and enforce 'the law' as I see fit. Considering that we have yet to create formal law enforcement and judicial organs, I am presently the only person with the explicit right to do any of those things."
"I, uh, but a trial-"
"The people were the jury, and I laid eyes upon the evidence myself. I simply enforced their verdict." He was dead serious. Nothing she could say would convince him to change his mind.
". . . was an execution really the best course of action though?" Diana found herself having to give up on the matter of determining guilt. As much as she hated it, his justifications for action were unassailable - and it was a format she agreed to. "You couldn't have imprisoned him?"
"Where? With what? Who would I task with looking after him?" She found herself unable to answer those questions. They didn't have enough housing as is, and even if they could section off a room somewhere or tie him to a stump they would need to ensure someone else didn't finish the job. The Holifanians couldn't be entrusted with this task, their ability to read and communicate verbal instructions from Arc were invaluable at the moment. "Do you think I should have let him live? For raping a child?"
"I . . . I just don't think you should have done it so quickly." This flew in the face of the legal system she sought to implement, however she could not offer a sufficient argument against Donovan's actions - certainly not in hindsight. "There's supposed to be a process to these things, y'know? What if the people didn't want him dead?"
"I'd be disappointed if any of my people suggested something other than death or decades of torture for forcing a child to have sex with them." Titanyana addressed Diana's suggestion with a tone bordering on hostile. "Part of me is upset I missed the opportunity to slit his throat."
With that, Diana found herself unable to pose further resistance. Any law she sought to enact would only go as far as the people's willingness to implement it. Should the thousands upon thousands of people they now considered their citizens agree with Donovan, then the execution was an inevitability. To push back would be a waste of both time and effort.
"What are we doing with the girl?"
"Once she finishes with her MRI, I'm going to help Arc get her fixed up then give her a bed near our room. Chershei and the others can give her a shower after that, and we'll have somebody on standby waiting for her father to arrive who can bring him to the room next to her's. Is that acceptable?"
"What if she's hungry?"
"Then I'll go get her something to eat, nothing but the finest preserved fruits and meats we have to offer."
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