Milo opened up the file and found his favorite passage from Frik Heridik's essay A Logical Treatise on Materialism.

In the human game of chess, each of two players controls a series of different pieces of different types on an eight-by-eight grid. Each of the six types of pieces has its own restrictions about how it can move among the squares. In one famous match between human grandmaster Fellin Quartz and elf challenger Brim Bigwill, Quartz was able to nullify the game by showing that the game was in an impossible state with what were illegal moves. He did not need to say when and exactly where and how the illegal move was made, but it was made within certainty.

While the methods of science do not allow for the elucidation and understanding of any metaphysical phenomena that might exist (as they do not behave in any systematic and consistent way), it is possible that there comes a time when we must at least acknowledge the possibility that the universe and life could not have reached its current state without some metaphysical power or forces that can circumvent the rules of the universe.

A decade ago, a lot of time and effort was put into creating a supercomputer program with an exhaustive list (even the most ardent materialists would admit this) of the chemical properties of every inorganic compound known to elf kind to elucidate possible chemical paths from the lifeless primordial chemical soup to the first living cells. To date it has failed to create any workable means of creating even a basic living cell. It would seem one of the rules of the universe was broken somewhere, wasn't it?

More telling, however, is the failure to match the artificial intelligence technology created by the grays. The late twenty-first century human mathematician Bubb Henrin once said:

"After many decades of hype, and in spite of the leaps and bounds by which computer technology has grown and a constant empty insistence to the contrary, no headway has been made to creating true artificial intelligence or decoding the secrets of cognition and real consciousness. I am more convinced than ever that the primary problem (which has been largely ignored) is that the conundrum of creating real artificial intelligence has always been one of mathematics and software engineering rather than science and hardware engineering. Is there truly a way to replicate and even improve upon human cognition using the necessarily finite cardinality of hardware and software? No materialist has yet to give a satisfactory answer for this. It is entirely possible for the very same materialism science has relentlessly defended for so long be overthrown by science's undisputed emperor, mathematics."

Of course, his prediction was correct. There is no secret the metaphysicists have been hiding from anyone about creating super-intelligent computers as is commonly believed. They can only be created by those with the ability of circumventing the rules of the universe, as Alkarog once said. In the face of this, the establishment of the Royal Ministry of Science and Technology still fervently maintains their religious-like devotion to the exclusively-materialist view of the universe.

But for those of us that care about objective truth and are not dogmatic, this raises some very big questions. It has long been thought that the human genetic tendency towards religiosity was a great flaw, but could it actually be a signature of metaphysical forces which likely brought about the creation of intelligent life. The eminent elf humanologist Bloize Hather remarked that he felt humans had much more than their fair share of both the most cruel and the most kind and selfless hominids he had known. There is no doubt that human religiosity has caused a lot of death and suffering, but it also might have held the keys for the very best of human traits…the virtues like humility, charity, forgiveness, and hope in the face of apparent despondency that are nearly universally prized in the teachings in all extant and extinct major human religions.

Milo's reading was interrupted by a knock on his door.

"Bohr wants to meet with us" Kayla said sticking her head inside the door. "He says it won't take long." He and Kayla made the ascent up to the floor where he was. They both gave their full account of their journey to him while sparing him the details of sneaking Clyde into outworld and the awkwardness of their first day in outworld.

"Amazing" Bohr said as Milo and Kayla finished up. "Your mission exceeded beyond anything I could have imagined." Milo felt a sense of relief on hearing this.

"So you're not too mad about us veering too far off the course?" Kayla asked.

"I would be disappointed had you not veered off course" Bohr said. "Your willingness to bend rules and Milo's curiosity served the two of well. I was criticized for selecting the two of you for this mission, but that choice has been vindicated."

"Are we going to be in trouble?" Kayla asked. "And by 'we', I mean all three of us."

"No, Kayla. The two of you are going to testify to the Union Congress' Intelligence Committee and tell them everything you told me. After they have learned what the two of you have done it will be politically difficult for them to do anything to any of us."

"Bohr" Kayla cut in. "Apparently the elven marshalls were after Milo. Do you know anything about that?"

"I don't know for sure that they are, but it doesn't matter. The two of you have made names for yourselves to the point that you can't go undercover anymore. You won't be going back to outworld on assignment anymore. For now, I don't want either of you to worry about it. Take the rest of the week off to get ready to speak with the intelligence Committee." Bohr shook both of their hands and they left his office.

As they were walking back to their offices, they stopped at a television screen that was playing the news.

"REMAINS OF ICARUS BEED FLOTILLA RECOVERED FROM CRYNE SYSTEM"

"SMALL GROUP OF SHIPS WERE POSSIBLY SOLD OUT BY PRESIDENT HENNRY ALAMORE AFTER THE WAR"

"Looks like Commodore Beed's story is going to get told in a big way" Kayla said.

"Stopping war in outworld and re-writing the history of a popular political dynasty" Milo ruminated. "Things won't be the same for either of us going forward, is it?"

"Let's not think about that now" Kayla said firmly. "Today we're going back to the Sun Spot for dinner, on me."