The story:
Spaceship Deneb discovers a small, uncharted
planet that travels thru space without following any orbit. When the
spaceship gets closer to it, the crew find out it is artificial, entirely
made of metal; An enormous and menacing electric storm moves endlessly
along its artificial canyons. There's no sign of biological life on the
surface, so the crew decide to explore the inside of the planet. Along
the corridors lit by dim lights, they meet what appear to be shadows,
ghost images of the people who once lived in the strange, world-like
starship. Small robots continuously scurry around to take care of the
planet ship, oblivious to the Deneb crew that keep on walking to the
door at the end of the main corridor.
|
An odd artificial - still natural looking - landscape similar to the inside
of a hollow mountain now surrounds them; a path crosses it and takes them to
a shiny metallic chamber where they meet Madrys, the only sentient creature
on board. He's a green-skinned android who was in charge of maintenance and
the correct functioning of Azral, the planet-like ship. Madrys tells his story
of solitude that started when a mysterious epidemic killed all the biological
crew, leaving him alone with the small robots as Azral experienced an increasing
number of malfunctions and breakdowns, such as that of a generator that resulted
in the huge storm on the surface. Moved by the lonely android's sadness, the
Deneb crew escorts Azral to the nearest Federation outpost, where it will be
repaired and manned with a new crew ready to explore space with Madrys as their
captain.
|
