On the bridge of the Hermes the central viewscreen displayed the raw-footage of the cubesat plunging directly to its fiery end. Slowly one of the dark spots was becoming visible. The Hermes having confirmed that the last set of gas giant and its two moons where virtually identical was parked in a high orbit of the sun, all scanners running on full. Joe had put the Hermes directly into the radiation shadow of the spot the cubesat was heading to.
"Anything new?" The captain asked bored.
"Not yet, it is still way too early for any conclusions. It'll will take a while for the cubesat to get into range for any new information." Smyke answered.
"We're currently trying to scan the star with every sensor we have, it is absolutely fascinating!" Dr. Schmitz added.
"Alright, carry on."
For several hours nothing happened the picture on the viewscreen showed a slowly but steadily growing dark spot on the surface of the star.
"Hm, that is odd." Smyke mumbled.
"What is it?" The captain asked.
"The spots seem to be distributed evenly on the surface of the star with one exception. There is none on the north pole." Smyke answered.
"That is odd, there is one at the south pole. We should take a closer look." Dr. Schmitz answered.
"Is there one of the cubesats we can divert?"
Smyke looked at Joe who was checking her console.
"Yes, cubesat 3 is in position, we can easily divert it." Joe answered.
"Alright, divert it. Are we in position to scan the area in more detail?" The captain asked.
"No Captain, we'll have to shift into a polar orbit for that." Joe answered.
"How long until we get some more details from the cubesats?"
"The cubesat we've already diverted will take about 2 more hours to get any more detailed information. Cubesat 3 has just been diverted, it will take at least 8 hours before we get any new information." Smyke answered.
"How long to shift orbit?"
"About 1 hour should be enough, I can already put us on the edge of the radiation shadow in preparation." Joe answered.
"No, hold this orbit for now. Let's see what we can see here first, then we check out the pole." The captain decided.
During the next 2 hours the image slowly changed into a hexagonal shape clearly marked against the muted background of the stars hellfire.
The consoles at OPS where showing a constant increase in data being sent from the small cubesat.
"Datastream is looking good." Smyke announced.
Dr. Schmitz was bent over his console excitedly examining the data mumbling quietly.
At this point the datastream spiked enormously and died several seconds later.
The crew on the bridge sat stunned for a moment before Smyke and Dr. Schmitz broke into hectic activity.
"What just happened?" The captain asked.
"Unsure, captain." Smyke answered.
"It looks like the cubesat broke through some kind of barrier that holds back the solar radiation. It was receiving all kinds of data from the platform." Schmitz answered.
"Why did it stop transmitting?" The Captain asked.
"Simple. It crashed on the surface of it." Smyke answered.
"At the speed it was moving it only had these few seconds to scan and send back data before it would crash. We actually did get a lot more data than we had hoped for, looks like it was able to transmit scans back right until it was destroyed. Remarkable." Dr. Schmitz said, bent over the data.
Analysis will take a while, there is a lot here. Fascinating…"
"Any change on the sensors?" The Captain asked.
"No change Captain." Smyke answered.
"Alright, change course for the pole of the sun, Ms. 9." The Captain ordered finally.
"Understood. Changing heading." Joe acknowledged.
"Captain?" Dr. Schmitz spoke up. "Would it be possible to alter the course of the next cubesat to one that will not collide but skim over the surface of the target? That way we should be able to get more data than this time."
The Captain nodded and Smyke went to work.
The cubesat crossed the invisible threshold and activated its sensors, pointing them at the target-region. Fine-tuning its trajectory the small satellite homed in to just bypass the mass that sat on top the pole of the sun. It transferred power to its small transmitter sending all data from the sensors back to its mothership. As it neared the object it constantly reoriented itself to keep the sensors pointed at its intended target, a massive structure that grew with the shrinking distance.
"Status?" The Cpatain asked.
"We're in a stationary orbit above the pole, ship is stable." Joe answered.
"Sensors are at full power, we're scanning the artifact now." Smyke answered.
"Telemetry from the cubesat is coming in, datastream is stable. The science module is tied in, they get all the data." Dr. Schmitz answered.
"Radiation is well within tolerances, the whole polar region seems to be." Sunblast answered from the engineering station.
"Very good, thank you. What do we have?"
"Sensors indicate are large structure in a higher orbit than the others. It appears to be much bigger and is shaped completely different." Smyke answered.
"Hm, that looks interesting, different." Dr. Schmitz mumbled lowly.
"The cubesat has passed the object and is now on a trajectory for the corona of the sun. It has stopped transmitting." Smyke reported.
"That was fast." Joe said.
"As expected as it's speed was much higher to begin with. We still got a fair amount of data. Interestingly the radiation around the object is very low. I believe it would be safe for us to match the orbit of it." Smyke answered.
"Do we know why the radiation is so low and will it stay that way?" The Captain asked.
"The radiation is exactly at the level it is supposed to be for the orbit and this type of stat." Dr. Schmitz answered. "I see no reason for that to change in the near future."
"Let's first gather all the data we can from here. Set up a briefing in two hours?" The Captain looked around, Schmitz and Smyke nooded. "Good. Cary on than."
The conference room was filled with the usual attendees. The Captain opened the briefing once everyone was seated.
"Alright, Dr.? The floor is yours. What do you have?"
"Thank you." He stood up and a presentation of the solar system appeared on the screen mounted on the bulkhead. "Our preliminary findings suggest that this whole system has been engineered. Simply by the makeup and distribution of the planetary bodies present. The probability for a natural occurrence of a system like this is so low that we decided to rule it out for now. The implications for terraforming on a scale like this are staggering to say the least."
The Screen changed to show a representation of the sun and the objects in orbit around it. "As for the sun, it is unusually active – radiation wise. We found what appears to be 26 platforms in a low orbit. They are completely uniform in size and makeup and are evenly spaced with one exception which is the northern pole of the sun. Each platform is a hexagon with a diameter of about 20.000km. They seem to completely block all the radiation coming from the sun. They appear to be about 100km thick. We managed to scan one in more detail with the cubesat that we crashed into it."
The screen showed a short, grainy sequence of a dark hexagon against a bright background growing larger before stopping.
"We managed to pull some more detail from the data."
The screen changed to show a colorful picture of the hexagon.
"As you can see there are multiple sources of infrared radiation, the platform itself is actually much colder than expected. Analysis seems to indicate an atmosphere."
"Are you implying that there could be something alive down there?" Joe asked.
"No. At this point we can't tell anything and it would be much too early to imply something like that. This could be pretty much anything from a byproduct of machinery to some sort of coolant. We simply do not know."
"The engineering to build something like that is incredible." Sunblast interjected. "Building something of that size alone, much less placing it in a low orbit of a star is way beyond us."
"That is quite correct." Dr. Schmitz answered. "Unfortunately we currently don't know more about these platforms. Which brings me to the main topic."
The screen zoomed out from the platform, rotated the schematic and zoomed in on the northern pole of the sun.
"As you can see the object is basically formed like a cone that is pointing away from the sun. It is perfectly aligned with the axis of the sun, its rotation appears to be in lockstep. At the base of the cone a ring is attached. The surface of the cone appears to be perfectly smooth, at least as far as we can tell. The ring is covered with a multitude of protrusions that we suspect to be appliances of some kind."
"Docking facilities?" The captain asked.
The screen zoomed in on the ring displaying structures that reached quite far out from the ring.
"Possible, yes. We found several of what appears to be docking bays of different sizes. The largest we have seen so far is about 200km long."
The room remained silent for a while.
"Just how big is this thing?" Joe asked.
"The ring has a diameter of just over 60.000km with a thickness of 20km. The cone has a height of 100.000km. Whatever this is, it is massive."
"Ok, I guess you want to have a closer look, see if it is possible to get onboard that object." The captain stated. "Do we see any kind of activity from any of these objects?"
"No, the scanners on the cubesats are to primitive to give us much data. Our sensors could give us much better resolution and a broader spectrum. But not from this distance." Pet'l answered.
"How about radiation? Would it be safe to bring the Hermes close enough for further scans?"
The screen switched to a total of the sun displaying it in false corners. What looked like darker beams radiated out of the sun at regular intervals.
"The radiation the sun is putting out is mostly blocked by the platforms, creating shadows that are mostly radiation free. The polar regions of the sun are mostly free of the radiation. We don't understand why." Dr. Schmitz admitted.
"How about a compromise?" Sunblast spoke up.