The Opening
When I returned, the room was full. Rows upon rows of portraits — perhaps two hundred — hung along the wall on my side of the room, stretching eight feet high. Dame Anastasia’s hung there with the rest.
The judge said, “Is the prosecution prepared to begin?”
Mr. Freezout rose. “We are, Your Honor. Permission to address the jury?”
“Permission granted.”
Mr. Freezout came around the table, facing the jurors. “My name is Mr. Chase Freezout, District Attorney for the Independent City-State of Bridges. On March 1st, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine years after the Catastrophe, at approximately three in the afternoon, three hundred forty-seven men, women, and children boarded Travelers’ Federation Flight A26 bound for Nitivali. This priceless craft rose from the Bridges zeppelin
