Alan Torick pushed the button on the panel of the carrier to confirm his destination and the carrier turned. The round, golden-tan body of the moon Kepler became bigger as Eizen became smaller at the rear.

"All clear" Alan said. "Sorry for the precautions, but you just don't know who might be following us. Don't want to try and explain why we're going where we're going."

"You got an update on Snedecor?" Roman asked.

"Nothing at all so far. But Bohr is getting ready to send Agent Greene and Agent Rall undercover into outworld to see if they can glean any clues."

"Bohr is sending Milo and Kayla out here to for that mission? "

"I was as surprised as you. Honestly, I think he doesn't trust Alamore and wants to have some of his people in the field and not someone with strings going to the president's office or the intelligence committee."

"Do you think that Bohr knows something about this that he isn't telling us?" Alan looked over at Roman for a brief moment then looked back out the window.

"What would make you think that?" Alan asked seeming surprised by the question.

"He's here, Alan. This situation may be a lot bigger than we were told."

"Who is out here, Roman?"

"Azari Yuler." Alan looked at Roman in a look of disbelief.

"How do you know?"

"Unless there's another bald elf guy that was able to get near the military base without being detected and was able to shut off my rover's engine and radio, it was him. He apparently knew I was CIA as well. He wanted to know if I knew about any kind of artifacts or weapons that were on board the Morian." Alan looked at Roman, seemingly trying to digest what he was saying.

The carrier was now over the surface of the moon. It entered a large and wide canyon. From above the ice of the canyon floor looked more like dirt than ice. After a few more minutes of flying over the surface, they came upon an area where the ice was removed with a few dozen sets of airlock doors on the ground.

"Inbound ship, identify yourself" said a voice over the radio.

"Agent Torick and Agent Darossa here to meet with director Bohr" Alan said.

"Copy" said the voice without hesitation. You are cleared to land in airlock #17." An airlock on the far side of the landing area opened. Alan hit a button and the carrier flew over to the open door, hovered over it, and descended straight down into it. After the carrier landed inside, the airlock door closed overhead slowly. For a brief moment the airlock got very dark before the lights came on. A loud, hissing noise filled the room as the room was being pressurized. After about 20 seconds of the cacophonous noise, the green pressure light on the console came on and the hatch of the carrier opened.

Roman and Alan opened the door to a narrow hallway and were surprised at the familiar-looking face of the person standing right outside the door.

"Agent Darossa, Agent Torick, it is nice to meet you" said a muscular, gray-haired man in his early 50s. "Director Bohr couldn't be here today, but I'm here to entertain you."

"Governor Larrett" Alan said. "It's nice to meet you." He said grabbing his hand and giving it a light shake.

"Likewise" Lance said. "If you gentlemen don't mind I'd like us to go straight down to the bunker so we can chat." Lance started to walk down the hallway but Roman, not moving interrupted him.

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"Respectfully, sir" Roman said. "We came here because we needed to speak to Bohr. If he isn't here there is no point for us to be here."

"Oh, I have an entangled line to the director." Lance said. "I wouldn't have the both of you come all the way over here just to give me a briefing." He immediately began walking down the long corridor past the doors to other airlocks. At the end of the hallway they went into a large area that seemed to more resemble a chamber than a room that very large medal sliding doors. Lance hit a button next to the doors that revealed a large cargo elevator. They all got into the elevator and the doors closed. Lance placed a keycard into the elevator. The elevator began descending slowly downward.

"Just so we're clear, the portion of this base we're about to visit doesn't exist." Lance said.

"Doesn't exist to whom?" Alan asked.

"Pretty much anyone who doesn't need to know, including royal marshalls and intelligence." Lance said glibly. After about another 30 seconds the elevator came to a stop and the door opened. The door revealed a room that was surprisingly quite capacious. Lance led them through the room into a corridor on the far side. There were not many people working inside the area and the place seemed very dead.

At the end of the hallway was a door with a sign that read "Authorized High-Command Personnel Only". Lance used his keycard to open the door. Inside were several large viewing screens and a table. They sat down and Lance took from his pocket a small, red cartridge. He plugged the cartridge into a part of the speaker system and turned it on.

"Director Bohr" he said after he had powered the machine on. "Are you there?" There was a brief moment of static.

"I can hear you, Lance."

"Director" Lance said, "your voice is coming in distorted this time. If you wouldn't mind telling me what your least favorite hole is on the Tiger Valley Golf Park?"

"Hole number 21 on the front nine" Bohr answered. "Are Alan and Roman there?"

"Yes, they are both here."

"Good. We don't have a whole lot of time, so I'll be brief. The Elven sector commander Tal Roggle is preparing for raids on eleven rebel and Saint Vernon strongholds tomorrow. I've been trying to get some answers, but I can't get anyone in royal intelligence to talk to me. Did you glean anything useful from Galileo's beta base, Roman?"

"No sir." Roman said. "Just that they and all other outworld forces have been told to remain on high alert with no explanation until further notice. They have apparently not gotten any other instructions. Why is Tal being so rash?"

"The most likely explanation here is that these rebel and church groups want to start a war of independence for outworld and royal intelligence has discovered they have a dangerous weapon" Alan opined.

"If they go through with these raids the end result could be the same" retorted Roman.

"Director" Lance cut in, "maybe if I had a chance to speak with Commander -"

"Won't do any good at this point, Lance" Bohr interrupted. "This new sector commander seems determined to make a mark and nothing is going to convince him to hold back."

"So what can we do?" Alan asked. "We don't know where any of these bases are."

"We know the location of one of the bases being raided…it's a pretty major one on the planet of Aquarius. We can't stop the raids, but we can try and figure out what it is that they're after."

"Ronald, if I may say so do you not think you're getting just a little bit reckless? You're sending two analysts with no field experience to get clues about Matt Snedecor's whereabouts and you're going to send Roman to a rebel fort and tip off the elves that you're spying on them."

"I will do what I must, Alan" Bohr replied.

"We are not wanted there, Ronald. Are we to spy on the individuals who are the landlords of all the outworld people as if they are adversaries?"

"This agency represents the interests of the Union and the people of outworld, not the princess" Bohr said firmly. "We keep tabs on both allies and enemies as the agency has always done going back to the terrestrial age with the understanding that today's ally can be tomorrow's enemy." Alan said nothing in the silence of the next few seconds.

"Now Roman, do you think you can handle this?" Bohr asked.

"I'll do it, sir. But I won't be able to rendezvous with Milo and Kayla."

"They will be all right in your absence, Roman. I have a strong feeling that those two have made more headway in finding Snedecor than we have."

"Lance" Bohr said immediately changing the course of the conversation, "what do you make of this?"

"I was caught completely off guard and know nothing about this, Ronald. There is not much I can do to soften this blow. I could condemn the raids, but that probably won't help much and could be costly."

"All right. Well, we will meet later to discuss this. Roman, get to Aquarius as quickly as you can. Alan, you can go ahead and return back to headquarters tomorrow. I have to be going now." And after that Bohr said nothing more and the connection was terminated. The men exited the room and headed back down toward the room with the elevator.