Within one hour of contacting Brian (who agreed to let Milo and Kayla borrow the carrier without condition), the SPG fired up and they were en route to Marzala. The ride was fairly quiet with neither Kayla nor Milo saying very much. It was a pretty intimidating-looking world. Milo could see from space the splotches of discoloration from volcanic ash.
"Help me keep a close eye on the navigation system" Milo said as they got into the atmosphere. "If the ash gets too thick it we will have to try and follow the most recent course as best as we can."
"I'm more concerned about the thermometer" Kayla remarked. "The cooling systems are already working at maximum power."
"Don't worry too much about that. We're going to be at too high an altitude for it to overheat" Milo said secretly not having full confidence that the cooling system would hold up. He had nothing but the word of Brian that it could handle an atmospheric entry into one of the clouds of ash. As they got closer, Milo could feel the cabin getting hotter. For a moment he did feel scared the cabin would overheat, but after a moment the air started to get clearer and Milo could see the mountains. It took only a few moments for the temple to come into view. It was not an elegantly constructed building that resembled a giant boulder of obsidian on the ground.
"Twenty eight degrees Celsius and 0.15 atmospheres O2 pressure" Milo said looking at the caeliometer. "I'll be darned, this place does have some fairly normal conditions."
The ground around the temple was surprisingly soft, as if it had a lot of moisture. Milo could see as they walked towards the temple a clear indentation of where some kind of large starship had landed.
"I guess someone's been here recently" Kayla remarked. They walked through the front entrance – basically a tunnel with no door or hatch - of the temple to see a narrow corridor lit up completely with lights."
"Milo, this doesn't look like any ancient temple to me" Kayla whispered. "The lights are on." They walked inside and went around the outer corridor in the building, before turning to go into a perpendicular corridor towards the middle of the building.
"Is anyone here?!" Milo shouted.
"What is it about men and shouting in unfamiliar places like this?!" Kayla rebuked.
"I don't know how else to contact a ghost" Milo said. Milo turned and entered a corridor perpendicular to the perimeter corridor where they were walking. This one was dimly lit, and it led to a large, bright room with a big column in the middle that went all the way up to the ceiling. Milo looked around and could not see anyone.
"Hello, is anyone here?" Milo shouted again.
"Milo, I really, really don't like this place" Kayla protested. Milo ignored. He normally would have been afraid, but he was too excited and determined to meet Aura Madeen to feel it. There was an elevated walkway around the perimeter of the large room with more doorways to them, but Milo couldn't see how to get up there. He turned around to see what Kayla was doing and almost jumped out of his clothing.
Just a few feet from him was standing what appeared to be a translucent elfess with golden-tan hair, about five feet and ten inches, stood about eight feet from him She had a bit of a glow to her that almost made her look surreal.
"Are you…Aura Madeen" Milo asked not sure how to address the apparition. The apparition took a couple of steps toward him and took a closer look to him.
"Yes, that is me" she said in a soft voice that almost sounded as if she were in a tunnel. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep you waiting or to frighten you, but I wanted to get a chance to feel your mind waves before revealing myself to you. You are the human conduit of Nadarska, aren't you?" Milo nodded his head.
"I would never have been able to believe it had I not met you in person" she said. Milo did not ask her what she was referring to but instead just stood and took in the surreal feeling of speaking to what appeared to be a deceased historical figure.
"It is an honor to meet you" Milo said.
"And who is this?" she said turning to look at Kayla. Milo paused for a minute, making sure to think before he spoke.
"This is my wife, Melinda" Milo said gesturing toward her. He didn't know if there was any point to using his alias with the ghost, but used it anyway.
"Hello" Kayla mustered seeming almost a bit frightened.
"She really is very lovely" Aura said looking at her. "That gorgeous, wavy red hair is truly a great work of nature's art. You are very blessed. Courtship can be quite challenging with your neurotype – Carlton Carver himself could never find a woman who is a great fit – but you seem to have managed all right."
"We have been great together" Milo said. "We've been everywhere together. I was told that I needed to visit you, and Nadarska told me to look for you here."
"Yes" the ghost said softly and for a brief moment became almost truly transparent. "First, I assume you know all about who I am, so I will skip that and tell you what I know about you. You are the person whose existence was predicted by Grithmeer, one of the metaphysicist triumvirate who studied metaphysical organisms like Gaia and Nadarska."
"Who are the metaphysicists?" Milo asked, unable to resist the temptation to take the conversation off course to satisfy his curiosity.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
"They are basically the technologists of the grays. They created all of the artifacts in this galaxy that do not obey any apparent set of physical laws."
"The ones who brought on the Great Human-Elf War" Kayla interjected. The ghost turned again to look at Kayla.
"I can assure you that neither I nor Carlton nor Grithmeer had any intention of starting any kind of war. While I won't claim we were not in part responsible, a big part of the blame goes on Queen Tarissa and the royal family for allowing themselves to become a willing servant of Gaia."
"And didn't the metaphysicists basically create Gaia?" Kayla inquired.
"No, they merely created the means to communicate with her. They are an immutable property of our universe and have been around since the beginning. That reality needs to be accepted in order to fully grasp the threat that we face."
"So you don't have any guilt about all of the destruction the war brought on so many people? Did you do all you could to reach out with your own half-sister the queen to try and smooth everything over?" Kayla asked without any sign of delicacy in her voice. Milo was more surprised in Kayla's apparent credulity as to who the apparition was more than he was feeling frustrated with her bluntness.
"I am not proud of everything that I did or everything that I did not do. I could've done more to try and stop the war than I did. But I won't spend your time defending myself. If I can only get you to change your mind about one person, though, it would be Carlton. He is the most selfless and good-natured person I have ever met. His very nature seems to defy evolution itself. It is a great tragedy that he has been made into a villain of history by some." Kayla said nothing, but certainly appeared to be holding back.
"Aura, I have some questions I need to ask you" Milo said wanting to cut off any more of that conversation "do you know if the crew for the Morian mining frigate came here?" Milo asked changing the course of the conversation. "We were told that the captain of the ship was looking for you."
"You refer to Wally Gold and his group of followers. They came here looking for gray artifacts to sell on the black market. They came to this temple and found me here, inquiring about my treasure."
"Well, what was that and did you give it to them? Did you give them your treasure?" Milo asked suspecting that the oxidation super catalyzer may have been the gift.
"I do not know where the idea that I have some kind of treasure came from. At one point when I was alive I had the responsibility of safeguarding what Grithmeer said was perhaps the very most important gray artifact. Near the end of the war, however, he took it saying that he needed to hide it from the elves."
"Do you know anything about that artifact?" Milo inquired.
"It isn't a weapon, and it's somehow related to this structure. In spite of what you might have heard, Grithmeer never told me many secrets."
"Could this artifact be the treasure that they were referring to?" Milo said still pressing onward.
"It might be" Aura said. "I may have metaphysical existence, but I can't see all things and I get pretty limited guests here."
"Was there a young man named Matt Snedecor with this group?" Milo asked.
"Yes, in fact I do remember that young man with curly hair. I could feel his fear."
"You can read minds?" Kayla asked with an air of skepticism in her voice.
"No, but I can definitely sense physiological manifestations of various feelings and emotions. He was terrified and seemed that he did not want to be here. Why do you ask?"
"We are looking for him" Milo informed her.
"I asked Wally where they were from. He just said the group had no home." At these words, Milo could not help but feel a little bit discouraged. This was the primary reason that he wanted to make the dangerous trip. Milo nodded his head.
"Thank you, Aura" Milo said doing the best he could to try and sound polite. "I have one more question for you to ask. Do you know where the lost ship of Commodore Icarus Beed is? You did know him when he was alive didn't you?" Aura's apparition just stood there silent for a few seconds.
"He and his flotilla hid on the outskirts in the Cryne system from Admiral Agorja's fleet. The ghost of Icarus Beed probably still haunts the command ship. What do you plan to do with it?"
"I have heard that. I want to see if I can't utilize the atomic fission missiles on board the ship. The Reptilian fleet is trying to force all humans and elves from the Goddess' Crescent." Milo explained.
"You cannot commune with Icarus Beed as you can with me. You may not be able to make any use of him."
"We've got a sentience amplifier that's supposed to help with that." Milo retorted grabbing and holding up the rod that was attached to his belt.
"Really" Aura said with a genuine sound of surprise. "That would be Grithmeer's work." For a moment no one said anything. Milo really felt like he needed to be getting more information from her, but couldn't think of what to say.
"Well, I don't wish to hold you up" the ghost said.
"Hold on a minute, I have one question" Kayla interrupted. "I've heard you somehow knew that Milo was going to be born before he was actually born. Can you explain that?"
"Of course. Back before the Talisman of Nadarska was destroyed, Grithmeer always said Nadarska intended to create a person with an extraordinary neurotype and a particularly strong metaphysical mind."
"I don't suppose you know anything about my father?" Milo asked.
"You've never heard anything about your father before?" Aura said sounding surprised and sympathetic. Milo shook his head.
"He was a member of the Hominid Defense Directorate, an agency ran jointly by Royal intelligence and the CIA. He also did work for the Royal Humanology Institute and traveled a lot. He was apparently pretty smart, and apparently a great athlete as well."
"How do you know this" Kayla asked with a barely-disguised air of suspicion. "Didn't you die even before Milo's father was born?"
"Just something else I learned from Grithmeer. Even he was skeptical that Nadarska would actually succeed, though. Can't say I know much about your mother, though."
"Her I am familiar with" Milo said. "When she wasn't suffering from the schizophrenia she was able to paint some truly gorgeous pictures. She submitted herself to experiments in the Humanology Institute in exchange for a nice disability pension." Aura said nothing for a few seconds.
"You need not feel like you're just a pawn in the game or some kind of experiment. You can do many great things beyond what you were intended for." The ghost seemed genuinely sympathetic.
"Don't feel sorry for me." Milo answered confidently. "My situation gives me a genuine sense of purpose and context for my life. Very few people get what I get, especially people like me. I consider myself to be a very blessed person."
"You are very wise. I wish you all the luck and good fortune possible."
"Thank you so much Aura" Milo said feeling better about making the trek all the way to the world. Aura became gradually more transparent over a few seconds and then could not be seen any more.
"Milo, how do you plan to extract the fission missiles from an old ship?" Kayla asked.
"We're going to ask Dover for help, of course. Surely he's got some means of plundering old battle sites." They both walked briskly from the central chamber of the temple back out to their carrier.