"You wanted to see me, Commander Roggle?" Victor Rall said with a tone of contempt and disinterest.

"Yes" Roggle said giving him something of a glare. "I need your help."

"I think a simple message through my CO would've sufficed" he answered not bothering to hide his annoyance.

"No" Roggle said taking a couple of steps closer to him making his face even sterner at the apparent lack of seriousness by Victor. "This conversation will be just between you and I." Victor let off an audible scoff.

"Do you have any idea how many problems you created for me, my fellow Union fleet officers, and the people of outworld? And now you want me to get involved in your fight for Avistra?" Victor complained.

"There's more at stake here than who sits on the throne" Roggle replied.

"Tell me what it is I should be so afraid of Avistra for. Was it she or Zorthia who gave us the weapons to beat the lizards at Laridock?"

"Oh stop it, Commander Roggle. Surely even human scientists can discern that the plague on Eizen is very oddly host-specific for a virus not native to Earth. Avistra has the whole outworld sector basically neutered in a way I never could, and complacency will just make her more dangerous. But that's not even the biggest concern for you. If I were you I would be concerned for your sister."

"Are you threatening her? Where is she?" Victor looked at him like he was ready to knock him to the ground.

"I haven't done anything to her, but surely you've heard about the ship she was on that had its SPG sabotaged." Victors face changed from anger to shock.

"Was she all right?"

"Yes, she was quite lucky she was recovered."

"Who was responsible for that?" Victor said angry and surprised that this all happened without him knowing.

"It was most likely your own CIA."

"I don't believe you" Victor replied defiantly.

"It's true. And not only that Avistra has apparently become preoccupied with getting her hands on Milo Greene, and if she has to use your sister to get to him, she will."

"Why would she use Kayla to try and get to Milo? Do you expect me to believe this?"

"You clearly haven't been in contact with her in a while as you don't know about the incident with the ship or that she and Milo Greene are lovers. There's a reason you haven't had any contact with her in a while. She's been on the run." Victor let off a sigh.

"So what is it you want from me?" he said to Roggle appearing to be convinced.

"You've been on Avistra's command ship, have you not?" Roggle asked him.

"Yes, the president and I are going to meet with her-"

"Good" Roggle interrupted. "While you've been on the ship have you noticed one of her aides or officers that seem suspiciously young, tall, and good-looking to be an officer?" Victor gave him a surprised look.

"Now that you mention it, yes. That elf doesn't leave her side. Who is he?"

"He's not an elf. He's an intellichine named Zardin embedded in an elf android. I need you to retrieve him for me."

"Why do we need him?"

"We need him because he's the best intellichine known and we need to restore his default personal message created by Alkarod. If may be the only upper hand that we can get against Gaia." Victor gave him a disappointed and somewhat disgusted look.

"You're supposedly Avistra's boytoy, why don't you retrieve him-"

"She doesn't allow me on the ship, I am still part of Zorthia's court" Roggle said looking like he had to fight back the urge to smack Victor for that remark. Victor gave him a deliberately suspicious look.

"I'm not that good at basic civilian gadgets" Victor said. "I'm not like my sister, and I'm not even sure she has the skills to restore an intellichine to a default setting."

"You only need to get him isolated from the other elves in the command ship and recite the words 'verctana lan tanum tyrimna' in front of him."

"And what's in this for me?" Victor asked. "What's this have to do with Kayla?"

"Because the more we weaken Avistra the safer your sister and Milo will be. And because if you pull this off not only will you help her but Zorthia can offer you a position in the HDD that will pay more than you make in the Union Navy. You have been wanting to get out, haven't you?" Victor paused for a brief moment to take in what he was saying.

"I'll see what I can do" Victor said.

"Make every effort to get Zardin" Roggle said reaching up to grab Victor's shoulder and grip it firmly. "Don't pull any punches, here."

"I'll stick my neck out only so far" Victor said defiantly. "I get the feeling that this is going to be harder than you are letting on."

"Avistra doesn't know anything about Zardin's other persona that we don't want to activate. Or else she'd be keeping him completely hidden from. I can't stress to you how important this is. This is an enormous opportunity that you must not squander" Roggle said. Victor said nothing, but just nodded his head and left the way he came.