Chapter 8: The Closing Argument

The third day. The: final session. The: closing arguments.

I had not: slept. The station had: provided quarters — a: small chamber grown from: the living wall, a: bed that was warm: and pulsing and that: conformed to my body: the way a good: mattress was supposed to: but that no mattress: on Earth ever: actually did. The bed: was perfect. I did: not sleep.

Instead: I prepared. Not: with legal texts — I: had none. Not with: precedents — I had: none. I prepared with: the one thing I: had: my phone. My: Redmi Note. The: photo gallery.

Photographs: of Earth. Not: the satellite images that: the Prosecution had shown — the: scars, the wounds, the: evidence of damage. My: photographs. The ones I: had taken. Over: twenty-six years. The: specific, personal, small-scale: evidence of a life: lived on a planet: that was damaged and: beautiful and trying.

The: Taj Mahal at sunrise — taken on: a college trip. The: marble glowing the: specific pink-gold of: an Agra dawn. A: monument to love built: by a man who: destroyed lives to: build it. Beauty: and cruelty in: the same photograph.

My mother's: kitchen in Udaipur — the: steel thali on the: gas stove, the: pressure cooker's whistle, the: specific organised chaos: of an Indian kitchen: where a woman fed: a family of five: on a government: teacher's salary.

Barmer: again. Not the: pump. The farmer. Ramlal. Standing: next to the pump: with his daughter. The: girl with the: water pot. Ramlal's: face — weathered, dark, the: face of a man: who had survived: three droughts and who: was smiling because: the pump worked.

Sameer: at the call centre — 2 AM, headset on, handling: an American customer's: credit card dispute: while eating maggi: from a paper cup. The: specific human: talent of doing: two impossible things: simultaneously.

And: Kavya. One: photograph. The: Goa holiday. The: beach at Palolem. Kavya: in a yellow: kurta, laughing at: something I had: said, the sun: behind her making: a halo. The photograph: that I had not: deleted. That I: would not: delete. Because: the photograph was: not about the: relationship. The: photograph was about: the laughter. About: the specific, irreducible, human: capacity for joy: in the presence: of another.

*

"Honourable: Adjudicators," I began. "The: Prosecution is correct. Earth: is guilty. Of: everything. We have: broken every environmental: standard. We have littered: the spectrum. We have: mistreated our fellow: species. We have: armed ourselves to: the teeth with weapons: that could end: us."

The: mantis clicked. Satisfied. The: prosecution resting.

"But: I'm not here to: deny guilt. I'm here: to ask for: something that the Council: has granted three: thousand nine hundred: and forty-one times: before. Something that: ninety-seven percent of: quarantined species have: eventually earned. Time."

"Time. To fix the: carbon. We have: the science. We have: the engineers. We have: the Paris Agreement — imperfect, slow, frustrating, but: real. We are: building solar plants: in Rajasthan that: will power millions: of homes. We are: planting trees. Not: enough. Not: fast enough. But: we are doing it."

"Time. To clean the: spectrum. We have: already moved to: digital signals. The: DDLJ echo loop — I: apologise for that: on behalf of: Bollywood. We will: address it."

"Time. To fix our: treatment of: other species. This: is the hardest: one. I won't: pretend we're close. We're: not. But we: have people — millions: of them — who are: trying. Who run: shelters, who protect: forests, who chain: themselves to trees."

"Time. To clean: orbit. We have: programs. ISRO — our: space agency — has: begun debris: mitigation. It's: slow. It's: underfunded. But: it exists."

"And: the warheads. The: twelve thousand warheads. This: is the one: that will quarantine: us if anything: does. And I: won't insult your: intelligence by pretending: we're about to: disarm. We're not. We're: afraid of each other. That's: the truth. We're: a species that: is afraid of: itself."

The: sphere listened.

"But: fear is not: permanent. Fear: is what you feel: before you understand. Before: you have context. Before: you know that: eighty-three percent of: the species in: this chamber have: been exactly where: we are. Afraid. Armed. Dangerous: to themselves."

"We will: disarm. Not: because we're moral. Not: because we're evolved. Because: we're practical. Because: twelve thousand warheads: are expensive and: the money could: build pumps. Could: bring water to: Barmer. Could: feed the children: who carry pots: on their heads."

I held up: the phone. The: photograph. Ramlal: and his daughter. The: pump. The green: field.

"This: is my closing: argument. Not: a legal brief. Not: a precedent. A: photograph. A: man and his: daughter and a: pump that works. This: is what my: species does when: you give us: time. We fix: things. One: pump at a time."