The issue starts in the distant past where the monolith instructs Vira on how to rule through fear and then shifts to the future where Vera Gentry is attacked on Ganymede by an alien squadron. Vera is transported into a California condo facsimile by the monolith. Here she rapidly ages until she dies and is converted by the monolith into an embryo-type creature referred to as a 'new seed' to explore the galaxy.

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