There was a stir of reaction at the mention of the time period.
Also, Lee told them, he had been able to partially translate one of the folk tales of the Vegan people.
"Stripped of its nonessentials, it tells of a cataclysmic war between the ancestors of the Vegan people and another race, mentioned only as the Others."
He paused and looked at them, sitting around the table. They seemed engrossed.
"The Vegan folk tales relate that the Others won an overwhelming victory, and smashed forever their Golden Age, when they travelled through the skies and lived in unbelievable splendor.
"I'd like to make one final point. The Vegan and Sirian peoples are hardly human, by our standards. In addition to slight physiological differences, they live in caves and eat shellfish and giant insects. They do not hunt meat-bearing animals, simply because there are not yet any meat-bearing animals on their planets. The humans on those planets did not evolve there; they are a billion years ahead of the natural evolution of their worlds."
Bennett spoke up. "In other words, they were originally a colony from Earth."
"Exactly."
"That's a lot to swallow in one sitting," Patrick said, quietly.
"I know," Lee answered. "But it fits in with what we've found here. Elaine, I'm certain that if you knew where to look, you could find on Earth the remains of a human civilization that is more than a million years old...."