"Here is the conjugal visit suite, Mr. Cabral" Leeka said. "I have received word that your wife has arrived at this facility and will be moved over here shortly." Milo looked inside the room. It was small with only a moderate sized bed and a small love seat with a viewing screen. The other side of the room there was a small bathroom with only a latrine and a small drinking fountain.

"No shower?" Milo asked.

"No, sorry" she said. "You need to be careful not to get your neural sensors helmet or any of your other monitors wet. You cannot have anything other than water as it will distort the readings of your brain."

"I think I'll be fine." Milo said. Leeka stood there for a moment giving him a genuinely sympathetic look. If it were not for the context in which they were meeting Milo would've really liked her.

"You will do fine" she said sensing a hint of sadness on him. "Just try to relax and enjoy yourself, this is the beginning of a new life for you." Milo said nothing but went inside and shut the door. It seemed inevitable that life was going to change. He wondered if his interests would completely change. Would he lose interest in his career? So many different thoughts were going through Milo's head that he did not even notice he was without his reading material on his computer and with a viewing screen he would probably not find anything interesting about. He turned on the screen and found a documentary about elven scientists devising a cure for prions found on the planet Hubble. Normally it would have been up his alley, but he wasn't in the mood. He turned the viewing screen off after about ten seconds. Milo sat in the loveseat a few more minutes before the door to the room opened again and in walked Kayla wearing a gown obviously issued to her by the lab. He thought that the sight of her would cheer him up, but somehow it gave his mood a little dip.

"Kayla I-"

"You don't have to explain anything, Milo" Kayla said looking inside the bathroom. "I know what they're trying to do to you. I stole your medical detainment order from the marshall's aircraft. I have the antidote for you..."

"You got the antidote, Kayla? How?" Milo said with his spirits suddenly being lifted out of the abyss.

" I stole files from the computer on the marshal's aircraft and got information about the treatment they're using on you. And that Brian guy took me to a lab at the network to get make some of the antidote. I don't know how good they are but we're going to find out. Is there a cup anywhere in here?" Kayla said looking in the cabinets in the bathroom which seemed to not contain anything but a few assorted medicines and condoms.

"No" Milo said. "And I don't think you're going to get one." Kayla let out a long sigh.

"How did you even get the antidote in here?" Milo asked. Kayla paused for a moment, not being able to think of what to say.

"Well, this is where it gets awkward and really gross" she said. "The antidote doesn't get broken down inside someone who isn't undergoing the treatment that you're under. It gets excreted intact. Do you get where I'm going with this?" Milo thought for just a short moment and then it suddenly. He couldn't decide if he was feeling more impressed or awkward.

"Judging by your face I guess you do" Kayla said. "Let's just get this over with" she added pulling her panties down from underneath her gown. "Come sit over here next to me. I'll go slowly to make it easier to get it all down." Milo didn't move, but such sat still sitting down with a bewildered look on his face.

"Please Milo, I can't hold it much longer!" Kayla said with no hint of patience. Milo got up walked over to where she was right inside the doorway of the bathroom and sat down with his legs crossed on the floor next to her, closed his eyes, and opened his mouth wide, feeling ridiculous and embarassed. He felt Kayla grab his forehead and pull his head back some. A short moment after that he felt a small, warm stream of fluid entering his mouth with a surprisingly loud noise. It tasted very bad and the warmth felt sort of funny in his throat. It would be difficult to swallow all of it. Milo recalled reading a survival training manual which gave steps of how to hydrate by drinking the very bitter-but-potable innards of a particular cacti-like plant in the deserts of one of the mining worlds he could not recall. "Stop breathing through your nose, swallow the liquid from the back of your mouth" he remembered it saying. He must have gulped down at least a dozen squirts fairly easy without being able to taste too much of it. After what Milo guessed to be about fifteen squirts, he started to feel only small drops and then finally, nothing.

"Okay, that's it" she finally said. "Well, that wasn't exactly anything I ever thought I would have to do. So disgusting. I hope this works." Milo went to the sink and drank several cupped handfuls of water from the faucet and walked back into the bedroom and lay down, not knowing if he needed to give Kayla her privacy in the bathroom, but she came out of the bathroom right after him.

"That gown is just too hot" Kayla said coming into the room in her undergarments. "By now I guess we're more than acquainted enough you won't mind my low state of dress. I think they gave me some kind of stimulant and it's making me feel hot" she said fanning herself with her hand. Kayla laid down on the bed right next to Milo, staring at the ceiling.

"I need to apologize for what I said right before we got stopped by those elf marshals" Kayla said looking up at the ceiling with a blank expression on her face.

"You don't need to apologize for watching out for me" Milo stated.

"I'm not apologizing for looking out for you. Your humility is one of your best traits, and it wasn't right for me to suggest you're going to develop some kind of chosen-one complex." Kayla said with her eyes still fixed on the ceiling.

"I appreciate that, Kayla" Milo said. "And I really appreciate your very, uh, creative rescue."

"Don't thank me yet" Kayla replied. "We don't know for sure if this will work, and after we wake up you're going to have to go through with that delightful little ritual again. At least according to the guys at the Network's lab."

"So you've put your trust in those guys?"

"We might as well. Those guys really did pull out all the stops to help me help you, I'll say that much for them."

"Kayla" Milo said. "The elfess doctor assured me that this medicine would improve my life and make me better. Do you think that could be true?"

"Of course that could possibly be true. There's no way to know for sure. But I can promise you that you are not unique in wondering about how your life would be different if you were different. Somewhere out there there's a fairly ordinary person wondering what life would be like if he or she was exceptional like you." Milo thought that was an interesting way to put it.

"Besides" she added "I have a hunch this place is less about healing and more about fear and science. It's not like you volunteered to be a part of this little study" she said looking at the brain scanner on his head. "I hope that thing hasn't been listening in on what we're saying" she said.

"I doubt it" Milo said. "I doubt they care enough to listen in on some married couple having an evening together. We'll know for sure if we get out of here without them telling me we've got to start the treatment over. " Neither of them said anything for the next minute or so.

"I'm not the least bit tired" Kayla said finally breaking the silence.

"Me neither, and I suppose that was the plan" Milo said back to her. "They didn't bring you here just to keep me from getting lonely." There was a part of Milo was secretly hoping that Kayla might be primed again for more casual intimacy. He figured that the elf doctors had given him some sort of aphrodisiac. Kayla flipped through the menu of the different options on the viewing screen on the television while Milo acted as if he was trying to go to sleep, although he didn't feel like it. She selected a video titled "Welcome to Adaforbus".

Welcome to the Royal Humanology Institute's laboratory on the planet Adaforbus. Here, we strive to use advanced technology to advance the understanding of human physiology, cognition, and health for the benefit of all hominids. We have high ethical standards of conduct in research involving humans. If at any time you feel what is being done to you is not ethical, you can contact the Humanology Institute's Study Review Board, or H-I-S-R-B. The review board consists of caring individuals in the medical community of both human and elves.

The world of Adaforbus is an artificial biosphere, or abosphere. It is perhaps the greatest engineering achievement in the known universe, the culmination of millions of individuals working decades for many billions of individual work-hours.

Construction started around 50 years ago and was the brainchild of former Royal Science Minister Aknar Adaforbus, for which the absophere is named. Construction began by hollowing out a large section of the planet beneath the crust. This is an extremely large volume of material to move, and was very long and cumbersome to do as only small amounts can be removed at once. On top of that, work can only be done at night time as the planet is too close to its star that it isn't practical to insulate workers in the heat for an extended period of time. An entire spherical-shaped area – aside from two columns at the poles- was completely dug out. As this was done, the core of the planet cooled down and stabilized. Because The rocky outer shell of the planet and the inner surface have roughly the same mass and the same center of mass, it is quite stable structurally.

About 80% of the outer surface is covered with a photovoltaic material. The closeness of the planet provides the energy needed for light on the inside of the planet, as well as climate control. The inner portion of the planet can be kept at quite a comfortable temperature by pumping heat out onto the side of the planet facing away from the star. The remarkable thing about the planet's star is that it is a red dwarf, which is quite a stable star that will be around for a very long time. As long as we are vigilant and keep the planet safe from asteroids, the Adaforbus abosphere may last for trillions of years. Aknar Adaforbus himself said-

Kayla switched the channel. After about ten minutes, Kayla gave up on finding anything of interest to her and turned the viewing screen off and turned out the lights. Milo must've been awake for at least half an hour before he finally began to feel drowsy.

After what seemed like a while, Milo found himself in the familiar-looking overcast wasteland with a pillar of light shining on a tree. Milo could see Nadarska next to the tree and quickly walked over to where he was standing.

"What happened?" he said as Milo got right up next to him. "I haven't been able to contact you." Milo told him the entire story from meeting Bart to getting captured by the elven marshalls.

"They must have induced some unusual brain states on you. I wanted to get in touch with you on your last night's sleep, but couldn't" Nadarska said.

"Yes. The elves humanology lab gave me some drugs that knocked me out really thoroughly." Milo answered. "They've got a monitoring device on my head now". Milo felt his head and noticed it was not on his head. "How will this conversation register on their brain scan?" Milo asked.

"They won't detect anything. They will probably think you are day-dreaming. "

"You mentioned being able to tell what sort of things go on within my brain. I've got an antidote to the serum they gave me to alter my brain. Do you know if it's working?" Milo asked not wanting to waste any more time before getting down to it.

"It seems to be. I have to admit that that I thought you were most likely lost to me and any conduit of communication that I have, but you should be fine. Your partner really cares about you as I already mentioned to you before…"

"I really care about her as well. Very much in that I-"

"I know you do" Nadarska interrupted. "I wouldn't completely rule out that she could eventually…fall for you – lust is very simple, but love is beyond that and never ceases to surprise me, though not that often. But do not allow your hopes to get up too high. I cannot give you romantic advice as that is beyond my capabilities as I have said. Now, I'm sure you have more than a few questions for me."

"One of the members of the Network said there was some prediction about a person like me that could communicate with you. Do you have some means of predicting the future?"

"Not at all" Nadarska asserted with not a second of hesitation. "I was kind of hoping this conversation could be had later, but since you have asked I will go ahead and tell you now. You are basically my creation. "

"I was made in a lab or from some dust somewhere?" Milo asked with a strong feeling of shock inside.

"No" Nadarska answered. "I do not have the power to create lifeforms as complex as a human just from scratch, at least not quickly. I exploited a serendipitous circumstance in order to bring about your birth. Your father was a man who traveled a lot. I suspect he was a military man. I saw a chance to create someone with your genotype and I facilitated his affair with your mother."

"You know my biological father?" Milo asked.

"Not in the same way that you may get to know a person. In some ways I can get to know people more intimately than you ever can, but in other ways it is pretty superficial. I manipulated your conception down to the molecular level. " Milo just stood in silence, attempting to digest what he was saying, forgetting that he had other questions to ask.

"It's really not all that unusual" Nadarska said obviously picking up on Milo's shock. "It's basically the same we way I and Gaia and any other entities that may be out there have manipulated the history of life over many eons. Your species – really most every living species – wouldn't exist were it not for our meddling. There's not a person alive who isn't at least the descendent of a person whose genetics were not manipulated even in at least a subtle supernatural way. In that sense, you are not much more my creation than anyone else." Milo did not know what to say. He was certainly not expecting to hear everything that he had just heard. He had almost forgotten what else he wanted to say. There were many different thoughts rushing through his head, but he had to move them to the back of his mind and ask him what he wanted to ask him the next most pressing questions.

"You seem to have some sort of sense of individuals at the cellular and molecular level" Milo said. "If I could get my hand on some of Matt Snedecor's DNA could you use it to find him?"

"I could use it to identify him, but I would still be difficult and time-consuming to find him. As I said I am not omnipresent and have to do things in real time just as you do, and in some sequential order. I wish I could, but I can't. I will do anything that I can do to help you, but understand that at the moment I have things that are more pressing for my abilities."

"Snedecor has a certain special type of weapon called the oxidation super catalyzer. Can you find it?" Milo asked with the thought coming to him.

"Finding a particular inanimate objects is especially difficult for me" Nadarska answered. "I do not perceive the universe around me in the same way you do. I cannot simply identify an object by shape and appearance in the same way organisms like you do." Milo's heart sank a little. He thought that he had come up with a palatable idea.

"If you don't have any more questions, then I have a favor I have to ask of you, Milo" Nadarska said. "Do you think you trust me enough by now to carry out this favor?"

"I would be willing to do it, but perhaps not able. That depends on what it is. Much as I find the idea interesting of helping you I have come here to do a job."

"I understand" Nadarska said with a very sincere tone. "For now I just want you to act as a messenger to the Network. I have a very important bit of information which must be relayed to them. I have located the gray Baycorf in the jungles of Zenithala. I have thought that he was dead but I am certain it is him. The reptilia are also all over that world, possibly to look for him. You must tell the network to go there and rescue Baycorf before the reptilia find him."

"Baycorf? I've never heard of him. Who is he?" Milo asked.

"He is the gray that possesses the book of Alkarod. It's the most authoritative and extensive source of information for gray technology known. We absolutely cannot allow it to fall into the hands of the reptilia."

"How are your men going to find his exact location?" Milo ask.

"I am not completely without means of communication with the Network. Don't worry about them. Just get the message back to someone as soon as you return."

"I'll do it" Milo said starting to feel a little excitement build up within him.

"I will be speaking with you again soon. Please do not forget about how important you are!" And with that Milo blacked out back into his sleep.