Milo awoke from about seven-and-a-half hours of sleep, and gave himself a hard stretch. He felt at least as good as he had felt since the beginning of the last few days, which felt like an eternity. There was no need to get out over fears of impending war and they were off the hook of the seemingly impossible task of finding Matt Snedecor.

Milo got a notification on his tablet of getting the latest version of The Royal Comet, and the headline story nearly made him fall out of the bed.

Ava Baxter Detained

Challenger candidate for Outworld Governor Ava Baxter was detained several hours ago as she was prepared to address a crowd of supporters in Mulgrath City shortly after what looked like a bleak outlook in a battle with reptilian forces turned to yet another stunning victory for her and her coalition of militia and other rogue outworld human groups. Baxter is being charged with illegal collaboration with paramilitary groups. The group Baxter is accused of working with has made threats to bombard the ecological sanctuary world of Zenithala with atomic fission missiles and used Zalzok bugs to force back the reptilian ground forces surrounding the city, which legally counts as a use of biological weapons. Both actions constitute war crimes under royal law, which the outworld sector is bound by.

The arrest is sure to be very controversial, as it is too late for any other challengers to file for candidacy for the gubernatorial office, meaning that incumbent Lance Larrett is the only remaining candidate now eligible for the race. Elven Grand Admiral Yaferni Gall expressed support for the arrest, which was orderd by Outworld Royal Sector Commander Tal Roggle. "We have very strong evidence of Ms. Baxter's involvement with this particular underground organization and were willing to let it slide to avoid the appearance of acting politically, but after recent incidents we felt we can no longer avoid taking action." Gall expressed grave concern that the underground organization, known as 'the Network', has grown powerful enough to the point that it poses a threat to the kingdom. The Network was an organization originally founded by the gray technologist Alkarog and was thought to have been disbanded. The leader of the Network, known as Dalton Dover, is thought to be an old rival of Queen Adella. Anyone with information about this organization and its whereabouts are encouraged to come forward. Rewards will be offered.

Milo's spirits sank just as quickly as they had been lifted. He did not have a long time to think about what he was reading before he heard the knock on the door to their suite. Kayla, who was already stirring go up and quickly went to the door. She turned on the external camera and looked on the viewing screen to see who was outside.

"Milo!" Kayla said softy but excitedly. "It's Clyde!" Sure enough, Kayla opened the door and Clyde walked in, and it was obviously completely on edge.

"The two of you need to pack up and come with me as fast as you can!" Clyde said coming in and taking a look out the window of their suite to see if anyone was there.

"What?!" Kayla barked in a surprised manner. "Why!"

"They're coming to get Milo!" Clyde answered.

"Who is coming for me?"

"The elven marshals of course!" Clyde said frantically.

"Milo just saved an entire colony and maybe the whole sector from war and you're telling me they're coming to get him?" Kayla barked.

"They're coming for both of you! They may already know you're both non-registered CIA agents."

"How do you know this?" Kayla demanded.

"I'll explain it later, the two of you need to get packed up right now so we can get going!" Now Milo was beginning to feel alarmed. Clyde being in a hurry was most definitely an impressive level of direness.

"Clyde!" Kayla said showing no sign of wanting to budge. "Did you get us to bring you back out here so that you could sell an artifact to a gray within the Goddess' Cult?"

"Kayla, I'll tell you everything that you need to know once we get out of here. I took the fall for the two of you to save your jobs and maybe your freedoms so I don't want to see either you get into trouble now. Now come on!" Kayla stopped arguing, and they both began frantically packing up their things. Within a couple of minutes, they were both out of the door.

"This way" Clyde said both pointing them in the opposite direction that they were headed. "I've got a carrier for us. They're going to be tracking yours." Milo looked around as they were walking, but could not see anyone. The carrier that Clyde had was kind of a dated model and scruffy-looking. They loaded their luggage into the cargo area of the ship and went up to the ramp into the cabin. They all quickly strapped themselves in and lifted off.

"Clyde" Kayla said turning to look at him. "You've got a lot of explaining to do" as they left the atmosphere and the solar-system level of the SPG was engaged.

"I will gladly tell you everything" Clyde said activating the navigation systems of the carrier. Milo noticed that they were not headed in the bearings toward Earth. He wanted to ask Clyde where they were going but was cut off by Clyde starting to talk.

"I managed to locate Cubork. He has infiltrated the Cult of the Goddess."

"You knew where those guys were and didn't tell us?" Kayla asked sounding outraged.

"I didn't know you were looking for them. I was instructed by Visrel to get the cylinder to Cubork because the guy in charge of the Cult doesn't like any reptilia to get near them, especially Singed Leaf reptilia.

"How do you know this about the cult?" Milo asked. "Have you joined these people?"

"Sort of. The leader is a guy I've done business with before, and he sort of felt me out in my interest in getting involved with his group. I would've told him no thanks until I found out Cubork was involved with them and that the cult leader was looking for the cylinder."

"And how did you know that we were going to be detained?" Kayla asked still sounding more in the mode of interrogation than among friends.

"The Cult is able to keep track of everything the elven marshals are doing, and I mean everything. It's why they were able to avoid the raids on the rebel compounds and why they always seem to be step ahead of Roggle's goons. The Cult is pretty sophisticated and their leader, Drake, is brilliant. Almost supernatural seeming at times…anyways, when we learned they were going to detain someone from the Xanadu Resort, I knew they couldn't be after anyone other than you." Kayla said nothing more, seeming satisfied with the explanation for the most part.

"Is there a guy by the name of Matt Snedecor, there?" Milo asked.

"Yes, why?" Clyde replied. Milo and Kayla looked at each other.

"Can you take us to him?" Milo asked.

"Not only am I willing to do that" Clyde said, "but I was really hoping that you would be willing to come with me. We need to go straight there or we're going to miss Cubork."

"Where are we headed?" Kayla asked now with an eagerness in her voice.

"To the arctic continent of the planet Eizen" Clyde said. "The cult has taken up hiding there. Luckily it's summer for the northern hemisphere there right now."

For the most part they just chatted on the interstellar journey. Kayla seemed to have dropped her suspicions of Clyde and everything seemed harmonious. They entered the atmosphere near the north pole. The conditions were perfectly clear and the vast snow-capped mountains could be seen for many miles around. Clyde guided the carrier into a low-lying area where there was still grass and evergreen-like vegetation. They got off the carrier and Clyde led them to a nearby cave where Clyde had set up camp. Inside the cave was a tall, leggy, mildly-attractive woman with dark, shoulder-length hair.

"Melinda!" she said greeting Kayla as she entered the dwelling. "Clyde has told me about you. I am Kaitlyn. I absolutely love that hair" she said. Then she looked over at Milo.

"Chris" she said warmly giving a big smile bearing snow-white teeth. "It is really great to meet you" with a face and enthusiasm that made Milo less than comfortable.

"You guys want to go see the gorge?" Clyde asked interrupting the introductions. "It's really impressive. We've still got a bit before we have to go to headquarters."

"Sure!" Kayla said enthusiastically, once again seeming more relaxed, like she was on vacation than a mission

"Wait a minute" Kaitlyn said grabbing Milo's shoulder. "I want to talk with you for a moment" Kaitlyn said putting sort of a strange smile on her face.

"We'll meet you in a few minutes" Milo said. Clyde nodded, giving Milo what looked to be a non-verbal admonishment. Milo and Kaitlyn walked inside of the cave. There was only a few lights, a few pieces of furniture, a few mattresses, and a crate with some supplies in it. Most of the rest of the cave was dark, and Milo could not tell how big it was.

"I think you're a really…fascinating man" Kaitlyn said walking over closer to him. "I really like a guy that's a rogue, especially one that sticks up for the ecosystem" she said inching even closer.

"I'm flattered by the admiration" Milo said, "but I'm married". The alarm bells in Milo's head were all going off…something was definitely very off about this woman. Women who look like her just don't throw themselves at you unless they have something they want to take from you…

"We'll leave our little secret right here in this cave" she said softly, putting her arms over Milo's shoulders. She was a couple of inches taller than Milo – about six-feet– and had pretty thick, muscular thighs.

And when she touched him, that's when Milo started to feel it. He felt an abrupt, bizarre, strange attraction to her…he felt almost like he was being charmed by her weirdness. Before he could say anything, he and Kaitlyn's lips were locked together. Milo felt an overwhelming impulse to reciprocate the kiss. She grabbed him by the arm pulled him out of the main cabin area into a dark area and pushed him on his back with surprising physical strength. Here Milo could barely make out her silhouette. He felt his shoes and his pants and underwear being removed. At once all of his ability to resist was gone.

When she was done and got up off of him Milo instantly felt relieved and a little shocked, too.

"That was amazing, you're positively delicious" she said with a smile that strangely seemed more friendly than amorous. "We should go out to the gorge with Melinda and Clyde before they get suspicious." Milo just sat for a moment, taking in what had just happened and trying to make sense of it. Had Nadarska tried to coerce him to do that? Milo followed Kaitlyn out of the cave and over to the edge of the gorge. The gorge was incredible-looking, though only 30-feet deep. Kayla and Kaitlyn were both engaged in some conversation and started heading upstream where they could walk down to the bottom of the gorge, and Milo approached Clyde, who was attempting to throw a rocks through a small rock formation at the bottom.

"Clyde" Milo said softly as he hurled a rock about the size of his fist that call short of the formation. Clyde looked at him, appearing genuinely interested. "Have you ever felt a completely sudden and overwhelming urge to…engage with a woman that you were never really previously had any interest in?" Clyde watched another one of his rocks miss the formation completely and turned his eyes widened and his jaw dropped somewhat.

"She got on you, didn't she?" Clyde asked. Milo nodded his head.

"Had her try to do that to me a few times" Clyde said. "Luckily one thing or another has gotten in the way. She might be really strange, but she seems to be an almost supernatural seductress."

"What do you know about her?" Milo asked. Clyde shrugged his shoulders.

"Not a whole lot" Clyde said. "Just someone working for Drake. I really try and avoid her. She frightens me."

As they walked down the inselberg to join Kayla and Kaitlyn at the bottom, a though occurred to Milo, and important question that he had not yet asked Clyde.

"Clyde, does this 'Drake' guy have the Talisman of the Goddess?" Clyde looked a Milo in a way that suggested bewilderment and ignorance of what he was talking about.

"Of course he does" Clyde said. "He wouldn't have much authority as the head of Gaia's cult if he didn't have it."

"Do you think we'll be safe here?" Milo asked. What if this guy in charge of the cult knows we're CIA?"

"You'll be fine" Clyde reassured him. "I've got your back, and we've got Cubork on our side as well. Besides, Cubork is really going to want to meet you, and I strongly suspect you are going to want to meet him as well." They continued their walk down the gorge. For about twenty seconds they said nothing, until Milo brought a new subject.

"So what's she like – Gaia I mean." Milo said after several second

"I honestly don't know…Drake always takes his orders from her in private. But he has it, I'm sure."

They got to the bottom of the gorge and hiked it for a while for about fifteen minutes, before Clyde told them it was time to head to the headquarters. The four of them walked up the gorge and then not very far to the HQ. It wasn't far at all from where they had landed. It was a fairly large starship with camouflage on top of it to make it hard to spot from above. When they got there Kaitlyn immediately walked into the main airlock.

"We're going in another door to meet Cubork" Clyde said pointing them to the left of that door.. They all walked about 25 yards away from that door to a smaller hatch. Clyde hit his hand on the door. After about 5 seconds, sure enough, a gray opened the door."

"Cubork" Clyde said as they all walked into the door into the small cabin where the gray was "I'm Clyde Skinner and I've come to bring the cylinder of the key to you."

"You have the key" Cubork asked? Clyde nodded his head. "You shouldn't have brought it out here and risked Drake getting a hold of it. Why did you bring it out here?"

"We figured you might actually need it in order to get any information out of Drake about the key and what he's doing with it. You've been telling Drake you could help him find the cylinder of the key and he's not going to believe you can help him much longer if you don't produce it."

"Well, I'm about to give up on getting anything out of Drake. He let me borrow the rod because I told him it could help him find the cylinder. I'm thinking it might be better just to take both pieces and put them in a place where Drake will never find them."

"Cubork" Kayla asked. "Does this ship have a terminal to its server on it? I'm pretty good with stealing information, if I do say so myself, and I can see what I can take."

"I would advise against that" the gray admonished. "The computer system here isn't just protected by software. It's protected by an intellichine called Michelle."

"Is she listening right now?" Kayla asked looking around and sounding alarmed.

"Don't worry" Cubork said. "She isn't the least bit interested in listening to everyone's chatter, and on top of that I'm extra careful to ensure nothing is listening in here" Cubork said looking at the screen in the cabin. There was a knock at the door.

"Come in." Cubork said. The door opened and Kaitlyn peered inside.

"Chris, Melinda, I have told Drake that you are here. He wants to meet the two of you now. Come with me." Milo looked over at Cubork, who tilted his heads toward the door to signal him to go. He and Kayla followed down the corridors. Along the way they saw mostly other humans. They did not gawk the way the people at the Network headquarters did when he first arrived there, which made him feel a little better. Milo looked around at the faces to see if he could recognize Snedecor, but didn't see anyone familiar-looking. Kaitlyn led them up a couple of flights of stairs and onto a short corridor with only a few doors. They walked up to the door on the opposite side as the stairs, which had a large viewing screen over it. A young, beautiful, busty blonde woman appeared on the screen.

"What is it now, Kat?" the young woman said.

"Brought Chris and Melinda to see the boss" Kaitlyn replied.

"I think you've bothered him enough to day and need to find something else to do" said the beautiful blonde avatar on the screen.

"Just open the door, Michelle! The boss said to bring them to see him as soon as he arrived." The beautiful woman disappeared from the screen and the green lights on the door lit up, and it was open.

Inside, there was a tall, muscular, handsome man with huge shoulders and big arms awaited them inside with a big desk and several viewing screens. On the screen behind the desk, Milo noticed that Michelle was on the screen and looking at them.

"Chris and Melinda Cabral" the man said warmly extending a hand to shake both of their hands. "Sit down" he said motioning to the seats in front of the desk.

"It's nice to finally meet the two of you. Let me formally welcome you to our great Temple of the Goddess. I am glad that the two of you are safe from getting captured. I have taken an interest to the two of you the more I learn about you." Drake brought his fingers together and leaned back in his chair.

"Now I'm pretty good at getting a read on people, and here's what I know about you: You're gurberry farm heirs, you seem to be naturalists, you're in outworld for a sustainability conference, and you are targets for the marshals" Drake said with a smile. "You've got to be considered pretty subversive and dangerous for that to happen."

"We've…never been overly comfortable with the whole practice of gurberry farming, especially on soils it is not native to" Milo said jumping in, feeling scared and knowing he would need to play the part convincingly in order to stay out of trouble. Drake nodded his head.

"As I said, I can understand you. You know deep down that our species is immature and not evolved collectively well enough to build our societies on many worlds. You know that the elves enabling of us as they do is a big problem. You know every day that our biosphere-killing habits are spreading to other worlds."

"Exactly." Milo said.

"Is this organization responsible for the microemitters that are creating the radiation sickness?" Milo felt a surge of frustration towards Kayla over her pointed question. Drake smiled.

"I love your spunk" Drake said. "That can be channeled to make you into a great member of this organization." Drake cleared his throat and sat back up in his chair. "Yes, those were our devices. We did not turn the power up very high, and to my knowledge, only one or two have died from the sickness."

"That sounds like one or two too many to me" Kayla said. Milo turned his head slightly, hoping Kayla might catch his disapproving look.

"Ms. Cabral" Drake said not seeming the least bit taken aback, "in a universe that is indifferent to our well-being, the currency of progress is rationality, not morality. That is a very difficult thing to accept, but it's an undeniable corollary of history and science. In this great temple of Gaia we try to avoid needless suffering if possible but there's always collateral damage, but not a lot. We dealt a blow to outworld civilization with only a few deaths. That's quite a small number of deaths to make a real positive change in comparison to millions dead in a pointless war against the elven kingdom that some of our biggest critics are still fighting. Yet we are more universally disliked than even those who still cling to the ridiculous, idealistic beliefs of the Church of Saint Vernon."

"I want to bring about change" Kayla said finally sounding like she was willing to play the part. "But I'm just not comfortable with making people sick."

"As it so happens" Drake said. "There is something you can do that won't cause anyone to get sick. That is why I brought the two of you here." Drake paused for a few seconds in between his sentences, taking a small, blue cartridge from his desk. "As you know the gurberry is a crop was created by the elves. It is a very hardy tree that can grow in a variety of soils and climates and atmospheres, so when the elves created its genome they added a kill switch to it to eliminate farms that aren't paying royalties to the kingdom. That kill switch is a fungus that will wipe out gurberry trees quickly while sparing all other living things. The genetic code for that fungus' spores is on the server at the agricultural bureau on this world. But we can't hack into it without someone who has access to the bureau's central server" Drake pulled a small, blue computer cartridge out of his desk and handed it to Milo.

"You should have a login to one of the terminals of the bureau. All you have to do is put that device into the main port when you log in and my lovely assistant Michelle can take care of the rest."

"You're going to destroy the gurberry crops across the sector?" Kayla asked.

"Not all of them, just a significant number. There's basically no real threat of anyone starving to death, but gurberry is a staple food in the less-developed worlds and removing them will cripple runaway development in outworld." Kayla looked at Milo. Neither of them really knew of what to say.

"Just one problem" Kayla said. "We're both wanted people now. We log onto that server and they'll know we're here."

"Oh, I'll take care of that" Michelle said from the screen behind Drake's desk. All I need you to do is get me in the door and I'll remove all of your tracks." Milo noticed that Michelle's avatar was now wearing a green, cleavage-baring top and her voice sounded somewhat different than before. Milo and Kayla looked at each other.

"I don't like it" Milo said. "But I'll do it."

"Good" Drake said not showing any apparent concern for the hesitation. "Trust me, the more you think pragmatically rather than with outdated, terrestrial-age pseudomoralism, the easier it gets. I look forward to working with the two of you" Scythe said with a weirdly warm smile. The sliding door opened up behind them, and they both got up and left. They walked quietly back down the stairs and to Cubork's cabin, where he and Clyde were engaged in some kind of conversation.

"Well, how did it go?" Clyde asked.

"He's a creep" Kayla said with a visible shudder.

"He wants us to help him hack into the Outworld Agricultural Bureau's computers and steal the genome information for some fungal spores that can wipe out most of the gurberry crop" Milo said handing the cartridge to Cubork.

"That is downright horrifying" Cubork said looking the cartridge over. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him we'd do it. I figure we can come up with some kind of excuse or ruse to get around it."

"I'll corrupt the data that's downloaded into the device" Kayla said. "It shouldn't be too hard."

"That won't work" Cubork said sternly. "Once the data goes from the server to the device it will quickly make it back here to Michelle."

"Well, sorry" Milo said. "We didn't want to be seen as being uncooperative or too resistant."

"For future reference" Cubork said, "Drake isn't the type of guy who lies awake at night thinking everyone is plotting against him. He's very arrogant and doesn't seem to be afraid of anyone. If you had told him you didn't want to do it he'd probably try to entice you with money or a gift or something. Heck I think half of everyone here is either an opportunist out to make money or infiltrators."

"For an organization that's supposedly short on loyalty, it sure is hard to get information about this group." Kayla opined.

"Most people here are either more afraid of Gaia or Michelle or outworld law than they are Drake" Cubork said. "If I were you, I would just tell Drake that your account with the OAB has been locked. But you do need to go over there and at least pretend to try and break into the system, or else they'll know."

"I don't like this at all" Kayla remarked shaking her head. "I feel we're in a lot of danger."

"I'd appreciate it if you would do it" Clyde said. "Then I promise I'll take the two of you back to Earth or wherever it is you want to go. I won't let anything happen to the two of you as long as you're here. I think we should go ahead and head back for the day. They opened the hatch and headed back for their camp. The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and thankfully he did not see any more of Kaitlin. After Milo fell asleep and found himself around Nadarska's tree.

"What is it now?" Milo asked him.

"Who was that person you were having intimate contact with today?" Nadarska asked.

"Some strange young woman named Kaitlyn" Milo said felt embarrassed. "I felt an absolutely overwhelming impulse and attraction to her like nothing before. I thought maybe it was you."

"I did no such thing, and I can promise you that was no woman. Her skin seems to be made of some sort of synthetic material, and I could not detect any pulse from her. When she was in close contact with you I could sense it even more clearly."

"What do you think she is?"

"Probably some sort of artificial organism or android I would guess. What are you doing right now?"

"We have arrived at the headquarters of Gaia's Cult. They don't seem to know anything about who I am."

"Please be very careful they do not find out you are a human conduit to me. I can't do much to protect you when you are wandering right into the hands of Gaia's proxies."

"I will be fine. We will be leaving before long, I have a strong feeling I won't be here much longer and they won't discover who I am."

"Do not spend too much time with that woman – whatever she is – than you have to." That was the last bit of the conversation he remembered before falling back into his sleep.