Markus convenes a meeting at Thunder Mountain in attempt to finally form the Alliance. Some members have yet to arrive and Kurdy, now officially broken from his partnership with Jeremiah, is assigned Trent to accompany him rather than his choice of Smith. On the road they are ambushed and taken prisoner when Smith arrives alone and mysteriously beats the captors and frees Kurdy and the others. Jeremiah talks to Markus about Lee Chen following Chen's pleas and agress to let him stay but not as head of security since his betrayal which he describes as straddling the line between protecting Valhalla Sector/Jeremiah and Thunder Mountain. A power from the east coast, a mysterious "dictator" named Daniel, sends a representative to the meting as it is slipping from Markus' control, but Theo finally speaks up arguing for the power of ideas rather than the man in throwing her support behind Thunder Mountain which many of the representatives agree to as well.