The Mech Touch

Chapter 6078  Setting An Unfortunate Precedent

Once she slammed the gavel, she gave the masses a brief moment of time to regain their composure.

"In order to understand our response to Venerable Melin-Larkinson's second charge, we should first consider the definition of murder. The dictionaries of standard language slightly vary in their descriptions, but it is commonly understood that the act of murder involves the unlawful deprivation of a human life and with premeditation. There are three key concepts in this definition. In this particular case, there is no doubt that Venerable Melin-Larkinson took the Zeal's life as a deliberate act. He has confessed to this deed himself. Whether he did so with premeditation is arguable, but let us assume his act already meets two out of three requirements. Now if you have any logical brain, you should have already figured out that it is one requirement that has caused us to reject the charge of murder. The Zeal… is not human, and therefore cannot be 'murdered' according to our understanding."

"That's a crap opinion!"

"Who cares what is written in all of those stuffy dictionaries! My battle partner is just as alive and important as any other clansman!"

"The patriarch doesn't agree with this opinion!"

The chief judge was not ignorant of all of the objections.

"We understand your feelings and opinions on this matter." Jannzi solemnly spoke. "However, it is a fact that the laws of the Larkinson Clan only bestow human rights to humans, in line with every other state and major organization of red humanity. Simply put, murder can only take place when committed to other humans. The laws of individual states might diverge from each other due to historical and cultural reasons, but there is a high degree of commonality when it comes to the basic principles. Murder can be committed on a baseline human with 100 percent human DNA. Murder can also be committed on a highly augmented human whose genome has been altered so much that he only retains less than 10 percent pure human DNA. In the latter case, what matters is that the augmented individual still recognizes that he is human, and that society treats him the same way. Even heavy-gravity variant humans are still treated as human, so our civilization has adopted a lot of flexibility with regards to this issue."

That was simple enough to understand, even if a lot of humans treat dwarves differently in practice. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"On the other hand, every human polity has unanimously decided that it is not acceptable to extend human rights to any alien or distinctly non-human species. No matter whether they look almost identical to actual humans, their ideas and opinions are fundamentally misaligned with humanity. It is absurd in the past as well as in the present to extend any rights towards any alien species. You cannot 'murder' an orven because the alien does not enjoy the protection of human law in the first place. At most, the orven can be taken captive, upon which he turns into the property of a human party. Killing the orven prisoner is treated as destroying one's property, more or less. Such actions can still be punished, but the responses are much less severe. The convicted criminal mostly ends up paying compensation."

This was an important detail that added vital context to Jannzi's next words.

"When it comes to living mechs… I am sorry, but our laws still treat them as objects, both during the time that the incident took place, and today. It does not matter whether living mechs are categorized as animate or inanimate objects. According to our laws, they are akin to machines that are governed by particularly advanced AIs. Now, as a Larkinson mech pilot myself, I deeply disagree with this official stance. I never agreed with what the law says and always regard my Bastion as a living entity that possesses just as much intelligence, emotion and dignity as any human. The Bastion has fought and suffered for our clan. Her predecessor even sacrificed her life so that I may live! My living mech has saved the lives of many Larkinsons, both human and non-human, and she has done so willingly all the time. Yet… our legislative body has never amended or updated our laws to officially recognize the stance that many Larkinsons hold towards living mechs."

"..."

That was undoubtedly true. No one really paid attention to this discrepancy. Very few Larkinsons ever imagined that a Larkinson mech pilot would emerge one day that actually killed his own living mech!

This was a huge oversight, and that had led to this difficult situation.

"Now, our clan is not inflexible to the point where we take every law literally." Venerable Jannzi spoke in a softer tone. "As a matter of policy, we try to avoid making our clan to rulebound. In no way do we want to encourage clear misbehavior or mistakes because the laws on our books have never accounted for a deviating circumstance. The problem our special tribunal has grappled with is that there are multiple competing principles in play."

The expressions of multiple judges changed. None of them found it easy to navigate all of the different arguments.

"Let me state that we want the laws of our clan to have meaning. They should not be dismissed solely because it is convenient. Without a code that every Larkinson can recognize, our clan will end up in anarchy sooner or later. On the other hand, it is undeniable that many Larkinsons and especially our soldiers have long recognized that living mechs are equivalent to humans. Our clan has therefore developed a culture where living mechs are already de facto humans. Unfortunately, our old laws still regard living mechs as de jure objects. A contradiction has arisen, one that has never emerged in the Larkinson High Court in the past. No matter what decision our special tribunal makes, it is inevitable that we set a precedent today."

That meant that it was within the special tribunal's power to bestow living mechs with human rights.

Then why did it refuse to take this obvious step?

"Let me be honest with you all." Jannzi addressed the clan. "The other 6 judges of the special tribunal along with myself are all in unanimous agreement that we have treated living mechs as near-equivalents of humans for so many years that we should just make it official today. We deeply appreciate and honor the sacrifices they have made on the battlefield. They enjoy inferior treatment to our human members, but endure much greater risks. Third order living mechs have also reached a degree of intelligence and sapience that matches humans in most ways. They far exceed pets such as cats and dogs in this regard. In fact, even our ancestral spirit treats them as equal members of our greater family. Since living mechs possess the capacity to feel emotions, they can develop just as much love and affection for the Larkinson Clan as humans such as ourselves. Why should our deny our brotherhood?"

Many people were wondering about that question as well.

Jannzi grimaced as she addressed the ultimate reason why they could not do so. "As much as we are willing to set a precedent that will change our treatment and recognition of living mechs forever… we are not just bound by our own laws. As formal members of human civilization, we are also bound by the laws of the Red Two. According to the laws set by the Red Association and the Red Fleet, it is absolutely forbidden to extend human rights to anyone or anything that does not meet their broad definitions of 'human'. As flexible as they can be with extending human rights to heavily augmented individuals, trying to do the same to distinctly non-human living mechs has never been allowed. In fact, the mechers and the fleeters have declared this sort of action to be taboo."

"Oh."

"That…."

Many Larkinsons became cowed at the mention of the Red Two and taboos. It couldn't be helped. The deterrence of the Red Two and their predecessors was just too great! Everyone knew that any human that dared to violate a taboo would provoke a harsh and immediate response from the Red Association and the Red Fleet!

Venerable Jannzi's expression clearly showed what she thought about this taboo. "To put it in simpler terms, our hands are tied. No matter how much we want to raise the treatment of living mechs so that they can truly stand equal to humans such as ourselves, we are literally forbidden from doing so by the Red Two. If we try to force this change regardless of the consequences, we would contradict one of the central principles of RA jurisprudence, RF jurisprudence, Terran jurisprudence, Rubarthan jurisprudence and so on. We will become the nail that sticks out. Not just the mechers, but every other human group will be eager to hammer us down!"

That decisively ended the debate on trying to extend human rights to living mechs.

"Look, if you want this reality to change, then we cannot do this alone." Jannzi explained to the crowd. "This is not a matter of clan law. It is a matter of galactic politics. If you want our society to treat living mechs more fairly, then you must wage a campaign across human-occupied space and win broad public support for a change in the fundamental laws and principles of human civilization. Even then, you must convince enough top stakeholders who hold most of the power of major states and organizations to support your initiative."

That was clearly not in the Larkinson Clan's power to do so. It would be better if everyone just forgot about this fanciful idea.

The chief judge finally returned to the original subject.

"As I have stated before, we judge Venerable Taon Melin-Larkinson innocent of the crime of murdering the Zeal. However, we also judge him guilty of inflicting serious and irreparable damage to a key military asset of the Larkinson Army. The Zeal is not his personal property. Officially, it is handmade by Patriarch Ves Larkinson, who has personally entrusted the custom and personalized copy of the Transcendent Punisher Mark III to the then-expert candidate as his designated mech. Under no circumstances has the pilot become the legal or practical owner of the mech. This is common practice in nearly every state and organization."

That was a relatively clever way to still force Taon to account for the crime of 'damaging' the Zeal.

Jannzi pinned the former Ylvainan with a judgmental stare. "During the entire period where our clan gave you the privilege of piloting the Zeal, we never gave you permission to kill the living personality that inhabited the machine. You never bothered to ask permission by your own admission. You ruined a unique living mech, a masterwork, that can never be replicated and whose value far exceeds the cost of producing the mech frame. The monetary damages… are considerable to second-class mech pilots."

Taon decided to speak up at this time. "I admit I killed the redundant living personality of the Zeal, but I did not destroy it entirely. Lanie and Venerable Dise both inflicted a lot of material damage to my machine. Venerable Joshua outright killed what remained of the Zeal!"

"SILENCE." Jannzi rebuked the accused. "Venerable Lanie Larkinson's crimes shall be dealt with later. As for the actions taken by Venerable Joshua Larkinson and Venerable Dise Larkinson, both of them are justified in their actions. Venerable Joshua Larkinson was the operational mech commander of the strike force during the mission. It is well within his authority to order the destruction of an important asset of the Larkinson Clan for the purpose of denying it to the enemy. As for Venerable Dise, she acted to save your life by separating your cockpit from your ruined mech. The life of a single Larkinson mech pilot far exceeds that of an 'object' such as the Zeal. In fact, the point is moot at that time, as you already killed your living mech."

Before Jannzi moved on to Taon's third and final major charge, Jannzi briefly took the initiative to address the clan.

"Our special tribunal can only judge Venerable Taon Melin-Larkinson to this extent. We strongly recommend our legislative body to update our laws and properly define detailed laws with regards to the treatment of our living mechs. We may be constrained by the galactic laws imposed by the Red Two, but there is still leeway into raising the value and importance of living mechs so that their treatment is much more closely matched to humans. I think this is the least we can do to our loyal machines."

The members of the Larkinson Assembly certainly got the message. They definitely intended to open a debate on this subject the first chance they got, if only to quell the rising discontent from all of their existing living machines!