Twelve years have passed since the destruction of the Earth and two years ago the Starship Einstein discovered an apparently unoccupied planet, now called Eden, on the edge of the Hyades Cluster.

Unoccupied it may have been but alone it was not. Monitored by advanced artificial intelligences called Guardians.

The Einstein's crew soon found that there were other ways to cross the light years and there are beings so advanced that their science appeared more like magic and other civilisations in the cluster.

After defeating one attempt to capture the Einstein the humans are invited to travel through the network of wormholes to meet the intelligence that built it.

*** *** ***

"You tell us that you are over a million years old. That you have existed since before the earliest ancestors of homo sapiens roamed the grasslands of Earth and you want to help us. Why do we warrant such aid?" Ellen sat very still even as she struggled with their situation.

"I would help you because you are a most remarkable species. As far as my people, the Ryx, know you are only the third species to find a way of avoiding the constraint of light speed."

BUT THE MACHINES ARE COMING