Listening Length: 9 hours and 46 minutes In the history of the Tantalarian people, The Tribunal Elder is the only one who ever stood up to the Tribunal. He did that when he was a Tribune, and managed to live to eventually lead it. He had disagreed with a decision the counsel made and acted on it. In protest; he cut off his ceremonial braid and threw the discarded plait onto the floor at The Elder’s feet, and refused to ever wear a braid again. His action was considered an insult, to the Elder of that time, as well as the Tribunal. The spirit of the man, who was, still lives in the ruler who is now. The Tribunal Elder has lived through more millennium than he cares to think about. He is not the type to shirk his duties. He is a force to recon with; yet he is known to be a kind man. To settle a dispute between the Martians and the Human settlers, he is being forced to take the mother ship that they had arrived on Tantalus with many eons before back into space. This, he is not happy about. The message from the Martians is clear, remove the settlers from the surface of their planet, or they will die. The Tribunal Elder soon discovers there is more to this than those who are command know about, for the act that precipitated this action had multiple events. Someone is working in the background, manipulating forces, to create a power struggle between the two species. Will he allow the Tantalarians to be pulled into a conflict that they have and want nothing to do with?