COURTROOM AFTERNOON. A judge sits at the bench while Keiren Holt paces back and forth. To the stage right, Mara Duvall and her associate sit at their table, patiently listening. To stage left, the defense’s table is set up, with the defendant dressed in orange with a buzzed head. She sits with her face away from the audience, seemingly out of shame.
The audience is treated as the jury as Holt finishes his opening statement.

HOLT: …so yes, you - the jury - will all see that my client, Ms. Cross was very much present and responsible for this fire that destroyed roughly a billion dollars in technology, materials, one of a kind prototypes, products, and R&D. However, the crucial distinction lies here: my client waited for a crucial time when she knew that no employees, no bystanders, no first responders, no humans would be killed or even harmed by the actions she chose to take that night. She chose (ON PURPOSE!) to do this only to send a message regarding her former employer. Never did the thought enter her head of harming, killing, maming, or even discomforting any individual. Keeping this in mind, it is impossible to reconcile the notion that my client could have ever acted with intent to kill, so we can quite easily rule out the prosecution's blatantly slanderous distortion that my client ever intentionally---

DUVALL: Objection, argumentative.

JUDGE LAURENS: Sustained.

HOLT: I'll rephrase - so we can rule out that any of this was an attempt at mass murder. The forty murder charges brought against my client are completely baseless. Vita Kindergarten themselves did not consider their output to have any legal protections above property before this trial. My client - DR. Cross - did what she did because she felt she was forced to. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, The information that we will bring to light in these next coming days will completely change the perception you may have of this event. Thank you.

JUDGE LAURENS: Prosecution may call its first witness at this time.

DUVALL: The People call forward Doctor William Graves, the chief medical officer for Second Trimester Development at Vita Kindergarten.

(DR. Graves takes the witness stand)

JUDGE LAURENS: Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

GRAVES: I do.

DUVALL: Dr. Graves, during your time working at Vita Kindergarten - as Chief Medical Officer for Second Trimester Development - what would you say your primary duty was in your position?

GRAVES: My responsibilities were to ensure the healthy growth periods of the subjects we raised between the 13th and 28th weeks of development.

DUVALL: How many subjects were you and the rest of the staff responsible for raising in your department?

GRAVES: Just of the Second Trimester Development Unit?

DUVALL: Yes, just that unit.

GRAVES: Sixteen subjects.

DUVALL: (repeating) Sixteen. And how many subjects were in the care of the facility in total?

GRAVES: Forty, one for each week of Gestation.

DUVALL: How exactly would you define the subjects you supervised raising?

GRAVES: (pauses for a moment) You mean, forgive me I’m… That could mean several things…?

DUVALL: I’ll be more specific: What were the subjects you and your team raised?

GRAVES: They were… Infants.

DUVALL: (trying to draw out the truth) Human infants?

GRAVES: Yes.

DUVALL: And were all of them alive?

GRAVES: Yes they were.

DUVALL: How could you be sure?

GRAVES: Because we monitored their vitals, and all of them clearly indicated that they were alive and healthy.

DUVALL: Could you be more specific? What vitals did you monitor?

GRAVES: Because we observed sustained fetal heartbeats via Doppler ultrasound, recorded regular CNS activity on continuous EEG monitoring, and documented appropriate metabolic function through serial cord blood sampling. All biometric parameters - respiratory effort, perfusion, neural responses - were consistent with viable human development at respective gestational ages. They were living human organisms demonstrating all accepted clinical markers of life.

DUVALL: “Human organisms”? Would you define these infants raised by Vita Kindergarten as different from any other infant carried by a human mother

GRAVES: No.

DUVALL: In your professional opinion, was there any reason to make a distinction between the subjects you and your team helped raise, and any other human child?

GRAVES: No there were not.

DUVALL: No further questions, your honor.

JUDGE LAURENS: Defense may cross-examine.

(Holt practically jumps up to cross examine Dr. Graves)

HOLT: Dr. Graves, you said you were in charge of managing subjects during the second trimester; is that right?

GRAVES: Yes, that’s correct.

HOLT: Were you good at your job?

GRAVES: Uh… Yes, I would say so.

HOLT: (non-confrontational) Why do you say that?

GRAVES: Well, because our specimens’ viability rate was refined to the point that we were able to have side-by-side comparisons with natural gestation periods, consistently matching exactly on all benchmarks, and even exceeding on some.

HOLT: That’s quite an accomplishment. How did you achieve this viability rate?

GRAVES: Well, there are tons and tons of specific advances that we were able to make and…

HOLT: (patiently interrupting) What I mean to say is, did you develop this process in theory or in simulations?

GRAVES: We also had many practical applications, using animals and other methods.

HOLT: Did you ever use the subjects themselves for tests or development applications?

GRAVES: (Very hesitant, and unsure how this will go over) Well… Yes

HOLT: You did?

GRAVES: Yes, we did.

HOLT: Can you paint us a picture of what that looks like?