Menelaus said to the Judge of Ages, “Keep it going.”

The Judge of Ages said, “Quorum. Filibuster. Sine Die.”

Menelaus spoke in Iatric, “The Judge of Ages wishes to know by what justification you hindered the liberty and converted the property of his clients, the other Thaws here?”

“Naturally, because we prefer our race to inherit the Earth rather than older and more primitive forms, we were not at liberty to allow previous generations we unearthed their freedom, lest we fail in the Darwinian competition against more fertile races. We are particularly loath that the Locusts be released into the ecosphere or whatever infosphere may soon take shape.”

Menelaus said in English, “One more time.”

The Judge of Ages said, “I am running out of law Latin. Corpus Juris. In vi et armis.”

Menelaus turned to Illiance. “He demands if this is the reason why you killed the Locusts Crucxit, Axcit, and Litcec?”

“It was a contributory cause, of course. The more direct cause was that they attempted to induce a hypnogogic state in our docents, which we interpret as an act of rapine.”

Menelaus said in English, “Once more.”

“You really have to, ah, Lex Parliamenti, tell me your scheme, if you want me to continue the, ah, playing-along-ness. Ejusdem generis.”

Menelaus answered, “Just trying to get both of us out of here alive, sir.”

The bewigged man nodded regally. “Make it snappy. I am not sure how long I can keep up my public speech face in a live event like this. Usually my soul helps me.”

Menelaus turned and called out in Iatric, “The Judge of Ages demands to know whether you have anything further to say in your defense, to mitigate the atrocious crimes you have committed, trespassing in his stronghold which is the sanctuary for all who are ill or exiled of time, murdering his guests and clients, robbing and despoiling their goods, assaulting their persons, imprisoning and kidnapping them, extracting slave labor from them. The crimes are doubly inexcusable because you yourself are his clients, under his protection, and therefore know full well how solemn is the sanctuary of this power, and took full advantage, while it was offered to you, of the asylum and refuge from the passing years these Tombs offer—a right of sanctuary you have violated in your neighboring and fellow slumbering dead.”

The Blue Men began to murmur frantically among themselves in their own language of hissing and twitters until the Judge of Ages brought his black glass sword blade down with a ringing clash on metal floor panels. “Order!”

Preceptor Illiance, still seated at his feet, raised a hand. “Tell His Honor that our actions, under ordinary circumstances, would have no excuse, and that his anger, under ordinary circumstances, would need none.

“But we have reason to believe that the Tomb site here will be destroyed in less than a full day, and therefore we offer as our defense this mitigation: that by acting as we did, we found the Judge of Ages as quickly as we could, enabling him, with such help as we can provide, to preserve the remaining coffins and buried materials, as well as to take himself from the area and therefore to preserve his life. Had we been respectful of your property and privacy, and left you and these other to slumber, you and they would have perished without waking.”

Menelaus said to the Judge of Ages in English, “Say something longer. Any unusual grammatical constructions might be, uh, not unhelpful.”

“Anything to make translating less easy, eh?

But see where the Hermetic vessel flies, loftier than pride itself, whose wings of light, fraught with sorrows, wheel and mount the air more lucid than the crystal sea before the Judgment Seat feigned of old to crown the high empyrean, wherein the blessed quench the tears of life. Is there no drop of those heavenly waters to slake the sorrow burning as hot as those aeronautical fires that mount the upper night? Man breaks the dour chain of mundane gravity and time, and, lo, the zenith is appalled at that supreme ascendance. Rally, spirits, and gather to the shining banners of my pride! I am not less in dream than such stature as the brave Hermetic soars; by my sacred name and the blood within my veins, I swear the future times shall be more golden and majestic than times of old. Tomorrows of glory, Hail! Receive the salute of one who vows your forefather to be, shades of heroes unborn, heroic years uncounted!

And if they can puzzle out what that means, many years be added to them, because my classics tutor could never untangle that argle-bargle argot to me as he beat it into me.”

Menelaus knew these were words penned as a monologue in a historical play honoring him by a poet named Peerworthy at the patronage of the Cryonarchs claiming descent from the Montrose line. Menelaus thought it somehow unfair to have words put in his mouth by historians while he slumbered, especially such high-sounding words as he’d never use.

During this gush of poetical excess, Menelaus put a look of fear upon his face, and bowed very low to the bewigged man, and turning to Illiance, he said, “The Judge of Ages is inclined to be most severe, and to locate and annihilate each member of your race and every cell in any genetic base that might be used to reconstruct them, sparing only a few of you, or only one, to survive and carry the tale to other generations.”

Preceptor Illiance seemed surprised. “Then, that we acted so as to preserve him and also all this Tomb site accounts for no mitigation?”

Menelaus said, “I don’t pretend to understand his posthuman reasoning process, but you must realize that you could have found a way to find him without robbing and enslaving his clients!”

Illiance said, “Not a way that economized our effort. Naturally we acted also to advantage ourselves: if there is no mutual benefit to mutual action, congruence or cooperation of mingled actions is impossible. Does he seek to impose a verdict that will discourage future contemplation of such mutuality?”

There was a murmur of agreement from the other Blue Men in the room. Their voices held a note of surprise, even indignation.

“We also do not understand this insistence on privacy of property: that all property should be held in common is a moral absolute,” Illiance continued. “We treated the relicts, his clientele, with as much civility as was possible given the needs of the task before us. Examining the historical record, we knew that they all came from cultures where conscription to public use of levies of laborers was allowed or even encouraged, with the exception of the Nymphs, whom we therefore did not force to labor. All these rest are slavekeepers, and hence have consented, in principle, to the institution. Likewise, in the case of the Locusts, after their attempt, we merely applied to them the laws and customs of their own native era, which would have likewise penalized interruption of interdicted thoughtspace as a capital crime.

“This line of questioning disorients. Are you certain you translate correctly? I am not sure in what respect we did wrong, or what prohibition we offended. He hid his resting place, and we sought among our fellow revenants to see if any had knowledge thereof. We did not allow them their liberty because they are dangerous creatures from barbarous aeons. I emphasize again that we had no other practical means to preserve the Tombs from annihilation!

“Tell the Judge of Ages, if he is unaware, that an instrumentality of the Hyades is at large, sweeping over the surface of the globe, and drawing into its hollow interior any ruins, artifacts, or forms of higher life it finds. It was in operation before we woke. We assume all of the current-day races of mankind have already been taken into the interior.”

7. Summoning Other Witnesses