The trail walking about Mount Pye seemed to get more and narrower as Milo and Kayla got closer to the summit. Even though there was plenty of shade provided by the large coniferous-like trees that were around them, it was pretty hot. Milo was not particularly enjoying the hike, but he was feeling good, because he was feeling like himself mentally. Milo looked around them in every direction. There were alone for as far as he could see. There were not many people on the trail in the middle of the day in the middle of the hot and humid season of Xanadu.

"I had another 'dream' – if you could call it that – talking with Nadarska." Milo said. Kayla looked over at him for about two seconds and then turned her head back ahead of her without any change in her facial expression.

"So what's his next big prophecy?" Kayla said saucily.

"He doesn't predict the future. Apparently he can…facilitate sexual attraction between people and exercise some control of conception at the molecular level." Kayla turned to look at Milo again. "Don't tell me you haven't tried to figure out what happened the other night."

"Or it could just be spontaneous heat of passion of two bored people in the right situations. Neither of us have had a lot of time to look for love interests." Milo didn't believe that for one minute, but he didn't continue to argue.

"He also told me to inform the Network that there is a gray named Baycorf stranded on the planet Zenithala. He apparently has some book written by the gray technologist Alkarod."

"I know what you might be thinking, but we're not going down to venture some vast wilderness on a reptilian border planet to run one of this god's errands." Kayla said sternly. "We need to be focused on our mission."

"I wasn't suggesting we go. I just thought it was interesting. Kind of seems strange that any machine could know that. It seems more plausible he is a metaphysical organism as he says and not some kind of technology."

"Metaphysical entity" Kayla echoed. "Sounds like a modern way to say a 'god' without sounding ridiculous".

"Trying to make it sound silly doesn't actually make it silly." Milo retorted. Neither of them said anything for the next minute or so.

"You think we'll have a chance to rendezvous with Roman any time soon?" Kayla finally asked breaking the silence.

"Maybe not. All hell has broken loose between the raids and the battle of umbramontis. Snedecor might be a secondary concern for right now."

"Well, at least that could mean we get to leave before our two weeks here are up. We've already gotten into more trouble than we bargained for."

"If the reptilian fleet begins advancing towards this part of outworld you might get your wish. Otherwise we're stuck here."

"This is the place" Kayla said pointing in a direction off the trail. Kayla and Milo walked off the trail and into the small, fern-like vegetation. After a minute or so of walking they came to a small clearing with a dark gray, dome-shaped building. Milo knocked at the door. A girl of about 20 years of age with pale skin and short, jet-black hair opened the door quickly.

"Come in" she said only allowing her head to be visible from outside. "We've been waiting for you." They walked into a small foyer, through a living room, and into another room with a staircase going underground to a basement. They descended the staircase into a basement that was fully under the surface of the mountain. In the basement was a room with a big round table with 8 seats around it.

Milo recognized Brian and Bart, who were sitting in adjacent seats at the table. Sitting on the other side of Bart was an elf with pale skin and long and yellowish-white hair. The girl with the black hair that answered the door took the seat next to the elf, and on the other side of her sat a gray. Milo had to put up and effort to not to do a double take as he had not ever seen a gray before. Sitting next to the gray was a short, muscular man with a bald head.

"Welcome, Chris and Melina" the elf with the long and silvery hair said. Milo and Kayla took the last two remaining seats at the table. "Well, we all know who the two of you are, but you probably don't know everyone else. I believe you know Bart and Brian" the elf said looking over at them. "This young lady next to me is Streena" he said referring to the girls that had let them in. "Our gray friend over there is Yanakris. And this gentleman over here is Loy Bouton" he said pointing at the bald man. "I believe you already know him from the lab, Melinda. And of course, I am the leader of the Network, Dalton Dover. Why don't the two of you tell us about yourselves?" Milo had to think for a minute, the question taking him off balance.

"Me and my wife run a series of farms in the Earth sector." Milo said fearing that he sounded curt and not natural.

"Interesting" Dover said. "That seems an unlikely occupation for one that shares your neurotype." Milo again paused a brief moment, not knowing what he needs to say.

"Not my greatest passion" Milo answered him back. "I just took advantage of some opportunities have managed to do all right."

"I see" said Dover eyeing him a couple of seconds before finally responding. "Well, maybe you might find getting involved with us more interesting to you. And you, Melinda?" Dover said turning his eyes on Kayla. "What is your story?"

"Just a simple girl from the homeworld that fell for a farmer" she said.

"So that whole hacking thing is just a side hobby?" Dover asked.

"Just some skills I learned from the trouble makers at the Lunar Academy" she said. Dover nodded his head appearing to be in though, as if trying to extract some kind of subtext from their words. There was definitely some feeling of insincerity to the way he was speaking to the two of them.

"Well" Dover said, "I suppose I should give you a formal introduction to this organization and what it is all about The Network has been around for quite a long time. It is much older than the settling of outworld. It dates back to the reign of Princess Tarissa and the Elven Grand Admiral Agorja. Queen Tarissa acquired an artifact known as the Talisman of the Goddess, which allows someone to commune directly with Gaia. The gray Alkarod founded the Network when he was unable to win any support from the human union government at the time to resist Queen Tarissa. To make a long and uninteresting story short, the Network succeeded in severing the ties between the royal family and Gaia, but not permanently. Today we are responding to a new threat."

"So you want me to be your talisman for your leader, then?" Milo asked.

"In a way, yes" Dalton said back. "But I would be careful about your use of the word 'leader'. Nadarska is more of an ally – an extremely powerful ally – but an ally none the less. Alkarog swears he and Gaia are not creations of grays, but rather metaphysical sentient beings, and I trust his word. As such he always figured any alliance with them should always be tentative."

"Well" Milo said after Dover stopped talking, "I guess I'll go ahead and deliver my message to you. Nadarska has said that he has located the gray Baycorf on the planet Zenithala. The reptilia are all over the planet and might be chasing him. He wants you to go there and rescue him." Dalton gave a surprised look.

"Are you sure?" Dalton asked again seeming kind of suspicious.

"Absolutely" Milo answered.

"He hasn't been seen or heard from in quite a while. I would have thought the elves made him disappear. I wonder why he has appeared all of the sudden."

"He can make himself disappear" said a smooth, high-pitched voice coming across the table. It was the gray, Yanakris, talking. "He is legendary among grays as being notoriously hard to find and capture. If he really is there, then we really do need to try and find him. He's a bit unpredictable, but he also isn't overly fond of Gaia and the reptilia."

"Sure" Brian piped in. "But how are we going to find a gray that's so evasive?"

"He has a special type of transponder that sends out a specific kind of dark energy pressure waves" the gray said back. "Once we get into the system we ought to be able to detect approximately where he is."

"So he's going to broadcast his position out for just anyone to see?" Brian asked.

"Only for people who know specifically what they are looking for. It is worth a shot" the gray opined.

"It's going to be tough to get onto the surface undetected" Milo said. "Nadarska has said there are reptilia will be watching for anything entering that system."

"It won't be that tricky for us. And it will be worth a try." Yanakris cut in. "Baycorf has a very important artifact that could be of use to us."

"The book of Alkarog?" Milo asked interrupting their debate.

"Yes! It has a lot of information about gray technology that even I do not understand. We should do what we can to retrieve Baycorf for that reason alone."

"We will need a ship that can minimize our chances of detection and get us on and off the surface of the planet quickly" the bald-headed man, Loy Bouton, said.

"We can manage that" Dover interjected. "Captain Rall still owes us for our last… shipment. I'm sure he's got a dropship we can use." Kayla and Milo looked at each other immediately upon hearing the name, with Kayla not even able to keep an surprised look on her face.

"I can handle that" Streena said with a smile on her face. "I wouldn't mind getting a brief guided tour from him of that planet."

"We may need him to run the piloting software of the dropship." Loy said. "Can we talk him into coming with us?"

"Leave that to me" Streena said with an overt eagerness in her voice. "I know the officers in that division quite well now."

"The Network has connections with the Union Fleet?" Kayla asked.

"Of course we do" Dover replied. "We have cultivated many useful contacts within the union fleet and outworld forces." Dover paused for a couple of seconds and then turned to look at Milo.

"If the two of you want to come on this little excursion of ours, you are welcome" Dover explained. "Just understand it's going to be pretty risky."

"We're going to go." Kayla said brusquely. Milo did not argue but just looked at her.

"Well, I guess the missus has spoken" Streena quipped which was met with a couple of chortles in the room.

"Well, I don't see why the two of you would want to go, but if the two of you really want such an adventurous mood we have room for you" Dalton said. "But of course we cannot guarantee your safety."

"Well, count us in" Milo replied not wanting to contradict Kayla. Dalton seemed to be genuinely suspicious of him and Kayla with her unequivocal desire to go on their mission. For the next few minutes the group was discussing some of the technical aspects of the detection software of finding Baycorf. Milo really wish he knew more about it, but didn't want to take up time to ask any questions. After about 10 more minutes of discussion in which Milo and Kayla were completely left out of, Dover finally cut off the meeting.

"I hope that the two of you will join us for some drinks and some snacks" he said looking at both Milo and Kayla. The group got up from their seats and went back to the large living room. Milo noticed Kayla and Streena chatting about something while Loy, Brian, and Bert were gathered together talking about sometihng else. Milo was kind of hoping he and Kayla could leave as soon as possible, he was not interested in having a conversation with anyone there about his fake persona. He was just about to just walk out on the porch and just wait for Kalya when he felt a tap on the shoulder.

"I want to speak with you in private" Dalton said with a serious tone in his voice. Milo followed him up a spiral staircase all the way to the door to the master bedroom on the second floor and went inside. Dalton snapped his fingers and the flourescent lights on the ceiling of the dark room came on, revealing a large an luxurious master bedroom for the cabin.

"I want to be able to trust you, Chris. Especially if you really are a human conduit to metaphysical organisms. But I need to know who you really are."

"And why might you not think I am who I say I am?"

"You're here, ostensibly on a honeymoon, you are searching for the lone survivor of the Morian, and you're eager to go to a largely uncivilized planet crawling with reptilian hoplites to seek out a dangerous gray that might be impossible to find." Milo knew there wasn't a point in trying to conceal too much.

"We're searching for Snedecor for work-related reasons. We've come up on dead ends in looking for him and we could find some clues as to his whereabouts on Zenithala."

"I've searched through the registry of farms in th Earth sector. There's no trace of your or your wife's name in there. Now either you've got some kind of illegal farm operation going on or your identity is some kind of cover."

"Those farm regististries you can buy on the black market are often incomplete, inaccurate, or completele decyos. You could be mistaken."

"No" Dover said as confidently as he was probably capable of being. "I am quite sure we have an accurate and up-to-date version of the registry. Our organization is more resourceful and ubiqitous than you know, I can assure you. You must understand we have secrets that could be worth quite a bit of money to various interests groups around the galaxy. So if you're a part of some underground smuggling organization or working for the royal intelligence or part of the Gaia Cult I cannot let you compromise to goals of the Network." Milo just stood there silent for a moment, trying to decide what best to say.

"You guys provided the weapons to defeat the reptiles on Umbramontis, didn't you?" Milo asked.

"We would seem like the likely culprits, wouldn't we?" Dover sassed.

"I'm sorry, Dover" Milo said back. "All I can give you is my word that I'm not here to compromise your organization, I'm here to find Matt Snedecor. Do you or do you not believe that I am Nadarska's messenger?"

"I certainly hope so" Dover answered back. "But I don't have anything to confirm it beyond a shadow of a doubt. It was a big risk to allow you an Melinda inside our organization like we have, but we have been so eager to have you that we have perhaps rashly taken that risk on."

"If you must take precautions against Melinda and myself, do it." Milo replied. "I have nothing that I can tell you would assuage you I'm working against you." Dalton looked at Milo right in the eye, appearing to be in deep thought.

"It may not matter much at this point, honestly. The shroud has just come off our organization after the battle on Umbramontis. I just want to make sure that you understand what's at stake here" Dalton said narrowing his eyes at Milo. "Turraski and the Black Serpent may only be interested in pushing human settlement away from the reptilian sector, but the Fire Flower Clan is another story. They're quite powerful and they answer only to the goddess and there is not much limit to the carnage they'll wreak if it's within the whims of Gaia. So it's you who had best be cautious if you are thinking of working against me and the Network, and not just for the sake of you and Melinda."

"Well then, I don't anticipate you having any problems with me" Milo said neither feeling or demonstrating any sign of intimidation. Dover gave him a stern look, making sure Milo understood that he meant business before he walked past him, out the door, and back down the spiral staircase.

Dalton walked past him and out the door. Milo followed him back downstairs. Kayla was ready to leave, and Milo was glad to say goodbyes to the group and leave the cabin.

"What was that all about?" Kayla asked looking around to make sure no one was around to listen.

"Dover knows we're not registered farmers" Milo said getting right down to the point.

"You didn't tell him who we are, did you?"

"Tell him that you're Victor's sister? No, I didn't."

"I'm talking about our cover. You didn't give up our cover to this guy, did you?"

"Of course not. But from his vantage point we mostly likely aren't an affluent farming couple from the Earth sector, that's for sure. It may not have been wise to show such an eagerness to go on their expedition."

"Well, at least they won't think that we're luring them into some kind of trap. And like you say, we have to consort with the outcasts to have any chance of finding Snedecor."

"How exactly do you plan on explaining to Victor why you're wandering around with the Network?" Milo asked.

"He is a captain now, he is permitted to know about our assignment. I double checked. Besides, he might actually know something. Roman may have forgotten about us and may not have anything better than we do in the first place." Milo pretty much knew that Kayla's interest in going had everything to do with her brother being involved, but saw no reason in making a big deal out of it.