The Lancer Doctrine
When the tribunal at Meridian Station votes to strike the Lancer Doctrine from the colony fleet's charter, the law that once protected pilots from execution vanishes overnight, and with it, the only shield between Mireille Vance and the gallows. She is accused of ordering a civilian convoy burned, a crime she denies, yet the sealed record has no one to call but The Oracle, a blind seer whose testimony is distrusted by every admiral in the room. Admiral Theron Blackwood watches from the gallery as his protégé Sera Koval testifies against him, while Dr. Yara Elissen hides a data drive in her stethoscope, the unredacted log of the convoy's final hours that could prove Mireille innocent or confirm the doctrine was a cover for something far worse. Tribunal Adjudicator Holt presides with a patience that borders on cruelty. Cassian Vey and Fenn Roe, two rogue pilots, race through maintenance shafts to reach the dock before Blackwood's fleet locks down. Dax Orin carries the frequency code that could alert the convoy to flee, or seal their fate. The Oracle speaks only once, in a phrase no one in the chamber understands, and in that silence every faction draws a line. The gavel is raised. What falls next will either save Meridian Station or reduce it to a smoldering hull, and the one who pulls the trigger will stand in that ferrocrete chamber, wearing the chair of office, knowing the cost of every name etched into its armrests.