Then an “assessor” was hired by the miner’s partners to determine who killed him. After interviewing tens of people, the assessor determined the culprit and, in a dramatic confrontation, killed the murderer in a derelict space station.
I’m not sure what was supposed to be wrong with what we saw. Why does the Council forbid these cubes? Robert insisted it was due to the propaganda. Perhaps this cube was atypical, but I failed to see any propaganda whatsoever.
We all talked about the cube for several kilosecs. Where did the assessor get his authority? Why would anyone solve crimes if he weren’t a SecPol? Why did the partners hire him -- why not just contact the Security Police?
Our discussion ran longer than the actual porno cube, and was just as much fun. Hank told us to compare this discussion to any of the organized conversations we had in school after one of the cubes that they made us watch. Those discussions were always so dull, filled with long silences while we waited for the teacher to hint at what we were supposed to say. Here we could all be ourselves and say what we really thought.
Emboldened by this, I casually mentioned what I had seen at the spaceport. A brief moment of silence preceded the deluge of questions. Some of the students had heard about the ship, others knew nothing. When the din quieted the only new thing I learned was that the old man I had seen was the spaceship’s sole occupant. I never realized you could operate a ship by yourself.
When we got back to my house it still wasn’t very late, so Hank insisted that we have a reading lesson. He carefully removed the bookdiscs from his jacket and we began.