During the war years, Neva Burkhardt plied her skills as a telepath, working her way up the power ladder, until she reached two of the six Legates and the President of the Imperium. These three top Imperium leaders needed her unique services, but also greatly feared her, particularly since she seduced the President and since a single thought from her could kill. The most powerful Sector ID Minister in the Imperium, Lena Squire, investigated the kidnapping of Senator Isabella Valen and discovered what had happened, but could not pursue it because of the ongoing war with the Federation, which the Imperium was definitely losing. The Ataro Empire and Emperor Kino had to step in, otherwise their record of no wars in several millennia was about to be ended. The Emperor correctly reasoned the true source of the war would be found out on the rim of their spiral arm, and he forced the President to allow him to investigate and perhaps find an end to the Imperium's war. Thus, the Legates and the President saw a chance to "get rid" of this dangerous Neva telepath, sending her along with the Emperor as the President's ambassador, assigning Lena, their best ID Minister, to protect them all, particularly since Lena was close to figuring out their plots. In short order, Emperor Kino, with Neva's help, found the true source of the war, but Neva and Lena were horribly mutilated by those who had started the war for their own purposes. Lena was sent to Ashford-5 for her recovery and therapy, while Neva returned to the President, a war hero, along with Emperor Kino. Terrified of Neva's return, the Legates had her assassinated, but at the same time, Neva returned the "favor," and then headed home to get a new body, that of a young teen Zarita Valen, who "died" from Verge Sickness. On Tierra, fourteen years after the beginning of the war, the massive baby boom was over, but there were a lot of fourteen year old twins everywhere. One of Queen Isabella's twins was Amy, while Jan was one of the Underground parent's twins. Both Lena and Zarita joined up with Amy and Jan's group of eight, and together discovered that there were an enormous number of giant psi-crystals buried in the soft earth, fragments from the enemy destruction of the fuel refinery on their moon. Only now did all the towers finally realize the immense power these giant crystals could give them, the very same crystals that in their past had led to the near destruction of their world in the Age of Chaos, with its acid and fire bombs. As the Imperium finally prepares to return to Ashford-5, they intend to force the world to provide a senator, to make it an Open World and bring in enormous amounts of Imperium technology, and to steal ten telepaths to work for the President and Legates. After what happened to Isabella, Amy, Jan, and Neva, no one on Tierra wanted to go off-world and be their senator. All were against having any of their telepaths kidnapped, and all believed the Open World status change would destroy their culture and world in short order.