Thick woods surrounded everything but the landing. “It looks like a thick forest with the exception of that wall I see peeking over the trees.”

“No. Garden is mostly water. We’re inland on one of the few land masses. This is the largest land mass on the planet.”

“So there are large oceans?”

“Fresh water oceans.This isn’t like Earth. We don’t have saltwater oceans. You could drink the water anywhere on the planet.”

“Cool.”

He nodded. “You seem to be breathing fine.”

“The air feels a little different but it’s great. It could just feel different because it’s fresh.”

“If you have problems let me know. I can take you to Medical and they can implant you with something to help you while you adjust.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

The three men from the cargo area climbed in, along with about nine men she recognized from the Star .

When the ramp lifted the vehicle jerked into motion instantly. Mira tightened her grip, watching raptly as it moved along the road.

“How large is the city?”

“There are just over fifty buildings. Building has been slow.”

“What about housing?”

“We live in the cities. We found it is safer.”

That statement made Mira jerk her head in his direction and meet his eyes. “Safer from what?”

He hesitated. “The planet’s inhabitants aren’t friendly. We’re the superior life on the planet but other life exists here. We would never harm existing life on a planet so we surrounded the city with a security wall to keep them out.”

“What kind of life exists here?”

He hesitated again. “There are amphibian-humanoid life forms. They are not as civilized as we would wish but they haven’t tried to war with us. They stay near the oceans so we took the inland areas, which they mostly avoid. There is a lot of small animal wildlife and some large species that are dangerous, like Earth’s bears and tigers. The only intelligent humanoid life forms are the amphibians though. We try to keep the peace with them.”

“Wow. What exactly do they look like?”

He hesitated. “You will see.”

“Some of them are in the city?”

He shook his head. “No. They avoid us and we avoid them. We’ve found that we get along better that way. They have attacked some of our scouting parties in the past. There are vids of them that I can show you if you are curious.”

She nodded. They approached thehuge wall that ran as far as the eye could see. “Wow. That’s some damn wall.”

“Yes. It is a seventy-five-foot-high defensive line. No Garden resident life forms can breach it except harmless bird species and bugs. You will be safe inside the wall. Just never leave the city, Mira. This is not a world you want to explore. You’d end up being captured by the amphibians and I have no idea what they would do in that situation. When we catch them we just release them unharmed but they have never captured any of our people so we are unsure of their intentions.”

The gate in the wall automatically opened as the transport vehicle approached. Cyborg City came into view, showing Mira dark blue buildings that were all uniform—same height, color, and shape. The streets were perfect, as if someone had taken the time to exactly measure everything. There was no litter, making it the cleanest place she’d ever seen.

Cyborgswalked from one building to another, mostly wearing loose blue clothing like jumpsuits, while fewer of them wore black pants with different-colored shirts. She saw some women and she couldn’t help but stare. The cyborg women were tall, well-muscled, with athletic proportions. She didn’t see a single white-skinned person like her. She saw cyborgs in all shades of gray, from a very light, almost dolphin-blue shade to a color much darker than Flint. A few were almost charcoal gray.

When the transport stopped in front of a building, the ramp automatically slid out. Flint leaned down, gripped his bag and nodded at Mira. “Stick close to me.”

Flint didn’t even have to tell her that. Mira was afraid. She was the only human she could see. She saw heads turning, some cyborgs halted, giving their full attention to Mira. She even noticed some of them were coming out of buildings to stare openly at her as she reached the top of the ramp. Flint braced his legs halfway down, reaching back to offer his hand to Mira.

“Ignore them,” he said softly. “Some of them haven’t seen a real human woman before. We have a few elderly human females who left Earth when we did, sympathizers, but