Out the front window of the carrier, Milo caught sight of a bright light in the middle of the darkness of interstellar space. The network's deep space laboratory looked like a pretty primitive, terrestrial-age spacecraft. There were two different concentric, rotating, and doughnut-shaped rings on the outside. The inner ring was attached to a long, tower-like object in the middle that had bright lights on it, sort of like a light house so that it could be seen in such a dark area of space. The ship resembled a spinning top.

"You're using centripetal gravity?" Milo asked surprised to see such an old-fashioned design for the vessel. Loy looked at Milo as if he seemed taken aback about the very question.

"This right here is probably the safest place to be in the galaxy" Loy Holt answered. "It has a very sophisticated cloaking system, but we haven't found a way to make it work when running any gravity well generator or SPGs. Don't have any idea how it works, but as long as we're out here no one will ever find us."

"A gray cloaking device?" Milo asked

"Of course" Loy said. "Can't get any significant technological advantage these days unless you have a way to find things the grays made and make them work."

"You guys must know a lot about gray technology" Milo remarked trying to coax some information from Loy. For a few seconds Loy said nothing, and Milo thought he wouldn't give him anything.

"Oh, of course we know" Loy said. "The Book of Alkarod has two volumes. Well, at least two that we know of. The second one is the one that we have. The first – and the more valuable of the two - is apparently now with Baycorf."

"So the Network knows how to make gray devices and how they work?" Milo asked?

"Nope. The books only give information about how to operate some of the devices. Gray devices are extremely enigmatic things. They don't seem to work on any kind of consistent set of physical principles. The elves have tried replicating them with a very fine level of precision but they just don't seem to work. But just knowing how to use a lot of gray technology is extremely valuable. The volume of the Alkarod book that we have is the one reason that has made the Network as powerful as it has become."

"So it's magic then, is it?" Kayla asked finally jumping into the conversation. Loy just shrugged his shoulders.

"That seems as good an explanation as any, or it could simply be the Heridik principle that you if don't know something you can't learn it."

"And that leaves the question of how the grays create their things" Milo opined.

"Of course it does" answered Loy. "I can't rule out that the grays are 'magic'. I would have thought that silly at one time, but many things I once thought silly are reality." After what seemed like a few minutes trying to match the rotational speed of the outer ring of the station, the carrier finally docked with an airlock hatch.

"That right there is not nearly as easy as it looks" Loy said as the docking with the laboratory was sealed. "Not too many carrier computer systems these days are built to dock with rotating spacecraft. Tell Dalton that we're here" Loy finally said over the radio. They opened the hatch and went inside. The corridors were narrow and there weren't any really wide-open spaces, there were few windows, and there were cables and pipes all over the place.

They must have walked for several minutes. Milo noticed people that they passed by sneaking glances at him, which made Milo somewhat uncomfortable. Finally, they reached an elevator and they rode in it. The inner ring was much more spacious yet had less gravity. Dover greeted them right at the elevator.

"Dalton, has Captain Rall arrived?" Loy asked right away.

"Yes, he and the landing craft are here." Dover said.

"Where is he?" Kayla asked not sparing a single second to ask.

"Somewhere within the inner-toroid" Dalton answered still seeming interested in Kayla's interest in Victor. "You can probably somewhere where Streena isn't" he quipped. Kayla immediately walked past Dalton and Loy, and Milo followed her. They didn't have to walk for long before they ran into a young man wearing a union navy uniform.

"Do you know where Captain Rall is, sir?"

"He can't see anyone right now" the young man said. "Can I tell him you came by?" the young man asked.

"Tell him that KayKay is here to see him" Kayla said. "He'll want to see us right now." The young man took out his phone and hit a few buttons on it. "Hey Victor, Melinda and Chris are here and Melinda said to say that KayKay is here to see you…okay…all right, I'll tell them" he said hanging up the phone.

"Go on right through that door over there" he said pointing to automatic double doors about 10 yards away." Kayla and Milo walked quickly to the door and Kayla hit the button to open the door. Victor Rall stood right inside the small cabin the door revealed, with a surprised look on his face.

"Kayla…you're Melinda? And I guess you're Chris then, Milo. I wasn't expecting this. What are the two of you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Victor" Kayla remarked. "You were eligible for discharge. What are you doing getting wrapped up in all of this stuff?"

"I was going to call it quits, but I was asked to infiltrate this group." Victor said in a hushed tone.

"Asked to? By who!?" Kayla said trying her best to keep her emotions from raising the volume of her voice too loud.

"By president Alamore" Victor answered.

"What?!" said Kayla sounding astonished.

"Believe me Kayla I was ready to throw in the towel and leave the military lifestyle but when the president selected me for this assignment how can I turn him down when I have the chance to get out of the crowded spaceships while still taking the military paycheck?"

"And now look at you" Kayla remarked. "You're probably in more danger now than any of your shipmates."

"I didn't know I was going to get involved with a battle and end up on an expedition to a dangerous planet crawling with reptilian hoplites. What about the two of you? Why are you here?"

"It's a very long story…" Kayla said not seeming willing to delve into a long explanation.

"We're tracking Matt Snedecor" Milo piped in.

"Well, you may have found the right place" Victor said. "If he's alive, I can't imagine that he's anywhere else other than here."

"No one in this organization seems to know where he is" Milo said curious to see where that would lead the conversation.

"Well, you need not believe them" Victor said. "Do you realize this organization has knowledge of radiation microemitters?"

"So you think they're behind the radiation attacks and not the reptilia that are trying to push all humans out of the outworld sector?" Kayla asked.

"If the elves don't know how to use the microemitters, then I doubt the reptilia do. We've been collaborating with Elven intelligence and they're fairly sure that Snedecor is somewhere within this organization. My guess is he stole whatever artifact was on that mining guild vessel and now either works with these people or has some new identity."

"What motive does the Network have to make people get sick from radiation sickness?" Milo asked incredulously.

"I don't know exactly. They have to be the number one suspect, though."

"What about the Cult of the Goddess?" Milo asked.

"I haven't seen any evidence that it even exists. The Elven armada forces and marshalls have searched behind every bush and hole in the ground in the outworld sector and have found no trace of it."

"They just helped us score a major military victory against the reptilian forces at Umbramontis and you make them your suspect?" Milo asked with a defensive tone.

"Why do you keep defending these people, Milo" Victor asked. "How sure are you that these people are your friends?"

"I have been around them enough to at least not have any suspicions of them that you do" Milo remarked "and your opinion does not seem to be any more valid than mine."

"So you know what Dalton Dover's ultimate agenda is? How sure are you his agenda isn't to weaken the royal family?"

"No, but the royal family sees enemies everywhere" retorted Milo.

"Dalton Dover is not his real name, Milo. The elven intelligence strongly suspects he is a half-uncle of the princess who has been thought dead, and there is a long history of power struggles within royal families and the elves are no exception. Take extra care around these people, you do not know what it is that Dover's agenda is and his followers may not even know. The last thing we want to do is end up being some pawns in a royal family feud." A beeping sound came from Victor's phone and he took it off of his waist to look at it.

"Dover's crew is ready to start boarding" Victor said putting his phone back on his waist. Are you two sure you want to get involved with this? Milo and Kayla looked at each other.

"We're game" Milo said. "This will either be a huge mistake or get us a lot closer to finishing this mission."

"I wouldn't count on finding anything or anyone of interest down where we're going" Victor mumbled. "Follow me" he said walking out of the cabin and in the opposite direction from where they came. They walked down a few narrow corridors and through a few laboratories. Milo would've really liked to stop and look at it but he could easily get left behind and lost. After about 3 minutes of walking they finally reached the docking bay. Dalton, Brian, Loy, Streena, and several other humans and elves were there. When Streena saw Victor she immediately walked over to where he was standing to speak to him.

"Victor" she said seeming rather glad to see him, "we have installed the signal detection software on the corvette. The problem is that we don't know exactly what frequency we are looking for, so we had to improvise."

"Why am I getting the feeling this mission is going to be harder than I was led to believe?" Victor said with a sigh.

"It's going to reduce the power of our detection some, and we'll have to fly closer to the ground, but we feel we can still track down Baycorf. Don't worry" she replied.

"So more difficult and more dangerous" Victor said not feeling at all reassured.

"We just need to get in and out quickly and we'll be fine" Streena said. "We have sent some probes to the world to scan and we have an idea of where to look." They followed Streena through the airlock into the corvette landing craft. It was pretty much nothing but a small flight deck with 10 seats. Streena was showing how the installed scanner worked as the rest of the crew gradually walked into the cockpit. Loy and Brian walked in first, followed by two elves that Milo did not know. They introduced themselves to Victor as being his copilots sitting on opposite sides of him. In the second row of seats sat Milo, Kayla, Brian, and then Loy.

The ride from the SPG did not take more than about ten minutes. When they re-entered semi-normal space-time, the planet was already in very close view – Milo guessed it was about a few hundred thousand miles away. The corvette most definitely had a very precise SPG.

"I sure hope the cloaking system on this thing works" commented the elf who was sitting to Victor's left.

"It's an elven-class cloaking device" Milo said. One of the elves turned around to look at Milo for a brief moment, as if looking to see who made that remark. The planet was very beautiful. Many of the land appeared as green from space – the vegetation very lush – and the oceans appeared as deep blue.

"Have we got the right bearing, Streena?" Victor asked?

"Yes, we're fine" she answered.

"All right" victor said pushing a few buttons on the panel. "I'm going to take us down kind of quickly just to be on the safe side." As much of a fine instrument as the corvette was, the aerodynamics clearly weren't optimal. The ride was somewhat turbulent. After a moment of being physically shaken, they finally got within clear view of the surface. The terrain was somewhat bumpy with a deep green appearance.

Streena looked at the large heads up display. "You've got to take us lower, Victor. We're not going to be able to pick up the signal at this height." Victor dropped his altitude down enough so that he could have easily hit one of the mountain tops. Milo knew the way they were flying was quite dangerous but said nothing.

"You got anything?" Victor asked. " Every second we're still in the air we increase our risk of getting detected" Victor admonished.

"I know we're in the right place" Streena said. "Just keep going."

"We've got to abort" Victor shouted. "We can't stay in the air much longer!" Another thirty seconds, and Milo could've sworn that Victor was about to have a nervous meltdown before the detection software made a series of beeps.

"Wait, that's the distress signal!" Loy said pointing at the heads-up display. Victor changed the direction of the craft towards where the signal was located. Victor got as close as he could to the signal to still land the craft and then activated the landing sequence.

"Awkin" Victor said turning to the elf that was sitting next to him. "Go up into the ionosphere and activate the cloaking systems, and come back to us after exactly one hour. At least you guys will be able to survive" he said loading bullets into his gun.

"One hour?" Streena protested?

"Yes" Victor answered. "And we may not even have that much time. We most likely didn't make it in undetected so we're going to have to hurry." Victor, Kayla, Milo, Streena, Loy, and Brian all disembarked leaving the two elves on board the corvette. With a surprisingly quiet launch, the craft lifted off the ground and was off moving further inland.

The valley that they were in was very beautiful with some very unusual-looking vegetation, but there was no time to take in the sights. They walked hurriedly to the source of the distress signal. When it appeared that they were at the location where the signal was coming from, they could see nothing anywhere. The location did not appear to have anything special about it.

"Anyone there!?" Victor shouted.

"Victor!" Kayla said in a loud whisper.

"KayKay, there's a zero chance we weren't detected here. We've got to work fast!" Victor answered.

There was no answer or sign of anyone there. After shouting for him again, a noise could be heard from some shrubs not far away. And then, more sounds from other shrubs in another direction. Before any of them had much time to react, they were surrounded by four reptilian hoplites with the Fire Flower insignia medallions on the left side of their chests.

"What business do you hominids have here?" the leader of the group asked as the other three were pointing large guns at the group.

"Just exploring and taking in the great beauty of the goddess' greatest masterpiece" Brian said with his hands up in the air.

"Really? It seems to me like you are looking for someone? Now who might that be?"

"Flash!" Brian shouted. "As they had been instructed before they arrived, everyone else covered their eyes and Brian took a round, metal object from his pack and threw it into the ground. A blinding flash of light was emitted from the object, temporarily blinding the lizards. They all ran as fast as they could along through the clearing towards the forest with no regard for the signal. They got to the forest as quickly as they could, but it was no use. Within a minute, they were again surrounded with the same four lizards.

"You are wasting your time trying to escape" the leader of the lizards said. "You hominids are much too slow and too easily smelled." At that moment, a few loud popping sounds could be heard from somewhere around them. Several silver canisters landed in the vicinity around where they were all standing, and a silvery mist began spewing from them with a loud, hissing sound. It was air as best as Milo could tell, and it felt very, very cold. It was cold enough that they all started breathing heavily and wrapping their arms around themselves. Milo looked around where one of the lizards was slumped over and the rest were on the ground.

"Yes, but we're warm-blooded" Milo said with a shiver.

"Over there!" Brian said pointing. Over in the direction was an unusually tall (about six feet tall) gray holding a large, gunlike object.

"Follow me right now" the gray said throwing the gun on the ground. "That probably won't kill them" he said cooly. They followed the gray for about a minute, barely able to keep up with him. After a couple of minutes, they finally reached a small lake at the bottom a waterfall.

"I assume you hominids can swim" the gray said.

"Sure" Brian said. "But what's-"

"Just follow me as quickly as you can. We cannot allow the lizards to track you." The gray hit a button on his large, bionic arm and several lights on it came on. He jumped into the water. Loy and Victor immediately jumped in. After hesitating for a moment, Milo and Kayla both jumped in after them.

The gray swam to the bottom of the lake. Luckily, the water was clear and they could see the lights from the gray's arm. He swam directly into a tunnel behind the water fall for about fifteen feet. The water falling from above was quit forceful and made the swim under the falls turbulent. After going through the tunnel, the gray surfaced inside a small, dark cavern. When Milo surfaced he could see solid ground with some lighting around it and a what almost seemed to resemble a work shop with various objects on shelves and tables. One by one they all surfaced and made their way towards the lit area. After they all made their way up, the gray spoke up.

"Well, I suppose we are safe and can have introductions now." the gray said in a soft, cool voice.

"We're here representing the Network" Brian said breaking the silence. "I'm Brian, and this is Loy, Streena, Chris, Victor, and Melinda" he said pointing at each of them. "And you are Baycorf, are you not?"

"Yes" the gray said almost seeming hesitant to answer. "You must be a sophisticated group in order to find me here. Are you allies of the Cult of the Goddess or did the royal forces send you here?"

"No. We operate underground to resist them and resist the influence of Gaia. We were guided here to rescue you by Nadarska."

"You'll have to not take it personally that I find that hard to believe" Baycorf said. "I am all but certain that the last functioning full conduit to him was destroyed by Queen Tarissa many years ago."

"We've found a new one" Brian remarked.

"You have?" the gray asked. "May I take a look at it? Where did you find it?" the gray asked with his big, black eyes glistening. Even though grays had pretty limited facial expressions, Milo could tell that he was intrigued. Brian walked over to Milo and put his hands on his shoulders.

"This guy right here is our conduit" Brian said. The gray walked up close to Milo and putting his hand on his wet shoulder.

"Chris, was it? May I scan your brain?"

"Go ahead" answered Milo. "Everyone else seems to be taking an interest in my brain." The gray put the hand of his bionic arm on top of Milo's head. The arm gave off a light greenish glow. Milo could feel nothing except for the contact of the gray's bionic hand on his head. After the gray had had his hand on his head for about 10 seconds, he removed it. Milo noticed that there was no viewing screen or apparent output device of any kind on the arm.

"Incredible" the gray said. "The metaphysical side of your brain is quite acute and strong. It's at least plausible to me that he could be a conduit. How do you commune with Nadarska?"

"When I sleep I have very vivid and lucid dreams where I speak to him" Milo said. "He is represented by a man wearing a hood and standing by a tree in a pillar of light surrounded by a vast and lifeless landscape." Baycorf paused for a moment, not saying anything.

"Now that is incredible" the gray said sounding genuine surprised. "May I have a moment of your time to tell a story?" Baycorf proffered.

"Go ahead" Brian said after looking around to see if anyone objected.

"Long ago, there existed on the planet Quildalar a race known as the Leshraka. They had cognitive sophistication very much comparable to that of humans. These people considered Nadarska their guardian and for all intents and purposes, their God. Of course, they shared a home with the elves, who were stronger intellectually and technologically and more numerous as well. At the behest of Gaia, they destroyed many of the bronze-age cities of the Leshraka and eventually had many of them sterilized. Eventually their existence was repressed to the point of extinction. They had in their main temple of worship an iconic painting which was a symbol of hope for their people." Baycorf held the forearm of his bionic arm at neck level parallel to the ground and hit a button on it, projecting a picture on one of the cave walls that was a familiar sight for Milo. It was a picture of a humanoid figure standing around a tree bathing in a pillar of light surrounded by dreary lifelessness.

"The hooded anthropomorphic figure symbolically represents Nadarska protecting a tree from all the desolation that has been wrought in the area around it." Baycorf turned to look at Milo. "I seriously doubt that you could have possibly known anything about this story – it's a pretty arcane portion of elven history that has been all but whitewashed. There may very well be hope for us after all." Milo noticed that each other person around him taking glances at him, especially Victor who likely had a whole lot to try and take in.

"But I'm sure you didn't come here to listen to my chatter" Baycorf said. "To what do I owe this encounter?"

"We're here to rescue you" Brian said. "How did you end up here in the first place?"

"I cryogenically imprisoned by the elves – I'm not even sure how long I was imprisoned completely – but I was unfrozen and told I could have my freedom in exchange for helping them locate rebel hideouts here. While I was trying to come up with a way to escape our party was ambushed by the lizards. I fled and have been hoping against hope for a rescue for a while now." Brian heaved a loud and audible sigh.

"Since you were imprisoned, I suppose that you don't have the first volume of the Book of Alkarog with you" Brian said getting right down to the point. Baycorf turned to look at him for a few seconds.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you know I have it, but I am. Yes, I have it. I was not going to the let the reptilia get their hands on it." Bayorf took is normal hand and put it on a wide, flat protrusion on his bionic arm. The protrusion gave off a bright, green grow and when the shine went away the protrusion had become an orangeish-brown book.

"Normally I would probably just lie and tell you I don't have the book, but you humans seem to be legitimate and we are all in a pretty dire situation."

"What kind of situation?" Victor asked.

"As you probably know the Fire Flower clan has rejoined the remaining Reptilian clans. That alone is ominous news as they have become quite powerful in their exile, and they are seeking out the Talisman of the Goddess."

"What is that?" Milo asked.

"The Talisman of the Goddess" explained Baycorf to Milo "is a conduit of communication with Gaia. Basically, sort of like an inanimate version of you that does not require an altered state of consciousness to function. The Cult of the Goddess possesses it now I am fairly sure, but they won't have it for long. And if the Fire Flower clan gets their hands on the talisman…it will be a very grim picture indeed. You see, Gaia's senses and abilities of manipulation of the physical universe are greater than Nadarska's. Even the newly-acquired might of the elven forces will likely be no match for them. Not that you can count on their unconditional help and support in the first place."

"You can spare us the mumbo jumbo about gods and magic artifacts" Victor said incisively. "And it will save you and us time." The gray turned his head to look at him for a brief moment, as if looking him over.

"Young man, I can assure you that it is all very real, and we are in great danger, and we are coming to a crossroads that will go into a new epoch in the galaxy." Milo could see that Victor was clearly Kayla's brother. Victor said nothing but glanced to his side, seeing if maybe anyone would back him up, but no one said anything.

"What is this place?" Brian asked looking at the large shelves of the sundry objects around the cavern.

"This is most likely one of the hiding places of the Cult of the Goddess. I suspect they have already fled this area if not the whole world. They are extremely elusive."

"They leave anything valuable behind?" Brian asked looking around at the smorgasbord of unusual objects."

"Most of this stuff is not worth you attempting to take with you" Baycorf said. "But there is one object they left behind that they either did not recognize or know how to activate." The gray walked over to a shelf not far from where he was standing and picked up a long, golden rod with a large and rounded end on it. It almost resembled a scepter of some sort." Baycorf touched the rounded, top part of the object and it let off a bright, blueish-white glow.

"This" the gray said holding the object up so that all could see it, "is a sentience amplifier. It allows you to communicate with individuals whose metaphysical presence remains but physical presence does not."

"Great, I guess we can have a séance to help us stop the lizards" remarked Victor.

"Does it work?" Brian asked admiring the artifact.

"It does now" Baycorf said tossing it to Brian, who caught it with one hand. The top of the device was still shimmering in the bright blue color. "That device right there makes things that could normally be lost forever to the past recoverable. That's a capability that elves and many humans tend to undervalue." Brian stared into the orb at the top of the device and then handed it back to Baycorf. The rod had an almost super-natural seeming beauty to it. Its surreal appearance made the notion of communicating with the dead seems somewhat less preposterous. The group's admiration of the rod was interrupted by a loud beeping noise.

"We need to get moving." Brian said. "The corvette is going to be here shortly. Baycorf, I assume that you don't want to stick around here. We have room for you."

"I would appreciate that very much" the gray said. One by one the group got back into the water to swim back out to the waterfall. Milo could barely tell where he was going, and just followed the light from the orb. When they got back to the surface of the water outside of the cave, there were no reptilia to be found. The group got out of the water quickly.

"Over there" Brian said as they got out pointed to the landing corvette. The group did not waste one second moving quickly to where it landed. They all boarded and the corvette left the atmosphere quickly. The trip back was pretty uneventful. Brian was having a conversation about strangelet crystallization with Baycorf, and Kayla and Victor were also locked in their own conversation. Milo just realized that he never really had a chance to ask Baycorf about Snedecor, but figured there would be another chance once they got back to the Network headquarters.

When they got back to the HQ, everyone seemed to scatter in different directions around the Network headquarters. Milo lost sight of Baycorf, who he wanted to make sure he would have a chance to talk with. When Milo had almost given up and decided to go back to the docking bay, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Victor.

"Come with me, Milo." Milo followed him back to his cabin, where he, Victor, and Kayla had talked earlier. Kayla was again waiting inside for both of them.

"What's going on?" Milo asked.

"I bugged Dover's study. He's going to meet with that gray."

"Are you crazy?!" Milo exclaimed. "You don't think he'll find out about it?"

"Relax" said Victor calmly. "I've been trained to do this very thing and I've got great equipment."

"You could be putting me and Kayla in real danger here" Milo protested. "Dover has told me to my face that he does not trust me and Kayla."

"I'll be more than happy to take the fall for you. I wouldn't mind being a persona non-grata around these people so I don't have to go on any more adventures or kiss Ava Baxter's behind." Just then Kayla shushed them as voiced could be heard on the receiver.

"I'm willing to let it slide that you left me to get captured by the royal forces" said a gray's voice over the receiver that sounded like Baycorf's. "The situation has become too dire for us to not put that behind us." There was a brief silence.

"I agree about the state of the situation and will spare you an argument that you put yourself in the position" Dover's voice could be heard responding. "Now that we've apparently taken down our walls of mistrust, perhaps we can now have a frank talk about the Book of Alkarog. Does it contain the instructions on how to build and use the key?"

"It does not, just as I have told you before that it doesn't. But it will still be useful to you as I'm sure you know, and I have more good news to report to you."

"And what is that?"

"The young man…he is most definitely a conduit to Nadarska. I am quite sure of it. I wouldn't have thought it was possible. Nadarska might just be able to do some things his arch rival cannot. The young man's metaphysical brain component is particularly strong."

"Do you think he is a creation of the metaphysicists?" Dover asked after a brief pause.

"That is a very real possibility, and could definitely explain where the predictions of his birth came from. It would certainly be nice to know that one of the metaphysicists are still around out there somewhere. What have you learned about him so far?" Baycorf asked Dover.

"Not a whole lot. He has a fake identity, is apparently looking for the surviving member of the Morian frigate disaster, but I haven't been able to figure out who he really is or where he comes from. I haven't gotten much information about his wife, either."

"I see" said Baycorf thoughtfully.

"So, do you have any new information about the key or not?" Dover asked changing the subject back. There was a moment of silence over the receiver.

"The Singed Leaf Clan has it now, I am fairly sure. When I was wandering around Zenithala I detected unusual perturbations in the planetary muon flux. I discovered a hidden grotto containing a particularly powerful artifact. I detected faint traces of Singed Leaf haplotypes on DNA remnants at the scene as well as pheromones."

"Are you sure? Why would it be there?"

"It was definitive, and I am not sure. If it was part of the key, and I have a strong feeling it is, then there are certainly worse hands for it to have fallen into."

"How can we be sure? You can't know for sure if the Singed Leaf is loyal to the Goddess or not. How do you know they haven't just been waiting for the Nal'Larak to return so to fight Turraski?"

"They have remained neutral since before the War Between the Clans. Their very livelihoods are practically built around the idea of making peace with other galactic denizens and not following the Goddess or the Nal'Hirak."

"So what would you suggest we do?" Dover asked.

"My advice to you would to be to take a chance – a small one in my opinion – and talk to the Singed Leaf chief. It is probably past time that you reached out to them. We are going to need all the allies we can get."

"I will certainly be keeping a closer eye on them, that's for sure."

"They are for the most part a peaceful clan. Now if you will excuse me, I want to talk with Chris before he leaves." Dover said something that wasn't audible and then the noise stopped. Victor turned the receiver off.

"Doesn't sound like someone whose main ambition is overthrowing the royal family" Kayla remarked.

"It sounds like someone determined to gain a supreme grasp of gray technology, for what purpose is not clear" Victor replied.

"Milo" Kayla said, "we need to go meet Baycorf in the main thoroughfare. This may not turn out to be completely useless after all." Kayla and Victor hugged and said their goodbyes, and they were off. It did not take them long at all to run into Baycorf, as if he knew which direction to walk to find them.

"Chris" he said in a soft, almost computer-like voice. "I am glad that I ran into you. I need to talk to you for a few moments alone." Kayla and Milo looked at each other.

"There are no secrets between me and my wife" Milo said.

"Very well" Baycorf said. A flat and jagged object protruded from Baycorf's bionic arm. He sticks the protrusion into the keycard hole on a nearby, empty lab and the door opened. "Come in" he said. No matter how much Milo was around grays, he couldn't get used to the soft, cool, almost digital-sounding voice of the grays. The walked into what looked like a small room with large specimen freezers in it.

"I assume that was the two of you listening in on my conversation with Dover" Baycorf said.

"Yeah" Milo said not having a good feeling inside.

"Don't worry" Baycorf said messing with something on his bionic arm. "I'm not going to tell Dover."

"What do you think of Dover?" Kayla asked. Baycorf paused for a moment, just looking at Kayla.

"I feel confident in letting him have the Book of Alkarod. He has been fighting this fight longer and better than anyone and has done a good job with this organization. Any path to victory against Gaia is going to involve working with him."

"So what information have you got for us, Baycorf?" Kayla asked.

"I don't have any information that will help you on our mission but I know someone who might. But Brian told me about your mission so I do have some advice. Seek out the ghost of Aura Madeen. I think you will get some useful information from her."

"I don't know where to find her" Milo remakred, "and Nadarska apparently can't find anyone that I happen to be looking for."

"He knows where Aura is" Baycorf said. "I'm fairly sure. And Aura will want to meet you…oh, and take this" Baycorf said handing him the sentience amplifier.

"Thanks" Milo said still mesmerized by the glowing of the object.

"Take this as well" Baycord said giving a small memory cartridge to Milo.

"What is it?" Milo asked.

"It's a copy of the translation of the Leshraka king's journal. I might very well have the only surviving copy, and I just made this copy for you. I know what a glutton for knowledge you are, and you might even get some useful information on it."

"Thank you Baycorf" Milo said although it didn't sound particularly interesting to him.

"One more thing" Baycorf said. "Because I can tell from your brain activity that you're eager to get out of here. Be very careful around the Cult of Gaia and all of her other supporters, which I think you will eventually encounter. They don't use coercion to sway individuals to their cause, they use seduction. As a matter of fact – between the two of us – I wouldn't blindly follow Nadarska, either. You are going to have to make some very important decisions that would affect the course of the coming conflict, and the best thing you can do is to always do what makes sense to you so that you do not have any regrets."

"I'll remember that" Milo said holding out his hand to be shaken. Baycorf extended his organic hand with his three long fingers and one opposable digit to shake it. His skin felt smooth and almost amphibian-like.