While performing their mission, Lisa, Rick, and Ben are captured by the Zentraedi. Max Sterling managed to escape. They are interrogated by Breetai, Exedore, and Dolza, the supreme commander of the Zentraedi armada. In the course of the questioning, the Zentraedi officials demand that the Micronians tell them what they know about protoculture – something the humans protest they have never heard of. The Zentraedi want to learn about Micronian customs and are shocked to learn that human children are born from a female parent. Rick and Lisa provide an example of the affection humans demonstrate for each other by kissing. The Zentraedi are so shocked that they have the prisoners removed to other quarters.

After they are gone, Dolza tells Breetai and Exedore that the Zentraedi were once the same size as the Micronians and that both sexes lived together before they abandoned the custom and evolved through the use of protoculture. Dolza described protoculture as “the essence of Robotechnology developed by our ancestors” and, although those secrets have been lost, he suspects that they are somehow stored within the SDF-1. That is why the battlefortress must be regained!