The Coalition council chamber had been converted into a full debate arena to hold everyone who wanted to be there: sixty council members, the two hundred-plus Champions in Volkov's faction, Timeline 48 and a delegation of cooperative entities, and media crews broadcasting the whole thing planetary-wide. Rodriguez presided as neutral moderator, determined to keep the process fair even with the Coalition's unity hanging on the outcome.
The format was simple. Two hours for Volkov's case. Two hours for Timeline 48's response. An hour for entity civilization to speak for itself. An hour of private council deliberation. Then a vote that would decide, at least for now, whether cooperation survived as official policy.
Six hours to settle a fight that had been building for months.
Volkov opened with the confidence of forty years of institutional standing behind her, and she came with documentation, not just conviction.
