The tiny moon looked desolate at first, but as the miniature sun slowly orbited around it, it became clear that it was no ordinary planetoid. The entire sphere was approximately 600km in diameter, with a pale blue ocean around both its poles and a strip of land across its equator. Silvery trees and plants could be seen littering its surface, alongside equally silver rocks and hills. Overall though, the moon was rather flat and mostly shrouded in darkness, its miniature sun providing very little light. Despite there being very rudimentary plant life, no fauna at all was present, and the moon had pretty much no atmospheric gases at all aside from nitrogen and carbon dioxide, any oxygen created being absorbed by the shiny, metal ground, forming brown, rusty patches, or sucked away by the miniature sun.
As for the miniature sun itself? It was nothing more than a small, flaming lump of hydrogen, no more than a meter across. Most of the heat it was producing was being flung off into the endless void, rather than providing any real warmth to the moon.
For some reason, seeing this strange moon, even from far away, made Litvir’s stomach turn. Something seemed completely off about it. Litvir had no idea why, although he was pretty sure it wasn’t because such a strange combination of sun and moon shouldn’t have existed, based on his understanding of physics. Then again, Litvir had quickly learned that his understanding of physics (which was far greater than most Rethans) meant pretty much nothing in the Periuniversal Void. Objects just did what they wanted, and there were no well-defined physical laws to tell them otherwise.
“You want me to land the ship on it?” Arkay blinked, fumbling over the readings on various consoles. “That… just… no…”
“Why not?” Galyn grunted. “The orbit is stable, the moon is large enough and the sun is not a danger.”
“It might be hollow!” Arkay protested. “Or I might end up damaging and breaking some strange, exotic matter that has been untouched for millennia!”
Galyn grunted some more. “A fair point. But we need some sort of physical sample so we can determine what this planetoid is and who made it.”
“Why do we need to know who made it? Can’t we just note that it’s here?”
“Because whoever made it also probably owns it. We are also categorizing territories here.”
“But it’s just a tiny moon.”
Litvir tried to concentrate on his fellow Thantir Decay Lords, arguing about the planet, but the planet kept on pulling Litvir’s mind back to it. Almost as if something was alive and well, drawing him in. Not because it was so foreign. But because there seemed to be something… almost familiar about the little moon. Traces of something Litvir almost recognised.
“Can’t we, like, do some sort of scan up here or something?” Arkay tutted.
“We can, but we would get more useful information going down there ourselves. Plus, there are things the scanners might not be able to pick up. The whole surface is silver and reflective anyway.”
“Because a Voidborn made it…” Litvir finally muttered.
Galyn and Arkay both turned to Litvir, having forgotten he was there.
“Pardon?” Galyn asked.
“I…” Litvir stuttered, trying to find a way to explain his thoughts. “It all… Alright, you know how Kenon found me, yes? He found me trapped inside my own digital matrix, which he then altered how he pleased.”
Arkay nodded, Galyn didn’t react. Arkay gave Galyn a quick “I’ll explain it better later” look.
“Yeah, he fucked around with it all, right?”
“Yes. But that meddling… it felt a specific way. It had a mental imprint to it. The matrix Kenon placed me in was pure gold, the digital landscape was specific to him. Gold and orderly. An imprint… similar to the look of that moon. Just a different colour.”
Immediately, Galyn’s attitude changed. “We are not landing on the moon.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Yes, Arkay, you are correct in that we should not land on the moon, but you are correct for the wrong reason. In fact, we should probably…” Galyn paused, noticing Retvik standing in the doorway. Retvik was already wearing a full set of armour and carrying his gun-staff by his side.
“You said Voidborn.”
Galyn tutted. “I did.”
“They will probably attack us.”
“Potentially, yes…” Galyn tutted some more. “As I was saying, get your fighting armour on, and be ready for… shenanigans. This place may be abandoned, but there might also be someone observing us.”
The Decaylings all nodded.
“In the mean time, Arkay, get us back to the nearest Life Oasis, pronto.”
“Why?” Arkay asked, doing as he’d been told.
Galyn frowned, getting up and taking Litvir to the armoury in the rear of the ship. “Most Voidborns would not dare go near a Life Oasis…”