THE END OF BEGINNINGS

TWENTY-NINE (Part 1)

It was as a wave of aides and apprentices swept past Iohannus Lol and Aronos Tal Do that the thick tension in the room finally wained.  Geras felt a tug on his arm.  It took another moment, even as his feet were in motion away from the base of the stairs, before he broke his cold and steady gaze from Aronos.
Geras followed his peer from Camrial to their seats at the table.  There were fifteen chairs spaced evenly around the circular fixture of smoothed and polished naquadah.  Twelve chairs were always in place for the High Councilors of each Lantean capital.  Three more had been added for the witnesses called to speak before the assembled group.  Geras was one of those.  As he sat down, he spotted the commander from the message.  She looked even younger in person.  He watched her as she crossed the chamber from the stairs to take a seat on the opposite side of the table.  Her features were firm under soft-looking skin.  She walked with her shoulders straight and her head upright, yet her eyes avoided making contact with anyone around her.  This was not an environment she felt most confident in and it showed.  Geras related to her instantly.  Both of them shared the immutable desire to be anywhere but at that table, especially at that time.
It took another few moments for everyone to be seated.  The council attendants quickly retreated to the nearby observation room.  One stayed at the side of the table nearest the sunlit stairs.  A square segment had been carved out of the wide fixture, leaving the radius there open for witnesses and presenters to stand.  At the box's center was a projector in the floor, capable of broadcasting holographic images above the assembled body.  The slender man with salt and pepper-colored hair cleared his throat before announcing the special session officially open.
Geras could feel time in the grand chamber crawling past.  Iohannus Lal stood up to give opening remarks.  His commentary meandered for several minutes without, seemingly, arriving at any important point.  Geras did find it interesting at Iohannus' mentioning that this occasion marked Aronos Tal Do's first appearance at the High Council table in two years.  The troubled man sat near the opening of the table.  There was a subtle but noticeable space between himself and the rest of the of the council members seated around the dense piece of furniture.  They couldn't outright condemn him, but they weren't going to blindly support him, either.
Three other councilors spoke before the first witness was called.  Mara Gad, commander of the Infinite Star, rose from her chair.  From the opening in the table, she slowly recounted the series of events that had occurred weeks before.  Geras watched her closely as he listened intently.  The young officer did her best to keep her words objective and her tone neutral.  She had no grounds to make assumptions on Aronos Tal Do's intentions.  She, and her crew, had not been present in the system when the situation unfolded.  She suspected something sinister, however.  Geras could see it in her eyes: that dark, cold, gut feeling that lurked at the edge of conscious thoughts spoken out loud.  Geras knew that feeling well.
A member of the council seated across the table cleared her throat when it seemed Mara Gad was nearly done speaking.  Her name was Ilyria Celos, High Councilor of Astria Viridi.  "What do you suspect led to the firing upon of the Gold Horizon, Commander," she asked slowly, looking keenly across the wide, round surface of the table.
Mara Gad looked around at the faces staring back at her.  "I cannot say with any certainty.  Our ship had not arrived in time to be able to ascertain what predicated the attack.  I only know the same facts that this body knows.  That the Gold Horizon was pursued, fired upon, and destroyed at the admitted command of High Councilor Tal Do."
"I see," Ilyria Celos said, looking down then around the table.
"However," Commander Gad added, "we did detect a very faint signal that had apparently been broadcasted by the Gold Horizon in the last moments before its destruction."
"You are referring to their distress beacon, are you not," asked High Councilor Thesilus Aenti.  His old, gruff voice seemed to scratch across the air of the chamber as she spoke.
"No, High Councilor," Mara Gad replied.  "This was something else.  Our systems did not detect it until after we arrived in the system."
"A broadcast," asked Toro Ras with genuine surprise.  "What did it contain?"
"Unfortunately, not much.  The transmission was incomplete.  And, what little of it there was took some time for my crew to put together and clean up enough to make it discernible."
Toro Ras sat upright in his chair.  "Do we have that available to be listened to now?"
Mara Gad nodded her head.  "Yes, High Councilor," she answered, then turned her head to glance back toward the observation room.  A member of her crew was there.  He nodded back to her then pressed a button on the console in front of him.
Static crackled and hissed around the chamber in a powerful burst of noise.  Nearly everyone at the table flinched.  Geras did not.  Aronos didn't, either.  The static soon gave way to the tinny, ghostly voice of Bayos Cilius as he spoke into a microphone on his doomed vessel.  The council listened as he introduced himself and his assignment.  Heads perked up around the table as his garbled words began an attempt to describe what he and his crew had seen on Aronos Tal Do's planet.  "The cities must act," Bayos Cilius had pleaded urgently into the recording computer.  "He must be stopped.  High Councilor Aronos has-"
The static returned before the recording came to an end.  The silence that followed hung over the table.  Mara Gad stood in place at the opening of the witness box.  She was beginning to feel awkward.  Finally, Iohannus Lal looked up.  "Thank you, Commander," he said hesitantly, his thoughts wrestling and stumbling over each other.  "You may be seated now."
Mara Gad bowed forward slightly before heading back to the chair she had been occupying.  As soon as she was seated, Aronos Tal Do rose to his feet.  "I believe at this time," he said, his voice booming smoothly over the assembly, "it should be prudent for me to offer my testimony on these events."
"You have not been recognized by this council to speak," Toro Ras argued angrily.
Aronos Tal Do looked expectantly across the smooth surface of the table to Iohannus Lal.  The leader of Atlantis barely moved when the gazes of the other councilors turned toward him.  He gestured his approval with a weak wave of his hand.  "The Council recognizes Aronos Tal Do of Ninev.  You may proceed."
Aronos bowed his head.  He didn't hide a smirk mostly directed at Toro Ras.  He also didn't wait until he was standing in the witness box before he began to speak again.  Aronos had no doubt it irked the likes of Toro Ras even further.  "What can I do," Aronos began from in front of his chair.  "If I were more unscrupulous, I would try to deny all that is already known.  I would attempt-and fail-to deny my very own words.  I stand here before you all, without fear or uncertainty...guilty."
A low roar of anxious chatter rolled around the circular table.  Aronos let it carry on until he raised his hands and then his own words above his startled peers.  "I am guilty, but not of heinous acts against this council or my fellow Lanteans."
"Six people have died because of your actions," one of the High Councilors protested.  Geras looked toward her, watching the fire gleam in her eyes and her nostrils flare.  "To say nothing of whatever loss of life may be occurring within the bounds of the city you claim to be protecting."
"My claim is true," Aronos said, almost growling.  "I know nothing of six individuals.  I know of the four on the ship that was lost.  Four lives that I regret are now gone forever."
"After contact with Ninev had been lost for a prolonged period of time," Caron Vellos explained, "a pair of envoys were dispatched to try to reestablish contact with you and ascertain the situation on the ground.  It was only after they stepped through the portal that all became aware you had relocated your own portal into space."
Caron glanced at the agitated councilwoman a few chairs away from himself.  "One of the diplomats was a member of Councilor Britara's family."
"My niece," the councilor added sharply.
Aronos lowered his head.  "I am...truly sorry.  I did not wish for these things to transpire this way.
"And yet, here we are," said Toro Ras.  There was ice in his voice.  He wanted his words to sting.
"Yes, here we are," said Aronos, glaring at Toro Ras.  "Let us examine exactly where we are.  Once more we find our civilization at the brink of chaos and ruin.  The vile pestilence we have been so desperately trying to outrun and outsmart is creeping fast out of the places we have tried to hide it.  In the last two years we have seen both quarantine zones breached.  Nine systems throughout the settled galaxy have reported outbreaks.  This has led to supply disruptions which have led to shortages which have led to escalating tensions now boiling over into all-out conflicts amongst the colonies.
"And yet, as my esteemed and astute colleague so quickly pointed out, here we are.  Sitting on our hands!  This council debates policy and procedure and quibbles over the details of philosophy while people are dying.  Our people!  Lanteans and the civilizations we have seeded.  You look upon me with disappointment, disdain, and even shame.  To that I say, shame on all of you!  Shame on yourselves and your houses!"