A few minutes after Clarke joined Skaikru in the feast room, Jaha was escorted in. He was manacled, and guards remained on either side of him at Ontari's order. Clarke's and Raven's guards stood at the exits.
Clarke took a deep breath and began. "We're here because of one man's actions. He thought he knew better, that he could make promises that wouldn't be kept, that he could lie to and betray us. I'm going to speak first. Each of you who wants to will have a turn after, and then he'll have his say. After that, we'll vote on what to do.
"I'm going to start with his actions on the Ark, because they are the first reason we are here today. You know my mother, Abigail Griffin, was a doctor and chancellor. My father, Jake Griffin, was head of engineering. Thelonious Jaha was the head of the governing council. His son Wells was my best friend. He and my parents were friends. My dad found out that the air scrubbers were failing. There was less oxygen available each day, and no way to replace it. After nearly a century in orbit, other things were failing, too. Stations started to fall away. The ones that were left were suffering because of the oxygen deficit.
"Dad wanted everyone to know. He thought it was fair, that having that knowledge would let people make good decisions. Maybe one of them would come up a solution. That was a big secret for me to keep, and I told Wells. Not long after, Dad was floated and I was locked up in solitary confinement in the Skybox.
"Soon after that, the Council sent all of us in the Skybox to Earth. We were disposable. They were just waiting for us to be old enough to float, so if they sent us away, we wouldn't be using their precious oxygen. They drugged us and strapped us in, and sent us away, trusting in ancient circuitry and blind luck.
"Most of us survived the landing. But what we found here… Some died because of their own ignorance. Some died because there was no way to prepare for what we found. Grounders killed some. Disease killed more. The Mountain Men captured all of us, and I escaped Mount Weather with a Grounder general. Then the rest of the Ark arrived and nearly ruined the peace we were making with them.
"We got past that, though. We made a treaty, and attacked Mount Weather, and defeated its inhabitants although the Grounders broke that treaty. We were getting over that when he came carrying a box of lies and a fistful of false dreams.
"We made another treaty with the Grounders. They made us a full member of their Coalition, and one man's revenge and another's fear drove us toward war. While that was happening, he," Clarke pointed at Jaha, "was converting people by promising them an end to pain and fear. He didn't tell anyone that the cost would be their lives because the thing he brought back planned to finish destroying the human race.
"He continues to believe that machine. He continues to think that we would be better if only we allowed a computer to control our bodies and minds while it destroyed everything we need to survive.
"I fought like hell to keep us alive. I fought to keep us together. I'm trying now to find us a new home. The things he did were for his own benefit, to keep his power on the Ark and to regain it when he came to Earth." Clarke paused. "The floor's open. One at a time, please."
Skaikru looked uneasily at each other, and no one stepped forward. Abby broke the silence. "You can't hold him responsible for every bad thing that happened. It wasn't his fault that the Ark started to fall apart. It wasn't his fault that the systems failed. Whoever was floated while he was in charge aren't his fault. And you can't blame him for wanting something better and believing he found it, then wanting to share it with us. You can't kill him for making mistakes." Abby looked around and wondered whether her words made any difference.
Harper stepped up next. "Do you even remember me? Or my parents? Do you care that the tiny things we took were to try to stay alive? Do you care that the promise you made to us, that in exchange for being your guinea pigs we would be pardoned, was thrown out like we were, like trash?"
Monroe joined her near the front. "You locked me up when I was 12. For four years, I stayed in the Skybox. We all knew you were going to float us as soon as we were 18. We didn't get enough to eat or drink. We weren't allowed to exercise or read or continue our educations. Anything I got came from my parents, and when they stopped coming, I knew you'd floated them for dealing with the black market or trading with their neighbors or saving something from each meal to share with me. And sending us to Earth, I lost count of how many times I almost died. I remember everyone you sent with me, though, and how they died. Did you know your son was murdered by a little girl because you took her parents from her and left her with absolutely nothing? Wells was trying to be a good man and he lost his life because of what you did."
When Monroe stepped back, Harper put her arm around her waist and they waited for whoever was next. Clarke looked around and realized that only Miller and Murphy remained of the original hundred sent to Earth. Raven joined them soon after. The rest of room were mostly Farm Station survivors, with one or two from other stations that had made their way to Camp Jaha and Arkadia.
A few of them came forward to speak wistfully of the City of Light. When it seemed no one else would say anything, Miller stepped up. "I didn't actually do anything wrong. My dad was head of security on Alpha Station and he wasn't 'catching' enough people breaking the law so I was framed for stealing some food. After I got locked up, Dad did what he had to. And then I got kicked off the Ark. I'm still not sure how I survived to get here. I know now that I would have ended up down here anyway, but when it happened, it felt horrible. I felt horrible. The things that happened to all of us down here are because he was afraid. And what he did with those chips, that was criminal. He lied about what they did and what would happen if he got his way and we all took them. If he had his way, we would all be dead."
Raven was next. Murphy stood near her, making sure she stayed steady. "I came down not long after the Hundred. Dr. Griffin was worried about Clarke, so we worked together to refurbish an escape pod. She was supposed to come with me, but Nygel ratted us out. She held them off long enough for me to launch the pod. Things were messed up when I landed, but we kept trying to let the Ark know it was safe for all of them to come down. Guess they couldn't wait, because when we were launching flares to get their attention, three hundred and some people sacrificed themselves. Chancellor Jaha, as you see, wasn't one of them. When the last piece of the Ark landed and he wasn't on it, I thought he was dead, but he turned up again talking about the City of Light and convinced some really sad, messed up people to follow him. Only one of them survived, and what he brought back from there was worse than the worst sickness. The lies he told to convince people who were tired and sad and scared, people who trusted him because he used to be in charge, they were terrible. He promised an end to pain and sadness and it seemed to be that at first. And then I realized that it was some crazy drug and you couldn't get off of it. Once you took that chip and A.L.I.E. had you, it was impossible to leave. You weren't yourself any more, just another pawn. Until that chip came out of me, I didn't know how much I missed. And yeah, my leg hurts like hell now and I'm back to wearing a brace and limping around but what I do and where I go are my decisions. He had no right to take that from me or anyone else."
"I went with Jaha to the City of Light because everybody justifiably hated me," Murphy began. "I was angry at everyone, including him, but he wasn't mad at me, and neither were the people who went with us. They were all killed along the way, though. We didn't stop to bury them. We had to get there, to the City of Light. And when we did, he locked me in a bunker by myself for three months. There was food and a pistol and a nonstop video of this guy panicking because A.L.I.E. figured out how to get around the programming locks they put on it. He'll talk about her and she, but it's a computer program. It's the computer program that launched nuclear missiles and blasted us back to medieval days. It's the computer program that wants to finish the job. And he'll help it any way he can because he truly believes its faulty logic, that people, that we are a plague on the planet. It has the tools to help us rebuild in a better way, but instead, it wants to wipe us out. My answer, to him and his stupid computer friend, is fuck you."
Clarke looked around. Her eyes rested on Marcus for a few seconds, but he shook his head. "Anyone else?" she asked, and waited for nearly a minute. "OK, then, we'll let him speak now."
Clarke nodded to the guards and stepped aside. They pulled him to the front of the crowd and took a step back.
"You don't understand," Jaha said in a conversational tone. "None of you understand. Those of you who followed A.L.I.E., you have some idea of what she's building. It's a utopia, someplace where all of us are safe. There's no pain, no longing, no missing what you've lost. The City of Light will survive, and we will survive there. There's no need to go through all of this, to constantly fight just to live. There's no need to live with the fear that we will be wiped out because of fear.
"You want to judge me for my actions, actions that I took to preserve the few survivors of the Ark. You think you have that right even though everything I have done has been to protect you, all of you. I hope that you'll see the truth."
When he finished, Clarke stepped up again. We're going to do this by counting raised hands. There will be no retaliation against anyone you disagree with. So first, how many think he's guilty?"
Nearly every hand went up. Clarke knew there was no need to count, but made a show of it anyway and announced the number when she finished counting. She repeated the numbers to the crowd.
"The next question is his punishment. Like before, there will be no retaliation if you don't agree with someone's vote. Who believes he should be exiled?"
A few hands went up and Clarke counted them. "Who believes he should be executed. She didn't need to count, but did anyway, and announced the decision. "Death, by vote of 48 to six." She turned back to Jaha. "Any last words?"
"You'll see one day that I'm right," he said. Clarke pulled her pistol from her jacket, took careful aim, and pulled the trigger.