The ride to Eden seemed to drag on for an eternity. Not much could be heard other than some whispering between Gall and Zorthia and Cubork and Dover were having a conversation about SPG routes that didn't really interest Milo. Kayla just sat quietly, starting out the window, with an anxious look in her eye. Milo felt as if he should say something to make her feel more comfortable, but he just couldn't find the words, and that made him all the more antsy to get to the end of the trip.

At long last, the SPG began to gradually power down back into normal space-time.

"There it is" Cubork said. "As I said, if it's on Nateedra's map, it's in space" he said pushing a bunch of buttons on the control panel. As they got closer to it, they saw something they expected not to see. It appeared to have many large, man-made objects in orbit around it.

"This is it!" Cubork said giving everyone else a rare gleam of excitement in his voice. "One of the metaphysicists must be here!" As they got even closer though, they discovered something even more befuddling.

"It's all wreckage!" Gall said. He was correct. What they were seeing was fragments of ships and orbital forts."

"What could've happened here?" Dover asked.

"Good tidings to anyone out there that may get this message" Cubork said. "We are hominids seeking refuge. Is anyone out there?" At least 20 seconds went by with no answer.

"I repeat" Cubork said, "we are visitors from another star system seeking refuge from persecution. Is anyone out there?" The silence over the radio was eerie.

"Well, we'll just have to enter without knocking" Dover said. "Prepare to go down to the surface."

"You want to go in when we don't know what kind of hostile force could have attacked here?"

"When we get to the surface we can open the warp gate and you can leave, but I came here to try and find the metaphysicists, and I'm not leaving."

"How can you be sure we'll make it down to the surface?" Gall asked.

"We'll be fine if we're careful" Cubork interrupted as they entered the atmosphere. The caravan of spacecraft descended into the atmosphere on the large and southern continent. Milo was kind of surprised no one asked Cubork why he was going the way he was going, but didn't speak up. After about ten minutes of flying over the terrain of several thousand feet, they came to a city.

"That's some pretty advanced architecture. Definitely not interstellar pioneer stuff." Dover said taking a look at the somewhat sparsely-spaces buildings.

"Yes" Cubork said. "But these buildings are unpowered. I'm trying to find a source of energy" Cubork said. It was only about 10 seconds after that than the computer starting beeping.

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"A Lithium fusion power station to the northwest of here" Cubork said. Sure enough, when they went in that direction a short ways they could see some people moving around. All of the ships landed wherever they could on the grassy, rolling hills and the fairly sparsely-spaced buildings. For at least a few minutes, nobody said much.

"Cubork" one of Zorthia's officers said finally interrupting the silence. "We've made contact with the person in charge at this base. They want us to come in and speak with them right away."

"Well, let's not keep them waiting" Cubork said. He immediately left with Dover following him, then Zorthia, Gall, Carver, and Milo and Kayla followed behind them. There weren't many people around. They made their way to a very short, stout, round building not far from where they landed. They walked inside large, automatic doors and then around in a perimeter corridor before meeting a white-haired man. He wasn't what you'd call elderly, but he wasn't far off.

"Bishop Carter" the man said to Carlton. "You look like you haven't aged any in the last 70-plus years." Carver Chuckled.

"And who are you?" Carver asked shaking the man's hand.

"Wayne Crespo" the man said. "I can't believe you and the rest of the church made it back. I guess you got help from the elves" he said taking a look at Gall, Zorthia, her officer, and Dover.

"What has been going on over here?" Cubork asked? "It looks like there's been wars going on over here."

"Well, yes there has been" Crespo said.

"You are fighting amongst yourselves?" Cubork interrupted. "Why?"

"No, not amongst ourselves" Crespo answered. "We are in a war with the Amazons."

"Who are the Amazons?" Cubork asked.

"A group of parthenogenic warrior humans" Crespo said.

"Where did they come from?" Carver asked bemused.

"It's said they were forged by the oracle. We didn't even know they were here until fairly recently."

"I would much like to meet this 'oracle'" Dalton Dover said, and of course, Milo immediately knew what he was thinking.

"I would like to help you out" Crespo said shaking his head, "but I wouldn't know where to find him, and don't know of anyone who would. For a while some weird old lady named Elmyra claimed she was the only one that could talk with him, and we didn't question her because her information was very useful for locating natural resources. But no one has seen Elmyra in years."

"You must find some way for us to get in touch with this so-called oracle" Dover said.

"If we had any way of doing that, we would've done it already" Crespo said. "Short of asking the Amazons nicely about it, I don't know what we'll do."

"We could try that" Dover said. "I think that I can be fairly persuasive."

"Do you know something about the oracle that I don't?" Crespo asked sounding suspicious.

"We're here looking for a gray – one that used to be on the other side that hasn't been seen in a while. We suspect he's here. It's the one thing that can explain the emergence of this human subspecies and how quickly this world was built up."

"Maybe" Crespo said shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know how useful it will be just to talk to them."

"There has to be something that they want" Dover said. "I feel confident I can barter with them to tell us what they know. Why are they waging war on you?"

"It isn't clear. They seem more interested in destroying our military and technological capabilities than conquering or plundering or subjugation. We've tried to open up lines of communication for diplomacy and cooperation but have never gotten them. They haven't attacked us in a while, though."

"Where do we find them?" Dover asked not feeling discouraged by his words. At that moment, the sound of a siren filled the area.

"Bertha aircraft inbound from the northwest" Milo heard someone say on Crespo's radio. "Looks like you may get your chance" Crespo remarked with a tone of real dread. "I would make sure your vessels arms are not at the ready" he said.