The ride to Xanadu was rather uneventful. Clyde seemed preoccupied with something, and Kayla seemed on edge about sneaking him aboard their carrier. Milo took his tablet and opened to the introduction of The Legend and Tragedy of Aura Madeen and began to read.

From my studies of the human-elf war, there are four primary figures influencing the course of events which led to the most catastrophic war in the known history of the galaxy. The first is of course Queen Tarissa, the stubborn, undiplomatic queen of the elven kingdom. The second is of course, the charismatic and perhaps too-intrepid-for-his-own-good Carlton Carver, known by modern Christians as Saint Vernon. The third would be the feckless president Henry Alamore. The last is the cunning Elven Grand Admiral Agorja, who may have never met a human that he trusted. The four personalities mostly created the explosive cocktail that led to the downward spiral which culminated in a terrible conflict which wounded the hominid sector of the Milky Way.

The secondary characters of the tale of the war are numerous, but an argument could be made the greatest of these figures was Aura Madeen. To understand Madeen's background, one must understand the system matrilineal succession within the Elven Royal Family. Centuries ago the elves devised a system to keep the royal bloodline in power while preventing inbreeding with the royal family. The active princess will choose several suitors with which to sire children. The general polyamorous nature of elves plus a culture that does not have a stigma on marital infidelity made it possible. These children are known as royal sprouts, and the next princess is chosen from among them.

Aura, along with Queen Tarissa, was one of the four sprout daughters birthed by Queen Lenina. Aura Madeen's biological father, however, remains a mystery to this day. Aura's somewhat darkly-tinted hair, unusual height (five feet and nine inches tall, on the tall side for even a male elf), unusually adroit musical ability, and jawbone led to rumors that she was half human. These rumors would nag her for her entire life as Lenina would refuse to disclose the identity of the siring male (as was and continues to be the right of the sitting princess or queen) and both she and Aura would obstinately refuse to make any information about Aura's DNA public.

Madeen remained in the public eye for much of her life, which surely brought about resentment from her half-brother and half-sister sprouts as well as making many elves uneasy at the prospect of human DNA with all of its real and perceived foibles and faults entering the royal gene pool. She was also beloved by many, with her versatile abilities considered a triumph of the selective breeding process within the royal family.

It is generally accepted (with a fair bit of experimental data to back it up) that pheromone incompatibility has strongly curtailed interbreeding between humans and elves, yet there is a rare quantity of elfesses who do seem to not mind or prefer the intimate company of human males. Queen Lenina's lack of an elf husband or primary suitor and rumored relationship with a captain in the fleet of the human union led many to believe she was among them and that Aura, being the sprout of a genuine lover, was favored by the queen.

One evening, an assassination attempt was made on Aura as rumors were growing that Lenina was grooming Aura to be the next princess. Convinced that individuals within the Royal Star Fleet or elven intelligence were behind the assassination attempt, Lenina sent Aura into hiding in a monastery on the human sector world of Katharna. Little did Lenina know that Aura would later go on to considered even more dangerous. When Aura arrived at Katharna, she met Carlton Carver whose church denomination that would become the Church Saint Vernon at the time was really beginning to grow in size and was influential in leading the charge for independent governance of the Earth sector expansion worlds.

Not only did she go on to become a key figure fighting for independence for the Earth sector, but it was also strongly expected she had established a relationship with Grithmeer, the famed gray technologist and scientist. She had a personal carrier with a very advanced spacetime phonon generator that allowed her to evade capture for years including the duration of the war. Madeen died on the barren world of Marzala in a standoff with royal forces after refusing to be taken into custody.

Somewhere within reading the book Milo lost his focus and blacked out and when he came to he found himself on a barren landscape covered in rocks and dirt. It was like a dream, but he had full possession of his memories and faculties and knew he was not where he was supposed to be. The landscape looked to be uniform and barren other than a single large and particularly lush tree lit by a pillar of light coming through the cloudy sky. Milo looked around. There was nothing as far as he could see in any direction. He began walking towards the hooded figure, not knowing what else to do. As he got closer, he could see the figure was a bald, middle-aged man wearing a white robe.

"Milo Greene is it?" the man said in a deep voice.

"Yes, who are you?" Milo said still having an overwhelming feeling of confusion.

"I am the one who's going to show you show you your extraordinary niche in the universe. I have waited for this moment for quite a long time."

"Who are you?" Milo repeated. The man paused for a moment.

"You need not know anything about me at the moment. Right now I need to earn some credibility and trust from you, so I'm going to give you some valuable information. I know where you can get a lead on the young man you are looking for." Milo still was just standing there dumbfounded, unsure of what to think.

"When you visit the Haremshire Pavilion as I feel sure you will, you will find a man wearing a dark green tuxedo vest. Ask him 'where does the dove's night flight end?' I feel sure you will get better information than you can from anyone else."

"Just tell me who you are, please." Milo said.

At that moment he awoke and found himself back in the familiar seat of the personal carrier.

"He's awake" Milo heard Clyde say. Kayla turned and looked at him.

"I snooped at your tablet, Milo" Kayla said. "I had to figure out what kind of reading there was that could put even you to sleep. I didn't know you were into those ghost stories."

"Didn't Visler say the captain of the Morian was searching for the ghost of Aura Madeen?" Milo asked.

"Yeah, he's superstitious" said Kayla brusquely, dismissing any importance of the idea.

"Or he's just looking for Aura's treasure." Clyde piped in.

"Treasure?" Kayla said incredulously.

"Yes, a treasure" Clyde said seeming surprised she had not heard of it. "Every panhandler in outworld knows about that legend. It's said she hid some kind of treasure – maybe a lot of bullion or some rare gray artifacts from royal forces at the end of the war. It's said her ghost will await anyone she deems worthy of taking it. A lot of people venture over there just looking for an apparition of her."

"You hear any rumors about the Morian while you were out here, Clyde?" Milo asked.

"Not really, but I wasn't out here for very long because I had to pack up and leave." As they were talking, the planet Xanadu came into view.

"It even looks beautiful from space" Kayla said as they came within view of Xanadu. The oceans appeared in a dark blue with tanish-green splotches where the land was. It had a certain sheen to it that many worlds did not. As the carrier entered the atmosphere, it was not long before they could see the vast blue ocean beneath them. After another moment, they could see that they were above solid ground. Clyde opened up a compartment inside the flight deck and removed a pack from it.

"Kayla, open the hatch" Clyde said. "It's too risky for me to enter the resort's spaceport."

"I told you, Clyde, we're completely undercover. You should be fine" Kayla said.

"It may not be risky for you, but it is for me. Open the hatch."

"Clyde, don't you think we're a bit too high for you to jump!"

"Just do it, Kayla, please!" Clyde snapped. Kayla pushed the button for the pressure equalization. When the light on the control panel came on, she pulled the lever and opened up the hatch.

"We will meet again before long, thank you so much!" And Clyde jumped out the open hatch and his body disappeared from view below them. It took several more minutes before the spaceport was in sight. The Xanadu resort and spaceport was quite a magnificent and opulent-looking complex. The resort area had a large tanning and swimming dome atop it and had a bright white sheen that in the sunlight almost reflected enough light to force to squint.

"Unidentified personal carrier, identify yourself" said a voice of the radio.

"Reservation for Chris and Melinda Cabral" Milo said into the microphone. There was a silence.

"Okay, welcome to Xanadu Resort!" said the voice. You may relinquish control of your carrier to the tower. Milo hit the button on his console. The carrier landed in one of the spaces nearest the entrance to the resort. The agency had apparently spared no expense in their accommodations.

They were greeted by a man dressed in a fancy but overly-warm looking outfit. "Mr. and Mrs. Cabral, I will take your luggage to your room. Welcome. Please go to the lobby to check in. Milo thanked him and they went inside. It was a very impressive building with gorgeous décor. The carpet was made of a very advanced and expensive material that felt like walking on a cloud.

As they approached the desk, Milo noticed that there was an elf and elfess at the desk. It seemed a bit unusual to see elves working mundane jobs within human outworld society.

"Reservation for Cabral" Milo said as he approached the desk. The elfess entered his name into the screen.

"Okay, we don't have a recent red blood cell count for either of you on record, so we will need to take it" the elfess said.

"Why weren't we told of this before-hand?" Kayla asked trying to sound as polite as possible.

"Sorry" the elfess said. "New policy, effective immediately. Please wait in that room over there." Milo and Kayla walked into what was a small room with a few chairs. After sitting for a minute, an elf with a lab coat walked into the room.

"Sorry for the inconvenience" the elf said. "If your red blood cell count is too low you will need to take a serum to be safe." The elf took a small, hand-held device out of his pocket. "Give me your finger, ma'am" The elf said. Kayla held out her hand was she was told. The device pricked her finger. "All right, you're good" said the elf sterilizing the prick on her finger and ejecting the needle. Okay sir, now give me your finger. Milo held out his finger as it got pricked. Milo fully expected his count was fine…he like Kayla was in good physical condition. Unlike with Kayla, though, the elf stood for about ten seconds looking the small display.

"Too low?" Milo asked. The elf looked at Milo as if he was surprised that Milo would speak.

"You should be fine" the elf said ejecting the needle and placing both needles in a waste bag. The elf then left the room. Milo and Kate walked back into the lobby and got their keycards for their rooms. They got into the elevator and began their ascent to the 12th floor where their room was. Outside of the glass of the elevator they could see the shoreline. It was magnificent, like a brochure of an ocean front whose photograph had the colors enhanced.

"Well, that was a bit strange" Kayla said while still clearly enjoying taking in the view.

"That they took our blood or that there are elves here working for the place?"

"The resort is run by elves, Milo." Kayla replied. "I don't think they'll hire any humans to do much here other than cleaning. I expected that. I wasn't expecting to get blood taken. Why do you think they're doing that?" Milo took his planetometer out of his bag and turned it on to look at it.

GE Scout Planetometer V. 3.86

Gravity: 0.87 g

Humidity: 68%

Toxicity: Below Detectable Levels

Oxygen Partial Pressure: 0.44 atmospheres

Ionizing Radiation: Normal Levels

*The oxygen level is elevated. Seek medical attention if you have dizziness or muscle twitching. Your ability to perform aerobic activities will be enhanced here, and periodic exercise may lessen your risk.*

The gravity, radiation, and toxicity indicators were all in green text on his screen, but the oxygen pressure was shown in yellow letters. "The O2 pressure is a little elevated here" Milo said. "A person with a low red cell count might get oxygen poisoning. They could be checking for signs of cellular damage from radiation as well." Kayla looked at him and narrowed her eyes, clearly suspicious.

"We still need to be very careful here and watch our own backs. That elf was clearly surprised at something looking at your blood sample and it wasn't anything to do with your red blood cell count." Milo really couldn't disagree with that. They continued walking down the hallways of the resort. Each room had a quaint, terrestrial-age door with a knob on it. They reached their room and Milo inserted the key into the lock. The door opened up revealing a spacious and beautiful suite inside. It had a very large bed, an enormous television screen, a bathroom with a jacuzzi tub, and a pretty sophisticated kitchen. On the counter was a basket with an assortment of various extraterrestrial fruits.

As they were looking around, there was a knock on the door. Milo opened the door and standing there was a man in a bellhop's uniform. "Mr. Cabral, I just wanted to make sure you know that we are here. I'm eager to get to meet and talk with you more at the conference. Congratulations on your marriage. Here's my card." Milo took the card and closed the door. Milo looked at the card. It wasn't a business card. Milo looked at the blue font printed on the card.

Won't be able to rendezvous with either of you. On assignment. Keep an ear out for me, though Good luck! –RD

"Who was that?" Kayla asked with a genuine expression of concern on her face.

"It's a message from Roman" Milo said. "It says he's not going to be able to meet with us."

Milo looked over at Kayla, surprised to not hear her express any frustration or exasperation, but instead he met her eyes looking at him in a strange way, in a fashion she had never before.

"What?" Milo asked. Kayla walked over to get close to him

"This look really looks good on you, Milo" Kayla said grabbing a piece of the seemingly-supernaturally soft, precision-polymerized carbylon between her fingers and sliding it down. "I can see why they think this is the most romantic place in the known galaxy" she said. Milo's heart began to accelerate and his mind felt full of confused excitement. He was always attracted to Kayla, but also had alarm bells going off in his head that something was clearly out of place. Kayla wrapped her hands around his shoulder and pulled their lips together. Milo was still more thinking than acting and didn't do much to reciprocate, but Kayla didn't seem to care. She pushed him over backwards onto the bed.

Milo felt as if he was completely weightless, or perhaps that was simply shock. He did not even notice that while he was savoring the feeling of the bed, Kayla had removed her posterior clothing. The feeling was too bizarre and surreal to be titillating. Kayla climbed up onto the bed and sat on his chest. "We might as well enjoy ourselves if we're going to be on this silly mission. Go ahead and dig in" she said scooting forward on his body until she had covered his mouth with her vulva. At last Milo just gave up on trying to understand what was happening and just got to work and enjoy himself. The next few minutes time and space felt as if it were completely distorted. After a few minutes of minutes Milo felt her pressing harder against his face making it harder to breath until finally he finally felt her quivering and her jaw opening, and Kayla at least released him from her grip and laid down next to him. For just a moment she just laid there next to him, not saying anything, her breathing slightly elevated.

"We really shouldn't have done that" Kayla said sounding somewhat winded. "Sorry" she said. "Just haven't really been alone with a man in so long I guess" she said with her breathing slightly elevated.

"Well, I guess we're playing the part of newlyweds well so far" Milo quipped.

"We should probably get showered off and take the train to the other side of the bay to visit the Pavilion. They keep track of when we leave and if we don't get out enough we'll be under suspicion. You need your keycard to do most things around here, and you know they are keeping track of what each guest is doing." Milo nodded his head, his mind still trying to digest two very bizarre occurrences in the span of just a day.