Liam brings Augur to the ship. Augur resents that Liam kept the discovery of the ship from him, and Jonathan Doors isn't happy either, protesting Liam's inclusion of Augur in their rescue efforts.

When Liam points out that Augur's knowledge of Taelon technology is rivaled only by the mothership's own database, Doors grudgingly allows Augur to stay.

He explains that the team aboard the ship cut a power conduit that began venting energy. The shielding Ma'el applied to hide his ship from other Taelons made it almost impossible for them to analyze what they were cutting into.

One technician had a camera on his helmet. Liam studies the image from aboard the ship, and tells Doors that the ship believes itself to be under attack.

Aboard the mothership, Zo'or meets with T'than and recounts the War Minister's attempts to depose him. T'than replies, "You were even less subtle. You simply tried to kill me."

Zo'or challenges T'than to praj'ra, and T'than accepts. Da'an explains to Sandoval that praj'ra is the Taelon equivalent of a duel to the death.

Liam suits up and enters Ma'el's ship. His helmet camera passes video back to Augur and Doors.

Once aboard, he activates a radiation scoop. It begins to absorb the radiation on the deck.

After finding the corpse of one technician, Liam moves on to Renee, who is uninjured. The third member of her team is alive, but injured.

Renee tells Liam to bring the injured woman to the airlock first. He complies, then goes back for Renee.

Before they evacuate, Liam examines a newly activated control panel. He attempts to activate the manual override on the repair sequence before the Taelon energy buildup goes critical.

The override succeeds, but reversing the self-destruct order also reverses the abandon ship sequence. The ship's main hatch closes, trapping Liam and Renee aboard.

The ship has activated its security protocols, and only Ma'el's password will unlock the system.

With the radiation under control, Liam and Renee remove their radiation suits. Liam positions his helmet camera so Augur and Doors can see get a closer look at the ship.

Liam offers a terse assessment of their situation. "Either we open the hatch, or we don't leave."

Da'an tells Sandoval that he hopes the Synod will force Zo'or and T'than to resolve their differences through arbitration. Sandoval asks how to arbitrate the reality that "they both want absolute power."

He asks how two Taelons can duel to the death when their society prohibits the taking of life. Da'an explains that, "Like any sentient creature, we rationalize our actions," and that "killing by proxy is permitted."

Zo'or and T'than will play a Taelon game to resolve their conflict. The game depletes mental energy until "One player finally channels everything into a last move and ceases to exist."

Renee covers the body of the dead technician with a blanket, then breaks down in tears. When Liam finds her, she blames the man's death on her overzealousness.

Liam attempts to comfort her, then asks her to help him find a way off the ship. She tells Liam that he needs to think like a Taelon in order to control the ship.

Augur tells Doors they should contact the Taelons and get them to deactivate the ship. Doors refuses to give up his advantage, even at the cost of Liam and Renee's lives.

When Liam succeeds in accessing the core systems, Ma'el's ship proves much larger than anyone imagined. The platform Liam and Renee are standing on begins sinking into the depths of the ship.

They arrive on a lower deck. The chamber is full of cryogenic pods with human specimens -- most of which have failed, killing the occupants.

One pod opens. A human - Julianus - emerges. He walks around the chamber examining the other pods and activating control panels.

When he notices Liam and Renee, he addresses them in Taelon. Liam responds in kind and asks him to switch to English.

Julianus tells them he was supposed to have been revived three hundred years before. He demands to know what went wrong and what happened to Ma'el.

Liam tells him that they are trapped aboard, and asks whether Julianus can control the ship's systems. The newly thawed visitor confirms that he can.

With the preliminaries out of the way, Julianus tells them he was a citizen of the Roman Empire. Then he collapses from dehydration.

Doors is skeptical of Julianus' claim, but Liam reminds him that Ma'el was on Earth 2000 years ago and could have met the man during his travels. Despite this new information, Doors insists on protecting the secret of Ma'el's ship at all costs.

When Augur again argues that Doors should call in the Taelons, Doors places Augur under guard.

Julianus tells Renee he has been revived from cryogenic suspension, once every century. During those times he walked the Earth, which conveniently explains his command of English.

Renee asks him how the other humans came to be aboard the ship. Julianus explains that he occasionally invited people he met on his travels around the Earth to join him.

Among the corpses in the pods are a Mandarin from the Sun dynasty and a Puritan from Plymouth. They all shared the same goal: to await the arrival of the Taelons.

When Renee points out that Ma'el was already on Earth, Julianus tells her, "I don't mean Ma'el. The others."

T'than tells Da'an that the Synod rejected his request for arbitration. Da'an accuses him of being the Synod's assassin, and T'than counters that they want him to prepare for the Jaridian invasion.

He mocks Da'an's desire for an alliance with humanity. T'than's view is that both the Taelons and the Jaridians will be forced to retreat after using the Earth as their battlefield.

Da'an suggests that the Taelons and Jaridians may someday reunite, but T'than won't entertain this possibility. He remains committed to removing Zo'or from power and assuming the leadership of the Synod.

T'than asks what Da'an will do when he kills Zo'or, Da'an's child. He offers his friendship if Da'an sides with him, saying, "To lose a child is a hard choice, but children belong more to the Commonality than to us."

"Consider well," he says. "In war there are no taboos."

Sandoval tells Zo'or, "T'than has let me know more than once that when he is in power, he plans to strip me of any." He offers to help defeat the War Minister.

Zo'or accepts and outlines a plan: "A player who had an objective report of how various gambits succeeded or failed would have a lethal advantage."

Sandoval puts it more bluntly. "In other words, you want me to look over T'than's shoulder and tell you what cards he's holding." Zo'or agrees.

Julianus is dismayed by the condition of the ship's command deck. He begins activating systems and compiling a damage report.

Liam asks why the ship conserved enough power to keep Julianus alone alive. He explains that Ma'el wanted him to be preserved at any cost.

Zo'or and T'than commence their duel.

The game is played on a freestanding energy grid --as each player scores a point, the other is struck by a burst of mental energy. Zo'or scores first.

Watching from the gallery, Da'an explains to Sandoval that the game measures the players' mental mastery of space, time and matter. In addition, they must sway the Commonality.

"We do not perceive it, but inside their heads is a galvanic struggle both blinding and deafening."

Renee asks Julianus about his relationship with Ma'el. He tells them that "I accepted him for what he was, for what he claimed to be."

The battle continues, with Zo'or on the losing end.

Julianus explains that he was Ma'el's pupil.

Sandoval watches the game intently. He replays T'than's recent moves in his mind. He activates a transmitter that beams the memories directly to a tiny pickup behind Zo'or's ear.

Liam asks why the dying Ma'el left his ship to Julianus. He responds, "I was to be his surrogate, be what I was in Rome: a judge."

The target of his judgment: the Taelons. Ma'el charged Julianus with evaluating the Taelons' intentions toward Earth.

In the game, the momentum shifts toward Zo'or.

Liam reads one of the ship's displays and tells Renee Ma'el's vessel has flagged the mothership as an intruder. Julianus demands to know why they didn't tell him the Taelons are already on Earth.

Before it was damaged, the ship was programmed to wake him the instant the Taelons arrived on Earth. Julianus hopes the ship retains enough power to allow him to complete his mission.

Julianus erects a force field, trapping Liam and Renee. He accuses them of being Taelon spies.

Zo'or scores a solid hit on T'than. Suddenly, an alarm sounds. The game shuts down.

Da'an tells Sandoval that the alarm is a summons to battle stations, programmed to sound only under one condition: contact with Ma'el's ship.

A holographic image of Ma'el appears on the mothership. Zo'or resents the intrusion.

Aboard Ma'el's ship, Liam translates the Taelon's message for Renee. "He says it's time for judgment."

Julianus contacts the mothership. He addresses the Taelons in their own language to prove he speaks for Ma'el.

Then he demands to know why the Companions ignored Ma'el's warning to leave the Earth alone until humans evolved enough to meet the Taelons on equal footing.

Zo'or rejects Ma'el's "opinion" and insists that circumstances made their arrival on Earth necessary. "I must use humanity as a weapon in our struggle."

Despite Zo'or's explanation, Julianus sentences all Taelons in Earth orbit to death.

Julianus increases the ship's power in preparation for takeoff. Augur comes up with a plan to free Liam and Renee and stop the attack.

Doors doesn't want to stop Julianus from killing the Companions, but Augur reminds him that a mass execution of Taelons would only invite reprisals. Doors agrees to help him.

Da'an, T'than and Zo'or contemplate the impending attack. Zo'or asks how a lightly armed scout ship can defeat the mothership.

Liam confronts Julianus with the answer: he plans to ram the mothership. Julianus apologizes for taking Liam and Renee along on his suicide mission, but insists, "I am honored to be his proxy in a just cause."

Augur pipes a recording of the Taelon control tones through the speakers in Liam's helmet. He hopes one of the tones will deactivate the force field.

Liam challenges Julianus' authority. "If the Taelons came to Earth at all, they were guilty of disobeying Ma'el. You're no judge, you're a killer."

Julianus insists he trusts Ma'el's judgment.

Augur transmits the control tones. In addition to freeing Liam and Renee, the tones activate the control platform, causing it to begin descending to the lower decks.

The ship lurches. Julianus stumbles and falls into the hole left by the descending platform. He dies on impact.

The water above the ship begins boiling.

Augur and Doors run for safety.

Ma'el's ship launches.

Sandoval detects the ship. It is on a collision course. Zo'or orders the ship into interdimensional space. Da'an tells him they cannot activate the engines in time.

Liam reactivates the ship's self-destruct mode. He tells Renee they can use Julianus' cryo-pod as a lifeboat.

Da'an and Zo'or watch as Ma'el's ship bears down on them.

Liam and Renee enter the pod. It closes and ejects from the ship.

Ma'el's ship explodes short of the mothership. Zo'or demands a damage report. Sandoval tells him "The blast was inconsequential."

Zo'or retreats to his chambers. Da'an tells T'than, "After all these years, Ma'el's judgment must wait."

Renee and Liam's pod soars toward Earth. The talk about the loyalty Ma'el must have commanded to make Julianus so willing to sacrifice his own life in Ma'el's service.

Liam hopes that the Taelons will learn to respect human life the way Ma'el did.