There was no actual place for the Hadiran Accord to physically meet; the entire thing was digitally-hosted on the World Cloud. There were roughly 70 delegates, all presented as faceless, vaguely-humanoid shades of light, surrounding a main circular central area. Different rings expanded out from the lowest levels, up to the top, in the shape of the tiered steps of a coliseum. There were no walls, floors, or ceilings, just open space for eternity in every direction.

And it was quiet, until the chimes sounded. Lights dimmed a little, as if the bright clear sky had suddenly been set to the moments before twilight, and from the center-space at the bottom of the bowl-like structure, a much-larger variant of those same faceless amalgams rose into view.

“The 89th Emergency Session of the Hadiran Accord is called to order.” The large construct stated; its voice was loud, but serene, sounding neither masculine nor feminine, but somewhere in between, “The provisional agenda of this meeting is to address the growing crisis within the nation of Kitez.”

All around the digital room, faint spotlights shining down on each of the anonymous-looking specters shut off…save one.

The large presence turned towards it, “The agenda cannot be adopted until there is unanimous consent.”

“The province of Paraga does not consent.” That lone figure stated; its own voice matched the larger one’s cadence – placid and neutral, “How can such a meeting be called without the voice of the nation in question?”

All around the space, a subtle humming began to resonate, then another, until nearly the entire room sounded-off like a chorus of singing-bowls; it was a clear message of agreement.

“The territory of Kitez was invited to participate but has not yet responded.” The main entity explained, and the resonance faded, “It will be noted in the record that the Accord has acknowledged this, and will continue to adopt the agenda with Kitez in absentia.”

Paraga’s representative darkened its spotlight, and things advanced.

“The agenda is adopted.” The construct noted, and returned to the neutral center, “In accordance with rule 23, of the Accord’s provisional rules of procedure, we offer a final invitation to the representatives of Kitez to participate in this meeting.”

“We accept your invitation.”

The singing-bowls returned in force as a new construct manifested in the center-ring, near as large as the first one.

From Maeve – with both eyes covered-over by the golden interface – Gabriel swallowed a nervous breath, “Well shit, they actually turned up. I wonder who it is though? Is it the Duchess or one of the Magistrates?” He asked himself, and pulled-up the guest-dossier of the newly-appeared amalgamation. To his not-quite-so-shock, it was indeed Far’nah herself.

The large hologram dissipated in a scatter of sparkling light, and traveled over to the second ring, finding a gap between the delegates of Dasiner and Civan before reforming at their same size.

“I will now invite the main speakers for the meeting; representing the Fourth Wing of the Luminary Council, Eidolon; Lord Xanarken Tellan, and Vice Eidolon, Lord Gabriel Lugios. Representing the territory of Kitez, Duchess Far’nah Calix.”

Within the antechamber to the Duchy’s throne-room, Far’nah scoffed; she wore a sort of V.R. mask over the upper half of her face, “Territory, they call us, as though we’re some savage expanse of uninhabited land. The utter disrespect…”

Around her, taking notes and listening in with their own mask-like apparatuses, were four Magistrates, one of whom being Regulus.

“Before we begin the talks, let it be restated for our guests in attendance that all language spoken in this place is modulated for civility and tone. Hostility will not be tolerated or allowed. We believe that productive dialogue can only be achieved when all parties feel respected and heard, without interruption. The Hadiran Accord will now begin its consideration of item one; approximately two days ago, a diplomatic mission was sent by the Fourth Wing to Kitez to discuss Kitez’s raising of a colony-fleet vessel into working service. The Council – in accordance with its responsibility as the arbiters of the original mission to terraform and colonize this world – had a claim to that vessel and sought to retake possession. Kitez refused, citing maritime rules of salvage. Upon departure, both the Duchess and the Fourth Wing’s escort-fleet passed around the city of Stoneface Bluffs, whereupon the Duchess’ personal ship crashed under suspicious circumstances. Thus…Duchess Far’nah has lobbied the accusation that the Fourth Wing – namely, Lord Xanarken Tellan – purposefully sabotaged the ship in an attempt to assassinate her, as retaliation for her refusal to send the colony ship to the Council. The Fourth has subsequently rejected this, citing that there is no evidence to suggest they were in any way involved with the ship’s destruction, and that simply passing by the city does not amount to correlation. Without judgement, can both parties agree that this is the argument as it is being presented.”

The two golden ghosts representing Kitez and the Fourth flashed green in affirmation.

“This assembly has no authority to issue a verdict on the truth of either claim. However, the conflict that is arising from it has created international concern.” The head-hologram announced.

Far’nah was galled, “They’re not even going to listen to that? Not a single word is to be said about the crash?”

“Our purpose today is to find a solution to the conflict so as to avoid further hostilities. To that end, since the Duchess has already stated her case with a publicized declaration, we will allow Lord Xanarken to have the floor first to issue a rebuttal.”

Since the Eidolon had a mantle, the digital signature of it simply appeared there in place of the faceless figure that the others were represented by. He manifested as his normal self on a disc of light in the center of the base, and a larger variant appeared above and behind him, focused from the chest up. Every movement and gesture was matched, and Xanarken circled his sights around at those multiple tiers and their golden ghosts.

“Thank you, everyone, for allowing me the opportunity to give these opening statements.” The Eidolon started, “While we in the Luminary Council regret the Duchess’ chosen course, and look forward to exonerating ourselves in the coming investigation, the simple fact of the matter is that Kitez is in possession of a colony ship that belongs to us. This fleet was our charge from the moment we departed from the Earth, and it is still our responsibility now. Most notably…because the SSCF Tuonela – according to the Duchess’ own word – is still in possession of its original crew; alive and well, still in cryo-lock.”

Specters flashed around the entire room; dissent and argument would not be allowed vocally, but the response was clear.

Xanarken continued, “So long after the crash, and with the civilization that has subsequently grown out of the communal effort of everyone who arrived, there is simply no reason to leave those people in limbo while Kitez parades the ship around like some kind of spectacle. Moreover, it is our responsibility – not Kitez’s – to ensure the safety and assimilation of the personnel. They are expecting the names of their commanders to be declared…and we are still here.”

“The Duchess may respond.”

Without a mantle, Far’nah’s ghostly image continued on as that faceless visage, though she took Xanarken’s same place on that center stage, “There is simply no precedent that requires us to surrender the crew or the ship to the Council.” She started adamantly, “Every province – nay, nation – in this room knows full well that their origins stem from the communities that grew from the survivors of the crash, be they solitary and later found, or landed close-enough together to help one another from the start. In our view, the SSCF Tuonela is ours to foster, and we will not be threatened by the Old Guard. The Luminary Council simply has no claim on it; it didn’t exist for decades after the fall.” She looked around that room in her visor, trying to figure out which of those ghosts was the Eidolon, but with all of them looking the same, she had no one to stare at. In frustration, she simply continued, “Further still, the Eidolon have never once offered proof that they even are the same people as they claim to be. No one has seen their flesh in 300 years, and we all know that humans simply are not that long-lived. Kitez cannot and will not surrender the fate of the vessel to an A.I. system with a clear bias.”

Gabriel felt a chill, but he knew in that moment, it was probably his time to step into that ill-begotten lime-light.

There were a few prolonged seconds where nothing and no one spoke, until suddenly the original announcer’s voice returned, “Lord Xanarken will defer a response to Vice Eidolon, Lord Gabriel Lugios.”

Once Far’nah’s placeholder-image faded, ceding the floor, the Vice took a breath and prepared to speak. His vantage-point then changed, and he saw the scene from the bottom of the proverbial bowl, “If the Duchess won’t accept the word of an Eidolon, then she can accept mine. The truth of the matter is that the Duchess has no intention of releasing those passengers. In the time it would have taken to restore the SSCF Tuonela to a state where it could not-only rise from the depths, but also outfit it with Kitezan anti-gravity-drives such that it can fly, she could have been deboarding and rousing every one of those people. She hasn’t. She’s going to keep them as hostages, and force concessions from the Council in exchange for their safety. It should also be stated that she has successfully woken-up some of that crew, since she admitted to myself and Lord Xanarken that she has the bridge-crew up and working for her.” Those lights flashed in anger again, but Gabriel wasn’t sure if it was because they didn’t believe him, or because they did, “Duchess Far’nah was explicit in her statement during the parlay that she brought them out of hyper-sleep with the sole intent of making them pilot the Tuonela for her. She’s given no stated purpose as to why she brought the ship up at all; the Council sees this as a threat, both to us and to the passengers caught in the limbo.”

Stolen story; please report.

“How the…Hell do you…use this damn thing?” Far’nah grumbled as she tried to navigate the foreign tech. She eventually found the way Xanarken had originally sent a private message, and sent one of her own, “I want to meet my accuser on the floor.”

Gabriel’s eye flinched when he got the request from the announcer, and shook his head, “Guess this’ll be it.” He said, and indicated agreement. A moment later, his perception of the room changed again as his faceless representative-visage moved to one side, and Far’nah’s appeared ahead of him.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve claiming this is a hostage situation!” She barked, only for her amalgam to say something else entirely, “I disagree with your implication.” Far’nah balked a little, “…Why did it change what I said?”

“Censorship.” Regulus supposed, “It’s forcing a manner of speech if it doesn’t like our tone.”

“My tone?” She echoed, but drew a breath and tried to find her Zen, “Fine…”

Gabriel waited; he knew full-well she had meant to say something rude, and was giving her the chance to try again as she learned how the game was played.

“The accusations made by the Fourth Wing are unsubstantiated.” She said, and her words were allowed through.

“Then state your intent for the SSCF Tuonela.” Gabriel retorted.

“I really hate how placid these voice-overs are.” Far’nah grumbled, and opened the line again, “The nation of Kitez demands formal recognition from the Accord and the Council; if granted, we will release the Tuonela’s passengers into the larger population.”

A mixture of angry light-blinking and singing-bowls chimed-out.

“So you intend to keep them in Kitez either way.” Gabriel surmised, “And thus, you’re not really releasing them at all.”

Far’nah scoffed, “In good conscience, we can’t release them to the Council’s custody; your leadership has made it evident that lives are disposable. To entrust you with 70,000 of them would seem reckless and irresponsible.”

“Your personal belief that the Fourth tried to assassinate you is not grounds for your chosen course.” Gabriel answered, his brow a bit wrinkled in annoyance, “The fact that our ships were passing by at the time of the crash is not definitive evidence that we had anything to do with it.”

“I defy you to prove that you didn’t.”

Flashing lights blinked all around, and the announcer had to address them, “There will be order. I repeat to the parties involved; this assembly has no capacity to prove or disprove any claims about the incident in question.”

“I’ll allow it.” Gabriel noted, “If this is the avenue through which the Duchess wishes to plead her case, then I say we let her.”

The singing-bowls returned; it resonated to a high-pitch and seemed to cancel itself out with the unanimous agreement.

“The Hadiran Accord has spoken; Duchess Far’nah, you may proceed, but remember, a verdict cannot and will not be issued by this body.” The announcer reminded.

She smirked, “Finally…” She held her head a bit higher, “Vice Lord Gabriel Lugios threatened Kitez with utter ruination if we didn’t comply with his demands, saying he would unleash the full destructive force of the Sixth Wing onto us in an effort to regain custody of the Tuonela. As the flagship of the Duchy, my personal skiff was privately and meticulously maintained. There were no faults with it when it took off from Oceanside that afternoon. That it would suddenly explode and crash as the Fourth is flying by cannot possibly be coincidence…and I say this in light of the fact that Lord Xanarken personally threatened me during a recent border dispute.”

“There it is…” Gabriel said to himself, and waited for the anger to simmer before responding, “You continue to accuse Lord Xanarken of malicious intent yet offer nothing to prove any of your claims. He has dedicated his entire life – 350 years – to maintaining peace and longevity across Hadira. His has never been the voice of violence. To suggest that he would suddenly employ malicious means – and at such a daring and implicative moment – is the height of naïveté. The Fourth has been nothing but courteous to you and yours in spite of the constant chest-beating over the last two decades.”

“Naïve!? How dare you! If the godsdamned Council would stop their ceaseless invasion of my country, we wouldn’t have to reciprocate!” Far’nah barked, only to hear that voice replace her words again, “I disagree with your implication.”

Gabriel couldn’t help but snort a laugh to himself.

The Duchess gripped her seat’s arm-rest in frustration, and tried to normalize her tone, “…The Council has repeatedly disregarded the borders of my nation for its personal ends, sending its most elite warriors on missions of murder, time and again. Your flagrant disregard for our right to answer steel with steel sends a message that the Council doesn’t respect the right of a nation to defend itself.”

“The Council doesn’t recognize the territory of Kitez to be a nation in need of private defenses.” Gabriel countered, “It’s a rebel colony that has flippantly refused to rejoin the community. It has nothing but imagined enemies and a lofty sense of self-importance, acting with the hubris of a drunken hermit who refuses food because it isn’t from the right restaurant.”

The Duchess shot-up to her feet in rage, “You can say that but I can’t say how dare you!? What kind of circus is this!?” She yelled, “I disagree with your implication.” Her avatar said in her place.

“Your Grace, the system is responding to your tone, not your words.” One of the other Magistrates told her, “You must speak it gently.”

“The Luminary Council has offered, time and again, to bring Kitez into the fold of the Hadiran Accord, and offer it all the benefits and protections and services that it could possibly want.” Gabriel continued, much to the Duchess’ chagrin, “Your suggestion that we simply invade into Kitez to commit murder is also a misrepresentation of the facts; we go into the Exclusion Zone, a place notoriously unmonitored and used as a safe-haven by dangerous afflicted criminals who know they’ll be ignored there. If Kitez did the least bit of work in monitoring the comings and goings of entities into the Zone, the Council wouldn’t have need to do it ourselves. Or shall we lay out exactly how much damage is estimated to have been prevented by our surgical excursions, while we remind the Accord exactly how much damage is estimated to have been allowed by Kitez’s negligence?”

“I disagree with your implication. …I disagree with your implication.”

Gabriel lifted his head up, “I would further implicate Kitez’s tendency towards aggression by having a note made that this is the fourth time her replies have been augmented because her words were charged with hostility. It is thus the position of the Fourth that her accusation of our maleficence be stricken from the record and condemned by the whole of the Accord, since it’s clearly coming from a place of rage instead of rationality.”

“I disagree with your implication.”

Gabriel waited; the singing-bowls seemed to be sounding in his favor.

“…There is no explanation but for the Fourth’s interference that my ship was destroyed.” Far’nah finally managed to say, “I stand by my accusation of Lord Xanarken. He brought nanotech into my country and used it to sabotage my ship’s lift-off systems.”

“You cannot prove it definitively, Your Grace.” Gabriel answered, feeling a bit more relaxed to have pushed the Duchess into a proverbial corner, ”Stoneface Bluffs is at the southernmost tip of the Exclusion Zone, and as we have respected that boundary – excepting in extenuating circumstances caused by Kitez’s own refusal to act – we did not cut-across that expanse even if it would have been more convenient to our travel. We were forced to pass by that city, and you know that, because it’s the same path we took from Sargon to arrive at Oceanside in the first place. The veracity with which you accuse Lord Xanarken of sabotage carries as much water as my accusation that the Duchy detonated its own vessel on purpose, just for the purpose of attempting to assassinate the Fourth’s character and sow doubt.”

A mix of blinking and resonance answered that.

“As much as we can’t prove a negative, you can’t prove the positive, Your Grace.” Gabriel said, “If you’re so certain that the Council was behind it, however…it should be noted; if we actually wanted you dead, we wouldn’t have failed so spectacularly.”

Regulus and the other Magistrates sighed in annoyance; Far’nah was baffled, “But there’s no other way… It was so obvious…”

“It is the Fourth’s sincere wish to resolve disputes diplomatically.” Gabriel went on, further rubbing salt into that open wound, “We will continue to offer the olive-branch to Kitez no matter how often you refuse it. However, this situation with the Tuonela is untenable. You must release it to the Council.”

“I need do no such thing.” Far’nah answered bitterly, “Your thinly-veiled threats to unleash the Sixth on us in retaliation is exactly the sort of violence the Fourth would stand by.”

“The Fourth has no command over the Sixth.” Gabriel noted, “But while we can’t send them after you on purpose, warning you that Lord Rylen will see your retention of the Tuonela and its crew seems the prudent course. If you continue to refuse their return to the Council, I simply cannot guarantee he won’t see that as provocation, and launch an offensive against Kitez to rescue them. The involvement of the Sixth will only ever come into play by your choices; it is purely retaliatory, not instigative.”

“You hold no claim over the Tuonela, and the crew are not being mistreated.” Far’nah countered, “It’s ours by right, and as every nation on Hadira has done before, we can do with the ship what we wish, including dismantling it and retrieving the Warp Core. The fact that the passengers are still in hyper-sleep is incidental.”

“And yet, it’s entirely the reason we’re here.” Gabriel pointed out, and heard the resonance side with him yet again, “Just because you haven’t pulled the trigger doesn’t mean you aren’t holding a gun to their heads.”

The Duchess snarled, and lifted the V.R. mask to look at her Magistrates, “The odds were stacked against us as it was…I can’t believe the Accord is so brainwashed. None of them have any pride or solidarity. The Eidolon have them fully under their thumb. They wouldn’t piss on us if we were on fire.”

Regulus lifted his mask as well, “It’s a catch-22, Your Grace. We’ve been in possession of the Tuonela this long without ever doing anything to the passengers. The Fourth simply has no basis to suggest we would do anything in the future just because we’ve lifted the vessel out of the water.”

Far’nah nodded and replaced the mask, “Kitez has never made any move of aggression against those civilians, in spite of – as you well-noted – how long we’ve been actively working on the ship. We have no desire to inflict slaughter on them. The Sixth has no right to interpret the peaceful retention of an SSCF-class ship as being the same as threatening its destruction. But if that’s how they want to do this…”

Regulus lifted his head, “Your Grace; choose your words carefully. Whatever you say next might be taken as a declaration of war.”

“…Then let them come.”

The Accord was stunned to silence.

“Damn.” Gabriel said to himself, brows raised in surprise. He pushed up from his pilot’s-seat and stepped around to the back of his skiff, contemplating his own next words. He rubbed his chin between his fingers, “Your Grace, I will remind you again that retention of the Tuonela and refusal to surrender the passengers will potentially be viewed by the Sixth as an act of aggression, and will respond in kind. Kitez has no way to win against a force like that. You would bring ruin to your nation.”

“Then let that be the burden of the Sixth to bear.” She argued, “If Lord Rylen truly wants to rain Hell onto Kitez for the sake of a ship full of sleeping cargo – people who haven’t been awake in 350 years and don’t know what’s happening around them – then so be it. The path he paves with the bodies of Kitezan citizens will be his to walk as he comes to Oceanside. How many would he gladly kill for the sake of 70,000 sleeping people? And would he really be able to shoulder the scorn of the entire world if it came to that? Could he really put that burden onto them, when they wake up and realize what was done, supposedly, for their sake?”

“Release them to the Council, Your Grace.” Gabriel replied simply, “Using them as collateral to get recognition is a disproportionate demand. We’re not even asking for the ship itself; just the people aboard.”

Far’nah hesitated, but then issued her final statement before disconnecting, “…Then come and get them.”