“I was well off, runnin’ a respectable business, when this man—this alien monster—shows up, and completely against my will, sends me to this alternate reality!” Wayne glared at me from the witness stand.

I knew he was lying, just like all his duplicates who had also testified against me, but there was no way to prove it. They were all criminals. It is ironic that I was the one on trial and the Waynes were testifying against me.

“Wayne, you’ve told us your story,” said the U.S. military prosecutor, what the humans called a Judge Advocate General, or JAG, a young man in a uniform. “Can you point out the person who so interrupted your life and happiness, and sent you here with all the others, causing famine and war?”

“Yes, he’s right there!” Wayne said, pointing at me. “Only, that’s not really him. He’s using a thing in his pocket that makes him look like a man. He’s really this hairy purple monster thing!” His face turned red as he said this. I could hear the blood rushing through the capillaries in his face and his heart beating rapidly. Like all the Waynes, he was unshaven with a dirty blue bandanna on his head, just above his eyes. His red t-shirt and blue jeans were grease stained.

“Let the record show that the witness, Wayne Ogilvy #23 in the witness list, pointed at the image of Songo, the self-admitted alien from Quartenia,” the JAG said. “I have no more questions for this witness.”

“Once again, do you have any questions for the witness?” the judge, an elderly woman, asked me.

“No, Ma’am,” I said. There could be no point in asking questions of Wayne. He’d just lie.

“Are you sure?” the judge asked. “Again, I strongly recommend you have someone represent you.”

I didn’t think this would help and shook my head in the human fashion.

The JAG jabbed his fingers at me. “I now call to the stand the defendant, Songo.”

Wayne gave me a cold stare as armed guards led him off the witness stand. I rose to my feet and walked to the witness stand. As we passed, he lunged behind me and stomped his foot down where he knew my tail would be. I winced. The guards grabbed him as onlookers in the gallery shouted.

“I’m gonna cut that purple fur off you, skin and all, you wait!” Wayne said between clenched teeth.

“Order!” yelled the judge. She banged at her desk with a small gavel. They dragged Wayne away and order was soon restored.

I was sworn in according to their custom, and the JAG faced me. “I’d prefer if you’d turn off that device you hide behind, your—what do you call it?—a Hologenerator?”

“That’s correct,” I said. “I’ll turn it off.” In my human disguise, I was a very ordinary looking middle-aged man, since all of my parameters were based on averages from my research of humans from my reality. Once I turned the Hologenerator off, the disguise dropped away.

There were gasps from the onlookers in the court. I’m pretty typical for a Quartenian. I’m a little taller than most humans, and long purple fur covers my body. My tail is rather thick. Compared to humans, my nose and mouth are huge, and are surrounded by yellow scales. My eyes are bright red circles. I know I looked as strange to them as they look to me. I was sure this would influence the jury, although I was pretty sure my fate was set anyway.

When things settled down, and I had formally identified myself, the JAG began his questioning. “Why are you here?”

“I am here because I was arrested and put on trial by your military for actions taken by my duplicates in other realities.”

“You are evading the question,” he said. “I want to know why you came to Earth.”

“I’m an alternate reality historian, specializing in humans. I’ve studied your species in my reality for many years. There are no more humans in my reality since they blew themselves up with nuclear weapons many years ago. So my knowledge of you is primarily based on surviving records that we’ve found. I’ve come here to study what living humans are like.”

The JAG shook his head. “You expect us to believe this innocent tale of yours, after what you’ve done to us?” He paced back and forth. Then he came to a stop directly in front of me, and looked me in the eye, a human custom used to intimidate others.

“It is the opinion of the prosecution that you came here to destroy our society in a carefully developed plan, using millions of these Waynes to weaken us in preparation for an invasion by your kind. We may never get all the Waynes, but you shall pay for your part in this crime against humanity.”

There were cheers from the onlookers as the judge banged her hammer for order. If I had a court-appointed attorney, as was offered to me, he would have objected to the JAG’s statement, but it wouldn’t have changed anything. So I didn’t object. I had no supporters here. The one hundred million Waynes hated me for sending -- [End of Preview.]