The big door to the throne room opened with a deep creak and in walked a lanky, light-green-skinned reptilia walked into the big, high, opulent, and gorgeous throne room. It was empty except for Avistra sitting on the throne.

"My lady" he said in an eager voice.

"Strigwire" she said softly with a very serious expression on her face. "Are you ready to answer to Gaia herself?"

"I and my clan have been ready for a very long time, my lady." Without saying anything else, Avistra pulled the talisman from around her neck and removed the fake gem, and replaced it with one that looks the same. She stood up and moved the talisman to her mouth.

"Gaia, mother to all life, your conduit is open once again. Convene with us so that we can get your wisdom and bring your wrath to your enemies." She stood up and laid the talisman down on the thrown and backed up about eight feet to where Strigwire was standing. A gold-tinted cone of light emerged from the talisman that formed on its wide end an avatar of a beautiful elfess. From the head of the avatar to the gem was about 8 feet. Though it was large and impressive looking, it appeared in about an undramatic way as it possibly could have, not making a single noise.

Strigwire got on his knees. "It is an honor beyond description to be able to be in your virtual presence" he groveled.

"I am disappointed in both of you" the avatar said in a soft, feminine voice. "As I have been cut off from any communication with the physical world the human expansion has reached the cusp of my crescent's ecosystems, and Nadarska and his physical-world proxies have grown powerful."

"My goddess" Avistra said apologetically, "we were set back after we defeated the humans in war. My mother had the talisman disabled and I had to overthrow my half sister."

"And you, Fire Flower leader" she said turning to look at Strigwire. "Why did it take you so long to return to this side of the galaxy?"

"Turraski and the Nal'Hirak wouldn't welcome us back until the hominids became threatening enough, my goddess" he said in a frightened-sounding tone.

"Well, there's no point in going back over our mistakes right now" the image said in a soft and almost polite-seeming manner. "We've got to act quickly now."

"My goddess" Strigwire said, "I can have half the outworld sector burnt within days. We still have the most powerful ship batteries."

"I wouldn't advise that, goddess" Avistra interrupted. "As of now I have human Union president making every concession I ask for and if you attack we will either have to stand down and take a big political cost or fight and suffer a military cost."

"You just want to protect your human drones for the benefit of your own fleet" Strigwire sassed at her.

"Eventually we are going to have to neuter Turraski and the Nal'Hirak's forces and you'll be glad we have our armada" she replied.

"We don't need your forces, my lady. We-"

"That will be enough from both of you" Gaia said interrupting them in a tempered and soft manner. "You are correct, princess. We cannot afford to foment a powerful coalition to oppose us. Luckily, I do have a card to play, but I will need your help."

"What is it?" Strigwire asked eagerly.

"Deep within the northwestern sea on the central outworld planet of Eizen is a hydrothermal vent where I've forged a large mass of viral particles that can infect human cells. You must go down to that vent and blow it up to release the particles into the ecosystem. You should have significant numbers of infection on the planet within a few weeks and you can quarantine the entire planet and cripple the economy of outworld."

"Will this virus infect elves as well?" Avistra asked.

"It probably will" she said. "It is too difficult even for me to make human-specific viruses. Keep your own people out of the way as best as you can. It will likely kill some hominids but it will take the humans a while to isolate the virus and figure out how to stop it."

"That's great, my goddess, how do you plan to deal with Dark Gaia's forces?" Strigwire asked changing the subject. "The feeble humans do not worry me as much."

"Yes" Gaia acknowledged. "The human that entered the hyperplane to open the conduit…I got a good feel on him when he was there. He is connected to Nadarska somehow, I am sure of it. His neurotype is extraordinary. It didn't arise from the human gene pool by chance."

"I can find him and have him killed fairly easily" Avistra offered. "The Union Central Intelligence Agency is also after him so that will help us."

"It may come to that" Gaia said, "but I'd like you to bring him to me, if possible."

"Why is this human so dangerous that you need to commit to finding him?" Strigwire said frustrated forgetting to include his groveling politeness in his words.

"I fear that Baycorf or one of the metaphysicists will try to use him to reach Alkarog's Nexus" Gaia answered.

"Alkarog's Nexus?" Avistra said curiously. "I thought that was just a rumor."

"It might be. The hyperplane is too vast even for me to probe it and see what the metaphysicists might have hidden there. I don't know what could be there, but suffice to say, we can't afford to let them probe the hyperplane too much. As for the human, I would like to bring him to me so I can speak with him."

"I will do that, Gaia" Avistra said doing something in between nodding her head and bowing it.

"So we go and hunt this human and release the virus" Strigwire said. "That will do fine, but Turraski is planning an attack on the Laridok system. It's a large human base on a system not far from the crescent. We are going to need to choreograph this carefully if you plan on playing the white knight without getting in the way, my lady."

"Yes" Gaia interrupted. "I trust that you can play the role convincingly, princess."

"Don't worry" Avistra assured them. "I will speak with Grand Admiral Kildore about this. We'll handle it."