“It should be just about twenty minutes with the Eagle,” said Bara, ready to

  call Clive.

  “No,” interrupted Alex, “we will go on foot. Let’s try the first time to be calmer.

  Have Clive ready to go pick them up in case of emergency, and make sure everyone

  is prepared for the worst.”

  “But on foot it is more than a day’s walk.”

  “We have been here five years. One day will not be a problem. Also, we need

  to start referencing time to Gaia cycles and not Earth’s, Konoya.”

  Konoya nodded.

  Gakuto could not contain his excitement. “I am going too. Oooh, there is no

  way I am not going.”

  “Bara, who will we be sending?”

  “I think I will go myself with Anais. She has been trying to find excuses to do

  some scouting for a while now. Along with Gakuto, that makes three.”

  “I will be joining too,” added Juuda.

  “You have been silent for a while. What happened?” joked Gakuto.

  “I am concerned.”

  “What about?”

  “I worry that if they force our hands, we will use those death machines we

  have on board the Hera.”

  “You mean the Cerberus?” asked Bara.

  “Yeah, those. I was against taking them with us, and now I worry that our

  confidence might be a challenge for them. This might make them force our hand.”

  “You are overthinking it, my friend,” said Alex. “This is why we are going on

  foot. We want to make our first contact as smooth as possible.”

  Jain looked at Konoya. “I will be overseeing this exhibition with you, Konoya.

  We might need some insight on how to react when we meet them.”

  Konoya replied, “That is why I think it’s better if I join too. Someone has to

  keep an eye on Gakuto and his excitement.”

  “So, that makes five. We should not add any more. A quick pickup in case of

  emergency cannot happen with more,” said Bara.

  “Will you overlook with me?” said Jain, while looking at Helen.

  “For sure.”

  The next day, the first important expedition started. A group of five people left Argos

  to travel west, in hopes of meeting and befriending the so-far neutral aliens.

  Anais, who had been training as a scout for many years in simulated

  environments, was carrying a reconnaissance quadruple drone system that had four

  quads circulating the area above and front of the party at a distance of one kilometer.

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  The main function of the drones would be to notify the group of any unusual structure

  or creature not yet registered in their banks.

  The first few hours went by with only a couple of new animals being

  observed. Soon the drones started registering more and more uncategorized

  species, which Jain or Helen from the base would watch and categorize as wildlife or

  as something that needed to be investigated further. The search was going very fast,

  with a large area being scanned in a very detailed manner.

  After a few more hours, Anais broke the silence. “This can’t be right.”

  “Is this a city?” said Jain from the coms.

  Anais was standing in shock while the rest of the team were logging their

  hand monitors to see what she was seeing.

  “By the gods!” said Gakuto. “It’s a city. An actual skyscraper city.”

  “How can this be?”

  Jain called for Alex and everyone else to join at headquarters.

  “It’s a city,” said Steve.

  Alex immediately widened his eyes with excitement and fear, “Be careful, they

  are not primitive at all. Bara! Order Clive to come and stay close to you.”

  Bara replied, “I don’t think we have anything to fear. The city is about two

  kilometers away but looks abandoned. I will call Clive to stay one minute behind us

  just in case, though.”

  As they were slowly approaching the city, Steve noted, “Be very careful.

  Whoever made this city is not primitive at all. From the shapes of the buildings, I can

  tell you that their engineering level is beyond that of ours. Probably by a lot.”

  When they finally reached the first buildings, Helen stopped them. “There are

  no doors, no entrances at all. This city looks like it has sunk into the soil.”

  “And quite deserted,” added Bara

  Steve was in shock. “I see metal pieces here that have almost turned to dust.

  This city is ancient, but then, how can buildings of such design be standing if they are

  ancient?”

  “This is very strange,” said Bara. “I can’t chip off material from the walls. It’s

  solid.”

  Anais, who was already looking through a window into the interior of a

  building, said, “There should be broken fragments in there. I see an entire floor

  almost broken. Some kind of explosion must have taken place here.” She proceeded

  to rappel down and dig into the soil that had accumulated on the floor from the

  broken windows. “Yeah, there are pieces of the material here.”

  “Is there any glass there?” asked Bara.

  “I think there are tiny fragments. No big chunks, and nothing else. Everything

  has been removed.”

  “You’re right, Bara,” said Juuda. “There are no fragments of broken glass on

  any windows. Anywhere in the city, as it seems. Just as there does not seem to be

  almost anything at all inside the buildings.”

  “I think we have enough for one day. Leave a drone to scout the area, and get

  Clive to come pick you up,” said Alex.

  “No, let us walk back home,” said Gakuto “There are still things we should

  see. We can take a different route back to explore more.”

  “I agree,” said Juuda. “We also have a higher chance of meeting our friends

  this way.”

  Gakuto continued, “We should take the route that goes close to the river. The

  thick forest close to this ancient city must hide secrets.”

  Konoya looked at Bara and Alex through her communicator. “I also think that

  the Eagle will be a bad idea. It will draw too much attention to us. I think we should

  keep it back at Argos.”

  Bara nodded. “I agree. Last thing we want is for curiosity to lead the Goblins

  from all around to us.”

  “I wish we could dig there,” said Steve.

  “We can’t now, but what do you expect to find?” asked Jain.

  “Well, I want to see what a species of this advanced technology used to travel

  with.”

  “Now I am curious too,” said Jain. “We need to arrange for an expedition to go

  dig and find out with the first opportunity we have.”

  “We have to transmit the discovery back to Earth,” said Alex. “Perhaps this

  will help them decide to open channels with us again.”

  “It will take forty years to go and another forty for the answer to come back,

  but yeah, we should,” agreed Jain. “Gather anything that looks manmade … or

  Goblin-made, and bring it back for analysis.”