The Chief Justice allowed the applause to run on for a few minutes before using his gavel to silence it.  There was a brief colloquy among the three judges, and then the Chief Justice rapped again.  Little Fuzzy looked perplexed.  Everybody had been quiet after he did it the first time, hadn’t they?

“It is the unanimous decision of the court to accept the report already entered into the record and just summarized by Lieutenant Ybarra, TFN, and to thank him and all who have been associated with him.

“It is now the ruling of this court that the species known as Fuzzy fuzzy holloway zarathustra is in fact a race of sapient beings, entitled to the respect of all other sapient beings and to the full protection of the law of the Terran Federation.”  He rapped again, slowly, pounding the decision into the legal framework.

Space Commodore Napier leaned over and whispered; all three of the judges nodded emphatically.  The naval officer rose.

“Lieutenant Ybarra, on behalf of the Service and of the Federation, I thank you and those associated with you for a lucid and excellent report, the culmination of work which reflects credit upon all who participated in it.  I also wish to state that a suggestion made to me by Lieutenant Ybarra regarding possible instrumental detection of sapient mentation is being credited to him in my own report, with the recommendation that it be given important priority by the Bureau of Research and Development.  Perhaps the next time we find people who speak beyond the range of human audition, who have fur and live in a mild climate, and who like their food raw, we’ll know what they are from the beginning.”

Bet Ybarra gets another stripe, and a good job out of this.  Jack hoped so.  Then Pendarvis was pounding again.

“I had almost forgotten; this is a criminal trial,” he confessed.  “It is the verdict of this court that the defendant, Jack Holloway, is not guilty as here charged.  He is herewith discharged from custody.  If he or his attorney will step up here, the bail bond will be refunded.”  He puzzled Little Fuzzy by hammering again with his gavel to adjourn court.

This time, instead of keeping quiet, everybody made all the noise they could, and Uncle Gus was holding him high over his head and shouting: 

“The winnah!  By unanimous decision!”

XVII

Ruth Ortheris sipped at the tart, cold cocktail.  It was good; oh, it was good, all good!  The music was soft, the lights were dim, the tables were far apart; just she and Gerd, and nobody was paying any attention to them.  And she was clear out of the business, too.  An agent who testified in court always was expended in service like a fired round.  They’d want her back, a year from now, to testify when the board of inquiry came out from Terra, but she wouldn’t be Lieutenant j.g.  Ortheris then, she’d be Mrs. Gerd van Riebeek.  She set down the glass and rubbed the sunstone on her finger.  It was a lovely sunstone, and it meant such a lovely thing.