"Ah. I was hoping for an introduction to what life is like here - the building was just the obvious can-did-ate. Is there a better place for me tour?"

"Um. If that's okay, of course."

"There's... the music rooms?"

"I'd be happy to see those, if it's okay."

The servant shows him to an array of soundproof music practice rooms. Each has a little stereo inside of it.

"Who practices here?"

"Well, whoever wants to."

"Do you?"

"Oh, I'm not much of a singer, but if I were practicing for something I would."

"What sort of things do people practice for?"

"There are plenty of little concerts all year round, and of course there's the Gloria once annually."

"The Gloria?"

"A huge festival on the Plain of Sharon. All the angels are always there."

"Is it mostly a music festival?"

"Yes."

Lucien is getting the feeling the guide isn't very interested in giving this tour, so he'll retire back to the room.  Hope-fully these aliens will be easier to get to know once they've talked to the oracle.

He'll work on his datapad in the meantime, mostly on figurin' out how to improve crop yields for the planet since that's usually an important one for a civilization that's not very ad-vanced. He can access his ship's scans of the planet from here.

The planet has pretty wacky native weather patterns, but almost none of that is evidenced in the behavior of the crops; they must be experts at getting things to grow despite all the drought and flood and wind and temperature swings that this planet ought to be throwing at them all the time.

That is pretty impressive! And another bit of confusing technology level.

He's a little disappointed, he likes helping with agriculture. Maybe he can work on planning better transpor-tation infrastructure?

They seem to have barely invented the steam engine (and have it attached to individual cars, not trains) and it's not popular yet. There are lots of horses, lots of dirt roads, they have no trains. There are of course angels, who can maybe cross the whole continent in a day if they want.

He gets to design trains for them! He sets to work figuring out what places people seem to be travelling between and how introducing trains will effect which places people travel to and how to avoid too much disruption. It's a fun task. ...which he should possibly leave to others in his crew but he's good at it and has the time.

Nobody's getting back with news from the oracle in the next few hours. The servant brings lunch - bread and rabbit and cabbage.

"Um. Sorry I don't eat meat. These other foods seem nice though."

"Oh." She puts the bread on the plate with the rabbit and cabbage and scrapes the rabbit onto the bread plate and takes it away.

Lucien is more than fed by the rest of the meal. It's way better than the replicated nutrient foods they have on the ship - some of the ships have better replicators but his doesn't have enough people to justify the cost while there's a war on.

Eventually the angel they sent to the oracle comes back and reports to the Archangel, who comes to see Lucien.

"The oracle Peninnah says that this is a grave matter and she was unable to give a complete response from the god and still have the messenger back tonight," says Linus. "I'm sending out more angels, two to each oracle in Samaria, so that one can turn back with quick answers and another stay for long ones, but I do not know when we'll have Jovah's wisdom ready to guide us. In the meantime, perhaps you could tell me more about what you want and who you are."

"I represent the Amalien Alliance, an interstellar alliance of planets, committed to the advancement, flourishing, and protection of all life."

"We search for new civilizations and provide them with the technology and resources to prosper and defend themselves. We have technologies that can eradicate hunger and disease, and allow travel to other stars. However we can, we want to help."

Lucien takes a deep breath. This next part is the scary part.

"We also come with a warning... the galaxy is not safe."

"The Borg, a mega-civilization far exceeding the size of any other we know of, forcibly assimilates any biologically life forms they encounter, killing them and using their bodies as ... puppets."

"If the status quo doesn't change, they will swarm over this region of space, within two centuries at the absolute latest, and kill every lifeform - on our planets and on yours. They do not care whether someone has attacked them before, they make this clear, telling any who they encounter that they do not negotiate, they only assimilate."

Lucien shudders after saying this.

"It is our hope that you would ally yourself with us in this war - the starship orbiting your planet might par-ticularly be a useful, it has weapon system we haven't seen before."