The ride to the Network was rather uneventful other than Brian asserting himself rather strongly that he be allowed to plus his own computer into the ship's navigation systems to keep the location of the hidden planet secure from the elves. After a few hours he completely forgot he was riding with the deposed princess of the kingdom. He took out the latest edition of the Daily Comet.

Reptilian Forces Ravage the Goddess Crescent

The Reptilian Emperor Turraski and its Nal'Larak allies wasted no time in bringing down their wrath on the Goddess' Crescent region that borders the outworld and reptilian sector. Cities, mining settlements, farms, and towns on the worlds of Mulgrath, Zenithala, LaGira, and Florafaunus have been completely destroyed. The death toll has estimated to be in the thousands, and though many are militias choosing to resist, there have been reports of people being captured or killed prior to the deadlines set by reptilian forces.

The assault comes almost immediately upon the defusing of a frigate armed with missiles with warheads that are detonated by a powerful and messy nuclear fission reaction. It is believed that a group of reptilia used stolen intellichines to steal a Union vessel, which did not trigger the automated missile launch.

Newly crowned Princess Avistra was quick to respond to the attacks. "Our heart goes out to those afflicted by this offensive. This is a reckoning that is inevitable and past due, and would be far more painful down the road. We are committed to the defense of the outworld sector and without the callous recklessness of some humans taking precious galactic ecosystems hostage.

Milo had a sinking feeling in his heart. He knew that this was probably inevitability but it just seemed too soon and needless. Normally he would've been interested in taking in other news stories and analysis, but he just wasn't in the mood. The trip to the Network seemed to drag on forever until finally the rotating toroids came into view orbiting the planet.

"It's lovely" the princess said staring onto the brilliant colors of the planet.

"Dover calls it Henrin" Brian said. "It's just as lovely down at the surface as it is from space."

"Identify yourself" said a voice over the radio. Brian walked over to the radio and pushed down a button.

"Everett here. Tell Dover we've got a pretty special guest to see him."

"Who's that?" the person on the other side of the radio asked.

"It's Zorthia" Brian answered.

"Who?" the voice on the other side asked even though Brian seemed to have spoken clearly.

"You heard me correctly: Zorthia" Brian repeated. For at least a solid minute no sound came on the radio.

"Go ahead and dock" the voice said. "Dalton Dover eagerly awaits Lady Zorthia."

"Interesting times" Brian said hitting buttons to finish the approach of the HQ. "Can you dock with a moving spacecraft?" Brian asked Zorthia's pilot.

"Can't say I've done it before, but I can try" the young elf replied. After a few tries and some light bumps, the ship finally established secure dock.

When they entered the HQ, there was a crowd of at least a dozen hominids and both Yanakris Cubork and were present. Trissie walked up right next to Zorthia and looked into her eyes as everyone watched, not saying anything.

"It's her, Dover" Trissie said. "I have her iris signature in my files." Dover walked over to her and Zorthia lifted her left hand for Dover to grab it and kiss it. It was a rather strange sight. Dover was usually a blunt individual and not big on formalities, but he was warm and almost politician-like to her. They were exchanges some basic pleasantries when Milo felt someone grab his shoulder. It was Kayla. They walked a safe distance away from the crowd.

"I just got an email from Clyde. He's been captured by a bunch of lizards at the crescent world of LaGira. He says he's heard that they've been killing large groups of humans that they've captured."

"Is he sure?" Milo asked.

"Yes. He's been captured by one of those eco-nut clans. They've been feeding them to some kind of large carnivore that lives on that planet. There's got to be something we can do for him!"

"What can we do, Kayla? This journey would be crazy risky even by our standards."

"Ask Dover to help us, of course. He could probably come up with something."

"You think he'll oblige us?"

"He'd better" Kayla said sternly. "We've gotten him Alkarog's Book, the key, and Nateedra's map. It's just a paltry down payment of what he owes the two of us. And you're going to be the one to ask him because you're his human conduit" she said poking him in the chest hard.

"I'll do it" Milo answered not having a bit of disagreement with her but having a very sinking feeling there might not be anything that could be done for him.

"Hey you two" said a familiar gray voice from around them. "I don't think you're going to want to miss this" Cubork said motioning for them to follow him. They all walked briskly to the conference room next to Dover's cabin. There was a round table there that resembled the one where Milo and Kayla had met Dover. Sitting at the table were Dover, Brian, Yanakris, Streena, Loy, several elves and humans Milo didn't recognize. Zorthia sat 180 degrees from Dover. They came in during the middle of a conversation between the two.

"You drove yourself from the Sci-Tech Ministry" Zorthia said to Dover. "You undermined the authority of my mother to abet and do bidding unpredictable grays."

"Don't try and claim the moral high ground for you or your mother, Zorthia. I only wanted to have a working relationship with the metaphysicists to protect against the very scenario that is happening right now, and now you're coming crawling to me to fix it."

"Why should we have trusted the metaphysicists any more than we trust that Gaia intellichine or whatever the heck she is? Why is your source of mystical unpredictability better than those of Avistra or my Grandmother Tarissa?"

"Because the metaphysicsts believe in peace and wisdom for intelligent life in the galaxy and not bringing about some grand plan for life regardless of who it might hurt?"

"Have you considered that these grays played as much of a role of getting us into the great human-elf war as that weird Gaia AI?"

"The reality of this universe, my lady, is that you've got to have some sort of metaphysical allies and the grays are very much preferable to Gaia. Now if you want to win back the throne and save the kingdom from being ruled by Gaia again we need to locate the metaphysicists. And we have a lead right now, and could use your help. We have the technology but not firepower."

"I'm listening" Zorthia said.

"We recently uncovered a key to a warp gate to a place in Andromeda where Cartlon Carver and many of his followers fled after the Human-Elf war. They are living under consummate rule of a reptilia clan that lives on the other side with them. The people on that side have Nateedra's map, which gives them the locations of planets the reptilia can't find, but they have no means to get there. We're going to evacuate all the people from that city and see if we can't find Alkarog and Nateedra there on one of those secret planets."

"I see" Zorthia said. "I think this is something Admiral Gall can handle."

"How do you plan to deal with the very large number of forces on the ground" Skyler Holmes cut in. "You might be able to destroy and disable enough ships to get everyone out of there, but the Star Viper has entirely too much presence on the ground."

"I will take care of them", Dover said. "They will be the easy part. We will need to move our ships through the Marzala gate very quickly to disable the ships and quickly move all of the people to the transport craft. It's going to take a lot of coordination and timing, but we can save a lot of people and maybe find two of the three of the metaphysicist triumvirate."

"Admiral Gall will want to scout out the reptilia forces on the other side, and probably should" Zorthia remarked.

"That can be arranged" Dover acknowledged. "He just needs to be very cautious. If the reptiles even see him, they'll know individuals are crossing through the warp gate and there's no line they won't cross to try and coerce the key to the warp gate in their possession."

"Understood" Zorthia said. For the remainder of the meeting, they talked logistics and Skyler Holmes told Zorthia about the other side. Milo could tell Kayla was getting very impatient and was about to interrupt when the meeting ended.

Dover wasn't thrilled about their request for a ship but obliged them. He had a small passenger carrier outfitted with military-grade armor and weapons systems for them and Loy agreed to be the pilot.

As they were walking to the bay towards the area of the ship, Milo noticed the elf who was Zorthia's pilot, who motioned for him to come over and talk to him.

"Have you a moment to speak with me alone?" he asked.

"Yeah" Milo said for some reason having a sense of dread in him.

"Have you heard of the head of Humanology Labs and Research Lina Hest?" he asked.

Milo nodded his head. "Yup, read her book, too."

"Good" he said. "Then you must know she respects your kind and exceptional humans like yourself."

"I suppose so" Milo said.

"You're madly in love with her, aren't you?" the guy said shaking his head in the direction that Kayla had walked. Milo sort of froze, not feeling embarrassed but more frightened that this elf he had not seen before knew that."

"It's all right, there's no need to be ashamed. You were pretty adamant about going on that dangerous mission to save her, and I can see how you look at her." Milo suddenly felt less afraid and a little more embarrassed.

"Miss Hest, she is the one that might can give her to reciprocate your attraction and affection."

"She can do that? How?" Milo asked feeling sort of excited on the inside.

"You will have to go and talk with Miss Hest yourself about that" he said.

"I'm not overly eager to go back to the HL again" Milo replied.

"I understand" the pilot said sympathetically. "I can take you straight to her and be sure that you are visiting her off the books."

"Why would she do this for me?" Milo asked.

"Some sort of experiment she wants to perform. Apparently you have some kind of very special visual cortex and she wants to test it. It won't be anything else to alter your brain architecture though" he added. Milo just stood there for a minute thinking, not knowing what to say. The pilot reached into one of his cargo pockets and pulled out a small, clear vial.

"If you decide you want to go through with this, then you need to get some of her sweat into this container. You don't need a whole lot, but it absolutely can't be done without it." All of the sudden this seemed a lot more serious and sincere to Milo.

"Milo, are you coming?! Loy's ready to go right now!" Kayla barked at him. Milo quickly put the vial in his pocket and ran along.

"What was that all about?" Kayla asked him.

"He was just telling me how impressed he was that I came to rescue you" Milo said hoping she wouldn't ask a question about the container. She said notihng more and they both quickly boarded the spacecraft and took off for LaGira.