130 – The confession

Excerpt from the proceedings of the Chevengani Mental State Assessment Committee, etesora 83, Y. 1556.

Li: Chevenga… at any time when you were testifying before the Committee, did you lie?

4Che: No.

Li: At any time before Assembly, did you lie?

4Che: No.

Li: At any time in court, did you lie?

4Che: No.

Li: Hold on, there was that—all right, Krero, I know, I know, I can’t argue with him. Chevenga… in the recent court-case, concerning your legal incompetence, do you recall answering the judge’s question, would you have carried through killing yourself if someone had not intervened?

4Che: Yes.

Li: Were you… in that answer, was there an intent on your part, to answer in such a way as to conceal that you’d attempted suicide before?

4Che: …

Kre: He’s not sure how to answer, which means the answer isn’t yes.

Li: It also means the answer isn’t no. So it was a lie by omission.

Kre: That’s not a question.

Li: Were you not lying by omission in that answer, Chevenga?

4Che: …

Kre: Probably he’s torn between two.

Li: Or he’s holding back.

Kre: You can’t hold back, under truth-drug. You are completely powerless to. That’s the whole idea. Chevenga, do you feel that ‘lying by omission’ is not an accurate wording for your intent in that answer?

4Che: Yes.

Kre: Is it inaccurate by way of being too strong?

4Che: Yes.

Kre: See, that’s not a lie, Linasika. It’s a disagreement of interpretation, or description, if you will. To get clear information, you have to discern between the two.

Da: I think some of us would concur with Chevenga in disagreeing with you.

Li: All right. Let me take another line. Chevenga, are you sane?

4Che: …

Li: Are you sane, Chevenga?

4Che: …

Kre: Ask him why he isn’t answering.

Li: Why aren’t you answering?

4Che: I…

Kre: Listen and learn, Linasika. Chevenga, why did you not answer Linasika’s question, whether you are sane or not?

4Che: I don’t know the answer.

Li: All-Spirit.

Kusi: I think you can’t dispute his truthfulness there.

La: Order, sib gentlefolk; I remind you, no intercessions except by Krero.

Li: I would contend that if a man doesn’t know whether he is sane, he is not sane.

La: We are far too early in the investigation to form our conclusions yet.

Li: Chevenga: do you have secret ambitions to become more powerful than a semanakraseye traditionally is?

4Che: No.

Li: Is that… Is this because you’ve abandoned them as futile at this point because of all that has come out?

4Che: No.

Li: Or that you’re now under truth-drug and so would be caught dead-to-rights?

4Che: No.

Li: Then you haven’t abandoned them?

4Che: …

Kre: You won’t get truth if you try to trap him. You know how when someone you’re questioning hard can start to doubt himself and think, ‘Maybe what this person is insisting is true really is true’? You can’t do that with someone on truth-drug. He doesn’t have enough will of his own to doubt the truth of what he’s saying. Ask him if he ever had such ambitions.

Li: Did you ever have secret ambitions to become more powerful than a semanakraseye traditionally is?

4Che: No.

Li: Then why did you do as you did in Arko?

4Che: …

Kre: He did a lot of things in Arko, Linasika; be more specific.

Li: You want me to fetch the list?

Kre: It’s your questioning time.

Li: I request of the president that the runner be sent to my office to ask my assistant to give him the list of ways in which Chevenga overstepped while he was Imperator—which was an overstep in and of itself—then bring it back here. In the meantime I’ll ask off the top of my head.

La: Certainly, Linasika, runner, please enact.

R: The people wills.

Li: Chevenga, there are people in Arko who worship you as a God. Why did you allow this?

4Che: I would not forbid anyone’s religion.

Li: You would not forbid anyone’s religion! Funny how that conveniently served your ends.

Kre: Linasika, why would you disbelieve someone who’s on truth-drug?

La: This is not Assembly, this is not a debate. I ask the Servant of Michalere to keep to asking questions.

Li: Why did you never just tell the Enlightened Followers, “I am not a God”?

4Che: That would be forbidding their religion.

Li: No, it would just be stating fact.

Kre: For the love of All-Spirit, quit!

Li: But… he’s… what do I do when he says something I disagree with?

Kre: Ask him how it can be so! For instance: you’re thinking, him saying he’s not a God is not forbidding their religion. So ask him – Chevenga, how would telling the Enlightened Followers that you are not a God have been forbidding their religion?

4Che: I was Imperator.

Kre: So how does your being Imperator as you tell them you’re not a God forbidding their religion?

4Che: Arkans take the Imperator’s word as law.

Li: That’s why he didn’t…?

Kre: Chevenga, is there any other reason you didn’t set them straight on that?

4Che: Yes.

Kre: What other reason?

4Che: I didn’t think they’d believe me.

Li: They wouldn’t believe a God?

Kre: Why did you think they wouldn’t believe you?

4Che: They believe that divine beings in human form will deny they are.

Kre: They believe that divine beings in human form will deny they are divine?

4Che: Yes.

Li: Why did you accept their worship, their kowtowing, their money?

Kre: That’s three questions, divide them up.

Li: Fine, why did you accept their worship?

4Che: So as not to forbid their religion.

Li: Kowtowing, same thing… why did you accept their money?

4Che: …

Li: Chevenga, why did you accept money from the Enlightened Followers and other worshippers of yourself?

4Che: …

Kre: Chevenga, what’s wrong with the question, that you can’t answer?

4Che: Its premise isn’t true.

Kre: You mean, you didn’t accept money from the Enlightened Followers, and so forth?

4Che: Yes.

Li: He did.

Kre: No, he didn’t. He’s answering yes, meaning yes, he didn’t.

Li: I dispute that.

Kre: Ask it a different way. Go ahead!

Li: Chevenga, did you or did you not accept money from the Enlightened Followers?

4Che: I did not.

Li: But I heard… Krero, is it possible for a person to lie while under the effect of truth-drug?

†

Here Krero, out of mercy to me while I was in the vulnerability of the state, put his hands over my ears to keep me from hearing his answer.

†

Kre: Linasika Aramichiya, listen to me. At the beginning of the war, we lost a great number of lives and a great amount of land because the Arkans knew everything, and I mean everything, that was in this man’s head. They got it by use of exactly this same substance, injected into his veins in exactly the same amount that we have used it here today, as I told you earlier. If he were capable of lying to or holding out on you now, he would have been capable of lying to or holding out on them then. But he wasn’t. How much more proof do you want, than what was written in Yeoli blood?

Li: I… I take that as a “no.” All right… he’s saying… there was a report of a presentation, and an acceptance. Chevenga, where did that money end up?

4Che: Good works in Arko.

Li: All of it?

4Che: Yes.

Kre: You convinced the Followers that this was the best course?

4Che: Yes.

Li: Taking another line, Chevenga: under oath you told us previously, in reference to your certainty at the time that you would not live past thirty, that twice, at ages thirteen and fifteen, you were concerned that your foreknowledge might cause Assembly not to approve you for the semanakraseyesin, were you to reveal it, do you recall this?

4Che: Yes.

Li: But after having that concern, you subsequently decided not to tell Assembly, is this correct?

4Che: Yes.

Li: Since you knew you were likely not to be approved if you revealed the truth to Assembly, and so you did not and were approved, was that decision not in contravention to the Statute semanakraseye, Section 21-1—that’s for not telling—and 21-5-7, accepting approval in this case?

Kre: You’re trying to trap him again.

Li: It’s instinctive.

Da: Pardon me for interrupting but I am following the record too and I think I see why it is impossible for Chevenga to answer: the premise of the question, again, is false. In that previous questioning he told us he thought it was unlikely, not knew, and in fact several questions later he testified quite clearly, “No, I did not know I wouldn’t be approved; I couldn’t even know how likely or unlikely it was.”

Li: Then he contradicted himself.

Da: But he explained why: “I was very downhearted, very demoralized, and inclined to think people would think the worst of me, so that it seemed likely.”

Li: But it’s still… Chevenga, not just in your mood but in your reason, did you anticipate that there was a chance that Assembly might not approve you if you revealed the truth?

4Che: Yes.

Li: In other words, the truth might cast doubt on your suitability to fulfill the position of semanakraseye, yes?

4Che: Yes.

Kre: Linasika, never end a question with your preferred answer, or else he might interpret that as a command.

Li: Chevenga, did you know that your expectation of dying young, were it known, might cast doubt on your suitability to fulfill the position of semanakraseye?

4Che: Yes.

Li: Got you! All-Spirit be praised.

Kre: He might have misunderstood, let’s check.

Li: He didn’t misunderstand for a moment; he knows how the law is worded. I knew it would take truth-drug! (cross-talk)

La: Order, sib Servants.

Kre: Let me ask. Chevenga, did we understand rightly, that you knew that your foreknowledge, if you revealed it, might… cause Assembly to doubt you should take the position and so not approve you?

4Che: Yes.

Li: Look, let’s get to the point! Chevenga, were you or were you not knowingly in breach of the Statute semanakraseyeni, Section 21-1 by not revealing your secret and Section 21-5-7, by accepting approval without having revealed it?

4Che: I was.

Li: Do you admit therefore that there’s a legitimate argument to be made, that in the light of this you should not only be impeached but legally barred from reinstatement for life?

Kre: Ch’eng’, don’t answer that. Linasika, that’s a matter of opinion, and not an opinion he’s entitled to have.

La: Krero is correct, Linasika (assent).

Li: Chevenga, in regard to your breaching the Statute semanakraseyeni this way, do you wish you had not?

4Che: No.

Li: So for a crime you committed against the entire Yeoli people, you have absolutely no remorse, is that true?

Da: Of course he doesn’t! He’d be insane to! Linasika, would you have preferred being a slave in a province of Arko? Would you have liked that better, than having him as semanakraseye?

Li: But when—Chevenga, how old were you when you decided not to tell Assembly?

4Che: …

Li: What age were you when you decided that?

4Che: …

Kre: There is more than one answer… he would have decided more than once. He probably wavered back and forth. Chevenga, how old were you when you first thought it best not to tell?

4Che: Thirteen.

Ku: As he told us before.

Da: He was a child!

Li: Chevenga, how old were you when you decided for the last time?

4Che: Twenty less a night.

Li: It was the night before?

4Che: Yes.

Li: Either way, when he decided, there was no known threat from Arko. He could not possibly know how things would turn out, so you can’t count it an extenuating circumstance in the original crime.

Da: Maybe he saw it coming before anyone else did; if so, he was absolutely right. We absolutely needed him (assent).

Li: I would like to make a request of the president; as I recall our agreement was that in questioning Chevenga under truth-drug, there are to be no intercessions except by Krero, so I request of the president that this be enforced.

La: You are right, Linasika, I have been remiss and I apologize. I remind the Committee, no intercessions in Linasika’s questioning other than by Krero, and then only for reasons of ensuring effective questioning, thank you in advance.

Da: Not to intercede in Linasika’s questioning, president, but to address the point of order with which he has interceded in his own questioning: one of the main reasons we usually allow intercessions in questioning is to permit other members to correct any incorrect premises in the questioner’s line. We’ve had to remind Linasika that Chevenga didn’t know he wouldn’t be approved.

La: Fair enough, but I ask all who are taking a turn questioning that you will have your turn without intercession, while the witness is under the drug. Let’s keep this simple.

Li: Thank you, president Lanai. I want only to finalize this for the record and then I am done. Chevenga, I quote you from the Statute semanakraseyeni, though I need not for your sake as you should know this by heart, section 21-1, “On reaching the age of majority, the anaraseye shall reveal entire any information he knows that might cast doubt on his ability or suitability to fulfill the position of semanakraseye.” Did you or did you not violate this law?

4Che: I did.

Li: I want it declaratively, “I violated section 21-1—”

Kre: You can’t command him, you don’t get truth—

Li: Truth is exactly what I’m getting, Captain Krero. I am only asking him to phrase it in the proper legal form. Chevenga, is there any legitimate reason for your not being willing to state it declaratively?

4Che: No.

Li: Then please do so; you violated what?

4Che: I violated section 21-1 of the Statute semanakraseyeni.

Li: Now I quote the same Statute, section 21-5, “Subsequent to the Assembly chalk vote approving the Ascendant as semanakraseye, the anaraseye will only accept approval so long as,” condition seven, “he knows of no information that might cast doubt on his ability of suitability to fulfill the position of semanakraseye.” Did you adhere to or violate this, Chevenga, answer declaratively with the cite.

4Che: I violated section 21-5-7 of the Statute semanakraseyeni.

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