Avery grabbed the microphone as the receiver came to life, passing it to Father Abrams. As the speaker activated, the voice of a distressed Cardinal Reswell wavered into existence amid the static of the radio output. "Abrams? Are you there? This is Cardinal Reswell, and help is on the way! Are you there?"

Father Abrams crossed himself and looked to the receiver with a palpable feeling of relief.Barely able to contain himself, he blurted back into the transmitter."Yes, yes I am here! So good to hear your voice, Cardinal! What can you tell us?"

"We are sending some...agents, to aid you. I warn you not to be surprised by what you see. I told you about the new beings called Wavies we discovered that seemed to be part of this Gregory fellow's plans? We are sending one to you. You must give the switch to it - ah, him. We have a plan. Your friends can be a big part of it, if they are willing. It will put them all at considerable risk, but it is our best hope overall. To save time, I am going to transmit his recommendations as a file. Your transceiver has a print output in working order I trust?"

Father Abrams glanced at Avery, who nodded, pointing to a paper slot in the bottom of the receiver.

"Yes, that would be fine, Cardinal."

"Very well, I am sending it now. I was told to keep this conversation as short as possible. God be with you. I pray for your safety daily."

The transceiver began to chuckle and paper output emerged from its base, lapping onto the table. Avery turned off the receiver, and Daniel began disassembling it, stowing it in its pack even as Avery reviewed the few sheets of instructions the Cardinal had transmitted.

A slight expression of disbelief overtook Avery's features as he read, then he shrugged and removed the small switch pack he had received from Sienna and placed it on the table.

"The Church Force commander recommends we try to take over one of the two mobile missile launchers nearest the St Croix base - he has given us an instruction as to how to set coordinates to aim and fire it at the facility. He is sending some, it says here, representatives of an alien species, as allies, to disable all the other launchers and to try and disarm as many of Gregory's troops here as possible.

"We are to use what we have, and the help of these...others, to find as many of the free estate residents as we can. He wants us to stay out of the estates themselves, and to try to break Gregory's control of the roads and harass his forces until New Vatican regulars can land.

"We are not to try to defend anything, just to attack and move, and keep from bunching up all in one place till then. It is a good plan. We are not to be surprised by the sight of our allies. We should be seeing a representative creature, a Wavie, he calls it, almost immediately, so we are to stay calm."

He had barely finished speaking when a wavering blur appeared and floated towards the cabin's plain table.

The blur vibrated and spoke."I bring Greetings from His Holiness, Grand Prelate Joshua Higgett and His Reverence Commander Michael Diocullis of New Vatica. I am content to place myself at your orders. I am to transport a construct from you to Michael and deliver some others, and then aid you as best I can. I am to introduce myself as auxiliary agent Mr.Brown, Crusader of the Order of the Aquinians, pending. Where is the object to be transferred?"

Avery stood nonplussed at the Wavies appearance, unsure what he was seeing despite the warning in the message, and pointed to the switch on the table.

"The large two-meter carboniferous object, or the small 15 centimeter metallic construct?"

"The, er, the smaller object, please," sputtered Avery.

The switch promptly disappeared from the table much to the amazement of the startled quartet. In its place appeared a pile of items including a knapsack filled with tightly packed field communicators, rations, spare ammo clips and a pair of infrared binoculars. Next to these, three automatic mini-rail guns and what looked like belt mountable explosive charges materialized, along with some cards containing arming instructions.

Barely able to tear himself from the eye-tearing blur, Avery checked his watch, and then grabbed up the pack and one of the Military rifles, working its mechanism before slinging it over his shoulder and then indicating to the others to do the same

"We must leave here,and quickly!"

Avery snapped at Father Abrams, Robert and his brother in-law, who were still stunned at the appearance of the Wavie. "Come on! We can all be amazed later. Go!"