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[COMMANDER XcV-ii:]

The FTL-jump brought us to a distant, supposedly empty sector of galaxy J-ii-3247 from which the strange signal was originating.

What we had discovered wasn't a regular star system.

There was a planet here. A truly gargantuan, inexplicable abomination of a planet, orbited by several... oversized structures, which could technically be considered planets on their own.

"W-what is that?" I asked the Stratonavigator.

"I have no idea," he replied. "I've never seen anything like it."

"What does the scanner say?" I turned to the Engineer.

"This thing can't exist. It's hundreds of million times that of a life-supporting planet and it's almost completely solid mass. I don't understand how it's not collapsing into itself, not turning into a supermassive black hole. None of this makes any sense," he mumbled. "It's suspended in space, completely still... not rotating or orbiting anything."

"Very odd," I commented. "Could this be a hollow-sphere world? Maybe its builders wanted to encase their sun in metal to harness all of its energy?"

"No, you don't understand. First of all, that would be ridiculous. You see those? Those are stars orbiting it. Stars!"

"Stars?"

"Yes. Plus that city on the surface... it doesn't make any sense."

"In what manner?"

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"The scanner is spitting out nonsense. Look at the size of those megastuctures. They don't have an end."

"What?"

"They don't have an end. They're stretching down... Forever."

"What do you mean forever?"

"Forever, forever. What I'm seeing is an impossibility, something that's supposed to exist only in theoretical mathematics. An Infinite megastructure."

"Well... that's weird, maybe it's some kind of an illusion made of reflections and shields?"

"I don't know... maybe," the Engineer shrugged. "Even the biggest Enscian world-cities built for Electra are smaller than this... thing."

"Is it safe to get closer?" I turned to the Stratonavigator.

"Yes. Getting closer shouldn't be a problem. There's no life down there. The scanner says that the planet is completely dead. I'll aim for one of the more or less intact cities down there. We'll launch a drone first and if it returns safely we can land."

"Do avoid those giant glowing rings, yes?"

"Obviously," The Stratonavigator replied.

The ship started to descend. Coming closer to the impossible, dead world had been a grave mistake.

When we hit the upper reaches of the Exosphere of the giga-planet, the entire ship shook, swung sideways.

"What's happening?!" I yelled.

"I don't know! Something's got hold of us! It's dragging us towards the surface!" The Engineer barked.

"I'm readjusting course! It's not working! We're coming down!" The Stratonavigator hissed.

"Electra help us all," I whispered as the city got closer as if something was pulling us down to it like a giant, invisible tractor beam.

. . .

The engines held us in space, between two, old, concrete structures. We didn't crash into the surface right below us. I had been relieved and happy. Whatever ancient tractor beam that had brought us down had given up or died, no longer affecting us.

The ship scanned the city around us. It was completely dead, frozen, ruined, radioactive and utterly decimated by some long-passed cataclysm.

There were... living creatures here.

Well, one creature to be precise.

I immediately ordered it beamed aboard for an investigation as was the Enscian procedure.

The creature was simple and weak. The ship had immediately learned its language, copied everything it knew in an instant.

It had a weapon on it. A low range, metal weapon that used a firing tube to launch metal projectiles through means of chemical combustion. Pathetic! I laughed at the weapon's primitive design. Whatever this creature was, it... he was of no threat to us.

The ship sent more information to me via our connection.

I relaxed and made jokes at the human's expense.