Chapter 5

The five students who had visited Lana in the hospital were questioned separately, and each swore that it must have been a Tereskàdian who had attacked her, how else did she get all those wounds on her face and arm and especially her abdomen? None came right out and told the court Sendrhea had done it, but no dog, no cat could have inflicted wounds like that. College students, all of them, each relating the same story as if someone had coached them. They should be in the theater, she thought. Fharezhan agreed that these were winning performances, warned her when Lana Northwood took the stand she would tell her best story. Humans were eager to listen to her testimony, waiting to hear what this sweet girl had to say. They’d drink in her words, feast on her lies.

None of the five students had been in the hospital, none had seen Lana’s wounds. Everything they said during their testimony was a lie. Sendrhea wanted to tear their lies to shreds, take those smirks off their faces, have them facing perjury charges.

What bothered Sendrhea was the testimony of the student named Tony Demarest. The young man related a story that seemed to indicate that he had been in the park, unknown to Lana and the Tereskàdian, watching a female Tereskàdian assault his friend Lana. Just like the others, he was lying, trying to build a case against her by hoping to convince the jury that he was a credible witness.

Farrow sat down confidently when he was finished with his testimony, nodded at Sendrhea. She didn’t want to ask Tony anything because only lies would come out of his mouth. She didn’t bother questioning those who stated they had been in the hospital, visiting Lana.

But there was something about this young man that gave her the incentive to stand and approach the witness stand, stopping halfway between the table and the fidgety college student.

When she looked at his hands, they were shaking. He folded them, unfolded them just long enough to wipe his sweaty brow with his fingers, rubbing his hands on his pants before folding them again. He shifted in the witness stand.

“Having a little problem, Tony?”

“No ... uh ... you’re an alien ... uh...” he stammered. “I watch a lot of science fiction and ... aliens are scary.”

“I’m not going to bite you,” she said.

“Yeah, right ... you’re making me nervous.”

“Let me tell you why I haven’t cross examined your friends,” she said. “In each case the testimony they’ve given is basically the same. After a while it was getting rather boring listening to half a dozen young men reciting that a Tereskàdian must have assaulted a human, based on wounds you’ve allegedly seen.”

“Your Honor,” Farrow said, “we are waiting for Sendrhea to ask Mr. Demarest a question.

Kingsley said,”Questions, Sendrhea,” and left it at that.

“Tony,” she said. “May I call you Tony? How much do you know about Tereskàdians?”

“I take that course at the university,” he said. “Kind of wish one of you aliens was the instructor. I know that sounds contradictory to what I’ve just said, but ... uh, Mr. Van Buren is all right, but he ... uh, blushes when he talks about ... you know.”