Innocence Shattered

Innocence shattered part 2

I woke up the next morning, after a peaceful nights sleep, I was surprised that I hadn't been woken by any of my nightmares, I walked into the mess hall, most of the crew was already there. I got some food and sat down next to Trinity.

"How did you sleep?" She asked.

"Okay." I replied. Morpheus reached behind.

"I thought you might like this." He said, giving me a book. I looked at its tattered cover than at him

"What am I supposed to do with it?" I asked in confusion.

"Read it and if you like it, I have many more that you might like." He replied. I blushed, which he obviously noticed.

"What's wrong?"

"I.umm.I can't read." I mumbled. He stared at me for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders.

"It's one of those things that you should learn." He said, I flicked through the first few pages, the lines of writing made no sense to me, and I turned it sideways, squinting my eyes. Then looked up at him again

"How?"

I'll teach you, I've got a few hours free this morning." He said.

"It's only going to take a few hours?" I asked. Neo snickered, but Morpheus silenced him with a glare.

"No, it will take longer than that. But we've got to start somewhere." He said. I nodded and so my education began. It was about a week later as I was reading; or rather stumbling my way through a book called 'Reboot', when Morpheus decided to take a break.

"Let's spar for a while." He said. Sparring? What the hell is that? I wondered, but I didn't want to say anything out loud. We went up to the core and Tank loaded us in. We stood in a room, Morpheus was facing me.

"Hit me.if you can." He said, I tried punching him and kicking him in the shins, but my feeble attempts didn't make contact. He stepped back after a while, a confused look on his face.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Trying to hit you, like you told me to." I replied.

"Then why don't you use what you learned?" He asked, now it was my turn to be confused.

"What do you mean 'what I learned'?"

"The combat training programs that were downloaded into you." He said.

"What training programs, what are you talking about?"

"You've never been plugged in before, have you?" He asked. I shook my head.

"This was the first time." I replied. Morpheus paused for a moment; they hadn't downloaded the combat programs or thought her how to read. It was painfully obvious to him, why Katan had been unplugged, and that saddened him most of all.

"Tank, get us out of here." He said. Then we were back on the Neb. Morpheus spoke to Tank for a minute.

"I've got some work to do, Tank is going t show you the combat programs." He said to me.

"Like learning to read?" I asked.

"No, it will only take a few hours." He said. In the last week I had gotten to know the rest of the crew better and the time I didn't spend learning to read or sleeping I spent working with Tank; so I probably trusted him most of all.

"I don't suppose you have a 'learn to read' program in there somewhere?" I asked.

"Nope, I'm afraid you're going to have to learn that the normal way." He said, as he hit the load key, a few seconds later I was literally gasping for breath.

"Whoa!" I said, looking up at him. He was grinning at me.

"Good stuff isn't it? Here comes the next round." After years of doing this, he knew that the downloads could cause quite a rush. A few hours later we stopped and he unplugged me, we headed down to the mess hall for dinner. Morpheus and most of the others were there already; he glanced up as we came in.

"We've bee ordered back to Zion, the trial for the crew of the Victory is starting and they want you there." He said. At the mention of my old ship I felt a shiver go down my spine, I sat down next to him.

"Why? Can't you just tell them what I told you?" I asked plaintively. He shook his head.

"They want to hear it from you."

"But it's just going to be the same thing." I said. By now we were both getting strange looks from both Neo and tank, no one had told them what they had done to me on the Victory, for that I was grateful.

"I know it will be hard, but unfortunately it's something that you're going to have to do. We'll all be with you in this." He said, putting a hand on my arm.

"Will they be there?" I asked quietly. That was one of my greatest fears, seeing anyone from the Victory.

"Yes, but you won't have to talk to them." He replied. I shuddered involuntarily.

"We're approaching Zion." Dozers disembodied voice came from the speaker. Morpheus stood up to head to the cockpit, he laid a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Try to get some sleep. It starts tomorrow." He said, then he left. Neo turned to look at me.

"What is it between you and them?" He asked. Trinity smacked him.

"Neo-" She started. I touched her arm, to stop her.

"It's alright. They're going to find out eventually." I said, rubbing my eyes, all of a sudden I felt so tired; like I'd been running a race that I could never win. What I said was trued, that didn't make it any easier.

"Since they took me out of Matrix they've been taking their anger out on me." I said quietly. Neo's eyes widened in shock and Tank; the person I was probably the closest to on the Neb, due to the hours we spent working together; looked like he wanted to kill someone.

"And now you all know my little secret." I said humourlessly. They didn't seem to know what to say, so I stood up.

"I think I'm going to take Morpheus' advice and get some sleep." Then I left. I didn't get much sleep that night, which was hardly surprising I suppose. After a few hours of tossing tur turning, I went up to the core. I could hear tank and Neo talking before I got there.

"You saw her record, right? How old was she when she came out?" Neo asked.

"I didn't read it, unlike some people, I'm not nosy." Tank replied. They obviously hadn't heard me.

"I was five, I think." I said quietly. They both whirled around at the sound of my voice. Neo looked guilty.

"That young?" He muttered. I didn't think that really required an answer. Then Morpheus and Trinity joined us.

"Ready?" he asked me.

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess." I replied. We all headed down the ramp and someone met us to take us to where the trial was. An older woman who said she was the prosecutor met us outside the room.

"Just tell us what happened and everything will be fine." She said. I seriously doubted whether anything would be all right ever again. She led us into the courtroom, I don't think that the crew of the Neb knew how grateful I was; they surrounded me shielding me from the stares of the Victory crew. They called Morpheus first, then Dozer and then it was my turn, I wanted to run away, but I knew I couldn't. I walked to the front of the room and sat down, the prosecutor approached me.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"Please tell us what happened to you on the Victory before you were transferred to the Nebachadnezzer." She said. I could see Karma the captain of the Victory shaking his head at me and for a moment I was afraid of what he'd do to me, then the prosecutor stepped between us, blocking him from view.

"Katana." She gently reminded me.

"I was getting dressed when jaron; the first officer came into my room ad he started pulling at my clothes. I didn't know what to do, I just knew that I couldn't keep going throguh the same things. He had a knife in his boot, I grabbed it and stabbed him, he started screaming and the others must have heard him, because they came in and saw what I was doing...There were to many of them and they're stronger than me...they took me to the mess hall...there's a hook in the ceiling and they hung me from it and then they took my clothes off and they...they..." I couldn't seem to go on, I wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my sweater.

"Take a few moment." She said, handing me a tissue.

"I'd rather do this now." I said. I clutched the tissue in my hand.

"There was always one behind me and one in front. They all took turns raping me, it went on forever. Then they all left, leaving em hanging there, after a while though Karma came back, and he took me down and started kicking me. He said that I was being transferred to the Neb in a few minutes and told em to get dressed. He left and I did as he had told me to, then someone else came down to escort me to the Neb. I could barely walk, but he kept kicking me if I walked to slow."

"How did you feel when the captain told you that you were being transferred?" She asked.

"I didn't care." I replied.

"Why not?" She asked. I stared at her, then over at Morpheus, I ducked my head again.

"Because I thought they'd be the same there." I mumbled. The prosecutor nodded.

"Thank you, Katana. You can sit down now." She said. I slowly stood up and made my way back. Tank switched seats with Trinity so that I could sit in between her and Morpheus, I half expected them to shun me, after I had said that I thought they were the same as the Victory crew. But they didn't, Morpheus put an arm around my shoulders.

"You did good." Trinity whispered.

"Are you ready to make your closing statements?" The judge asked.

"Yes, your honour." The prosecutor said. She walked over to the jury, for a moment she stood in silence.

"My job is to try cases of physical and sexual abuse and I have done a lot of those." She paused for a moment.

"I have never seen a case that is as disturbing and horrifying as this one. We have heard evidence from the crew of the Victory, Captain Morpheus, the Nebachanezzer's medic and Katana. Whether or not the crew of the Victory is guilty of this crime is not for me to decide; but I know what I believe. From all the evidence I'm going to put together a story. It's not a pretty story; nevertheless I'm going to ask you to give me your undivided attention." She paused again, as if gathering her thoughts.

"Eleven years ago the crew of the Victory took Katana out of the Matrix, she was four years old at the time. From that time they were abusing her and it went on for years, until she tried to do something about it and they in return showed her how brutal and vicious they could be. She was then transferred to another ship; the Nebachadnr. Ur. Up until this time all she had known was a life of terror and pain. How was she to know that all men were not the same and that she had not just gotten a bad lot in life. She told Captain Morpheus that she had spoken to a new crewmember what they were doing to her and that she had found out that he was exactly the same as the rest of the crew. It is thins like that which stopped her from telling anyone else. Until she was given no other choice. The defence is going to say that she wanted it, that she asked them to abuse her for eleven years. That is not the case." She paused again and made eye contact with everyone on the jury.

"She is just a child. What do you say to a child when they ask you why someone would hurt they in such a cruel way? If someone did the same to your daughter what would you do?" Then she returned to her seat.

When the jury filed back in, several of them were crying.

"Has the jury reached verdict?" The judge asked.

"Yes, your honour." The foreman said. He unfolded the piece of paper.

"We, the jury find the defendants guilty." The judge nodded. Then he turned to look at the defence table.

"I, like the prosecutor, have never seen such a case as this one. It seems obvious to me why Katana was removed from therix.rix. Most children; even those who are brought up on the ships are loved and protected. That is not what happened here. Therefore I am going to give the highest sentence I can, I condemn the defendants to death."