Lance Larrett observed as two elven marshall officers entered his quarters on the governor's cruiser and behind them a brunette woman in her late forties.

"You have fifteen minutes" one of the elf guards said removing the shackles from her arms. Both of the guards left out the way they came. Ava Baxter took a seat in front of his desk. She almost wasn't recognizable between weight loss, longer hair pulled back with a bandanna, and no makeup.

"You look nice" Lance said.

"What do you want, Lance?" she said in a tempered but unfriendly way that sounded deliberate. "I'm only here out of the respect for your office." Lance removed his glasses and put them on his desk.

"I've called you here to extend the olive branch to you, Ava."

"Now that you need me, right?"

"It's outworld that needs you."

"Yes…I believe I ran against you on a campaign saying basically the same thing." Lance let off an impatient sigh.

"You do realize that I did everything in my power to keep you out of prison. Now I have a way to get you out if you're willing to bury the hatchet."

"Oh, you can free me now?" Lance opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again in an apparent attempt to rephrase it.

"Well, technically it's the new elven Grand Admiral Kerik Kildore who can do that for you."

"I'm listening" Ava answered still putting up an unfriendly demeanor that still seemed very deliberate and forced.

"The reptilia are mobilizing for a strike on Alpha Base in the Laridok system. They're not even trying to make it a surprise. The elves have been frantically building fighter craft en masse since the Battle of Mulgrath as a countermeasure against the Fire Flower's xenon batteries, but they don't have enough trained pilots to fly them. The militias have the training to fly the A3 Hadrons, right?"

"Yes" Ava said with her arms crossed talking like an angry wife. "It's very similar to the F68 StarCat, which we used to have plenty of before the elves confiscated and scrapped them because defense apparently wasn't important-."

"Listen to me" Lance snapped. "I didn't ask you here to Monday-morning quarterback everything I've done in office. The entire outworld sector is facing its proverbial Gettysburg moment. We either make a stand here for the chance to live to fight another day or we put ourselves entirely at the mercy of the reptilia. If you are free the militias and rebel groups will rally around you." Ava just continued to sit with her arms crossed, not even having the appearance of being compelled.

"I think you might have missed what it is I'm about, Lance. We want freedom and independence for outworlders, not to live under elven land lords, and especially land lords like Kildore and Avistra."

"Your own political vision isn't an option right now" Lance said glumly. "Right now we can either live under those land lords or not have a home at all."

"Well what if I don't see a real difference?" Ava asked. Lance glared at her for a few seconds.

"Don't think you're going to be able to just sit in prison and remain a martyr because Avistra will be more than happy to make sure that everyone knows that the intrepid rebel leader sat on the sidelines for outworld's greatest battle." Ava uncrossed her arms and sat up completely straight in her seat.

"I want a full reprieve" she said.

"You'll have to talk to Kildore about that" Lance said. "He certainly doesn't have the highest opinion of humans, but I've worked with him enough so far to know he's an elf of his word. She just stood quiet for several seconds, perhaps in deep thought or just to give the appearance of reluctance.

"I'll do it, Lance" she said pulling up her right sleeve and pushing a button on a wrist band that she was wearing. "But don't think this will repay even a part of the debt that you owe outworld." The two elf guards that escorted her into the room came back in to cuff her and take her back out of the room.