Ronald Bohr could feel the train he was in throttle up. The scenery of the Royal City was absolutely magnificent. There were many gorgeous high-rising buildings – many too tall to see to the top except on a clear day – and the buildings were surrounded by a robust landscape of quaint-looking houses. Off in the distance over the bay, he could see the floating palace whose magnificence was borderline hypnotic. As he was being mesmerized by the scenery, the door to his cabin slid open and in walked Griffin Alamore, every inch of his clothing and body primped and ready for the day.

"Mr President" Bohr said as if no one noteworthy had even entered the room. "I assume you got my report."

"I did, director, but I was expecting to not just get the what but the why as well."

"What else is there to explain?" Bohr said immediately knowing that this was not going to be an enjoyable conversation. The president took a deep breath, doing his best not to show his frustration.

"How did all that transpired at Umbramontis happen from right under our noses – from your nose director Bohr?"

"Are you disappointed that several hundred thousand people in the Goddess' Crescent weren't forced to give up their homes and their lives because of a major military victory?" The president glared at him, galled at the suggestion.

"We won the battle, but we may have lost the war. All of the rebel and pro-independence groups have won a major moral victory, and on top of that Ava Baxter may have all but locked up the election. Several years of work trying to keep that powder keg of a region from exploding may have been unraveled in just one day. Why weren't you able to keep tabs on what Baxter and see she was plotting that little stand?"

"Don't put this on me, Griffin. I'm not the one who bartered weapons to get the foot in the door of a shadowy organization that I was able to get with two green, undercover agents."

"Agents that you sent to outworld without my knowing who were not registered with royal intelligence" Bohr said sounding genuinely angry.

"Come on, Griffin. You and I know the only way we're going to make any head way in the sector is to conduct operations behind the backs of Tal Roggle and the royal marshals. They aren't giving us any breathing room to operate. Roman Darossa was roughed up by Azari Yuler on a simple patrol just a few miles from Beta Base. Now you've got plausible deniability and I managed to get some level of information about this 'Network' without handing over weapons to militias that are sympathetic to outworld rebels." Alamore scowled at him.

"Just hope that the elven high command does not learn about what it is that you've done. Count on continuing this conversation later." Bohr said nothing and the president got up and left the cabin. He looked out the window and could see the train's destination: the very tall building with a triple helix spine with flat, triangular enclosures a few stories high attached to each of the three strands at certain intervals up the spine. Through the middle of each triangle were the elevator shafts. At the very top was a large dome, which looked kind of heavy for the size of the helix.

The train came to a stop under the building. Several officers of the armada were there to greet the disembarking humans, but no sign of the princess or Yaferni Gall. As Bohr walked out of the train onto the ground and got closer to the base of the building, he felt as if he were 30 pounds lighter. There was clearly a gravity well generator up within the top part of the building. The group of men and elves entered the elevator and after the door closed one of the elves pulled a lever on the control panel. The elevator began rapidly accelerating upward at a rate that would've been entirely too fast without the weight reduction. After only about fifteen seconds, the elevator began to slow down, and for a moment there was a feeling of near-weightlessness. At last the elevator entered the domed top of the structure from underneath.

They exited the elevator, where Princess Zorthia, Yaferni Gall, and several other elven admirals were waiting for them. Gall appeared to be dressed more in the garb of a king than a serious military leader, and the princess was wearing a gorgeous bright-green organosilicon dress. They said their greetings and then proceeded through the hallways to a door that led to an auditorium and settled in. The president sat next to his planetary defense secretary Giff Gray and fleet secretary Alex Brait, a good distance away from where Bohr was seated. After a minute or two, Grand Admiral Gall stepped up to one of the podiums in the room with the princess at the podium to his right.

"Good afternoon, everyone" Gall said in a warm tone. "I want to take the time to welcome our guests from the high civilian leadership of the Union to Quildalar and to the Bubble, the headquarters of our great Royal Armada. I assume that you have all been briefed on what has happened, but I will run down the key points. Recently forces from the Reptilian Empire's Army attacked a key human military installation on the planet Umbramontis in the Goddess' Crescent region of the outworld sector. It was a largely unprovoked attack that was the culmination of months of provocation. Luckily, the courageous human fighters were able to repel the attack, but now Turraski is preparing for a large-scale attack on the central crescent world of Mulgrath. After having discussions with President Alamore, the princess, and the admirals of the armada, we have decided it has become time to take a stronger hand in countering this threat." There was a brief applause from the crowd of about 25 people in the seats.

"We are readying two of the current ten completed divisions of the armada to make a stand at the Mulgrath system. This will be an operation involving cooperation not only between elven ships and outworld forces, but militias and rebel paramilitary groups with whom we have up to now had an adversarial and contentious relationship. When we put aside our differences the synergy of the determination and fighting spirit of the human and the technological might of the Elf we will be a force to be reckoned with, and we will send a strong message to Turraski and his new Nal'Larak allies." There was a loud applause in the room that lasted for about 10 seconds.

"Now" Gall asked panning his eyes across the room. "Are there any suggestions or concerns? It seems to me to be a straightforward operation."

"Grand Admiral" Bohr spoke up without any hesitation whatsoever. "The Fire Flower Clan has a very large number of infantry that they can quickly land on the planet. How do you plan to protect Mulgrath City from a surface-level assault?" Several of the people in the room turned to look at Bohr.

"We have the utmost confidence in the outworld forces to repel these attacks-"

"How confident are you?" Bohr said cutting off Gall mid-sentence. "They were caught off guard at Umbramontis but they won't make that mistake again. If the Fire Flower captures or destroys the city it won't matter if you beat the reptilian fleet back."

"We can deter or prevent most of the larger and less agile landing crafts from reaching the surface, the artillery that the outworld forces seems to have serendipitously acquired should be able to take care of the rest" Gall said with a faint trace of annoyance in his tone.

"I have another concern, Grand Admiral" Bohr said respectfully, "don't you think what Turraski is doing seems a bit rash? He has thus far been meticulous and careful with his actions and now he seems abruptly aggressive, perhaps he has something up his sleeve that we don't yet know about."

"Director Bohr, I appreciate you trying to keep us honest, but what Turraski is doing is nothing more than an act of desperation coupled with trying to save face from an embarrassing defeat. At this point he knows it's going to be hard to uproot the humans from the Crescent and that it will be very difficult to stop the completion of the Royal Armada. If he shows any weakness he will face dissent from within his own ranks."

"How sure are you that you know what the Fire Flower is capable of?" Bohr asked. "They have been in isolation for a long time."

"Director Bohr" Zorthia's voice interjected, "you must trust us that we have learned as much as we can about this prodigal clan. It is not in our interest at this point to allow the largest city in the Crescent to fall to the reptilia."

"The Fire Flower clan has been completely scouring the surface of Zenithala. Who knows what kind of weaponry they may have found on the planet."

"We have been carefully monitoring what is happening on Zenithalan surface" Gall countered. "I have spoken to Geerhill Golmad on this matter, and he is confident they won't find anything to give them an advantage over us."

"You are confident you know all of the secrets of a planet that has never been explored fully by any hominid before?" Bohr noticed out of the corner of his eye that the president turned his head to give him a look.

"You will need to speak with Geerhill Golmad on this matter. I'm no expert on these worlds that have no tactical purpose to us or to you" Gall said at last showing some sign of losing patience. Bohr said nothing more as Gall began to go over the details of the operation, feeling that his point had been made. After a few minutes of barely paying attention of an exchange between Geerhill Golmad and Giff Gray, a message notification came in on an entangled line. Bohr got up and left the room and into the hallway.

"Bohr" he said picking up the entangled line.

"Ronald, it's Roman, can you hear me?" a concerned Roman Darossa said.

"Yes, what's going on?"

"I'm here at the Xanadu resort, Milo and Kayla aren't here or anywhere at the pavilion, and their carrier is at the space port. Do you suppose that something bad has happened to them?"

"I would not worry about them yet, but please keep an eye out for them."

"Yes, but you aren't concerned that this so-called Network has found out that they are CIA agents? We have gotten word from Kayla's brother that this organization is very resourceful and powerful and secretive. "

"I wouldn't worry about them just yet, Roman" Bohr reassured him. "As for now, can I ask you do something that might be a bit dangerous?"

"Sure, Bohr, what is it?"

"Grand Admiral Gall and the royal armada are planning to make a stand against the reptilia in the Mulgrath system. I want you to go to Mulgrath City and make sure Ava Baxter is safe through the standoff. If things start looking bad for the city, and I've got a hunch they will, I want you to get her out of there as fast as you can."

"You think she'll go down with the ship if the lizards take the city?" Roman asked.

"No. It's not her safety from the reptilian forces I'm concerned about."

"Huh?" Roman asked sounding bewildered.

"This entire confrontation the elves are assembling is purely a late ploy to try and bring an election back into reach. I have a strong feeling there's a low ceiling of how hard they are willing to fight, here. If the elves are unable to save the city without too much military exertion on their part, I fear they will have Baxter arrested."

"You really think they would go that far, Ronald?"

"Yes. It's perfectly legal within the Quildalar Accords and after the raids on rebel munitions the risk of a revolt by militias and rebel groups is minimal. I feel that this may have all been planned in advance to begin with and the election was conceded the day those raids . If you tell Ava Baxter what I told you and that I insist that she leave the system entirely, I feel sure she'll comply. Take her back to Earth. I don't want her anywhere in the outworld sector if the Mulgrath system falls."

"Why don't I just go over there and tell her we need to leave immediately before any shots are fired?"

"We need to have a convenient excuse for the president to have her moved. Plus, it won't look good for her if she leaves and the city is successfully defended."

"Yes, Ronald. Anything else?"

"That'll be all. Stay safe, Roman." And the line was severed. Bohr walked back down the hallway into the conference room.

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