Phil Henderson was a Restoration Engineer who was assigned to restore Eder Kemo in 2002. Restoration Engineers were specialists hired by the DRC to aid in rebuilding parts of the D'ni Ages.

Towards the end of the year, he became the first person to enter a Bahro portal, the Journey gate that had appeared in the garden. It's not known whether it opened itself for him, if he found the seven cloths, or if he just found some other way to open it, but he went through and disappeared, KI signal and all.

A few weeks later, he made contact with Zardoz, one of the authorized explorers, and confirmed that he was alright, then quickly disappeared again. It was almost a full year later, on November 20, 2003, that Phil returned. He had been changed by the Journey, and claimed to have physically seen Yeesha. He took Douglas Sharper on the Journey shortly after his return. Henderson wholly supported Yeesha's form of restoration over that of the DRC, and seemed to have gained abilities, and it was he who caused Yeesha’s "islands" Relto page to appear in neighborhoods. Besides saying he had seen Yeesha, he did not talk about what he experienced in the year he went missing. He seemed confused and disoriented when he first reappeared, but later seemed to at least know where he was, though some still argued he may not have been sane. It was at this time that Douglas Sharper decided to form an "alliance" with Phil.

Together, the two of them talked to explorers about the DRC and their mistakes, as well as how important it was to follow Yeesha and learn the “truth” of D'ni from her instead of the DRC. I'm not sure that Douglas even knew what the "truth" was; he just seemed to like having influence with the explorers who rallied behind him. In late 2003, Sharper led a huge group of explorers to the blocked-off entrance to the Kahlo Pub, and together they destroyed the barricades that had previously kept the pub closed. All of a sudden, explorers were not only complaining about the DRC, but deliberately disobeying them.

This was aggravated by Phil’s actions. He began breaking into a number of areas around the cavern that were uncertified, taking what the DRC members regarded as insane risks with his own safety. It came to a head on December 16th, 2003, when Phil was caught by Victor Laxman and Dr. Watson while crossing the rope bridge near the Concert Hall. He was locked up in the meditation chamber in Kirel, and they began to question him about his activities. This caused a great deal of discontent among the explorers, who staged protest rallies. The DRC allowed a few of them to talk to Phil, and a compromise was reached when Phil promised that he would not break into unauthorized areas anymore. He was released approximately two weeks after he was first captured.

For reasons known only to himself, Phil broke his word a short time later and climbed up to the Guild House capital structure. After a few minutes of speaking with members of the DRC about their views, Yeesha's teachings, and about the explorer community as a whole, something collapsed and Phil was caught in a rock slide.

Ae'gura was quickly evacuated, and a thorough search for Phil began, but a body was never recovered, only his smashed KI. It was later discovered that Sharper had Phil's Relto book at the time of the collapse, for unknown reasons.

Shortly after Phil Henderson's alleged death, Dr. Watson went away to grieve and to re-evaluate whether the restoration was worthwhile. We know he ended up staying in one of the Eder Tomahntee in the Great Shaft, and while he was there, he cut off communications with the DRC and explorers. Victor Laxman, Dr. Kodama, Dr. Sutherland, and Michael Engberg continued on in Dr. Watson's absence. Victor Laxman opened up the Great Zero and asked the explorers to re-calibrate it, but this project wasn't completed before the next big surprise. Funding for the restoration dried up, possibly because of the number of fatalities, or maybe because the investors simply weren't getting the returns that they were looking for.

In February 2004, the restoration was officially cancelled, and all Restoration Engineers, Authorized Explorers, and even the Uru Explorers were escorted to the surface. The caverns were locked away, and for the first time in over ten years, D'ni was empty again.

However, Phil Henderson was not dead.

In his Relto, Phil left behind a journal with these words.

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