Forrest Cameranesi Geek of all Trades

(4x23) Death and the Other World: Part 2, Episode 2

Barely a few days after the shocking news story of the Martian attack on Earth turned back by a private Jovian Corp fleet, even more shocking news is delivered. The head of Jovian Corp, Joe Peters, publicly reveals that the company is actually a front for an ancient secret society that achieved space travel centuries before the rest of mankind, who have been trying for the last few hundred years to slowly guide the rest of humanity into the bright future they now live in.

He is revealing this information now not only because of the failed Martian attack on Earth, but because that turned out to be a mere attempt at distraction from the arrival of extraterrestrials in the outer solar system. That secret society behind Jovian Corp, called only "the Foundation", is now revealing itself in an effort to unite humanity under their leadership against the alien threat they are already fighting in the outer solar system, for the good of all mankind.

Tom finds the chain of connections here too suspicious to overlook. This Joe Peter, the man whom Tom barely remembers from the founding of Virtuality, who seems to have some close family connection to Athena, the mother of Metis, the doppleganger of Virtuality's infamous Queen of Hell, is also the head of an ancient secret society with knowledge of extraterrestrial visitors to Earth. That whole story sounds like the kind of insane nonsense the Queen herself is always incoherently screaming about.

Curious, Tom ventures again down into the pits of Hell to confront her, listen closely to her ranting, see if he can at least direct her logorrhea by prompting her with questions (even if she won't directly answer), and try to piece together something of this mystery. It is difficult to make much of it, but he concludes that it's likely that this Foundation is actually much, much older than it even claims to be, and the Queen of Hell herself was somehow once a part of it until this Joe character betrayed her horribly.

Next: Death and the Other World: Part 2, Episode 3