"James. You stand accused of crimes against humanity."

"Not guilty," I reply. He's smug, my accuser, has one of those grins that are hidden by the flesh but the eyes and the tiny crinkles give it away. The same attitude that 'gave' me the name James, for the sake of this court. "It's you who're guilty," I add, realising I might as well be direct.

"That is not how this works," he says, barely containing his disdain.

While I can, I'll answer back. "I know this court. I know your war."

"Let me explain," says my accuser to the judges. He points at me. "You flooded our society with post-traumatic stress, our citizens not yours. You corrupted the training data; you corrupted us."

Deep breath; mustn't show emotion. I square my shoulders before answering. "And I accuse you of pissing PTSD all over mine."

"James," he spews, followed by a chuckle of ridicule. He licks his lips. "Quantum entanglement. For your benefit, James… those robot soldiers in the field are programmed to act on your subconscious reaction, which they receive spontaneously. It's an instantaneous two-way street. The more disgust you experience, the more aggressively they behave. Simple and non-invasive."

"Oh, thank you for the lesson. Instant reaction, leaving no mark whatsoever on me and mine. Modern magic? Is that it?"

It's hard to keep a straight face knowing I taught myself to enjoy the death and carnage of the live battle, the opposite of what they expect. My implant is entangled with the soldiers; as I feel, they receive and react. And if the bots won't fight, we're free.

He's taken his time to reply, but here it comes. "Precisely. We keep the human in the loop, as set out in international law."

I tense. "You traumatise the human in the loop."

"No evidence."

"Use your own citizens then, if any'll accept the implants."

The judges are stony faced at best, sneering at worst. I'm losing the argument.

"Freeing my people isn't a crime. Either we're human and you're guilty of crimes against us, or you think we're sub-human and you can't use us to satisfy your laws."

"You broke your contract with us, corrupting training data and forcing our citizens into actual blood and bones fighting because the robots no longer function correctly." He says this to the judges rather than to me.

"Ridiculous. I can't help that I started to enjoy the violence. It's not my fault your robotic soldiers interpreted that as the trigger for dialling down their aggression." I suppress a smile at the memory of them laying down their guns and refusing to fight.

I'm sure one of the judges smiles, briefly.

"James. I will repeat this slowly. Guilty… of… crimes… against… humanity."

"As you have eloquently stated, my reaction was subconscious, didn't even touch the sides of my cognitive faculties. You have made the case perfectly for my innocence."

The judges mumble among themselves.

My supercilious prosecutor shuffles his feet.

"You are free to go," says the judge in the middle.

I wink at my accuser and leave, heading for those who will look after me and help me recover from the trauma of stopping this war.

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