“New Song of Old Earth” in the fourth Darkfire anthology Bones of the World: Tales from Time’s End, edited by Bruce Holland Rogers, from SFF Net, 2001, ISBN 0-9669698-4-7. Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or directly from the publisher, SFF Net.
I usually refer to my clients as “the accused.” But, in my own mind, I usually think of them as “the prisoner.” Certainly I thought of Martin Tyo that way, even though he wasn’t, really–he had a cheap room in a hotel near the transit station.
There was no need to put him in a cell. He was already ten years from yesterday. . . .