Zarita heads off to the Imperium Senate in 1292. However, powerful men began their own personal attempts to gain ultimate power. Legate Emeryk set his sights on eliminating and replacing President Snarry. Unknown to all, three of the wealthiest men in the Imperium, the Consortium, had their own plans. Now that their secret support of the Gamelon-3 "milking procedure" had ended, they set about cornering the market on fuel needed by virtually every spaceship in the Imperium. They also began devising a way to remove their lackey, President Snarry. Throughout the Imperium, recovery from the devastating war with the Federation begins, with many others planning their own "moves." Power plays soon began, starting with terrorist bombings on Proxima Prime. Then, the Consortium had President Snarry assassinated and attempted to get Legate Emeryk promoted to temporary-President. However, behind the scenes, Emperor Kino finally was able to trace the money trail and proved that Emeryk had been the man behind the abduction and mutilation of Queen Amy and Jan and the assassination of Neva. When the Consortium finds out about Kino's discoveries, that places their current plans in dire peril, and they devise a brilliant plan: put a pair of morons in as President and Senate President, namely Zarita and her wife, thereby highly distracting the Emperor. Later, when the morons make a complete mess, Emperor Kino will lose an enormous amount of respect within the Imperium. Back on Ashford-5, mentales gifted were now members and leaders of the many guilds throughout Tierra. They also had found many of the giant crystals and began their own push to power, power long denied them by their rulers. When the rulers and towers once more began inventing weapons of mass destruction, the guilds decided they'd had enough. With Queen Amy's backing, they waged economic war against the towers and rulers who threatened to annihilate Tierra. During the war, when the Imperium began to lose badly, they setup a secret research station on Ashford-4, an uninhabitable world, there to invent biological weapons to use against the Federation of Planets. Their goal: to drop an aerial bomb that would eliminate people, but leave all else intact, ready for Imperium takeover. Their best option lay in a new development, genetic mutation, researched and developed at this facility. But accidents happen, even with all the safety precautions. A meteor swarm struck the atmosphere-less world, rupturing the facility, releasing the new genetic mutation into the complex. One terrified worker violated protocol and flew a shuttle out of the sealed complex, crashing through the outer dome. The short range craft was able to make Ashford-5, crashing there, but the man was already dead from the mutations. However, the unscrupulous scientist purposely infected two young geneticist interns, drastically modifying their bodies, as proof of concept. Next, the ID Minister took these bio genetic agents to the penal colony and infected a number of their worst psychopath criminals, turning them into helpless men and woman. Now the Imperium took note. By using this bio genetic agent on their criminals, they could simply move them into cheap assisted living homes, close down the exorbitantly costly prison, and save billions of credits! Governor Katrina, Queen Amy, Doctor Whitney, and the two modified geneticists saw the potential damage this new bio genetic agent could have. They raided the facility, removing everything of value and had it destroyed, all done in secret from the Imperium. Unfortunately, a small amount of the bio agent remained in the hands of the ID minister. Soon, it was duplicated and spread far and wide. However, all manner of criminal organizations and many worlds desperately wanted to get their hands on samples of this bio genetic agent! Their uses would be anything but humanitarian! Yes, others claimed that doomsday had finally arrived.