As a shuttle once again descended towards the surface of Eigos, the Colonel bemoaned his bad fortune in silence.

His prediction turned out accurate. With Ashwood being the only expert on Eigosian culture, the Admiral spared no time in assigning him his next mission and kicking him off the Bastion.

Annoyingly, the old man did not even let him take his men, sending a complement of the Bastion’s own soldiers with him. With Jane along he wasn’t quite helpless, but his situation was far from ideal.

Especially when it was rather likely that civil war had already erupted back home. Things were bound to get dangerous when the news would finally make its way to the Admiral.

Ashwood released another sigh. He really had hoped to see the last of Eigos.

He’d rather join the civil war proper, even.

The Colonel wasn’t terribly eager to help kill his fellow countryman, but he did believe in the cause. How could he not, when he was both rational and educated?

It was a simple fact that humanity could not be trusted to rule over itself. Anyone even slightly acquainted with Terran history could see it. The many millennia of humanity’s bloody past were nothing but a testament to that notion.

Dozens upon dozens of economic and political systems. Millions of permutations. All of it was a grand failure. From the city-states of Ancient Greece to the monarchies of the Dark Ages and even the modern notion of the Republic and democracy.

Worse, the weakest link present in all of those systems was crystal clear to anyone who dared to look. Humans.

In many ways, democracy could be seen as an attempt to minimize the impact of humanity on the country. It was extremely ironic, but with a multitude of people in charge, many of humanity’s worst qualities could not easily fight their way to the fore.

An ingenious system, until some mildly charismatic stooge impassioned the crowds, who then happily threw away the shackles of democracy in favour of more efficient leadership. If they even realized what exactly they were voting for, that is.

In the end, it was all the same. Humanity could simply not be trusted to rule itself. That way lay eternal war and strife. It was human nature. The greedy and amoral would always seek power and they would eventually succeed, for eternity was a long time. It was a statistical certainty, empirically proven by the entirety of human history.

Putting a machine in charge was certainly a gamble, but more importantly, it had never been tried.

How could humanity hope to break the cycle if we never truly tried anything different?

The Republic might last a few more centuries before corruption wormed its way too deeply, but it would fall to human greed and lust for power eventually, like all countries before.

Ashwood would rather wager it all on Athena, on something different. Many agreed.

Perhaps it would turn out to be a mistake. The Colonel did not think so, but even then, it would have been worth it. Better to try for a better future and fail than simply maintain the doomed status quo.

Not that any amount of treasonous thoughts would get him off the cursed moon.

Instead of fighting for his ideals, he was heading to the Kerania kingdom, the southernmost country on the continent. And one with rather notable anti-Church sentiment, if his last visit was anything to go by.

Joy.

It was almost funny. Ashwood hardly liked the Church of Eternity and its uncanny leader, but even he had to admit that their laws were quite sensible, especially so for a medieval society. Without them, the Kerania Kingdom would be practically indistinguishable from any of the barbaric kingdoms of Earth’s past.

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In other words, not a place he would be happy to be within a hundred miles of. Not that the more devout Eigosian countries were much more appealing, but it was something.

Their flight ended way too quickly and Ashwood soon found himself standing on a meadow along with twenty of Renard’s soldiers and Jane, the shuttle parked behind them. They stood within a kilometre of the Kerania’s kingdom capital, L-something.

The Colonel grimaced and forced himself to check his notes. He would describe himself as someone who enjoyed learning but having to memorize so much information that would be completely useless the moment he got away from Eigos annoyed him quite a bit.

At least their arrival had not gone unnoticed, as he could already see a group of riders heading towards them from the city’s gate.

As the group of around forty riders approached, Ashwood did his best to steel himself. He really hoped that they didn’t magic up more fourteen-year-olds for him to wed or take as concubines. He stifled a shudder. There was something extremely disturbing about seeing a parent do his best to sell his child to a stranger.

How do you trust such people in any case? What line would someone willing to sell their child for power not cross?

Of course, Ashwood knew that he was being rather uncharitable. Cultural norms, honour, and the simple eye-for-an-eye nature of humankind made these ‘marriages’ quite a bit safer and more palatable than one would expect at first glance, but it still disgusted him.

The riders soon arrived, their metal armour gleaming in the sun. One of them broke off, guiding his horse towards the Terrans.

“His Highness Prince George greets you on behalf of the royal family and the kingdom. We would be honoured to host your people in our great city once again, visitors from the stars.” The knight spoke in Sirnesian, indicating one of the men, presumably the prince.

“We are honoured by your generosity,” Ashwood responded with a fake smile, in the same language.

“If you are ready to depart, we shall escort you to the palace?” The rider asked.

Ashwood just nodded. The riders, including the speaker, fell in formation around them, and the indicated man, easily recognizable by his extra shiny armour, settled in the front.

They were first guided onto a nearby road and then they marched towards the city gates, already passing quite a few houses that surrounded the road and sprawled beneath the city walls.

Ashwood grew steadily more amused as he listened to their escort's chatter. His grasp on Arlas, the language native to the Kerania Kingdom, was not very good and he’d certainly struggle to speak it, but with the help of his implants, he could understand it reasonably well. The riders would be quite dismayed if they knew, but for Ashwood, it was quite a novel experience.

He had never before been insulted for not owning a horse.

In contrast, Ashwood and his guards moved in silence, unnerving their native honour guard and adding to Ashwood's amusement.

As they marched, poorly dressed locals emerged from their homes to stare at them in both awe and fear.

Soon they reached the city gates and the entrance to the city proper, an imposing and clearly functional piece of architecture. The wall was easily over ten meters tall and made from stone, with the gatehouse standing even taller.

As they marched through the admittedly impressive city gates, Ashwood frowned as something unpleasant occurred to him.

Did the Custodian feel the same way when treating with us? Just mild amusement?

The thought was rather off-putting and it took Ashwood a while to pinpoint why. It was because he somewhat respected the strange woman. He didn’t believe that she was a fool who didn’t understand who she was messing with like many of the more eager men on the Bastion. Ashwood was certain that she knew a good amount of the Republic's capabilities, perhaps more than she should. Yet she seemingly didn’t care.

It was easy to brush it off as simple ignorance. However, Ashwood felt too paranoid to let himself be outsmarted by Occam’s Razor again.

He shook his head slightly. There was nothing too it. He’d just stay as far away from her as possible, something he had already planned to do.

As they continued through the medieval city, more of the locals assembled around, watching the procession. They wore tunics, often quite colourful, but otherwise looked just like regular humans.

Were these normal times, Ashwood could see scientists killing each other for an opportunity to study these people. Unsurprisingly, neither the colonists nor Ashwood’s ships carried any experts on the human genome or the required equipment to study such.

He had to wonder whether the Admiral brought someone. It wasn’t very important in the grand scheme of things, but Ashwood had to admit that he had grown quite curious.

During his time stranded on the planet, he had learned that Eigos had a history that supposedly went back thousands of years. Unless much of the history of these people was somehow manufactured, Eigos couldn’t be a lost colony. Perhaps not a terribly surprising revelation at this juncture, but it begged quite a big question.

Eventually, they passed the other two walls and arrived at the palace.

It was time for Ashwood to practice diplomacy once again.